My own Star of David, Stella Davidah.
The Star of David had always been with me first as a necklace given to me at birth by my parents, Channa and Elijah David, I never took it off until one day when I lost it while playing in the back yard when I was seven years old but thankfully I found it right on time for my Bat Mitzvahs when I was 12 years old.
Then when I started in Mossad I stopped wearing it as people could harm you due to your beliefs and my little sister, Talia, had it on for safe keeping and when I was off duty I got it back until one day when Tali and mom died in a bombing at a café in Tel Aviv taking my necklace with her to the grave. The day after the funeral I went to a tattoo artist and got a Star of David tattooed on my hip in memory of Tali, mom and everyone else I lost as Tali always had a dream to get a Star of David tattoo on her hip.
She was just 16 years old when she was ripped away from my life along with mom leaving me alone with dad and Ari at 18 and it wasn't easy trying to keep up with dad's expectation of me but the tattoo gave me hope.
When I turned 20 I got a new Star of David necklace by Ari as he said I looked naked and not myself with out it. Ari wasn't Jewish and that made the simple gesture even more graceful because he went against his beliefs to make my 20th birthday special.
And what did I do three years later, I followed the orders to kill my own brother to gain a nobody's trust but that nobody, named Leroy Jethro Gibbs, was later shown to be more of a father to me than my own father ever had been.
I love my mother, I love my sister, I love my half brother and I love my aunt Nettie but I hate my father for what he made me do and for what he raised me to be not only did he make the meaning of Star of David only be a memory of what would have been but he nearly killed my faith that day when he sent me to kill Ari.
My new family at NCIS I love just like I love my mother, sister, aunt and brother because at NCIS I have found a father in Gibbs, a grandfather in Ducky, a sister in Abby, a brother in Tim, a cousin in Palmer and at NCIS I also found the love of my life Anthony Dante DiNozzo, even if the road to realization of him being my soul mate was rocky and hard.
Tony. Went across the world to save me because he couldn't live with out me, he is my knight and guardian who keeps me safe and has my back every day, every hour, every minute of the year, because he love me. Anthony Dante DiNozzo loves me Ziva Daniela David not for my looks, not for my money but because he loves me just me, he love me and my soul even with all my package and problems.
*
We had dated for two years, zero months and 13 days when I found out that I was pregnant and I was so nervous to tell Tony because I didn't know what thought about kids of his own, kids with me. Then we got a really long case that we worked with for two and a half months and I simply forgot to tell him until he figured it out himself and confronting me about in the ladies room one day.
"Ziva?" Tony asked as he walked in to the ladies room.
"Tony?" I squeaked as I saw his concerned face in the mirror. "You do know this is the ladies room right?" I asked slipping my mask on for Tony alone for the first time since we got together and started dating.
"Ziva. Is there something you wanna tell me?" He asked as he leaned on the sink just beside me making his crossed arms touch my shoulder.
"Nope." I said smiling. "But I do want to do this." I said as I started to kiss him passionately.
"Zi." He groaned as he slowly pulled away. "Please don't lie to me I know that you have something important to tell me plus I found this. He said an pulled out the white little stick I had peed on two months ago and then hidden among my socks.
I just stood there my lip quivering and my eyes teary while Tony's eyes said I love you and he had a huge smile on his face.
"Sweetcheeks. Are we gonna have a little baby David-DiNozzo here in a few months?" He asked smiling as he took my hand in his much bigger ones.
When I didn't respond he wrapped his arms around me like a cocoon while tracing small circles on my back and that was when I lost it the tears started to flow down my cheeks like a spring river. We stood like that for what seemed like forever until no tears came and I just hiccuped.
"Ziva you know I love you very much right?" Tony asked.
"Yes and I love you to, I said my voice just a whisper.
"And I am gonna love all of our kids and I am not mad at you for not telling me what I don't have been told yet."He said kissing me on top of my head.
"Tony." I said looking up at him letting out a loud sigh. "We are gonna have a little baby." I said looking in to his eyes.
"Thats amazing Ziva. He said smiling as he kissed me passionately.
He was so happy and he was so caring and loving that sometimes it got annoying and every five minutes he would say – I love you.
*
Then after nine months that seemed like forever she was born on the coldest day November 19th 2013, our little girl had lots of dark brown curly hair and big blue eyes who would probably turn chocolate brown with time, she weighed 3282 gram, where 48 centimeters long and came out screaming her heart out.
I thought she was huge as I was the one who had tried squeezed her out from a 10 centimeters hole for about 13 hours while tony thought she was tiny.
At first we didn't have a name that we loved but we had lots of suggestions and then when everyone left for the day and it was just me, Tony and our baby girl left I got the perfect name in my head.
"Stella Davidah DiNozzo." I spoke out loud after thinking about if for an hour or so.
"What?" Tony asked groggily as we both where really tired.
"Her name." I said with a smile. "Stella Davidah DiNozzo." I said again looking at the one and only love in my life.
He slowly sat up from the bed beside mine looking at me and then at our little girl before he gave me a huge smile.
"Its perfect Zee. Stella Davidah, meaning Star of Life or like Star of David." Tony said as he stood up and walked over to my bed and giving me a sweet kiss.
"You like it?" I asked unsure.
"No I love it." He said kissing me and then giving Stella a kiss on her little nose. "Because now I know what to tattoo under my Ziva Daniela tattoo." He said grinning.
Tony had gotten the ZDD (Ziva Daniela David) tattoo on my 30th birthday last year in surprise for me it was located on his left shoulder it was small maybe like size 18 in Windows Word along with a small Star of David right under it.
"You gonna write SDD or Stella?" I asked curiously.
"Just a S on one side of the star so that when baby number two comes it can have the other side." He said smiling.
"Baby number two?" I asked with a smile.
"Yeah to be a only child is not fun Zee every child would have to have a sibling." Tony said looking at Stella with a smile.
*
Stella was now 14 months old and I felt almost as I was betraying my little baby girl because here I was with my little daughter that still is a baby herself and I am pregnant with her younger brother who would be born any day now, January 20th 2015.
But Stella would always be my very own Star of David filled with hope, joy and love making my life wonderful to live.
"Cara mia Stella mi Bella!" Tony sing sang as he and Stella came dancing in to the kitchen, Stella safely sat on Tony's hip.
"Dada papa." Stella said patting his cheek and then she started giggling.
"Oh you think thats funny do you." Tony said as he started to tickle her while Stella laughed and giggled more.
"Mama ima." She squealed in help between giggles.
"Oh baby have you been caught by the tickle monster." I said with a smile as Tony started to tickle her again.
"Yes she have." Tony said hugging Stella close to his body.
"Not anymore because now its time for breakfast." I said scooped her out of Tony's arms and giving him a kiss in return.
As I sat down and took my breast out I saw Tony stare a little before he returned to read the newspaper and drink his coffee and trying to hide his smile as I knew he saw how Stella played with her hands over my belly, I hated being pregnant as I felt so fat and ugly but Tony thought I was sexy and I knew he loved my new boobs that had gotten even bigger now, I was pulled out of my thoughts for a while as Stella latched on.
"So what are you two gonna do today?" Tony asked with a smile as he ate his scrambled eggs and beacon.
"We are going on a PLAY date with Abby and William. Right baby?" I said stroking Stella's hair and emphasizing the word play as I knew he always freaked when I said date when speaking to Stella or speaking to him about Stella.
"Must we call it a date because she isn't going to date until she's married." He said drinking up his coffee and closing the newspaper just as Stella finished.
"Well how is she gonna get married with out dating?" I asked as I fixed up myself and Stella, grinning at his confused face.
"I don't know." He said and stood up to put his coffee cup in the dishwasher.
"You know if this was Israel she would maybe already be betrothed and then William would be great." I said teasing him.
"Oh my god Ziva!" He said his voice high. "She is 13 months old and he is two years and one month old months old. Was you betrothed? They are to young and..." I didn't hear anything else as I slipped in to a old memory.
"Zizi!" Tali shouted as she came running against me.
"Tali" I said as she flung herself at me.
We stood there hugging each other for what seemed like forever until papa came out followed by Ima and a young man I never seen before.
"Ziva." Papa said with a stony face.
"Yes papa." I said with a single nod.
"I want you to meet Samuel Cohen." Papa said gesturing at the young man behind him.
Samuel Cohen. He had dark brown curly hair and bright green eyes and a soft smile on his lips he seemed to be about 18-20 years old.
"Ziva David." I said with a smile.
"Samuel Cohen." He said and shook my out reached hand.
Just as papa was about to say something did Tali start to jump up and down yelling – I want to tell. I want to tell, and with a nod Papa agreed as Tali had always been his favorite.
"Sammy has asked me to marry him." Tali said wrapping her arms around Samuel and he returned the hug with a big loving hug.
"What?" I yelled looking at them all. "Are you crazy? Tali you are 15 years old and he is what 18? 19? 20?" I said and glared at them.
"Zizi! You have been gone for a year and a half so every thing have changed." Tali yelled anger pouring out from her usually happy eyes.
"I love your sister Ziva and I would never hurt her." He said holding Tali close to him.
"I see that you make Tali happy and you love her but I don't like it." I said with tense smile. "You both are to young." I said and left.
"Zi?" Tony asked caressing my cheek making me snap out from my memory.
"Yeah." I said a little lost and disoriented.
"You okay?" He asked taking Stella from me and led me to the couch.
"Yeah." I said nodding as I sat down in the big comfy couch.
"You sure?" Tony asked and sat down beside me Stella still in his arms.
"Yes it was just a bad memory." I said smiling at him.
"If you say so." He said giving me a sweet and soft kiss on the lips.
"I love you Tony." I said breaking the kiss.
"I love you to Ziva. He answered followed by another kiss. "And I am the luckiest guy in the world have these beautiful ladies in mu life named Ziva and Stella, I am the luckiest man in the world to soon have a handsome little baby boy here, I am the luckiest guy to have this house, these dogs but." He said smiling. "I will not be so lucky if I get late to work." He added kissing me once more and handing Stella over to me.
"We will be fine so hurry to work my lucky man." I said making him laugh.
"Good. I'll see you two later." He said blowing a kiss to me and one to Stella as he left the living room to put is shoes on. "Love you." He said and stuck his head inside the living room.
"Love you to and be safe!" I shouted after him.
He rushed to me and gave me and Stella a kiss on the cheek before heading of yelling – Good Bye after him.
*
An hour later did Abby and William arrive making mine and Tony's dogs to get overly excited, our dogs where Danno a two year old Grand Danois mix and Della a two year old Canaan Dog/Golden Retriver/Saint Bernard mix.
"Hi Ziva. Hi Stella. And Hello to you two." Abby said smiling.
"Hi Abby and Hi William." I said leading them into the living room.
"So how is it going with my niece and?" Abby asked smiling as we sat down on the couch to talk.
"We are all doing fine. What about you?" I asked as I knew Abby was pregnant again but hadnt told anyone yet.
"I am fine thank you and William is very grumpy this day as his father didn't wake him up." She said trying to make William to smile.
"You want some coffee or tea? I asked trying to make her tell me the truth.
"Water is fine for me." She said as she sat William down beside Stella on the floor.
"So is William fine again after that flu he had last week?" I asked trying to get answer to why she could have a play date in the middle of the week when we usually had it on Fridays.
"Yeah." She said as she followed me in to the kitchen. "So when is it you are due?" She asked smiling.
"January 20th." I said with a smile stroking the huge belly.
"Ziva. Thats like 4 days left!" Abby said grinning and giving me a awkward hug.
"But I hope I goes to labor earlier because I can feel and I know the baby is twice as big as Stella." I said trying to mask my fear as I knew that the doctors told me it would be fine but I was really scared.
Stella's birth had been really hard, long and very painful on me and now this little guy was almost twice as big as Stella's 3282 grams. While giving birth to Stella I had squeezed Tony's hand so hard I almost broke it and I feared for the pain this child would give me and it took 14 hours to finally get her out of me. All the nurses, doctors and my family told me I had been so good and I had never screamed at all and that my breathing was good but that was absolutely not what I had felt for 14 hours of labor.
"Ms. Ziva David? And Mr. Anthony DiNozzo?" The doctor asked as he walked in to my hospital room, three hours after that I arrived.
"Yes thats us." Tony said giving my hand a small squeeze.
"I am Dr. Andrew Willis but I am not your doctor." He said looking nervous. "Because your Dr. gonna be a little late so I will take care of you until she comes." He said meeting Tony's glare.
"So how old are?" Tony asked staring at him.
"I am 26 years old Sir." He said stammering.
"Then bye bye." Tony said glaring at him.
The young doctor walked almost ran out from the room and Tony he just laughed.
"That wasn't nice." I said to him with a glare.
"Well I don't want a kid delivering my kid." Tony said with a pout.
Am hour later did my real doctor arrive, Dr. Hanna Cohen-Jones, Jewish-American, 31 one years old like me, married to an Italian doctor named Nicodemo Costa, outside of work she was Hanna Costa, mother of two and that made her the perfect doctor to us.
"So Ziva and Tony are you ready to get your little girl out?" She asked smiling.
"As ready as we ever will be." Tony said taking my hand and giving it a kiss.
"Yeah." I said as he breathed through a tiny but painful contraction.
"I am just gonna see how much you have dilated." She explained looking under the sheet. "I understand that you have some vaginal scaring from about three years ago." She stated as she started do a more furrow exam.
"Yes." I said nodding nervously, the memory of Somalia entering my mind.
"Its nothing to worry about as it maybe will be a little more painful than a usual birth." She said ending the exam. "And you are about halfway there Ziva." She said smiling at me.
Five centimeters sounded really good then maybe she would be here in 3-4 hours, I remember that thought but man was I wrong.
"What is wrong?" I asked exhausted and sweaty.
"Nothing is wrong Ziva but you need to push harder." Dr. Cohen-Jones said.
"Zee I love you and I know you can do it." Tony said dabbing my head with a wet towel and giving me a kiss.
"No no no." I said tiredly my eyes almost closing.
"Ziva Daniela David!" Tony said raising his voice. " I haven't been sitting her for almost 14 hours just for you to give up when we are so close." He said letting go of my hand and lifting my upper body so he could climb in behind me.
He leaned back in the bed letting me rest and lean on his chest then he took my hands in his giving the a squeeze.
"You can squeeze the hell out of them you can even break them if you want." He said kissing my cheek as I turned my head to see his face.
"That was a first." Hanna said with a laugh.
"Yeah." Tony said grinning. "So you ready?" He asked me giving my hands a squeeze.
"Always." I said just before a new contraction came.
"When you're ready push with all your power." Hanna said.
Then 40 minutes later I felt something slip out of me and I heard a angry and loud cry fill the room as mine and Tony's daughter was born.
"Here she is." Hanna said laying the small baby on my chest.
"Oh my god Ziva." Tony exclaimed loudly while kissing my head several times.
"She's perfect." I said with a smile.
*
*
Abby, William, Stella and I sat at a table in Baby, Kiddie and Playland, it was a big building with all sorts of stuff to do and eat for both adults and children between 1-5 years old.
"William Paul Sander McGee be careful with Stella." Abby said to William who pulled Stella's hair.
"Sojjy." The two year old said to his mother, aunt and the laughing Stella.
"Mama." Stella said and clapped her hands.
"Yes baby." I said looking at her.
But all she did was laugh and go on playing with her cousin.
"Stella is so much like Tony. The laugh and the humor." Abby said laughing at Stella's antics.
"And he is very proud about it and he can't stop telling me that her first word was dada." I said with a smile as Stella sat playing with her own Star of David.
Tony and I bought it to her on her 1st birthday along with a small bracelet with several lucky charms in it. Her first birthday had been great and she had gotten all the attention even Tony's father stopped by with a gift, a pearl necklace from 1921, and a birthday card.
My world was perfect I had a man who loved me and a man who I love, a daughter that is the perfect blend of us both and I love her more than anything and soon I will have a little son here to love to.
The End.