Chapter 44, A Love Like No Other: 2061 – early 2062

Anthony brought Margaret to the family Christmas celebration in 2060. During the gift opening time, when Anthony's turn came to unwrap a gift, he smiled to himself. He opened his gift from his Saba and Savta, and was surprised with the new digital imaging software that he had casually mentioned that he wanted one afternoon when interviewing them. He hugged both of them, and thanked them multiple times.

Anthony then got to select a gift for the next recipient. He walked over to the Christmas tree, and acted as though he was thinking over which brightly wrapped package to choose. He reached into his pocket and turned to Margaret. In front of his whole family, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. When she said, "Yes!" the entire family applauded and congratulated the couple.

Due to the on-going interviewing and filming, Ziva and Tony did not go to Israel that winter. Anthony and Margaret interviewed the pair, and also videoed their daily activities and interactions. By the time they wrapped up the filming, there were nearly sixty hours of video of Tony and Ziva, plus another forty hours of interviews with other couples, religious leaders, psychologists, marriage counselors, and family and friends of Tony and Ziva. All of the footage needed to be edited and put together to make three two-hour segments for the multi-part documentary.

The shooting stage ended at the end of June. The extended family celebrated Tony's birthday on 8 July and on 10 July, Anthony and Margaret were married. They spent a week at the Curacavi house for their honeymoon.

~TIVA~

As the work of creating the finished documentary got underway, the family got back to some semblance of "normal." As Tim said, they got back to living without video equipment everywhere at family events.

In early August, Sherlock and Watson died within three days of each other from old age. Tim posted a final entry to their blog, with a farewell to the famous cats. He had written at total of thirty seven books for children, and one book for general reading, "I Learned How to Really Live from My Cats," a light-hearted look at lessons to be learned from how cats viewed the world and the people they owned. With a major toy retailer, Tim had licensed plush versions of Sherlock and Watson. Half of each sale of a plush version went to providing food, litter, and veterinary services for shelter cats. They would live on in books and stuffed animals, and in the animated versions of the books, created by Anthony (IV).

At the family gathering for Labor Day in the DiNozzo backyard, Shannon and her new fiancé, Michael Harmon, invited everyone to their wedding in January 2062. Another generation was growing up and starting families of their own. Ziva and Tony loved how their family had grown. They remarked to each other how Gibbs' would have been so proud of the next generations.

At Christmas, another two stockings and ornaments were added to the family decorations, as well as Ziva's and Tony's annual ornaments. After the gifts were opened and dinner was finished, the family gathered in the family room, moving chairs in from other rooms, to watch a preliminary version of the first part of the documentary, "Soul Mates: A Love Like No Other."

As the segment drew to an end, Ziva and Tony both wiped their eyes. Tim summed up everyone's reaction in one word, "WOW!"

~TIVA~

Tony and Ziva delayed their Israel trip to be at the wedding of Shannon and Michael on 15 January 2062. Michael also had a large family and between the bride's extended family and the groom's extended family, nearly eighty seats in the church were filled. Once their coworkers and friends were invited, there were over two hundred people in attendance. After the reception in the church fellowship hall, the newlyweds left for a week at the Paris flat.

Tony and Ziva flew to Israel on 17 January. They walked in the orchard and the olive grove nearly every day as they had two years before, but a bit slower. At ninety three and eighty two, while still active and healthy, the two were also feeling their old age. They still held hands often and craved the touch of the other. Since the filming of the documentary interviews and tag-along footage, they had become more aware of how others looked at them, not that they cared, but it was interesting to the two former investigators to notice the nonverbal reactions.

The couple arrived home on 30 March 2062 to multiple announcements from family. Levi and Jackie were adding to the family in early October. The documentary was nearly complete, and a premiere air date of three consecutive nights in February 2063, to include Valentine's Day, was set. Elijah had been hired as a forensic lab technician at NCIS. Kelly had become engaged to Brian Handley, her teaching partner, and they set a March 2063 wedding date.