Hello! So, this is it everyone. It's the end of Part 1 of 'And Then One Night I Had A Dream'. I actually can't believe it. Thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited, followed, supported so far and for coming along on this journey. I hope that you have enjoyed the ride so far and stay tuned for Part 2! Thank you to everyone who had a guess at where in Paris we may end up, there were some very interesting ideas, let's see how close you got… I'm actually so nervous about what you will think about this. Again, I'm British and I haven't spoken French since I took it for my GCSE exams 5 years ago, so I sincerely apologise if I make any mistakes. Thank you so much to all of you who left beautiful messages on reviews and PM for my great-grandparents. I cannot even begin to express how much that means to me and my family. You guys are truly beautiful people and your lovely words are a huge comfort, thank you :) xx
Huge shout-out to Lipush who checked over all of the Hebrew terms that have been used in this chapter. YOU ARE A SUPERSTAR THANK YOU! I hugely appreciate your help. The translations are at the bottom of the page :) Huge shout-out also to Chickie10016, your review gave me the idea for Scene 2 in this chapter, THANK YOU :)
Thank you so much to everyone who is following this story: 4susan41, 19Jessica98, 82kt, 1994omi, Athenalarissa, Atlante41, Aubrey Etta, Biah Ara, BlackWidowAndCapRule, Brightlight94, DS2010, DetectiveInspectorSydney, Ebony10, EowynGoldberry, Fahrenhheit, Gehrl, HK Target Shooter, Hales23, HarrylovesGinny09, HoldxOn, Iluvgleetwilightthg, James the vet, JdnHwke169, Josette1807, KariNCIS, Kim69etv, Krazzy Kezz, Lipush, LoveZoraLancasteranSonnyMunroe, LyanaDavid, MaileS, Mockingprettygirls, Mrs. Fitzgerald, Pheonix1995, Rach4, SJlove07, SUZITROUBLE, TZDDN, Tiva-Forever-08, TivaCallensi4ever, True Blue Pretender, VivianaLockhart, ambermichele, angry penguin, anniemous27, arcadia1328, bartiks97, beckums8685, bobisbusy, bryz9394, bunnykoko, cindy Seidenberg, countrygal64, dreams and desperation, egal77, fireandice1986, gallieni, georginiuxa, giggles11228, heathergsu02, hejo.12, hopalong123546, ittybittyalissa, jenny1221, jgibbs7, kakus5, ke31288, kfink77, kissedyouwithfire, klutzysunshine, krazymelmo5385, kurrumu, libs1709, littlecook28, love is only a dream, malec4eva, mama's-broken-heart, minihannibal65, moviesmadewithlove, nattlouu, ncisgirl18, ncistiva8, pixie79, runner229, scarredlove, seriously56, sjg563517, sonckad, sydchilton, tammy henson, tazmania081005, tere55, tiffanynloud, tivawaigequintis and writeinspiredraw.
Thank you to all of you who have favourited: Anniefynn, BlackWidowAndCapRule, Cosmos89, DetectiveInspectorSydney, Ebony Ater, Gehrl, HarrylovesGinny09, James the vet, Kim69etv, Krazzy Kezz, LoveZoraLancasteranSonnyMunroe, Mlb080915, Mockingprettygirls, RAD092515, StarKiss666, TivaILY, ambermichele, booklover321, cindy Seidenberg, emeraldcello, fireandice1986, gallieni, georginiuxa, hlaughlin93, hopalong123546, jgibbs7, kakus5, kurrumu, libs1709, love is only a dream, melitami, minihannibal65, missy841, nattlouu, ncisandsvuaddict, seriously56, srshibaharah, tammy henson, tazmania081005, tiffanynloud, tivawaigequintis, writeinspiredraw and zivadavid03.
Thank you to moonclarinet for adding this story to your community: 'Favorite stories that I like'! I'm truly honoured and humbled by that, thank you :) Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Like always, I hope that those with FF accounts got my replies ok: I love replying to you guys and getting your feedback :) Thank you to Chickie10016, Debbie, both Guest reviewers, Stella and Sue Dooley, here are my replies to you guys:
Chickie10016: Thank you so much for your review and your condolences, I hugely appreciate that :) Thank you for your lovely comments about my writing, I really hope that this story stays on track for you. Funny you should mention my chosen career, after 3 years training I will hopefully be a primary school (or elementary school) teacher from September. One reason why I wanted to start writing is because I've always found creative writing really hard. I don't want to pass on this fear to my pupils, I want to encourage them to enjoy writing. To do that, I need to get out of the negative headspace that I can't write creatively. I would love to do a whole-class writing project one day! I really loved your comments about you feeling that something was missing from the resolution. I totally agree with your comments and they made me think A LOT and have a major lightbulb moment. THANK YOU you've given me some major inspiration for the rest of the story and I hope that Scene 2 in this chapter can get the ball rolling for you, I hope that this is alright with you. Thank you :)
Debbie: Thank you so much for your review and your condolences, I hugely appreciate that :) I have so many amazing memories of them like you say that I will always carry forward with me. Thank you, yeah I think that Orli owed it to Tony and Nettie to explain the truth. Hehe, I love Tony! Yeah, it had to be Paris. Thank you :)
Guest: Thank you so much for your review! Yes that's a great point, I think that Ziva would have felt similar to how Tony does now after his car blew up in Series 5. Oooh I really like your idea about maybe having a babysitter in the house who died in Ziva's place. I would love to see a fanfiction written about this, that would be very cool! Thank you :)
Guest: Thank you so much for your review! Haha, don't worry, this chapter will hopefully answer your concern, I hope that you are ok with where they do end up and that it's a little different to the other FFs out there. Thank you :)
Stella: Thank you so much for your review and your condolences, I hugely appreciate that :) Thank you for BOTH of your reviews, I can't tell you how much your words meant to me. Thank you, my friend. I'm really grateful to count you in my life. My family are very close-knit and its strange to be missing 2 beautiful pieces, but we have so many amazing memories that we can remember. Thank you for your gorgeous words, I really want to make them proud (I sound like Ziva now). Haha, I will remember for future reference that you don't like cliff-hangers ;) Thank you I'd love to write more stories after this one and I would be honoured to count you as a reader of those too, "TEAM ZIVA IS NOT DEAD" :)
Sue Dooley: Thank you for your super review! Oh yes Tiva always and forever. Thank you I hope that Orli is coming across well, and is still a bit of an enigma. Thank you for sharing your ideas about where you think we will go to in Paris and thank you for reviewing! :)
Wednesday 25th May 2016, Nettie's House, Tel Aviv, Israel 5am
"Now, have you got your passports?"
"Check!"
"And your boarding passes?"
"Right here."
"Are you sure that you have got everything that I wrote on that packing list for you?"
"Yes, Miss Nettie. Everything's been crossed off the list. Twice." Tony cheekily remarked.
Nettie rolled her eyes at him and put her hands on her hips, sighing. She reminded him a lot of Ziva when she gave him that look. "You will not be saying that when you remember that you have forgotten something!" She joked.
Tony gasped in mock-shock, placing his right hand over his heart. "When! Now I'm deeply offended by that!" Nettie laughed for a few seconds, then stopped, putting her straight-face on for a moment. She took hold of his hands in her.
"Anthony, please take care of yourselves. If you need anything, and I do mean anything, I am only a phone call and a plane ride away, alright. Any time of the day or night, neshama."
Tony smiled sadly, but nodded anyway. "Nettie… I just want to say, thank you. You've helped Tali and I so much, let us stay here in your home, you've been there for both of us. I am just so grateful to you."
"No, my dear. I am the one who should be thanking you, Anthony. Without the two of you being here, motek, I do not know what I would have done. News of Ziva's death… well you know all too well how I must have reacted to that. Probably just as badly as you had done. Had you not have come here, I may never have known all of the things that you have uncovered over these past few days. I doubt that I will ever be able to repay you for that. Ziva and Tali are the only blood family that I have left, but you are also family Anthony. Never forget that there will always be a place here for you."
With that she embraced him into the fiercest hug that could easily rival an Abby-hug and the two clung to each other with all they had, tears beginning to spring into both of their eyes. "Ziva loves you very much. It was always clear to me; I could see what she felt for a long time before she finally confided in me. But it is also clear to me how much you love Ziva and how much you love Tali. You, Anthony DiNozzo, are a very selfless man who is a natural father. Ata lo levad."
As if on cue, Tali chose this moment to come racing out of the guest bedroom, swinging Kelev and Shimpânza around and trying to make them both fly across the room. Tony and Nettie broke apart, faces now covered in tears, in order to see their little companion bouncing about the room, laughing gently at her wild antics.
"We really appreciate that Nettie and everything you've done for us. Toda." He turned to look at his daughter. "Tali, Bo'i He'na bevakasha." He called as he crouched down onto the floor. Tali dropped her stuffed animals onto the floor for now and came bounding over to him, leaping into her Abba's arms.
Tony groaned slightly and stood up fully again. Urgh, I'm getting a bit too old for this! "Alright, my little mini-ninja, what do we say to Nettie, Tali?"
She giggled a bit before turning to face her great-aunt. "Toda, Nettie. Shalom!" She opened her arms wide and Nettie embraced her great-niece into a huge hug. "Shalom, neshama. Ani ohevet otach kol kach." Once they had let go, Tali turned to snuggle herself into her father's side and rested her head on his shoulder, sending some of her wild curls into his face.
"Shalom, Nettie."
Nettie laughed lightly and shook her head a little. "I have never liked goodbyes. So let us say shalom for now, as a hello to new beginnings for our family, our mishpacha."
Tony smiled a wide grin. "To family, and to new beginnings."
Wednesday 25th May 2016, Air France 1321 aeroplane (8:05am flight), 10am (Tel Aviv time)
Flying in an aeroplane with Tali was a very interesting experience. Well, she is a DiNozzo-David after all! Even though she had been on 3 flights now in the past week alone including this one, she had been completely fascinated by the take-off of the plane and the feeling of them ascending into the sky. While other passengers gripped onto their seats for dear life, Tali was like a kid in a candy store and had spent 5 whole minutes giggling and looking at her Abba in delight much to Tony's joy. Once it was safe to remove their seatbelts, Tali had spent a full 20 minutes staring out of the window and pointing to all the different clouds in the sky, excitedly naming all of them.
As it had been a very early start to the day, Tali soon fell asleep about halfway into the flight, not even making past the opening title sequence of Finding Dory. Hmm, I remember another little ninja who also did that on several occasions when we had our movie nights. Well, even ninjas and mini-ninjas get tired. That reminds me, what am I going to do with my own fish? I can't tell Tali that I have a fish named after her Ima!
Tali was softly clutching onto Ziva's scarf with her tiny fingers, which she was currently using as a sort-of blanket. After another night of tears and nightmares, with her startling awake and crying out for her mother, this was the only thing that would comfort his daughter in her dreams right now. Being wrapped up in her Ima's presence. Tony wanted to both smile and cry at this at the same time.
The more that Tony looked at his daughter, the more he saw Ziva sitting there. The two of them had an uncanny resemblance, there was no doubt about it. Watching her take gently breaths in and out and curl further into the seat of the plane, Tony flashed back to all the moments that he and Ziva had flown around the world together. Paris. Berlin. Somalia.
Something still wasn't right thought. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but there was something still bugging him. Tony couldn't help but think about what Orli had said to him before she left Nettie's house the day before…
"Orli." Tony had approached her just as she made to open the front door. Orli turned back around to face him.
"There's still one thing I don't quite understand. If Kort's gone, then the threat is neutralised, right? She's not in danger anymore. So why is Ziva still underground? If she was still alive, wouldn't she… you know… resurface and come back to Tali?"
"Tony, I am afraid that I cannot answer that. I really wish that I could. I do not know what Ziva is doing right now or where she is. But, what I am quite sure of is that this fight may be far from over."
"What do you mean?"
"While Kort may thankfully be gone from this fight, we are still missing two of the key players, remember?" With that, she walked away to her car…
Wednesday 25th May 2016, Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France, 1:30pm (Paris time)
Here they were at last. The Charles de Gaulle airport. The last time Tony was here, he was with Ziva about 6 years ago. On their Paris mission. A lot happened back then; they had talked long into the night, slept in the same bed, attempted to trick McGee and Abby into believing otherwise… a lot of really great memories! Getting through customs and baggage checks was very different this time around. And much easier. This time, he wasn't packing his NCIS gun and badge. All he had with him now was his super special daughter, their go-bag, Ziva's suitcase from Orli's house and Tali's stroller.
Once they had finally finished clearing through customs, Tali began fussing that she was hungry. They quickly found a small French restaurant within the airport and Tony doubled checked their desired destination while they ate. After which, the duo worked their way through the terminal towards the taxi station. Tony made quick work of loading everything into the taxi cab and rattled off the address to the driver.
During the journey, panic began to set in Tony's mind. Oh God, what are we doing? I can't believe that we're actually here. In Paris. What am I thinking, am I actually going to find anything here? What if I'm wrong about this. I mean, it's thin, right? No, it's the only thing that makes sense. I hope. He wasn't sure why, but now Tony was beginning to feel nervous. The seeds of doubt were multiplying now. He didn't know what to expect, he just wanted this all to be over. For Tali's sake especially. The young girl in question was currently seated on his lap, peering out of the window and babbling in amazement at all the gorgeous city. Tony stroked her gentle curls, willed himself to calm down and conversed with her, pointing at all of the things they could see on their journey.
Almost there…
Wednesday 25th May 2016, Paris, France, 3:30pm (Paris time)
The taxi cab gently pulled up in front of its requested destination. Only 200 metres away from the Notre Dame, this was a beautiful part of Paris.
Tony took a €20 note from his wallet and paid the taxi driver, telling him to keep the change (in his attempt at the French language). The older gentleman, smiled kindly and thanked him very much. The man had grown a real soft spot for his two passengers, admiring the beautiful relationship between father and daughter, and stepped out of his vehicle to help Tony unloaded all of their possessions from the cab, who was carrying Tali in his arms at the moment. The suitcase, the go-bag and the stroller were soon all waiting on the pavement for them.
"Monsieur" he began; Tony turned to face him. "I hope that you find what you are looking for. You two are a beautiful family. Treasure that every day, Sir." Tony's mouth opened a little and all that he could do was to say thank you to the kind man.
He unfolded the stroller with ease (now that he'd had a fair amount of practise) and with Tali being a little tired and jet-lagged, she easily agreed and seated herself down. Tony thanked the taxi driver once more and began to move towards his destination, pushing Tali in her stroller gently along in front of him. This reminded him a little of when he would carry all of their equipment from the truck to the crime scene. Or when he and Ziva would leave McGee to do that. Only now, he wasn't making his way towards a crime scene. Tony had something, or rather someone far more precious than finger-print scanners and evidence bags. He had Tali – his smart, brave, funny daughter and for now they were each other's' everything.
The pair soon reached the faded wooden doors to the entrance of an apartment building. There was a pass code required to enter. The keypad quickly caught Tali's attention and she "oohed" at it instantly, stretching out her right arm to try to reach the buttons. Tony chuckled slightly at the sight and gently ruffled her hair. Somebody's awake now. "You wanna press the buttons, huh Tali?" he pointed towards the keypad. Tali nodded confidently and tried to reach out again."
"Alright, squirt." Tony moved so that he was crouched down in front of her. "Shall we have a go together?" Tony slowly moved the stroller over slightly so that Tali would be able to reach easily. "You ready?" He pointed towards the number '2' and Tali copied his actions, with both of them pressing the button together. Tali jumped around in her seat and squealed. They both then pressed '5', '8', '4' and '*' to finish the pass code.
Ding! They were in.
She gasped out loud and turned to face him with her amazing wide eyes. "Tali, you did it, we did it!" he exclaimed. Tali chuckled a bit and pointed towards the wooden doors. Tony shook his head, smiling at her and then pushed those doors open and entered the building.
The old doors creaked open to reveal a long hallway with cobbled flooring. The small lamps hanging up around the room shone out a dim light which reflected onto the bare white walls. It was simple, but perfect.
Not wanting to drag a toddler and all of their luggage up a flight of stairs (although she is a mini-Ziva and a mini-ninja), Tony worked his way towards the elevator with his little girl in the stroller. She was only too happy to press to button to call the elevator to them and gave a loud cheer when the doors opened to reveal the awaiting carriage. The duo boarded their chariot to their intended floor.
On the ride up, Tony thought back to how significant the elevator at NCIS was to him and the team. All those times he'd had a serious conversation, been head-slapped, almost died with Ziva in that elevator. But he wouldn't change any of that for the world. He remembered back to when the power went out all over the city, trapping McGee and Ziva in the elevator for 9 hours. To this day, he still had no idea what had happened in there. He flashed forward to after Mike Frank's death, when Ziva had fallen apart on him and they'd shared their pain with Abby and McGee. Then when they'd just arrived back from Somalia and Ziva looked petrified of being trapped in the small, enclosed space. All the important moments happened in the elevator. And the men's room…
Ding!
Getting off the elevator on the 2nd floor of the building, Tony soon worked his way down the hallway with Tali and their luggage and counted down the door numbers, looking for the one.
15...16...17...18...
Room 19.
Reaching into the top left-hand pocket of his shirt, Tony pulled out a little white envelope. He tore through the paper and poured out its contents into his hand.
A key.
Picking up the tiny golden object with his fingers, Tony worked the key through the lock in the door and prayed that he had got this right.
Click.
This place was beautiful. The same cobbled flooring as was in the entrance walk-way but with an intricately-detailed carpet in the middle of the room. Wooden beams covered the ceiling. There was a gorgeous little fireplace. So many pictures and paintings hanging from every corner of the room. There was an antique table with two wooden chairs placed on either side of it. Much like the walk-way, everything in this room was simple but perfect.
Tony wheeled the suitcase and the stroller along and moved further into the apartment. He placed their luggage beside the long, white couch while the go-bag was thrown a bit haphazardly on top of this. Tali soon jumped out of the stroller, wanting to explore her new surroundings. She stared in wonder at the treasures in the room and couldn't decide what she wanted to explore floor. So after gazing at all she could, Tali looked up at her father and took his right hand in her left, pulling him along in the direction of an unexplored room.
Upon entering, Tony saw that this was the master bedroom. Tali by now had leapt onto the king-size bed and decided that she needed to test out the mattress. So she began jumping all over it.
Before Tony could slow her down, there was a rattling noise at the door. Someone was trying to get into the apartment. He jumped at the sound and shot round to face the bedroom door, towards the source of the noise. "Abba?" Tali questioned cautiously. She moved close to her Abba and gripped onto Tony's hand tightly.
The apartment door was worked opened and Tony could hear a low murmuring sound coming from the front room now. Someone was definitely here.
Wait a second…. was that…. humming? Does that humming seem familiar to you? From the look on Tali's face, she seems to be agreeing with me here.
The intruder made their way through the apartment; it sounded like they were carrying something. Bags, maybe? Tony couldn't quite tell. But it was clear when the person had stopped moving, stopped humming. They must have seen the suitcase.
"Hello?!" the person called out. Yep. They knew.
Tali gasped and looked up at her Abba.
Tony walked into the front room, pausing by the door to the bedroom. The other person gasped loudly and dropped the bags that they were carrying onto the old, cobbled floor.
Both adults stood there, stock still, eyes wide.
Suddenly, Tali, who had been peering out from the bedroom door beside Tony, shot like a rocket towards the other person.
"IMA!"
End of Part 1
A/N: So… ZIVA IS ALIVE! Oh yes! There was NO WAY that she was not going to be alive in this story. I love Ziva, Cote and all of you guys way too much to even ever think about doing that! I will apologise for leaving you with this cliff-hanger though :) Please let me know what you would like to see in Part 2, any conversations, places to visit, I really love to hear your ideas. Also, side note, have you seen the new CdP pic? OMG why is she so stunning? She just picks some pretty amazing campaigns to be part of. Proud to be a fan :)
What did you think about Tiva meeting up in a Parisian apartment? If it seems a little weird, the explanation will be Part 2. So many FF's have done the hotel or the café and I wanted to do something a little less obvious and little bit different. I hope that you guys like this. Some food for thought: Why do you think Tony went there? How did he know about this place? Where did he get the key? Does the apartment have a significant meaning? I already know but I'm very interested to hear your ideas about this. This place does actually exist in Paris and after looking at a lot of Parisian apartments, this was the perfect one as soon as I saw it. Hopefully more details about this will be revealed next time. Thank you all so so much for reading and supporting this story, it truly means the world to me, see you in Part 2! :) xx
neshama – darling (Nettie says this to Tony)
motek – sweetie
Ata lo levad – you are not alone (Nettie says this to Tony)
Toda – thank you
Bo'i He'na bevakasha – Come here please (Tony says this to Tali)
Ani ohevet otach kol kach – I love you very much (Nettie says this to Tali)
Mishpacha – family