In the next morning, Willow briefly felt disoriented when she woke up, not having an idea where she was; then, it all came back to her as she realized that it was Joyce's former bedroom, the one Pat and she used whenever they stayed at the Slayer's home, on the grounds that it was the only one with a proper double bed.

Next to her, Pat was still fast asleep, sprawled on her back and snoring slightly; propping herself up one elbow, something which was more difficult than usual, thanks to her rather rounded stomach, the redhead took a few moments to just study her, a soft smile curling her lips as her gaze focused on the taller woman's face, looking calm and peaceful, not showing the strain the previous day had put on her.

Not wanting to wake her up, Willow held back the urge to reach out and run her fingers through the demon's hair; instead of doing that, she carefully got out of bed, stretching and grimacing when her back cracked – not only had she been thrown around quite a bit by Morgan the day before, but by now, the pregnancy added quite the bit of extra weight, and the strain this put on her back couldn't be ignored anymore.

Briefly, she rested both hands on her rounded stomach, smiling slightly to herself; she knew that, once the child would be born, it'd bring a lot of change to their lives, and challenges they so far didn't even dream of, but none of this scared her, the marvel of how the baby had been created within her and the fact that she not only had Pat to help, but the whole Scoobie Gang, making dealing with the pregnancy and the changes it brought more than easy.

Glancing at her partner again, her smile widening slightly, Willow once again thought of the sacrifice she had made, of what she had given up to get her back after she had been killed, had been actually and truly dead; her gaze briefly moved down to the wedding band on her finger, giving her the chance to notice that the healing finally had kicked in and had taken care of her burns, then she forced herself to snap out of her sentimental mood, getting dressed as quietly as she could before she made her way downstairs, finding Buffy in the kitchen there, the blonde smiling at her as she greeted her cheerfully.

"Good morning to you, too", Willow returned the greeting, moving to the kitchen table and sitting down, the Slayer not missing how one hand went to the small of her back, "Dawn's still asleep?"

"Yes", Buffy confirmed, moving to the electric kettle, "she's got late class today. You want some tea?"

"Yes please", the redhead gave back, making her best friend smile briefly as this had been the answer she had been expecting.

"No coffee for the pregnant woman", Buffy smiled, moving to fill the kettle and prepare the cup and teabag, "and now tell me everything about that guy. He said he's going to take your power from you?"

"Yes", Willow nodded, grimacing at the unpleasant memories, "but honestly, I'm not even sure why he'd need it, it's not like he's weak. He's wielding some major mojo, not as much as I do, with that dark magic inside me, but enough to do some pretty serious spellwork without getting tired out or drained."

"Some people just never get enough", Buffy shrugged in response, "you know what I've been wondering about? I mean, you didn't give me all the details, but from what you did tell me, he pretty much had you, and Pat had gone down. So why didn't he take it already?"

"I don't know", the witch had to admit, having asked herself exactly the same question, "he could have, I don't doubt that, but he didn't. Perhaps he was about to when Pat interrupted, he did look as if he was about to kiss me when she told him to get away from me, maybe that's how he would have done it…"

"Perhaps", Buffy nodded, remembering another power-stealing witch who had fed on her victims exactly that way, "but still, it's weird. If he could have taken your power that way, why not do it after he had taken Pat down again? And why would he bother try killing her first with the explosion if he just could have taken it that way?"

"I wish I knew", Willow sighed, nodding her thanks when Buffy put down the by now prepared cup of tea in front of her, "but once I had him down and thought we could capture and question him, he just teleported away."

"Well, I guess Pat is right and he'll try again", the Slayer gave back, not sounding all too perturbed, "so we'll have another chance to capture and question him. I suggest you stay here until then, it'd be safer if we stick together."

"Yes", the witch agreed at once, something she already had thought of as well, "it'll be good to have two fighters in case he shows up again, and we still don't know if Pat's healing dealt with her ear problems by now, so…"

"Gosh, I hope so", Buffy grimaced, not liking the thought of their mysterious new opponent taking the demon out with a simple loud noise, "otherwise, it'll be way too easy for him to take her down again."

"And she'll get pissed", Willow added, making the blonde nod, "which will make her want to take him out even more, and that in turn will make her reckless. I don't want her to get hurt again Buffy, it's bad enough that she got hurt in that explosion…"

"I'm fine now", the demon's voice rasped from behind her before Buffy had the chance to reply something, making her jump; feeling a bit guilty for talking about her behind her back, even though she hadn't said anything negative, the redhead turned to face her wife, her guilt lessening when she saw the slight smile on the taller woman's face.

"I know you are", she confirmed, momentarily forgetting about Buffy's presence in the room as she moved over to the demon and immediately was pulled into a tender embrace, "but I still don't want you to get hurt again anytime soon. Honestly, if your healing left scars whenever you get injured, you'd have a million by now."

"You're exaggerating", Pat protested, both the witch and the Slayer noticing that she was surprisingly coherent, considering she just had gotten out of bed, "it'd perhaps be a few dozen."

The only response she got for that was that Willow rolled her eyes, prompting Buffy to let out a small giggle; then, the redhead smiled again as well and pulled her lover down for a tender kiss, the taller woman's next words this time making both her and the blonde giggle, both of them having been waiting for her to ask ever since she had appeared in the kitchen. "Okay, before we talk about this any further, where's the coffee?"