A/N- This chapter rated M for discussion about rape - not very graphic. IF THIS IS NOT YOUR THING, DO NOT READ! But it's not very graphic, so you can take a look at the end of the chapter first, that's where the rape is discussed, see if it's palatable to you.
A/N 2- Please read and review, let me know what you think, if I should continue. Thanks in advance!
DISCLAIMER: No one from NCIS, CBS, etc., had anything to do with the writing of this fic, nor do I have anything to do with NCIS, CBS, et al. Except for enjoying the show.
A SOLITARY ACT
Chapter 1
Eighteen months later…..
"Excuse me…." Agent Tim McGee looked up from his computer screen at the gravelly-sounding woman's voice next to his desk. The voice belonged to a woman in her late 30's, early 40's, dull light brown hair haphazardly pulled into a bun at the back of her head. Her navy blue suit, which was slightly ill-fitting, had seen better days. As had this woman, McGee thought to himself.
"Can I help you, ma'am?" Tim asked politely.
The woman was on the nervous side, which put the young agent on alert. "Yeah…I mean, yes, I'm looking for Agent DiNozzo? They told me downstairs that I could find him here."
Tim had to think for a moment where Tony had gone. That's right, down to Abby's. But he wasn't about to send this woman down there not knowing who she is. "Uh, he's down in the lab at the moment. Would you like to wait?" When the woman lifted her arm to look at her watch, Tim noticed the tattoo on her wrist. If he wasn't mistaken, it was a prison tatt. Was this woman an escapee? 'Geeze, McGee' he mentally whacked himself on the back of the head, 'why would she come to a federal building if she was and escapee?'
Fidgeting, the woman looked at her watch. "Yeah…I mean, yes, I'd like to wait. I have some time before I have to be to work."
McGee found a free chair and placed it by Tony's desk. "I'll call down and let him know you're here, Miss….?"
"Thompson, Janice Thompson," she informed McGee. "Thanks… I mean, um, thank you."
Tim gave her a smile to put her at ease. "No problem." As he dialed Tony's cell, he couldn't help but wonder about the way the woman spoke - almost like she'd been coached on what to say. "Hey Tony, there's a woman up here to see you…uh, no, Tony, not that kind…..she specifically asked for you, that's why…..ok, thanks." He turned to Ms. Thompson. "He'll be up shortly."
She gave a relieved smile. "Thank you very much, Agent…?"
"Oh, sorry, ma'am. Agent Timothy McGee," he said kindly. "If you don't mine my asking, how do you know Agent DiNozzo?"
The elevator dinged and Tony hopped off and interrupted before Janice could answer. "Ok, McSecretary, where's this chick that's so hot to see me?" He looked over at his desk when McGee pointed, and jumped, startled. "Oh! Uh, excuse me, Ms…?"
Tim shook his head and looked apologetically over at Janice. "Agent DiNozzo, this is the woman that wishes to speak with you, Ms. Janice Thompson. Ms. Thompson, this un-mannered man is Agent DiNozzo."
Janice stood and held out her hand abruptly. "Hi… I mean, hello, it's nice to meet you."
Tony looked questioningly over at Tim as he shook the woman's hand. "And me, you." When Tim merely shrugged his shoulders, Tony asked, "I'm…sorry, but… do I know you?"
The woman looked nervous. "Not really," she began. "Um, well, I know about you, but we've never met, if that's what you mean." When Tony looked at her expectantly, she looked nervously around the room. Big spaces still made her anxious. "I need your help, Agent DiNozzo. Well," she clarified, "a friend needs your help. Is there someplace we can talk?"
Making a snap decision that Janice Thompson was no threat - despite the prison tattoo on her wrist - Tony said, "Sure, let's go to the conference room," ushering her out.
Conference room….
After offering her something to drink, which she declined, Tony sat a chair away from her, not wanting to overcrowd her. "Now, how about you tell me how you know me?"
Playing nervously with her watch, Janice thought how to begin. "Well, it's not so much that I know you, than it is I know about you. From a mutual friend."
Tony wondered to himself just who they could have in common.
"Look, Agent DiNozzo, I'm not going to lie, here. I know you know I was inside. I'm not trying to pull anything. I just wanted to get that out of the way right at the beginning," Janice said frankly. "I'm here on the up-and-up."
"Ok, you're right, I know you were behind bars at one time. But you're not now," Tony acknowledged. He sensed this woman would treat honesty with honesty. "Now that that's out of the way, how about you tell me why you're here."
Janice didn't think she'd be this nervous. She was out legitimately, had put in her time. Maybe it was just the fact that this guy was law enforcement. "Well, this…friend….said that if I was ever in trouble or needed help, to come to you, and you'd help the best you could."
Tony groaned to himself. Was she just here for a 'get-out-of-jail-free' card? 'Who the hell would tell her to come to me?' he asked himself. "Are you in trouble, Ms. Thompson?"
"Me?" she yelped. "Oh, no way, sir! Uh-uh! I'm staying outta trouble and keeping my nose clean, sir!"
"Then what are you doing here, Ms. Thompson?" Tony asked.
"It's my…friend…who's in trouble. The one that told me about you."
Tony nodded. Ok, now they were starting to get somewhere. "Is she out, too?" He softened a bit when he saw her eyes begin to tear up.
Janice pulled out a crumpled tissue and dabbed her eyes. "Um, no, no, she's still inside."
"Well, she should be going to someone inside, then. Guard, warden, whomever…" Tony said. How the hell was he supposed to help someone in jail?
"She can't, Agent DiNozzo," Janice insisted. "You're the only one she trusts!"
Enough dancing around. "Who're we talking about, Janice? Who told you to come to me for help?"
Janice got up and paced. "She doesn't know I came to talk to you. She'd be really upset if she knew…."
Tony stood and stopped Janice in her tracks. "Who, Janice?" he asked firmly.
"I don't know if you'll remember her…." Janice began, and rushed to finish when she saw the expression on Agent DiNozzo'z face. "Do you remember Linnea? Linnea Swanson?" The agent's face paled. "She came in a little over a year ago….."
"Nineteen months," Tony murmured. Holy shit. Remember her? He only thought about her every damned day, remembered that he'd failed her.
"So you remember her?" Janice asked hopefully.
Tony ran a hand through his hair and cleared his throat, which suddenly felt tight. "Yeah, yeah, I remember her, Janice. How do you know her?"
Janice looked him in the eye, letting him know she wouldn't lie about this. "I did some time in solitary in the pen. Was on the same block as she was." She wiped at her eyes again. "I'm sorry, Agent DiNozzo, I'm just not sure how to begin…."
His own eyes felt a bit moist. "Well, for starters…did she adjust ok?"
"I wasn't there at the beginning of her time, but when I was there, she seemed to be doing alright." She sighed. "I guess she liked to read a lot, instead of going to the yard for her hour, she chose the library." She chuckled. "She always said that a book could take us far away from where we were, without having to buy tickets and wait in security check lines."
Tony smiled to encourage her to keep going.
"(sniffle) The warden must have thought all that reading was something special, because he asked her to teach a group of us how to read. He said he was trying to start a new program for us stuck in solitary." A tear escaped and ran silently down her cheek. "We all knew her story, knew she chose to spend her sentence in the hole. We didn't think it was right, but it was for the best. Someone like her? Wouldn't have lasted in general pop."
Tony grimaced. "Yeah, she said the same to me the day she went in."
"The warden may have been trying to start a program, maybe not, I don't know. But Linnea made the mistake of enjoying the time out of her cell. She craved seeing and talking to other people."
Tony put his head in his hands. "Go on," he instructed, letting Janice know he was still listening.
"Once they knew she liked doing it, they started to take her few privileges away." This was where Janice started to get angry. "It started slow, taking away one of her hours occasionally. Then they were taking them away more and more often. Told her if she wanted to keep the class, she had to give that hour a day up." She clenched her fists in her lap. "So she did. Never complained about it. She had her group twice a week, she was fine with that. Then they started taking away her weekly commissary visits." Janice shredded the tissue, forgotten in her hand. "We started sneaking little things to her - soap, toothpaste, other toiletries. We showed her how to hide them. But again, she said she was ok with it, because she got to actually see and talk to people."
This was what he'd been afraid of, all those months ago. A sweet soul like Linnea needed human contact. Damn, but he felt like a first-rate prick for not getting her out of this.
"Once we were reading pretty good, she taught some of us who's time was almost up how to fill out a job application." Smoothing her hand down her suit, Janice looked at Tony with a sense of pride that wasn't there when she talked about being inside. "Thanks to Linnea, I got a job," she smiled. "It's only telemarketing, but I've been there almost six months now, and I was just made shift manager of my section," she said proudly.
Tony reached over and squeezed her hands. "Good for you, Janice, good for you," he assured her happily.
She spent one more moment feeling good about herself, then began Linnea's story again. "The po-po and the warden were getting frustrated that Nay-nay - that's the name we gave her, Nay-nay - didn't seem to mind everything getting taken away. So they started taking away the classes. By the time we were down to once every other week, the rest of us could see what it was doing to her. She would be so up when we had group, which wasn't what was supposed to happen, I guess. But they'd taken everything they possibly could from her, so they let it stand. But for a price," Janice spat angrily.
Taking Janice's hands in his, he held them tightly, hoping to give the woman some of his strength. "What happened, Janice?" he asked softly.
Janice sniffled, wiped her eyes on her suit jacket sleeve. "They found one more thing they could take away from her," she whispered hoarsely, tears streaming down her cheeks now.
He was confused. Janice had said they'd taken everything away already… what could possibly be left? "What, Janice?"
"One night, one of the male guards made an extra bed check….made sure none of us were awake." Janice started gasping for air as she cried. "He….he…" Oh Lord, how did she say this?
Tony's heart dropped right out of his chest. "He what, Janice?" he asked with a growl, praying she wouldn't tell him what he thought. "What did this guard do?" He felt like he could kill someone.
Her whole body trembling now, Janice continued. "When he got to Nay-nay's cell, he…. He went in. And we heard Nay cry out….we knew what he was doing to her!" She looked up at Tony, pleadingly. "We tried to help, Agent DiNozzo, we did! We started yelling, calling out for one of the other guards, yelling at him to stop…..no one came….when he left…all we could hear was Nay-nay crying!" Janice was surprised when Agent DiNozzo wrapped her in a hug, whispering in her ear that it was ok, and not her fault. When she had composed herself, she continued, "the next day, our group started back up. And three or four nights a week…..that same officer made an extra bed check. In Nay-nay's cell. And after he left, we'd hear her crying."
His own fists clenched, Tony took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He needed to get Janice to finish the story so he could go throw or break something. "Why does Linnea need my help now, Janice?" he growled. "What's going on?"
"I may be out, and have a job, but I still got a line to the inside," Janice said. "It ain't good, Agent DiNozzo. You gotta promise me you won't think bad about Nay-nay, none of this was her fault!"
Tony sighed. "I know, Janice, it's not Nay…Linnea I'm pissed at."
She pulled into herself like a little girl. "She got knocked up," she whispered, jumping when Tony burst out of his chair and kicked it across the room. "My friend says Nay-nay's in the hospital. Something bad happened. She was almost six months along, and that fuckin' guard was still doing his 'extra bed checks'. About a week ago, my friend says one night, Nay-nay started moaning, then calling for help. Her neighbors tried to find out what was wrong, but she couldn't answer, just call for help. They all tried calling, but no one came. Then she says Nay-nay got real quiet. They kept calling her, trying to get her talking again. They heard her at the door, banging on it. So they called to her, they were all at their bean holes…." Janice paused, sick to her stomach. "They looked out… and saw her hand out the hole…..and it was covered in blood….."
Doing his best to stay in control, Tony asked, "how long?"
Janice hugged herself. "My friend says they yelled and made as much noise as they could…"
"How long, Janice?" Tony ground out between clenched teeth.
"It took about two hours before someone came in….." Janice cried. "They rushed her to the hospital. Our source says she had a miscarriage. If they had come in any later, the doctor says she could have been dead."
Two hours. Two freakin' hours before someone checked on her. Two hours she bled out. Two hours that must have been terrifying for her. Two hours that, if she weren't in prison, would never have happened. His feelings - guilt along with rage - must have been plain on his face, because Janice came up to him, held onto his arm.
"Don't be blaming yourself, Agent DiNozzo. Nay-nay spoke about you a lot, how you tried to help her, talk her out of solitary, how if we ever needed help when we got out, to come to you, cuz you were a good guy." Janice's eyes pleaded with him. "Well, I'm here to ask for your help, Agent DiNozzo. I need you to help Nay-nay. We both know that no matter how bad things got, she'd never ask for it for herself." The agent was so quiet for a while that she was afraid she'd made a bad choice in coming to him.
Tony took Janice's face in his hands and stared in her eyes. "I'll help her, Janice. I promise you, I will help her." He didn't tell her, as he gave her a kiss on the forehead, that when he was finished helping, it would be hard-put to find anyone in a uniform in that prison alive.
C L I F F I E ! ! !
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