I had so hoped to get this chapter finished and posted before Mother's Day, but it just didn't work out. But even though my Mother's Day chapter is a little late, Levi's surprise for his mom here is a little early, so maybe we balance each other out. :)
May 2014, Ziva & Levi
Abby's head is bent low over her lab equipment, running analysis on the blood splatter on a dead Petty Officer's clothing, when the the doors to her lab slide open. She looks up to see Tony striding in, and she assumes that he's bringing her some new piece of evidence - but then she spots Levi walking just behind his father, with his backpack over his shoulders and the NCIS visitor's badge that all non-employees are required to wear on a lanyard around his neck.
"I don't think I should have to wear this," Levi argues, picking up the badge in one hand, "not since my dad and grandpa and aunt and uncle all work here."
"Take it up with the Toothpick, Kid," Tony cuts him off. He stops in front of Abby. "Hey Abs, is it cool if he hangs out in your lab for a little while? Ziva got called to the Israeli embassy for something, and she couldn't get anyone to watch him on short notice."
"Sure thing, Tony," Abby says. "It gets lonely down here sometimes. Bert and I would love the company." She smiles at where Levi has already plopped down on the couch in a corner of her lab and picked up the farting stuffed hippo. Levi has been visiting the agency headquarters with his parents for as long as he remembers, and he can make himself at home in the bullpen, the lab, or autopsy, although Vance has still refused to make an exception for him and allow him anywhere unaccompanied.
"What's Ziva doing at the embassy?" she asks Tony in a low voice, leaning closer. Ziva has been an American citizen for years, of course, but so many Israelis have taken advantage of her - Eli, Ari, Michael Rivkin - that it's still hard for her to quell the little flurry of fear.
"It's nothing, Abby," Tony says, and she can tell from his casual tone that it really isn't, that he's not just saying this because Levi can hear them. "Just some translation work she's doing for them." He shoots his son a warning look before leaves. "Now Levi, you're going to do your homework and not give Abby any trouble, okay?"
"Okay, Dad," Levi answers easily, and he doesn't give her any trouble. He settles on the couch and pulls out his school books, and Abby fixes him some of the snack food that she keeps stored in her lab. For a while, the two of them just work in comfortable silence, Levi on his homework and Abby on her homicide evidence. She can tell from the thoughtful way he spins his pencil and tilts his head that he's enjoying this assignment.
"What are working on so hard, Levi?" she asks him after a few minutes, and the boy looks up from his writing as he often does, with a confused expression, as if he's trying to remember who she is. Then, proudly, he taps his notebook.
"We're doing a big project at school on national landmarks," he explains excitedly. "Guess which one I got!"
Abby twirls one finger around her pigtail thoughtfully. "Uh, let's see... Mount Rushmore?" Levi shakes his head. "No? Uh, the St. Louis Arch? The Grand Canyon? The Golden Gate Bridge? The M-"
"The Statue of Liberty!" Levi bursts out, grinning. "And it's the best national landmark, because it has words on it. The lady who wrote them was Jewish, too."
"Really? I didn't know that."
Levi flips through his school papers, then carefully unclips a loose-leaf page from his binder. "This is my rough draft about it, see?" he asks, holding the sheet out to Abby. "And guess what else? When we're done, we're each going to talk about our national landmark in front of the class, and parents are coming and everything!"
Abby smiles and nods as she reads over the sheet of paper that Levi has handed her. But as she reads further down the page, her eyebrows raise, and there's no mistaking the surprise on her face when she looks up at Levi again. "Wow, these are some pretty good words, Levi. This is what you'll be reading in front of your class?"
Levi's smile is different than it was a few minutes ago; now, his lips spread in a conspiratory way, as if he's just let Abby in on a special secret - and in a way, he has. He actually leans in towards her before he whispers, "And Abby? Guess when we're doing it? The week before Mother's Day."
Ziva always feels self-conscious going to events at Levi's school. Today, parents have been invited to the classroom to hear the students give their reports on national landmark. A few of the other mothers are literally wearing heels and pearls, and Ziva has to force herself not to roll her eyes - and she can't shake the feeling that all of them seem to be in on some secret that she doesn't know. Parents like these are one reason why she and Tony have always sent Levi to public school. She wishes that she'd gotten Leyla to come with her, but even though Levi and Amira are in the same grade at this school, Amira is in a different class - and hers isn't doing reports on national landmarks.
But Levi beams at her from his desk, so brightly that she feels less nervous, and she gives him a little wave as she sits with the other parents at the back of the class.
The students take turns reading their reports at the front of the classroom, with a photo of their national landmark beside them on the smartboard. Levi's turn, when it comes, is business-as-usual at first, without even a hint of his unusual vocabulary. He opens his report with standard facts about the Statue of Liberty - where it stands, when it was given to America from the people of France. Ziva can sense the other parents' attentions wandering a bit - not quite blanking out completely, but just not listening as closely as they did with their own children.
But that all changes when Levi reaches the section of his report about "The New Colossus," the poem inscribed at the statue's base, the words that first attracted him to this national landmark. Her son usually has such reverence for the written word, but to Ziva's surprise, when he talks about the poem now, his tone is actually reproachful.
"Although well-written, this poem is actually a lie in many ways," Levi reads in a clear voice, and a few of his classmates raise their heads with confused, did-he-just-say-that looks on their faces. But Levi goes on calmly, "The words your tired, your poor are lies because immigrants to America have to have a great deal of money and energy just to make the trip.
"The poem also implies that immigrants should feel grateful to America for taking them in, but in fact, our country should feel grateful to immigrants because many of them, like my mom, make America a better place by being here." He ends his report with a nod and a "thank you," very professionally, but he catches Ziva's eye at the back of the class and winks at her, and the gesture is so much like Tony that it almost takes Ziva's breath away.
"Happy Mother's Day, Mom," Levi whispers to her as he goes back to his seat, and Ziva realizes that he's been planning this all along - to include a little tribute to her in his class project, and to work it into the holiday approaching this week. She's astounded at how well he can surprise her; this quality, too, he must have learned from Tony.
She smiles back at him but says nothing, and she directs her attention back to the front of the classroom as the next student gets up to read her report. But that self-conscious, insecure feeling that haunts Ziva so often - that nagging doubt that she isn't as good as the other mothers seated around her - feels so small and far-away, like it all happened to someone else.
