Giles' unhappiness at their insistence on Joyce needing to be told the truth about everything didn't stop the kids from informing Buffy of the truth about Ted and reporting the bodies to the police. Buffy told them she was leaning toward telling her mother everything, a statement that really upset Giles, who argued against it. Before Buffy could make up her mind, the police knocked on their door to talk to them.

Finding out the guy she'd been seeing had the preserved bodies of four women in a closet in a bunker under his home was a blow, even with her mind beginning to clear after several days without Ted's drugged food affecting her.

Finding out that he'd gotten a marriage license for the two of them to marry without her knowledge didn't take a big leap to understand, he'd intended her to be body number five at some point.

"He seemed like such a nice guy." Joyce commented after the police had finished asking her questions about her involvement with him and any sense she might have had that he was 'off'. Before they left Buffy handed the investigators a bag with the last of the cookies in it and told them Ted made them, suggesting they should check them.

"Mom, he threathened to hit me." Buffy reminded her mother that she'd told her that before. "His cooking made me sick to my stomach and you told me I was being a drama queen. Something was off about him, you just weren't in any state to notice it."

"Buffy, did you do something?"

"I had some of the cookies analyzed, they'd been drugged. Some kind of tranquilizer. That's why I gave the rest to the police, so they could confirm it."

"Oh and it made you sick and Dawn and me, what, think he was a great guy?"

"Very mellow and craving more and he gave it to you."

"Why not tell the police you had them analyzed yourself?"

"It's part of something else I need to talk to you about, something the police would have trouble dealing with."

"What could the police have a problem with? Not something that will get you in trouble again, will it?"

"I haven't done anything wrong, Mom." Buffy assured her. "But there is something I need to show you and quite a bit we need to talk about. We need to go to the school."

"Why can't you just tell me?" Joyce asked, wondering what Buffy was so unwilling to talk with the police about.

"Please, Mom, once you see, I hope you'll understand why we can't tell the police."

"This had better be good." Joyce told her. "Because withholding information from the police could get us in trouble too, Buffy."

"I understand that better then you think, Mom. Because it's something I'm afraid of." She climbed into the passenger side of her mother's jeep while a quiet Dawn climbed in the back, wondering if they were finally going to know those secrets she knew Buffy had. Once at the High School Buffy led them to an empty classroom.

"No one uses this classroom, it's kept closed." Buffy told them. "Willow analyzed the cookies in the chem lab and she and Ms. Calendar have been working on a project in here."

"What does this have to do with Ted?" Joyce frowned in confusion.

"Everything." Buffy answered, opening the door. "Mom, just remember, this is why we can't tell the police. Ted wasn't what you thought he was, anymore than he was who you thought he was."

"You're not making much sense, Buffy."

"It will." Buffy opened the door wider. "I'm sorry, Mom, I know what you're about to see will be a shock and there's nothing else I can do to soften that fact." Joyce walked passed her daughter into the classroom, where she saw Xander, Cordelia, Willow and their computer teacher, Jenny Calendar. Lying on a workbench was a body, lying beside it was a head. The head was open and metal and wires could be seen, with a cable of some sort running from the head to a computer terminal. The body was also open exposing more metal and wires. The face on the head was identifiable as Ted.

"What? I don't understand." Joyce said blankly.

Dawn did. "Ted was a robot!" She reached an excited hand out to touch it.

"Don't be silly, Dawn, robots aren't actually a thing." Joyce said.

"Actually, they are." Jenny Calendar informed her. "It's just that human form robots are still theoretical. Except the original Ted Buchanan found a way to make a mechanical version of himself."

"This is a joke, right? It has to be a joke." Joyce stared at the face on the robot as Willow pressed a button on her laptop and the eyes opened and looked right at Joyce.

"I found you again." The head spoke in Ted's voice. "You keep going away, but I keep finding you. We're going to be so happy."

"Oh, God."

"It's not a joke, Mom. A serial killer robot wanted to marry you because he thought you were his creator's wife." Yeah, there's no way to really soften that blow, no matter how much you want to.

"Why can't we just tell the police?"

"Because it's all part of something much bigger, something the police can't handle." Buffy answered.

"But you can? I don't understand."

"You will. No more secrets, Mom." Buffy promised. "Everything I'm about to tell you, I can prove. But it has to stay a secret."

"Why?"

Buffy carefully began to explain everything. Complete with proof.