Kitzenger v Danes

Chapter Two

The next morning dawned bright and sunny, in a great contrast to the Torchwood team's moods. Breakfast was a solemn affair of burnt toast and lukewarm tea. After everyone had finished, Gwen stood up.

"Right!" she announced purposefully. "Question time."

Everyone else looked at her.

"I want to know the story behind her." Gwen went on, nodding at Jilly. "We've heard last night's events from Esther; now let's hear the full version. Who exactly is she, why is she here, and more importantly, why should we trust her?"

Jilly stood up. "What happened to giving me the 'benefit of the doubt'?"

"Nothing. But I'd feel better knowing who I was giving the benefit to."

"Fair enough. My name's Jilly Kitzenger, I work in Public Relations. Up until yesterday I represented Oswald Danes, and I'm here because he attacked me, and one of your friends offered me help. Happy now?"

"And why should we trust you? After taking orders from PhiCorp? You could be anyone, people don't just stumble into PhiCorp jobs by accident."

"Well, if you really must know, I'm trying to support my daughter!" Jilly snapped, forgetting all her self-control. "I didn't ask for a job at PhiCorp, it was offered to me! It was the only way to keep Social Services from taking my daughter away from me, not that that worked anyway because I had to move for my job. I couldn't take Abigail with me, so she's staying with my sister. I haven't seen her in six months and I'm scared she's gonna grow up with no clue who I am. I'm scared I'll go home one day and find that I've missed my chance to be with her, or that the Social Workers really will take legal guardianship of her away. She's only four but she's the only thing I have. My husband left me when she was two months old! I had to practically raise her myself, and he didn't leave me with a single penny, so excuse me for taking whatever job I could to try and keep my child from being taken away!"

When Jilly had finished, a silence lapsed over the team. Esther looked sympathetic, Gwen looked embarrassed, Rex looked indifferent, and Jack looked….well, like Jack.

"I….uh…I wasn't…I mean, I didn't mean it like…" Gwen stammered, embarrassed.

Jilly shook her head. "It doesn't matter, you didn't know. It's just…..if I could make enough money, I could get a proper house and have Abigail back."

"Hey, I've got an idea." Esther said.

Gwen smiled sympathetically. "I'm sure you'll have enough eventually. Then you'll have your house and your daughter again."

Esther tried again. "Guys, person with a good idea here!"

"I mean, I know how terrible I'd feel if I lost my little girl. Her name's Anwen, she's so sweet, you'd love her." Gwen went on. "It must be horrible not being able to see Abigail anymore."

"Guys!" Esther shouted. "I have got an idea!"

Gwen and Jilly turned to look at her. "Why didn't you just say so?" asked Gwen. Esther sighed and flopped into a seat.

"…so then, we win our case and Oswald becomes Cat Zero. He's carted off to a Module, we never see him again, and Jilly has enough money to get Abigail back!"

Jilly looked at her. "You…want me….to take Oswald….to court?"

Esther nodded. "Yeah. C'mon, he's already as good as Cat Zero. You prosecute him for this; he'll be in that oven faster than you can say 'Wow, what a great idea, Esther'."

"I'll never win it." Jilly said. "He's probably already hugged a puppy in front of a camera or something, and won everyone over again."

Esther gave her a secretive smile. "I wouldn't be so sure if I were you."

She pulled what looked like official documents out of her bag.

"These are the records of Oswald's murder trial."

The team looked subtly impressed.

Esther pulled out a video tape.

"This is the video of him attacking you in the hotel room."

The team now looked suitably impressed.

This time, Esther pulled out a sheet containing a record of emails.

"These are from Danes to PhiCorp. Personally, I found it pretty interesting, especially when he says, and I quote; 'Kitzenger is annoying, power-loving and hates the very sight of me. Why am I stuck with this bitch? Since I helped you capture Harkness (even if it didn't go to plan), you owe me a favour. Sending Kitzenger to Australia might be a start. Or maybe we should just kill her. After all, no-one can really die anymore.

-Oswald'

Not only does it contain some not-so-nice things about you, he also admits to helping capture Jack."

Everyone was beyond impressed now.

Rex said "Esther, do I wanna know how you got all these?"

"Hey, that is- actually, you probably don't." Esther replied.

"Right."

Jack laughed. "Well done, Esther, you're learning."

Jilly stood up and clapped her hands together excitedly. "Right. Let's take a murderer to court!"

The rest of the day passed in a haze of phone calls, emails, more phone calls, more emails….it was a long day.

"Hello, Esther speaking. What? Oh, right, yes. Of course. No, I'm sorry; Miss Kitzenger isn't available right now. Yes, yes, I get it, this is gonna be a very big story, but I'm afraid Miss Kitzenger really can't take your call. I'll tell her to ring you back the moment she's free, ok? Yes, yes, alright. Ok. Bye, Mr Daniels."

"Hello? Yes. Yes, tomorrow, nine am sharp. Really? Well, we're very pleased you want to put it on the news. What do you mean, who is this? This is Jack Harkness, Captain Jack Harkness. What company? Ehh….uhh…I…."

Jack looked wildly around the room for inspiration and his eyes fell on a picture that had fluttered out of his wallet, of the old Torchwood team.

"Yeah, I'm still here. Yes, of course, my company…it's….umm….Harper's Jellied Eels!"

Nice one, Jack. Nice one

"Well, the company wanted to know why a man from Harper's Jellied Eels was representing Jilly Kitzenger, but on the whole I think I did quite well." Jack told the rest of his team over dinner. Gwen sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Harper's Jellied Eels? Really, Jack?"

Rex and Esther gave them Questioning Looks. Jilly decided she was better off not knowing.

"It's an inside joke." Gwen explained. "You probably don't want to know, trust me."

Jilly thought; Amen to that.

I know this chapter was shorter, I'm not yet sure about the length of the next one, but most after that should be fairly long. My aim is to have at least 30 chapters, think I can do it? Also, thanks to americanmary and CaskettLover for adding this to Story Alert/Fave Story and also Author Alert/Fave Author. Cheers for that, guys! X

BTW, anyone wanna leave me a quick review? :P

GallifreyenCultOfSkaro