Sunday afternoon in Willow Creek, nearing on 5PM, Potter's Splay, Courtyard Lane.

Oasis Springs was sounding less and less of a good idea as the day went by, and even though they were all unlikely, neither Phil nor Dan could stop chewing over all the different things that could go terribly, terribly wrong.

They didn't talk to each-other about it – which was probably not what they should have done, but oh well – and instead went about their own thing, keeping their thoughts to themselves.

Phil was feeling much better today, but even though he wasn't sweating profusely, the room wasn't growing and shrinking and he wasn't angry at anything in particular, he still couldn't help but be on-edge, and a nauseous feeling followed him about.

How bad could it possibly be, though? Even if anything did go wrong, he was sure he could always-

"Are you OK?"

That was Dan's voice, which came out of the blue, even though he was well aware of the answer.

"I'm alright," Phil replied with a wan smile, leaning back on the dining table. His response was mostly true – nerves weren't going to stop him enjoying being up and off the sofa at last after spending almost all day yesterday there. At least he had Dan to keep him company… when he wasn't entertaining Dab, that is.

"Sure you'll be alright, then?" Dan smiled.

"Of course I will; Eliza will be there to make sure everything goes to plan, anyway," his friend assured him, though he wasn't sure just having Eliza beside him would make much difference.

Though, if it was all that could be done, it would have to do. Dan certainly didn't want to go along and have Summer be all impudent in his face and ruin what was supposed to be Phil making peace with her.

"Last chance to join us?" Phil offered, politely, hoping for the reassuring company of his best friend to keep him from saying something immensely stupid, but Dan only shook his head.

"You know Summer doesn't like me," he reasoned, "I don't want to spoil everything. Sorry, pal, but you're going to have to go solo on this one."

Phil sighed but shrugged, supposing that Dan was right after all.

Of course he was.

"Alright," he agreed at last, and grinned, "As I say, I'll be OK."

He gazed about the room and admired the neatly made sofa, tidy armchair and completely whole fish tank on the coffee table, containing Jonathan the Minnow, who, frankly, Phil was surprised was still alive after all this time.

The house was mostly lit by the lamp in the corner because, as Dan kept insisting, it made the place look cosier.

The light reflected off the rotund fish tank in such a way it was almost abnormal and gave off that feeling of being in some world of imagination wherein everything was uncannily and unrealistically perfect-

"Are you sure you're OK? You look like death."

Phil swallowed, pulling himself back to reality again after his short existential crisis where he had realised that he was, in fact, currently in a fabricated virtual world that shouldn't even be allowed to exist in the first place.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he answered, brushing himself down and willing the colour to come back to his face. Not that he had much colour at the best of times, but hopefully he would look a little less like a cadaver.

"Maybe you should have a lie down before eight," Dan suggested, kindly, "Doesn't have to be on the sofa."

"No, no," Phil chuckled, "I'm definitely fine. Just a touch of an existential crisis."

"Maybe a hug, then?" Dan offered, and, of course, Phil consented and practically threw himself into Dan's arms.

Neither of them really denied hugs when they were here in this weird universe: they needed all of the comfort they could get.

Why did they ever come back here?

Looking after a family of 3 – alongside each other – and keeping together 'friendships' they had made? They should have known that it was too much for them. In fact, they partially did.

Phil remembered when Dan had come to him to break the news that they were returning after a good four months of recovery. It seemed a great idea at the time. After the stress of moving and the holiday shortly after, it had sounded like a good thing to get away for a bit to a world where nobody would notice they were gone.

Only, being here wasn't much better at all, really.

It'd been OK at first and things only started to go a bit awry after…

Well, after Dil and Tabitha left, really.

Of course it would be. Phil knew that he could never handle that much responsibility and that he shouldn't have taken it all upon his own shoulders. There should have been an arrangement – at least something to equal out the weight – but there hadn't been, and instead Phil had abandoned the idea of rest and relaxation along with spending time in this unique world, and instead decided that conscientiousness and painstaking cleaning was far more important than simply enjoying himself.

Maybe this was all his fault, but somehow feeling how Dan acted to him, he knew it wasn't.

After all, what had Dan done to stop him over-working himself?

Never mind, though: they'd gotten the Howlters back again now and, even though he'd had a bit of a moment and maybe he'd shouted a bit too much, Phil felt that he was finally ready to pull himself together and face the music and maybe dance but no promises because he was still quite tired and that's just a figure of speech anyway.

Though, a touch of swing never hurt anybody.