"Do you remember anything about how he did it?" Willow carefully asked half an hour later, after she had provided her girlfriend with a cup of tea – and had added a rather generous splash of rum, hoping it would help to calm her down – and had made herself as comfortable as it was possible in her agitated state on the couch next to Pat; it took the black haired woman a while to react to her, and when she finally did by looking up from her cup of tea and at the redhead, Willow's heart clenched up once more at the lost look in her eye.
"…not really", she finally mumbled, putting the cup on the table and digging out her cigarettes with trembling hands; for a few moments, she kept staring at them as if she suddenly was not sure anymore what she had wanted with them, then finally removed one of them from the pack and lit it up, with some help from Willow, the witch taking tender hold of her hand and steadying it when the trembling made it impossible for her to get the lighter's flame to the tip of the cancer stick.
"I was… walking", the black haired woman continued once the cigarette had been successfully lit up and she had taken a long drag from it, "I didn't even care where I was going, I just wanted to clear my head… and then he was there, he attacked me, I remember that, there was a fight…"
"Did he hurt you?" Willow demanded to know in reply, her concern heightening even more, something she wouldn't have thought possible just seconds ago; in response, Pat seemed deep in thought for a few moments, then shrugged, still sounding as flat as she had when she had told her what had happened, the few bits and pieces she could still remember. "Don't know. Don't think so. We fought and then… there was this light… and then it was gone."
The witch didn't need to ask her what she was talking about; not knowing what she could say, she reached out and grasped her girlfriend's free hand, giving it a tender squeeze, forcing herself to smile a reassuring smile which felt way too fake on her face at the black haired woman when the touch made her look at her.
"We'll find a way how to fix this", she promised, giving the taller woman's hand another gentle, hopefully reassuring squeeze, "I promise. Then you'll be your fiery, demony self again."
To her relief, Pat nodded after a moment; she gave her another reassuring smile, then let her know that she'd fix them a quick meal and got up from the couch to make her way into the kitchen, only to stop after just a few steps when her girlfriend spoke up again, the tremble in her voice causing her heart to clench up once more. "Wouldn't you… prefer it the way it is now…?"
"What do you mean?" Willow asked in reply, even though she knew perfectly well what her loved one was talking about and only wanted to buy some time with her words, making her way back to the couch and sitting down next to the taller woman once more.
"Me", Pat mumbled in reply, suddenly not able to look at her anymore, "the way… without the demon. Human. Normal."
"No", the redhead gave back at once, fast enough to show that she was honest, but not so fast that it might have seemed like a lie. "I love you", she added when she only received a doubtful look in reply, "the way you are. The way you were, before he did this to you, and the way you are now. But seeing you like this… No, I would not prefer that, I want my strong and snarky and confident Pat back, the woman I fell in love with…"
To her relief, this at least made the taller woman smile weakly; smiling back at her, Willow reached up with one hand to caress her hair, all at once remembering how said hair had been one of the first things she had noticed about Pat, and how she had dreamed of running her hands through it when she slowly had started to fall in love with her.
"We'll fix this", she thus repeated her earlier words, "and everything will be back to normal. Or back to how it was before, it doesn't matter. Then you'll be my strong, fiery demon again and you'll protect me from any harm, right?"
"Right", Pat agreed after a moment, to the redhead's great relief; then, she snuggled up to the witch, immediately prompting her to put both arms around her, the thought of preparing something to eat forgotten as she held her girlfriend close and tried to figure out how to find this man and how to undo what he had done to her loved one.
When the unpleasant sound of the phone ringing tore Willow out of her sleep, she neither knew when she had fallen asleep, nor how long she had slumbered; her neck was stiff from the position she had been sleeping in on the couch, and her right arm took much longer to wake up than the rest of her, thanks to the fact that Pat had drifted off into dreamland halfway lying on it, the weak daylight which fell into the room through the half-open curtain showing that they had spent quite some time like that.
Quickly, before the noise could wake up the black haired woman as well, the witch got up from the couch and hurried over to the phone, nearly dropping it in her eagerness to take the call and end the annoying noise; to her surprise, it was Faith who replied to her "Hello?", the redhead's surprise only growing when she heard the hint of shame and discomfort in the brunette's voice. "Hey, it's me, Faith… Just wanted to ask how Pat's doing…"
"Not well", Willow honestly replied, wondering to herself why Faith would call and ask, since so far, she hadn't come across like the compassionate type, the answer coming a few seconds later though, without her even having to ask.
"Tell her I'm sorry, okay?" the brunette half demanded, half pleaded, only helping to increase the witch's surprise; when she didn't reply, Faith went on, now sounding so guilty that it just couldn't be fake. "You know, I'm normally not one to feel like this, but this time, I do think it's my fault… If I hadn't behaved that way, she wouldn't have wandered off, and, well… I'm sorry about that, too. You should know I was never serious, I was just having some fun, I…"
"It didn't look that way to me", Willow interrupted her, despite her annoyance about the brunette's behaviour touched by the heartfelt apology.
"We'll figure out how to fix it", she thus added, quickly peering at her girlfriend to make sure she was still slumbering, remembering to keep her voice down as she continued. "Then we'll fix you, and her, and things will be just fine. Just promise you won't try any of tonight's stunts again, and we're just fine, too. Alright?"
"Alright", Faith agreed at once, "and I'm truly sorry… I can calm you down though, I might as well have tried to flirt with a wall. That probably would have been more successful."
"Tough luck I guess", Willow gave back, not able to keep the smile off her face though, unaware of the fact that Faith could hear it through her voice.
"I guess", the brunette agreed, smiling as well, glad that Willow clearly wasn't holding her behaviour against her, "but not for you, huh? You're really lucky."
"I know", the redhead sincerely replied, then glanced at the couch again, where Pat had started to move; she quickly let Faith know that her girlfriend was waking up and that she'd better make sure she was fine, saying goodbye after the brunette had voiced her agreement and ending the call.
She still took the time to put the phone back into the loading unit, then hurried over to the couch; carefully, since she didn't want to startle her loved one, she sat down next to her, doing so just in time to be the first thing Pat saw when she finally opened her eye and blinked sleepily.
"Hey", the redhead smiled, reaching up to caress her girlfriend's hair tenderly, "feeling better?"
"A bit", Pat mumbled in reply, not surprising Willow when she reached for her cigarettes at once and lit one of them up, without needing the witch's help this time, "but it's still…"
She fell silent, trying to find the right words, using the time to smoke; keeping quiet as well, Willow just watched her and kept caressing her hair, knowing she'd go on once she'd found the words.
"When that curse was put on me", she finally did so, now succeeding with surprising the redhead as she never had spoken about that before, "I hated it. I guess that was the whole point of doing it, huh? I had no control over it, I'd burst into flames at random times or even demon out, just like that, in the middle of the day on the sidewalk of a crowded street, or something. It's a miracle I didn't get killed by some upset person right then."
She fell silent, taking another long drag of her cigarette; sensing that there was more to come, Willow remained quiet, just giving her an encouraging smile, relieved when after a few moments, her girlfriend went on talking. "But then, I figured out how to control it, and I realized it's not that bad… It'd made me stronger, faster, well you know the drill. And now that it's gone again, after more than two hundred years of having it… I just feel so empty."
"I understand", Willow reassured her, still caressing her hair, "and I can't imagine how hard it has to be… But I promise we'll figure out how to fix this, okay? Then you'll have it all back…"
Something her girlfriend had said hit her with considerable delay, something which could be understood though, with the current situation. "Wait, you said you didn't know how to control it?"
"Not at all", Pat mumbled in reply, shaking her head at those unpleasant memories, "it took me weeks to figure out how to… oh shit."
"Exactly", Willow agreed, exchanging a worried look with her girlfriend, "if you didn't know, and I guess the curse was… customized for you, or something similar, it might be even worse for him."
"I guess he didn't really know what he was taking", Pat sighed, not sure if she still should be angry at the guy or feel sorry for him now, "he probably only just saw how fast my broken arm healed and thought that's all he'd get, I don't think he knew I am… I was… a demon…"
"Now he is", Willow nervously gave back, "who knows what he'll do… without even meaning it! He could accidentally set the motel on fire!"
"Or his girl", the black haired woman pointed out a much more dire possibility; gasping, Willow realized that she was right, her eyes widening for a moment – before she jumped up and rushed to the phone to call Buffy, knowing that the Slayer had to be informed about this as fast as possible.