The Stars

"The Stars ain't got nothin' on you. Your heart burns much brighter than the moon."

Saturday, May 18, 2019 – Tali's 6th birthday party

It looked like Disney's Moana had exploded all over the bottom level of their house. This was Tali's last birthday as an only child and Ziva wanted to go all out, buying out almost the entire Moana collection from the local party store, from plates and napkins to streamers and even a piñata filled to the brim with Tali's favorite candy. They even spent a hefty chunk of money on a custom made chocolate and caramel cake from Ziva's favorite bakery. It was still an hour before the grandfathers were coming and two hours before the rest of the guests were scheduled to arrive and Tony was busy blowing up balloons while Ziva was getting Tali ready.

"Daddy, daddy, do I look like a princess now?" Tali ran down the stairs to stand in front of her father and twirled. Ziva, with the help of Abby, had hand-made Tali a dress resembling Moana's outfit from the movie. Ziva trailed down the stairs behind her daughter, watching their interaction with a smile.

"You always look like a princess to me sweetheart." He pressed a kiss to her cheek and smiled up at Ziva watching them. "Your Ima did a good job on your dress didn't she?"

"Uh huh! It's beautiful! I love it!" Ziva walked over to her family then, placing a hand on her husband's shoulder.

"I cannot take all of the credit now, your Aunt Abby did help me with some of the stitching." She smoothed a hand down Tali's hair, careful not to mess up her perfectly styled waves. Now, why don't you go upstairs and play for a little while until Grampa Gibbs and Nonno get here." Tali nodded her head and ran to her room, careful not to mess up her dress. "Well, I am glad she likes it. How are the balloons coming Tony?"

"Well, we ran out of helium about 15 balloons ago so I've been blowing the rest up myself. I think we may have went a little overboard on them Zi." The couple looked around the room. There were at least 30 balloons on strings tied to chairs, lamps, and table legs, and more just floating against the ceiling. The remaining balloons that Tony had blown up were scattered around the living room floor. "There have to be at least 50 balloons here."

"Oh my. You may be right Tony. I did not realize I had bought so many. Well, at least the house is decorative yes?"

"Decorative is one word for it." At Ziva's pouty look, he grabbed her hand and eased her onto his lap. "It looks great Zi. And I'm sure once she notices it, Tali's gonna love everything you did."

"Everything we did Tony. And you're right, I guess she was a little pre-occupied with looking like a princess to notice the decorations." She pressed a kiss to his forehead before pushing herself off his lap. "Now come on, let us start working on the food." Tony followed her into the kitchen and they each started working on their separate tasks.

"Hello hello! Where's the birthday girl?" DiNozzo Senior asked as he entered his sons' home.

"Nonno!" As soon as she heard his voice, Tali came running down the stairs and straight into her grandfather's arms.

"Happy birthday my dear." Senior hugged her tight before grabbing her hand and spinning her around. "Your dress is beautiful Tali."

"Thanks Nonno! Ima made it!" Tali beamed at him before noticing Gibbs trailing in the door carrying presents. "Grampa Gibbs!" She ran to him then as Senior grabbed the presents Gibbs had brought in from both of them and placed them by the fireplace.

"Happy birthday kid." Gibbs said as he pulled her into a hug. Pulling away, Tali grabbed her grandfathers' hands and dragged them into the kitchen where her parents were currently working on dinner. Gibbs walked up next to Ziva as she was chopping fresh vegetables for the homemade pizza. "You made her dress?"

"With some help from Abby, but yes."

"You did good Ziver." Gibbs pressed a kiss to the side of her head, knowing she would know he wasn't just talking about the dress.

"Thank you Abba." Ziva swiped at her eye, blaming her pregnancy hormones and the cutting of onion for the tears escaping her eyes.

"So my dear, what can we help with?" Senior asked, looking around at the few remaining decorations that needed to be put up.

"Well, if you would like to hang up the banner above the fireplace and finish placing the balloons, and Gibbs if you could hang up the piñata in the tree in the backyard while Tony and I finish with the pizzas." The two men went straight to their assigned tasks as the clock ticked down to when the rest of the party guests were to arrive.

"Looks like she had fun." Tony and Ziva were curled up together on the couch, Tony with his feet pro looking down at the floor where Tali was laying sound asleep surrounded by her new stuffed animals and balloons. "I don't think she's been this worn out since the vacation."

In addition to Senior and Gibbs, Abby, Ducky, the McGee and Palmer families, and ten of Tali's friends came to their house for the party. For almost three hours, the adults watched twelve six-year-olds hyped up on cake, ice cream, and candy, run around the house and play soccer with all of the balloons on the floor. Not long after their guests left, Tali passed out in her new sleeping bag in the middle of the living room floor while her father and grandfathers as they worked on cleaning up the house and Ziva, banned from the kitchen, kicked her feet up on the couch and dozed off. After the house was completely clean and Senior and Gibbs had left, that's how he found his wife, sitting up and leaning her side against the back of the couch with her feet stretched out in front of her, asleep. He silently squeezed in between her back and the arm of the couch, curling his arm around her shoulder as she slowly opened her eyes.

"She really is out of it. Unlike this one." Ziva grabbed Tony's hand and placed it on her belly where their unborn child was currently restless.

Ziva rolled her eyes, having given up on getting Tony to stop calling it a girl when they didn't know the gender yet. Tony held his hand on her stomach, waiting for the usual kick that came to his hand when their unborn child was restless. "Oh. That was a powerful one. She's really practicing her ninja moves tonight isn't she?"

"Oh yes. This one's definitely an active one. Tali didn't kick me this much." Ziva moved around, laying back on the pillow in Tony's lap to get more comfortable as Tony moved his hand with her stomach. "Do you have to keep doing that? You know, the baby seems to kick more when you are rubbing my stomach." His hand still in place where the baby was being active, he felt some more kicks before the baby settled into position and calmed down.

"Yeah, but I'm also the one who can calm her down the easiest." Ziva leaned up to her husband, pressing a light kiss to his lips.

"Well in that case you are excused." Tony leaned back down for a second kiss, this time lingering longer than normal. Ziva reached one hand up and ran it through Tony's longer than normal hair as he ran his under her shirt and over her stomach. They slowly pulled away from one another, going back in for one short peck before leaning back breathless. Ziva brought her hand down from his hair to rub his chest, gathering his shirt in her fist. "I love you Tony."

"I love you too Zi." Ziva tried to stifle a yawn, making Tony smile and lean her up. "C'mon Zi, let's get you and Tali to bed." Ziva just nodded tiredly as she sat up. Tony stood and reached a hand down, helping her up before going to pick up Tali. Following his wife, he carried their sleeping daughter up the stairs and helped Ziva change her into pajamas before tucking her into bed. Turning off the lamp light and leaving Tali's door cracked, they headed to their room to get changed and teeth brushed before laying down facing each other.

"Thank you for all of your help today Tony. It was a wonderful party and I could not have done it without you."

"Of course Ziva. We're married. And even if we weren't Tali is our daughter and I would do anything for either of you, you know that. I think she had fun today."

"She definitely did. I just can't believe this is her last birthday as an only child. This one will be here in just two months and will change everything. I just hope Tali will not feel left out when the baby first gets here."

"I think she'll do great Zi. I mean, she knows things are going to change, but we'll be here for both of them. We'll just have to make sure we each set aside time to spend with her. It's gonna be fine Ziva. And she'll be a great big sister, I have no doubt about it." Ziva took in her husband's words, reaching over to place her hand against his cheek and pressing a kiss to the corner of his lips.

"Thank you Tony. You always know what to say. Goodnight neshama." Ziva rolled over on her back to get comfortable but made sure to keep contact with Tony.

"Goodnight tesoro."

AN: "The Stars" is a beautiful song by Lady Antebellum that they wrote for their children.

I am SO sorry this chapter took so long. I started my senior semester and it's been kicking my butt. I finally found some time to write so I wanted to get this chapter out and I do have the rest of the chapters outlined so I hope that they don't take as long to get out as this one did.

Hope y'all enjoyed!