Xander woke with a start to a pounding coming from his front door. Looking at the clock, he saw that it was almost noon, so he decided not to bother going back to sleep. Turning over on his side, he saw that the other side of the bed was empty. The pounding ceased, so Xander imagined that Anya must have gotten the door.

"An!" he shouted. "Who is it?"

"It's Buffy," Anya said as she moved to stand in the doorway. "Along with Willow, Tara, and Dawn. And they don't look very happy. What have you done, Xander?"

Immediately out of bed, Xander began to dress himself as fast as he could. "I don't know!" he protested. "Why does something need to have been done? And why do I have to be the one that did it?"

"Well, sometimes you act like a whiny little boy, Xander, and it's entirely possible that you upset someone you shouldn't have."

"Are you angry with me, Anya, or are you just guessing here?"

"Just guessing. Now hurry up! Everyone's looking all gloomy and serious, and I don't know why, and it's freaking me out. You know modern humans better than I do, so what does that mean?"

Xander sighed. "It means that something's probably wrong. Something serious and possibly personal. Who did you say was here again?"

"Buffy, Willow, Tara, and Dawn."

"And not Faith," Xander realized. "So, I'm thinking that she's done something stupid again, and we're about to find out what. And I'm coming."

Xander walked out of the bedroom and into the living area of his apartment. "Hey, gang! What's with the doom and gloom I'm sensing here?"

"Xander," Buffy said quietly, "please sit down. We need you to listen to us, and listen quickly. We're on a clock."

"Sure thing, Buffster. What's the deal? New big bad come to town? Faith turn black hat again?"

Willow cleared her throat. Xander turned to look at her, and he didn't like how Willow was avoiding his gaze. "Faith has… She's issued an ultimatum. To you, Xander."

"About what? Feeling kinda lost here, Will-"

"Shut up, Xander!" Dawn hissed angrily. "If you don't listen, we're all in danger."

Dammit, but Xander knew that Faith couldn't be trusted! She'd almost fooled him, too, but now she'd had the courtesy to dispel any doubts he might have had. "So, what do I need to know?"

Buffy opened a manila folder that she'd been holding and laid out four pieces of paper on the counter for Xander to see. Each contained a photograph of a person, and each of them was a stranger to him.

"Who are these people, Buffy? And what do they have to with Faith?"

"Sally Foster, Frederick Yates, Benjamin Young, and Douglas Wright, ages 29 to 61. All died within the same 48-hour period. Cause of death was spontaneous combustion. That's what Willow found when she went looking for their files," Buffy said quietly. "What wasn't listed was the real cause of death. They didn't catch on fire and burn to death spontaneously. They were forced to sing and dance until they burned."

Xander felt his stomach fall down some hole that had just formed in his gut. He'd known that the demon had killed people, but he'd never seen it. He'd just had a song and dance number with Anya. "What does this have to do with Faith?" he asked again. Faith had proven time and again to be an entirely unpredictable psychopath. Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

"F-faith's ultimatum," Tara said. "She wants you to turn yourself in, Xander. You can't say it was a demon, obviously. B-but you can say that you heard something about a dangerous person of some sort. M-maybe they promised fireworks or something, and you misunderstood, and you hired them, not knowing what they'd do. But you did summon that demon, and it killed these people."

Xander felt himself go pale. This wasn't happening. He hadn't killed those people. He hadn't known what the demon was going to do. It was all a big accident. "I didn't kill anyone, Buffy. I didn't know what the demon was going to do! This was just a big accident!"

"You didn't kill them? Well, not directly, Xander," Buffy said. "But without the demon, these people would still be alive. And since when do demons not hurt people? With some very rare exceptions, that's simply what they do! And up until the moment that Dawn was about to be dragged back to some hell with him, you kept quiet about the whole thing!"

Xander didn't know what to say. "I didn't… I mean… I didn't think-"

"Clearly, you didn't think," Buffy yelled angrily, and Xander couldn't help but feel ashamed that Buffy and Willow were looking at him like something awful.

But Buffy and Willow would be the ones to deliver this message anyway. So why were Tara and Dawn here? "What happens if I don't do what Faith wants? That's what an ultimatum is, right? I do what she says, or else she does something worse. So, what's going to happen if I don't give into her?"

Tara took Willow's hand in hers and held it tight. As far as Xander knew, they hadn't officially hooked back up yet, so that was scary. Dawn's face held pure terror. And Buffy… Buffy just looked sad. "If you don't turn yourself, in Xander, then Faith's going to go to the police and tell them the whole story, just without the demon stuff."

Xander couldn't help but laugh. That was it? "So, if I don't tell the police, Faith will? And how is she going to prove anything? Why does she even care if I-"

"You don't get it, Xander!" Dawn shouted. "You summoned the demon, but we all knew about it. Everyone in this room, plus Faith, knew what happened, and we said nothing. So if you don't confess, then everyone is going to jail as… As… What was it called?"

"Accessories after the fact," Willow answered, her voice just above a whisper.

Xander couldn't believe what he was hearing. "So that's it, then, is it? Faith wants to hurt me, so she holds all of you hostage?"

"No, Xander," Buffy said, and he could tell that her voice wasn't as patient as it had been a moment ago. "You heard what Dawn said. Everyone in this room plus Faith knew what you did. If you don't confess, then it isn't just you who goes to jail. So does Anya. So do I. So do Willow and Tara. So does Faith. And Dawn probably gets taken away to live in a foster home."

"What?!" Anya exclaimed. "But I haven't done anything! I haven't hurt anyone! I'm just a small business owner living the American Dream! Why do I have to pay for Xander's mistakes?"

"Because all of us enabled him," Willow said, and Xander had to look away. His best friend for his entire life was calling him out for a stupid mistake and making it out to be something worse. "We knew what he had done, but we were so full of ourselves. We thought that because we were the ones who fought the monsters at night that we didn't have to play by the rules. We thought we knew better than everyone else. And people got hurt because we thought that we could play God."

Xander might like to think of himself as better than most, but he wasn't quite that egocentric. "Will… You know me better than that. I'm no god. I'm nothing close to that."

Tara nodded. "She knows, Xander. She knows," Tara said as she held Willow in a close embrace. So that's what that's about. Will's still hung up over what she did to Tara.

Buffy moved to sit down next to Xander. "Let me put things in perspective for you. Faith has been in love with me from the moment she first heard a story about me from her watcher. She's been entirely honest with me since I got back. I've been able to trust her with things I can't tell anyone else, and she's been able to do the same with me. I think that when the monks made Dawn, a bit of Faith got mixed up in there as well. Faith feels the same natural urge to protect Dawn that I feel. She loves us both like the family she's never had until now.

"And if you don't confess to the police by sunrise tomorrow, then the first thing Faith does after she wakes up is run to the station as fast as she can to tell them what you did, and that she and I and Dawn all helped to cover for you. She's not afraid at all of facing the consequences. Not only is she not afraid, but she thinks it's the right thing to do."

"I-it is."

Xander looked up at that. "Willow?"

His best friend looked at him with tears about to spill from her eyes. "It's the right thing to do, Xander. Faith went to work for the mayor because she couldn't handle the guilt of what she did."

Xander nodded. "What she did. You mean the deputy mayor? She killed him, right?"

"Yes," Buffy said. "By accident. And with my help. I don't want to sound like I'm taking sides, Xander, because it's not about that. But if there's the slightest chance that I can keep Dawn from being taken away… If you don't confess, I have to try and get a plea deal. For Dawn's sake."

"I may confess as an accessory either way," Willow said.

Tara's head snapped to look at Willow, tears evident in her eyes. "Baby?"

"I screwed up, Tara. I hurt you, and Buffy, and Dawn. I messed up so much, and if there's even a chance to make it a little bit right… I don't know. I didn't summon the demon, and maybe I'm just feeling super-guilty about everything else. B-but I know that I can't just forget this."

Xander couldn't believe what he was hearing. "So that's it?" he said, his voice dripping with dark incredulity. "Faith barks, and you all jump, right? Anything to screw me over like she did before, and you're just gonna let her?!"

"Xander!" Buffy shouted. "This isn't about you! This is about Sally Foster, Frederick Yates, Benjamin Young, Douglas Wright, and the spouses, parents, children, and friends who are missing their loved ones. And they're under the impression that the people they loved died of natural causes. But they didn't. They deserve justice, Xander, and only you can give it to them."

There was no way to answer that, Xander realized. Not without admitting to things that he didn't believe. That he simply couldn't believe. He wasn't a killer. He wasn't like Faith.

Someone took his hand, and Xander looked up to see Dawn. "You risked your life to keep me safe from Glory so many times. You stood up and told the demon the truth – that you summoned him – to keep him from taking me to hell. And while you did summon the demon that killed these people, you really didn't mean to hurt anyone, and I think that really matters in lawyer-speak.

"You were willing to risk literal Hell to save me, Xander. Is jail so much worse than that?"

And all of a sudden, there it was, in terms so plain and simple that Xander couldn't help but understand. "God, I've been such an idiot."

"Yeah, you've been a bit of a dummy," Dawn said with a smile. "But you don't have to stay a dummy."

Xander thought for a moment, took a deep breath, and then stood up and looked his fiancée in the eye. "Anya, you've always told me that I needed to grow up sooner or later. I think it's about time I listened to you."

"No," Anya said quietly. "No, not like this! If you go to jail, then I'll be all alone! One job won't be enough to pay for a place this nice! And we won't be able to have all those nice orgasms together, or wake up in the middle of the night, feel each other, and know that we're not alone. And that's what I'll be! A lone human in a world full of lonely humans with no clue about what to do next and nobody sleeping with me to help me figure it out!"

Xander just smiled and wiped a tear from Anya's cheek. "That's what friends are for, An." Turning around to face the others, he said, "That is what friends are for, right?"

Buffy nodded. "Of course. Faith is loaded with cash, and even if she won't lend you a hand, then I will. I can afford to do that now, strangely enough. A-and I'll try to get you as good a lawyer as possible, Xander. Shortest possible sentence, you know?"

Willow started to smile a bit. "A-and, I think I can help with the loneliness, Anya! Before I met Oz, I used to have a huge crush on Xander. But, as you seem to have realized, he can be a bit of a dummy. So, while it isn't the same as sex, there were orgasms to be by oneself."

"You can do that?" Anya asked. "How?"

"Well," Willow said. "You'll want a nice internet connection. A-and you'll need a few other pieces of, uh… Hardware, I guess."

"This all sounds very complicated," Anya said, sounding unsure.

"Well, I can help you get it set up!" Willow said. "And if you're not sure if you're doing it right, then I can watch you to make sure you don't fumble along the way!"

"Willow," Tara warned with her voice, but laughed with her face.

"A-and Tara can help too! We can both watch and ogle… I mean, help! Help you figure out how to have nice, Xander-free orgasms until he gets out, and then you can have your orgasms together again."

"Down, Willow," Buffy said with a smile. "I know this isn't exactly best-case scenario, Xander. But I really do think it's the right thing to do."

"Yeah, I get that Buffy," Xander said, and he realized that he meant it. "And I think it's the right thing, too. I just… God, I really am such an idiot, aren't I?"

Xander soon found himself in a group hug with Willow and Buffy. "Welcome to humanity, Xander."

"What about me?" Anya protested in a huff.

Xander wrapped Anya around her shoulders with one arm and wrangled her into the hug. "Welcome to humanity, Anya. It's hard, and it's stupid, and it's every day."

Anya looked uncomfortable. "I'm not sure I'm sold on humanity."

"You gave me a chance, didn't you An?" Xander said. "There's an old saying. 'To err is human, to forgive is divine.' Going by that, I'm about as human as they come."

"I don't think that's humanity, Xander," Buffy said. "I think it's just life."

"I guess you were right, Buffy," Dawn said. "The hardest thing in this world really is just living in it."