I'd just like to take a moment to shout out to Don't Worry About It. You were the one who made me realise that I didn't remember when I'd last updated this...so well done ;) Everyone else, give this dude a medal.

EPICALLY LONG CHAPTER! DESERVES SOME REVIEWS! ;)

Chapter 25

It almost seemed like cars were pulling up in no time. One moment, it was just Alex and Desiree alone, making sure Menten didn't leave, and the next Gibbs had burst into the room, closely followed by Rose, Ben, Ziva, McGee and most of K-Unit. Matthew, Shark and Tony were all still in hospital, kept 'under observation'. Tony, who'd argued that he was perfectly fine, had been shown several X-rays that showed cleared breaks in his forearm and ribs, which had shocked him into silence.

"They still in there?" Gibbs asked.

"Yeah," Alex answered, eyes not straying from the monitor, "Haven't so much as twitched. But we've counted at least three more arriving after they went in. Every single one had their guns knives removed."

"Of course; they would not want a fight to break out in case of a disagreement," Ziva said, to which Alex agreed.

"There's something there that they want then," Gibbs muttered. "Something that involves negotiations."

"So what do we do?" Desiree asked. She'd somehow managed to hobble over without anyone noticing.

Gibbs did nothing more than spare her a glare. "Spread out, cover the area. They're going to have to come out sooner or later."

"I'm going to go with later," Alex said.

They split off into groups; Wolf, Snake and Eagle stuck together, while Ziva, Gibbs and Alex decided they wanted first go at Menten and had thus chosen to hide just across the road, behind a barricade of dumpsters. Ben and Rose accepted McGee and Desiree into their group, promising to hold the girl back and ignoring her protests.

"Thirteen men and counting," Ziva muttered.

"Ready for a little revenge?" Alex asked.

Ziva flashed him a smirk. "Trust me; those men will not see it coming."

Gibbs hushed them with a hissed, "Focus."

Anticipation filled the air. It was so close...they were so close. If they could catch Menten, then this would be it. Mission over. The end.

Alex let out a shaky sigh, causing Ziva to glance at him questioningly. He shook his head, returning his attention back to the building just in time to see the doors open and one man to step out.

At once, Ziva shot forwards, stunning both Gibbs and Alex with her speed.

"They're out! They're out!" Gibbs shouted into his mic, as Alex recovered and quickly followed her. Not that he was needed.

Ziva reached the first man before he could blink. Her elbow met his nose with an audible crunch, and before he collapsed all the way, she knocked him out with a blow to the temple. He crumpled down, and stayed down.

The Mossad agent turned to face the next man to exit just as Alex reached her. She grinned, before surging forwards and tripping the guy over. He went lurching in Alex's direction, who just rolled his eyes and knocked him out with.

By now, passer-bys, people who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, had figured out that a fight was imminent. There was a lot of screaming, as they pushed and shoved and basically cleared the area of any innocent victims.

"We're about to lose the advantage of surprise," Alex shouted.

"I know!" Ziva said, before grabbing two long metal pipes off the ground. "Here," she said, tossing one to Alex. "Got my back?"

Alex grinned. "You know it."

And then, the street was filled with men, all looking grimly at the two. They moved to form a loose circle around the two spies, cracking their knuckles and making faces which they obviously perceived to be threatening, but which (in Alex's opinion) made them look like they had gas pain. Ziva obviously had the same conclusion, for she snorted rather loudly.

Dimly in his mind, Alex registered other fights already breaking out, with K-Unit taking on probably too much, but still valiantly holding in there.

It was really a good thing that none of these guys had guns.

Ziva shouted something, and that seemed to break the stillness. Suddenly, five men lunged forwards, eyes wild and angry.

Alex and Ziva ducked under each other, having both picked out different targets. Alex twirled his pipe through the air, before lashing out sideways. There was a resounding clang when metal hit back-of-neck, and the man collapsed.

Someone was trying to sneak up on Alex. Idiot, he thought, tucking the pipe under his arm and driving it backwards. A yell of pain told him that he'd hit his target. Pivoting around, he brought the pipe up and down. The man stopped moving.

"Alex!" Ziva shouted. Alex spun, catching the end of the pipe she'd thrust at him, and holding his own out for her. Together, they spun the two ends, and succeeded in tripping two men over each other. Grimly, Alex brought his pipe down to knock them out.

He looked back up in time to find Ziva facing off against two men, and holding her own very well. Unfortunately she didn't see the third creeping up very stealthily, as she knocked down the first, then the second man.

"Duck!" Alex roared, a thick piece of cement, roughly the size of a cricket ball, somehow finding its way into his hand.

Ziva dropped down at once, and Alex flung the piece of cement through the air. His aim was true, and the next moment the man who'd tried to sneak up on Ziva had dropped to the floor, knocked out cold. He was going to develop one hell of a bruise.

"Thanks!" Ziva shouted, springing back to her feet and whipping her pipe around to meet someone's skull.

"Don't mention it!" Alex yelled back, ducking a punch and retaliating by a jabbing blow to the man's stomach.

Gunshots suddenly went off. Once. Twice. A third time.

Alex jerked back from the man who'd been about to tackle him, as his dead weight fell to the ground. Looking around, he saw the tip of Gibb's gun peeking out from over the dumpster, and grinned.

Man, that guy really knows how to shoot. And it was nice to know that he was on Alex's side.

Looking around, he saw K-Unit running into a spot of trouble. He was about to rush over and help when Ben Daniels suddenly appeared, taking down a man with a mixed routine of SAS and MI6 skills. Nice.

And then Rose entered the fray, obviously not pleased at being left behind. She tackled a man who was about to knock Snake out with a slab of concrete, and proceeded to knock him out instead.

He didn't know what made him do it. Later, when he looked back on that moment, he would never figure it out.

But at that moment, in the middle of the many fights, Alex suddenly got it in his mind to observe the fight. And the thing that caught his attention made his world come to a spinning halt.

A girl, with short, dyed brown hair, and blonde roots already showing, was facing off against Michaelis Menten. They were talking...well, okay, more like shouting, or threatening. But there was no fighting.

And then Alex looked closer, and saw the gun tucked firmly against Dessi's side, held by Menten's associate. And Dessi can't move because she's injured.

Cursing the girl and her blatant stubbornness in every language that he knew, Alex forced himself to move. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gibbs following him, and smiled grimly. At least he would have backup.

"...wasn't me that pulled the trigger on him, at least I'll have the satisfaction of killing you."

And before Alex could close in, a thick needle replaces the gun. Desiree gives a shout of surprise as the needle was jabbed into her side, hard, by the associate.

Bang.

The associate screamed in pain, stumbling back and clutching his profusely bleeding arm. Alex can see that Gibbs has almost managed to rip the entire thing off with his bullet. Menten's associate is definitely going to lose that arm, if he didn't die first.

But then Dessi had collapsed to the ground, and before Alex can give chase Menten had shoved his associate down a side alley.

There was a screech of tires, and even before Alex went to look, he knew that it would be too late.

He hurried back to Gibbs, who was crouched down next to Desiree.

"What happened?" Alex breathed, staring at the girl who had started to gently convulse.

Gibbs showed him the needle that had still been in her side. "Three guesses as to what's in here," he said grimly.

Alex groaned. "Don't tell me."

.

The fight hadn't lasted long after Menten bailed. All in all, they'd apprehended twelve men alive. Three had died on the scene. Two others hadn't made it to treatment in time.

But Alex didn't know any of that. He was currently sitting in the waiting room of Homeland Hospital, with Rose's arm hugging his shoulders. Eagle was there too, having been fixed up for a very deep scratch. He was now showing his seven stitches to anyone who would pay him attention.

"Alex?"

Alex looked up, and smiled tiredly at the group who'd just entered.

"Hey Ben," he said.

"Ben! Look at my stitches!" Eagle said excitedly, shoving his arm under Ben's nose.

"Very nice," Ben said distractedly, "So, any information? On any of them?"

Alex shook his head.

Aside from Desiree, who was currently undergoing intensive treatment, a couple others had been hospitalised too. During the fight, Ziva had managed to re-sprain her ankle, though the doctors had given up and had said that they'd just bandage her foot and let her limp around for a bit. McGee had been knocked around a lot, despite having been told to stay out of the fighting. He was being treated for possible concussion. Wolf had somehow gotten the bones in his third finger crushed; he was still in surgery.

But thankfully, they weren't going to lose anyone because of their injuries.

"Snake! Look at my stitches!"

"I think it's a good thing he's not doing that to Gibbs," Rose whispered.

"Can you imagine if he did?" Alex asked.

Slowly, the injured were allowed to trickle back into the waiting room. Ziva joined them first, giving them all a bright smile before evicting Snake from his chair. McGee came next, rolling his eyes and muttering about being on surveillance to make sure he didn't sleep. Sure enough, they spied a scared looking intern keeping a very close eye on the agitated man. Tony rejoined them, arm in a cast and relaying wild and exaggerated stories.

"Excuse me? Are you – are you all here for Miss Swan?"

Alex looked up to see the highly confused looking doctor. "Yeah, we are."

"Okay then..." the doctor frowned, taking in the huge crowd. He was obviously disbelieving, but before he could do anything, another doctor ran up to him and whispered something in his ear. "Oh, right," he said, before turning to the gathering. "Okay, follow me please. Miss Swan is very anxious to see you all."

"How is she?" Rose asked as they walked along, following the doctor and his fast pace.

"Perfectly fine – ah, here she is."

They were ushered into a reasonably large room. Desiree sat on the bed, looking bored as hell, an IV drip attached to her arm. She brightened instantly when she spotted the group.

"Alex!" She grinned.

"How're you feeling?" Alex asked, a little concerned at her behaviour."

"I'm perfectly fine!" She giggled.

"We gave her pain relievers," the doctor said, glancing at the still giggling girl, "It has different effects on different people. But overall, she's perfectly fine. The BZ didn't affect her or her child enough for permanent damage to occur. We'll still keep her in hospital for a while, just in case, however at this stage I think we can safely assume that she'll make a full recovery."

"That's good," Alex smiled relieved. Around the room, similar expressions graced the large group's faces. Only Ziva's held a frown.

"What do you mean, 'child'?"

.

DON'T KILL ME! Runs and hides.

Okay, I had a massive amount of people tell me that if she was pregnant, I would die. But please read my EXPLANATION! So, I was a little confused at the strong reaction people had to this idea. Then I went and read a fic like it...yeah, now I understand.

HOWEVER, this is actually part of a much BIGGER PLOT! It's something that's needed for the sequel, so it had to happen. I'm really sorry if I've offended anyone, or made someone really hate this. All I can say is sorry, and that this will not turn out to be a story where Alex marries an OC, has a kid and lives happily ever after. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!

I sincerely hope that I haven't put you guys off reading this. I'm actually really excited for the sequel, because it's definitely going to...oh, I don't want to give anything away! But, we're so close now...I'm so excited!

But yeah, please REVIEWand let me know what you think of this. And please try not to flame (I get the feeling that after this, a lot of you guys will want to...all I can do is apologise once more).

Thankyou so much for reading,

Love Chariots99