Gibbs entered the house around 1400 hours. It was quiet, and Mags met him in the hall, holding a finger to her mouth to indicate his continued silence. "He's asleep," she told him. "We expected you a couple of hours ago; or at least a call."

"Yeah, I know," he replied as quietly. "Got stuck in a stand-off. Long story."

"Oh hell no, you can't leave it at that," she raised her brows, and gripped his arm, dragging him to the kitchen. "Gimme that sandwich. I'll put it in the fridge, and you go sit, 'cause I wanna hear this story."

"I just got finished with a report, rehashing the story, and you want me to tell it again?" he raised a brow.

"I just had to watch football through a fuzzy station on a TV older than my high school diploma, and I don't even like football, but what else was I supposed to do while lil' Miss Head-shrink put my Tony to sleep. I've been sittin' here buffin' your kitchen table for an hour, out of pure boredom. So yeah, you can rehash it one more time for an old girl. Now go sit down. I'll grab you a beer, and you can put your feet up an' tell me a story, ya hear?"

Gibbs couldn't help but to allow himself a lopsided grin as he resignedly turned around and took a seat at the table. Though he didn't look forward to telling the story of the past several hours of his day, at least it'd be something to pass the time until Tony woke up from his nap.

"Alright," Mags set the bottle of beer down in front of Gibbs, and sat down across from him at the table, "Tell Mags all about your day. You get a big case?"

"Got a case," he replied, twisting the top off the beer. "Didn't end up with us having it very long."

"What happened?"

"Case was a missing person. I sent Ziva and McGee to get a surveillance tape from the bank he'd made a withdrawal from, day he disappeared..."

4 hours earlier...

Tim and Ziva made their way from the car toward the bank. As McGee reached the door, he realized that Ziva was no longer beside him. He stopped and turned around. Ziva had paused about halfway, and was scanning around them, out in the distance.

"Ziva? Something wrong?" he asked, with furrowed brows.

Her eyes narrowed as she continued, "Probably not," she decided, then turned to catch up with McGee. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching them.

He held the door open for her, then followed in behind her. Ziva reached the manager's office first. The door was open, and she simply knocked on the open door to get his attention, as she pulled out her badge to identify herself.

"Ah, you must be with NCIS," the man guessed. "Come on in. I've got the footage uploaded for you."

"I'll be taking that," a voice came from behind her. Ziva spun around to see the McGee had a gun barrel pressed against his temple, by a man wearing a ski-mask. "Don't even think about reaching for that weapon," he told her. That's when she heard a click beside her own head, and saw another masked man beside her. Where they'd come from, the agents weren't certain. But as she met McGee's eyes, she saw the fear in them, that she, herself, couldn't manage to express.

Present...

"Oh my!" Mags looked at Gibbs, wide-eyed. "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, weren't they?"

"They'd been waiting on my agents," Gibbs explained. "They wanted the footage. Wasn't a robbery."

"Tell me your agents are okay..."

"They made the manager take my agents' weapons; put 'em in a duffel, before taking the uploaded footage and smashing the computer in the office. But as they went to leave, two police cars pulled up in the parking lot..."

3 hours, 45 minutes ago...

"Who called them?" the man shouted at the tellers and customers that had been forced to the ground by the other two goons in masks. "Who?"

"They pulled up without lights, man," one of the masked men came up to him. "They just showed up at the wrong fucking time. Fuck! Now what?"

"He's gonna fuckin' kill us, that's what," he replied. "Either he will, or they will. Unless we get the hell outta here."

"Maybe we should just give ourselves up? We didn't rob anyone..."

"Are you stupid? I ain't goin' anywhere with them! They take us in, make us talk or not, Tommy's gonna have us knocked off!'

"No he won't...He wouldn't do that, would he?"

"You don't know Tommy..." he replied, shaking his head. He turned, looking at one of the tellers. "You!" he shouted, pointing his gun at her. "Get up." The woman whimpered, hesitating at first, but then slowly moved up off of the floor. "Go lock the doors." She met his eyes, frightened. "Go lock the fuckin' doors, now!" he shouted. Her eyes moved downcast, and she moved toward the doors, hands shaking as she followed his order. "And close the shades. All of them."

The woman, Rebecca, moved to each window, closing the shades as she went. She looked out at the officers, who had been, up to this point, simply talking to each other, unaware of what was going on in the bank, right as one looked up and met her tear-stained face. She was slightly relieved to see realization wash the officer's face, before the shades separated them...

NCIS; 3 hours, 30 minutes ago...

Gibbs descended the staircase leading down from MTAC, toward the bullpen. Before he could reach his desk, however, Abby came bounding in to meet him. "Gibbs! You have to see something!"

"Can't right now, Abs. Not unless you found something about the missing lieutenant-"

"This is important!" she grabbed the remote from McGee's desk, and turned on the flat screen, changing it to show the ZNN news. The bottom of the screen blinked in red, 'LIVE Breaking News', and the video shot was coming from a helicopter. The scene showed a building surrounded by squad cars and armed officers, and ambulances parked in the distance with their lights on...

*...bank was taken by surprise, when four suspects, armed with semi-automatic weapons, locked themselves, eight employees, and at least six customers inside with them. Shots have been fired, but there's no word of any injuries. According to local PD, they've been inside for at least half an hour, and the vault has not been touched. This has the officers baffled as to what the motives of these suspects are, if they're, in fact, not there to rob the bank...*

"Isn't that the bank you sent McGee and Ziva to?" Abby looked worriedly at Gibbs.

"Yeah...half an hour ago," he turned, grabbed his badge and gun from his desk, and hurried toward the elevator. "Get Vance in the loop, Abby!" he shouted before disappearing into the shaft...

Inside the bank; 3 hours ago...

"What are you doing, you idiot?" one of the men scoffed as another took off his mask.

"It's hot. We're fucked either way. Might as well be a bit more comfortable."

"We're only fucked because we didn't leave while there were only two pigs out there! We could've easily shot our way to freedom."

"I didn't sign up for no killin'!" he shouted. "That's not what this was supposed to be!"

"Well I didn't sign up to be killed!" he retorted.

"This whole thing has nothin' to do with us! We're just coverin' Tommy's ass, and now we're fucked in our own!"

~.~

In the manager's office, Ziva struggled to free herself from where they'd tied her, McGee and the manager to chairs. McGee had been listening to the muffled conversation coming from right outside the door. He got an idea.

"Guys?" he called out.

"McGee!" Ziva whispered, harshly. "What are you doing?"

"Just...trust me, okay?"

She had no time to reply, as two of the men came into the room. "What the hell do you want, Fed?" he pointed the gun at him.

"I um...I just overheard you talking..."

"Who the hell said you could listen to us talkin', huh?"

"Just...hear me out...please?" McGee pleaded.

"What do you have to say, kid?" the man who had removed his mask, asked him.

"I...think we could help you. Just let me call my boss..." Tim said.

"Yeah right," the other man chuckled. "I'm not an idiot."

"Wait, man," the unmasked suspect interjected. "What the hell other option we got, huh?"

"How the fuck are the Feds gonna help us?"

"You're afraid," Tim said. "You think your boss is gonna kill you-"

"He ain't our boss!"

"Whoever you're doing this job for," McGee reworded, "I'm guessing he did something to the lieutenant on the footage he had you destroy."

"So what if he did?"

"It's why we were here," Tim replied. "We're looking for the lieutenant. If you turn yourselves in, and you tell us where to find him, we can protect you."

"That's bullshit," the masked man claimed.

"Why would you do that?" the unmasked suspect asked.

"Shut up, man," the masked man yelled, turning to his partner. "He's just trying to trick us into giving ourselves up! I'm not goin' back to prison! Not when he'll just have us killed, anyway!"

"It doesn't have to be that way," Tim told him.

The masked man, though his face couldn't be seen, turned to Tim, clearly angry. "Why don't you just shut your damn mouth, Fed!" he grunted, then his fist met the agent's temple.

"McGee..." Ziva winced, seeing the hit had knocked him out cold. She turned her face to the culprit, "When I am no longer restrained, I will have your head," she sneered through her teeth.

"You shut up, or you're next, bitch," he pointed at her, turned, and pushed past his partner.

The unmasked man looked at Ziva with regret for what his partner had done, before turning to leave as well. Ziva turned back to Tim, worry filling her eyes at his stillness. A trickled of blood made its way down the side of his face, where the skin had torn...

Tbc...

A/N: Yeah, I know...weird place to end the chapter...But I wanted to get something up tonight. More tomorrow, hopefully :) Yay for a new ep tomorrow night :D