Thanks to the fact that she had fallen unconscious, Willow didn't get to see how Buffy resolved the situation; trusting her best friend, the Slayer didn't even pause to question anything, but moved with uncanny speed, reaching the armchair Stacey sat in before the blonde could do as much as blink and grabbing the necklace the witch had pointed out, one powerful jerk being enough to tear it off the blonde's neck.
"No!" Stacey cried out, the Slayer ignoring her feeble tries to get the piece of jewellery back; easily, Buffy pushed her back into the chair when she tried to come to her feet, the Slayer's gaze focusing on the perfectly black stone dangling from it, her instincts taking over and telling her what to do.
Once more, she shoved Stacey back down as the blonde tried to stop her, from the corner of her eye seeing how Faith came hurrying into the room and knelt down next to Willow while Pat still struggled to come to her feet, the black haired woman's good eye focused on her girlfriend and filled with fear; then, the Slayer pushed all of this out of her mind as she concentrated on the task at hand, quickly placing the stone on the living room table before she brought her fist down on it as hard as she could, Stacey letting out a dismayed cry when the stone shattered.
For a few seconds, nothing happened; then, Eric let out a cry as well while he slumped to his knees, Faith all at once taking in a sharp breath while Pat came to her feet, a smirk slowly forming on her face while she clenched her fists, her good eye flashing up red as her demonic side was returned to her.
"Oh, this feels good", Faith said out loud what the demon clearly was thinking, getting up as well; she exchanged a satisfied glance with Pat, then the black haired woman turned to face Eric, the young man by now down to his knees, still clutching his bleeding arm and looking up at her with naked fear in his eyes.
"I think I owe you a broken arm", the demon calmly stated, smoke starting to rise from her hands as she took a step closer to him; then, Buffy was beside her and grasped her arm, sounding surprisingly calm as well when she spoke up. "No, don't. I don't think any of this really was his fault."
"I never wanted any of this", Eric sniffled in reply, causing the demon to frown at how pathetic he sounded all at once, "really, I'm… I just wanted to be strong… For her…"
"There's a thing called the gym, you know", Faith helpfully pointed out in reply; ignoring her, Pat kept staring at Eric for a few more moments, then seemed to agree with the Slayer, since she turned away from him with a low, contemptuous snort and moved to her girlfriend's side, tenderly taking her into her arms and holding her, the still sniffling guy behind her forgotten as she fully focused on the still knocked out Willow.
"You're so weak", Stacey now spat at her boyfriend, gaining the attention of Buffy and making her raise an eyebrow at her, "I made you strong, and now look at you! Sniffling at the feet of those… those freaks! Is this how you repay me for loving you and doing all this for you? You're pathetic!"
"You don't have much of an idea about love, do you", Pat commented dryly in reply, throwing the blonde a poisonous look; in response, she had the insolence to huff, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at the demon, her voice practically dripping with acid as she responded. "Yeah, like you know so much about it, being a demon and everything, huh?"
"She knows more about it than you", came the hoarse, weak voice of Willow, surprising everyone; smiling weakly, the redhead looked at her loved one for a moment, her smile widening when Pat moved one hand to caress her cheek, then her gaze moved on to Stacey, her voice already sounding a bit stronger as she continued. "Probably more than you ever will know, trying to make your boyfriend into something he wasn't…"
"Whatever", Stacey mumbled in reply, clearly not all too impressed; shaking her head, Buffy gave her an annoyed look, then gestured at the wounded Eric, not sounding all too sympathetic when she spoke up. "I suggest you take your boy here to the hospital, but not to the one here, if you know what's good for you. Willow needs to go there, thanks to you and your boy-toy here, and even though there's a rule telling me I can't kill you, I might forget that if I ever have to look at your face again."
"Or you could just look away while Pat kills her", Faith suggested in reply, making the demon smirk and nod; after one more look at the demon, Stacey clearly decided that this hadn't been a joke, and she hurriedly got up from her seat, grabbing her groaning boyfriend by the arm and pulling him to his feet, hurrying outside without looking back, Buffy letting out a snort the moment she could be sure they were out of earshot.
"I actually wasn't sure this really would scare her off", she then stated, making Faith smile as well while Pat just let out a snort, too, her attention fully focused on her girlfriend again.
"We better get you to the hospital", she stated, gesturing at the redhead's broken arm, "so this can be taken care of…"
"I'll call an ambulance", Faith said before Willow could react, "I doubt she's in the shape to walk there. Are you, Red?"
"No", the redhead had to admit, surprised when the smile Faith gave her in reply was both genuine and calming; then, the brunette seemed to remember something, since she raised an eyebrow, sounding concerned as she went on. "That is, I'll call an ambulance in case your phone's back to life. If not, I'll just carry her, now that I can do that again with my spiffy Slayer strength back where it belongs!"
"Psh", Pat let out in reply, making the brunette look at her, "if anyone carries her anywhere, that'll be me, I got my spiffy bonuses back, too. And what do you mean, our phone back to life? It's never died. Can phones actually die?"
"I called you, but no one answered", Buffy gave back, deciding not to philosophize over the question of possible death for phones, "that's why Faith and I came here. Didn't you hear?"
"Nope", Willow was the one to answer this time, "guess we've been too loud, what with all the screaming in pain and stuff…"
"Oh", the blonde Slayer gave back, not all too smart; Faith just rolled her eyes, then got up and made her way to the phone, giving the others a brief look and letting them know that the phone was perfectly alive before she called an ambulance, then moved to sit next to the couple again as the waiting began, the four of them just doing that in silence, reflecting on what had happened and fully realizing how lucky both Willow and Pat had been and that things could have ended much, much worse.
Right after the ambulance had arrived at the hospital, Willow was wheeled away to a flurry of x-rays, doctors, nurses and medical terms she normally would have understood easily, but, now that the shock from getting seriously hurt had faded, was feeling too exhausted to care about; for a while, Buffy, Pat and Faith waited outside the examination room together, then the demon excused herself and left for a cigarette, the blonde Slayer not surprised when Faith followed suit half a minute later.
Quickly, the brunette left the hospital, briefly looking around, until she spotted Pat, the demon standing close to the entrance, a cigarette in her mouth and her hands on fire, to the great amusement of Faith.
"You really missed that, huh", she stated while she walked over to the taller woman, her smirk widening when in response, Pat brought up one hand so she could light her cigarette on it; clearly satisfied, the demon nodded, having enough sense to let the flames disappear though, before someone else might come out and see her.
"I already said this to Willow", Faith was the one to break the – not uncomfortable – silence which had formed between them for a minute or two, looking up at the black haired woman, "but I figure I better tell you as well, so… I'm sorry."
"Don't mention it", the demon shrugged it off, causing Faith to raise an eyebrow, a mix of surprise and confusion in her voice when she replied. "That's it? It was practically because of me that you walked off back at the Bronze, and if you hadn't done that, well…"
"Yeah", Pat replied, shrugging again, taking another drag of her cigarette before she continued. "But as I said, don't mention it."
"But…" Faith started again, only to fall silent at the look Pat gave her, a serious, but not unkind glance she never had received from the taller woman before, not even when she had made her fruitless attempts at flirting with her.
"It doesn't matter", Pat went on after a second, "the only thing that matters is that you came."
"Came…?" Faith repeated, not sure what this was supposed to mean; smiling, the demon nodded, blowing yet another cloud of blue smoke towards the sky before she went on. "When Buffy called and no one answered, you came along when she went to see if something was wrong, even though you had no idea… couldn't have an idea… what you might find, and if you'd be able to handle it. Without the Slayer bonuses, I mean. It could have been a whole gang of vamps, using Willow and me as a snack bar, or some gross demon, or whatever, but that didn't matter to you, right? You came anyway, and that's all that counts in the long run. You were there."
"You know, now that you put it like that, it sounds like a horribly stupid thing to do", Faith smirked in reply, fighting hard not to let it show how much those words had touched her; even though they never had spoken about it, she knew that even now, Buffy and the rest of the gang still hadn't fully forgiven her for the things she had done, and it felt good to be forgiven at least by one person, even if the person in question technically couldn't be classified as such.
"I guess so", Pat agreed, smirking, distracting the brunette from her thoughts, "but so was attacking that guy with an ashtray when I knew that he has my strength and yours. I guess I was lucky he didn't tear my head off, or something."
"Willow would have gone ballistic on him, broken arm or not", Faith grinned in reply, the demon's smirk widening as well while she nodded; for a while, they fell silent again afterwards, smoking their cigarettes, until Pat was the one to speak up again, now sounding curious. "So what will you do now? Go back to L.A.?"
"Yeah, I guess so", the brunette shrugged in reply, "Sunnydale only needs one Slayer after all, and Angel might need some help with his stuff there, so…"
"That two Slayers thing still seems weird to me", the demon smirked, Faith shrugging in reply, then giving her a curious look.
"You're remarkably calm around her, seeing you're a demon", she stated, "has it always been like that? That they accepted you all so quickly, I mean?"
"Oh, no no", Pat shook her head, "in fact, Buffy once punched me… well, she punched me twice actually… after walking in on Willow and me enjoying the smoochies."
"Ouch!" Faith half said, half laughed, playfully punching the taller woman's upper arm, "that must've hurt!"
"It did", the demon reassured her with a grimace; afterwards, the two grinned at each other, then finished their cigarettes, the brunette stopping Pat though when she turned to move back inside.
"Wait", she unnecessarily started, "there's… something I wanna say, and I won't be able to do that when anyone else is around. I suck at all that mushy stuff."
"Okay", the black haired woman replied after a moment, wondering what was coming now, hoping it wouldn't be declarations of love – after all, Faith had reassured her that the flirting just had been for fun and hadn't been serious, but on the other hand, she couldn't be sure that the brunette actually had told the truth back then.
"The others probably told you all the horrible stuff I've done before I… well, before I went back to my saner self", Faith now went on, the sudden hesitation in her voice surprising the demon – so far, she never had heard the brunette sound like that, not even when she had made her apology. "Or maybe I should say that they warned you, huh?"
"They kinda did", the black haired woman admitted, figuring it'd be best to be honest; Faith nodded, as if she hadn't accepted anything else, then gave her a lopsided smile, her emotions clearly showing through her voice when she went on. "But… Well… God, I hate saying stuff like that, but… Well, you were nice to me anyway, you know? You probably were the only one who wasn't wary of me, or thought I'd betray them all again the moment I'd get the chance… so thanks. For that."
"You really are no good with that mushy stuff", Pat let her know in reply, hurriedly speaking on when she saw Faith's face fall. "Okay, that probably wasn't the best thing to say right now… Well, to say the more proper thing now, don't mention it. Or you're welcome, whatever you prefer. Um… You don't want to hug me now, right?"
"No", Faith reassured her, smiling, glad that this hadn't ended as awkward as she had feared, "no worries. Considering my luck, Willow probably would walk out right then, would see us and would blast my butt across the street or something."
This made the demon chuckle and nod; after a second, Faith laughed as well, the two still grinning at each other when they finally walked back inside, the brunette visibly relieved to have that burden off her shoulders.