Childish giggles break through Ziva's consciousness and she inhales deeply before slowly squinting her eyes open. A smile comes to her lips at the sighs of Tony and the kids in a huddle at the foot of the bed.
"Oh no!" Tali frowns, seeing Ziva's eyes open. "We woke up Ima before the surprise."
Tony ruffles his free hand over Tali's messy curls. "It's okay, kiddo. We were going to have to wake Ima up already." He shoots Ziva a dashing grin and her own smile grows.
Yawning slightly, Ziva offers, "Would you like me to go back to sleep and then you can wake me up again?"
Tali squints at Ziva suspiciously, the tray in her hands listing a little bit to the left before Tony reaches out to stabilize it. "Could you really go to sleep that fast?" she asks, more curious than anything.
"Oh yes," Ziva smiles, "I can sleep almost anywhere. It is my superpower." She whispers this last bit conspiratorially and Tali raises her eyebrows.
"I thought the eyes on the back of your head were your superpower?" she asks and both Tony and Ziva laugh.
Tony, bouncing Sam on his hip, replies, "Ima has a million superpowers. She's like Wonder Woman. Same accent and everything."
He winks at his wife and her cheeks heat up for no reason. Rolling her eyes at his teasing, she reaches her hands out for Sam. "Give me my child, Tony," she commands, as Sam is leaning out of Tony's arms in her direction.
"If you're like Wonder Woman," Tali starts, still hung up on the superhero of it all, "do you have a lasso and bracelets? Can you make me and Dad and Sam tell the truth?"
Ziva cocks her head, holding Sam close in a hug, "What do you think, motek?"
"I think I'm not gonna test it out," Tali replies. She sets the tray on the edge of the bed and Tony leans forward, holding it in place with his knee. Tali rests her elbows on the mattress, "But maybe if you have an invisible jet, you could let me fly it?" Her smile is a mischievous copy of Tony's and Ziva lets out a delighted laugh.
"Maybe one day, my love," she acquiesces. Sampras her cheek and she presses a kiss to the nine-month-old's chubby palm. "Now," she continues, "why have I been surprised this morning?"
She knows it's Mother's Day, but the look of exasperated delight on Tali's face is one of her favourites, so she likes to provoke it as much as possible. To Ziva's amusement, Tali jumps in place, shouting, "it's Mother's Day, Ima! When we celebrate mothers and aunts like Aunt Lilah and not Aunt Ellie because she's not a mom yet and grandmas, even like mine in Heaven! Dad and I made breakfast and I made you s'prises in school!"
"Mother's Day?" Ziva fakes confusion, even as the reference to her own mother makes her heart clench. One look at Tony's face tells her that his own heart is hurting a bit too. He offers her a bittersweet smile and shrugs one shoulder.
"Yeah!" the second grader shouts. "Look, we made your favorite fruit and eggs and the yucky fake bacon."
"Turkey bacon, it is healthy for you," Ziva teases, leaning forward and snagging a piece off the plate. Sam grabs for it and she angles her face away, getting a baby fist in the eye for her troubles.
"At what cost, Ziva," Tony sighs dramatically, one hand over his heart. "At what cost."
"Your high cholesterol levels," Ziva retorts dryly, earning an eye roll and a cheeky grin from her husband. To Tali, she beams, "this breakfast looks delicious, Tali. You are very thoughtful to cut up my fruit too."
Tali, munching happily on a piece of strawberry, grins. Her lips and teeth are stained a little pink. "We even got the green grapes 'cause you don't like purple," she says proudly and Ziva smiles to herself because she knows it's Tali who has the inexplicable aversion to the purple grapes. As if to prove it, Tali plucks a couple of grapes from the bowl and shoved them in her mouth. Around the mouthful of fruit, she looks at Tony and asks, "Can we give Ima her gifts now?"
Tony winces as chewed up pieces of grape land on the front of his t-shirt, but he nods. "Yeah, I'll hold onto breakfast and you can go grab her gifts. Remember where we hid them?"
Already halfway out of the room, Tali yells back, "Yeah, in the secret spot under the stairs in the basement with the spiders,"
"Well, it's not a secret now!" Tony calls back, laughing. He turns back to Ziva and shrugs, "Guess I need to find a new hiding spot."
Disentangling Sam's hands from her hair, Ziva gives Tony a sympathetic smile. "Oh, my love, I've known about that spot since you first used it. I was just humouring you."
"Wonder Woman, I tell ya," Tony winks, picking up Sam's pacifier off the comforter and handing it back to the baby. He grabs it and happily shoves the soother in his mouth, sucking contentedly as he leans his head against Ziva's shoulder. She rests her cheek on the top of Sam's head and inhales his scent of baby lotion and milk.
"I'm back," Tali comes running back into the bedroom, arms laden with gifts.
Ziva displays the proper amount of excitement at the gifts Tali unloads on the bed. "All of these for me? This is too much!" She reaches out to nudge Tali's cheek. "All I need is time with my favorite people."
"Yeah but presents are good too!" Tali grins, bouncing on her knees. "How about I help you open?" she asks, already tearing into the wrapping.
"I would like that very much," Ziva laughs, left with no choice. She leans back against the pillows and settles Sam on her lap so he can tear at the colourful paper. Tony's abandoned the breakfast tray to the top of their dresser and is sitting at the edge of the bed, just behind Tali so he can catch her if she takes an exuberant tumble.
"Look, I made this for you in school," Tali boasts proudly, holding up a lopsided clay pot painted with all different shades orange. "It's a flower pot!"
"It's lovely," Ziva says sincerely. She accepts the pot as Tali thrusts it into her hands and even Sam pokes at it gently. "Did you paint it yourself too?"
Tali nods. "It's like the bullpen! I like the orange there."
"That makes one of us," Tony mutters under his breath, thinking of all the years those orange walls had given him a headache. Ziva kicks her foot at him, smirking.
"Well, it will look perfect in my office," Ziva says decisively. "You will help me pick out a plant for it, yes?"
Their daughter nods again and hands off another unwrapped gift. "I made this one too," she explains. "It's a picture frame and Daddy helped me find the picture."
The frame, covered with meticulously placed stickers and painted blobs that Ziva thinks are meant to be hearts, has an photograph of Ziva holding Sam the day after he was born, Tali perched on the bed next to her, looking down at the new baby. Tears blur Ziva's vision. Even though it had only been nine months since Sam was born, it feels like he's been with them forever. Their little family complete, Ziva loves looking at the pictures from Sam's early days.
"I love it, Tali," Ziva tugs her closer so she can kiss her forehead. "It will go on my desk too, next to my flower pot."
"Good," Tali nods. "I even used a picture with Sam not because Daddy said I should, but because I like him."
Tony and Ziva share a laugh. "That is good to hear," Ziva says, her face faux-solemn. Tali pinches at Sam's cheeks gently and makes a face at him, grinning when Sam rewards her with a rare gummy smile.
"I even put his name on the card," she replies. "But only the card that Daddy bought not the card I made at school because he didn't help me with that."
"I think that is fair," Ziva says, gently taking the frame from Sam's hands and putting it on the bedside table. "One day he will be able to make me cards too."
"And then I'm off the hook," Tony jokes, even though they both know that Tony will happily celebrate Ziva every day of the year and especially on Mother's Day. Tali ignores him and gives Ziva her cards, one made of construction paper and one in its envelope from the card store. Ziva makes a show of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over Tali's illustrations, ones that have shown marked improvement since her birthday in November. The store-bought card makes her laugh - the front cover has a drawing of a cartoon Wonder Woman and big bold letters proclaim Wonder Mom, Incredible Woman.
Tony's handwriting covers the inside of the card - an inscription she plans on reading later when she can appreciate it - and Tali's still childish letters spell out hers and Sam's names at the bottom. There are a couple of sloppy hearts covering the edge of the card too and Ziva traces her fingers over them.
"I love everything," she smiles at Tony and Tali in turn. "You have made me feel very special today." Tali clambers into her lap for a hug and Ziva's throat closes up at the love she feels for the children in her arms and the husband looking at her with a soft smile. She gives Tali an extra tight squeeze and then Sam makes himself known with an unhappy shriek, bringing the hug to an end.
"Can we go to the park before the barbecue at Gibbs's?" Tali asks, seemingly done with the gift giving and surprising. "And can Victoria meet us there?"
Tony shrugs. "We'll see, T. We don't have to be at Gibbs's until 3, so plenty of day to fill."
Tali accepts the answer and skips off out of the room, taking the bowl of Ziva's cut up fruit with her.
"She is a character," Ziva murmurs affectionately, easing the pacifier back into Sam's mouth and bouncing him on her lap.
"It's genetic," Tony laughs, producing a small wrapped gift from behind his back. "As is a love of surprises."
"Tony," Ziva hums, "you did not have to get me anything. I was serious when I said all I wanted was to spend the day with you three."
He shrugs, putting the gift on the bed in between them. "Yeah, but I like getting you gifts and seeing the little lines between your eyebrows when you try to convince me that I don't need to get you anything."
Ziva immediately unfurrows her brow, the aforementioned lines disappearing. With a huff, she shifts Sam so he's resting on her lap and secured in the crook of her arm. She makes quick work of the wrapping paper and pops open the black box to find a thin gold chain necklace, studded with three different coloured gemstones. Ziva takes it out of the box and lets the chain waterfall through her fingers. "This beautiful, Tony," she whispers.
"It's, uh, your mom's birthstone, T's birthstone, and Sam's," he explains softly.
"I love it," Ziva murmurs, angling away from Sam and his grabby hands. She looks up at Tony, a watery smile on her face. "I love it," she repeats, the I love you shining through her tone and glassy eyes.
Tony leans forward to press a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. "You deserve it, Ziva," he says against her skin and she believes him.
a/n: some mother's day love for our favorite ninja mom :)