Chapter 41, TIVA-land: 2058 – 2059
Tony and Ziva went back stateside on 3 March. Anthony picked them up at the airport so that he could share his news with his parents. His work in digital imaging had caught the attention of several executives at national networks. He had interviewed with both CNN and The Discovery Networks in late January. Both had offered him director positions with their companies; CNN in the news department and The Discovery Networks in production of new programming in conjunction with the Smithsonian Museums. Anthony admitted it had been a tough choice, and after some discussion with Katie, and making lists of pros and cons, he had accepted the position with The Discovery Networks. His parents were thrilled for him and congratulated their son.
"So this means we can tell everyone that we knew you first? As in, before you were even born?" Tony joked with Anthony. Ziva caught the eye roll from her son, but just smiled.
In April, Tali was promoted to team leader for the International desk at NCIS. She now had six agents reporting directly to her in DC and fourteen more at various locations around the world. The position would involve some travel, but with her twins nearing sixteen years of age, she welcomed the opportunity.
~TIVA~
Tony's ninetieth birthday was fast approaching and Ziva was still trying to figure out who would be able to attend a party or cookout. His actual birthday was on a Monday, so the party or cookout would be the Saturday or Sunday before. After trying to coordinate schedules and seeing who might have conflicts, she settled on Sunday as the day and a cookout in the yard. All of the children and grandchildren would be there as well as Tim, Jimmy and Breena, and Clayton and Ellie. The only uncertain guest was Jason Reeves, as he had just started a new job in Richmond after his graduation from Towson State in May with a nursing degree.
The day started out sunny and warm, the perfect day for a cookout. Tony had chosen to have hamburgers, hot dogs, and barbeque ribs. Family members brought rolls, potato salads, cole slaw, macaroni salad, baked beans and desserts. Anthony, Charles, John and Chaim had set up the inflatable water slide.
Tim brought copies of his newest Sherlock and Watson children's book for the family to take home. Sherlock and Watson at the Dog Park was Tim's twenty fourth book since he had started writing about the now famous cats. Grandson Anthony was working on creating an animated version of some of the books for his senior project in digital animation at Georgia Tech. Tony, Ziva and Tim were proud of the young man, as he had already had several video shorts win awards at national competitions.
Chaim and LJ took over the grill and told Ziva and Tony to enjoy the party. Tali, Beth and Rivka had taken over the kitchen and were getting food ready to bring out. Anthony had his cameras recording both still and video. When Ziva tried to help, LJ firmly led her back to the deck and sat her down next to his Abba, "Ima, this year your children are the hosts; we will do the work so that you and Abba can enjoy the day."
To his Abba, LJ admonished with a smile, "Hold her hand, Abba, and don't let her leave your side."
"NEVER." Tony winked at LJ and interlaced his fingers with Ziva's. Tali and Anthony, remembering a few birthdays prior, looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Neither one wanted to go down that road again.
Thirty two people ate most of the food, complimenting Chaim and LJ on the delicious ribs. Beth put one small container of potato salad left over into the refrigerator.
When it was time for the cake, Rivka and Tali put two candles, a nine and a zero, on the cake and brought it out while the family sang happy birthday to Tony.
"Make a wish, Saba, and then blow out your candles," six year old Jethro even offered to help.
Tony joked that they must have thought he couldn't blow out ninety candles, but Ziva got even more laughs when she teased him, "Tony, if we had ninety candles, we would have to call the fire department."
As the day wound down, the younger adults and their families started saying good night. Parents had to be at work in the morning and the younger children had to be at summer activities. Levi and Jackie had classes to be at first thing in the morning, and Elijah was working with his father as an intern in the forensics lab at NCIS. Anthony, Kelly and Shannon all had jobs for the summer.
As the sun set, the five Gibbs' kids were the only ones left. They sat on the deck until the mosquitos started biting and then moved into the family room. Jimmy and Breena left around 2200, and Tim, Ziva and Tony talked until about 0000. They reminisced about their time with Gibbs on the MCRT at NCIS, laughing about some of the cases they remembered, such as the one where Tim had gone into a running car wash to retrieve evidence, and the "jet pack" case where Tim had gone overboard in his enthusiasm for the jet pack concept. Ziva mentioned that the three of them had been a team, of some sort, for nearly fifty three years.
"Yeah, and in good times, sad times, horrible times, and fantastic times, we have always been family." Tony raised his glass to the other two. "To family."
Tim said good night at midnight, joking that Sherlock and Watson would be looking for him soon if he didn't get home by curfew.
Ziva and Tony closed and locked the house for the night and retired to their bedroom. Tony snaked his arms around Ziva from behind, kissing her neck and shoulders, "Shall we give Tali and Anthony something to roll their eyes about, my beautiful wife?"
She turned and kissed him, "Yes, I think we should." She took his hand and led him to the bed.
~TIVA~
At Christmas, Ziva had Anthony take the portraits of the family as she had for the past several years. The grandchildren were growing up: Levi, now twenty one, and married; Elijah, 19, and in his first year of a forensics major at Georgetown; Noah and Elisheva, 16, high school juniors, both in honors classes and joint enrollment; Anthony, 20, and in his final year of undergraduate studies at Georgia Tech; Kelly and Shannon, 18, seniors in high school; Rebecca, 13, an eighth grader, Robert, 10, in fifth grade; Adam, 14, in his first year of high school and taking all honors classes, Brian, 9, in fourth grade, Abigail, 8, in second grade; Jessica, 11, a sixth grader, Jackson, 8 and in third grade, and Jethro, 6, a first grader.
Ziva and Tony loved having the house full with their children and grandchildren. Family had always been important to them and they had instilled that loyalty and sense of family in every one of their five, who had passed the lessons to the next generation. The five DiNozzos also had lessons learned from Grandpa Gibbs. All of the Gibbs' grandchildren had learned to value family and have each other's six.
Ziva loved the way the generations had intertwined the branches, DiNozzo, McGee, Palmer, and Vance, to weave the sense of family even tighter together. They truly were one family.
Maybe her loss of her blood family had made her notice the family of the heart more. She began writing family stories and memories on her computer, unknown to the rest of the family. She felt a need to preserve the memories, especially of those who were no longer living. When she, Tony and Tim would share memories, Ziva would later write them out on her computer. She also wrote about her mother, Ari and Tali; Aunt Nettie and Schmeil. In a separate document, she wrote about Eli, whom she had come to think of as the sperm donor in her creation. Gibbs was her Abba, not Eli.
Tony and Ziva left for their annual trip to Israel on 29 December. Over the past two years, they had added new olive trees to the grove and young peach, apple and fig trees to the orchard. When Beth and Charles had taken two weeks of vacation in October and visited the farmhouse, Beth had canned peach jam, apple butter, and fig butter as well as frozen sliced peaches and sliced apples. Both Ziva and Tony enjoyed the fruit spreads and Ziva often used the frozen peaches or apples to make a crisp or a pie.
On New Years' Eve, they had their usual olive chicken dinner, with peach pie, at their special spot in the olive grove. As always, they walked with their hands interlaced, the need for touching the other as strong as it had been for their entire time together. Since their fortieth anniversary, they had been reciting a Hebrew blessing for the year ahead, and G-d willing, another anniversary at the beginning of the next year.
Tali had been in Tel Aviv for her job at NCIS in mid-January and stayed with her parents for four days. All of them had enjoyed the time with just the three of them. While she was at the farmhouse, Anthony Skyped to let his parents and sister know the news that his son, Anthony, had been awarded a fellowship for graduate studies in digital animation at Georgia Tech. The young man had also been selected to have an exclusive show of digital images at the High Museum in Atlanta.
"Hey, Tals," Anthony got his sister's attention, "Have Ima and Abba done any more scarring for life?" Tali laughed and rolled her eyes at her brother.
"You are asking me this in front of them because?" Tali didn't WANT to know or even think about it, even though the whole thing had become a running joke between the siblings. Ziva and Tony were standing behind Tali and Tony pulled Ziva to him and locked his lips on hers. Anthony grimaced. "What's that look for?" Tali asked him.
"Look behind you!" Tali turned around and groaned, as Anthony laughed at her reaction.
"You do realize that you started this, with your question, right?" Tali pointed at the screen accusingly.
Ziva and Tony, caught up in the shared moment, did not even hear the conversation between their oldest two. They were in their own world.
"Yeah, but they are now in 'TIVA-land', and YOU are the one there…" Anthony used a term their Aunt Abby had used to describe when the couple would tune out the whole world.
"What did you say?" Ziva looked at Tali and Anthony.
"Um, nothing, Ima…" Anthony thought about disconnecting the call, and leaving Tali to explain, but decided not to leave his sister hanging.
"That was not 'nothing', Anthony D. DiNozzo, the third." Ziva was more curious than angry. Tony shrugged, and tried to stay out of this one.
"It's a name Aunt Abby gave you two a long time ago when you would tune out the world and the only thing either of you were focused on was each other. She made us all swear to secrecy that we would never tell you." Tali explained. "All of us kids knew about it, and so did Uncle Tim, Aunt Delilah, and Grandpa," added Anthony.
Tony finally joined the conversation, "Then maybe, Ziva, we should go all 'TIVA-land' and give these two something to roll their eyes about." Ziva nodded as both Tali and Anthony shouted, "NO, please, NO!"
Ziva started laughing, and then Tony, followed by Tali and finally Anthony. With that, they ended the call. "Sorry, Tals, we just had to mess with your heads, because we could," Tony smiled at his first born.
"Enough, Abba; it's going to take me a month to forget this!" Tali smiled back at her Abba.
~TIVA~
Ziva and Tony left Israel on 28 February and spent four weeks at the Curacavi house in Chile. The summer weather in Chile kept them away from the DC cold and snow. They spent a lot of time at the house, watching movies cuddled together or on the beach at Valparaiso, holding hands as they walked along the shore.