Kitzinger v Danes

Chapter Five: Evidence is Collected

Author's Note: I love writing this! Love all the views/hits it's getting! Love it all! Shout out to Lex 0 for reviewing. Hopefully you'll find out what their up to soon.

:)

Meanwhile, the girls flip a coin for the beds, Jack is being…..Jack, and Rex and Esther go out for dinner. And our heroes also receive a troubling visit in the middle of the night, and find out some bad news…

Amelia. Amelia and Oswald Danes. Next door. So much for avoiding them.

What now?

These thoughts were a fair representation of those currently swimming round Rex Matheson's head like lost little fishes. Little lost fishes that had absolutely no apparent use whatsoever, apart from annoying the hell out of him every time he tried to think. Sighing, he walked back to the lift, only to see the others waiting outside, arms folded, glaring at him.

"Thank you for walking away and leaving us." Gwen said as soon as he was within earshot. "I feel so loved right now."

"Don't blame me, you didn't even notice the elevator doors open, close, and open again before I left. Anyway, guess who our next-door-neighbours are?"

Esther caught on quickly. "You mean…..? Oh my God, seriously?"

"Please, if this is some kind of joke, give it up now." Jilly said, already knowing what the answer was going to be. Rex nodded.

"Yeah. We are sleeping next door to Oswald Danes and Amelia Don't-Mess-With-Me-I-Have-A-Gun Ure."

Gwen sighed. "Lovely. So much for coming here to avoid them. Where are they now?"

"In their rooms, and hopefully that's where they'll stay."

Jack rolled his eyes in such a way that it would've given Ianto a run for his money, had he still been alive. "Oh, come on. Whenever someone says something like that, the total opposite always happens! You may as well invite them out to dinner and have done with it!"

"You know what I really love about you, Jack?" Gwen asked. "You're just such an optimist."

Jack nodded. "I try my best."

"Not very hard, then."

"Oi!"

"Keep it down!" another voice called, coming from somewhere down the hall. "Take it to your own room, and stop yelling outside mine!"

Jilly presented Jack with a small key. "You might want to use this to get into your room before that person comes out here and deafens you with their screaming. And yes, they really should update to key-cards, but if you have a problem, take it up with Miss Sunshine-and-Smiles downstairs."

Jack took the key and unlocked one of the doors. "So, who's my lucky roommate?"

All at once and in the same voice, the girls cried "Not me!"

"I feel so loved." Jack said, mock-despairingly.

Rex sighed dejectedly. "Me, then."

Jack grinned, showing a lot of white teeth. "Like I said, lucky."

Gwen gave a small giggle. "Have fun, boys." she said, opening the now-unlocked door. Jack walked inside, followed by Rex, who was looking like he'd just been told he only had 5 minutes to live. Jilly unlocked the other door, and stepped inside, followed by Esther and Gwen. The room was certainly large enough for the three of them, with two comfy-looking single beds and a squashy sofa in the corner that would later become a bed for one of them. A large mirror hung on one wall, whilst the wall opposite the door was mainly taken up with a window. Another door led to a blue-and-green en-suite, complete with bath and shower. The walls of the bedroom were a deep red in colour, and when the bedside lamps were switched on, the whole room had a cosy glow to it. Altogether, the girls thought, it was not a bad room. There was, however, one problem with it. Two single beds. One sofa bed. Who was getting what? It was Gwen who brought the subject up first, and Esther who quickly stepped in to resolve it.

"Right. Sleeping arrangements." (Gwen.)

"It's ok; I can take the sofa bed." (Esther.)

"No, that isn't fair." Gwen said. "You'd always say that, just to avoid an argument; me or Jilly will take it." As she spoke, she looked hard at Jilly, like she was silently warning her not to argue. "Right?"

"No, seriously, I don't mind." Esther said, not particularly caring that she was encouraging an argument rather than preventing one. "I've slept on worse."

Gwen reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, bronze coin. "Fine. We'll toss the coin. Heads, you take the sofa bed, tails, me and Jilly flip for it."

She flipped the coin and caught it neatly, before carefully removing her hand from its place on top of the penny.

"Tails." she announced. "Right, I'll take heads. If it's heads, I get the normal bed. If it's tails, Jilly does."

Once more, the small, round piece of metal went up into the air, and down again into Gwen's hands. "Heads. I get the bed, then."

She didn't bother trying to keep the slight smugness out of her voice, nor did she keep the slight smile off of her face as she plonked her bag down on the springy mattress, glad she didn't have the -probably hard- sofa bed.

Meanwhile, in room 27, Jack had also discovered the springiness of the mattresses.

"Hey, this is fun!" he called to Rex. "You should join me!"

"No way, Harkness, am I going to bounce up and down on that bed like the weirdo that you are. Unlike you, I don't want management called on us." he replied.

"Aw, come on! Just try it!" Jack pouted, looking slightly put out. Rex tried ignoring him, which worked until someone knocked on the door, and Jack did not even make an effort to stop using the bed as a bouncy castle.

"Jack, Rex?" a voice on the other side of the door called. "It's Esther."

Rex opened the door. "Before you come in, you might wanna prepare yourself."

"For what?"

"Jack."

Esther was slightly confused. "Why, what's up with…" That was when she caught sight of the once-Immortal man still bouncing quite happily. "Ah."

Jack saw Esther staring and waved, grinning manically. "Hi, Esther! Come and try this!"

She shook her head. "I think I'll pass." She turned back to Rex. "You wanna go grab a bite to eat? Gwen's sleeping and Jilly's finishing putting together the stuff for next week on her laptop. I would have asked Jack to come too, but….well, he seems happy enough. I mean, you don't have to come, I just thought maybe…." She trailed off, slightly embarrassed. She and Rex got on well, and if anyone asked, they'd probably even say they were friends- but that didn't mean she had to feel confident asking him out for a meal, even if it was just as friends. What if he didn't like her enough to go out? She could have just wrecked everything in that one moment. Then, much to her amazed relief, he nodded.

"Yeah, why not?"

"Really? I mean, only if you want to…"

He nodded again. "Sure. I'll meet you outside."

She smiled. "Okay, then. I'll just go and get ready."

When Esther got back to her shared room, she found that not only Gwen, but also Jilly, had fallen asleep. Gwen was curled up on top of the bed she had won, and looked like she wouldn't be moving for some time. Jilly's laptop was still open, emitting a soft bluish glow, which provided just enough light for Esther to see that Jilly's head was resting on the keyboard. She dithered for a moment, unsure if she ought to switch on the light or not. The unlikeliness of it all suddenly hit her, all at once. Not just the Miracle, but other things, too. In the middle of all of it all, the last thing she had expected to be doing was being involved in a trial. Hell, it had been her idea! She'd seen Oswald's 2006 trial –who hadn't?- but…this was weird. Testifying against him. And she never thought she'd find herself actually working with Jilly Kitzinger. Against her, maybe, but this? And not only that, but Jilly was actually…well, a lot nicer than many people would think. Esther reminded herself, for the hundredth time, not to make any judgements. Jilly's 'nicer' side could just be an act, but, then again, so could the side everyone else saw. Alternatively, and slightly more complicatedly, it could all be one great big act anyway, and just thinking about the whole thing gave Esther a headache, and took away most of her remaining faith in humanity, so she usually pushed it all to the back of her mind.

I should probably get ready, she thought, quietly moving across the room, trying not to wake the other occupants.

Meanwhile, the small, rational part of Jilly Kitzinger's brain that was still awake, claimed, most determinedly, that she was not dreaming of Shanghai.

I'm so sorry I haven't updated in months and it's all probably OOC and I need to re-write it but oh well...!

I love you all. x