Mar 7
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
John Howard Payne (1791 - 1852)
Ziva David only called one place home.
Israel.
Despite having left it to come to America, despite being disillusioned with her former line of work, she still loved her homeland. There was only one place that could ever be home in her heart; a land of deserts and mountains, of varied people and extraordinary places. A land where few of her family still survived and continued their lives.
Yet she had so many friends in America. She had a father figure in Gibbs, best friends in Abby, Jenny and McGee, and something difficult to explain with Tony. She had a grandfather in Ducky. For the first time in her life, she truly understood what a family was and she never wished to leave them.
Her new family were in one place but her heart still longed for another. She could not reconcile the two. Israel was where she had been born, the place in which she had grown up. It was full of contradictions she had never seen elsewhere, full of people with a zest for life and a determination to succeed.
America could never replace it.
Perhaps one day she could take her new family to see her homeland, watch as they danced in the sand and the sea, laugh with them as they explored Tel Aviv. She did not see how it would ever be possible, but she continued to dream of such a day, aware of the one thing she had learnt about since leaving her homeland.
Hope.