They fell asleep again, and when they awoke they made use of the pool to bathe. Both of them were getting very hungry, and a trip to the outer cave showed that darkness had once again fallen and the rain had finally stopped.

"It'll be muddy as hell out there tomorrow, Buffy, but we'll need to leave and find food and water for you. And I need to hunt."

Buffy turned to look worriedly at him. "You okay for now?"

Spike smirked and ran a finger down her neck causing little goose bumps to break out over her flesh. "Don't worry, love. Any bites I give you will be purely recreational."

As if to prove his point, he leaned down and lightly nipped at her shoulder. Buffy smiled and turned her face up to him. He obligingly kissed her.

Turning back around to look out into the night, she couldn't keep a sigh from escaping. She was so tired of being here. She was tired of being hungry and cold and sleeping on the hard ground and being dirty. Bathing in the pool was better than nothing, but without soap, Buffy didn't feel clean.

As if reading her mind again, Spike wrapped his arms around her and murmured. "Come on, love. Let's go back inside. In the morning we'll start searching for a way out of here again." She nodded and they returned to their haven to wait out the night.

The next morning they made love, bathed one last time in their pool, and left the cave. Spike had been right; the footing was muddy and hazardous, made even more so by the thick mist that covered the hillside and valley floor. They returned to the forest, and Buffy discovered that the fog had no apparent affect on Spike's vampire senses as he led them unerringly through the woods to one of the fruit trees. The storm had knocked the fruits off the tree, and Buffy gathered as many as she could while Spike went off hunting for his own breakfast. Another stream was nearby, the current running fast with runoff from the storm. Buffy was thankful that the water wasn't muddy and drank deeply, then filled the flask Spike had handed her before leaving. She found a relatively dry rock and sat down to eat her breakfast. She was on her third piece of fruit when she heard a sharp animal cry in the distance. Spike had found his own breakfast.

He returned to her, his cheeks flushed with the blood of his kill, and sat beside her on the rock, his arm around her waist. They had just started discussing which way they should travel when blinding light surrounded them.

They cried out and clung to each other as a wave of vertigo overcame them.

When the dizziness passed, Buffy looked around in amazement. Jumping up, she exclaimed, "Are we home?"

Spike stood up more slowly, taking in the playground fixtures, the benches, water fountain, and hedges. "Looks like it."

"How?"

He shook his head. "Don't know, love. I'm just glad we made it back before sunrise." He nodded in the direction of the east and Buffy saw that the sky was beginning to lighten.

"Spike, you better get home before you get caught in the sunrise," she said in alarm.

"We'd better make sure this really is Sunnydale, love, and everything's back to normal." Moving close to her again, he set his body and stuck out his chin.

"What are you talking about?" Buffy asked, confused by his actions.

Spike sighed. "Hit me, Slayer. Make sure you've got your strength back."

"Oh," she said in comprehension. Instead of hitting him, however, she walked over to one of the park benches and easily lifted it from the ground. "Yep, everything seems to be in working order," she smiled. "Now go on, Spike. Get home before it's too late."

"I think I'd like to know how long we've been gone before we split up, Buffy."

Buffy considered his words and then nodded. "Yeah, everything looks the same but it's best to know. Come on, there should be a newspaper vending machine at the end of the corner." They took off running, and Buffy delighted in her returned strength and speed. They came to the corner just as the newspaper delivery truck was leaving. Walking up to the vending machine, Buffy read the date on the newspaper.

"Spike," she exclaimed. "It's tomorrow. I mean, the date is the date of the day after the day we left."

She saw Spike's amused look at her rather convoluted sentence and pouted, "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, love, I do."

She looked up at the rapidly lightning sky and turned to Spike. "We were there what? Five days? But here, it was only about eight hours."

"So it seems."

With each second that passed the sky grew lighter. Buffy glanced up again and said insistently, "Spike, you have to go now!"

"Yeah, all right." He pulled her into his arms. "You coming by the crypt later?"

No, Buffy thought. We're home now. It's all over and I can't be with you like that again.

But when she opened her mouth she heard herself saying, "Yeah. As soon as I can get there this evening."

Spike smiled, kissed her, gave her a swat on the ass and jogged off, playing chicken with the rising sun.

Buffy sighed as she watched him disappear around a corner. When had her evil twin, Vamp Ho Buffy, completely taken over her life? But she knew exactly when. The first time they'd lain together on the cold hard ground in the other dimension and he'd wrapped her in his arms.

Or maybe even before that, but she didn't want to dwell on the subject too much. Turning toward Sunnydale University, she headed for a hot shower and her own soft, warm bed.

***

Willow was still sound asleep when Buffy crept quietly into the dorm room. Grabbing up her pajamas, toiletry bag, and towel, she hurried into the showers. She stood under the hot running water, shampooing, conditioning, shaving and scrubbing until her skin was pink and tender. Getting out of the shower, she toweled off, pulled on her pajamas and brushed and flossed until she finally felt clean. By the time she was finished, the stress and exhaustion of the past several days caught up with her and she stumbled back to the dorm room to collapse face down on her bed. She immediately fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

***

"Buffy? Buffy? Wake up now, Buffy."

The words drifted into Buffy's consciousness and her eyes fluttered opened to see the face of a very concerned Giles.

"Giles? What's up?" Buffy said groggily.

"Buffy, thank god you're awake. You've given us quite a fright."

"Why? What happened?"

"I couldn't get you to wake up," Willow's voice said nervously. "You wouldn't wake up this morning, but I just figured you'd had a rough night battling the forces of evil so I just let you sleep in. But then you didn't wake up when I came back to the dorm at noon, and you were still sleeping when I came back from the library. I was afraid you'd been bitten by some kind of tsetse fly demon or something, so I called Giles."

"Yes, we've been terribly worried. I have Xander and Anya back at my apartment doing research in what could have caused your condition. Willow stayed here with me in case I needed her assistance."

Buffy sat up pushing her tangled hair out of her face. She hadn't even bothered to dry it before falling into bed last night.

"What time is it?" she asked through a yawn.

"Past six," Giles said.

"In the evening?" Buffy asked shocked.

"Yes, so you can see why we were concerned. Can you tell us what happened to make you sleep so deeply?"

"Yeah," she said, wondering how best to stall the explanation until she was more coherent. She wasn't ready for them to know about everything that had happened while she and Spike had been away.

"Look, I need to get dressed and get something to eat. I'm starving. Could we meet back at your place in say, oh, about an hour or so? Then I can tell you everything that happened. Okay, Giles?"

"Well, yes, if you feel well enough now," Giles said stepping back away from the bed. "Willow will stay with you just in case you need her, all right?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll see you later, Giles."

Nodding, her Watcher left the dorm room.

"You sure you're okay?" Willow asked nervously. "I swear I didn't do any spells that could have caused this, Buffy." Her guilt over the disastrous results of her last spell was still obviously preying on her mind.

Buffy smiled at her friend as she began to gather her things together. "I know that, Will. It really has nothing to do with you." Once she had everything she needed she headed back over to the bathroom. Ten minutes later, she returned to the dorm room. She quickly dressed in a long denim skirt, scooped neck pale blue sweater and knee high boots. She pinned her hair up, put on her makeup and then turned to her worried roommate.

"Come on. Let's go get some dinner."

***

"That's it," Buffy said pointing at a picture in one of Giles's books. "That's the toad demon I was fighting."

Everyone leaned over to look. Buffy had given them a carefully expurgated version of her adventures over the past several, to her, days.

"Oh, that's a Todalious Demon, Buffy," Anya said. "You didn't need to attack it. They're non-violent."

"Non-violent?" Buffy exclaimed. "Anya, it knocked Spike and me around like we were sock puppets and then sent us to another dimension. We didn't even know if we would ever get back!"

Anya shrugged. "You attacked it, Buffy. Of course it defended itself. And it brought you back when it was finished with its business here."

"What business, Anya?" Giles asked in concern.

"Shopping, I'd imagine."

"Shopping?" a chorus of voices inquired.

"For what?"" Buffy asked.

"Mushrooms."

Giles removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "You're telling us that this, uh, Todalious Demon came here to buy mushrooms?"

Anya nodded. "Portabello."

"Why?" Buffy asked, a thoroughly nonplussed look on her face.

"Because they like them and can't grow them in their home dimension," Anya answered reasonably. "A merchant who comes here and buys a few pounds of mushrooms would become moderately wealthy." Turning suddenly to Xander, she said, "Xander, you could do that. Then you wouldn't have to sell dry tasteless energy bars to your friends. You could make lots of money and buy me many nice things."

"Yeah, good idea, Anya." Xander said dryly. "There's only the little problem of actually, you know, getting to the toad's dimension."

"Oh," Anya said downcast. "Yes, that would be a problem."

"Plus, I understand the currency exchange rate between Earth and the toad dimension really sucks right now," Willow quipped.

"So this Toadalicious demon didn't cause any problems while I was gone?" Buffy asked ignoring the byplay.

"Not that we are aware of, Buffy," Giles answered. "And in point of fact," he continued, "you were only gone a few hours by our reckoning."

"Seemed longer to me," Buffy murmured.

Giles gave her a small smile and made a little sidewise nod. "Yes, well having had to endure Spike's company for an extended period of time, I can sympathize. I can only assure you that one does eventually recover from the experience."

Buffy stood up abruptly. "Yeah. Well, now that I know that the toad demon didn't cause any problems, I think I'll return to my regularly scheduled patrol."

"If you wished to take tonight off, Buffy, I don't think Sunnydale would suffer overmuch."

"Thanks, Giles," Buffy said as she headed to the door. "But I'm fine. I'm all rested, clean, and fed, and I really need to go burn off some energy. I'll see you guys later."

With that, she slipped through the door closing it tightly behind her.