(Note: Some dialog taken directly from the episode.)

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its characters are the property of Joss Whedon.

Life kept rolling her over

like a piece of driftwood

in the surf of an angry sea

she was intelligent and beau-

tiful and well-off she made

friends easily yet she wasn't

able to put the pieces to-

gether into any recognizable

shape she wasn't sure who

she wanted to be so she

ended up being no one in par-

ticular she made herself al-

most invisible she was the

person you loved so much who

really wasn't there at all.

-The Invisible Person, by James Laughlin

Buffy had no idea how much magical or potentially magical stuff they had until they started clearing it all out of the house. Candles, herbs, charms, books, statues, chicken feet, all swept into boxes to be taken away to the Magic Box for storage or disposal. Willow watched it all while miserably sitting on her bed. She couldn't participate in the cleanup; the temptation to hide something for herself would've been too great. Dawn was limited by what she could do as well, since her left arm was in a sling. Plus, she wasn't all that happy with the removal of some of her favorite knickknacks, such as the Kokopelli statue.

"Why do we have to get rid of so many things I like?" the girl whined.

Buffy tried to be patient. Her sister had been through a lot, after all. "Dawn, I explained this to you. Willow has a problem. The next few weeks are gonna be crazy hard on her as it is." She began rummaging between the couch cushions, just in case Willow had a stash squirreled away. "Any reminder of what it is that she's trying to stay away from, y'know, could cause her to give in to temptation."

Her fingers came in contact with cool metal and she pulled out Spike's Zippo lighter. Must've fallen out of his pocket the last time he visited. Buffy smiled sadly as she turned the lighter in her hand, watching the light reflect off it. She and Spike hadn't seen as much of each other as they would have liked the last few days. Helping Willow through the worst of her magic withdrawals took up almost all of Buffy's waking hours, leaving the job of patrolling solely to the vampire. Buffy missed him. They'd only just become lovers, still drunk on the newness of it, which made this forced separation all the more painful for both of them.

Buffy slipped the lighter into her pocket and continued searching the couch for illicit magics.

The mood in the house was no better the next morning.

"Dawn, c'mon, you gotta eat breakfast! Xander's gonna be here any second." Buffy sighed as she returned to the kitchen. "She's gonna be late for school again," she muttered.

Willow was at the stove, still in her pajamas. She was adding some cubed ham to the eggs sizzling in the frying pan.

"How're you doing?" Buffy asked.

Willow shrugged, mustered a faint smile. "I'm okay. Not 'ready to head back to classes, face the world' okay, but the shakiness is only semi, now. I thought I'd spend the day fishing the 'Net for more poop on the stolen diamond." They still hadn't figured out what might've frozen the security guard alive and taken the gem. Buffy was starting to lose hope that they'd ever solve this mystery.

Dawn walked into the kitchen, arm once again in its sling.

"I called you before," Buffy said.

The teen shrugged. "Didn't hear you." She poured herself a glass of orange juice.

"Hey, Dawnie," Willow greeted her brightly, "I'm making you a nice omelet."

"Not hungry."

"Dawn, you need to eat something," Buffy admonished.

Her sister gave her a blank stare. "Thanks for your concern." She set her glass down with unnecessary force and left to fetch her books.

Willow stared after the girl, incredulous. "Okay, I deserve the wrath of Dawn, but why is she taking it out on you?"

"Because I let it happen," Buffy answered sadly.

"But I was the one who—"

"Who was drowning," Buffy interjected, "My best friend. And I was too wrapped up in my own dumb life to even notice."

The backdoor suddenly burst open and a hunched figure rushed inside in a cloud of smoke. He slammed the door shut, flung off the smoldering blanket that covered him, revealing himself as none other than Spike. The vampire straightened his rumpled clothes and said as casually as he could, "Morning."

Buffy stifled a laugh at his attempt to downplay his unexpected arrival. "What are you doing here?"

"Just, uh, took a stroll," he shrugged, no big, "Found myself in your neck of the woods."

Her amusement was getting harder to hold back. "Couldn't find a less flammable time of day to take a stroll?"

"Yeah, well, fact is, my lighter's gone missing. Thought it might've dropped out of my pocket last time I was here."

Buffy feigned ignorance. "Haven't seen it."

Willow, feeling like a third wheel in this conversation, set aside the unfinished omelet and turned off the stove. "I'm gonna head back to my room. Just...get dressed."

"Okay." Buffy waited until her friend disappeared upstairs, then turned to the vampire with a sardonic grin. "Lame."

"What?" he responded innocently.

"You. Making up excuses."

Spike smirked, "Don't flatter yourself, luv. Bloody fond of that lighter."

Buffy's expression softened. "I missed hearing you call me that."

"What? Luv?" Spike moved closer to her, lightly penned her against the sink with his arms to either side of her.

"Yeah. Been calling me that a lot since I came back."

Spike grinned and leaned closer to her, "So, um, what else should I call you, then? Pet? Sweetheart?" He reached up with one hand and slid his fingers through her long tresses. "My little Goldilocks?"

Buffy sighed and relaxed into his touch. The tension that had knotted her shoulders for the past few days eased a little.

"You know, I love this hair," Spike murmured, "The way it bounces around when— What?"

Buffy's expression turned slightly anxious. "I, um, was gonna get it cut today. Called the hairdresser's this morning." She lowered her head. "Wanted to simplify things a little, y'know? Since everything else in my life's so complicated right now."

Spike tilted his head in curiosity. "How short?"

Buffy shrugged. "I was thinking maybe above my shoulders." She indicated the length with her hand.

A slow smile widened across his angular face. "Got me intrigued to see it. And it'll still be long enough to run my fingers through." He proceeded to demonstrate with both hands cradling her head. Buffy's hands rested on his chest as he began to lean in for a kiss.

"Good Godfrey Cambridge, Spike!"

The couple leapt apart at the newly arrived Xander's bellow. Buffy stared at her friend with wide eyes while Spike glared at the interruption.

"You still trying to mack on Buffy?" Xander scoffed, oblivious, "Wake up, already. Never gonna happen. Only a complete loser would ever hook up with you."

Buffy felt Spike's amused sidelong glance at her and struggled to hide her annoyance.

"Well, unless she's a simpleton like Harmony," Xander amended, digging himself a deeper hole without even realizing it, "or a nut sack like Drusilla."

"Hey!" Buffy snapped, then quickly forced a cheerier expression on her face, "You really need to get Dawn off to school. Let's, uh, go fetch her, okay?" She all but shoved her slightly puzzled friend out ahead of her as they exited the kitchen, leaving a chuckling Spike in their wake.

Dawn's attitude hadn't improved in the last few minutes. She gave terse answers to all of Buffy's patient reminders, clearly not listening to any of them. Buffy was really tempted to smack the girl. "And after school you—"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's go, Xander." Dawn reached for the door, only to find the way blocked by her older sister.

"You will come straight home," Buffy stated firmly.

"Sure," Dawn replied dully, "Maybe we can find some time to get me into another car accident."

She said this just as Buffy opened the door to reveal a nondescript, middle-aged woman standing on the front step with a clipboard in hand. She smiled at the teen. "Oh, good morning! You must be Dawn."

"May I help you?" Buffy interjected.

"I'm Doris Kroeger from Social Services," the woman indicated the badge clipped to her cardigan, "We had an appointment."

"Oh, right! For Wednesday."

"This is Wednesday."

Buffy threw a querying look at Xander, who nodded.

"Right," Buffy smiled in embarrassment, "Well, Dawn, you better—" The girl rushed out the door before she could finish. "And-And, Xander, you'll drive safely."

"Yes, ma'am." Xander gave her a sympathetic look before following Dawn out to his car.

Buffy stepped aside to let Doris into the house before shutting the door behind them.

"A little bit on the tardy side, isn't she?" the woman remarked.

"Yeah, well, it's been one of those mornings, y'know? Come on in." She led Doris into the living room, all to aware of the half-packed boxes cluttering the area. "Sorry about the mess. We're doing a little housecleaning." She halted in surprise at seeing Spike lounging in one of the chairs. She'd forgotten about the vampire in all the kerfuffle. "Spike! Uh...Now's really not a good time. I, um, have company."

Spike shrugged carelessly. "No worries. I'll wait."

Doris raised an eyebrow at the sight of the leather-clad peroxide blonde; clearly not the sort of man one would expect to see in a good family home. "Um, Miss Summers, if you and your boyfriend would like to—"

"He's not—ahem—not...not my boyfriend," Buffy grimaced in apology, hoping the vampire would understand, "He's, um, just, uh... Spike, this nice woman is from Social Services."

Spike's earlier confusion vanished as comprehension dawned. "Oh, right." He got to his feet and addressed the middle-aged woman, "Uh, hey, Buffy's a great mum. She takes good care of her little sis. Like, um, when Dawn was hanging out too much in my crypt, Buffy put a right stop to it."

Buffy stifled a groan. Spike, please don't try to help!

Doris frowned in puzzlement. "I'm sorry, did you say—"

"Crib! Crib," Buffy forced a desperate laugh, "He said crib. You know kids today and their buggin' street slang." She turned to the vampire, "Uh, Spike, didn't you have to go now, y'know. Because of that thing?"

Thankfully, he took the hint. "Uh, thing, yeah. Uh, my blanket?" He looked around. Buffy grabbed the singed blanket from where it was draped over the couch and handed it to him. Spike hugged it to his chest as he walked into the kitchen, obviously intending to use the backdoor again.

"He sleeps here?" Doris asked.

"What? No! No. Oh, th-th-the blanket! That's, um... It's a security thing, yeah. He...has issues. Nope, just me and Dawn living here." Buffy smiled brightly.

Willow's voice drifted down from the second floor, "Buffy, I'm not feeling hot, so I'm gonna take a quick nap, okay?"

Buffy winced. "O-Okay, Will!" She smiled weakly at the Social Services woman. "That's Willow. She, uh, she kind of lives here, too, actually."

"Oh, so you live with another woman?"

"Oh! Oh, i-it's not a gay thing, y'know," she blathered in growing panic, "I mean, well, she's gay, but we don't...gay. Not that there's anything wrong with—" she cut herself off with a squeak when Doris reached into one of the packing boxes and pulled out a plastic bag of dried herbs. "Oh, you know, I know what that looks like, but I-I-I swear it's not what it looks like. It's magic weed." Oh, god. Her curse of blurting out the wrong thing when things got tense just struck again. She snatched the bag from the suspicious woman and tossed it aside. "It's not mine."

Doris made that hmm sound which all those she evaluated dreaded to hear. "I think I've seen enough."

"No, a-actually, I really don't think that you have! It's just...i-it's been kind of...kind of a bad time," Buffy protested feebly.

"It's been a bad time now for a while, hasn't it, Miss Summers?" Doris noted as she consulted her clipboard, "Your sister's grades have fallen sharply in the last year, due in large part to her frequent absences and lateness."

"But...there are good reasons." Which Buffy couldn't give without winding up in a straightjacket.

"I'm sure there are," Doris soothed, condescending, "But my interest is in Dawn's welfare and the stability of her home life. Something I'm just not convinced that an unemployed young woman like yourself can provide."

"I can! I-I do!"

The woman smiled thinly. "Well, we'll just have to see about that, won't we? Oh, and I'm going to recommend immediate probation in my report," she added while heading for the door.

Buffy trailed anxiously behind her. "What does that mean?"

"It means that I'll be monitoring you very closely, Miss Summers. And if I don't see that things are improving, I'll be forced to recommend that you be stripped of your sister's guardianship."

A block of ice seemed to form in Buffy's stomach at those words. "You can't do that."

"I do what is in Dawn's best interest," the woman declared with conviction, "as should you. Have a nice day."

As soon as Doris left, Buffy leaned her forehead against the door and struggled against the urge to curl up on the floor and cry.

"Didn't go well, huh?"

She turned to see Spike standing in the kitchen doorway, a sympathetic look on his face. He'd obviously stuck around and heard the whole, pathetic conversation. If it had been anyone else, Buffy would've kept all her turmoil locked inside. But Spike was her haven. She ran to him and flung herself into his waiting arms, shoulders trembling as she began to sob into his chest. Spike gently soothed her, his hands rubbing her back. "It'll be alright, luv."

"Sh-She's gonna take Dawn away!"

"No, she won't," Spike responded firmly, "Bint just caught you off-guard at a bad time. You and the Little Bit'll get through this, just like you always do." He kissed her forehead, then her lips, soft and loving.

Buffy sighed when the kiss ended. "I should cancel my appointment at the hairdresser's," she muttered, "Shouldn't be spending money we can't really afford on something as stupid as a haircut."

Spike shook his head in disagreement. "You should go. After the day you've had, you deserve to treat yourself. Besides," he grinned, "I'm curious to see how you'll look with short hair."

Buffy managed a weak smile. "Okay."

"Okay," Spike echoed, then kissed her again. His hand traveled from her waist down to her hip, reached into her pocket and pulled out his missing lighter. He held it up and quirked an eyebrow. Buffy's smile became contrite. Busted. "I was gonna get it back to you."

"Uh huh," the vampire chuckled, "Now who's making lame excuses?" With a final peck to her lips, he turned to leave. "See you around, Goldilocks."

"Bye." Buffy hugged herself, no longer feeling quite as hopeless about the crappy turn her life had taken.

The visit to the hairdresser had done her some good, after all. Her new haircut was both cute and stylish, and it hadn't even cost that much. She stepped out of the shop feeling like a new woman. She couldn't wait to show it off to Spike. She knew he'd love it.

It was hard to describe what happened next. There was a weird noise and some kind of ray lashed out, striking Buffy and a number of items along the street; fire hydrant, tree, dumpster. Buffy stumbled from the unexpected impact and dropped to her hands and knees. She stared down at the pavement, knowing something wasn't right, but unable to pinpoint what. Then it came to her; she couldn't see her hands. They should have been right in front of her. She felt them, felt the rough concrete under her palms, but she didn't see them! Buffy sat back on her knees and looked down at herself, only to discover the rest of her was AWOL as well. "Holy crap, I'm invisible!"

After the initial shock wore off, Buffy began to feel a weird sense of freedom. If no one saw her, they didn't put their expectations on her. She could do whatever she wanted like this. She was free! Okay, so she obviously couldn't stay this way forever. But what was wrong with enjoying this while it lasted? Sort of a little vacation from herself.

She didn't blow off her responsibilities right away, though. She stopped by the Magic Box to let Xander and Anya know about her interesting new condition. She told them what happened, all the while moving objects around, pretending to animate a skull and whatnot.

"Buffy, could you focus, please?" Xander griped.

"I am," she insisted, "It's just...this is kinda fun!"

"It would help if we had a little bit more to go on," Anya said, "Or anything to go on."

"Well, I could go check the spot where Buffy disappeared. Y'know, snoop for clues," Xander suggested.

Buffy was getting restless. There had to be something worthwhile she could do with her invisibility. Her friends could handle the investigating. For once, she was going to be selfish. "Yeah. Right. Uh, hey, you know what? I'm just gonna go for a walk," she said, heading for the door.

Xander looked incredulous. "A walk?"

"Yeah, y'know, clear my head. You guys keep working on the 'whats' and the 'hows.'" The bell overhead jingled as she exited the shop. "'Clear my head,'" she giggled at the unintentional pun.

She played a few pranks as she strolled through town. Scared a young woman when she snatched the studded cap off her head and waved it around. "I am the Ghost of Fashion Victims Past. Studded caps? Not a good idea. Hey, I'm doing you a favor!" she called after the running girl.

Buffy then noticed a parking enforcement officer writing someone a ticket and, in an uncharacteristic act of recklessness, stole his three-wheeler. "So long, copper!"

She drove the stolen vehicle downtown, no particular destination in mind, until she noticed a government building with the words SOCIAL SERVICES emblazoned over the door. It was too good to pass up. She parked the vehicle, went inside, and found Doris Kroeger at one of the desks, typing away on her computer. It was easy to mess with the woman's head. Move a few things around, whisper some craziness into her ear, and Doris soon went running to the ladies room to try and pull herself together. While she was gone, Buffy found Dawn's case file and replaced all the documents with page after page of "All work and no play make Doris a dull girl." Once Doris's boss saw that, and heard her ramblings about an evil voice, the woman was kindly asked to take a couple of days off. "We'll put someone else on your cases, and have them redo the Summers interview."

Buffy left whistling a jaunty tune. Yeah, things were definitely looking up. Now, what other mischief could she get into? Hmm...

Spike lounged in his easy chair, one leg thrown over the arm, watching a B-grade horror movie on TV. The heroine of the piece stumbled onto the first of the gory deaths and let out an unconvincing scream of terror. "Aah! Oh, my god! The blood! Look at all the blood!"

Spike's stomach growled. Probably not the reaction they were going for, but y'know...vampire. He got up from his chair and walked over to the fridge. He didn't even bother to heat up the blood, just unscrewed the cap from the jar and brought it to his lips to take a swig. That was when the door to his crypt creaked open. His head jerked around to see who was barging in at this hour, but saw no one. Puzzled, he put the lid back on the jar of blood and set it down atop the fridge, then went to investigate. His instincts told him someone was there, but damned if he could see them.

"Whatever beastie you are, I know you're here," he warned, "And I hurt beasties."

Something brushed against his arm. "Hey, watch it!"

The TV switched itself off. Spike rolled his eyes. "A ghost, is it? Well, go and haunt the living like a good spook."

He heard footsteps, felt someone circling him, trailing their fingers along his back. Suddenly, his arm was grabbed and he was flung back against the nearest wall. His arms were pinned out to his sides, released only for a second as his invisible assailant ripped his shirt open, then restrained him again. Spike's eyes widened as unseen lips began caressing his exposed chest. A familiar scent of arousal reached his nostrils. "Buffy?"

"Hello, lover," Buffy purred, then spun them both around and flung Spike into his chair, almost tipping the thing over in the process. Spike gaped as he saw his belt come undone and his jeans unzipped. Phantom hands reached inside and began to fondle his rapidly hardening member. "Bloody hell..."

"Guess what happened to me today," Buffy laughed.

"You...how..." Coherence was not his strong suit when all the blood was rushing south like it was at that moment.

"No idea. The Scoobies are looking into it," her breath ghosted over his erection, "And I figured, in the meantime, why not have a little fun?"

Spike's eyes rolled back as invisible hands were replaced with an invisible mouth.

It took a few hours, and a lot of toppled furniture, but they eventually made it down to the lower level and into Spike's bed. The initial frenzy had worn off and they were making love at a slower, but no less intense, pace. So lost in each other, they didn't hear Xander's intrusion until he was in the room, gawping at the vampire who seemed to be humping the mattress. "Spike? What're you doing?"

Spike felt Buffy tense beneath him, twisted around to look at Xander over his shoulder. He struggled to come up with a vaguely plausible answer that didn't involve the truth. "What am I— What does it look like I'm doing, you nit? I'm exercising, aren't I?" He demonstrated by doing a couple of pushups on top of Buffy. She barely managed to clamp her hands over her mouth in time to stifle her surprised "oop!" Spike grinned evilly, feeling her body shake with suppressed mirth. Oh, he was gonna pay for that!

Schooling his features, Spike got up and scooted to the end of the bed, facing Xander. He draped the bed's topsheet over his lower half to preserve what little modesty remained to him.

Xander stared at the vampire in complete bafflement. "Exercising...naked...in bed."

"A man shouldn't use immortality as an excuse to let himself go," Spike declared primly, "Gotta keep fit for killing."

"Yeah-huh. Looks like you had a little trouble upstairs. A mini disaster area."

Spike raised his shoulders in a negligent shrug. "So, what, you just come here to criticize my housekeeping?"

"Uh, no, I'm looking for Buffy."

"Haven't seen her," Spike's truthful response came out a little too quickly. Fortunately, Xander mistook it for embarrassment over his walking in on the vamp's "alone time."

"Well, you wouldn't. Fact is, she's come down with a slight case of invisibility."

Spike tried his best to look surprised. "Yeah? Huh! How, did uh..." He tensed as Buffy chose that moment to take her revenge on him. She began sucking on his earlobe while her hands toyed with his nipples.

Xander, unaware of the naughtiness taking place right in front of him, said, "We don't know yet. Anyway, she's not at the house, and I really, really need to find her."

"Uh...Tell you what," Spike tried to subtly push the distracting vixen away; it looked like he was swatting at a mosquito, "I'll take a peek around first chance I get, and if we bump into each other, I'll clue her that you're on the lookout."

"After your...exercises." Xander's expression was caught somewhere between disgust and pity.

"Yeah, right." Spike twisted away from Buffy's unseen fingers tickling his ribs.

Xander shook his head in dismay and made for the exit. "You know, kidding aside, Spike...you really should get a girlfriend.

As soon as he was gone, Buffy fell back in a fit of giggles.

Spike gave a fondly exasperated look to the dent in the mattress where she lay. "That was bloody stupid."

"Oh, what? You ashamed to be seen with me?" she teased.

Spike crawled back up the bed until he settled on top of her familiar soft curves. His hand traced the features of a face he couldn't see. "Should probably go catch up with Harris," he murmured without much conviction, "Sounded like he had something urgent to tell you."

"He probably just found a way to 're-visible' me," Buffy countered, "It can wait a few more hours."

"We don't know what this is doing to you, luv. Whatever this spell or curse is, it might be harming you."

"Why're you so eager to get rid of me all of a sudden?" Spike heard the pout in her voice.

He brought his other hand up to cup the other side of her face. His thumbs stroked her invisible cheeks. "I don't want rid of you, Buffy," he said gently, "I want all of you. This was fun, yeah, especially after our week-long dry spell. But I'm still missin' you. You're here, but you're not here. This isn't enough for me."

Buffy sighed. Her fingers traced the vampire's angular features. The fact that she didn't see her own hands somehow made the experience less real. It wasn't enough for her, either, now that the novelty had worn off. "Okay. I'll go. Besides, you still haven't seen me with the new haircut."

Spike smiled, then closed his eyes and kissed her.

Buffy's day went downhill after that. Dawn freaked when she found out about her invisibility. The teen fled to her room, yelling, "I can't talk to you like this! I can't see you! How can I talk to you if I can't see you?"

Then came the message from Xander on the answering machine, telling Buffy that if she didn't find a way to fix herself soon, she would die. "Wow," Buffy muttered, feeling a telltale prickle of fear for the first time since this happened.

Not long after that, just when she was about to go out and look for Xander, the phone rang. The caller, who had a familiar voice Buffy couldn't quite place, told her they had Willow hostage and she was to meet them at the video arcade, alone. It turned out to be the stalkers from the mystery van who'd been committing all the lame pranks against her. There were three of them. They'd built some kind of invisibility raygun—which they'd used on themselves before coming to the arcade—using the stolen diamond, and they said they wanted to cure her. But it seemed the leader of this so-called Trio proved less than trustworthy. Luckily, Willow noticed that the gun was on the wrong setting. Buffy easily bested them in the ensuing fight. She had some experience combating invisible enemies, and these guys clearly had zero training. When Willow got hold of the raygun and made everyone visible again, Buffy was shocked to discover her "arch nemeses" were none other than Warren, Jonathan, and a guy named Andrew. It was so anti-climactic it was almost sad. And they still managed to get away, though without their precious Invisibility Ray.

The diamond was anonymously returned to the museum, and the gun itself destroyed. Buffy would deal with the annoying Trio at some point, but for now it was time for her to get on with putting her life back together. Willow still needed help with her addiction, Dawn still needed reassurance and stability, and Social Services still needed to be appeased. But on the plus side, Buffy was able to resume patrolling the next night.

Spike met her outside his crypt with a broad smile. "Look at you."

Buffy tossed her head, displaying her shortened hair. "Like what you see?"

His arms slid around her waist, pulling her close. "Definitely."