Chapter 30, The Family Grows: 2038
Tony and Ziva spent another New Year's Eve by themselves. Beth and Rivka were out with Charles and John and would be spending the night at the Palmers' house. LJ was sitting with Savannah and Jason, while Ellie and Clayton spent a night out. Gibbs had gone to the cabin with Tobias Fornell. Abby and Leon were overseas with their grandchildren. Tim and Delilah had gone to New York, and Jimmy and Breena were chaperoning the young people's party at their house. Tali and Chaim had flown to Israel the day after Christmas to visit with his parents. Anthony and Katie had gone back to Ohio as both had to work the New Year's holiday.
Tony had picked up a pizza on his way home from taking LJ to the Reeves house. He and Ziva sat in the family room and ate dinner and reminisced. Ziva had found a box of old photos of Tony and of herself and siblings when they had rearranged the storage area in the garage. Tony's favorite was a picture of Ziva at about two years old, standing by her mother. She had her flyaway curls and the look in her eyes was pensive. Ziva's favorite was a picture of Tony at about eighteen months on his mother's lap. He had the same grin as always.
Tony suggested that they put the pictures in a frame and display them with the other family pictures. Ziva found an empty frame and put the pictures in it. They put the picture frame in the middle of the mantel display of family photographs, next to their wedding picture from Reno. Tony snuggled Ziva from behind as she carefully placed the pictures how she wanted them. He nuzzled her neck and pulled her to him. "I love you so much, Ziva; sometimes it still overwhelms me, even after all these years."
Ziva turned and kissed him, fusing her lips to his. They broke the kiss with promises of more later and went back to the box of photos. As they dug down, they found photos of the two of them together from her first year at NCIS, including one of the undercover op where they had been married assassins. "We look so young," Ziva smiled at the memory of the op and how they had everyone wondering did they or didn't they? With the FBI and NCIS listening, they had "acted" the part of the married couple intimately. It was their secret as to what really went on in that hotel room.
Ziva put the photos back in the box and took it to her office. They would scan all of the pictures and make digital copies for each of the children, along with descriptions of date, place and who for each one.
Tony cleaned up the dinner plates and pizza box and brought two glasses and a bottle of wine into the family room. He poured a glass for each of them as Ziva came back in the room and sat next to him on the loveseat. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him. "I do believe you promised me some more of this earlier, yes?" Tony put his hand behind her head, and pulled her to him. He was still as turned on by her as he had been on that op thirty two years ago. His ninja would be sexy to him until the day he died, he was sure of that. Ziva wrapped her arms around Tony's neck and kissed him with as much, if not more, passion and desire as their first time together. Thirty two years had strengthened her need for him and she wanted him as much as, if not more than, that night.
She started undoing the buttons on his shirt has he slid his hand under her sweater. The fire when they touched intimately burned as hot as ever. Tony stood up and pulled Ziva to her feet. A trail of clothing went from the family room to the master bedroom. They kissed with urgency and need.
~TIVA~
They lay on the bed, intertwined and sated, and Ziva curled into Tony's side, her head over his heart as always. She traced circles over his chest as he ran his fingers up and down her arm and through her hair. He turned towards her, and kissed her mouth, and murmured, "I will never stop wanting you, Zi. You are as sexy and beautiful as the day I met you." She smiled at him and kissed him, "Tony, I love you so much, you are the completion of me."
~TIVA~
Anthony D. DiNozzo IV was born at 1302 on 15 March 2038, weighing 9 pounds, three ounces and measuring twenty and one half inches long. Anthony had called his Abba when he and Katie were headed to the birthing center at 0800, and Tony had then called Ziva at the Women's Center, Tim and Delilah, and Gibbs. Anthony sent a photo of Katie holding the swaddled baby to each of them at 1315, with the vitals and the message, "Hello, Saba and Savta, Grandpa and Grandma, Great-grandpa".
After Tim and Delilah got off work, the four grandparents Skyped with the new family. Delilah and Ziva were teary eyed, and Tony and Tim were grinning huge grins. Neither would admit to tears, but they were there! Baby Anthony started fussing and Anthony moved the laptop to allow Katie to nurse him. He said his goodbyes to his parents and in-laws. "We love you, Anthony and Katie and Baby Anthony!" all four chorused.
~TIVA~
Beth and Rivka graduated from high school with high honors. Both had taken college courses through the joint enrollment program as their older siblings had done. Beth had been accepted to Gannon University to study business management, the same school where Charles was in the mortuary science program. They planned to work with Breena and eventually take over the day to day business of Slater's Funeral Home.
Rivka had been accepted to Georgia Tech to major in bio-engineering. John had one more year in the undergraduate computer engineering program and was then planning to earn his Masters' degree in Cybersecurity.
~TIVA~
As July approached, Ziva tried to get the family together for Tony's seventieth birthday. Tali, Chaim and Levi were already committed to a month long trip to Israel. Anthony, Katie and baby Anthony could not make it due to work schedules. Anthony had changed jobs and now headed the digital graphics department at one of the Columbus, Ohio television stations. Katie was taking two classes on campus towards her degree. John and Rivka were working in an artificial intelligence research lab at Georgia Tech on a grant for the summer. Beth and Charles had gotten involved in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program on campus and were working at summer camp. LJ was the only one in town and he was busy working in the summer art program at the Community Center.
Clayton, Ellie, Savannah and Jason had taken two weeks off to go to Oklahoma and Nick, Allison and their children were visiting her family in Texas.
Ziva decided to keep the celebration simple and planned a small party at the house on the Sunday that was Tony's birthday. LJ would most likely be there after work at the art supply store. Ziva had Gibbs, Tim, Delilah, Jimmy, Breena, Abby and Leon as definitely attending.
She had Tony help her plan the menu with his favorites. He wanted olive chicken, lasagna, and pizza. Ziva kidded him about the pizza. He pretended to pout and gave her the "puppy eyes" that she could not resist. She had laughed at his antics, and he had kissed her over and over until they were distracted from planning for a while.
Tim and Delilah picked up Gibbs at his house on the way to Tony and Ziva's. Gibbs didn't drive much anymore as his knees were almost constantly hurting. He had started using a cane a year or two back and Ziva and Tony were trying to get him to use a walker.
The McGees brought a tossed salad and garlic bread. Jimmy and Breena brought wine, and Leon and Abby brought ice cream to go with the cake Ziva had ordered. Ziva had remembered to include Leon's seventy fifth birthday on the cake as well.
The nine longtime friends, who had made a family, sat at the table on the deck and toasted the two birthday men. Gibbs reflected how they all had aged: himself at 87, Leon at 75, Tony at 70, Abby at 69, Tim and Jimmy at 60 (61 this year), Ziva at 58 (59 this year), Delilah at 52, and Breena at 51. All of his kids were grandparents, and his grandchildren were his pride and joy. The great-grandchildren were icing on the cake.
Gibbs asked Leon if someone had told them forty plus years ago when they met that they would be family in the future would he have believed it. Leon joked, "We both would have shot whoever it was!" The group laughed.
They started reminiscing and telling stories from the NCIS days, some funny, some serious. Tim and Abby remembered the married assassin undercover op and they and Jimmy looked at Tony and Ziva waiting for an answer to the question that never had been answered. Breena, Delilah, and Leon gave quizzical looks to their spouses. Abby voiced the question out loud, "Things got pretty heated in that hotel room; did they or didn't they do it?" Tony and Ziva looked at each other and then both said, "That is our secret, and we will never tell." Gibbs smirked; he had a pretty good guess as to the answer, but said nothing.