"Tony, I am not happy." That wasn't something a woman would normally say at her son's high school graduation, but Ziva had a good reason.
"I'm not either, but look at him Ziva. What do we do? Our little boy is all grown up."
Their son was only a few kids behind in line to be called up, only making this moment worse.
They knew he would no longer be under their roof. They'd no longer have any control over him. His decisions would be his own from now on.
"I know he has to grow up and live his own life, but what if he is just doing this because we had to?"
"We didn't have to Ziva, we wanted to. And apparently he does to. We have to respect that."
"Tony, you wanted to. I had no choice, and later on I knew nothing else. It's dangerous."
Neither of them wanted to think about any of this, especially now when they were supposed to be happy, proud parents. Finally after nearly an hour of waiting, Tony and Ziva's son's name was called. He was in front of the crowd only long enough to accept his diploma and smile at his parents before disappearing into the sea of other graduates.
And less than a week later, he signed up to join the United States military.