Plethora
It's Valentine's Day; just how many Valentines can one person get? February 2025
Plethora - a large or excessive amount of (something).
It started as a normal, well, normal for the DiNozzo household, Friday. Tony made breakfast while Ziva made sure the older two had everything they needed for school that day and checked that shoes were on the correct feet, shirts and pants were on right-side-out and front-to-back correct on the younger three. All five had class parties for Valentine's Day; Tali and Anthony were also bringing cookies along with their Valentine cards for classmates. Ziva had helped them put two cookies in a snack bag and tape a kids' Valentine card to each one the previous night.
She walked into the kitchen where the kids were devouring breakfast burritos and juice. Tony handed her a plate as she approached the counter where he was standing by the griddle.
"Scrambled eggs, cheddar cheese, turkey bacon bits, and salt and pepper to season," he added as she took the food from him. "Mine is almost done. Who is taking whom today?"
Ziva took a bite, "Mmm, delicious as always… I will take Rivka, Beth, and LJ to the preschool. I have to pick up an order from one of the stores nearby, so I can shoot many birds with one arrow."
Tony grinned at his wife as he slid his burrito onto a plate, "Kill two birds with one stone…"
"Whatever," she replied with a wink. She turned to the kids, "Preschool DiNozzos ride with me this morning. Tali and Anthony, Abba will drive you to school so that you do not have to worry about the cookies getting broken on the bus. I am leaving in fifteen minutes." She pointed to the clock on kitchen wall. "It says seven thirty; I will be expecting you three to be in the van ready to leave at seven forty-five."
Beth and Rivka gave their Ima thumbs' up gestures. The two almost five-year-olds had been learning to tell time in their five-day-per-week preschool class. LJ just grinned with a mouthful of food; he learned to tell time from his sisters.
Tony inhaled the final bite of his breakfast and leaned in to kiss his wife, "See you tonight, Sweetcheeks." He turned to call out to the older two, "Abba school-bus ready to go!"
"We're at the door, Abba," Tali called back. "You're the slow-poke today!" She and Anthony giggled and ran out the front door to their father's truck to get ready to head to school; each one had a backpack and a large sack of cookies and cards.
Ziva finished her burrito as the three younger kids pulled on coats and hats; each of them had a sack full of Valentine cards for their classmates. Ziva had color-coded each of the kid's sacks to make the morning run smoothly. LJ grabbed his green bag and followed the twins to the family mini-van. Ziva slid her arm into her coat sleeve and stopped when a small white envelope fell from one of her sleeves to the floor.
She picked it up and looked at the paper envelope; no name, so it wasn't from one of the children's stashes of Valentine cards. Tony had carefully checked that each child had a card for every other classmate and that each card had a name written on the envelope. As she walked to the van, she opened the small envelope and extracted the colorfully printed card from inside.
'You are my sunshine.' The greeting was accompanied by an image of the Fun-shine Care Bear. Ziva flipped the card over and the only words were printed by a machine, 'from a not-so-secret admirer.' She slipped the card into her pocket and climbed into the driver's seat to drop the kids at preschool.
Back at home, Ziva carried the large brown paper wrapped package from the hobby and crafts store into her office, setting it on the floor by her file cabinet. Tony's Valentine's Day gift was an original Casablanca film poster that she'd found at an online auction site. When the poster arrived from the seller, Ziva took it to the popular store to get it framed. She was sure he'd be surprised and pleased with the gift.
Ziva sat at her computer and pulled the keyboard drawer from under the desk. At least a dozen of the same small white envelopes as the one from her coat sleeve fell into her lap. She grinned to herself, knowing that Tony was behind this.
Each card had a different Valentine greeting and theme, but all were from multi-packs of kids' cards. Some were signed 'T,' or 'Tony.' A few just had a hand-drawn heart with 'T+Z.' With the one from earlier, she now had sixteen cards from her husband, and the day was just getting started.
Ziva smiled to herself as she began her work for the day, logging in to her work e-mail via the secure NCIS portal. Nothing of consequence was in her inbox; no new documents to translate when she accessed the online workspace. She opened the transcript she'd been working on most of the week and finished the translation document in about an hour, uploading it to the secure workspace and sending a link to the team leader who requested the translation.
Ziva stood and stretched; Asher followed his person to the kitchen, where Ziva grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and dog snacks for both Asher and Daisy. As the dogs were chomping their treats, two of the cats entered the kitchen and meowed for attention and treats. Ziva shook the cat treat container as she gave Callie and Lightning their treats. Simba and Patches came running from the family room to get treats as well. She gave them the last few treats in the container.
After putting the empty plastic tub in the recycling bin, Ziva opened the pantry to get another container of cat treats to put on the counter. She noticed a small white envelope dangling from one of the pantry shelves. She pulled it and then realized that the string from which it was hanging was connected to another dozen or so mini-cards. Grinning as she gathered the small envelopes, she also shook her head at her other half's antics. Only Tony would think of using kids' Valentines cards to create a message to her.
This group was numbered and each had a word printed on the back of the Disney-themed cards. Ziva arranged them in order; 'I love you Ziva more than words can ever say. You are my everything.'
With these fourteen, she now had twenty-nine cards total. She wondered how many more were around the house as she checked the time before heading back to her office. In the half-bath between their offices, she found another dozen cards tucked along the sides of the wall mirror over the sink.
Each one had a specific year printed on the back and a hand-written memory of a Valentine's Day past. Ziva smiled at the memories Tony chose to note on the cards. The candlelit dinner in 2013, even though she was still grieving her father. The 2017 Paris day with Tali at the Disney theme park there. Her first US Valentine's Day in 2006, when she had invited Tony to her apartment for dinner on a whim. 2010 when he had held her all night after one of her post-Somalia nightmares…
Putting all of the cards, so far, into one pile, she did some quick arithmetic in her head. Twenty-nine plus twelve meant there were forty-one cards total in the pile; the cards often came in packs of twenty-four… did this mean she had another seven to find?
After a quick check of her NCIS inbox to verify that the recipient had acknowledged the translation document received, Ziva decided to use the rest of the time before she had to get the younger children from preschool to relax and read in the family room. Asher followed her as she made herself a sandwich for lunch, and carried the plate to the family room. She placed it on the end table by Tony's recliner and picked up her book. Several of the small envelopes were tucked in between the pages of the novel.
Ziva opened each of the seven cards, one for each of the children, one for the pets, and one for their angel baby. Tony had outdone himself once again. Four dozen cards with special messages to her… Ziva carried the latest find to her office and stacked the small cards on her desktop. Knowing Tony, these were most likely just the tip of the iceberg. She grinned; the feeling of love from him was so comforting and so warming. He truly was her other half, her soulmate. She hoped her gift of the movie poster would not pale in light of his seemingly endless gifts.
She sat back in Tony's recliner with her book. The next thing she heard was the notification alarm on her phone that she had ten minutes to get ready to retrieve Riv, Beth, and LJ from preschool. She glanced over at the table; her sandwich was gone! Asher had two small crumbs on his nose; culprit identified. She would have to find a protein bar or similar to eat on the way, or wait until they got back home for snacks.
Luckily, Ziva spotted the box of fruit and grain cereal bars that she'd opened two days ago for snacks. One was left, so she grabbed it and her keys and jacket to head out. Not the ideal lunch, but at least it was something.
At the preschool, all three kids were hyped on the sugary treats they'd had in the class parties. They climbed in the rear of the mini-van chattering about their day.
"Ima! Ima!" LJ called out with excitement. He held up a handful of what appeared to be cut out construction paper hearts in various colors. "I maded you lots of Valentines," he thrust the handful towards his mother as he turned to sit in his booster seat in the middle row behind his Ima.
"Toda, motek," Ziva took the cards and smiled at her youngest. "I like the beautiful colors."
"I maded ten for you, Ima!"
Not to be outdone, Beth and Rivka chimed in from the rear seat, "We made cards for you too, Ima!"
"I made three," Beth added. "All of them are red!"
Rivka smirked at her twin, "I made four and they are all blue or purple!"
"I will get them from you girls when we get home," Ziva replied. "Is everyone buckled in?"
"YES!" three young DiNozzos replied.
~Plethora~
By the time Tony arrived home, the pile of Valentine cards on Ziva's desk had grown to seventy. Anthony and Tali had each brought home a hand-made card for their Ima. Rivka and Beth created two more, one from the cats, and one from the dogs, while LJ drew hearts on a piece of folded paper with various color markers.
Ziva greeted her husband as he entered the kitchen, "Toda, neshama, for all of the Valentine cards. With the ones from you and from the children, I have seventy on my desk." She brushed her lips on his as he leaned in.
"Mmm," he grinned at her. "Smells good in here… beef stew and biscuits?"
"Yes," Ziva nodded and pulled Tony's head near her lips. "And cake and ice cream for dessert," she whispered in his ear, not wanting to let LJ hear the words 'ice cream' until after dinner.
"Sounds good to me," he winked and smiled.
After the meal and dessert, Tony got the five kids set up watching a movie so he could exchange Valentine's gifts with his wife. He ran to his office and noticed Ziva in hers.
"Whatcha doin'?"
"Um… nothing…" she moved to hide the wrapped parcel behind her as she replied. "Well, to be honest, I came to get your Valentine card and present from my office. Here." She offered the card to him with a smile.
"That my present behind you?" he nodded in the general direction of the wrapped poster.
"Yes… but open the card first," she replied with a smirk.
Tony held up a finger and quickly strode into his office to retrieve a large card in a pink envelope and a small bag with a jeweler's logo on it.
"On three we open cards together?" he suggested. At Ziva's nod, he counted, "One… two… three…" Both tore open envelopes.
Tony saw his card and grinned at the reference to Casablanca's 'we'll always have Paris' line. Inside, Ziva had added, 'and the rest of the world!'
Ziva opened her card to find an image of the children on the front of the custom-printed card. Inside, in Tony's distinctive scrawl, 'Five of the best reasons why I love you to the moon and back!'
"Nice card," they said together; then laughed together.
Ziva handed Tony his gift; he put the bag in her hand. Each opened their gift.
"Oh. My. God. Ziva!" Tony's mouth gaped at the poster from one of his favorite films. "Is it…?"
"One of the originals, neshama. The certificate of authenticity is in the plastic pocket on the back of the frame."
Tony pulled Ziva to him, kissing her lips. When they broke for air, he watched as Ziva opened the jeweler's box that was in the bag. He flashed a full DiNozzo grin when she gasped at the contents.
"It has each of their birthstones on the branches of the tree," he noted. "And yours and mine on the trunk. Do you like it?"
"It is beautiful, Tony," she held up the necklace and its pendant. "Toda." She wrapped her arms around his neck and fused her lips to his.
"Ima!" Anthony interrupted his parents embrace. "Tali is hogging the remote again."
