all_inclusive | Like shadows in the faded light, we're invisible.

As if not being home wasn't bad enough, Dawn has been getting sicker and sicker by the day. She'd barely even been out of bed in a week. This morning she had rolled out of bed feeling just a little bit better after having slept for twenty-four hours straight. She had shuffled her way through a shower that only added to her feeling better. Wearing a white tank top with a purple glittered star on it and some purple pajama pants, she combed through the tangles in her hair and picked up a blow dryer to start working the heat through her hair. Today would be a straight hair sort of day, no curls because she didn't have the energy for it. As her hair dried, the steam slowly filtered away from the mirror, giving her a better image of herself in the reflection.

She dropped the blow dryer. Blinked. Looked again. Blinked again. Squinted her eyes. How could she see things behind her? Through herself? She looked behind her, just to check and make sure that she was seeing what was behind her through herself. Then she looked back to the mirror. She lifted her hand, seeing the bathroom counter through it. Her heartbeat thudded loudly in her chest. So loud that she swore she could feel it throughout her entire body inside and out.

And this is what had her barreling barefoot through the hotel hallways looking for Buffy or Angel or Peter or yes, even Faith who had no idea who she was. The ghostly see-through girl calling out as she ran from one place to another until she couldn't run anymore. "Buffy?" Each time she rounded a corner or hit a new floor or corridor of the hotel she called out. "Buffy!" She might run into people and apologize before she hurried on her way to find her sister. Or she might stop to talk if anyone wanted to.

Eventually, tired and spent, she would end up plopping down on one of the couches in the lobby, a box of kleenex beside her and a book in her lap. The couch could be seen through her and every once in awhile she lifted her hand to look through it at things, trying to gauge whether it was getting better or worse. Her eyes were puffy from crying. Her nose was red from sniffling. She was generally a train wreck of a person right now. But she figured anyone would be if they were slowly disappearing.

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She believes that. Or she wants to believe it. A part of her will always doubt that she's real enough. Which gives her an idea. "Hey there was a student from Sunnydale High that I read about in one of Giles's old watcher diaries who was disappearing and then the government picked her up? Could this be the same thing? Am I gonna turn into invisible girl?" Because that's better than disappearing into nothing. Although she does feel kind of weak. Weaker than normal. And tired. But she doesn't want to sleep again. She slept for twenty-four hours straight already. That was too long.

"I...don't know," Buffy answers honestly. "Marcy. I remember Marcy and I hope not because she wasn't very nice." She'd sort of tried to disfigure Cordelia and kill Buffy. "You're not going anywhere, Dawn. You're not going to turn invisible and you're not going to disappear. I'll stop it before that happens, okay?"

And she wouldn't sleep until she'd figured it out.

"But not all girls who go ghost are not very nice. I could be a friendly ghost. Less Blair Witch and more Casper. Friendly." She said hopefully. Is it sad that she's hopeful about invisible over fading away? Probably so. But in their world the lesser of two evils is the best way to go. And look at her, her tears drying up for the moment and she's even joking about it.

"You can see through me too, right?" She asks. "It's not just me that can see through me?"

Buffy nods, confirming Dawn's question. She could see through her.

"But I'm going to change that, okay?" She gives Dawn a brave smile. "And if I don't, feel free to haunt my closet."

Joking is the best way to handle a crisis. Crying certainly doesn't help.

"Your closet is so getting haunted. I'm gonna be the president ghost of your closet." She says with all seriousness. Because she raids Buffy's closet in life, she'll do the same in... disappearance(?).

"Another idea. Someone cast a spell. They're using me to get to you." She says. "In which case I say we kill the witch." Usually she's witch friendly, but right now she just can't bring herself to be sympathetic toward a witch that would do this.

"If we find out it's a witch and a spell, there will be burning at the stake. Big stake, you know not stabby stake."

Probably. Well, maybe. Buffy kind of has an anti kill policy for humans and witches are humans, but this is a pretty big offense as far as Buffy is concerned. She'd kill someone for Dawn.

"Maybe... maybe there's a reason Faith doesn't know who I am. Maybe something happens to me back home." She says, offering up ideas. "I mean maybe this has something to do with her brain damage. Do you know when she's from?"

Buffy shook her head. "I don't--Faith and I aren't exactly slumber party buddies, but I think she's from around the same time as us. Nothing happened to you back home and even if it had, why shouldn't she remember you? She's just...Faith."

Which seemed to be all the explanation that Buffy needed.

Well that didn't help. "So you're saying all we can do is sit and wait and research. We need the watcher's library I uploaded back home."

Buffy takes a breath, desperately wanting to protest that. She lets the breath out in a sigh. "Yeah...we need the Watcher's library. I've been doing a lot of door opening, trying to find one that leads home."

It's all she can do even if she wants to do more.

"I could do that too. I could be door search-y." Because honestly it beat sitting here crying while she slowly disappeared. It might be her own imagination and fear talking, but she could swear she was already more translucent than she had been when she'd first sat down. "I could help!"

Buffy understands wanting to be proactive, wanting to do something so she nods. "Try to make note of the doors that you try and where they lead if you can tell. If you find one to--" She stops because wow saying his name will never get easier, "to Giles, just--call me on the phone," she waggles the smart phone the hotel provides, "and wait there with it open until I get there."

Because they need the watcher database, but it'd be even better if they had the watcher.

A part of her worried that Buffy would say no. Because sometimes she did that. Sometimes she didn't like Dawn being too involved in researchy things. Even now. But luckily she had also gotten better about it. It wasn't as bad as it used to be. Like Buffy was starting to realize that this was going to be Dawn's life too in more and more ways. So Dawn sighs with relief and nods. She gets to her feet and nods. "You think... you think one might lead to him? Really?"

Opening doors isn't dangerous, as long as Dawn doesn't step over the threshold. Besides, at this point, Buffy will take all the help she can get. She's scared that Dawn is going to disappear all together. She won't be able to deal with that. It's one of the few things that will break Buffy.

Buffy takes a sharp breath and holds it before exhaling. "I don't know. Maybe? I don't see why it couldn't." She hopes it will. She hopes for more than just research reasons. She hopes for selfish reasons so very badly.

Dawn just nods, a new gleam in her translucent eyes. She's hoping for selfish sort of reasons too. Sometimes she wonders if it bothers Buffy how Dawn was shoved into her life and shares feelings for people like their mother and Giles and whoever else. And that thought sends that gleam away quickly. Maybe soon she won't have to be bothered by that.

She leans in and hugs Buffy one more time, holding on extra long just to make it a good one. Then she's off. "I'll call if I find anything."

Like shadows in the faded light, we're invisible.

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