Disclaimer: The Buffy characters are owned by Joss Whedon; the Daria characters are owned by Glenn Eichler; everyone else is owned by me.
X X X X X
After the press conference, Carla Fisk, after parting ways with the Barksdale sisters, took the slow way back to her office, then began methodically going through her messages.
There were 20.
The messages trailed off after the press conference started, but they didn't stop entirely. She marked some down as "don't bother," a handful as, "call back as soon as possible," and two for "return now."
The first was to the District Attorney. "I'm surprised you didn't stop by my office," she said as after they got the pleasantries out of the way.
"Are you kidding? You might be tempted to hand me the phone."
"So what did you think of the press conference, sir?"
"I think you handled yourself as well as you could have. I was surprised to see the Barksdales there, though."
"I figured that we might as well get our stories straight, and since they were here anyway, we may as well hold the conference together."
"Well, it worked until Amy Barksdale smarted off on Kendrick Talbot there at the end," he said.
"I told them as much. Honestly, though, sir, while it might not have been politically the most astute thing in the world, I can hardly blame her. Talbot's an ass."
"Careful there, Carla; the Republican party might drum you out if they heard you say that."
"I'm a registered independent, sir," she said. From some people this might come across as harassment, but not from the DA. He didn't care what your politics were as long as you did your job and didn't embarrass him or the office. "Besides, Talbot's the kind of person who gives honest conservatives a bad name."
"Oh, I agree with your assessment of his personality," the DA said. "I might even be tempted to express it more pungently at times. That still doesn't mean it was smart. It could backfire."
"I'm keeping an eye on the situation," Carla said. "In the meantime, it didn't seem to bother any of the other reporters and none of the messages I've gotten since then have mentioned it -- and one of them is from another reporter from Fox News."
"Call them first."
"I need to hash out when and where my appearance on Larry King Live is going to be from. I'll call them as soon as we get that settled."
"Good. And so far, Carla . . ."
"Yes?'
"Good job." He hung up.
She sighed, sipped from a bottle of spring water, and called the woman from CNN.
X X X X X
Amy sighed as she and Rita drove away from the prison. She hadn't meant to come off like such a cold bitch to Daria at the end. Here she was, fully aware of the moral ambiguity of the situation, and she went off on Daria as though she'd been handed her treatment plan from God on high.
A while back she'd said that she didn't care if Daria appreciated what Amy was doing, as long as it ended up freeing her. She'd meant it then.
Which was a good thing, because it seemed to be coming true.
Amy never knew Daria had such rage in her.
But part of her obviously did want Daria to be happy she was doing what she was doing. To be happy that she'd be getting out of prison eventually, no matter that it cost her a part of her personality.
And that part of her was clearly doomed to be disappointed.
She'd have to live with it. That Daria would be getting out -- presuming that Amy's last salvo hadn't in fact solidified Daria's determination -- would have to do for the moment.
It was time for her to face the truth. She loved her niece. Nothing would ever make Amy unhappy that she was back. If Daria got out of prison, spat in Amy's face, and walked away from her, Amy would still, on balance, be happy.
But she didn't understand her. Despite their similarities and shared fondness for sarcasm as a method of dealing with the idiots of the world, that much was obvious. Because she could not get why Faith was so important to Daria.
Absolutely, positively, could not get it. Faith had been unintellectual; she'd been a career criminal, nasty, violent, bad-tempered, and sexually profligate. There was nothing she and Daria had in common except the body they shared -- and, remembering what Dr. Vaughn had said, a mutual desire to hold the world at arm's length. But that was it.
Amy had tried. She would continue to try. She would probably continue to try until the day she died, or the day Daria talked to her willingly again.
But she had serious doubts whether she would succeed.
X X X X X
Lynette Vaughn, Angel, and the other two people who worked for Angel Investigations -- she knew there was a story behind how the firm would be named for Angel given he wasn't the boss, but from the way these people interacted she doubted she'd get it even at gunpoint if they weren't ready to spill -- listened to the press conference in the room Angel gave Lynette. Despite the general nosiness of Angel's co-workers, she wasn't going to be churlish enough to throw them out of her room. Besides, they seemed nice, and concerned with Faith's welfare. The younger woman -- Cordelia, Lynette thought her name was -- let out a low boo when Carla Fisk had been introduced, and another one when Amy Barksdale began to answer questions.
Rita Barksdale didn't bring out any negative emotions, not in Lynette or anyone else, though from the tenor of her statement she fully agreed with what her sister and Ms. Fisk were doing.
It was impossible to hate either woman, though; at least, it was impossible for Lynette to hate them. They weren't doing this out of ego, or a desire to enrich themselves; hell, by arranging Daria's release, Carla Fisk was taking a tremendous risk with her career. Even if everything went smoothly there would always be people from now on who viewed her as "the bleeding-heart who let out a murderer," no matter the DA's personal politics and the facts of the situation.
They were acting selflessly. They were not, for the most part, thinking about themselves. They thought they were doing the right thing.
But, as she quoted during the weekend discussion with Bonnie, Amy Barksdale and Carla Fisk, "In all mankind's history, there's never been more damage done than by people who thought they were doing the right thing."
Charles Schulz had been a much wiser man than he was usually given credit for.
They all applauded, metaphorically at least, when Amy Barksdale read the riot act to Kendrick Talbot.
After that, they listened to the rest in silence, and then, at a not-so-subtle glance from Angel, Wesley and Cordelia left the room, though the glances they shot back in return clearly indicated that they weren't done with the topic.
"What do they know?" Lynette asked as soon as Wesley and Cordelia were well clear of the area.
"Nothing I've told them," Angel said. "They're smart, though. Wes is a genius in several areas, and though Cordelia can come across at times as thoughtless, she's no dummy either." He sat down in a chair. "Could they swear in a court of law that they knew what you did? No. But have they jumped to that conclusion themselves? Wes certainly has, and if Cordy hasn't she's not far behind."
"Can they be trusted?"
"Absolutely," Angel said without a moment's hesitation. "They won't mention this to anyone. Probably not even Gunn."
"Gunn?'
"Charles Gunn. Another staffer. He puts in irregular hours like the rest of us. But unlike Cordy and Wes, he never met Faith. So the situation wouldn't mean much to him anyway." He paused. "I'm still not going to give them the details, though."
"I appreciate that," Lynette said. "It's not that I don't believe you when you say you can trust them, but --"
"You're walking an extremely thin line here," Angel said. "I get that. The fewer people who know that Faith's still buried inside Daria, the better." He frowned. "One thing I don't get. I've got the trigger phrases memorized -- but how sure are you that Daria will come to me once she gets out? She's never even met me."
Lynette smiled. "Trained hypnotist, remember? Post-hypnotic suggestion. It'll be the first thing she does."
"And how will she recognize me? Anyone can claim to be me."
"Because the posthypnotic suggestion included a detailed description of you. And, most importantly, you'll be the only one with the right trigger phrase," Lynette said. "There's no chance anyone else could luck into it. Faith said it was something that was special to the two of you."
Angel smiled. "That it was."
"'That guy always bugged me.' Care to explain the reference?"
"It refers to a mutual . . . friend," Angel said. "At one point I hit him in the face because I was trying to fool Faith about something. This was back when she was working for the mayor of Sunnydale."
"Ah. Wilkins." She said the name as though it were a cuss word. As far as she was concerned, it was. Richard Wilkins had offered Faith a love and acceptance she'd been seeking for a long time -- and used it to further corrupt her. Faith was still convinced, to this day, that the man's love had been genuine, in a way. Lynette didn't doubt it. If it had been phony, it would have been a lot easier for Faith to break free of it than it had been.
She didn't know whether Wilkins thought he was doing the right thing. He apparently thought he was doing the right thing by Faith. The damage had been nearly irreparable.
"Yeah. The man did more to ruin her life, I think, than anyone else could have. A poor substitute for the father she never remembered."
"From what I've seen of the records, Jake Morgendorffer was no saint -- but he wasn't a bastard. He had a quick temper but never even came close to taking it out on the people around him. And Daria clearly misses him, no matter his comparatively trivial imperfections." She grimaced. "Compared to Richard Wilkins, Jake Morgendorffer was Ward Cleaver."
Angel said, "And knowing what happened to Daria puts her fixation on Wilkins into a whole new light. She wasn't seeking to replace parents who'd abandoned her; she was seeking to replace parents that had been completely ripped from her life. Even if she didn't realize it."
Lynette was impressed. "You have a good grasp of human psychology."
"Comes in handy for the job."
"I can see how it would," she said. Then, after a second, "There's something else I need to ask you about."
"What?"
"Warden Juarez called me to the prison this morning. Daria was busy destroying her cell in what I can only describe as a bizarre extended fit of rage. She'd read her aunt's book in a conscious effort to bring Faith back -- and it left her trying to deal with emotions she absolutely could not handle. Rage, anger, anguish -- all far too strong for her. Oddly, though, she was able to keep enough to control to not hurt anyone else. She actually punched her cell so often and so hard that she damaged it -- but she wouldn't let anyone else in the cell with her. She refused to hurt anyone else. She actually told Warden Juarez she might be better off shooting her with a tranquilizer than putting any guards at risk."
"And you went in and hypnotized her to forget what she'd learned from the book?" Angel asked.
"I actually told her the truth -- that this had all been a plan of hers, and mine, and Faith's. I made her forget it again, though. The hypnosis was enough to drain her rage." Lynette shook her head. "What I can't believe is how she was destroying the wall. She tried to claim it was some kind of adrenaline fit, and that's the explanation I passed on to the warden, but it is physically impossible for an adrenaline rush to last for three hours. If her body produced enough adrenaline for that, then she'd certainly be showing other symptoms at other times. But she doesn't. Faith doesn't, and Daria doesn't."
"You don't specialize in that kind of medicine, Dr. Vaughn," Angel said. "Are you certain that no disorder could cause that?"
"I'm sure," Lynette said. "Just like I'm also sure that the construction of the cells isn't flimsy. That's the excuse I heard being bandied about at the prison. If you locked Mike Tyson in there at the peak of his career and told him to go to town, he wouldn't have been able to put that kind of dent into the walls."
"I don't think --" Angel said, shifting uneasily.
"And then there's something else. When I asked Daria how she was damaging the cell, I made it very clear to her that I wasn't buying her adrenaline explanation. She told me, and I quote, that what was going on 'wasn't her secret to give.' She wouldn't even tell me under hypnosis. Obviously, she meant it was Faith's secret. And I was wondering. Do you know the secret? Because I know there is one. Somehow, Daria is stronger than any human being of her weight and build has any right to be." When Angel didn't say anything, Lynette repeated, "Do you know the secret?"
Angel sighed. "It's not my secret to give either."
Lynette said, "I've given you my secret. If you wanted to, you could destroy my career; I think that's earned me a little trust."
"I don't think you'd believe me."
Laughing in disbelief, Lynette said, "I've hypnotized a patient into believing that I've done something heinous to her, with her consent and the consent of her other personality, all to preserve the other personality's existence against the wishes, apparently, of nearly every other human being on the planet. I don't think whatever you have to say could match that."
"You'd be surprised," Angel said. "But you're right. You've earned it. Just don't say I didn't warn you."