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

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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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"Well... it's..." It is pretty far fetched, but not unheard of. They've all been used to distract Buffy or lure Buffy or even break Buffy at one point or another. Every single family member, every single close friend. It was a part of being in the Slayer's life. And right now, that was all she had as far as ideas went. She wasn't that important except to people trying to tear down the walls between realities or people trying to get to her sister. And most people didn't know she was the key. The Slayer's sister? Common knowledge. "It's the best idea I've got. Do you have a better one?"

"Well, first I'd need to know why your sister is so goddamned important, to know if that's even a feasible idea. Because otherwise," he offers a little shrug, "who gives a shit?"

Obviously, see-through girl thinks her sister is hot shit, but Harvey doesn't know either of them from a hole in the ground... as best he can...

"Wait - what'd you say your sister's name was again?"

"She saves the world a lot. Like a super hero minus the spandex and cape?" Dawn answers. And yes, Dawn is Buffy's biggest fan. No one gets to talk bad about Buffy except for her and that's only a sister's prerogative sort of thing. "Her name is Buffy. Blond and tiny and able to kill the evilest of the evil with her pinky finger?"

"How often does the world need saving?" he asks, more rhetorical than anything else.

It takes a moment, but the name manages to push through and he frowns at her. "I think I was her secret Santa," he comments half-idly. It's wholly unrelated to the current conversation, but the name was familiar.

"So, back to your issue - who do you think did this?"

"You'd be surprised. My saves the world a lot." It had been on her tomb stone, actually, one of the times she died and came back (thanks goodness). Buffy Summers - She saved the world a lot. No lies. No exaggeration.

"Oh! I bet she really enjoyed... whatever. She likes presents without the birthdays or the mass mayhem." Dawn rambles. Talking about her sister is so much easier than talking about whatever is going on with her. She doesn't like the implications of what's happening here.

She's quiet for a few moments. "A witch or... or just the universe in general setting things back the way it should be."

"I'd repeat my question, but I'm not sure it's relevant." He shakes his head.

Then he watches her bouncing a bit - about presents. "Bubble bath, I think," he says. Christmas was a while ago and Harvey isn't the best at picking out presents without a list. Another frown and he wags a finger. "You have a strange, yet intriguing, life," he says.

He doesn't make it a habit of repeating people, but... "'Back the way it should be?'"

"Yeah, I'm kind of... not supposed to exist." She adds quickly after that. "And not supposed to talk about it so sayeth my sister. You know, just in case any evil lawyers wanna destroy the world. It happens."

If he were part of the Scooby gang, he'd likely utter something along the lines of 'who's-a-what-now?'. But he's not, so he says, "Come again?"

He's starting to wonder if he's not losing it.

"Of course," he says of her not talking about her existance that shouldn't, "who would believe a story like that?"

He's not exactly sure what to do with any of this information.

"It's kind of ridiculous right?" She answers in response to who would believe such a thing. She even goes so far as to smirk. She remembers the time Buffy got injected with a toxin that had made her believe she was crazy, that her entire life had been made up, including Dawn. Easy to believe for normal people who had no experience in the subject.

"You won't tell anyone?" She asks him.

He draws out his phone (that doesn't actually work here) and feigns sending a text message.

"I'm renting a billboard on Times Square right now," he says, poker face fully in place.

For a brief moment she looks shocked, then pissed off. And then finally realization hits her and a sardonic sort of expression settles in place. "Joking in the face of terrible things, I like you." It was a trait that almost everyone she knew had, actually.

Now he feeds her a self-satisfied smirk.

"I'd tell you that no one would believe me, but since I'm standing in what is apparently a 'magic' hotel and I travelled around in a British police box with a strange man who claimed to be able to go anywhere in space and time, someone here probably would." He puts his phone away.

"If you give me five bucks, I'll call myself your attorney, then it's priviledged." Usually his retainer is more in the ten-grand range, but a girl who's almost invisible and only about nineteen, probably doesn't have ten-grand just lurking in her pockets.

"You met the Doctor and traveled in the TARDIS? He is so cool..." Look at her, momentarily forgetting her troubles and geeking out much in the same way she would over Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.

But right, money. That thing she only has a tiny bit of. She's in her pajamas though. "Well you can come with me back to my room and I have some money." She starts back toward the rooms she shares with her sister. "Although I might pay you from Buffy's stash cause... I use her stuff all the time." And she might need five bucks someday.

His eyebrows go up at her reaction to his trip to the year of whenever. He'd honestly been too stunned at most of what he'd seen to do a lot of 'fan' geeking.

He grins a little when she says she'll take the money from her sister. He does follow as she goes.

"Are you sure you don't have any idea how this happened to you?"

"I just got out of the shower and looking in the mirror." Dawn explains as they walk up the stairs to the top floor. "There are few things more creepy than watching the shower steam go away and noticing you're not foggy and can actually see the room behind you through you in your reflection. At first I thought wacky mirror hyjinks but that was just... wishful thinking."

"I don't think water causes invisibility," he says. Then adds, "Or see-through-ed-ness." Though he is sure the latter isn't actually a word.

He is beginning to think he should investigate the hotel a bit more. He doesn't have anything better to do, since he can't leave, and lurking about the lobby is only so much fun.

"Well a spell could've been cast on the water but then the same would have happened to Buffy too." She says thoughtfully.

At their room, Dawn lets herself in and goes to Buffy's bags under the bed. First she pulls out a bag of weapons before pushing it back under. Then another bag of various things where she finds a glittery billfold and gets a ten dollar bill from it. She stands and hands it to him with a smile. "This feels so official. Right? I'm all client-like now."

"How do you know this didn't happen to Buffy?" he asks, waving a hand at her. So far she hasn't suggested anything that would definitively determine that her sister was unaffected. He isn't trying to scare her; just to understand what the hell is going on.

The bag search is interesting, if nothing else. She hands him the money and asks a very good question. He pulls a bit of a face, then asks for paper. He has a pen. On the paper, he scribbles down a rough version of a retainer agreement, explaining that his services typically run in much higher numbers, but he can make an exception. Essentially, he's written that for the price of ten dollars - he's assuming she's not asking for change - and a few favors if they become necessary, he will act as her attorney for one year. "Sign here," he says, pointing to a line he drew on the paper and handing her the pen. "Then you're all 'client-live'," he tells her, using her odd phrasing - that sort of reminds him of Mike.

Dawn takes the paper and studies it, her eyes poring over what he writes to make sure she isn't signing away her soul or anything. (Wouldn't her sister be proud of her for thinking of that.) She talks as she reads. "Because I'm sort of a special case and if both of us were disappearing wouldn't it be everyone in the hotel? Cause... you know, I can totally only see you and not through you... or through anyone else I've seen."

She looks up to him just to make sure. And yep. She still can't see through him. She lifts one finger up in the universal sign for 'just a minute', goes to her side of the room and digs around in a book bag until she comes up with a purple glitter pen. She signs her name, Dawn Summers, to the contract with said purple glitter pen in purple glitter ink. You're welcome, Harvey. She puts the pen away and brings the paper back to him.

"This is kind of exciting, I've never had a lawyer before." She says. "And a not evil working for hell kind of lawyer at that. I think we'll make a great team. I mean, if there were something we were doing that required teams. Right now we can just be team us."

He shakes his head. "Don't you think someone could target your rooms specifically?" He is a lawyer.

The glitter ink gets a raised eyebrow. He's trying to remember if signing in purple glitter ink is legal and binding. He shakes his head, but doesn't say anything.

"How do you know I'm not evil?" he asks.

At her mention of 'team us' he just says "No." And yup, she reminds him of Mike.

"Well, yeah I guess they could if they were a mega witch and able to focus their powers so that..." But she kind of doubted it. Buffy would have found her by now if something was wrong with her. As overprotective as she was, if something were obviously wrong with Buffy, she would come check on her. Dawn was absolutely sure of it. "She would find me if this were happening to her. I mean sometimes the hovering can be a bit much but sometimes it's right on cue, like during a crisis type situation. And disappearing totally counts as a crisis type situation."

At his evil question, well, she barely even pauses a heartbeat before answering. "You didn't make me sign in blood, for one. All the biggest of the big bad evil types make you sign contracts in blood. Everyone knows that."

She gives him a look at his 'no'. He is totally a part of the team now, like it or not. She reaches out to try to snatch the papers from him. Only her hand suddenly can't grasp anything. It goes through it instead. And does she look even more transparent than she had moments before. "I was gonna say you're a part of the team now but maybe it's safer not to be on our side of things." And Dawn knows that most people, including lawyers, will always take he safer, easier path.

Ok, so the big brother in him might grin a little at the big sister hovering Dawn describes. He was a little protective of his brother in his day.

"Everyone knows that, huh?" He grins a little bigger. "How do you know they all didn't change the rules just to throw you off?"

The grin immediately fades when her fingers pass through the paperwork in his hand. That doesn't look like something that would fall under the 'good' heading. At all.

"Which side should I be on then?" he asks, a little alarmed. And don't ever let anyone try to say that Harvey Specter takes the 'safer' anything.

"Well we're the side of world save-y goodness. But..." Her palms press flat to her stomach and she looks down at herself, just making sure she's still here. Strangely, in spite of her transparency, she can feel her heart beat ricocheting in her chest and up into her throat and ears.

After a moment, she relaxes again as much as she can and looks back up to Harvey. "But good things don't always happen to the side of good."

And here's the moment where she starts to tell Harvey the things she isn't supposed to talk about. "I've only really been in existence for just under five years. I mean I was created... almost five years ago. I'm not... real. And now the world is setting things back the way they should be, I think. By taking me out of it." She can't help it. Tears are in her eyes again. She wants a hug so bad it aches and sorry Harvey but she's going to try with you. Only when she reaches out, her hands go through him. And that's when she starts to panic again. Her breath short and her eyes wide.

He almost rolls her eyes when she talks about 'saving the world' - that is stuff of television shows and movies. Then she keeps talking...

...and says that she's not real. His face falls into a deep frown, because if what she's saying is true, then he is now the proud owner of a retainer agreement signed by his imaginary friend. And he's about to tell her that he's going to leave when she tries to hug him.

That look on his face that used to be a frown, now it's an almost-terrified, confused version. "What...?" Then there's the panic attack.

Now he sighs and gives her a stern look. "Dawn," he says, "calm down."

"Calm down? I'm about to be a green ball of energy again and I can't... I can't..." She shakes her head, a frantic movement. "Deep breaths. Deep breaths...." She'll just be pacing back and forth in front of him trying to slow her breathing down.

"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" She says. "I probably am."

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

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