Back in the living room, Buffy dons a cute, crushed velvet coat and says they'll break up into two teams. Nancy wonders if the police should be contacted, but Xander gently reminds her how crazy her story sounds. Fishing around in her weapons box, Buffy instructs Xander to drive Nancy home, which causes Nancy to ask, "Is your girlfriend always this…commanding?" Hee. Xander falls all over himself explaining that Buffy isn't his girlfriend. Nancy looks pleased. When Buffy says she and Spike will check out the doggie's last stand, Xander is not happy to hear about the Spike part of the plan. "He tried to rape you," he obviouses to Buffy, who simply answers, "And he failed." Buffy heads out and Spike follows. As he passes Dawn she stops him, asking, "You sleep, right?" He's all, "Um, yeah," and Dawn replies, "Well, I can't take you in a fight or anything, even with a chip in your head. But you do sleep. If you hurt my sister at all, touch her, you're gonna wake up on fire." She stares him down. Get your bitch on, Dawn!

Buffy and Spike walk along. Spike bugs Buffy about being quiet and then asks when Dawn got so scary. They reach the hole in the sidewalk and Spike says he doesn't much want to look down inside. "But if something bites [your head] off, that'd be a clue," sasses Buffy, but without much rancor. Spike kneels down to give the hole a closer look, and Buffy asks about his craziness. Spike claims the zombie-ghosts from "Lessons" were in his head, making him see and do crazy things. Does he really think that's what happened, or is he shining her on so as not to mention his soul? He wants to know why Buffy didn't mention seeing him to her friends/family, and she's explains she was "partly hoping" he was some "kind of mirage." Spike hands her the flashlight and Buffy pauses, staring at his hand. When she reaches for the flashlight and brushes his hand, she flashes back to the attack in the bathroom. She yanks the flashlight away and looks around, rattled. Spike assures her he doesn't think that his helping her means they'll get back together and that he doesn't blame her for being "skittish." Buffy says she's not skittish, but that she doesn't have the words to describe how she feels about his trying to rape her. Spike doesn't either. Except he does have enough words to manage to say, "Can't say sorry. Can't use forgive me. All I can say is, Buffy, I've changed." She agrees that he has, but isn't sure what he "changed into." She thinks he's hiding something from her. Spike allows that he is but, "We're not best friends anymore so too bad for me. I'm not sharing." He says she can "make use" of him to help and then says that the "beastie" they're looking for is gone. Spike strides off and Buffy sighs with a constipated, or perhaps conflicted, expression on her face. Don't give me that sigh stuff, missy. You're still upset about the assault, he didn't have any useful information, you probably don't really need his muscle, and last time you saw him he was stark raving mad, yet you chose to go on walkies with him anyway, so stuff the sighing where the sun don't shine.