A/N: I FINISHED IT!!!! The Bank Job will be posted in its entirety. Also, there are two endings, a true ending and an alternate ending. You guys will get to guess which is which.

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The next half hour was the most tense one in all of Danny's life. Pacing again, the robber told everyone to stay in the main room with him, even Sam and Danny. His excuse—"You've found me plenty of loot here. I wanna see it double at the next bank we hit."

That seemed to throw Sam off. She sat in a corner, eyes on the floor. Danny wasn't sure if she'd be able to pull herself back together. He sat nearby, every so often patting his pants pocket to remind—her? him?—that he still had the gun. If only he could find a way that it would help.

"Hey, Protector."

Danny blinked, looking up to see the robber motioning for him to come over. He stood slowly, then walked to the man. "Yeah?"

"The pizza comes, you go get it. Got it?"

"What about the police? They won't let me leave."

"They'll get their nine. They try to keep you, and I'll shoot one of those kids. You tell them that."

Danny couldn't speak, so he just nodded.

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The phone rang. The robber had it in hand immediately. "Yeah?" he growled. He listened a moment, nodding. Then he motioned Danny over once more. Digging a clawed hand into the boy's shoulder, the robber said, "This is how things'll work. Ten hostages go out, one comes back with the food. You try to keep the tenth, and I'll shoot one of the kids."

Again, Danny listened to the chief's side. "Okay, but we choose who goes back."

"Sorry, I already have. Oh, and you're at twenty-eight minutes, so make the exchange quick." He hung up, yelling and waving for two adults and the seven primary hostages to head to the door. He held Danny back a moment, hissing in his ear. "You get back here in one minute or I'll shoot your little friend." He waved the gun at Sam.

Danny gulped, nodded.

"Good. Now go."

The man shoved Danny into the line of hostages, and all ten stumbled out the doors.

Policemen were everywhere. The two adults were kept out front while the officers shuttled the kids and elderly away from the scene. One attempted to do the same with Danny.

"Woah!" he shouted. "Wait! You can't—!"

"Let us do our job, kid," the officer pulling him said.

"No, but—!"

"Who's the tenth?" an officer was asking the two adults.

They were frantic. "Neither of us!"

"C'mon, kid!"

"No! I'm the tenth!"

The policemen froze for a moment. "You're the tenth?" the one who had been questioning the adults said.

"Yes," Danny exclaimed, nearly sighing in relief.

The man bit his lip, nodding to the other officer. "Take these two out of here. I'll handle him."

"But—!" the officer complained.

"Go!"

He complied, tugging the frantic hostages away.

The man turned back to Danny. "I'm Chief Gibbs. You must be a pretty brave kid." He ruffled Danny's hair, causing the boy to bristle.

"Hey, quit it!" Danny swatted at the offending hand.

Gibbs chuckled, smoothing the front of Danny's shirt before patting his shoulder. "Sorry, kid. I'm trying to get a mike in a place he won't think of."

"Great, so you're both killing us all and making it obvious where it'll be!"

Gibbs smirked. "Am I really? Don't run your hands through your hair, okay, kid?"

Danny blinked, grinned. "Nice."

"And try to figure out his name, got it?"

"Yep. Now, I need to run. He only gave me a minute, so I gotta—!"

Gibbs pushed the pizza boxes into Danny's hands. "Go."

Danny nodded, turned, and left.

An officer came up to Gibbs, saying, "You're really gonna trust this whole thing to a kid?"

Gibbs slapped him upside the head. "Shut up, DiNozzo."

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Danny rushed in, shoving the pizza at the man. "Here!"

The man glared. "That," he snarled, "was more than one minute."

"Then shoot me. It's my fault, anyway, for taking so long."

"You're flying me outta here, she's not."

Sam was cowering away from him, showing a side Danny had never seen at school. "I—I don't need to use my feet or legs to fly. You can shoot me." Danny moved in front of her.

"You are trying my patience, Protector. Move."

"Just shoot me instead! You're still punishing me for being late!"

A gunshot echoed through the room. Danny gasped, collapsing to the floor to get weight off his bleeding right leg.

The gunman bent down to his eye level, pulling him forward by his shirt. "Let that teach you not to talk to the stupid police!"

Danny hissed in pain as his leg dragged along the ground. The gunman started smoothing out the front of Danny's shirt just as the chief had earlier. "Damn police and their damn mikes…. Where'd he hide it? …Nn…ah! There!" He pulled a tiny black object off the shirt, and Danny had a sinking thought that it had fallen from his hair. "No stupid cop is gonna outsmart me!"

Danny thought of the chief's request. "Wait, what? Outsmart who?"

"Me," the gunman spat. "After all, I am a Ryder, and all Ryders are geniuses!"

Danny grimaced. "Rider? Like a horse rider or bike rider or—?"

"No, you pathetically stupid child! Ryder with a Y!"

"Oh…. W—Wait, what?" Danny blinked as he remembered that name. "Y—You're…." He fell away from the man as his grip on the shirt loosened.

The man himself appeared to be thinking hard, looking Danny over again. Then he laughed. "Well, well! If it isn't cousin Maddie's little boy! No wonder I pegged you as a Protector! People just don't change, do they, kiddo?"

"Apparently not," Danny growled, "seeing as you're still a murdering, sadistic, greedy bastard!"

Ryder frowned, then patted Danny's bad leg. "Now, now, Protector, no fussing, got it?" He squeezed at the wound, making Danny scream out.

"I got it!"

Ryder let go. "Good." He went to the back.

Sam crawled over to a still-panting Danny. "Y—You know him?"

"Sadly enough, he's family."

"What…what happened? Why does he call you that?"

" 'Cause I tried to stop him from killing my sister."

"But, Jazz is—?"

"No, my twin sister. He killed her, when we were little. We could never prove it, since it was his word versus a five-year-old's, so Mom just decided to act as though she'd never had a second daughter. All 'cause I couldn't stop him."

"You were five!"

"I still could've tried!" Danny snapped. "I did try. But I just couldn't stop him… and I can't stop him now." He shook his head. "What's that stupid saying? 'Those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it'? Too bad there's more people he'll kill this time around…. We never should've forgot…."

"Danny, there's a major difference between then and now!"

"Oh, yeah? What?"

She smiled. "You aren't alone."

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A/N: Enjoy.