Ever since Buffy had left to get Pat back, Willow had been sitting on the couch, counting the minutes; she had tried to distract herself with a book at first, then had given up when she had realized that she only had been staring at the pages for minutes without reading a single word. After the book failure, she had switched on the TV, and had zapped through the channels, without finding anything even remotely interesting; finally, she had given up on that as well and now was in the kitchen, observing the knives there as she tried to figure out which one Buffy had used to kill the ugly monster men, the Slayer to her dismay not having told her about that so far, probably not even remembering anymore which knife it had been exactly.
Grumbling, she kept staring at the shiny blades, trying to spot blood or gross monster man goo on one of them; then, finally, the sound she had been waiting for came from the door, distracting her from her ponderings as she rushed into the hallway, just in time to see Pat open the door and enter the apartment. With a happy squeal, Willow threw herself into the arms of the taller woman; while she had been waiting, she had been afraid that not even Buffy might be able to convince Pat that it would be okay to come back, only now that her girlfriend was there admitting to herself how scared she really had been of this.
"You're back!" she stated the obvious, smiling from ear to ear; chuckling, the demon tightened her embrace around her and pulled her closer, greeting her with a gentle kiss before she replied, her hands tenderly caressing the witch's back. "You sound as if I've been gone for years…"
"It surely felt that way", Willow grimaced, then pulled Pat inside fully, kicking the door close carelessly, not bothering to lock it; recognizing the glint in her eyes for what it was, the taller woman just smiled before she swept Willow up into her arms, making her giggle with surprise and delight as she wrapped her arms around the neck of her loved one, the glint in her eyes increasing as she was carried into the bedroom, everything else forgotten not too soon afterwards.
"This is what I get for bringing them back together", Buffy grumbled out in the next day, at half past one, throwing another impatient look at her watch; she rolled her eyes, then let herself slump back into her seat, holding back the urge to groan when Anya felt like sharing some of her wisdom with the rest of the gang. "Well, it's not surprising, if Xander and me had been kept apart for so long, I would be locked in the bedroom too with him now, and have countless orgasms."
Next to her, Xander just sighed – by now, he didn't even bother to tell his girlfriend anymore that this wasn't considered exactly fitting behaviour for the public, not even if the public in question consisted of his closest friends, knowing it wouldn't lead anywhere anyway.
"I'll call 'em", the Slayer now grumbled to herself, getting up from her seat and making her way to the store's phone, ignoring Anya calling after her that she'd have to pay for the call; quickly, she dialled the couple's number, frowning to herself when even after fifteen rings, no one had answered.
All at once, the horribly knowledge that something was wrong filled her; it wasn't just a feeling, as if someone who wouldn't know her very well might have pointed out, but something she knew, one of the many side effects of being the Chosen one. Without bothering to wait any longer, she hung up the phone, then turned to look at the rest of the gang; the expression on her face was enough to make them all get up and grab their jackets, even Dawn, despite the knowledge that usually, Buffy stopped her from tagging along when she thought it might be dangerous.
To her surprise, her sister did no such thing this time; instead, she just hurried back to the table and put her jacket on as well, then nodded at the rest of them, shaking her head when Xander asked if they shouldn't bring weapons.
"I'm quite sure it's too late to fight", she then stated, surprising them all – usually, if she had such a sudden burst of knowledge about something being wrong, a fight followed not too long afterwards.
"How do you know?" Giles demanded to know, making it Buffy's turn to be surprised since normally, he just trusted her instincts; she threw him an irritated look, then just shrugged, sounding defiant when she replied. "I just do. You can take some weapons along if it'll make you feel better, but you won't need them. Trust me."
For a few very long moments, the Watcher held her gaze, the rest waiting in breathless silence for his decision; then, without another word, he turned and left the Magic Box, the others quickly catching up with him, the worry they could see on the Slayer's face rubbing off on them as they hurried towards the street where the apartment building was located.
Since the knowledge that something horrible had happened still burned on Buffy's mind, she didn't bother to ring the doorbell, but simply kicked the door in, making the rest wince as they all hoped at that the Slayer was right and that they wouldn't end up interrupting an intimate moment between the witch and the demon; the second they all entered the apartment though, it became clear that this wouldn't happen, the bit they could see of the living room through the open door making it obvious that a rather wild fight had been going on here.
"Stay behind me", Buffy ordered the rest, despite her certainty about the fact that by now, the danger was over; still she clenched her fists as she slowly walked down the hallway, then entered the destroyed living room. Just like when Pat had been amnesiac and evil and had come to this place to kidnap Willow, the TV had been thrown off the small table it had been standing on and laid on the ground, shattered; the couch was still standing, but the table which had been in front of it had been smashed, the scorch marks on the wood showing that the demon had been taking part in the fight as well.
With all her senses cranked up as high as possible, the Slayer took in the scene, fighting to keep her calm as she looked at the destroyed living room; then, an unfamiliar shape to her right caught her eye, and she turned, her breath getting caught in her throat moments later. Slumped against the wall, Pat half sat, half laid on the carpeted ground, clearly unconscious; the wall behind her was visibly dented and cracked, showing with how much force she had been thrown against it, the blood on her face and clothes just another indicator for the fact that she had lost miserably against whoever she had been fighting.
For a few more seconds, Buffy just kept staring at her, shocked – during all the time she had known the demon, she never had seen her defeated like that, her blood running cold at the thought of how powerful their new enemy might be if he could even take someone as strong as Pat out; then, she regained her senses and called for the others, the group joining her in the living room moments later, their eyes simultaneously widening when they saw the knocked out demon.
"She's badly hurt", Buffy stated what was quite obvious already anyway, "Xander, help me to get her on the couch…"
With those words, she moved to pick Pat up by grabbing her beneath her arms, hooking her hands into the taller woman's armpits; nodding, Xander grasped her feet, then they lifted her and carried her the short distance to the couch, carefully lowering her on it before they took a few steps back, looking at each other afterwards, not sure what to do next.
"She can heal herself, can't she?" Anya threw in, moving closer to the unconscious demon and looking at her with a raised eyebrow, "so there's no need to worry!"
"But she can only do that when she's awake and demoned out", Buffy reminded her, throwing the knocked out woman another concerned glance, "and I hope she'll do so fast, we need to hear what happened here…"
"And what happened to Willow", Dawn added, making the Slayer nod with a grim expression on her face; just to be sure, she sent Anya to search the rest of the apartment for the witch, knowing that it was a waste of time though and that whoever had come here and had done this to the demon had taken the redhead along when they had left again. To her relief, Anya obeyed her for once without talking back and left the living room, calling out Willow's name as she moved to the kitchen and from there to the bathroom; while the ex-demon was on her futile search, the Slayer focused on Pat again, asking herself how bad she really had been hurt and how long she had been out cold already when they had found her.
If it had been anyone else, the first thing she would have done by now would have been to call an ambulance; since she knew about the healing powers of her best friend's lover though, she refrained from doing so, also admitting to herself that she was worried about what might happen if the doctors somehow realized that Pat wasn't exactly human – by now, several of the hospital staff had realized that weird things were happening in Sunnydale, but as far as Buffy knew, none of them ever had been confronted with it from face to face.
"I might know a way to wake her up", Giles now gained her attention, making her look at him curiously; removing his glasses, he stepped closer to the demon's unconscious form, looking at her for a few moments before he focused on Buffy again, his voice sincere as he went on. "I've read about this once, but I'm not sure it'll work."
"Just try it", the Slayer urged him on, wondering why he seemed so reluctant; in response, he put his glasses back on, then nodded – before he shocked everyone by bending over the demon, grasping her earlobe between the nails of his thumb and index finger and squeezing as hard as he could. To the astonishment of everyone else, it took only seconds until it showed effect; the eyes of the black haired woman practically flew open, and she let out a surprisingly loud howl, Giles pulling back his hand quickly while Buffy moved in to keep the demon down as she tried to sit up on the couch.
"No, stay down", she firmly ordered, glad when Pat seemed to recognize her, as she immediately slumped back on the couch; on the other hand, this also might have been caused by her injuries, something the Slayer didn't want to think at the moment though.
"Willow", the black haired woman now brought out, her voice clearly showing in how much pain she was, but still she tried to sit up again after a moment, "the priest… they took her… I couldn't stop them…"
"I know", Buffy gave back, once more pushing her back down to keep her from sitting up, "and we'll find her… But first, you'll demon out and heal yourself, you're no good as long as you're so badly hurt."
Having to admit that Buffy had a point there, Pat nodded, then asked the Slayer to help her up; it took some groans and swears, but finally, the demon was standing, the others quickly moving back as she demoned out, the flicker of the flames which soon engulfed her throwing dancing shadows on the wall, several more groans and yelps coming from her as she healed, once more making it obvious how seriously she had been injured.
Finally though, the healing was done, the demon returning to her human form the moment the last cut had closed and the last bone had mended; she grimaced, clearly still feeling some of the pain, then looked at Buffy again, her voice and gaze now filled with barely suppressed rage as she spoke up. "Let's go, now. I want to kick some holy butt."
Smiling back at her, Buffy nodded, then glanced at the rest of the group; they all nodded their agreement as well, and together, they left the apartment, Giles, Xander and Anya taking Dawn home while Pat and Buffy parted from them to find Spike, hoping that the vampire hadn't given in to the call so far – and that it was reaching him strong enough to let him lead them to wherever Willow had been taken.