Author's Note: Kendrick Talbot is not meant to represent anyone in particular.
Disclaimer: The Buffy characters belong to Joss Whedon; the Daria characters belong to Glenn Eichler; the original characters belong to me.
X X X X X
Bonita Juarez heard about the press conference in the staff lunchroom when Josie came up and asked her, "Hey, boss. this press conference the DA's havin' about Lehane. Is that our Lehane?"
"Press conference?" Bonita said, frowning.
"Yeah, didn't you hear? Couple of the boys heard it on the radio during their break and asked me about it. I told them I'd ask you."
Thoughts of eating forgotten, Bonita said, "Tell me what you know."
"Okay. Guess you haven't heard about it then. An ADA named Carla somethin' is going to be 'answerin' all questions you may have' about Faith Lehane and some other girl named Darla somethin'."
"Daria," Bonita said absent-mindedly.
"Whatever," Josie said. "Anyway, she's goin' to be talkin' about it at 1 and I was wonderin' what you knew about it."
Bonita said, "Yeah. It's about Faith Lehane." Then a horrid thought struck her. "What time is it?"
"12:45."
There were no TVs in the prison, but there were radios. "I want all radios in the prison off by the time the conference starts. That includes the one in the break room. I don't want the prisoners figuring out what's going on." Some of them, if they thought Faith wasn't Faith any more, would try to start something -- especially the ones she'd embarrassed during her "new meat" fights. Sure, a lot of the prisoners might not understand what multiple personality disorder meant, but she wouldn't be willing to bet that none of them would.
Josie might not have understood the reason for the order, but she understood the tone in Bonita's voice. "Okay, people," she said. "You heard the lady. Move!"
Fifteen minutes later, after Bonita had gone back to her office, Josie came in. "Just checked every known radio," she said. "They're all off."
"Good work. Close the door behind you and come have a seat." As Josie did so, Bonita flipped on the radio. "Soundproofed office," she said.
After turning the dial for about ten seconds, Bonita got the press conference, and the two of them settled down to listen.
X X X X X
In the Hyperion, Angel, Cordelia, Wesley and Dr. Lynette Vaughn did the same thing.
Maggie Silber turned on her office television, making a mental note not to count this as billable hours for anyone, and watched.
Buffy Summers missed it entirely, as did Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, and Rupert Giles. Spike wouldn't have cared, even if he'd known.
Anya heard it, though. (It interrupted her favorite financial call-in show. She liked to make fun of the callers.) So did Tara MacLay, who by pure coincidence was in a UC-Sunnydale lounge studying when it came on CNN.
In the offices of Wolfram & Hart, Lilah Morgan made a special point of watching, partly for her own interest, mostly to be sure that something wasn't going to come out of the press conference that was going to turn around and bite her in the ass.
Literally.
Kal Endicott, of course, had better things to do.
X X X X X
"Let's see," Carla Fisk said. "With that, I think I've covered pretty much everything. If you'd hold the questions until after Amy and Rita Barksdale speak, I'd appreciate that." She didn't exactly have the mob of reporters eating out of her hand, Amy noted, but they didn't look like they were ready to rip her head off, literally or figuratively. In her 25-minute long speech, the ADA had covered everything from Dr. Vaughn's credentials to the murderous rampage of Willard Jay Harbaugh. It was possible she hadn't told them what Daria's middle name was, but Amy wouldn't have taken bets either way.
About the only thing she hadn't gone into detail on was the Barksdale family history, preferring to let Amy and Rita handle that.
"One thing, quickly," a man from the middle of the room said. "How did you get assigned the case?" Smart man, to phrase the question neutrally. Even the slightest emphasis on the word 'you' would have been an insult to Carla Fisk, and the ADA was smart enough to pick up on things like that.
As it was, Ms. Fisk simply said, "Sheer luck."
"Good or bad?" the reporter asked, to the sound of general laughter.
"Yes," was Ms. Fisk's equally laughter-provoking response. "And, on that note, here are the Barksdales."
Amy and Rita both walked up to the podium, Rita confidently, Amy a bit less so. "The Barksdales," Amy said to Rita before they got there. "Makes us sound like we're a singing group."
"Not with your voice, sweetie," Rita said. "Hello!" to the reporters in general. "I'm Rita."
Amy leaned in "And I'm Amy." The phrasing seemed to call for them to say together, "And we're the Barksdales!" But somehow that seemed inappropriate.
They'd decided in the meeting with ADA Fisk that, since Rita was better at prepared speaking and Amy was better at being off-the-cuff, that Rita would do the majority of the speech and Amy would handle the reporters' questions.
"Which one of you is older?" One of the reporters asked.
"Don't ask questions you're not going to get the answers to," Rita snapped, at the same time Amy subtly pointed at her sister. When the crowd of reporters started laughing, Rita turned, saw Amy's thumb, and scowled for a second before joining in. "And now that we've broken the ice," Rita began. "Let me tell you a little something about the Barksdale family . . ."
X X X X X
Truth be told, Carla Fisk hadn't expected all that much out of Rita Barksdale, based on her admittedly brief association with the woman. She'd bragged about how good she was at public speaking, and trotted out a couple of fundraisers as examples.
Even given her low expectations, though, Carla had to admit the woman was doing very well. She was giving them a quick summary of their family history, how they'd reacted way back when they'd first been told about the Morgendorffers' deaths and Daria's disappearance, and how they reacted when Maggie Silber had given them a call in the middle of last week.
Amy then talked for about five minutes or so about what she'd done since she'd come to Los Angeles -- things Rita couldn't have known about. Then Rita finished up with what they had planned next for Daria.
After that, she backed up and Carla came forward and said the magic words.
"Any questions?"
X X X X X
"Ms. Fisk," the first question came. "You're a representative of the people of the county of Los Angeles, correct?"
"Of course."
"Then why are you trying to get a confessed multiple murderer out of prison?"
"Loaded question," Carla said. "I'm not trying to get a confessed multiple murderer out of prison. That would be Faith Lehane. I'm trying to get Daria Morgendorffer out of prison."
"They're the same person," the same reporter said.
"No, they just share the same body," Carla said. "There's plenty of precedent here: where one personality commits a crime that the others are unaware of, and multiple personality disorder has been conclusively established, these people are usually sentenced to mental health facilities, not jail. You could look it up."
Amy added, "And since we plan to erase the Faith personality, not integrate her, there's no chance of a confessed multiple murderer getting out of jail. 'Faith' will never get out of jail."
The man sat down. A woman stood up and said, "Have you discussed this with her victims' families?"
"Her victims have no immediate families," Carla said. "At the time of Faith Lehane's original confession the DA's office tried to contact both victim's surviving relatives; the only one we found was in no condition to testify at the sentencing hearing and is in even less of a condition today."
"Ms. Barksdale," another woman said. "Are you planning to write another book about this?"
"No," Amy said. "And even if I change my mind in the future, I wouldn't do it without Daria's consent."
"Consent she can't give at the moment."
"There's a difference between legal consent and common courtesy," Amy said. "I don't need legal consent to write about anyone, as I'm sure you're all well aware."
The woman nodded and sat down. "ADA Fisk," she said. "Have the authorities in Texas been made aware of this?"
"I asked them for records at one point," Carla said a bit confusedly. "Other than that, no. Why do you ask?"
"Well, Willard Jay Harbaugh is scheduled to die in the electric chair in under a month, and --"
Amy said, "May I?" Carla nodded and took a half step backward. "There may be some arcane legal reason why my niece being alive would be relevant to Harbaugh's defense. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know. What I do know is that Harbaugh was sentenced to death for multiple counts of first-degree murder and armed robbery. Daria's disappearance was only mentioned at the trial in passing. As far as I know he was never charged with her murder or her disappearance. Right now, the only thing Daria could do is testify as a victim -- and the sentence has long since been passed."
"So she remembers the night of April 10, 1997?"
"Neither personality consciously remembers the night in any detail," Carla said, "According to Dr. Vaughn's reports."
"But you said you know what happened," the reporter said.
"We do. I said consciously. Dr. Vaughn discovered these memories through hypnosis."
"Speaking of Lynette Vaughn," a man from the back of the room said, "Why isn't she here?"
Carla said, "Because she doesn't agree with what we're doing," she said. "I have her report on the mental condition of Daria Morgendorffer, and I'm sure if you asked her she'd confirm that --"
"Maybe she would," an older man from the front of the room interrupted, "If we could find her." There was muttering from around the room.
"She probably figured something like this," Amy said, gesturing at the room, "Was going to happen, and is hiding out somewhere. Honestly, I can't blame her. No offense. And before you ask," she added, cutting off a couple of reporters beginning to ask questions, "I don't know where she is and I wouldn't told you if I did."
"Neither do I," Carla chimed in. "Anything else?"
"Is it possible Dr. Vaughn's being fooled?"
"Highly unlikely," Carla said, as Amy bristled. "Dr. Vaughn works for LA County. You all know that her testimony has been instrumental in busting the psychiatric defenses of dozens of other defendants. While she cares about the prisoners she sees in therapy, she's hardly biased in their favor." Then a small smile. "And you know that through her husband she knows all about actors. Yes, you."
A man from the side asked, "Did the District Attorney sign off on this decision to release Faith Lehane --"
"Daria Morgendorffer," Amy interrupted.
"Or," the reporter continued, "Did you make it on your own?"
"Nothing major gets done in this office without the approval of the District Attorney," Carla said. "That said, he trusts his subordinates to be able to work independently."
The man sat down with a mildly sour expression on his face.
A young woman from the middle of the room said, "How is it Kal Endicott happened to break this story?"
"From our point of view, luck," the ADA said. "As for his point of view, you'd have to ask him."
As the woman sat down, a red-haired man stood up and said, "Ms. Barksdale, why did you have your niece declared incapable of making her own decisions?"
Amy said, "The decision to have her declared non compos mentis wasn't my decision, but Ms, Fisk's. I was happy to go along with it, though, because it offered the best chance of getting Daria out of prison as fast as possible."
"I appreciate the information," the reporter said, "But that's not what I meant. Isn't your niece as eager to get out of jail as you are to get her out? If that's the case, then why have her declared incompetent? Surely Dr. Vaughn's opinions would be enough --"
Carla and Amy looked at each other. "Ms. Morgendorffer is not in fact being cooperative," Carla finally said. "She wants us to come to some kind of arrangement where the Faith personality wouldn't be erased, and I would be remiss in speaking for the people if I let that happen."
"I've done a little digging on the Faith Lehane case," the same reporter continued. "Isn't it true that she confessed to her crimes and didn't ask for a sentence reduction?"
"That's correct," Carla said. "The only request she had -- which we granted -- was a cell to herself."
"Then isn't it possible that the Faith personality doesn't feel she's paid sufficiently for her crimes -- and that Daria is being influenced by that?"
"What Faith feels is irrelevant,' Amy said. "Whether she's paid for her crimes or not. And Daria does want to get out of prison -- after all, she never did anything to make her end up there."
Another man stood. "Really, Ms, Barksdale," he said in a voice dripping with scorn. "Your niece never did anything. You mean, apart from murdering two people, assaulting countless others, and fooling a bleeding-heart shrink and the LA prosecutors' office into thinking that she had multiple personality disorder? Come, come, Ms. Barksdale. We all know what really happened that day in Highland."
"We do?" Amy said icily. "Please enlighten us."
"It's obvious," he said. "Your niece watched while Willard Jay Harbaugh killed those people and she found it exciting. When he left her alive, she decided that if he could get away with it, so could she. All this talk about 'another personality' is garbage. You know it, I know it, the world knows it. There are many reputable psychiatrists who believe that multiple personality disorder is a complete fiction."
As Carla stepped forward, Amy held a hand up. "No thanks, Ms. Fisk. I've got this one." Then, putting a delighted smile on her face, she said, "Thank you, Mr . . ."
"Kendrick Talbot. FOX News."
"Thank you, Mr. Talbot," Amy said. "Thank you for letting us know what's going on. Obviously Ms. Fisk at the DA's office, Dr. Vaughn, Maggie Silber, and myself have just been spinning our wheels for the last couple of weeks. Or maybe we've been puppets, dancing to the tune played by my 20-year old niece. Yes, Mr. Talbot, now that you've pointed out how truly Machiavellian my niece has been, we can all get a good hearty laugh at what fools we've been, how much money this has cost me, my sister, Mrs. Silber, the people of this county, and the DA's office. Thank you, Mr. Talbot, for pointing out our foolishness. Certainly we would have never done this if we'd known that. Thank you, Mr. Talbot, for relieving us of the notion that Dr. Vaughn was a conscientious and capable psychiatrist who knew what she was doing, that the DA's office was representing the best interests of the people, and that Daria Morgendorffer was a victim of one of the most vicious sons of bitches this country has seen in the last ten years. Certainly Everett Odom and Kendall Severance's similar experiences were also lies."
"They didn't lose their minds," Mr. Talbot said.
"You're right," Amy said. "I forgot. Everyone reacts the same. How stupid of me to have forgotten that. And I guess their treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder were made up. Scams to cheat the government."
"I don't think --"
"And I doubt you ever have," Amy said. "Now, does anyone have any real questions to ask?"
A handful of more routine questions, and the conference ended when Carla said, "We will provide you with further information as it becomes available. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm sure I have two dozen people who couldn't show up here today currently on line three. Thank you all for coming."
And they went back to Carla's office.