Red Peril
[2]
Even before he looked through the spy hole, McGee knew who was on the other side of the door. That particular pattern of knocks could only come from one Tony DiNozzo.
He'd been expecting this visit and he knew exactly why Tony was showing up.
Granted, this time there had been no doubt in anyone's mind that it was a 'good' shoot. The team had tracked down a suspect in some pretty heavy crimes. A real dirtbag by all accounts, who had killed more than once to cover his tracks. The team had cornered him in his house, and as luck would have it, McGee had been covering the exit the guy had tried to escape through. Armed with a shotgun, the suspect had clearly been willing to take down as many cops as he could, and nobody had faulted McGee for being the one to stop him in his tracks.
But that still didn't change the fact that Tim McGee had another death on his mind...and that was why he knew Tony would be showing up sooner or later.
Practically every time McGee had had a bad day or a crisis of faith in his abilities as a field agent, Tony managed to sense something and would show up at his apartment to try and drag him out of his gloom. "When the going gets tough, the tough go clubbing" was his motto, and while McGee didn't always let himself be persuaded to go out, he still always felt better after a visit from his friend.
"No Tony, I'm not going clubbing," said McGee as he opened his door. "But there's beer in the fridge if you want some."
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An hour later, McGee finally managed to usher Tony out the door, having convinced him that yes he was feeling much better and would totally be able to sleep that night in spite of having shot the guy.
It wasn't until McGee had locked up after Tony that he noticed his friend had left his cell phone on the kitchen counter. He was sorely tempted to leave it there, but he knew that if the team were called in and Tony wasn't contactable, then he'd get in trouble. Not to mention the fact that if Tony noticed the phone was missing *after* he'd finished clubbing, he was just as likely to come to retrieve it. And McGee had no wish to be woken up by Tony banging on his door in the middle of the night...again.
So McGee grabbed his keys and the phone and headed for the door. It briefly occurred to him that maybe this was Tony's way of getting him out of the apartment and once he'd returned the phone, Tony would play the "well, since you're outside, you might as well come clubbing!" card. McGee had fallen for *that* one before. To be on the safe side, he left his wallet behind, figuring that if Tony *did* convince him to party this time, he'd at least have to pay for it.
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By McGee's reckoning, he was only about five minutes behind Tony as he hurried out the front door of his apartment building. But those five minutes had been long enough for Tony to get himself into trouble.
McGee could hear the sound of a fight coming from around the corner of his apartment building. He reached instinctively for his gun, only to remember that he had handed it over to Abby for testing earlier that day. Not that there had been any doubt about what had gone down, but procedures had to be followed.
However, McGee wasn't unarmed. After seeing how many weapons Ziva carried, he'd gotten himself a second gun which he now carried in an ankle holster. He was still breaking it in though, and was wearing it most of the time he was off duty as well. Now he breathed a silent sigh of thanks as he reached down and retrieved his gun.
The noise of the fighting got even louder as McGee approached. Taking a deep breath, he glanced around the corner, his eyes opening wide at the sight of Tony being attacked by two men.
McGee didn't even think twice before stepping into the alley, gun raised, and yelling "Federal Agent, get away from him, *now*!"
Tony was on the ground by this stage, and even as McGee watched, one of the men raised an iron bar ready to smash it into his face. Without thinking, McGee fired, more in the hopes of distracting the attacker than anything else. To his surprise, he hit the man in the arm, making him drop the bar.
"I said get away from him!"
The second man threw his club in McGee's direction, forcing him to dodge out of the way, and then both attackers took off. McGee hurried to Tony's side and hesitated. If he stopped to help Tony then the attackers could get away, but if he chased the attackers instead of helping Tony, they could double back and hurt him further.
It didn't really take much thinking. McGee crouched down beside Tony who was huddled on the ground. "Oh God, Tony!" he gasped, seeing the blood that was streaming down his friend's face. For a few seconds he froze, unsure as to whether to try and stop the bleeding first or call for help and *then* try and stop the bleeding. A low moan from Tony decided him.
"It...it's okay, Tony...I...I'm gonna call for help!" He grabbed Tony's phone to dial 911, but his hands were shaking and he dropped it in the blood that was pooling beside Tony's body. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said quickly as he picked it up. He was just about press the buttons when he heard a woman scream behind him.
McGee span around to see a young woman standing there, but when she saw the gun in his hand, she screamed even louder.
"It's okay, I'm an N.C.I.S. agent," he said, in a vain attempt to calm her down. "I need to get help for my friend."
"Somebody help!" screamed the woman.
McGee could hear the sound of running footsteps approaching. A few seconds later, two police officers appeared behind the woman, guns drawn.
"Officers, thank God you're here, we need an ambulance."
One officer pulled the woman behind him, keeping his weapon aimed at McGee. "Sir, put your weapon down and step away from that man."
"Officer, you don't understand, I'm an N.C.I.S. agent." McGee took a step forward, only to stop as both officers trained their weapons on him.
"Sir, I won't ask you again, put your weapon *down*!"
McGee swallowed hard as he quickly dropped the weapon. "Hands in the air!" He obeyed that order too.
"I'm telling you, I'm a federal agent," protested McGee as he was shoved up against the wall. "Please, that's my friend on the ground, he needs medical treatment, *now*!"
Face pressed up against the wall, McGee could just see the second officer crouching down beside Tony as he called for an ambulance.
"I don't see no Federal agent ID," said the first officer as he quickly searched McGee.
"I left my wallet behind me."
"But you remembered your gun, yeah?"
"I'm telling you the truth, I..." but before McGee could say anything else, the second officer came over and slapped a pair of handcuffs on him. "Hey, what's going on!"
"What's going on, is we just got a report of a mugging at this location. An eye-witness called it in...and what do you know, they gave a perfect description of you."
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To be continued
Ceindreadh
Author's Chapter Notes:
McGee has had a bad day, but Tony is going to have a worse night.