Correspondence
CHAPTER ONE
The first letter had come seven long months after Tony had left for Israel with Tali. It had appeared on Gibbs' doorstep after a long case one day, as if the USPS had known what Gibbs needed. He recognized it immediately. Tony's distinctive handwriting had scrawled Gibbs' address on it, words and characters flying everywhere.
The return address nearly brought tears to Gibbs' eyes.
It was written in his Ziver's neat handwriting. That printing that he had read all those years in the reports she had dropped on his desk. How could he forget it?
It meant that Tony had obeyed Gibbs' final order: "Bring her home, DiNozzo." Gibbs had told him that at the airport, after Tony had laid out the facts that he had found, that Ziva had left a trail for him to follow, that there was no way she could have been as careless as to die in something as trivial as a fire, especially not with Tali to worry about.
He picked it up off the doorstep. Setting his bag and coat down in the chair, he ripped it open. Two pieces of paper tumbled out. He shook it upside down over the table, before pulling a piece of cardstock out.
It was a Christmas card. Gibbs checked the date on his watch: December 22, 2016. He laughed. Tony never would have sent it on time for it to get to Gibbs before Christmas. It had Ziva written all over it. When he flipped the card over, his grin threatened to split his face in two.
Tali sat on her daddy's shoulders, clapping her hands in the air with a smile on her face. Ziva was rolling her eyes and smirking at Tony, who had one hand on Ziva and the other holding Tali up, wearing his big old' genuine smile. Ziva appeared to be pregnant in the picture, although with his eyes he couldn't be sure. If Kate had heard me admit that, he thought with a small smile.
The card went on his refrigerator where he would see it every day. There were others in the envelope, he had noticed, and each one had a name on it.
Abs
McGoo
Autopsy Gremlin
Bishop
Duck
He grabbed a beer and sat down at the table with the first sheet of paper.
Ziver's.
Gibbs—
Let me start by saying how sorry I am for making you all worry like that. It was never my intention to do so. However, there were people that I needed to… take care of first. And Tali.
Your Rule Twelve: Never date a coworker.
I broke it, and I am sorry.
Tony has attempted, several times (regrettably) to impress on me the fact that I had no intention of breaking Rule Twelve and that I actually did not break the rule.
He reminds me of you, Gibbs, as much as you may want to deny it. I can see it in his eyes, the way he would do anything for Tali. I saw that in your own eyes, when you would look at Abby. And I think that perhaps you may have once been that way with Kelly, yes?
Kelly.
Oh, Kelly. His girl. He thought of her every day. He'd wake up sometimes, thinking maybe it had been a bad dream, and then he'd realize, and it'd hit him again.
His girls were gone.
And I do not want to remind you of that. Because I know that Kelly and Shannon were your everything.
Tali and I, we are Tony's everything.
"I'm that little girl's everything. And I've never been anyone's everything before."
He chased me across Israel and through Paris, with Tali no less. He found me by pure luck, as laughable as it may seem. I was in the market one day when I heard his voice.
"Yeah, Tali, that's your Ima." And I knew immediately that that was Tony, for no one else had a daughter named Tali who knew Hebrew for mother. We turned around at the same time, and there he was. He almost dropped Tali, the big gook goof. It was Tali really; she threw herself out of Tony's arms and was halfway to me before he realized what had happened.
Gibbs smiled. That sounded like a DiNozzo. And the Ziva-ism. God, he had missed having those around the office.
So then I took him home to my apartment, and he was nearly crying, but "DiNozzo's don't cry," so he didn't cry. He just sat there staring at me (I let him. Crazy, right?) and bouncing Tali up and down on his knee. The "horsey" game, I believe it's called. Then he handed me Tali, and it was my turn to cry. All my Mossad training went out the closet window and I cried.
She had grown up so much, Gibbs. It had been nearly a year since I had seen her and she was so, so big. She kept saying, "Ima, Ima, Ima," and patting my face no matter how many times Tony would say, "Tali, don't do that to your Ima."
He is a good father.
I can honestly say I did not really expect him to be a good father,
Gibbs laughed outright at that. He hadn't expected DiNozzo to be much of a parent either, his player ways getting in the way, but DiNozzo seemed to be determined to be everything his father wasn't.
but he has exceeded my expectations. He loves Tali so much, as I probably have already mentioned. He has not gotten her hooked on movies completely, but she does know Magnum's red Ferrari like it's her own Abba's car. I suppose I can't fault him for that. Washington to Israel is a long flight and there is only so much one can do to entertain a wiggly three-year-old for that long.
I want you to tell Abby and Tim and the Director that I am still alive. Please don't let Abby completely freak out; she can-and will-kill me "without leaving any forensic evidence." I hope McGee will understand. I hope everyone will understand although I know it will be hard.
I have hurt so many people, Gibbs. I want to make up for it.
I am going to break Rule Six.
I'm sorry.
I really am.
I do not know when Tony and Tali and I will be back. Tony wants us to wait for the baby
Ha! They were having a baby. Take that, Kate!
so not for another six months at the minimum.
I hope you will find it in you to forgive me.
Thank you so much, Gibbs.
I will see you soon.
Love,
Ziva David
Gibbs put the letter down and sighed, running a hand through his hair. He had been so worried for so long and for what? He didn't quite know. But his Ziver was alive, and right now, that was all that mattered. He felt as though a huge weight, a weight he had hardly noticed was there, had been lifted off his chest. She was alive and she would (hopefully) be coming home. With DiNozzo, no less.
His kids would be coming home. Even after all those years, it still somehow surprised him when he consciously thought of Tony and Ziva as his kids. Abby, he had known for years that she was one of his, even if not related by blood.
Abby.
God, she had been so worried. Every night after they had learned that Ziva was "dead," after Tony had left NCIS on his wild goose chase, as Abs termed it, she had been at his house, in the basement, with the boat.
They had named the boat Ziva.
He looked at the card again. It was the perfect image of a happy family. The only two he would even think of letting break Rule 12.
He had had this once with Shannon and Kelly.
Rule 5: You don't waste good.
Ziva and Tony were good.
Rule 12 didn't matter with them.
He got up, put his beer in the recycling bin Abby had stuck in his kitchen. Came back to the table and picked up the second sheet of paper.
Hey Boss, it's DiNozzo.
You're probably shocked that I sat down and wrote something that you could read, well Ziva actually made me rewrite this a few times because she said if she couldn't read it then Gibbs definitely couldn't.
Anyway.
How's Abby? I really, really, really miss her. You can tell her that, by the way. Make sure you put three reallys in there. She'll know what I mean.
I've had a lot of time to think about things – three year olds sleep the sleep of the dead once they ACTUALLY FREAKING SLEEP! So it's just been me and Ziva, which isn't really all that bad.
Except she still has that idiom problem. But it's better now. She says she has to be better because she doesn't want Tali learning the wrong things. I asked her if maybe it wasn't a little too late for that and get this – she head-slapped me! Apparently she does it now too!
Gibbs could hear Tony through the paper as if he was talking right in Gibbs' ear. "Spent too much time with you, DiNozzo," he laughed.
Anyway, it's been nice here in Paris. She's got a pretty little apartment right on the corner of a street near a park and I've been teaching Tali to throw and catch. Never too early to start, right? She's pretty good at it, too. Got those Anthony DiNozzo, Jr athletic genes.
I've talked to Senior too. Wasn't too pleased how I just ran off but happy that I've got a nice family now. Also, I heard he's given off my apartment to Elf Lord? What's that all about? Hopefully he'll give it back.
Ziva and I are thinking we'll be back maybe next August or September, after she finishes hatching L.J.
Oops.
I wasn't supposed to let that one slip out.
She's having a boy.
We're naming him after you.
"Jesus Christ, DiNutso," Gibbs said, using Fornell's nickname for his former Senior Field Agent.
Tony was naming his kid after Gibbs? The second-b-for-bastard Gibbs?
I know you're probably thinking you'd really like to head-slap me right now, but it felt right to do that. You've given both of us more than we deserved so many times over. And it never felt right for me to name L.J. after me right now. Maybe later we'll have a Tony DiNozzo the third; but not right now.
I don't have that much more to say, boss.
I just got one question.
Say I do come back to NCIS.
Is there a spot waiting for me back on Team Gibbs?
Please tell me there is, boss. I miss it so much.
From,
Tony DiNozzo
"Aw, hell, DiNozzo," Gibbs moaned.
He climbed down the stair to the basement, poured himself some bourbon, and started sanding Ziva.
Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David were naming their kid after him.
Leroy Jethro… DiNozzo? It seemed to fit. They seemed to be calling him L.J. in the letters. It reminded him of Stillwater, and L.J. Moore, the man Gibbs himself was named after. Still sanding, Gibbs let the thoughts whirl in his mind for a while. August or September, Tony had said. That was eight or nine months away, far from the six-month estimate Ziva had given.
Eight or nine months, and McGee would be married.
Eight or nine months, and Abby would still be missing Tony.
Eight or nine months, and Chen could still be out there.
Eight or nine months.
Would there be a spot on the MCRT?
And who would he let go?
Torres? Nah. Too good undercover.
Reeves? Maybe. He was a good man though, and he had his merits.
Quinn? Now there was a definite possibility. Quinn was even reluctant to be a field agent, let alone on the MCRT.
Ellie? Gibbs figured he wouldn't. She was still reeling from Qasim's death at the hands of Chen, and although she had promised Gibbs she had let Chen go, Gibbs knew how hard it was to do that. He had his own demons from his girls' deaths and killing Pedro Hernandez in cold blood. He knew that there was no way Ellie could have moved on that quickly.
McGee? NO. "Very Special Agent" Timothy McGee had proved himself over and over again as an agent in his own right in the wake of Tony's departure and Ziva's "death." McGee he couldn't let go. He was just too important to Gibbs and Abby, too. McGee was far removed from the Elf Lord and super-glued keyboards days. He was just as capable of a Senior Field Agent as Tony had been.
If he had to pick, it would be Quinn that he would let go. He felt bad for even thinking that, but he knew in his heart that it was the truth.
He put down the sander and began to walk up the steps.
Eight or nine months.
Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs could wait eight or nine months.
Hey! Please review if you liked it or if there's anything you think I could improve. Your feedback means so much to me! I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up. I'll try to make it before the end of the month.
