A SOLITARY ACT
CHAPTER 3
Sensing movement out of the corner of his eye, Tim looked up from his desk to see Tony escorting Ms. Thompson out, hand on her elbow, gentleman-style. 'What the…?' he thought.
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"That's alright, Agent DiNozzo, I can take a cab," Janice said, slightly embarrassed. In all honesty, she wasn't used to members of law enforcement treating her…well, like a real person.
Tony squeezed her elbow lightly. "No way, darlin'," he said gently. "You're getting a ride to work. Don't want you to be too late."
Janice tried again. "But really….."
Just as they reached the bull pen, Tony yelled, "McGee! Where's Gibbs?"
Tim and Ziva shared a look. Did Tony just call him 'Gibbs' instead of 'boss'? And McGee, 'McGee', not a McNickname? Tim's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. "Uh, he's…Gibbs is…"
"Forget where he is," Tony ordered. "Get him up here now." He put an arm around Janice's shoulder and drew her closer to Ziva's desk. "Janice, this is Agent Ziva David. She'll be driving you to work."
Ziva's eyebrows rose in surprise. "I am what?" But Tony wasn't paying attention to her. Who is this Janice?
"And remember," Tony chastened Janice, "if they give you grief about being late, call me, ok?" He could see she was thinking differently. "Promise me, Janice," he ordered gently.
Janice sighed. "I promise, Agent DiNozzo," she mumbled, head down.
Giving her a one-armed hug, he whispered in her ear, "head high, darlin'. You've earned it."
Janice's chin wobbled and she picked her head up. "Thank you, Agent DiNozzo," she said with a sniffle.
Giving her arm a squeeze, Tony said, "you've got my card, right?" He waited til she nodded. "Ok. And remember - if you need anything…."
Janice smiled a watery smile. "I'll call," she promised as she reached up and gave Tony a hug. She whispered in his ear, "Nay-nay was right about you. You are different than the others."
Ziva stood with her bag and coat. "Shall we go, Ms. Thompson?" she asked, giving Tony an odd look as they left.
Tony turned quickly on McGee. "Gibbs! Where is he?" he yelled as he walked to his desk.
Tim was beyond confused. Tony was actually nice to a former prisoner…. "Uh, he's down in Interr…"
"I don't care where he is!" Tony began typing furiously on his computer. "Just get him up here!" he said angrily.
"But he's in Interroga…." Tim gulped as Tony grabbed him by the front of his shirt. He hadn't even seen the other agent roll over in his chair.
Tony gave Tim his best version of the Gibbs Glare. "I don't care if he's in a meeting with the Heads of State of every country in the world. GIBBS. HERE. NOW." Seeing his junior agent about to argue, he growled, "As senior agent, I am ordering you to get Gibbs up here in the next five minutes. We clear, Probie?" he snarled.
Tim weighed his choices, and decided that interrupting Gibbs in Interrogation was the safer one. "On it, boss." He all but ran down the hall.
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Stopping outside the door to Interrogation Room One, Tim closed his eyes, praying Gibbs wouldn't hurt him too much for this. He took a deep breath, and with a soft knock, he hesitantly opened the door to see Gibbs leaning across the table in the suspect's face, eyes hard as steel. That glare turned to him and he gulped. "Uh, s-sorry, boss," he said hesitantly, as Gibbs strode angrily to the door. "but, um, Tony…Tony sent me to tell you he needs you in the bull pen," he said softly.
Gibbs leaned in closer to Tim's face, eyes blazing. "You never…"
Tim held up a hand between their bodies, hoping to hold his boss at bay. "I know, boss. But Tony… I've never seen him like this before, boss," he hastily explained. "He actually called me 'McGee'!"
"That is your name, isn't it?" Gibbs got right in close to Tim's face. "Or is it 'Probie Out of A Job?'" he growled.
"I…I…uh, he… he called you 'Gibbs,' boss, not 'boss.'" Seeing that that wasn't making Gibbs any happier, Tim stammered, "He pulled the 'Senior Agent' card and ordered me to get you up there." He saws Gibbs processing this information. "I've never seen him like this before, Gibbs. Yelling, making Ziva give the ex-con a ride to her job, giving me the stare…." he took a breath. "Pretty much like the one you're giving me now."
Without warning, Gibbs was halfway down the hall. "Let's go, McGee!"
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Gibbs stormed into the bull pen, prepared to fire Tony's ass if the reason for interrupting his interrogation was less than the outbreak of World War III. Seeing his SFA seated calmly at his computer, he got even angrier. "DiNOZZO!" Gibbs got a smidgen of satisfaction when the younger man jumped. Walking right up to Tony, who was now walking out around his desk to meet him, he growled lowly, "Give me one good reason I shouldn't fire your ass…!"
Seemingly unafraid, Tony reached down without looking, staring Gibbs right back in the eye, and picked up the remote for the plasma screen. "That good enough?" he snarled back.
( Seeing the two strong-willed agents head-to-head, McGee stood just outside the bull pen watching nervously, not wanting to be too close if either man exploded.)
Gibbs reluctantly turned his glare away from Tony and turned his head to look at the screen. When he saw the picture, he turned his entire body around to face the TV. He forgot all about being interrupted in interrogation. Tony watched shock and concern take over the anger on Gibbs' face. "Tell me," Gibbs ordered.
Now Tony was nervous, but it had nothing to do with an angry boss. He, too, stared at the split screen with two very different pictures of Linnea Swanson on it, the one on the left a picture of her smiling - cropped from a picture of her with a group of friends out having fun. The picture on the right….her mug shot - messy hair, eyes red and watery, lips a tight, straight line. Quite obvious that she'd been crying. "We got trouble, boss."
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Gibbs charged into Bethesda Hospital like he owned the place, followed closely by Tony and Ducky. Gibbs wanted Ducky there as a witness to the injuries, and as his medical dictionary. He ignored the nurses trying to stop him and went straight for the duty nurse at the desk, flipping open his badge. "Linnea Swanson's room. Now."
After seeing the name on the federal ID card, charge nurse Lt. Lisa Bradley believed her co-workers now about the rude, demanding senior special agent from NCIS. "I'm sorry, sir, but…"
"Linnea Swanson. Where is she, lieutenant?" Gibbs ordered from between clenched teeth.
She'd put up with worse in Iraq, she could handle this guy. "AS I tried to tell you, she's not….."
A familiar voice interrupted. "That's ok, Lieutenant, I'll take it from here."
The trio from NCIS turned. "Well hello, Brad," greeted Ducky jovially. Tony shook the doctor's hand, and Gibbs did the same.
"Doc," Gibbs said with a nod, going with the doc when he motioned them to.
"Heard you asking about Linnea Swanson," Dr. Pitt said casually as they walked down the hallway. "What's NCIS's interest in her?"
Gibbs and Tony shared a look. "She was sort of a suspect in an embezzling case about 18, 19 months ago," Tony said, quietly.
Brad stopped walking and looked at the agents. "'Sort of' a suspect?" He raised his eyebrows in confusion. "She was in prison… must have been more than 'sort of.'"
Angry with himself, Tony turned away. Keeping an eye on him, Gibbs answered the doc. "She was framed. We knew it, but with the evidence, and lack of cooperation from another suspect - the real suspect - we couldn't prove it. She made a deal to serve her sentence in solitary." He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "We got the federal prosecutor to go along with it. Figured solitary would be 'safer.'" He grimaced, wanting to hit something. Or someone.
Brad could see how badly these gentlemen felt. Knowing them as he did, he knew they had tried their best. But, even the best can backfire. He motioned them into his office, closing the door behind them. "I gather that you know what happened to Miss Swanson," he hedged.
"We know all of it, Brad," Tony said darkly, clenching his fists.
"Good. Leaves less for me to tell," Brad said as he moved some files around on his desk. Finding the one he was looking for, he handed it to Ducky. "She was brought in to the ER by prison ambulance at 0330 this past Monday." He looked at Ducky when the older gentleman gasped softly as he read the chart. "Her blood pressure was 60 over 40, breathing shallow. She was unresponsive, and suffering from severe blood loss. Prison doctor said he had no idea why she was hemorrhaging." Brad shook his head. "It didn't take us more than a couple of minutes to figure out that she had miscarried. Fetus was approximately 25 weeks."
Ducky tsked and shook his head as he read. "Oh my," he sighed. "That poor girl," he murmured, shocked at what he was reading. Feeling Gibbs' eyes on him, he put things in laymans' terms. "Jethro, it's a miracle this dear girl even made it to the ER. The blood loss alone…not to mention the amount of pain she had to be in." Ducky looked up at Dr. Pitt. "If she was brought in immediately, what do you account for that amount of blood loss, doctor?"
Tony stood suddenly and began pacing. "Because it wasn't 'immediately.'" At the questioning looks from the rest of the group, he told what he knew. "She lay in her cell bleeding out for two hours before anyone thought to come see what all the yelling on the block was about." Before he turned to pace back, he slammed a fist into the wall.
"Dear Lord!" muttered Ducky.
"You sure about this, Tony?" Brad asked, concerned.
Tony chuckled, shaking his hand out. "Straight from the cellblock, Doc."
All eyes jumped to Ducky as he sucked in a breath. The kindly M.E. raised his eyes to Gibbs and Tony. "This was no ordinary miscarriage, Jethro," he said as he held out the pictures. Aside from the blood, there were fresh large, dark bruises covering her abdomen. Older, yellowing bruises could be seen around her wrists and on her inner thighs. "It appears she had some help," he said angrily.
As expected, Gibbs showed no outward emotion to the photos. In any other situation, having worked homicide, Tony would have been objective about it. But knowing that he bore part of the blame for this situation, he had to fight vomiting.
Handing the photos back to Ducky, Gibbs turned towards Tony. "'Ey. DiNozzo," he said gruffly. "Stop thinking' about the past. Focus on catching the bastards that did this, and taking them down."
With a nod, Tony returned to his seat.
"We're gonna' need to talk to Miss Swanson, Brad," Gibbs told the doctor, who suddenly looked sick to his stomach. The three NCIS members immediately got suspicious. "What," Gibbs asked, his gut screaming.
"She's not here." Brad mentally shot himself for signing her release form.
Gibbs glared at the doctor. "She almost died from blood loss. Where the hell is she?"
"Oh MY!" Ducky interrupted. "They've sent her back to the prison infirmary!"
Pushing his chair back violently as he jumped up again, Tony said, "Great! Just send her back to the people that almost killed her. Nice going, Brad!"
Ducky spoke up. "It was an order from the warden, Anthony. It's all right here. Once she was stabilized, she was to return and receive further treatment in the prison infirmary."
"Whatever I can do, Gibbs, whatever you need… I'd like to help," Brad said sadly. "I feel partially responsible."
Gibbs stood in front of Tony so he had to quit pacing. Tony let Gibbs see the pain in his eyes. "We gotta' fix this, boss. This never should have happened."
"Oh, we're gonna' fix it," Gibbs promised, a vengeful gleam in his eye. "Up for a little house cleaning, DiNozzo?" he asked with a dangerous grin.
'The prison staff will never know what hit them,' Ducky thought to himself, not feeling the least bit of guilt at that thought. 'Don't worry, dear girl, you've got Leroy Jethro Gibbs in your corner.' he looked once more at the sickening photos. 'Just hold on a little longer,' he silently willed her.
A/N - C'mon, ya'll! REVIEW already! This poor story is feeling sad and lonely without reviews! Don't make me have to share my Paxil with it! REVIEW PLEASE! And Mucho Thanks!
ALL PREVIOUS DISCLAIMERS ABOUT MY NOT OWNING OR RECEIVING ANYTHING FROM NCIS, CBS, ETC. STILL APPLY.