Disclaimer and notes with part one. ***********************************
"You know it's your fault that we're stuck in this hellhole." Bertha/Giles snarled at Snyder/Buffy. "If we had moved out like I wanted…"
Snyder tuned out what she was saying. He loved her dearly, but was starting to wonder why he had married her. Now that they both were no longer working with children, they didn't seem to anything in common anymore. As he sat contemplating that state of his marriage, he heard a noise off to the side of the room. He looked for the source and almost jumped out of his skin. There, looking out of a hole in the wall, was a strange looking creature. It was the most ungodly shade of yellow he had ever seen. As he watched it started to move out of the hole towards him and his wife. "Bertha." He whispered. "Bertha. Shut the hell up and look over there."
"What do you mean shut up? And look over where? I can't see you, you little shit." She twisted and turned until suddenly, she caught sight of what he was trying to point out. She let out a screech. "Fraggles!"
"What?"
"They're those rotten Fraggles. Keep 'em away."
"What the hell are you talking about? What are Fraggles?"
Bertha started to whimper. "Please don't kill me. I'm sorry I used your friends for food. Please just go away and I won't ever make Fraggle Pie again."
The creature stopped and looked at them. "I thought something was different about Giles. Hey Red, Guess who's here. It's that lunch lady who fed Boober and Wembly to the school."
Another Fraggle poked its head out of the hole. This one was red and had ponytails one either side of its head. "Looks like Giles to me, Gobo."
"No. It's her. I think the hellmouth switched them or something."
"If it weren't Giles body, I'd say let's get the Gorg wannabe back for what she did. But I don't think Giles would like it if we hurt her. Besides she's already got a black eye, so someone else already hit her."
"So what do you want to do with her?"
The first one climbed up on Bertha/Giles trembling form. "Boo! I have a few ideas." He grinned.
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When Giles had woken up, they decided that after they got something to eat, they would go back to the nut party and try and find Ethan. After much debate they settled on Chinese food. Buffy watched as Giles ate his with great delight.
"Um, Giles. I think you're enjoying the chopsticks a little too much. They're supposed to get the food to your mouth, not be dinner themselves."
Giles blushed. "Actually, they have a variety of uses. But I'd rather not go into that." He cleared his throat. "Well, if you're finished, I think now would be a good time to try and track down Ethan."
They drove back to the house where the party was. Surprisingly, it was still going on. If anything, it looked like more people had shown up. Buffy sighed. "How are we going to find him? With all these people here, he can hide if he wants to."
The question was answered by the man himself. As if on cue he came sauntering out of the house, the two women from earlier on each arm. They approached the car and Ethan, with a satisfied grin on his face, leaned into Buffy's window.
"I had a feeling you two would be back for me. I'd ask if you figured it out yet, but it would appear you haven't." He kissed the two women passionately. "I'll be back for you both. Try not to kill each other while I'm gone." Buffy got out of the car to let him into the back. While she was waiting for him to get in, she noticed the women who had been running the puppet show waving to her from the window. They motioned for her to not let Ethan see what they were doing, so she tried to act normal as they held up a sign.
"
L O O K I N H I S P O C K E T!!!!!!"Buffy snuck a glance at Ethan. He was settling himself as comfortably as possible in the small back seat and didn't notice. She looked back at the house, but the two women were gone. Trying to figure out why they told her this, she got back into the car. As they drove away, she suddenly felt a pain in her chest.
"Faith is in trouble."
Giles stopped the car. "What do you mean?"
Buffy looked at him. "I have no idea how I know, but we need to get to Faith as quickly as possible. She needs us."
Ethan poked his head between the seats. "You'd better hurry then. If anything happens to her, then this whole thing was a waste of time." He settled back into the seat, placing his feet in the space his head had just been. "Not that it hasn't been fun either way," he added with a grin.
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Faith lay on the ground, trying to get past the pain. She had to make sure of something, but it was hard to remember what. Feeling a lump under her, she slowly recalled why she was on the ground in the first place. She slowly moved so that she could see if Travers was alive or dead, oblivious to the crowd that had gathered around them. The window she had thrown them out of was on the third floor, so she had managed to keep him under her until they hit, but she couldn't be sure if it was enough. She tried looking for a pulse, but the pounding of her own injuries made it hard to tell if he had one. Hearing sirens in the distance, she tried to sit up.
"Lay down honey, the ambulance will be here soon." A kindly male voice said. Looking up, she saw the old man from her dream. The only thing missing was the beard. "What happened?"
Faith tried to think around the pain in her head, tried to think of a believable lie. But it hurt to bad, so she stuck with the truth. "He was going to kill me." She whispered. "And he was going to hurt them next. I had to do something."
The old man looked at her and smiled. "You've grown. Not long ago, you would have just tried to save yourself. I'm proud of you." He patted her on the shoulder. "And don't worry about Travers. I'll take care of him." Just then the ambulance pulled up.
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"Why would Snyder and Big Bertha get switched with Giles? That's what I'm trying to figure out." Xander said as he, Anya, and Willow sat in Giles living room, listening to the screams of the two downstairs. " And how did he survive getting eaten by the mayor? This is too freaky even for Sunnydale."
"It could be worse. They could have been switched with bunnies." Anya shuddered at the thought.
"Yeah but with bunnies, it would be easier to know when they switched back. 'Cause with all the yelling their doing now, how would we know?" Xander replied.
"Well, we could ask them something that only they would know. Like, like, oh! I know, what did Giles wear on that Halloween that we all got trapped by the little bitty fear demon." Willow offered.
Xander giggled at the memory of the teeny demon.
"Or when am I getting a raise." Xander and Willow just looked at Anya. "What? That's something only Giles would know, isn't it?"
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Faith opened her eyes and looked around the room. It looked pretty much like every other hospital she had ever been in. She still hurt in too many places to count, but the pain had receded thanks to a combination of drugs and Slayer healing. Her mind cast back to the time she’d spend in a coma, and she was determined to get out of hospital much sooner this time.
The old man had ridden to the hospital with her, but she hadn't seen him since their arrival at the emergency room a couple of hours ago. He had given her name as Faith Snyder, and told her he was going to wait for her parents. As she lay there, she started to doze a little. 'Why would he say that?' she wondered. 'My parents are…' she sat up. "My parents are Buffy and Giles!" She said out loud. Then realizing how absurd that sounded, she was glad the nurse had left already. She lay back down and tried to compose herself. 'Why did I think that?' then she remembered the dreams. She sat up again just as the nurse came back into the room.
"Now Miss Snyder, you have to lay down. The doctor will be in soon to talk to you. You're in surprisingly good shape considering your fall. That man who fell with you wasn't so lucky. Where are you going?"
"I have to leave. I have to find…" The nurse pushed her back on the bed.
"You don't have to find anyone. You have to stay in this bed until the doctor says you can get up. Besides you have visitors."
"V-visitors?"