Chapter 48, Sixty One Years Together: September – November 2066

Noah and Deanna were married in a ceremony in the DiNozzo backyard by a friend of theirs who was a minister. As the couple was presented to the assembled guests, Tony whispered to Ziva, "All of Tali's children are now married. All of Anthony's are too. I feel OLD!"

Ziva smirked at him and whispered back, "That is because you ARE old, my love. It is less than two years to make a century for you."

~TIVA~

Ziva, Tony and Tim celebrated Ziva's eighty seventh and Tim's eighty ninth birthdays with a quiet midday dinner at the DiNozzo house on her birthday. After a meal of chicken saltimbocca, made by Tony, the three siblings of the heart reminisced and talked for several hours in the DiNozzo family room.

As Tim prepared to head home about 1900, the three noticed smoke coming from the neighbor's house. Their agent training kicked in immediately as the three ran over to the house. Tim placed a 911 call as Tony and Ziva knocked on the door and tried to see inside the front windows.

"Fire and rescue on the way," Tim informed the other two. Tony was pounding the front door and Ziva was trying to see if she could see in any of the windows. Tony tried the door handle when there was no response. Ziva found a place where she could see through a gap in the curtains.

"One down in the dining room," Ziva yelled to Tony and Tim. "We have to get in." Tony tried using his body weight to force the door open. Tim tried kicking the door, and hurt his ankle, but said nothing as he barely registered the pain. Job one was to get the unconscious person out.

"I can get my lock picking tools," Ziva suggested, but Tony shook his head.

"No time. Help me pick up that planter over by the front windows. We are going to throw it through a window." Tony, Tim and Ziva picked up the planter. "On the count of three, we swing it back and forth and then let it fly through the window. One… two… three!" The planter crashed through the window. Tony used his jacket to protect his hands as he pulled glass from the broken window so Ziva could climb inside and open the front door for the two men. Tony got down on his hands and knees and Tim helped Ziva step on Tony's back and then through the window. She cut her hand and arm on some glass but, like Tim, the pain didn't even register.

Ziva opened the front door and the three put their jackets over their mouths and noses to try to keep from inhaling the smoke. They kept low and found the woman who lived in the house lying on the dining room floor. The smoke appeared to be coming from the kitchen, but all three knew the fire department would take care of that. They were focused on the woman. Ziva checked for breathing and a pulse and found both, nodding her head affirmative to the other two. Tony and Tim lifted the woman up by rolling her to her left side. Ziva yanked the tablecloth off the table, she rolled one of the long edges part way and shoved it against the woman's back. Tony and Tim eased her flat and then rolled her to her right side as Ziva pulled the rolled part flat. The men eased her flat again, and then the three used the makeshift sling to carry her out to the front lawn. The rescue and fire crews arrived as they came off the front steps. The rescue crew took the sheet edges and moved the woman to where she could be examined as fire crews laid hoses and prepared to fight the fire, which was now flames coming from the kitchen area.

The second rescue crew arrived and began checking Tim, Tony and Ziva. Tim's ankle was placed in a splint and he was loaded on a stretcher. Ziva's cuts were bandaged, but one would need stitches. Tony seemed to be unharmed, but as he watched the crew check out Ziva and Tim, he began coughing. He couldn't stop and it became difficult to breathe.

The first ambulance left with the neighbor, who was now conscious but disoriented. A third rescue crew pulled up as the first one left. As the crew moved to Tony, Ziva started coughing as well. Both DiNozzos were put on stretchers and placed in the second ambulance with oxygen masks. Tim was loaded into the third ambulance and all three were transported to the closest ER.

On the ride to the ER, at first the crew in the back would not let Tony hold Ziva's hand. He pleaded with them between coughs, and Ziva nearly threatened them between coughing fits. "PLEASE!" They both cried.

One of the crew recognized Ziva from the "Soul Mates" documentary and relented. She watched, transfixed, as, within seconds of joining hands, the couple's breathing became more regular and relaxed. Both of them had eased up on the coughing as well.

As the ambulance neared the hospital, the EMT explained to Tony and Ziva that they would have to break contact for a short amount of time to get the stretchers out of the ambulance and into the ER. They both nodded that they understood and then turned and looked at each other. The EMT watched as the two seemed to transcend time and place. She was amazed at the connection that could be seen between these two.

"Ok, on three." Tony and Ziva squeezed each other's hands, and spoke to each other: "Ani ohevet otcha." "Ani ohev otach." They loosed their hands and the EMTs moved the stretchers inside.

As the crews moved the couple into ER, the EMT who was with Tony and Ziva told the ER head nurse that the couple needed to be kept within arms' reach of each other if possible. She quickly summarized what she had witnessed in the ambulance and then mentioned that the two were the couple from the documentary. The head nurse nodded his assent and directed the crew to an exam area that would fit the two. Tony and Ziva were transferred to the waiting ER beds, and then the nurse and crew moved them side by side. As soon as they joined hands, the monitors on each one showed a marked improvement in vitals.

The couple turned their heads towards each other as the crews moved the ambulance equipment out and the initial assessments were done on each. Ziva gave the nurse the names of their family practice doctor and Tony's pulmonologist. Again they turned their faces towards each other and locked gazes, speaking with their eyes.

Tim, meanwhile, had been taken to radiology to have x-rays of his ankle. It was fractured in three places, but did not need surgery, just a cast for ten weeks. Tim called Tali while he was waiting to have his cast put on and she and Chaim called the others as they drove to the hospital.

Anthony and Katie headed to the hospital as soon as they heard from Chaim. The others decided to wait for updates so that the family would not overrun the ER waiting room.

Tali walked to the nurse's station, and showed her NCIS ID. Instead of brushing her off, the woman at the desk was very cooperative, especially when Tali explained that three former NCIS Special Agents were patients. She then casually mentioned that two were her parents and the other her uncle. When the nurse asked for the names, Tali gave Uncle Tim's first, "Timothy McGee, Anthony DiNozzo and Ziva DiNozzo."

At the look of surprise from the nurse, Tali smiled, "Yes, THOSE DiNozzos. My brother is on his way, FYI." Chaim had to suppress a smile; his Tali was just as fierce as her Ima, if she needed to be!

"Ok, your uncle is over in exam area five, waiting for a cast on his ankle, and, your parents," she scrolled through the patient list, "Are in radiology for chest x-rays as a precaution. From there it looks like they will be admitted for at least overnight for observation."

Tali thanked the woman and followed her direction to Uncle Tim. She sent a text to Anthony that she and Chaim would be in ER exam room five with Uncle Tim, and that she would update them on Ima and Abba when Anthony and Katie arrived at the hospital.

They found Tim, and Tali hugged her uncle. "My parents are in radiology for chest x-rays as a precaution and then will be admitted at least overnight. I hope they are put in the same room. I don't need Ima threatening anyone."

Tim smiled, "Oh, she has already, from what I've heard." Tali rolled her eyes. "But, when the staff figured out who they are, it was like they are celebrities or something."

Anthony appeared from the other side of the curtain, "Who pissed off my Ima now?"

Katie ran to her father and hugged him. "Daddy."

Tim put his hand on her face, "Hey, I'm okay. Just messed up my ankle again." He kissed her head and squeezed her hand. "Katie, we couldn't NOT go in. That's how we were trained and it never leaves." Tali nodded, even though she was rarely in the field, she would have reacted the same way her parents and uncle did.

Tim's doctor came in with x-rays and explained to the group what was damaged and what the healing process would entail. "I assume you have a way to get home, Mr. McGee?" Anthony, Katie, Tali and Chaim all nodded.

"Let's get this cast on and get you some pain meds and send you home. You'll need someone to stay with you for the first twenty four hours."

"It's covered," Anthony responded.

While Tim's cast was being applied, Tali's phone rang. She stepped out to the waiting area. "Mom, Deanna's water broke. We're headed to the birthing center. I'll keep you updated."

"Love you Noah, and I am going to send your Dad over. Will keep you updated from this end."

Tali walked back to Tim's bed. "Noah and Deanna are headed to the birthing center." She looked at her brother, "What is it with our family? We always have to do things in a majorly crazy way!" Anthony, Tali, Tim and Katie smiled, remembering the DiNozzo Disaster.

Tali and Chaim stepped out, "I'll update you when I know more. Give Noah and Deanna hugs from me." Tali kissed Chaim and he left for the birthing center, which was about three miles down the street from where they currently were.

Tim's cast was set, and he was given his discharge instructions. Katie went to get their car as Anthony waited with Uncle Tim. He helped get Uncle Tim in the passenger seat. He hugged Katie, and kissed her. "I'll update as I know more, hon."

Anthony and Tali went back inside to wait for information on their Ima and Abba. They didn't have to wait long. About fifteen minutes after they sat down to wait, one of the nurses came over. "DiNozzo family?" They both nodded.

"Your parents are headed to room 1117. Take the elevator around the corner to the eleventh floor. Turn left and then left again and you'll be on their corridor."

"Thanks!" Brother and sister rushed to see their parents. On the way up, Tali commented on the room number. "One, one, seventeen. Anthony, remember what Grandpa Gibbs used to say? There is no such thing as coincidence. Abba and Ima are in that room for a reason." Anthony had also noticed that the room number was their parents' wedding date.

~TIVA~

As Tali and Anthony approached room 1117, they heard a string of Hebrew curse words. "Ima," they both called out as they entered the room to mayhem.

Two nurses' aides were trying to move the beds together so that Ziva and Tony could reach to the other, and apparently they were not doing it fast enough for their mother. She was trying to get out of her bed and take off her oxygen mask, to move them herself. Her monitors were beeping and flashing alerts, as were Tony's. Anthony and Tali exchanged eye rolls, and Abba grinned at them through his oxygen mask.

Tali went over to her Ima and took her hand, "Ima, let them get it done without yelling. PLEASE?" Ziva nodded as she looked at Tali. Once Ziva had been calmed down, the beds were moved quickly and the two were side by side with the rails down on the sides that were together. Tony and Ziva both moved towards the center of the abutting beds and he interlaced his fingers with hers. Their eyes met and Tali, Anthony and the others watched the monitors calm in just a matter of minutes.

Anthony nudged his sister, whispering, "TIVA-land!" She smiled and nodded, "It still gives me goosebumps to watch."

Anthony turned to the two nurses' aides, "Make sure they can stay that way. Please." Both nodded and then left the room. Anthony sat next to his Ima and Tali next to her Abba. The son who looked so much like his father, with the chocolate brown eyes of his mother, and the daughter who looked so much like her mother, with the emerald green eyes and smile of her father, held their parents' hands that were not already intertwined with the other.

The staff doctor who had been attending Ziva and Tony walked in to see the four, linked across the beds, and he involuntarily shuddered, not from fear or worry, but from the intensity of the bond among the family, and especially the parents. He cleared his throat to let them know of his presence, not wanting to intrude on the beautiful moment he was witnessing.

Tali and Anthony turned towards him; Ziva and Tony indicated they were listening but never broke eye contact.

"Mrs. DiNozzo." Ziva nodded an acknowledgement. "Your lungs appear clear, but we will need another set of x-rays in twenty four to forty eight hours to be certain. The cut on your upper arm damaged the outer muscle layer and some of the nerves near the surface. Bending your elbow may be painful for a bit. Applying pressure with your hand is also going to hurt. We have stitched it and applied a covering to help keep it clean. Assuming the next set of x-rays is clear, you will most likely be discharged in two to three days. I will have Mr. DiNozzo's pulmonologist check you over when he does rounds in the morning.

"Mr. DiNozzo, your x-rays seem to show only the scarring from long ago, however, we will need a second set for you as well to be sure. Best case scenario, you will be discharged with your wife in two to three days. There is the possibility you will have to be on oxygen enriched air when you go home. I'll let your pulmonologist discuss that further with you in the morning.

"Any questions?" Ziva and Tony had none, but Tali spoke up.

"Is it in the orders to let my parents be able to stay as they are now? You saw how they ground each other, and how vitals improve when they can touch."

"I will put the orders there now. I agree with you they need to stay as they are now. Good night."