A SOLITARY ACT

CHAPTER 9

Later that afternoon…

Gibbs waited in the kitchen while Tony made his sixth - and hopefully final - visit to the porcelain hotel. He poured two strong cups of coffee, setting one on the table and keeping the other for himself. Minutes later, Tony came shuffling out of the bathroom. His hair was sticking up every which way, his clothes wrinkled, but he did look slightly less green. Gibbs set his mug down on the table with a loud thump, his lips twitching when Tony grabbed his head. Yep, his boy had it bad. "Sit," he said in a quiet but authoritative voice.

Sitting where Gibbs directed, Tony's face scrunched up at the smell of the coffee, and he pushed it away. "Sorry, boss," he moaned, "but I can't handle your brew right now." He put his head down on the table, resting on his arms. "Do me a favor, boss?"

Gibbs smiled. "Put you out of your misery?"

"Maybe later," Tony mumbled. "But right now I need the special DiNozzo Defibrillator."

"You're going to give me the secret recipe?" Gibbs smirked.

Tony snorted. "You wish. No, there's a jug in the fridge, top shelf, at the back."

Gibbs opened the refrigerator and located the plastic container. As he pulled it out, he saw that it had a skull and crossbones pasted on it. As he set it on the table, he raised an eyebrow at Tony.

Tony shrugged. "Neighbor's kids come over sometimes. Didn't want them grabbing the wrong jug." As Gibbs turned to the cabinets to get him a glass, Tony picked up the jug and put it to his lips, taking a big gulp. He saw Gibbs' stern look when he put the jug down. "Just getting a jumpstart."

He didn't know what was in the DiNozzo Defibrillator, but Tony was already beginning to get some color back in his face after one glass, thought Gibbs. When he'd finished his second glass, Gibbs took it and put it in the sink, then put the jug back in the refrigerator. When he turned back to the table, Tony looked him in the eye.

"I'm really not ready to talk about it yet, boss."

Gibbs looked Tony over. "Go grab a shower, put on some clean clothes," he said, almost nicely, and Tony gave him a relieved smile. "Then we'll talk." The smile on the younger agent's face fell.

"Right," Tony sighed, and made his way to the bathroom.

An hour later, Tony finished - he'd stayed in the shower 'til the water ran ice cold - and walked back out to the living room. He'd hoped that Gibbs would be gone, but no dice. The boss sat in "his" chair, next to the sofa. With a sigh, he figured he'd get it over with, so he walked to the sofa and sat, exhausted, but feeling almost human, at least.

Gibbs watched as Tony walked into the room, clean, freshly-shaven, neat clothes. Hair was still a mess though, sticking up everywhere. He looked almost human. He waited, after Tony sat, to see if he would tell him what had caused all this, but his SFA could be stubborn. Looks like he'd have to start. "We told you specifically not to see Linnea Swanson, DiNozzo." Tony never looked up at him. "Why did you do it, Tony?"

Tony sighed and stretched his head back, leaning back. "I don't know. I mean…" he searched for the right words. "I've been there almost a month, boss. And she's still in the infirmary. That just doesn't sit right with me. She should be back in her cell by now. But she's got fresh bruises around her wrists, she's jacked up on so many pills, it could take a year for her body to completely detox. This isn't right, boss. She can't go on like this. She needs her life back."

Gibbs just stared at his agent, mad as hell that he went against orders, but proud as hell of the man, the agent, he'd become. "We're on it, Tony. Abby is going over all the medical charts for anything Brad may have missed. We're still waiting on the tox screen of her blood. You need to let us do our jobs out here, Tony."

"Well, you need to work faster." Tony abruptly stood and paced.

"You need to let go of your emotions about this, about her. You need to stay focused." Gibbs stepped into Tony's path and put his hands on the younger man's shoulder to stop him. He waited until Tony looked him in the eye. "I need your head in the game, Tony. I won't hesitate to pull you."

Tony stared into Gibbs' eyes a moment longer, reading his anger and concern. He dropped his gaze and his body slumped in exhaustion. "I know," he whined, falling back onto the couch. "I know, I know. I just….." His eyes pleaded with Gibbs'. "It's my fault, she's there, boss. My fault she's been abused, raped repeatedly…..got pregnant, almost died having a miscarriage…..she never should have been there, boss. We shoulda' tried harder, worked a little longer to get more evidence, tried harder to talk her out of it…."

Gibbs sat on the coffee table in front of Tony. "'Ey. I'm your superior. It was my idea to interrogate her and her brother together. My order to arrest her. I'm the one that made her stay in solitary happen. If this is on anyone, DiNozzo, it's on me. Not you. You were doing your job, following my orders." He put his hand on the back of Tony's neck so he could look in his eyes, and hopefully get through to him. "This. Is. Not. Your. Fault, Tony. Hear me?"

Tony rubbed at his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I hear you. I think you're wrong, but I hear ya'."

Watching his boy for a minute, Gibbs finally stood up and made for the door. "Get some rest. Need ya' in the office by 0800. Interrogating the brother."

Jumping up, Tony ran after Gibbs to the door. "Wait! We got new evidence?"

Halfway out the door, Gibbs turned. "Got some intel from someone on the ship. Preliminary checking says the info's good. Thought you might want to sit in."

Tony's blood was already beginning to boil at the thought of having that punk back in interrogation. He couldn't wait to see what the team had, couldn't wait to take this guy down, make him pay for what he let happen to his little sister. "Wouldn't miss it. Be there with bells on, boss." Gibbs smirked at him and nodded.

"Get some rest." And with that, Gibbs was gone.

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The Next Day, 0800

NCIS Interrogation Rm. 1

Tony couldn't believe the change in Petty Officer Swanson's appearance. He looked like he'd aged twenty years in the last twenty months. He'd lost weight, his skin was pale. His eyes looked haunted. Well, that's what happens when you let your sister go to federal prison in your place. Gibbs was already grilling the man.

"How's your sister, Petty Officer Swanson?"

The PO never raised his eyes from where his hands were folded on the table. "I don't know," he rasped.

Tony opened the file in front of him. "Oh, that's right. Says here you've never been to visit her. Kind of slipping on the big brother duties, there, Andrew." He felt a moment of pleasure as the PO closed his eyes and his comment hit home. But Swanson still didn't say anything. "Must be embarrassing, huh? Your little sister, sitting in federal prison? I can just imagine the looks, the stares…'hey, there's the guy who's sister's doing time in the federal pen.' Can't be easy on a ship, huh? Close quarters, tempers can get hot quick."

"It's fine, sir," the man whispered roughly.

Gibbs took over again. "How's the money situation these days, Petty Officer? Holding up ok?"

"Yes, sir."

Ya' know, Petty Officer, it's really not good form to take money from the ship's payroll account using your own password. Kinda' defeats the purpose of trying to cover your tracks." Gibbs pulled out time stamps, passcodes, and ships' purser's statements. "See, after you're in, you do real well at covering your tracks. There are no electronic footprints leading to you once the account is opened. The money was there, and now…." he pulls out bank statements. "….it's not. There's no paper trail. No electronic trail. So where did it go, Petty Officer?"

"I don't know, sir."

Tony's turn. "Did you know your sister was teaching the other inmates in her cell block to read? Yep, she did pretty well, too." He got up and began to pace around the room. "Even taught a few of them that were being released…" he paused behind the PO's chair, "how to apply for jobs, and how to keep it once they got one. Funny," Tony leaned one hand on the table and the other on the back of Andrew Swanson's chair. "…considering that, even if she's released tomorrow, your little sister will probably never work again. Not with an embezzlement charge on her record. And not just any embezzlement charges…federal charges. Stealing from an employer is one thing," Tony went back to his seat and dropped into it. "But stealing from your own government? Generally not something most potential employers are looking for on a resume`." The PO still didn't raise his eyes, but his chin quivered just a bit. Tony decided to push some more. "And her teaching career? She can kiss that goodbye. Not too many parents want their little children spending the day in the care of a convicted felon, no matter how innocent it turns out she is. Nooooo, once the word 'prison' gets put out there, no school district will hire her. No one wants a felon teaching in their school system." 'Ah-ha!' Tony thought to himself, as the Petty Officer closed his eyes as if in pain. 'Direct hit!'

Gibbs slapped a photo down on the table. "Know this guy?"

Swanson barely looked at the photo. "No,sir."

"Aw, c'mon Swanson, you didn't even take a look. How can you know you don't know him? Take another look."

PO Swanson picked his head up and took a quick glance. Quick, but not quick enough for Gibbs to miss the flare of recognition in his eyes. "I don't know him, sir."

"Zamfir Al Akba. One of the biggest underground munitions dealers in the free world. From what I hear, he's been a little strapped for cash lately."

Hearing the name, Tony turned to Gibbs. "Zamfir? Really? Like, 'The Master of the Pan Flute' Zamfir? You know, like in those commercials on TV from years ago….." He not only saw, but felt the glare Gibbs gave him. "I'm…sure it's not…the same guy, he'd be like, what, in his eighties now?….But that's not important. Our guy is a bad guy. Real bad guy. Shutting up now, boss."

Gibbs turned his glare back on the Petty Officer. "You don't recognize him."

"No, sir."

"You might want to take a moment to think about it, Swanson." Gibbs pulled out another photo. "Because that sure looks like you, talking to Mr. Al Akba."

"I have nothing to say, sir."

This was enough kid-gloving for Tony. He pulled out some pictures of his own. "Remember how young and fresh-faced your sister looked, about two years ago? Yeah, this looks like some kind of party…look at her, laughing, pretty smile. Nice way to remember her, huh?" He saw Swanson take a deep breath. "Yeah, they say prison changes you. Here's her mug shot. No pretty smile in this one….looks like she's crying. She hasn't even been in prison yet, and already she looks several years older. Wonder if she still looks that way…oh, but then, you wouldn't know, you haven't been to see her, never even showed up for her sentencing." Tony scooped up the pictures. "Yeah, Petty Officer, you're one hell of a stand-up guy. Let your little sister take the rap for you, and then don't even visit her in that hellhole she's living in."

"DiNozzo." Quiet, commanding.

Tony took a deep breath, held it, then slowly released it.

Andrew Swanson couldn't take it anymore. They may kill him, but knowing his sister basically gave up her life for him was just too much. This Agent DiNozzo was right. He was no kind of man. He felt a tear run down his cheek, and he sniffled. "He said they'd hurt her," he whispered.

"Who?" asked Gibbs.

Swanson sighed. "Al Akba. Said if I didn't (sniffle) help them…that they would hur…hurt Linnea." He wiped at his eyes with his fingers. "(sniffle) About a year before all this, she had a car accident. (sniffle) She was ok, just a few bruises. A few days later, I got pictures in the mail. Of the accident. Her talking to the other driver." He took a deep breath. "There was a letter with the pictures. Unsigned, but I knew who it was from. It said that the driver could have done much worse damage. To the car and to the girl." Andrew tried to collect himself, keep himself from making a complete fool of himself. "I got a call. From Al Akba the next day. Said he had someone watching Linnea all the time, he could get to her anytime he wanted, do anything he wanted to her, and there was nothing I could do to stop him. Unless I gave him what he wanted."

Gibbs kept a neutral face. "The ship's payroll."

Swanson nodded. "Fifty thousand dollars. I thought, 'no sweat', I could make it look like an accounting error. I did like they asked, he said my sister was safe, no one on the ship was none the wiser."

"But he came back for more."

Taking out a handkerchief, Swanson wiped his eyes. "Yeah. He came back. Wanted more. A lot more. I said no, that I couldn't make that much just disappear. Al Akba said he knew Linnea worked part-time at the bank. She could help me out. I told him no way, my sister wasn't getting involved in this. Then he took out his phone, and showed me live video of a man outside her classroom window. He had an assault rifle."

Gibbs stared the PO in the eye. "So you did what he wanted."

"I did what he wanted. Managed to do it by myself. Gave him the money, told him that was it, I was done. He agreed. A few weeks later, he was back, asking for even more money. In the millions. I knew I'd never be able to pull that off. I stalled, told Al Akba it was going to take about a week to be able to make that much disappear without a trace. Next day, I received a CD in the mail. No label on it. Put it in the computer, played it." He broke down. "It was screaming. A woman screaming in pain. It sounded like Linnea. I panicked! I called her right away, but she didn't answer. I tried and tried for three days to find her. She showed up that Monday afternoon. Fine, not a hair out of place. Reminded me that she'd gone to the Adirondacks for the long weekend. She'd heard all my messages, read all my texts and emails when she got home. Wanted to know what the hell was wrong. I couldn't…..thinking it had been her….I told her what was going on. She begged me to go to the authorities." Swanson looked up at Gibbs and Tony. "Said they'd be able to help both of us. But I…I just couldn't…."

"You were in too deep," Gibbs said quietly, and Swanson nodded.

"I knew that even if you guys believed me about Al Akba, I'd still go to prison, and there'd be nobody to take care of my sister. She'd be out here alone, and if not Akba, than one of his gang could get to her." He shook his head. "I never meant for her to actually get involved. I figured she could just tell me how to do it, give me codes and stuff. She said no, that she could get it done quicker, I should just go to Al Akba and tell him the money was coming, and that this would be the last, that we were done. Well Linnea tried to play it smart, she did something so the transfer wouldn't go through. I noticed it before Akba, went to the bank, used her codes, made the transfer myself. That's when it all started to go downhill. On my end." He looked at both agents, tears streaming down his face. "You gotta believe me. I never meant for Linnea to get involved in this at all. I told her to stay out of it. But she said…." He squeezed his eyes shut, in great emotional pain. "She said that no one was going to get away with hurting….(sniffle) with hurting her big brother." Andrew out his head down on the table and cried.

Gibbs and Tony were silent. Gibbs could tell Tony was itching to continue with his portion of the interrogation, but he shook his head at the younger agent. PO Swanson couldn't handle it right now.

Tony waited as long as he could, until Swanson quieted then picked his head up. Then he burst. "So you thought her going to prison would keep Linnea safe?" The distraught man just nodded.

"Tony," Gibbs warned.

Grabbing a bunch of photos out of the file in front of him, Tony spread them out in front of Andrew Swanson. "Does this look like she's safe to you?" He yelled, fanning out the pictures of Linnea with her bruises. It never even registered when the man in front of him gagged. "Oh, and here she is in the hospital. Having a miscarriage!" Tony stood and leaned across the table, into Swanson's face. "That's right, Swanson. This isn't from other inmates. A guard raped your sister almost every night for a year! And when she got pregnant, he beat her so severely she miscarried! She almost died in her cell from blood loss!"

Gibbs had tried to rein in Tony, but the agent was just too angry. "DiNozzo! Enough!" He pulled Tony away from the table and back against the mirrored window. "Enough!" Gibbs looked back at Swanson, who had crushed a picture of his sister to his chest and was rocking back and forth, sobbing, saying he was sorry. He startled when the door flew open and Tim and Ziva rushed in. He dragged Tony towards them. "Get him outta here!" Ziva and McGee each took an arm and pulled/pushed the angry agent out of the room.

The Bullpen

Ziva and McGee sat at their desks watching Tony pace like a caged animal. They knew he was angry, and that he knew Gibbs was angrier at him for losing it during the interrogation. The two younger agents were not looking forward to the scene to come.

They didn't have to wait long, as Gibbs soon came storming into the bullpen. They had all seen him angry at one point or another, but this was worse than anything they'd ever seen. Gibbs walked right up to Tony and pushed him backward. "What the hell were you thinking, DiNozzo? Is this how you keep your head in the game? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't fire your ass!"

Tony stood up to Gibbs. "I did what I had to do! He was whining about himself, all the trouble he was going to be in! I just set him straight! He thought his sister would be safer in prison! Forgive me for thinking he needed to see just how safe she was!"

"That wasn't your call to make! You are not running this investigation! You're lucky I'm not pulling you!" He lowered his voice. "Go home, DiNozzo. Get your head back on straight, or don't bother coming back." He took a few steps back, and Tony angrily reached for his backpack and gun from his desk without a word. He fumed past Gibbs, bumping into him with a shoulder, and headed for the elevator without looking back.

McGee and Ziva quickly put their heads down, pretending to work, when Gibbs turned to them. "I want everything on Al Akba. Family, friends, hang outs, you name it, I want it. And I want it yesterday!" He turned to leave, banging the side of the file cabinet as he past. "Goin' to see Abby." The two younger agents watched him go, concerned looks on their faces, for both their partner, and for Gibbs. Sharing a look across the bullpen, they got to work on Al Akba.

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A/N - Hope you liked this chapter! Lots of Tony angst! Thanks to mandielouluvsewe, who gave me a challenge to get these chapters up in a certain amount of time (if they suck, blame her!). I always did work better under pressure! (Go read mandielou's stories - I love 'em!)

DISCLAIMER #1 - OWN NOTHING. IT'S ALL PROPERTY OF BELISARIUS AND CBS.

DISCLAIMER #2 - I HAVE NO WORKING KNOWLEDGE OF HOW FEDERAL/NAVAL PAYROLL IS DONE. THIS CHAPTER WAS TOTAL FICTION ON MY PART.

SHAMELESS BEGGING - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE, REVIEW WHEN YOU'RE DONE READING! PLEASE? FOR ME? HUH, WOULD YA', HUH? PLEASE?

MANY, MANY THANKS!

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