** spoiler alert ** 
 Buffy's still dealing with the "zompires," but now she's also having to deal with real life. During a massive party, she got blackout drunk (she thinks), and now she's pregnant (she thinks). After discussions with Robin about what it was like being the son of a Slayer, she decides to have an abortion, asking Spike to go with her. Then she discovers that she wasn't drunk and she isn't pregnant--she's a robot, part of Andrew's ingenious plan to save her from the Siphon. But her human body is out there and vulnerable, and has developed a mind of its own. . . . 
 I appreciate how open and honest the writers are about what Buffy's going through. Her decision isn't made lightly, and her choice of who to share it with isn't, either. And yet, as usual, she gets out of having to actually go through with it because she wasn't pregnant in the first place--it turns out Andrew's just lousy at programming female body functions. 
 Buffy and Spike's relationship continues to be weird and awkward, especially after he tells her that he's still in love with her and that he's tired of being "the dark place she goes when she's in trouble." He wants an actual relationship, but he also wants her to have something remotely normal, which doesn't include him. 
 Spikes desire for a normal, healthy relationship with Buffy, along with the pregnancy scare, make this collection very human and down-to-earth, even while they're traveling in Spike's bug spaceship or dealing with Buffy being a robot--again.