Dress Off 00: Origins - Jane vs Kate

To compound matters further - if that was faintly possible - her shoes were no longer merely irritating because of the heels. Now they added to their sins by also becoming strongly attached to either other. A few moments of struggle in the door frame to Mr Glutchman's office, with an eager Kate watching on in glee, revealed the awful truth. Jane Barton wasn't going anyway. Her feet were effectively locked together, she couldn't bend her knees, and she'd never be able to hop away in stilettos.

The final insult was only made once the futility of Jane's situation had struck home. With one last ceremonial pop, the button and zip on her skirt self-destructed into a small poof of smoke. A skirt that had already only been covering half of her bottom, now gracefully slid down her legs, and settled around her feet.

Agonisingly, she was powerless to resist as Kate slowly stood up from behind the desk, and sauntered casually over to where Jane was trapped.

Running a finger over Jane's cheek, Kate suddenly looked puzzled. "I thought." She said, to the voice in the earpiece. "That you promised us total embarrassment and humiliation for the loser."

"Yes." the earpiece replied. "Yes, we did. However, you've played the game yourself now. You know what it's like to experience your own wardrobe malfunctions. You've earned the right to make a decision. You can show mercy on Jane now, safe in the knowledge that she's been thoroughly shamed, and unlikely to show her face around these parts again. Or..." the voice said, trailing off for a few seconds. "... you can position Miss Barton on a turn table that I believe you'll find in the corner of your assigned meeting room. The fate of her blouse is, of course, entirely up to you."

Kate smiled at that last comment, and leaned in to whisper in Jane's ear.

"Be right back, sweetheart."

Jane groaned as Kate disappeared, and the seconds seemed like hours as she just stood there, unable to make any significant dent on the distance to the lifts and her possible freedom.

After what seemed like an eternity though, Jane heard footsteps approaching, along with the sound of wheels travelling over the carpet. She had to suppress a laugh at the absurdity of the situation, when the realised that she was actually hoping that the footsteps were Kate's! Fancy that, she thought madly to herself. Fancy _wanting_ to see Kate.

"Hey girlfriend." It was Kate's voice alright. She'd brought equipment. Unable to put up a serious fight, other than to protest at the indignity of it all, Jane found herself being lifted onto low trolley that Kate had found. Jane waved her arms at Kate to try and block any attempt at moving her, but Kate merely laughed.

"And do you know what else I found when I went looking for the turn table and this trolley?" she asked, with a giggle.

Kate didn't wait for Jane to reply. Instead, she grabbed her opponent's hands, and deftly handcuffed them behind her back.

"Nice!" Kate said, approvingly, as she stepped in front of the trolley and surveyed her work. "I've always said that you'd look good in the right suit. It was always just a case of finding the right accessories."

With that, and in one swift movement, Kate leaned forward and tore the wet blouse wide open. Tugging at it happily, and with several ripping motions, Kate finally deprived Jane of her top, and left the woman standing on the trolley naked, restrained, and completely at her mercy.

Kate winked at Jane, as she casually ran a hand lightly over each Jane's huge breasts.

"You know Jane. Some models have catwalks to show off their outfits. We don't have a catwalk unfortunately, but you'll be happy to know that your birthday suit won't go unappreciated. We've got about twenty minutes to the start of the video hookup in Europe, and wouldn't you know it? There's a turn table in the meeting room!"

Smiling evilly. Kate began to push the trolley and her latest acquisition down the corridor.

****

With the faintest of "sweesh" noises, the large screen at the end of the meeting room went from sleeping to wide-awake. Where previously there had only been a black screensaver with the company logo moving slowly around, there was now a window onto Europe. Half a world away the company board was filing into their own meeting room, bringing in drinks from lunch and sinking into their chairs with the idle chatter of the rich and powerful.

At first, none of them seemed to pay much attention to the video link to Sydney. Certainly none of them noticed the mortified, naked woman standing rigid on a turn table that was gently rotating around. None yet witnessed the woman's desperate attempts to reach her handcuffed hands from behind her back to cover anything at all. After several moments of panicked effort, her heart sank even further as she realised she'd have to settle with partly covering her naked backside when she inevitably flashed it to the camera on one of her many rotations.

It was as she was facing the door to the meeting room, with her back to the camera, that she heard the first gasp of astonishment come over the speakers. The turn table continued it's endless journey, and she helplessly felt herself rotating back around towards the camera as it sunk in that she'd finally been discovered. She initially turned her head away, in the mad hope that if the executives in Europe couldn't see her face, then somehow this would all blow over.

On the third rotation though, as the excited comments and swearing began to fill the room, Jane couldn't help but look up, and saw the faces of a dozen men pressed up against the screen so many thousands of miles away. All of them gawking. All of them staring at her naked breasts, her exposed pussy, and her flawless, perfect, yet entirely nude body. For a moment, this spurred another attempt at breaking the handcuffs, but it was all in vain, and she suffered the indignity of hearing several of the executives demand to know if this was being recorded, as she rotated back around to show them her derriere.

If that was as bad as Jane thought it would get tonight though, her world collapsed even further as the door to her own meeting room swung open. The senior partner made about three steps into the room before he came to a sudden stop, and as Jane looked at him for a fleeting second, she could see his mouth hang open and his eyes nearly pop out. Looking immediately down, she couldn't help but also notice that his eyes weren't the only part of him that was suddenly bulging.

Behind him, with a look of mock horror on her face, but with a faint trace of malicious satisfaction showing through, stood Kate Houston, dressed in a perfectly sensible, dry, well-behaved business outfit.

"Jane!" Kate exclaimed, seemingly in shock herself. "What are you doing?!"

The senior partner was having a slight problem with breathing as Jane slowly spun around on the turn table one more time, and found herself back facing the leering European men. She saw stern looks of disapproval from several of them, near fainting from a few others, and undeniable lust from the rest. To compound matters, she could feel her nipples get even harder, and her pussy begin to moisten again, as the overwhelming sexual tension began to get the better of her once more.

Finally, the senior partner was able to find his voice.

"Jane! Jane, I... ahh... I demand you get down from there... immediately!" he ordered, barely concealing the disappointment of having to end this.

"I can't!" Jane pleaded. "Kate has trapped me!"

Kate snorted. "Really?! You're blaming this one me?!"

"Look!" Jane exclaimed. "I can't move or cover myself up, see?" She tried to demonstrate that her legs were locked rigidly by the stockings and shoes, and that her hands were firmly secured by the handcuffs behind her. So it was with great surprise, and much cursing at the wretched timing of everything, that Jane suddenly felt the handcuffs give way, her hands fly free, and the stockings and shoes relinquish control over her lower body.

"Damn it!" Jane shrieked. Covering up as best she could, one arm firmly pressed against her magnificent 32D breasts, the other clamped firmly between her legs, Jane hopped down and sprinted out the room.

As the door slammed shut behind her, Kate walked over to a table and made a show of trying to steady herself.

"Sirs. I think we can all agree that Miss Barton's behaviour tonight has been astonishingly unprofessional, completely unacceptable, and bordering on the disturbed." Looking up at the screen, Kate continued with a tone of forced calm. "Gentlemen. I'd like to apologise on behalf of the Sydney office for my colleague's..." she stopped to correct herself, "... my _ex-colleague's_ behaviour." Kate hesitated, and then looked hopefully at the board members. "If... if you'll please indulge us for just a few minutes more... I feel like, perhaps, _I_ could still present my work, and show you the best of what Sydney really has to offer..."

Kate smiled, a sense of victory sweeping over her as the mass of confused, aroused, angry and disappointed board members argued and grumbled amongst themselves.

Looking over at the senior partner, who had collapsed into his seat and was still trying to process the events of the past few minutes, she earnestly added. "Don't worry sir. I think all my hard work over these past few weeks will still save the day..."

****

Jessica Beacham sat in her apartment staring blankly at the television as a yet another reality show droned away. The show wasn't coming even vaguely close to soothing the feeling of emptiness that she hadn't been able to shake since arriving. Irritably, she finally snapped and roughly thrust a finger at the remote, muting the television and leaving her with just the images and colours dancing in front of her.

It had been... a strange five weeks. She blinked at that thought, as the sounds of another early autumn night in Brisbane wafted in from the open window of her third floor apartment. Jessica was new to the city. Jessica gave a short humourless laugh at that last thought. "Jessica" was new to a lot of things, the city of Brisbane being almost the least of all the changes that she'd recently undergone.

A knock on the door interrupted her train of thought, and she let whoever it was knock a second time before finally hauling herself off the couch to go and see who it was.

Opening the door a crack, Jessica recoiled slightly as the familiar face of Tess Trueheart came into view.

"T... Tess?" Jessica said, confusion rife in her voice. "What... what are you doing here?"

"Hello Jessica." Tess said evenly. "Can I come in?"

Tess didn't wait for Jessica to answer, and gently pushed the door open and away from an unprotesting Jessica's hand.

"We need to talk." Tess said, walking into the room. Before Jessica could react and close the door, a second woman appeared from the corridor outside. Marching in behind Tess, matching her companion stride for stride and and with an authoritative yet-not-unkind smile gracing her features, came a tall red-headed woman and followed by a .... red-head.

Jessica looked between Tess and the second woman with her mouth open, wondering exactly what was going on.

Her two visitors sat down on the couch, sufficiently far apart that Jessica could choose to sit between them if she chose. Tess even patted the empty seat encouragingly as she smiled back at her surprised host.

"How?" Jessica finally managed, after a few seconds of opening and closing her mouth to no discernible effect. "How did you find me? I thought the only people that knew where I was now were those bitches from Decider Enterprises!"

The red-head looked briefly at Tess before coughing, and giving Jessica a small, almost apologetic smile. "Yeah..." she said. "Yeah, about that."

That voice! Jessica recognised it immediately, and that recognition hit her like a punch to the stomach. It was the voice she'd heard all through Sydney that night, and on the laptop back in the days nearly a lifetime ago, when Jane Barton had held a job, had friends and a future in the city.

"You!" Jessica said, pointing her finger firstly at Sonya, and then accusingly gesturing at Tess as well. "You're... well, both of you... you're Decider Enterprises!"

Tess nodded her head briefly and with a strange look on her face, acknowledging the charge that Jessica had laid at them.

"Yes." Tess said simply. "Yes we are. But before you kick us out..." Tess paused and looked meaningfully at Sonya, who then finished Tess' sentence for her. "... we have a certain proposition for Ms Jessica Beacham that we simply couldn't make to Ms Jane Barton."

Jessica's face flushed red as she realised that these two women must know everything about how she'd been exposed, stripped and displayed back in her old life.

"I was humiliated!" was all that Jessica could manage.

"And you went into that game knowing what the consequences would be." Sonya replied, evenly.

"Besides." Tess added. "We're here now not to re-live old embarrassments, but to offer new opportunities."

Sonya stood up and beckoned Jessica to join them on the couch.

"We need some women. Confident, strong, intelligent women. Women who have been through what I hope was the most embarrassing time of their life, and who nevertheless came out stronger for it."

"Stronger?!" Jessica retorted. "I had to leave the city I grew up in, and leave my friends and my old job behind! I had to change my name!"

"*We* had to change your name." Tess pointed out. "We're the ones who created a new life for you."

"And we did it," Sonya joined in, "because we think you're the kind of person who has more greatness in them than they ever would have realised in their old life."

Jessica was unable to suppress a snort and short laugh at that last remark. Sonya looked down at her feet briefly, before raising her head again and coolly making friendly-but-firm eye contact with Jessica.

"I understand you hate us at the moment for what we did." Sonya glanced at Tess just as she said this, and flashed back to their game together so many years ago. "But here you are. We've been watching you these past weeks. We've seen you pick yourself up, get out there in the sun again, and - I'll be honest - we recognise ourselves in you. Except you did it all by yourself." Pausing again, Sonya's flickered back to Tess one more time. "We at least had the advantage of having each other."

Tess now stood up and held out a hand to Jessica. In Tess' hand was an old business card that Jessica - no, that "Jane Barton" - had printed when she'd started her internship, back when her imagination was firing with a thousand different pathways to power and success."So once you've had a chance to say goodbye to the constraints of being Jane Barton..."

Tess smoothly flipped over the business card to show that there was now print on both sides. The reverse side, unlike the busy and cluttered original design, simply showed the minimalistic Decider Enterprises logo, with her new name emblazoned above it. "Once you've had a chance to say hello to the opportunities of being Jessica Beacham..." Tess flickered the card at Jessica, who caught it more by reflex than by any great intent. "We'd love to add one more sexy, smart & strong-willed blonde to our little team."

Silently, and with her jaw still clenched with righteous indignation, Jessica looked down and stared at the business card.

Suddenly, unbidden and with a force that almost made her physically step back, Jessica was shocked to find her imagination was firing again. Only this time her imagination wasn't showing Jane Barton at a cubicle in front of a computer writing some high-level report, or signing up high profile clients with a fake smile, or delivering her millionth powerpoint presentation while standing in front of a mob of powerful yet indistinguishable old men in suits. This time, her imagination was showing Jessica Beacham on a beach trailing a shifty looking man with a suspicious brief case, jumping out of an aeroplane and parachuting on to the roof of a high rise tower block, and masquerading as all manner of strange women at high profile parties.

Jessica closed her fist into a ball, and fixed both Tess and Sonya with what she hoped would still come across as an angry glare.

"Don't think for a minute that what I'm about to ask means I've in any way forgiven either of you, or even remotely interested in what you're proposing..." she said, her voice trying to maintain a hard edge to it, "but, umm... what... what exactly _are_ you proposing?"

Sonya gave Tess a small, almost imperceptible wink, and Tess breathed in deeply.

"Well Sonya, where do you think we should start?" Tess asked her partner.

"I always liked the part about bitch-slapping Harrington until she crawled back under the rock she came from." Sonya said, seemingly after a few moments of consideration.

Jessica held up a hand to silence them both. With just the faintest trace of curiosity now seeping through cracks in her angry facade, like a small trickle heralding the imminent bursting of a dam, she looked first at Tess and then Sonya. "Wait." she said. "Who?"

*********

[Agents Tess Trueheart, Sonya Foxwell and Jessica Beacham will return in "Dress Off: Olivia vs Abby"]