For those of you wondering what Wolfram & Hart's reaction would be . . .

Disclaimer: Plot, Lynette Vaughn, and Maggie Silber mine. Every other character, 'tain't mine.

X X X X X

"And what would that be?" Mrs. Silber asked.

Before Daria could explain that she didn't want to hear it, Dr. Vaughn said, politely but firmly, "I don't work for you. I have Faith's best interests at heart, but any revelations I've learned I'll be sharing with the DA first."

Mrs. Silber looked at Daria. "Daria? Could you tell us?"

"I couldn't if I wanted to," Daria said. "Whatever Dr. Vaughn learned about me she learned under hypnosis -- and I asked her not to tell me what I said. Whatever happened on the night of April 10, 1997, was traumatic enough to turn me into Faith. It's not surprising that I wouldn't want to live through it twice."

Aunt Amy was still looking at her. "I'm so sorry we couldn't find you," she said. "We looked. Rita and I. We hired private investigators and posted rewards -- up to $50,000. None of it did you any good." She looked at Dr. Vaughn. "You found her. The $50,000 is yours if you want it." Daria's eyes widened. $50,000 to find her? That was . . .

That was more than she ever would have expected.

Dr. Vaughn said, "No. I'm just doing my job."

"Are you sure?" Dr. Vaughn nodded. "Then, Maggie, The $50,000 is your fee for getting Daria out of here."

"You'll have to hash that out with the other person paying the bills," Mrs. Silber said. "I'll tell you who that is later." Aunt Amy nodded.

Dr. Vaughn asked, "Why did you want me here?"

"Because I needed to be sure I could meet both personas," Mrs. Silber said. "Since I'm the lawyer for both of them. And right now you're the only one who can trigger the change."

"I can do it when I'm asleep," Daria said. "A few days ago I went to sleep as Faith and woke up as me. But I seem to have left my sleeping pills in my other suit this afternoon."

Ms. Morgendorffer," Mrs. Silber said formally, "While your Faith persona agreed to retain me as your attorney, I'd like your approval also."

Daria said, "You have it." Then she had a thought. "Do you need it, legally?"

"Legally? I'm not sure the law has covered this specific situation -- and the general case that applies would no doubt hold you incapable of making your own decisions due to your DID and would leave such things up to whoever legally spoke for you. Which would be your aunt or I, depending on the circumstances. But I wasn't thinking about it from a legal angle so much as from a practical and ethical one. It doesn't matter to me that right now you could easily be declared non compos mentis; Faith seems to be perfectly capable of making her own decisions, and so do you -- and this case would be a lot harder for me if either one of you was screaming bloody blue murder about the situation."

"Yes. I am well known for my tendency to scream 'bloody blue murder' when confronted by a situation I don't like," Daria said.

"Yes," Aunt Amy said dryly. "It runs in the family."

"I can definitely tell the two of you are related," Mrs. Silber said.

"In any event," Dr. Vaughn said. "I don't think I'm needed here any longer."

As she got up to leave, Aunt Amy said, "Hold on a second, Dr. Vaughn. I think I'd like to meet this other persona." At Dr. Vaughn's somewhat skeptical look, Aunt Amy said, "This is who my niece has been for the last four years. I think I have a right to know that beyond whatever's on the public record."

Dr. Vaughn said, "Daria? Your call."

Daria said. "No. It isn't. It's Faith's call, really. But she's not here, so on her behalf, I think she'd want to meet my aunt as well."

"Faith Ellen Leha --"

X X X X X

The first thing Faith noticed was that she was in the lawyer's room, with the doc, Maggie Silber, and some woman she'd never met before but who looked a whole lot like her, only twenty years older.

"Hey," she said. "What's goin' on?"

The woman across from her said, "You must be Faith."

"Good guess. What was your first clue?"

She laughed. "I'm Amy Barksdale. I'm Daria's -- your -- aunt."

Faith snapped her fingers a couple of times, saying, "Yeah. Helen's sister or Jake's?"

"Helen's," Amy said.

"Sorry. That's one of the things Daria and I have never gotten around to talkin' about. Nice to meet you." She looked over at Maggie Silber. "I'm guessin' you called her in?"

"Yes," she said. "You have another aunt, Rita, who's flying in on Monday."

Turning back to Amy, Faith asked, "Any other relatives I don't know about?"

"A cousin named Erin. I think your father has a brother --"

"He does," Mrs. Silber said. "But I couldn't reach him."

"Don't worry," Amy said. "It's not like we're all of us horrendously close anyway." She chuckled humorlessly. "So. You killed two people. Why?"

Faith shrugged. "Only excuse I got is, one was an accident, one was on purpose, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. I was wrong. I was evil, and bad, and I know it. Kinda why I'm in here, Amy. And the list of my charming qualities doesn't stop there. I got a whole shitload of bad things on my conscience. You want me to detail 'em for you? 'cause I got nothin' but time."

Amy shook her head, sadly. "I'm sorry. Whatever happened to turn Daria into you, I'm sorry. But you have to know I want her back."

Faith said. "Yeah. I know. I don't blame you. Not that her life sounded perfect or anything, but I think hers would've turned out a whole lot better than mine."

"It's hard to imagine how it could have turned out worse," Amy said, but there was nothing mean about the way she said it.

"I could be dead," Faith said. "I tried to get this guy I know to kill me by doin' shitty things to his friends. He wouldn't do it. He convinced me I needed to make up for what I'd done. That's why I'm here." Looking at Mrs. Silber, she said, "Thank Angel for me."

Amy said, "Angel?"

Mrs. Silber said, "A private investigator."

"He's the guy who saved me, and the one footin' the bill."

"Not anymore," Amy said. "Not all of it. When we're done, Mrs. Silber, if you could point me in his direction, I'll settle up the matter of who's paying your bill."

Mrs. Silber shrugged. "As long as it's someone."

"So, Amy," Faith said. "Am I everything you expected?"

"It's amazing," she said after a brief pause. "If I'd run across you on the street I would've barely given you a second glance. I might've noticed that we looked a bit alike, but that's about it."

"Dissociated identities can be like that," Dr. Vaughn said.

Standing up, Amy said, "Don't take this the wrong way -- but I hope I never meet you again."

Faith didn't go along with the woman, but she knew where she was coming from. "In your shoes I'd feel the same way. You'll forgive me for not bein' so keen on the idea of vanishing forever myself."

Amy said nothing to this, instead turning to Mrs. Silber and saying, "Thank you for letting me see my niece."

"Is there anything else you wanted to talk to Daria about?" Dr. Vaughn asked.

Mrs. Silber said, "No. I got what I came here for. Daria's consent. At some point, I am going to want to hear what you found."

Dr. Vaughn said, "As soon as I can, I'll tell you."

"Good." And with that Maggie Silber and Amy Barksdale left the room.

X X X X X

Linwood Murrow was sitting at his desk when Lilah Morgan walked into his office. She had no idea why she was being called in. All of her active projects were going smoothly, and it had been far too long since any failures for her to be raked over the coals now.

"Guess what I just heard?" Linwood said.

"Telepathy wasn't one of the powers I got from the Senior Partners," Lilah said. "And I doubt you brought me in here to play twenty questions."

"True. It's in regard to an old, failed project you and McDonald worked on. It may be coming back to bite us in the ass. And if it bites us --"

"Then I'll be the one getting chewed up, I get that," Lilah said. "What is it?"

"Faith Lehane."

"Last I heard she was doing 25 to life and the Senior Partners had decided it wasn't worth our time and effort to kill her."

"That's true," Linwood said. "But circumstances have changed. One of our moles inside the LA County Jail has found out that Faith Lehane used to have another identity entirely -- and that our old friend Angel has hired Maggie Silber to get her out."

"Based on what?" Lilah scoffed. "A technicality? Even the LA court system isn't going to let an admitted multiple murdered out of jail based on her giving the police the wrong name. Good as Silber is, she's not us." Then something occurred to her. "Wait a minute. Maggie Silber specializes in insanity defenses."

Linwood nodded. "Exactly. Turns out Miss Lehane has a multiple personality disorder. Apparently, it's absolutely genuine -- this isn't some ploy she's using to free herself. Our mole says that Lehane's still on her," and he said the next two words contemptuously, "redemption kick and has no plans to get out. Still, if she does -- or if this is some ploy by Angel or other forces of good -- I want us to know exactly what's going on. So do the Senior Partners."

"Do they want any steps taken?"

"Not at the moment. Faith Lehane, even when one of the 'good guys,' was something of a loose cannon. We would simply prefer it, at the moment, were she not aimed in our direction." After a second, "So you know what I want you to do."

This was clearly a test, and one Lilah didn't intend to fail. "I'll keep track of the situation," Lilah said. "And should she get out, I'll try to find something for her to do away from the city of Los Angeles." After a second, "Maybe I'll point her towards Sunnydale. There seems to be a developing situation down there . . ." Glorificus was more than a 'developing situation.' Lilah would be willing to bet her soul, had it not already been promised to someone else, that the Senior Partners were keeping a close and worried eye on the hellgod.

"Where either she'd help the other Slayer and her allies take care of the Hellgod -- eliminating the threat her departure from this plane would pose to us -- or the Hellgod would kill then. Good idea, Lilah." He leaned forward and said, "It had better work," and dismissed her from the office with a gesture.

Lilah didn't need to be told twice.

X X X X X

"Well, here we are again," Faith said.

"Astute observation," Daria said dryly. "You see me, you know you're here, and you perceive the location and that we have been here before, and from just these bare facts you somehow come to the conclusion that we are here again. Tell me, Holmes. How do you do it?"

"Ha ha." Actually, it was kinda funny, but she wasn't going to give Daria the satisfaction. After a second, Faith changed her tone and said, "So what did you think of Maggie Silber?"

Daria shrugged. "She seemed competent enough. I didn't really get to talk to her for too long. And what did you think of Aunt Amy?"

"I could see the resemblance," Faith said, "Though she looks a lot more like the way you look to me now than the way you actually look. You know, glasses, hairstyle, all of that."

"My internal image is still that of a 16-year old who needs glasses and never really cared about her appearance. Yours is of a 19-year old who finds painted-on leather pants and low-cut tops an acceptable fashion statement." Daria was doing her best not to sound critical.

Faith said, "It worked for me. When I realized guys thought I was hot in these things, it gave me power over 'em. Trust me: Nothing gets a guy to stop thinking faster than tight leather pants." And until she'd learned to fight, it had been damn near the only power she'd had.

"That's going to be fun to hash out when we're integrated."

"Yeah," Faith said. "About that."

"What?"

"Aunt Amy had the guts to say it today -- she said she hoped she never met me again. She wasn't bein' mean or anything, which makes it worse. I get the feelin' that to almost everyone else out there the successful outcome ain't gonna be you and me sharing a body, or me and you combinin'. 'cause you were right; apart from the way we both keep people at arm's length, we don't have a whole hell of a lot in common. I keep tryin' to picture what you and me joined together would be like and I just can't do it. I can't." She shook her head sadly. "And the thing is, Daria, it's your body, not mine. And you did a whole hell of a lot better with it than I've ever done."

"I promised you I wouldn't let them get rid of you," Daria said. "I plan on keeping my word."

"I know. And I appreciate that. It just might not be our decision."