He showed it to Ziva. "For Karina's room." Ziva smiled. "Growing up in Israel, we were lucky that we lived near Haifa, which is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, but that was when I was a child."
"Once I became Mossad, all I ever saw was desert, even though Tel Aviv is also on the coast. Other than work, I do not think I have ever spent any time by the water, as an adult; and never for enjoyment."
Tony pulled her into his arms. "Well, I certainly hope you are 'enjoying' this now." Ziva looked into his eyes, then at his mouth.
"Oh, yes. I am enjoying this, most definitely." She kissed her husband, making a promise of things to come.
They continued their walk down the beach, hands entwined.
Chapter Twenty-One: "Being Responsible"
Tony and Ziva's Home- North Arlington
Dinner went off without a hitch. Abby was pleased that Karina approved of all of their food choices for her.
She let her "feed" herself a little bit; playing with the spoon and a little portion of extra food Abby put in her bowl.
Karina didn't do too badly of a job. She actually got quite a bit of the food in her mouth. But also in her hair; and in her nose and ears.
Abby just giggled at her. "Tim, come look at the mess your niece made." Tim had been on the deck throwing balls for the dogs.
He came back in and took one look at Karina. "Abby, why did you let her do that? How are we going to clean her up?"
"That, my dear Timothy, as Ducky would say, is what a bath is for." She got a wet cloth and wiped off as much as she could, which was quite a bit.
"OK, you get bath duty tonight." Tim's eyes bugged out. "Me? I thought…"
"You thought that I would always bathe and you would watch, offering moral support?"
"When we have a baby, you may be alone one night for some reason and have to do all of this stuff by yourself. No better time to learn."
"Wait, why would you be gone overnight?" Tim looked worried.
Abby looked at him. "Tim, I was speaking hypothetically. And I didn't say 'overnight', I said 'one night,' which could mean me staying late at work, or going out with the girls."
"No, go on; pick up you niece and take her upstairs for her bath. I will be there; for moral support." Abby grinned.
Tim looked at Abby like she was abandoning him, and did as he was told. Abby followed him upstairs to the hall bath. He turned to her.
"Well, at least we can do what we did last time, just in reverse." He handed her Karina and went about looking at the list of what was needed for the all-important bath.
Once he was done, he took Karina away from Abby. "OK, so now you double check to make sure I didn't miss anything."
"Good teamwork, Tim!" Abby was laughing. She looked over everything, checking it with the list. "Looks good. I will put the water in her tub."
"You can start undressing her; and remove her diaper."
Tim looked at Abby at that, scared. "Oh, come on. We've already seen it at its worst. Go on…"
Tim struggled to get the clothes off of the wiggling baby, but managed to get her down to her diaper. "Ok, Karina. You know what comes next."
She grinned at Tim and said "poo-poo." "Oh, God. I hope not. Thanks, Karina." She giggled.
He gently laid her in the tub and carefully undid one side of her diaper. Although the smell indicated Karina correctly identified what he would find, it was nothing compared to the diaper last night.
"Baby wipe!" Tim held out his hand, keeping his hand on Karina's tummy and watching her.
Wipe in hand, he mimicked what Abby did by using the clean part of the diaper to clean her off as much as possible, then used the wipe to finish the job.
He closed up the diaper and put it aside. Picking up Karina, he and Abby switched places and he sat her in the tub.
Karina was already ready to play. Tim put some bubble bath in the water and Abby swished it around to make the bubbles. He put some baby wash on the wash cloth and began to bathe her.
Karina was very co-operative; even helping out by trying to take the washcloth and wiped it against her tummy.
Tim looked surprised. "Well, aren't you a big girl, washing herself!" He kept a hand on her at all times. He next tried the shampoo and used a little bit too much.
Fortunately, it was a "no tears" brand, so it didn't matter when it started dripping down Karina's face. She just laughed and touched her face, then touched her hands to Tim's face.
"Thank you, Karina. I really needed someone to wash my face." Satisfied she was clean; the only thing left was to rinse her off.
He lifted her up and dumped the small tub quickly with one hand. He then sat her back down and got the hand spray ready. Satisfied with the temperature, he turned it on a gentle flow and let the water flow over the baby.
She clapped her hands, and slapped at the water coming from the hand spray. She loved having the spray go over her hair, rinsing the shampoo out.
"Ok," Tim said, "I think we are rinsed. Towel please."
Grinning, Abby handed Tim the hooded towel. He scooped up Karina and wrapped her in the towel. He rubbed her dry as he was taking her into her room.
Putting her in the crib, he finished drying her off. "You did great, Timmy. I can take over from here."
"Nope." Tim said. "Just like you said; I may be alone one night and have to do this all by myself, so I may as well finish the job."
Abby smiled and handed him the diaper. Tim put the new diaper on, a definite improvement over his first try. He then picked Karina up and went over to her dresser.
"What do you think? Pink stripes or orange flowers? You're right; I think the orange one is a little too bright. Pink stripes it is."
He went back to the crib and proceeded to put her onesie on. "Ok, cutie. Let's go downstairs and warm you up a bottle." He walked past Abby and took Karina with him to the kitchen.
He pulled out a small bottle of milk and warmed it up. Karina was already tired and had her head on Tim's shoulder. "Ready for you bottle? I thought so!"
He took her back to her room, sat in the rocker and offered her the bottle. She took it willingly, holding onto his hands this time instead of the bottle.
"You were such a good girl today, Karina. Didn't we have fun today? I know I did." Karina watched Tim's face as he talked to her. Before he knew it, she was asleep.
He gently picked her up to burp her and was awarded soon thereafter. He got up, laid her in her crib, covered her up with Bobo by her hand, made sure the nightlight was on and left the room.
Abby had been waiting out in the hall for him. As soon as he came out of her room and slightly closed the door, she was in his arms.
"I can't believe you just did all that, all by yourself. You are totally amazing and I am so proud of you." She kissed him passionately.
"Whoa, maybe I should do this tomorrow night too, huh?" Tim gladly responded in kind. Abby giggled and taking his hand, led him into the guest room.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Tim and Abby woke once again to the sounds of Karina, babbling away. They decided to lie in bed and listen to her for a while.
Every so often, something recognizable would reach their ears: Mama, Dada, Bobo, Papa, Boo-boo, Bah Bah, poo-poo, Momo, Li-Li. Be-Be, Gee-Gee and Kar-Lee to name a few.
Abby grabbed Tim's arm. "Tim, I think Be-Be and Gee-Gee are you and me. Ab-Bee, Mc-GEE?" She was trembling with excitement.
Tim had his arm around her. "Maybe." He didn't want to say that Be-Be could be her attempt at saying Bailey's or Bridget's name, who she saw far more often than either of them.
Or Be-Be was Bailey and Gee-Gee was Bridget. He didn't want to burst her happy bubble, so kept those thoughts to himself.
Groaning, he pulled himself up. "I know she sounds happy, but I'd rather interrupt her happiness than try to soothe her tantrum."
"Good thought, Tim!" Abby bounded out of bed and ran into Karina's room. "Good morning sweet little girl!" Tim shook his head. He could hear Karina laughing and clapping and, he was sure, she said "Be-Be."
Maybe Abby was right, and those were her names for them. He caught up with her as quickly as he could get in there.
Tim walked up to her, covering his eyes, then uncovering them and saying "peek-a-boo!" Karina squealed with laughter and sure enough, said "Gee-Gee."
Abby beamed at him. "I told you so!" She smirked. She let Tim change her diaper and get her dressed while she went downstairs and started breakfast.
Tim's confidence had returned and he felt like he was an actual father. He felt a pang of disappointed for when they would have to turn her back over to Tony and Ziva.
Maybe they could get Jimmy and Breena to go out, at least overnight, so they would have experience with a relative newborn.
Breakfast was again an easy affair, with Abby allowing Karina to play with feeding herself. This time however, the doggy door was locked.
Abby tried again washing the dishes with Karina on the floor, playing with her "drums." Once again, she took off, but this time she ended up in the family room, having found one of her toys, she was quietly playing with it.
The dogs came in from outside and ran to her and bowled her over. Abby waited for her to cry, but she just laughed and started crawling on them.
Breathing a big sigh of relief, she went and got Karina. "Ok, sweetie. Let's go wash your hands and face and go sit outside for a while and enjoy the fresh air.
Tim had heard back from his lawyer and was reading over the documents at the dining room table.
"Don't forget to take a breather; we're going to Gibbs' later. I don't want you to be worn out or stressed out." Abby lectured him.''
"Tim smiled at her. "I'm fine. He actually broke it down into understandable sections for me, so it makes some sense."
Abby stared him down, and then went outside with Karina. They sat on the slider together, Abby rocking it gently.
"You just wait! Grandpa is going to build you a great play set just like he has in his backyard. And when Uncle Timmy and I have children, he's going to build one for us too."
Karina clapped and babbled. After a while, she came back in. "Timmy, can you set up Karina's playpen? I need to do laundry, and even when we have our own kids, sometimes they are going to have to entertain themselves."
"Sure, Abby." Tim got up and set up the play pen so it was near him.
At first Karina started fussing when Abby put her in it, but she watched as she went upstairs and came back down with a basket of laundry.
This looked familiar, so she contented herself with her toys and played for a while. She would occasionally babble at Tim, who would answer her and keep up the conversation.
The dogs laid by her so she could "talk" to them when Uncle Timmy wasn't answering appropriately.
While Abby was doing the laundry, she also cleaned the bathroom and straightened up Karina's room, not that it was messy, just making sure everything was put away.
When they left in the morning, they would not be back to clean up after themselves, so she wanted to get as much done as she could while she had the time.
On one of her trips up and down, she stopped and gave Karina a bottle of juice and a teething cookie. Karina was quite pleased with this and lay down in her play pen to suck on the bottle.
Martha's Vineyard
Somehow, Tony had talked himself into going to morning Mass and Ziva agreed to go him. She was slightly shocked, since he never practiced at home.
"Just reliving some happy memories." He answered her questioning look. She looked surprised at that. "You found going to Mass happy?"
Tony had to laugh at that. "No, but it was actually one of the few things we did as a family. Can you imagine my Dad going to Mass?"
Tony looked at the stained glass. "For an hour, we were one, whether it was with God, or each other, it doesn't matter. I had forgotten about it, until I saw the church again."
"Do you want to start going back to church? Do you think we need to go as a family, whether to Mass or Synagogue? We can teach our children both of our Faiths." Ziva asked, tentatively.
"I definitely want our children to be baptized, or whatever they do in the Jewish faith. I don't know, maybe I'm just letting my memories overwhelm me right now." Tony shrugged.
Ziva leaned against him. "I always went to Synagogue when I was a child. I had my Bat Mitzvah and was always involved. It was only when I became Mossad that I stopped."
Tony looked at her. "I stopped because I felt unworthy to sit in such a sacred place. My Father, naturally, felt no such contradiction and still goes today, unless that has recently changed."
Now, that was something Tony never expected. And yet again, he wasn't surprised. Men who believe they to be great always felt they had a personal and special relationship with God, or Jehovah, or Allah or whatever Faith you believed in.
"And if we have a son, I would want to have the Bris." Ziva whispered.
"A what?" Tony whispered back. Ziva hid back a smile. "Later."
After the Mass, they walked around the town a little bit, window shopping, enjoying their last day of "vacation." Tony had gone into town late yesterday afternoon to look at the one local auto dealer.
He and Ziva walked in that direction so he could show her the car he was considering. He wouldn't dream of buying it without her approval.
As far as he was concerned, whatever he had inherited from his mother was hers as well, and that included all of the money. He had already given her the jewelry that was not in a safe deposit box because of the value.
He couldn't wait to show her that she actually owned a tiara; courtesy of his mother's grandparent's titles. Maybe when they took that trip to Great Britain…
They finally reached the dealership. Being Sunday, it was closed, but the property was not fenced and locked up. Tony led her through the used cars and ended up at the car he was interested in.
It was a silver Mercedes 2009 CLS500 4-door sedan. Ziva raised her eyebrows? "A Mercedes?"
Tony held out his hands. "It's Martha's Vineyard. All they sell are Mercedes, and Lamborghini's and Jaguar's. At least I picked out a used car."
Ziva smiled. She looked at the car, trying to look inside as much as she could through the windows. "So, have you already bought the car and this is a formality?"
Tony looked hurt. "Hell no. I wouldn't buy this without your approval. We're a team remember? The only time I will spend a large amount of money without consulting you is if I am spending it on you."
Ziva kissed him to take away the sting of her comment. "I am sorry. I know you would not act without at least consulting me. Thank you for showing it to me."
"How are you going to buy this, since we are leaving early tomorrow morning?" Ziva asked.
"I gave the owner my card and told him I would call him tomorrow if we were going to buy the car. He is holding it until he hears from me one way or the other."
"I wish you had the chance to drive it. It rides real nice."
"Remind me again why I was not with you when you went car hunting?"
"Uh, something about you wanting to take a bubble bath and paint your toenails or something? I invited you; you declined." Tony smiled.
"Oh, yes. My toenails. For some reason that was more important than buying a car. Silly me." Tony grinned and put his arm around her.
"So, what's your pleasure? Yes or no?" Ziva looked at the car. "I will defer to you on this decision since you have seen more of the car than I have. If you like it and think it is a good deal then go ahead."
"Ok, buy it is. I will call tomorrow and get it taken care of. I will also call the holding company to close up the house and put the car in the garage with the T-Bird and cover it up as well."
"You know, when I was a kid, all of this stuff was just here. I went from one house to the other.
"Now, having to actually be responsible for the maintenance and upkeep, it is a little overwhelming. Thank goodness you are with me, to keep me grounded."
Ziva held his hand and caressed it. "I cannot imagine being anywhere but with you. I have to pinch myself to remind myself how blessed my life is."
"I never imagined being married and having children; much less finding my soul-mate. I am the luckiest woman in the world."
Tony pulled her into his arms. "All these years, and you have always been there, even when things were not so good. I am the 'lucky' one."
Still holding hands, they walked back to the town square, and bade their farewell to this town that had now become another home to them.
How many times can I say thank you are still make it sound sincere? You guys keep me going. Next chapter is at the Gibbs' household.