Work Text:
She wasn't going to go back to California, at least not so soon. Offers were landing in her mailbox every day, it was a miracle she hadn't gotten paper cuts from all the envelopes she'd opened. But when asked to a business lunch in the square right before graduation day, Elle accepted. Sitting in the shade of the overhang on the patio of the Harvard Square restaurant, Bruiser on the bench beside her, Elle considered Ms. Morgan - Lilah's - proposal to begin as junior counsel for the prestigious Los Angeles firm, Wolfram & Hart. It would mean being close to her family again, and the constant southern California sun. After three years of fickle New England weather Elle was intrigued. Lilah - Ms. Morgan - promised ample growth opportunity, and competitive benefits, as well as potential to work in the firm's Rome office.
****
As Buffy thumbed through the afternoon's mail, one envelope caught her attention. Stamped with a City of Los Angeles watermark, it was addressed to the guardian of Miss Dawn Summers.
"Dawn…why did the City of Los Angeles send me a court summons?" Buffy asked as she tossed the stack onto the side table.
"I dunno, maybe you have jury duty?" Dawn mumbled from the book she was poring over. She had found it while dusting in the Magic Shoppe and Anya had told her it was okay to take it home. It wasn't selling and generating Anya any money anyway, so what good was it to her?
"We don't live in L.A., but glad to know you learned something in your government class" Buffy retorted. "Now, fess up. What did you do?"
Closing her book, and getting off the couch where she had been reading, Dawn groaned, "Ugh, nothing, can't you leave me alone?"
Of course.
Dawn's in trouble.
It must be Tuesday...
****
The research that went into preparing histories for cases was one of Elle's specialties. Meeting clients was just one part of that. The case seemed straightforward enough - item missing, teen girl caught stealing - so Elle found herself wondering why the firm tasked it to her. Elle organized her notes and walked out of the conference room she had interviewed her clients in, Bruiser trotting behind. They wanted to press charges, but the suspect was a minor who didn't even live in LA. To top it all off, they wanted to hold a tribunal.
****
Sometimes, Dawn hoped if she just ignored Buffy's nagging enough she could turn back into a ball of green energy, at least for a minute or two. Then she wouldn't have to deal with ridiculous things like sisters and official mail. She adjusted the kitten figurine sitting on her desk. She’d swiped it the last time she was down in L.A. visiting Spike. All she had really expected out of it was a lecture on stealing, and a long car ride in Giles' BMW, or maybe Xander's truck if Buffy was angry enough. They'd arrive back at Spike's new digs, she'd be forced to return the figurine (Dawn was sure Spike would understand why she chose it, after all kittens were what he gambled with, and he'd taught her the basics of his poker strategy back when she was hiding from Glory). Buffy would finally realize that she missed Spike and wanted to be in the same city as him. But today's mail -- the court summons -- she couldn't really go to jail for shoplifting, right? Dawn flopped onto her bed and waited.
***
Being back in southern California meant sleeveless suits most of the year, and a pink blazer for inside the courtroom, were back to being staples of Elle's wardrobe. When a young woman - Elle guessed her to be around the same age as she was - entered her office, sulking teenager lagging behind, Elle was surprised at the boots she was wearing. Though stylish, they were completely wrong for the season. Gesturing at the deep leather seats opposite her desk (Wolfram & Hart were generous in their furnishings of her office), Elle asked the young woman, and the girl, to be seated.
"Ms. Summers, I presume?" Elle asked of Buffy.
(A courtesy. She knew of the Slayer, of course. After all, the firm had files on anyone who could cross their path.)
"Thank you for agreeing to see us out of court Ms. Woods; I'm sure this is simply a misunderstanding that can be resolved with a return and community service?"
"It may not be as simple as that. The item stolen," Elle turned to Dawn, "is not simply a piece of porcelain modeled into animals -- kittens -- but rather something of immense value to my clients. My clients propose judgment by tribunal."
While Buffy didn't know much about Wolfram & Hart (Angel, and more recently, Spike, had mentioned the firm in passing, but never went into detail), she suddenly felt uncomfortable. Who were these people - were they even people - that valued a gaudy collectible so highly?!
"But she's just a kid!"
"Ah, yes. In this moment, maybe, but Miss Dawn hasn't always been a child; has she." Elle said.
Dawn suddenly snapped to attention.
"One might argue that you should be tried as more than an adult, even. How old are you?"
Buffy glanced over at her sister, remembering a similar conversation with Dawn back when they first had realized she was the key.
"Fifteen! Not even going on sixteen!" Dawn insisted.
As the conversation, and questioning, continued, she wondered if wishes made in a fit of irritation could come true? She hadn't really meant what she'd sorta wished for about turning back into a ball of green energy…Oh, Glorificus-- what if Elle was a vengeance demon who could make a twisted, stupid wish like that come true? Dawn gulped.
Turning her attention back to Buffy, Elle continued, "Your sister, as you are no doubt well aware, may be a minor in the paperwork the state of California has on file, but one with a history on record of theft. Accept my clients' judgement by tribunal, or I will prove that Dawn is not a minor at all."
***
Weeks later, the three women, (Dawn insisted she was not a kid anymore) and Bruiser, found themselves far from L.A., demon tribunals, and devious law firms. Elle found it funny how Dawn was ‘just a child’ when it came to being in trouble with the law, civil or supernatural, but was all grown up once they had left the city of angels). In an effort to save her sister from trouble Buffy had tapped into her former popular girl persona; the one she thought she had left behind forever once she burned down her first school’s gym, and had Cordelia, not Sunnydale’s Buffy, written all over it. That is, she engaged Elle (Ms. Woods was too formal now) in a conversation about fashion. Buffy remembered one of her first lessons about vampires at The Bronze, and simply adapted it. As Elle had serious hesitations about charging a minor - even one who was millenia old in spirit - over a stolen figurine, she was open to Buffy’s perspective. Thinking back on the meetings with her clients Elle realized their clothes were “so not this century”, but the extensive files Wolfram & Hart kept conveniently left out such information.
It was up to the Slayer, the summa-cum-laude attorney, and the (former) Key to find answers themselves.
While snagging a demon cult’s kitten figurine hadn’t brought Buffy back to Spike (at least not yet), Dawn was pleased with what she had done. She wasn’t in trouble (well, any more trouble than grounded forever by Buffy), and Buffy had made a new (human!) friend. Plus, there was a dog. All seemed okay - for now.