Now this is one of my fave chapters, McGee and Tony up to hijinks, ala Inside Man...

McGee finally lowered his quill and sighed. If anyone had told him that being the sole lawyer in a town such as Glenside would necessitate working to such a late hour, he'd have scoffed at them. On the bright side, his hard work tonight meant he would have plenty of spare time to call upon Miss Sciuto again tomorrow afternoon.

Invigorated, McGee began to tidy his desk, a compulsive habit of his that he simply couldn't shake. He had just finished when he heard a knock on his front door and frowned. He couldn't think of one good reason why someone would be calling for their lawyer at such an hour. He pulled open the front door and was immediately knocked down. Moments later he heard his front door slam closed.

'McGee! Why the hell did you take so long to answer the damn door?' Miss Sciuto hissed at him. McGee stared up at her, agog. During his staring, he noticed that she was unusually frightened and had somehow procured a small pistol, from where he wasn't prepared to guess.

'What's the matter?' McGee asked as he climbed to his feet and brushed himself off.

'I was just going to take Gibbs some dinner, because you just know that he hasn't eaten yet, what with the robbery and the manhunt, and Tony getting drunk... Anyway, I rounded the corner onto the main street, to find the sheriff's offices surrounded by armed bandits. I saw your light was still on and came here. You have to do something McGee.'

'Armed bandits?' McGee repeated. He frowned and headed into his office, the window of which gave him a view clear down the street. He pulled the curtains open slightly and peered down the street. He did a quick count, seeing six of them, but in all likelihood there would be more of them, watching the rear of the building.

'See?' Miss Sciuto said as he closed the curtains. 'McGee, you have to do something! Gibbs is all alone in there, and sure he's a crack shot, but to take out all those men on his own...' she gave a small hiccupping sob and pulled McGee into a rib cracking hug.

'Miss Sciuto, I am having a little trouble breathing here,' McGee gasped regretfully, if she had just lightened her grip slightly, McGee suspected he would have enjoyed the experience greatly.

'First Mr Morrow, and now Gibbs trapped by all those bandits. You have to do something McGee,' begged Miss Sciuto, after releasing him.

'You've said that three times in a minute now Miss Sciuto, I get it. I'll try and help.' McGee peered outside again. His father had been a Navy man, and naturally taught his son how to shoot. McGee was a reasonable shot, but he knew that should he dare step out his front door, he had very little hope of doing anything for Gibbs apart from getting himself killed.

'Where's Deputy DiNozzo? Shouldn't he be in there with Gibbs?'

'Tony got himself drunk and Gibbs sent him home,' Abby replied, failing to disguise her annoyance with Tony.

'Drunk or not, he'll be of some use,' McGee mused. He turned to Miss Sciuto. 'Stay here and out of sight, I'm going to get help.'

McGee exited via his back door into a tiny little alley. He was immediately thankful for the nearly full moon, lighting his way. He jogged over to DiNozzo's house, which was well out of sight of the main street. McGee knocked on the front door and waited for DiNozzo to answer.

Only he never did. After ten minutes, McGee remembered Miss Sciuto saying that DiNozzo was drunk. He sighed and tried the door handle, surprised to find it unlocked. He let himself into the main room, occupied by a ratty looking couch and many bookshelves which were overflowing with both the classics and popular novels. In one corner was a small and neglected kitchen area.

McGee opened the only other door in the room, leading into the bedroom. There he found the still fully dressed DiNozzo passed out on top of the covers, an open bottle of bourbon on the floor next to one hand. McGee shook his head and grabbed the bourbon, intending to move it out of the way, when he heard a click and felt the cold steel of a gun being pressed into his skull.

'Drop the bourbon and back away slowly,' DiNozzo mumbled, sounding still half asleep, and definitely drunk. McGee paused, trying to determine if DiNozzo would actually shoot him if he didn't obey. Then he decided not to risk it.

'I knocked for a long time, but you didn't answer,' McGee replied, watching as DiNozzo took the bourbon and downed a good portion, before working on getting upright. 'There's a whole group of bandits who have surrounded the sheriff's station.'

'Damn,' Tony mumbled. 'Gimme a hand here, McGoo.'

McGee helped Tony into a sitting position. 'It's McGee, not McGoo. Though I don't know how much help you'll be. Can you even walk straight?'

'Doubt me not, McDoubter,' Tony replied. 'Where's my gun?' he asked.

'Ah, in your hand?'

'Oh, good. Help me stand,' Tony ordered. McGee pulled the drunken Deputy onto his feet but kept his hold on the man for fear he'd fall flat on his face. This time when he took away the bourbon, DiNozzo didn't object. He was too preoccupied trying to re holster his gun, yet continually missing.

Then McGee was struck by an idea. 'Come on DiNozzo, let's go rescue Gibbs.'

'Yes! Onwards,' Tony replied, waving his gun around. McGee sighed and took the gun from Tony, who didn't seem too perturbed this time. McGee led him outside and across the street to the livery barn. He then stopped, and with a quick push, Tony fell straight into a horse trough.

He emerged half a minute later, coughing and spluttering and cursing McGee's name. He reached a hand into his vest and pulled out a second gun, pointing it at McGee. 'Do that again, and they won't find your body, McDead.'

'Gibbs in danger, remember Deputy?' McGee said with a sigh, helping Tony out of the trough. Tony looked down at his clothes.

'We'll talk about you compensating me for the clothing tomorrow,' Tony informed McGee. 'Now, how many of them are there?'

'I saw eight in the main street, there could be more out the back,' McGee explained as Tony led the way.

'You know how to shoot?'

'Yes.'

'But no guns? Even Abby has a couple stashed on her person, McGee.'

'I'm a lawyer, Deputy DiNozzo, I generally don't find a use for them in my line of work.'

'Bet there are plenty of people who'd like to use on one you though,' Tony looked around, seemingly deep in thought.

'I disagree, I provide a service to the community and am thanked for it. No one has ever threatened me with a weapon. Before you, of course.'

'I'd be remiss to believe you, you being a lawyer and all. But you need to be quiet now,' Tony ordered, as he led McGee to the edge of the building. In front of them stretched the expanse of the main street. The sheriff's office was located on the far side of the road, approximately two hundred yards away from their position. Tony hoped that the bandits would have all their attention focused on Gibbs, because if they spotted him trying to cross the street... he was gonna be one Dead Deputy.

'When I move, you follow me without hesitating. We don't stop until we're across the street, okay? Don't sightsee or dawdle, or I might just was well shoot you now and save them the time,' Tony instructed McGee, who nodded in agreement. Tony handed him one of his guns and set off.

It was a tense few seconds, McGee kept waiting for the shout of discovery, and the inevitable bullet in his back, but neither came. Finally he found himself running into Tony's back as the man pulled to a halt on the far side of the cobbler's store. Tony ignored McGee, instead he turned his attention to a pair of barrels sitting against the wall. He pushed one to test its stability.

'Here's the plan,' Tony said, turning to McGee. 'We need to join Gibbs in the sheriff's offices. Last winter I discovered that the roofing above one of the back rooms of the offices leaks rather badly. So we are gonna climb up here, across to the sheriff's offices, and go through the roof.'

McGee just stared at Tony.

'Unless that's too much for you to handle, McLawyer, I can always have you go rouse anyone with a gun to back me and Gibbs up. No need for you to get your educated hands dirty.'

'I'm sorry, I was just trying to picture you climbing on a roof,' McGee retorted.

'Watch and learn kid,' Tony replied, climbing up onto the barrel. Getting onto the roof was no mean feat, even with the assistance of the barrel, Tony had to jump to get a grip on the edge of the roof. From there it was simply a matter of using his upper body strength to pull himself up. He brushed himself off and peered back down at McGee, working to disguise his hard breathing. 'See? Piece of cake.'

McGee climbed onto the barrel as Tony had, he didn't need to jump as far to grab onto the edge of the roof. Although they were the exact same height, McGee's arms were longer than the deputy's. Tony didn't make too much out of the fact that he had to help pull the lawyer onto the roof at that point. He wasn't a complete bastard after all.

They climbed over the building and stopped at the peak as Tony judged the gap between them and the roof of the General Store. He was pretty certain he could make it. Of course, if he didn't, either the fall or the bandits would finish him off. Hopefully McGee would do the smart thing and go for more help at that point.

With little more thought on the matter, Tony ran down the slope of the roof and leapt, half landing on the opposite roof, winding himself in the process. He rolled onto the roof properly and groaned, he was gonna have some colourful bruises in the coming days. McGee followed, doing slightly better than Tony due to his gangliness. From there, their journey was much less perilous, as the sheriff's offices and the General store were joined. Tony simply led McGee over to the offending piece of roof, keeping low to try and remain out of sight of the bandits. The rotten wood gave away easily under his boot, but it was still a tight fit to slip through into the attic space.

'Uh, what now?' McGee asked, after he'd slipped through into the roof space after Tony.

'Well, I think there's a manhole to get out of here. But I don't remember where it is, and I can't see a damn thing anyway, so we don't have a hope of finding it.'

'So what do we do?'

'Pray Gibbs forgives me for this,' Tony muttered, before he put his foot through the ceiling between them. Tony continued to kick at the hole, widening it until he thought he had a chance of slipping through, still it'd be a tight fit. But his clothes had been ruined since McGee shoved him in the horse trough.

Tony dropped through the hole and into a tiny storage closet, face to face with the muzzle of a shotgun. At the other end was none other than Ziva David, who seemed utterly perplexed to find him dropping out of a hole in the ceiling. Tony eyed her and the gun, all the hurt and bitter anger from earlier that day rushing back.

'Tony.'

'What are you doing out of your cell?' he asked brusquely, stepping to one side as McGee's feet appeared.

'You think that Gibbs could hold all of them off this long alone?' she replied, lowering the gun.

'Well, I sure as hell didn't think he'd trust you of all people.' McGee dropped to the ground and straightened up, his gaze moving from Tony to Ziva. He frowned.

'Look, can we put our differences aside at this moment? There are more pressing matters at hand.' Ziva replied, frustrated. She turned and marched out of the closet. Tony scowled and straightened his vest before following her out into the main room. Gibbs turned, eyeing his deputy and the lawyer.

'You look like shit, DiNozzo.'

'Well, first McGee pushed me into a horse trough, then we had to kinda break a couple of holes in the roof. This was my favourite shirt too, and it's completely ruined,' he replied mournfully, looking down.

'Why'd you bring the lawyer?'

'Well, he says he knows how to shoot. But I figure if we give him a shotgun it won't really matter how bad he is. I think he's here to impress Abby, personally,' Tony remarked as he crept up to one of the windows to take a look out, ignoring the looks of annoyance he was receiving from the others. He really didn't give a damn right then.

'McGee, that side window,' Gibbs instructed. 'With four of us, we might survive a shootout.'

'Unfortunately for you, that's not his style,' Ari interjected, Gibbs ignored him, turning to Ziva, who gave a small nod to indicate that she agreed with her brother.

'Eli knows that he cannot win this position through a shootout with the few men he has. He will also want this resolved before dawn, so laying a siege to the building is not in his interests either. Leaving him with one other strategy.'

'Hostages,' Tony muttered.

'Yes, good guess Tony,' Ziva replied.

'Not a guess, he's started already,' Tony replied. Everyone turned to the windows. Outside they watched as Eli oversaw his men. Eli had his men stand their hostage up in front of them. Abby gave Eli her best glare, but Tony could see she was scared. Gibbs cursed, in words that made McGee blush.