DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the NCIS characters or storylines.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Do not fear, loyal readers! There will be spin-offs and sequels! I'm planning a spin-off series of one-shots surrounding the main event of this epilogue (Citizenship). I'm planning a spin-off series of two-chapter one-shots from the children – if that makes any kind of logical sense (The AM Chronicles: David, DiNozzo-Benoit, DiNozzo-David). I'm planning a sequel in general, although I don't know where I'm going with it yet… THERE WILL BE MORE, just with a different Story ID.

Epilogue: April 2014

"Tony, why do the Americans have to have such a complicated history?" Ziva asked, flipping through the pages of her study guide hopelessly.

"Ziva, you only have to answer six right," Tony laughed.

"Out of a potential of 96," Ziva snarled.

"They only ask you ten."

"Do you realize how many combinations of questions that is, Tony?" In frustration, she slammed the book shut. "This is not fair! Americans themselves do not even know half this stuff!"

"Calm down there, crazy ninja girl, you're going to wake the kids," Tony said. He watched her exhausted face for a moment, and then without warning, he scooped her up from the kitchen chair, carrying her back to their bedroom. "Enough studying. You'll do fine."

"I hate history tests. I hate politics."

"Ten questions, mi amor, that's all. You don't even have to get them all right," he added again, kissing her. "Did you forget what today is, in all your panic about this test?" he teased softly.

"No, I did not," Ziva replied defensively as he let her down. "And I was not panicking. I was grating."

"Venting. Good thing the test isn't on American expressions."

"If you do not shut up soon…"

"You'll what?" he asked, as she slid her arms around his neck. "I dare you to try it."

"Oh, you do not want me to try," Ziva said through another kiss. "Happy third anniversary, Tony."

"How come I can't come with you?" 5-year-old Melanie pleaded, wrenching her hand free from 15-year-old Ava's grip. "I can walk by myself, Ava!" she said stubbornly. "I'm in kindergarten, remember? I'm almost 6! Hold Alexa's hand, she's the baby!"

"No!" 3-year-old Alexa whined, stomping her feet as Ahava caught her other niece's hand. "I'm not the baby!"

"Hey, so if Ava and I never took that test, does that mean we're not US citizens?" 11-year-old Matt asked. Unlike his sisters, Matt had picked up on the concept of contractions early on in his English education.

"You guys didn't have to take the test because you're under 18," Tony replied, shifting 2-year-old Maia to the other hip. "So long as Ziva passed, you guys were golden. Speaking of whom… where'd she go?" He rolled his eyes as he spotted his wife by the passenger window of their ever-present Israeli spies. "Ziva! Come on! You're going to be late for your own citizenship ceremony! Quit harassing your spies!"

"Coming inside?" Ziva asked them pointedly in Hebrew. The two shadowy figures inside shook their heads. "Didn't think so. Leaving yet?" Another shake. "Didn't think so."

Shaking her head with a sigh, Ziva let down 2-year-old Ash, smiling when he immediately went careening for his father. "Go tackle Daddy, Ash," she called, laughing when Ash crashed into Tony's legs, giggling hysterically.

"Ah, there's my little quarterback!" Tony crowed, hoisting Ash up with his free arm.

"Tony, careful!" Ziva said as she pulled Maia from his other arm just in time to let him catch Ash. "They are expensive to fix. Alexa, stay here," she added sternly as her younger stepdaughter began to wander off.

"That's what I keep telling Abby," McGee laughed as their neighbours appeared, Abby toting 2-year-old Sasha on her back. "She doesn't believe me."

"Well, it's not like I throw her around, Tim," Abby scoffed, swinging Sasha back around to her hip. "I know she's not a doll." Sasha let out a brief squeal of terror as Abby nearly lost her hold.

"I rest my case," McGee sighed, taking Sasha when Abby held her out wordlessly. "Can't promise we'll be able to stay for the whole thing. All sort of depends on her attitude. I told you," he added firmly to Abby.

"Don't worry about it, probie," Tony said. "We got a party going down afterwards any way, just show up then and nobody'll notice another screaming kid."

"I haven't been to one of these in many a year, Mr. Palmer," came a very familiar Scottish cadence. "Not since my own and that was easily twenty years ago. Now, where are our guests of honour? Ah, yes…" And Ducky appeared from around the corner, followed by Palmer and Lee. "Ziva, my dear, congratulations are in order," he said genially, giving her a tight hug and a light peck on the cheek.

"Thank you, Ducky," she said with a smile, returning it.

"Mmm, see, that wasn't so hard," Tony laughed as he wrapped his free arm around her. "God, I thought that old man was never going to stop talking…"

"Congratulations, Ziva," came Jenny's voice as she and Gibbs joined the rest of the team. "This is exciting. I don't have to fill out visa-extension requests any more. You just killed two hundred pages of paperwork every year."

The team all burst out laughing, making a number of the other people in the auditorium turn to look at them.

"Where's Ava and Matt?" Abby asked, looking around the crowded room. "Don't tell you lost them, Tony."

"Me?" Tony exclaimed indignantly. "Technically, I have no legal hold on them, they're her kids! Nah, they went back to school with their classes. Speaking of school, we have to drop Melanie at kindergarten on the way home."

"After lunch, Daddy!" Melanie protested. "It's lunchtime, I'm hungry!"

The sedan was gone, when he looked out the living room window that night.

"They are gone," Ziva said quietly, slipping under his arm as she pushed back the curtain a little further.

"Yep," Tony affirmed, letting the curtains fall back as he pulled her into his arms. "Kids all out?" She nodded and then looked down the street to where the vehicle had been parked every day and every night in the past three years.

"You think we'll ever find out what they were doing here?" Tony asked, kissing her neck softly as he caught a whiff of a sweet honey smell.

Ziva was silent for a few minutes. "No," she replied. She smiled slightly when Tony ducked in to kiss her neck again. "Found something you like, Tony?" she asked teasingly.

Tony paused. "Mmm… honey dust." And with that, he whisked her off to the bedroom, finally free from the dark shadows of her past.