Several hours later the entire gang was assembled in the living room. Tara was resting on the couch, leaning against Willow. Amy was tied up to a chair with duct tape over her mouth. Buffy moved over to Amy and took an edge of the duct tape between her finger and thumb.

"Any chanting out of you and you'll get to know my fist very well," she said. "Understood?"

Amy glared at her and finally nodded her head. Buffy ripped the tape off quickly and stepped back.

"Is there a reversal spell for whatever you did?" Buffy asked.

"If there was, how would you know I wasn't tricking you?" Amy asked with a smirk.

"Willow and Tara may not have all those fancy store-bought powers that you have, but they're not stupid," Xander replied. "They know their way around spells."

"Bitch probably wouldn't even let Willow hear the spell," Amy grumbled.

"Hey, watch who you're calling a bitch, bitch," Dawn said sharply.  "Can't we just turn her back into a rat?"

"No," Buffy said. "As fun as that might be, we need the reversal spell."

"Why?" Dawn asked. "I still don't get it. If we go to that world, Tara dies and Willow goes psycho. Why go back to that?"

"Girl's got a point," Anya said.

 "All those Warrens that ceased to exist never had a chance at life," Tara said. "I'm not sure if I could live with that."

"Uh…" They all looked over when Jonathan interrupted. "The world really hasn't changed much. There weren't very many great Warrens. I mean, Warren Beatty was kinda cool, but other than that…"  He shrugged his shoulders.

"So, you just make all the decisions as usual, right Buffy? Nobody else gets a say," Dawn said angrily.

"No, I don't make the decision," Buffy replied. She turned toward the sofa. "Tara does."

"Me?" Tara asked, surprised by this. Like the others, she had become accustomed to Buffy leading the way and making the hard choices when it came to things like this.

"You have the most to lose," Buffy said. "So the choice should be yours. We reverse the spell, or we don't."

"I-I don't…" she trailed off, not sure what to say. She didn't want to die, but she couldn't help think about the Warrens that used to be in the world, even the one who killed her. Everyone just waited while she thought about. She looked to Willow, who looked very anxious. She could tell that Willow believed she would choose to reverse the spell. That's what she was leaning toward. But she had a second chance now.

"Well, if fate wants me dead…" she began. She was still arguing with herself about her decision. But finally she made up her mind. "…it'll have to kill me in this reality. Don't reverse the spell."

Willow breathed a very audible sigh of relief and smiled, taking Tara's hand in hers. She had been genuinely worried about Tara's choice.

"So that just leaves you," Buffy said, turning back to Amy. "What do we do with you?"

"Let me go. I'll leave you all alone," Amy said.

"Somehow I don't believe that," Willow said. She turned to the others. "Her powers can be bound. With the right spell, she won't even be able to float a pencil."

"But can't she just go back to Rack and stock up?" Buffy asked.

"No. The correct binding spell should strip her current powers and reject any new powers she tries to acquire," Willow explained.

"That won't stop me," Amy said. "Nothing will stop me."

"Okay, enough talk time for you," Buffy said. She replaced the piece of duct tape over Amy's mouth. The witch struggled against the ropes holding her but had no luck.

"This binding spell is pretty simple, right?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah," Willow said. "I mean, we should wait till Tara's had some time to rest and then she can do it."

"You can do it now," Tara said. Willow looked to her confused.

"But…no, I can't…" Willow stammered.

Tara held eye contact with her and looked at her seriously. "I trust you. If you trust yourself."

"I don't know," Willow said hesitantly.

"You did do a pretty good job breaking down Amy's shield," Xander said. "You were totally in control."

"We're all here for you, Will," Buffy said. "Whatever you need."

"Uh, okay," Willow said nervously. "We don't have any supplies in the house so…"

"Shopping trip," Dawn said.  "I'll go."

"I'll drive," Xander said. "Anya."

Anya stood. "You have money, right? Because I'm not letting you in for supplies unless you have money."

"Yes, Anya. We have the almighty dollar," Xander said as he led them out the door.

The others were silent for a moment until Willow looked to Buffy. "Hey, I need to talk to Tara in private."

"Sure, no problem," Buffy replied. She turned and quickly backhanded Amy, knocking her unconscious. Buffy shrugged her shoulders and looked back to Willow. "It was easier than dragging her into the kitchen."  Then she turned to Jonathan.

"Don't hurt me," he said, backing against the wall. Buffy smiled.

"Come on, let's get a drink, Jonathan," she said, placing her hand on his shoulder and guiding him toward the kitchen.

"Uh, okay. Do you have rootbeer?"

Once they were gone, Willow looked to Tara for an explanation. "What changed in the last few hours? I'm confused."

"As psycho as she is, Amy did have a point," Tara said. She saw the perplexed look on Willow's face and tried to make sure she worded it correctly. "Making you give up magic completely is like making…uh…like making Anya give up money."

"I think I get the analogy…sorta," Willow said.

"In the other world, when I died, you lost control completely," Tara explained. "You were fine, and then you snapped. Living in Sunnydale kind of shortens a person's lifespan." She paused for a moment. "If anything happens to me, I don't want you to turn into a murderer. I want you to be able to control the power within you so it will never control you."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Well, this whole time, I've been keeping in touch with Giles, for advice on how to help you," she explained. "He knows this coven in England. I think they could really help."

"You want me to go to England?" Willow asked, not sure she was understanding where Tara was going with this.

"It's just a suggestion. It was actually Giles' idea. I wasn't really big on it at first. Lord knows I had a hard enough time staying away from you before when we didn't have an ocean between us," she said with a smirk.

"You'd be staying here," Willow said in realization.

"It's something you have to do without me. Giles mentioned something about the coven taking you on a vision quest or something. I don't remember all the details." Tara tried to read Willow's expression, but she wasn't sure about her reaction. "What do you think?"

Willow didn't respond for a moment, just mulling over the idea in her mind. "I want to have control. I don't want to be afraid to do a simple binding spell. I want to be sure that you can always trust me, and that I can always trust myself. But England?"

"It's up to you," Tara said. "I won't hold it against you if you don't go. You should take some time to think about it."

"Okay, I will. Think about it, I mean," Willow said.  "England, huh? I've never even left the state, let alone the country. Have you ever?"

"Well, I grew up in a different state so I've got you beat there," Tara said with a smirk. "But I've never left the country."

"Maybe someday we could take a trip together," Willow suggested. "Someplace exotic. Or educational. Or snowy. Or romantic."

"Okay, if you go to England, I'll start planning our trip to the exotic, educational, romantic ski resort," Tara joked. She settled against Willow and closed her eyes. "Although I like it here."

Willow smiled and held Tara tight. "Me too."

* * *

Once the binding spell was complete, the group showed Amy the door. Very forcefully. Buffy shoved her out the door, causing her to stumble down the steps.

"A little tip, Amy. You should probably leave Sunnydale…again," Willow said.

Amy stood and glared at them all before she walked away, shaking her head. Then Buffy turned to Jonathan.

"Have you learned your lesson Jonathan?" Buffy asked.

"No more magic," he said. He started to walk out the door. "Absolutely. I was born a geek and I'll die a geek. No point in trying to change it."

"Well, as long as we're clear on that," Xander said sarcastically. Jonathan did a little shy wave and then jogged away in the opposite direction that Amy went.  The gang turned to head back inside. Xander looked at his watch. "Okay, why didn't anybody tell me another whole day went by? It's six pm."

"Six pm?" Anya asked, suddenly panicked. She pushed out the door before Buffy shut it. "I missed a whole day of business."

"Why'd I let that one go?" Xander asked. "So, what do we do now? I'm used to the whole post-evil celebration. Anybody up for pizza?"

"I'm definitely starved," Dawn said.

Buffy agreed. "You know, I didn't really slay anything, but I've still got that post-slay munchie thing going on."

"Will? Tara?" Xander asked. The two of them were standing near the bottom of the stairs. Willow had her arms wrapped around Tara's waist from behind.

"I'm not very hungry," Tara said. "Too much excitement. I need about a week's worth of sleep."

"Yeah, I'm not really hungry either," Willow said. "You guys go ahead."

"Okay, we'll try to bring some back for ya in case you change your minds," Xander said. He led Buffy and Dawn out the door. Tara separated from Willow, shut the door and turned.

"I really am tired. I can't—"

"Oh, no. Of course. I wasn't expecting that," Willow said. She took Tara's hand and led her to the couch. "Just more talking."

Once they were seated, they just sat in silence. Willow was still making sure what she was going to say was actually what she wanted to say. Part of her was still hesitant.

"I'm going to go to England," she said finally. Tara was somewhat surprised. "I should go."

"What was the deciding factor?" Tara asked.

"When I was doing that binding spell, even though it's so simple, I could still feel the power surging inside of me. It was potent and intoxicating," Willow said. She looked down guiltily. "Part of me wondered why I ever gave it up in the first place. But this power shouldn't be like an addiction. It should be a gift. It should be a skill that I have, not a vice. Hopefully, the coven in England can help me get to that point."

"I believe they can," Tara said. She took Willow's hand.

"I don't wanna lose you. Not because of magic or evil or anything," Willow said. "I have to know that magic will never break us apart ever again. I love you too much to let it happen."

Tara didn't say anything. She slowly leaned forward, placing her hand on the back of Willow's neck and gently pulling her toward her. She paused, just lingering for a moment with their lips nearly touching but not quite. Then they made contact, kissing softly, losing themselves in each other. All thoughts about magic and England left their minds. They were together now and they intended to be together for a long time.

THE END...for now...