Enveloped in the billowing haze, Buffy and Spike momentarily lost sight of each other. Filled with fear at the loss of her companion, Buffy reached her hands out through the smoke. Spike grabbed her small hands in his own and pulled her towards himself. Buffy’s eyes filled with tears.

“I thought I’d lost you.”

“Never, pet.”

“Promise you won’t leave me once we get back? I don’t…I don’t want to lose this,” she said pointing between the two of them.

“Cross my heart and hope to…die…again.”

A light giggle escaped Buffy’s lips as she rested her head on Spike’s shoulder.

“Good. I really wish when we switch dimensions like this, they’d find a better way…maybe something with a floor. What if I dropped something? I’d never find it.”

Mirth flashed in Spike’s eyes and before she could stop him, he tore off her shirt and dropped it into nothingness.

“Oops.”

Grasping back onto him and landing a playfully smack on his chest, Buffy smiled.

“Dope.”

“Bitch.”

“Hey!”

“Oooh, Slayer can dish it out, but she can’t take it?”

“You know I can take…anything, Spike.”

“That I do, pet.”

The haze cleared into the familiar purple lights, which swirled around them, revealing two people joining them in the purgatory-like space. Buffy raised an eyebrow at Spike who mouthed “Ethan and Theresa.” Both couples eyed each other up, unsure of what to say or do next. Spike shook his head when he noticed the fresh bite marks on their necks.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…what did the two of you do to us?”

Ethan and Theresa looked at each other, and then back to Spike. Ethan shrugged.

“I…we…we thought we were going to be there for longer…we…the book said….”

Before Ethan could clarify his statement, a bright flash blinded the group. When the brightness subsided, Spike opened his eyes to Giles’ familiar living room. He sighed when he turned to Buffy, relieved that she had returned with him unscathed, and still shirtless. A thought crossed his mind and he grabbed her shoulders.

“You’re my Buffy, right? Not a doppelganger or soap starlet?”

Buffy rolled her eyes and shrugged off his grip.

“Of course it’s me, you dope. You know, that was my favorite shirt you shucked into the abyss. And look! It didn’t come with us. Big surprise.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s you…sort of. I guess. You know, after what we’ve gone through, you don’t have to be a right bitch to me anymore.”

Buffy fluttered her eyelashes and pouted.

“But isn’t that why you like me?”

Spike frowned and smacked her rear.

“Hush now, pet. We have to find whatever book that sodding Ethan was talking about. If it’s what I think it is….”

Spike trailed off as he doubled over in a sudden burst of immeasurable pain. Buffy’s cries fell on deaf ears as a multitude of blaring screams barraged his eardrums. Spike’s eyes shook in confusion, as faces, long deceased, floated around him, wailing. Scenes decades past hovered in his gaze. Every life he took, every ounce of pain he caused, every evil deed he had committed…everything was accounted for, and then some. After these images flew through him, visions he didn’t recognize at first pulsed inside his mind. Within moments, he recognized the images as Buffy’s memories. Feeling his heart ache because of the pain he caused her over the years was just too much for Spike to bear. His eyes and chest flashed with an effulgent yellow light, before he fell to the floor, unconscious. Buffy stood over him, her face drenched with tears and fraught with confusion.

“Spike? Baby? Please….”

Before she could reach for a phone to call for help, Buffy’s own vision was obscured in a tornado of images, which she recognized as Spike’s memories. As Spike had done, Buffy collapsed onto the floor, the ordeal too intense for her to handle without his supporting arms around her.

--

Ethan and Theresa found themselves standing in Tabitha’s kitchen, a tuft of purple smoke still hanging in the air. Timmy, who had changed himself back into his inanimate doll form, was sitting at the table. Tabitha stood before them smiling and holding a pot of tea.

“Theresa? Dear? Earth to Theresa!”

Theresa shook her head and blinked multiple times before looking to Tabitha.

“Huh? What?”

“I asked if you wanted any sugar in your tea, dear. Are you all right? You seem to be a bit out of sorts…hmm. Come to think of it, Ethan, dear, you seem a bit out of it as well. Maybe you two should get home and rest…perhaps you’re coming down with something. It is that time of year, now. Flu’s and colds going around, you know.”

Theresa nodded and grabbed Ethan’s hand.

“Right, umm…thanks for the tea, Tabitha. Rain check?”

“Of course, dears. Bye bye!”

The kitchen door slammed loudly as Theresa and Ethan exited, and Tabitha plopped down on a chair next to Timmy.

“Oh, my Tim-Tim. This is going to be too much fun to watch. What in the world will the bloody morons running around Harmony do when the real Ethan and Theresa come back?”

Timmy smiled.

“Well, Timmy figures that at least Gwen will leave Ethan and Theresa alone from now on. Probably Julian too.”

“Let’s hope not, Timmy. We are supposed to be working on the side of evil…you know, mayhem and destruction and all that.”

“Tabby doesn’t really mean that.”

“Oh hush, Timmy. The boys in the basement will hear you. Of course, I don’t really think they care too much about our having to cause Ethan and Theresa pain. If they were stranded on a desert island alone, those two would find some way to hurt each other. I think the same thing goes for Spike and Buffy.”

Timmy nodded.

“Should Timmy and Tabby check up on Spike and Buffy?”

“I don’t think we want to see what they’re doing Tim-Tim. Give them about an hour, and then we can tune in, all right? You may be a doll, but I don’t think I’m even old enough to see what those two do in their private time.”

--