Author's Note: In Buffyverse terms, this takes place between Intervention and the season-ending arc starting with Tough Love. (I'm assuming a decent-length gap.) In terms of Angel, it's still before Belonging and will be for another few weeks..
Disclaimer: Buffy and Angel are the creations of Joss Whedon. Daria is the creation of Glenn Eichler. Lynette Vaughn, Bonita Juarez, and Carla Fisk are mine, as is the plot.
X X X X X
Lynette Vaughn hadn't believed Faith when she'd said she'd talked to Daria in her dreams. When Daria proved it, though, by saying things that she never would have known, Lynette changed her mind fairly quickly.
She knew of cases where the personalities communicated by leaving messages, the way Faith had done for Daria; she also knew cases where some personalities were aware of being splits, and others weren't. She'd never heard of the two personalities communicating with each other via their dreams. This could be an indication that the Daria aspect of the personality might be asserting itself a bit more.
In any event, Faith and Daria were jumping the gun, as far as Lynette was concerned. She'd been hoping to bring out the truth about April 10, 1997 gently, by use of further hypnosis if necessary. Telling Daria what Willard Jay Harbaugh had done to her family was something that would be a tremendous shock. Faith already suspected the truth, but of course her memories of that day were distorted.
But now she knew her memories of the day were distorted.
"If you're going to sit there in silence," Daria said in her near-monotone, "Could you at least provide something entertaining for me to do while I wait? I can only count the number of tiles in the ceiling so many times before boredom begins to set in. Insanity, of course, has already put in an appearance."
"Sorry, Daria," Lynette said, "Just trying to figure out how to answer your question."
"Since I asked you what happened to my family, I would presume the answer would be what happened to my family. But perhaps the English language has changed since I've been away."
"I'm not sure you're ready to hear about it," Lynette said. "Exposure to the events of the day could be what triggered your personality shift in the first place."
"And if we were doing a re-enactment, I'd go along with that," Daria said. "But what I want is after-the-fact reporting. Edit if you wish. I'm sure you plan to anyway." When Lynette didn't answer right away, Daria said, "Faith has already told me she thinks they're dead."
"What do you think?"
"I'm refusing to think about it until I have proof either way," Daria said, her voice betraying some emotion for the first time.
Daria Morgendorffer was usually hard to read, but now was an exception. She was desperately afraid that her parents were dead, and was afraid that Lynette was going to confirm that.
But she still wanted to be told the truth. Daria was one of those people who prided herself on relying on her intellect to run her life. She didn't pretend not to have emotions; she just refused to let them master her.
Right now, Daria's intellect was telling her that learning the truth about her family would be better for her in the long run. Her emotions disagreed. But her emotions were not in charge.
Lynette didn't tell Daria any of this. "Are you sure you want to know?" she asked, giving Daria one more chance to back out.
It was a chance Daria refused to take. "Of course not. Tell me anyway."
Taking a deep breath, Lynette said, "At 9 PM on April 10, 1997, a man named Willard Jay Harbaugh kicked down the front door of your home in Highland. You were away at the time -- doing one final project for English with two of your classmates. I hate to tell you this, Daria, but Faith was right. Harbaugh killed your father, then your sister, and then your mother. He then stole all the money and jewelry in the house and left."
Daria closed her eyes. "Dammit!" she said. It was several minutes until she said anything else. Lynette felt that saying anything here would be counterproductive, so she simply set herself to wait for Daria.
"Did they catch him?" she finally asked.
"Yes. They did. He's on death row now."
Daria said, "I don't believe in the death penalty. In his case, I think I'll make an exception." Then, "What happened to me?"
"Apparently you came home around 9:45 --"
"It was about a fifteen-minute walk from my house to the house where those two morons usually holed up," Daria said. "So I must have left about 9:30."
"They confirmed that, later," Lynette said. "Anyway, someone saw you getting on a bus to Nashville. From there, no one knows. The next time you resurfaced was in here about a week ago." After a second, she asked, "Has this triggered anything?"
"I wish I could tell you it had," Daria said. "If it does, I promise to tell you, Now. Could you do me two favors?"
"What are they?"
"One, tell Faith what you told me. Her memories of April 10 may be way off base, but that's better than the nothing I'm working with. And two, could you leave the room for a few minutes? I'd like to grieve for my parents and sister and I'd really rather do it in private."
Lynette acceded to both requests, and left the room.
When she looked through the window, Daria had her head down on the table.
Lynette couldn't tell if she was crying.
X X X X X
Bonita Juarez shook the hand of the young woman who was entering her office. "Carla Fisk, ADA," the woman said. She was medium-height with short blonde hair.
"Bonita Juarez. Everyone calls me Bonnie."
The woman sat down and opened her briefcase. "You told the office you had concerns about one of your prisoners. Faith Lehane, currently doing 25-life for two counts of 2nd-degree murder?"
"That's the one," Bonita said. "We've discovered something very interesting about her." She gave Ms. Fisk a quick summary of what Lynette had found out -- and what she'd found out through her contacts at the LAPD.
When she was done, Fisk sat for a second in stunned silence. "When you said you 'had concerns,' you didn't tell me you had an unexploded nuclear bomb."
Bonita said, "I'm sorry if I didn't properly prepare you, but this was something I didn't want to get out. I realize how big a problem this can be."
"I'm not entirely sure you do," the ADA said. "This could get national attention. Willard Harbaugh's rampage made national news -- and so did Daria Morgendorffer's disappearance. Finding her would be just as big. Finding her in the LA penal system for committing two murders of her own would be bigger. Finding out she's suffering from multiple personality disorder would kick the JonBenet Ramsey murder off the front page. People'll be discussing this for weeks, if not months."
"And that completely leaves aside the question of what happens to her. Whether you let her out or lock her up someone'll be screaming about it either way."
"Is there any chance that this is all part of some scam Lehane's running?"
Bonita said, "If we were just relying on Dr. Vaughn's opinion, I'd say maybe. I'd give you 200-1 odds against it being a scam, but I couldn't completely rule it out. Once you toss in the dental records, though --"
"Yeah." After a second, "This is a completely new area for me. The woman confessed to two murders and proved it by giving details never released to the public. But she may have been legally insane when she made the confession, just she and no one else knew it." She shook her head. "What's Faith Lehane's reaction to all of this been?"
"From everything I hear, she still wants to serve out her sentence," Bonita said. "She had the usual 'new meat fight, but after she pounded the hell out of the first girl to come after her no one's fucked with her since, and she's been a model prisoner. Another reason it's not likely to be some kind of con job."
"What about Daria Morgendorffer?"
"I haven't had a chance to talk to Morgendorffer."
"I think I'd like to," Fisk said.
"That shouldn't be a problem -- actually, Dr. Vaughn's in the building now. I realize this is short notice, but --"
Fisk checked her watch and then said, "I have the time."
Bonita got up. "Let's go, then."
X X X X X
"You're kidding," Cordelia said. Telling Cordelia was kind of a necessary first step. They'd already told Gunn. It was easier because Gunn had never met Faith and so didn't have any emotional stake in the issue.
"I'm not," Angel said. "And Wesley isn't, either."
Since he and Wesley realized they weren't legal experts, they contacted the best criminal defense attorney they could find who met two criteria. 1, he or she had to have some expert in dealing with insanity pleas; and 2, the attorney had to have absolutely no affiliation whatever with Wolfram & Hart. (Like all big law firms, Wolfram & Hart had "unofficial affiliations" for those cases it wouldn't look good for them to touch.)
They finally found their woman: Maggie Silber. Mrs. Silber had been intrigued enough by Angel and Wesley's description that she'd agreed to try to get in and meet Faith pro bono. If Faith officially asked for legal representation, then they'd have to try to arrange some sort of payment.
"I always knew she was a nutjob," Cordelia said. "And I was right. I just didn't know what kind of nutjob. So she's a split personality instead of a raving psychotic. What business is it of ours?"
"We help the helpless," Angel said. "Kind of our mission statement. Remember?"
"Faith's about as helpless as a rabid wolverine."
"What about Daria?" Angel asked. "She kind of got dragged along for the ride here."
"Yeah. Look. If you want to help her, I'll help you do it. Just don't ask me to like it."
"This isn't Faith trying to fool us," Wesley said. "There is another woman under there who genuinely needs our help."
"I believe you," Cordelia said. "Doesn't make what she did to any of us any easier to get past, though. I mean, she tortured you."
"I know. My reactions for the days immediately following were heavily tinged with my own guilt for not having done anything to prevent it. Had I not felt that shame it's quite likely I would have followed your lead and taken a sabbatical."
"Your anger sounded real enough to me, Wes," Angel said.
"It was. But it was anger at myself, not at you and not at Faith. And certainly not at Miss Morgendorffer."
After a pause, Angel said, "And now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to take my life in my hands." Cordelia and Wesley beat a hasty retreat.
Angel reached for the phone and made the call he'd been dreading. "Hey. Dawn. Is Buffy around?"