A/N Posting another chapter early! Enjoy! Thanks for all the comments and feedback!
Chapter 12, DiNozzos Go Global: Summer 2023
With accumulated "use or lose" days, both Tony and Ziva had almost three months of leave time to use by the end of 2023. Juggling schedules, especially around the children's school and other activities, kept vacation days to a minimum during the school year. In February, Ziva had started looking at activities for the summer months. With the properties she had inherited from her father and the flat in Paris, they could have a place to stay in France, Israel, Germany, Italy, and Chile at any time. She and Tony decided it would be fun to take the kids to places from their heritage, and that were special to them. Visits to Paris, Berlin and Rome would precede almost two months in Israel.
On 26 May, the DiNozzo family left DC for Paris. Tali knew that she had lived in Paris with Ima and Abba when she was little and that Anthony was born in Paris. She didn't remember a lot about that time, but she did remember a petting zoo with deer and giraffes. She told her siblings that she had been to Paris before and they at first did not believe her. Ziva assured the others that Tali had lived in Paris and so had Anthony. As they waited in the airport, all except LJ played with tablets. Tali looked up Paris on the internet and showed Anthony that they would be flying over an ocean. Beth and Rivka looked as well, but were not sure what the big blue expanse on the map Tali had found represented. The children took turns walking around the waiting area with LJ, under the watchful eyes of Ziva and Tony. They had opted to take a night flight out of Dulles, in hopes that the children would sleep at least part of the nine hour flight. They had chosen to purchase seats in the Business class section of the plane for the reclining seats and easier moving about. Ziva and LJ had a pair of seats, with Tony and Anthony behind them and Tali, Beth and Rivka across the aisle. They settled in for the flight with the girls watching DVDs with individual headsets. LJ watched everything going on around him and Ziva pointed out things to him saying words in both English and Hebrew, as she had with the other four. Tony had learned quite a bit of Hebrew with his children. He could even read the children's books in Hebrew that Nettie had sent to Tali and Anthony before she passed. He and Anthony were playing a game on Anthony's tablet, and Tony was getting beat by his son.
As the children started to drift off to sleep, Tony thought about the last trip he had made to Paris, with Tali, hoping to find his ninja. How far he and Ziva had come since those days! He looked at his sleeping family, and realized that he would not trade this for anything in the world. He closed his eyes to the snores of the six people in the world that he loved most.
~TIVA~
The family arrived at de Gaulle mid-morning. Each child except for LJ had a backpack and a suitcase that he or she could pull. Tony put LJ in a folding stroller and the family headed out to find a taxi to take them to the flat. Ziva had the twins on either side of her with Tali and Anthony between her and Tony. They found a cab, and after loading in all of their bags and getting the kids buckled in, they headed to the place they had called home for almost a year. Tali spotted a café and asked, "Abba, we ate there before Ima found us?" Tony was amazed at her memory. "Yes, Tali, and after Ima was with us again too."
Ziva unlocked the door to the flat; memories flooded in for both her and Tony. The first time they had stayed in the flat when they were on an assignment for NCIS. Ziva smiled as she remembered that she and Tony had both lied to others about who slept on the couch (neither one did, they had shared, in every sense of the word, the one bed that was there at the time.) Tony remembered their time in Paris, enjoying each other's company, playing tourist, and sharing with each other. He remembered that rainy morning when Ziva had returned to the flat, the first time he had seen her in almost three years. Ziva thought back to how she and Tony and Tali had healed and solidified their little family and then welcomed Anthony. Both parents were brought back to the present by the sounds of Tali and Anthony arguing over the TV remote.
"Time out! Nobody is using the remote right now," Ziva reminded them. "We have to unpack, get some lunch and get everybody settled before we can watch any TV or movies." The girls were in Tali's old room, since the two twin beds also had trundles. Tony pulled out one of the trundles and with Ziva's help brought it out to the living room. Anthony would be sleeping on it in the dining alcove. Anthony's old folding crib would be LJ's bed for the week, also set up in the alcove.
Once they had made up the beds and put suitcases in rooms, Ziva started making a shopping list so that they would have some food. They went to the café for lunch and then walked to the park where they used to take Tali to play. She remembered the swings and the statue of a girl in the park.
The family toured the sights in Paris, and Ziva and Tony told the children about how they had become closer while working in Paris and about how Ziva had found Tony and Tali and the family had reunited. Anthony declared his favorite part of Paris to be the market with all the varieties of food.
~TIVA~
Berlin was beautiful in the summer. Again, Ziva and Tony reminisced. The hunt for Ilan Bodnar, the dance at the club, their time alone, the intimacy in their hotel room, the car ride from the airport in DC where they had nearly both spoken their feelings aloud before Bodnar rammed Tony's car. The children enjoyed Zoo Berlin and the Labyrinth Kindermuseum. Anthony again declared his favorite part to be the food, while Tali chose the AquaDom. Beth and Rivka couldn't decide between the Kindermuseum and the zoo. The week in Berlin seemed to pass quickly. The two bedroom flat, one of Eli's safe houses, had been cramped with the seven DiNozzos, but they had managed to get the kids on cots and pallets in the two bedrooms. Ziva and Tony had slept on the sofa bed, the irony of which was not lost on either of them.
~TIVA~
They moved on to Rome, seeing the Colosseum, the Vatican, the Pantheon, and the Bocca della Verità. Anthony had seen a picture of the Mouth of Truth in the tour guide and it fascinated him. He had talked Tali into seeing it after she had read the myth associated with it to the family. When the day came to board the flight to Tel Aviv, Ziva and Tony were both ready stay put for the two months in Israel. Living out of suitcases was okay for a bit, but it did get old. The flat in Rome that had been another of Eli's safe houses had been rather cramped with all seven DiNozzos, but they had three bedrooms, at least.
~TIVA~
In Tel Aviv, they picked up the leased van that Tony had reserved for the family to use while in Israel. They loaded their luggage in the van and headed to Haifa. The beach house had four bedrooms and a master suite. Tali and Anthony quickly claimed the ones they wanted, and Beth and Rivka chose their room. LJ would have the fourth bedroom to himself. Ziva opened window shutters and let the light into the house. Memories of her times there with her Ima, and siblings, Ari and Tali flooded back. The pictures on the mantel and walls reminded her of the happier times of her childhood. Tony came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. "A penny for your thoughts."
"I was just remembering the last time this house had the laughter of children. I was not much older than Anthony. By the time I was Tali's age, my parents had split and Eli had me training instead of playing." Ziva involuntarily shuddered at the thought of her children having to live through what her father had subjected her and Ari.
"Then, let's have our children make this a happy place again." Tony pulled her closer and held her. He kissed her hair and neck from behind, reminding her of the good memories. They stayed together listening to the sounds of their children exploring the house. Tali and Anthony had discovered that the porch wrapped all the way around the house. LJ was running after them. Rivka and Beth had found the shelf of children's books and were looking at them one by one.
~TIVA~
Tony was awakened the next morning by Anthony. "'Abba, Abba, wake up." Tony rolled over as his son pulled on his hand. "Abba, c'mon. I want to go outside." Tony looked at his phone 0515; since when had Anthony inherited his mother's early rising gene? He looked over to Ziva and she was still asleep. Groggily, Tony sat up and stood, taking his son's hand and leading the boy from the room.
Anthony then led his father to the porch and sat on the swing. "Sit Abba." Anthony cuddled into his father's side. "Ima said the sunrise is special, so I wanted to see it with you." Tony felt his eyes get teary. This kid never ceased to amaze Tony with his appreciation of beauty and nature, and with his caring for others. They sat in silence as the sky got lighter, going from a light gray to a vivid orange and then a bright yellow.
"Abba, who lives in this house? Who does it belong to?" Anthony looked at his father in the new morning light. "Why are all those pictures so old looking? Who are the people?"
Tony smiled, "This is our house, Anthony. It belonged to Ima's Ima many years ago. When your Savta died, it became Ima's house. I never met her, but Ima has shared many happy memories from this house when she was about your age. She would come here with her Ima and her brother and sister. Many of the pictures are of them. Ima can tell you more about them."
"If this is our house, why don't we live here?"
"It is one of many houses or places to live that we own. The places we have stayed on this trip are all ours. We can use them for vacation. If we lived here, then it would be hard to see Grandpa Gibbs, Uncle Tim, John and Charles and all the rest of our family."
"Okay, Abba. I think we should live near our family, so we can all be together. I would miss them too much."
Ziva had watched the interaction of Tony and Anthony from inside the house. She smiled at her son's questions and how much Anthony had Tony's loyalty and empathy for others, especially family. Her quiet was broken by LJ calling out to her and Beth and Rivka asking for breakfast. Tali came out of her room, a little groggy still, "Ima, I'll help the girls get breakfast and you can get LJ." Tali, her little caretaker. Tony said that Tali took after her mother. Ziva and Tony had never expected Tali to watch over her siblings, it was something she naturally did. Even her cousins were often under Tali's watchful eye. Her Tali had so many of her namesake's qualities. Ziva sometimes wondered how the two Talis would have interacted. Lifting LJ from the crib, Ziva decided at that moment that she would tell her children about their Savta, Uncle Ari and Aunt Tali. Would she tell them about Eli? Maybe; she was undecided, not wanting the memory of Eli to tarnish her beautiful children.