A/N: Hey all! Griffin-Queen here... FINALLY with the next installment. This has been two years, or almost two years in the making believe it or not. Lol i planned to get this chapter up the halloween of 06'... yeah... it's been a while, and I do apologize for that xD. SO anyway. I hope you enjoy it, and remember. reviews are love!

It was now three days before the big Halloween celebration. The elder sat in the lab, as Emily was thumbing through a book, her brows furrowed in deep thought. Victor was watching her, a slight smile on his face.

"Well I know what I'm going to be… Victor are you matching costumes with me?"

"sure…why not?"

"Wonderful!" she smiled and walked over to the wall filled with bottles and books. She turned back and looked at the Elder.

"May I?" She asked politely. The elder gave a small and crooked bow.

" Be my guest my dear." She smiled and turned back to the wall.. Setting her book down and grabbing many tiny bottles off the shelf. Victor walked over to her side.

"May I help?" He asked… nothing short of fascinated by this wall of bottles.

"Of course… I think I know the ingredients… you can help me find them." He smiled, and she bit her finger in thought. " ok… I think we need the bottle of boiled cat's fur." Victor winced.

"Boiled w-what?"

"Cat's fur." she said again. Victor had a strange look on his face as he climbed the stepladder, and finally he came across a small diamond shaped bottle…and to his surprise it didn't look all that bad, more or less like a strange grayish soup.

"I've got it."

"Ok… bring it here, we'll put it on the lab table." He set it on the table next to the now closed book.

"Next…?"

"Bring me a vial of snake venom… top shelf on your immediate left… but be careful not to drop it, or this whole room will smell horribly."

"What does snake venom smell like?" Victor asked, he was becoming ever more fascinated, a curious smile on his face as he listened to his wife and examined all sorts of different bottles…Pond scum puree…ground rose hips…"

"It smells like the wine of ages… you'll quickly find, Victor, that all poisons carry the same odor… although some are stronger smelling than others… I personally think that snake venom is the strongest of all…" Victor came down the ladder and handed it to Emily, who put it on a test tube rack along with two other vials she had just added.

" What are those?" he asked.

" fern spores and dirt."

"Dirt?"

"yes, dirt…Oh! I almost forgot.. You see that large pot behind you? The one with the pouring spout?" She said as she pulled the cork off of a bottle Victor turned and nodded." Stick your head in it." He looked back at her. "Why on earth do you want me stick my head in a pot?" He half-shouted.

"Just trust me." Victor rolled his eyes and walked over to the pot, sticking his head inside. Emily's voice was muffled and echoed from inside. "Ok… breathe deeply, and be honest… do you smell anything?" Victor inhaled sharply.

"No… nothing except metal."

"Are your eyes tingling?"

" Slightly…"

" do you feel light headed?"

"no." She walked over to him and put her arms around his waist.

"Ok, you can come out now." He took his head out of the jar and pulled Emily closer to him.

"So… would you mind telling me why I just had to stick my head in a pot?"

" The human body is the most sensitive testing tool. It takes human senses to determine if there are remnants of a previous potion or remedy. If there were, and we had created the potion without checking…there's no telling what the consequences would be." They were silent for a few minutes, until Emily spoke musingly. "that means I'm going to have to clean that pot out… while I do that do you think you can start finding and mixing some ingredients for me? Not the one to alter us yet… the one to change us back."

" an antidote?"

"Of sorts yes. I can read off the ingredients for you and you can mix them."

"Your trusting me with these ingredients…?" He chuckled

"of course I am… you're good at this. I asked Bonejangles to help me one year…and he dropped a bottle on my head, all I saw was a flash of green smoke…and I had thick brown hair… all over me … it was there for days until the elder found the cure." Emily shuddered. And Victor placed his arms around her waist .

"how awful." He rested his chin on her shoulder, and she laid her head back on his. The elder walked in quietly, and he put his hands shakily on his hips, and with a chuckle, he said,

"You know… if you two expect to get this done and still have time to sleep after… I suggest less cuddle time and more work time." Emily and Victor quickly broke apart, immense blue blushes across their cheeks. Emily cleared her throat.

"I-I need to clean out this pot… would you happen to have a brush on hand?"

"In the cabinet over there, next to the petrified bat wings. " She quietly made her way over to the cabinet, and the elder walked out laughing. She began rummaging through the cabinet...and she shrieked when a bucket of dried crayfish fell on her.

" g-get them off… GET THEM OFF!!" she ran over to Victor and began shaking her head violently, her long, blue hair was flipping around in every direction.

"Emily what's wrong ?" He shouted.

"They're in my hair!!" He looked at her, and saw nothing on the top of her head.

"Emily there's nothing there."

"yes there is!" She thrashed about and turned around, revealing the red crayfish tangled in her hair. Victor's hand flew to his mouth to stifle a gasp, and he wrapped his one arm around Emily's waist to stop her thrashing, and he began rubbing her stomach.

"Calm down…calm down I'll get them out." He whispered gently, she made short little whimpers as she felt his hands begin to untangle the crayfish from her hair. He picked them out one by one, never stopping the stroking of Emily's abdomen to prevent her from thrashing about. He came across one, however, that would not untangle itself. He pulled slightly. "Oh come now… get out." He muttered. Emily whimpered, and the elder came in once again.

"what is all this racket?" he said sternly, and Emily turned around to face him.

" A bucket of crayfish fell on my head!" She whined, a pained expression on her face.

" Oh the crayfish " His tone softened… " I meant to warn you about that bucket.. It was a bit… unstable… terribly sorry about that." He said apologetically, and Emily gave a sort of glare. Victor finally removed the last of the tiny shellfish from her hair, and he ran his fingers through it to make sure they were gone.

" Ok Darling they're all gone." Victor said as he continued to run his fingers through Emily's hair "Now let's get them cleaned up off the floor." Victor walked over and got the bucket and cleaned up the little halo of fish from around Emily. Once they were all cleaned up, Emily shoved the bucket up onto the top shelf of the cabinet again, making sure it was as far back as possible. She walked back over to Victor, who was examining all of the bottles and vials on the table.

" We can start mixing them now if you want…."

"Let's make sure we have everything first." Victor said, chuckling at his wife's neurotic stroking of her hair. She stopped for a minute and picked up the book. "are you sure you're on the right page? I don't' see a list." He asked, looking over her shoulder.

"there is no list… I'm making it up as I go."

"How on earth do you know what you're doing then…?"

"She has lots of experience!" The elder called from the next room. Emily smiled and put the book down.

"Ok… do we have the stewed sandalwood, the cedar bark, the orange oil…" Her list continued as Victor confirmed the presence of the item. Once they went through Emily's list, she took all of the bottles and the pot, and, walking into a small alcove in the lab, set them down on another lab table.

"Victor? Can you help me light this furnace?" She said as she illuminated a small lantern. Victor walked over and lit a match as Emily began pumping the bellows. Within minutes the furnace was nicely burning, and Victor and Emily stood over the pot. One by one they dropped and poured ingredients in until they formed a strange green soup with a pleasant yet musky odor. Victor took a large metal stick and stirred the mixture as Emily brought in a second batch of bottles, one of them clearly empty.

"Ok… We can put this over the furnace…" Emily took the pot and hooked its iron handle to the hook hanging over the furnace, and when she had finished that she took a leather bag with black powder in it. She took a small amount of the powder in between her fingers and threw it into the pot, and it brought forth a puff of smoke. She put another log on the fire to keep it burning brightly and They went back to the table and mixed the second batch of ingredients. This made a pinkish liquid, with a strong floral aroma. As they waited for the mixture to boil, they sat in the Elder's study on one of the moth-eaten couches. It wasn't until they sat down that they realize how tired they were. Emily sat down in Victor's lap and closed her eyes. He whispered in her ear, and it made her jump.

"Emily, don't fall asleep… there's still more work to be done."

"I'm so tired." She mumbled.

"I Know… but we're far from done." he gently helped her stand up. "Here, let's stand…sitting will only make it worse." She wobbled a bit, but soon walked back into the lab. The mixture was boiling nicely. Emily grabbed the empty bottle and carefully poured some of the mixture into it, returning the rest to the fire. Putting the cork securely on the filled bottle, she handed the newly bottled potion to Victor. It was a smooth green liquid still swirling with heat currents

"Now…those were the basic Ingredients, the andtidote for a male…now for me… a female…" She was mumbling to herself as she poured the pink mixture into the rest of the boiling green one. The result was a yellow flash of light, and an earthy aroma. The new mixture was bubbling furiously. Emily and Victor took it off to cool, and once it had cooled they bottled it.

"Ok.. Now we must be very careful not to get these mixed up."

"Why?"

"Well unless, when we want to change back, you want to be wearing my wedding dress, and I your suit, and have our anatomy seriously switched… I think it's in our best interest not to." Victor gave a quick glance down to his clothes, trying to imagine himself and how foolish he'd look in a wedding dress.

"R-right." He stopped when he noticed Emily trying to stifle a yawn. "Emily you're about to fall asleep where you stand…why don't we go home and sleep? We can come back bright and early to make the actual potion." Emily nodded, and they were greeted by the Elder.

"A wise idea… my Ravens would like to get some sleep as well, and it seems you are encroaching on their bedchambers." He chuckled, and they looked up into the high ceiling of the boiler room, where some ravens were all settled in for the night, and were glaring angrily at them " I'll expect you back before the sun reaches it's noontime position….which means no extra time for loafing around." He laughed. "And with that I bid you both goodnight." He waved his bony hand, and disappeared into his tower. Emily looked sleepily at Victor.

"Let's go home." she said, and Victor wordlessly hoisted her up onto his back, carrying her piggyback style down all the stairs, homebound. After reaching the ground again, she spoke. " I can walk you know." She said.

"Yes, but, I wouldn't be much of a gentleman if I let my sleepy lady walk all the way home would I?" She said nothing. "Just relax, maybe get some sleep, we'll be home in a few minutes. She smiled.

"I love you." She said.

" I love you too." he replied, and continued on his journey.

Within a half hour they were home again, and Victor was about to push open the doors to the Ball and socket. Emily was fast asleep on his back, lulled into sleep by the rhythmic cadence of his strides… her bony hand had itself curled around his shoulder, and her other hand rested curled against her cheek.

"Emily…." He sing-songed softly "we're home." She jumped slightly and opened her eyes.

"w-wha..?"

" we're home." She groaned and got down off his back, stretching slightly and walking in the door Victor had opened for her. Mrs. Plum was wiping the bar clean when she saw the two walk in.

"There ye are… how'd it go today?"

" Well we've got half of it done.. We're going back bright and early to finish the rest." Victor answered Mrs. Plum smiled in acknowledgement, then she caught sight of Emily. " Well somebody looks sleepy." Emily nodded and yawned. " Well I wont keep ya … go ahead upstairs and get some shut eye." They thanked her and walked upstairs, Emily flopped face first on the bed. Victor flopped also face first near her, and put a hand on her waist, getting closer so he could hear her mumbling.

"I'm so… tired….." She groaned. He rolled her over.

" you worked very hard today."

"So did you…why aren't you as tired as I am?"

" I am…but you come first." He laid down again and let her crawl on top of him.

"I don't even feel like changing into my nightclothes."

"So don't… it won't hurt us for one night… we can shower tomorrow."

"Or can we bring out swimsuits to the elder's house? I know of a hot spring not far from there."

"Alright, that's fine with me... Just don't come crying to me when it's time to get out and you freeze." Emily smiled, already looking forward to the next day. Both of them growing more weary with every word…they kissed goodnight, and wordlessly fell asleep.

A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for part 3! because it's on it's way!