Title: On The Other Side
Author: caz251
Fandom: NCIS
Characters: Tony, mentions of the team, Fornell
Rating: PG
Prompt: 25 story_lottery a cell
Summary: Tony's thoughts as he sits in his cell after being framed.
Spoilers: Spoilers for Series 3 Episode 9 Frame Up.
Word Count: 1084
Disclaimer: I do not own NCIS, no matter how much I wish it were so.
He was once more looking through the bars of a cell, something that he had done many times during his career, both as a cop and a NCIS agent, but never like this. He had never been the one in the cell before, and he didn't like being on the reverse side of the coin. It was all wrong to him the very idea of him being in a cell. It was his job to catch those who should be being put into cells, not to be sitting in one himself. He wouldn't have minded so much if he had been visiting someone else in the cell and could leave at any point, but he was literally stuck there until the team could prove that he had been framed. Something that wasn't going to be easy, not with all the evidence that was piling up against him. He had no idea how whoever it was that was framing him had managed to plant so many pieces of evidence that linked back to him, but in a way he admired their skills, it would have taken really hard work and a very keen mind.
He had tried to construct a proper list of who would be trying to frame him, but he had arrested quite a few people in his time in law enforcement, and even if you didn't count the criminals there were a large line of women who probably all wanted him punished for something. Tony couldn't help but feel disheartened with the lack of news. If he was out of the damn cell he would at least be kept in the loop, but no, the FBI just had to lock him up. All because of some evidence that had been found and linked to him. He knew that if all the evidence had pointed to someone else as it was him, he would have locked them up as well, but he couldn't help but feel angry about the whole situation. He would have at least shut the suspect in an interrogation room and questioned them, he had been questioned but with no alibi and all the evidence piling up against him things weren't going well. Fornell hadn't booked him at first, he'd just put in a cell and left because of who he was. Then the blood results came back, with a match to him. They now had his blood, his fingerprint and his teeth marks, nothing really was going his way.
He knew that he was being framed and he knew that both his team and Fornell believed him, Fornell had been there after all, he knew what it was like, but there was nothing that he could do about it from a cell. There had not been much to do in his cell except to think about everything that had happened so far, he had know idea who had framed him, or those who would really want to, but whoever it was definitely had a lot of brains. It had been no idiot that had been behind his frame up, this had been a professional operation of sorts.
Sat in his cell he could imagine the rest of the team hard at work back at the Navy Yard, Ziva and McGee going through everyone who had any right to hold a grudge against him, McGee running every scan he knew on the files they had bound to have copied from his hard drive hoping to find something that may help. Gibbs would be pacing, wandering between everyone who could give any information that could prove his innocence waiting for someone to give him something useful. Ducky was probably sat looking over everything that he had managed to copy before the FBI confiscated all the evidence trying to find anything that would prove that Tony hadn't been the culprit. Abby would no doubt be talking to Major Mass Spec telling him to give her something that would help him, hyped up on caf-pow and most likely in a self-recriminating mood because it had been her test results that had put him in this cell.
The best investigators were working on his case, even if not officially, he knew that it would be suicide to the entire agency if NCIS were to handle the official investigation, but he knew they would be working on his case on their own, taking anything that could help him to Fornell. It didn't seem to be making much of a difference though he was still stuck in this cell with what looked like no chance of escape. He had built enough cases against criminals in his life to know that the evidence against him would be enough for a jury to be convinced of his guilt, especially with his lack of alibi. He had been thinking hard about the outcome if the case went to court and how things would work out for him. His thoughts were interrupted by the smell of pizza, and knowing that he was the only one in these cells he realised that he had a visitor. When Gibbs came into sight he realised how glad he was to see him, and not just because he had brought him his favourite pizza. He knew that he was going crazy in this cell, his thoughts torturing him and making everything seem much worse than things were the longer he was left alone, not that things could be worse.
Having Gibbs to talk to helped ease his fears for a short time, well not so much fears, he was still fearful of the outcome of a day in court. He had explained his worries to Gibbs, maybe not in a traditional or sane way, playing both sides of the conversation - himself and the prosecution, really didn't show as the actions of an entirely sane man. He held fast to his beliefs that he was as sane as the next person, that it was just that being locked up in what amounted to a cage with a bed and a toilet that was making him this way. Gibbs soon sorted him out, using a tried and tested method to show him that he was being stupid, the famous Gibbs-smack, before leaving him alone once more. The smack had done him some good, he knew to let his worries ease a bit, the team were working to prove he was framed and they were good at their jobs, they would get him out of here.