"You know, you just could have called", Giles gently reprimanded Pat half an hour later, after offering her a seat and a cup of tea anyway; she had taken the seat, but had declined the tea, giving the Watcher a thankful look when he asked if she wanted coffee instead.
"Did you find anything so far?" she asked the moment he had returned with a cup of the hot beverage from the kitchen; one small sip was enough to let her notice that it was instant coffee, but she didn't mind it much, figuring that it was better than drinking tea or water.
"Unfortunately, a number of possibilities", the Watcher sighed out in reply, signalling his distress by taking off his glasses, "some spells which might have this particular effect, as I told you already, and there are also some potions…"
"But she'd notice if she'd drink something like that, right?" Pat frowned, not surprised when Giles nodded, putting his glasses back on before he continued. "So, it's most likely that her behaviour has been caused by a spell, and I'm working on several ways to find out if this is true and, if yes, which spell was used and how we can undo it. Did her behaviour change any further?"
"Kinda", Pat gave back, sighing slightly before she explained Willow's strange, reckless behaviour during previous night's patrol; Giles listened intently, nodding from time to time, giving the demon a thoughtful look when she finished.
"This surely is connected to whatever spell is affecting her", he then stated, not really telling her anything new though. "I'll take this into consideration during my research…"
"I just hope we figure out quickly what is going on", Pat sighed out, not sure why she told Giles about this – they never had been particularly close after all, they had gotten along more or less well most of the time, but she never had grown as close to him as he was to Buffy, Willow and Xander.
"I just don't want her to get hurt", she still added, holding back the urge to sigh for a third time, "but if she keeps it up like that, exactly that will happen sooner or later."
"You might unfortunately be right about this", Giles had to agree to his obvious dismay, "so I'll give my best to find out what is going on as fast as possible. Can you keep her safe until then?"
"I'll try", Pat mumbled, not all too happy that she had to give this answer – just a few days ago, she would have replied "Sure", without thinking about it, but now, she couldn't be so convinced about this anymore. "Buffy's keeping an eye on her while they're at college", she added after a moment, "so if you have no other plans, I can help you with the research until she gets back…"
"That'd be helpful, yes", Giles gave back, eying the demon with slight surprise – after all, she usually tried to get out of being part of the research team, and that she even offered her help voluntarily this time showed just how much all of this was bothering her. "Here", he went on after a second, getting up and moving to the bookshelf, grabbing one of the thicker volumes, "I was planning to go through this, it might have some useful information… I'll go make more tea – and coffee – and then I'll join you."
"Uh-huh", Pat sighed out in agreement, placing the thick book on the table in front of her and opening it, grimacing at the tiny print; Giles gave her a short, unnoticed smirk, then vanished into the kitchen to make some more tea and coffee, preparing everything Pat and he would need for the upcoming research session.
While the Watcher and the demon were busy with their books, Buffy and Willow shared one of their classes at college; it bothered the Slayer a bit that she couldn't be with her best friend during all classes, after the mysterious phone call she had received from Pat, but on the other hand, she couldn't detect any unusual behaviour from Willow, the redhead just being her usual self.
Still she knew that the demon wouldn't ask her to keep an eye on her girlfriend with no reason; thus, she observed the witch much more closely than usual, using the break after the class they had shared to quickly text Pat and let her know that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Not even half a minute later, the short response came, only consisting of "Ok thanks"; this didn't surprise Buffy, since by now, she knew the demon well enough to know that she hated texting, always complaining that the buttons of her cell phone were too small for her fingers and that it took her ages to type in her responses.
Smirking to herself, the blonde put the phone back into her pocket, nodding when Willow asked her if they'd meet up for lunch; nodding, she gave her best friend a smile, then they parted ways, Buffy looking over her shoulder once as the redhead walked away from her, once more asking herself if anything unpleasant really was going on – or if Pat was just being too concerned or maybe even a bit paranoid, a thought she quickly shrugged off though, knowing that in Sunnydale, unusual behaviour hardly ever meant something good.
Since none of them wanted Willow to find about the research they had been doing, Pat made sure to be back at their apartment before the redhead would come home from college; to her dismay, she hadn't found anything interesting in the book Giles had given her, and neither had the Watcher with the volume he had been using himself, but he at least had promised her that he'd keep looking and that he wasn't planning to give up anytime soon.
This was at least calming her down enough to allow her to behave normally when Willow came home fifteen minutes after the black haired woman had returned to the apartment; the redhead didn't seem to notice that anything was amiss when Pat asked her how her day had been, listening intently to the answer, raising an eyebrow in surprise when after the report of how her day had been – luckily, it apparently had been quite the peaceful one – Willow asked if she felt like going to the Bronze for drinks later.
"It's been a while since we've been there", she explained at the questioning look of her girlfriend, "I already asked Buffy after college and she said she'd come, too. Come on, it'll be nice and fun!"
"Sure", the demon agreed after a second, "but don't you have one of those stressful exams tomorrow…?"
"Yeah, but I studied enough for that", Willow shrugged in reply, once more unknowingly making it quite clear to her girlfriend that something wasn't quite alright with her – she never would have said something like this before all those strange changes had started happening to her.
"Plus", the witch now went on, smiling up at the taller woman while she stepped closer to her and moved both arms up around her neck, "you'll make sure we won't stay too long, right? You'll look out for me."
Before the demon had a chance to reply – and confirm – Willow had pulled her down and kept her quiet with a kiss; afterwards, she finally could mumble a quick agreement, even though the surprisingly passionate kiss had put her in the mood for something quite different.
"Great", Willow smiled, a sparkle in her eyes which showed that her mood was resembling the demon's, "I told Buffy we'll meet there at nine… so we still have some time until then."
"I think I know what you're planning to do with that time", Pat gave back, for the moment forgetting her worries as Willow smiled up at her and nodded, one of her hands sliding down to her backside; for a moment, her fingers came to a rest there, then her hand moved on, grasping the one of the taller woman, her smile widening as she pulled her over to the couch, not even bothering with going to the bedroom, all worries and concerns blown out of the demon's mind just a few minutes later.
Several hours later, the gang met up at the Bronze, as it had been suggested by Willow; to the witch's obvious delight, the whole gang was there, Xander, Anya and Dawn joining in on the fun, the presence of the teenager surprising everyone else – after all, the next day was a school day, and usually, Buffy didn't like her sister to go out when she had to get up for school in the next day.
"I figured we won't stay that long", the Slayer shrugged when she noticed the questioning looks of her friends, "and she was whining at me about coming along, so…"
"I was not whining", Dawn protested, giving her an annoying look and crossing her arms over her chest, "you were being stubborn about it!"
"Now, now", Willow was the one to cut in before Buffy had a chance to reply, "no fighting tonight, we're here to have fun! Who wants a beer?"
"I do", Xander and Anya answered in perfect unison, beaming at each other afterwards; after a moment, Buffy decided that she wanted one as well, then gave Dawn a strict look, prompting the teenager to reassure Willow that alcohol was icky and that she'd rather have coke. Nodding, Willow got up from her seat, giving Pat a pleading look; that was enough to make the demon rise as well, and together, they made their way to the bar, where Willow ordered the beers and the one coke, then turned to look up at her girlfriend while she waited for the barkeeper to finish pouring the drinks.
"I'm so glad we're all here", she told the taller woman, her eyes sparkling as if to underline her words, "it's really been quite some time since the whole gang was here, together, having fun…"
"That's true", Pat had to admit after thinking about this for a few moments – she often had been here with just Willow, or with Buffy and Willow, but it had been several weeks since they all had come here together, the whole Scooby gang sans Giles, since the Watcher hardly ever felt like joining them in "this noisy place", as he called it.
"Let's hope nothing will happen to ruin that night", she added after another second, "that tends to happen whenever we just want to have fun."
"I know", the redhead sighed, turning back to the bar to see how far their drinks were, smiling again when she saw that she had returned her attention to the barkeeper just in time he poured the last beer. Thanking him, she quickly removed her wallet from the small handbag she used for going out, finding the right amount – including a rather generous tip – and paying for the drinks before she handed three of them to her girlfriend, then took the remaining three herself, hoping she wouldn't drop any as she carefully made her way back to the table with Pat right behind her.
To her relief, they both made it back to the table without spilling or even dropping any of the drinks; once the cups had been handed out, the couple sat down again, smiling at each other before Xander raised his cup for a toast, declaring his joy about being in the Bronze with all his best friends "except for the G-Man, who can't stand it to be here".
"He also can't stand it when you call him G-Man", Buffy reminded him with a smirk, "so better don't do that when he's around."
"You know I hold back then!", Xander defended himself, taking a large gulp of his beer afterwards; the others did the same, then Willow suddenly jumped up again, surprising the others with her overboarding energy.
"I want to dance!" she declared, her face falling when she looked at Pat and the demon shook her head, reminding her of the fact that the only dancing she could do without looking like a total tool was of the slow kind, something which wouldn't be very fitting, considering the rather fast-paced songs the DJ was playing.
"I wanna dance, too", Buffy quickly decided at seeing her best friend's disappointed face, getting up from her seat; she gave the demon a quick look, signalling that she'd keep an eye on the witch while they were on the dance floor, the brief signal unnoticed by Willow as she let out a happy noise and grasped her best friend's hand. Together, the two hurried off towards the dance floor; the moment he could be sure that they both were out of earshot, Xander leaned forward, his gaze now serious, focused on the demon and making her shift on her chair a bit uneasily, since he hardly ever looked at anyone from the gang that way.
"So", he spoke, still keeping his voice low so no one around would hear, "is she still behaving weirdly?"
"A bit", Pat gave back after a moment, "but her appetite seems to have gone back to normal… I guess that's something."
"All appetites?" Anya wanted to know, wriggling her eyebrows at the black haired woman suggestively and prompting her to roll her good eye before she grunted an agreement, glaring at the ex-demon when she let out a giggle and asked if this was a disappointment. Before she could come up with a snarky answer though, a shout from the dance floor distracted all of them; Pat's blood ran cold when she recognized the voice as Buffy's, the Slayer sounding highly alarmed, the two words she was crying out not helping to calm the demon down either. "Willow, no!"
Within the blink of an eye, Pat had jumped up from her seat and was rushing towards the dance floor, pushing her way through the crowd quite roughly and earning several angered outcries; since she ignored them all though, she made it to the dance floor just in time to see how Willow put her hand on the chest of a tall, muscled guy, blue fire briefly flaring between her fingertips – and then the guy flew backwards, hitting the floor with a low thud where he remained, groaning to himself.
After a quick look to make sure Pat was there, Buffy hurried to his side; not sure what to think about this situation, the demon moved to Willow in the meantime, giving her a worried look, placing one look on her shoulder, her alarm heightening when she felt the witch trembling beneath her touch.
"What happened?" she demanded to know, simultaneously leading her girlfriend away from the people watching, hoping that no one had seen too much, even though people were stunningly good at repressing such memories in Sunnydale.
"I'm… I'm not sure", Willow gave back, letting it happen that Pat led her outside, where they could talk in peace, without anyone eavesdropping, "we were dancing, and suddenly that guy was behind me and groped me, and then I… I used magic on him…"
"You know defending you from such assholes is my job", the demon gently reminded her, pulling her into a tender embrace, smirking when the witch muttered "Language", a small sigh escaping her afterwards, her voice filled with concern when she spoke on. "I've never done that before, you know… Even before I met you, I'd just yell at such guys or, if that didn't help, slap them, but I never used magic against them. What if someone saw it?"
"Then they'll do that repressed memory thing everyone here is so good at", Pat shrugged, "we shouldn't be worried about them. But maybe, we should be worried about you…"
For a while, Willow remained silent; then, to the demon's endless surprise, she shook her head, smiling up at the taller woman, all concern gone from her voice when she replied. "I don't think this is necessary, he just ticked me off so much and after that stressful day at college, I just kinda exploded. I'm sure it won't happen again."
"Are you sure?" Pat demanded to know, clearly not as convinced about this as Willow was; still smiling, the witch reached up to embrace her, entwining her fingers behind her neck, sounding reassuring when she replied. "Yes, I am. Now, let's go back inside, it's getting cold out here…"
For another moment, the demon looked as if she wanted to protest, still not buying the redhead's reassurance that everything was okay; then, her resistance clearly melted, since she just nodded and smiled back at Willow, the couple sharing a tender kiss before they made their way back inside, Pat's worries about her girlfriend's uncharacteristic behaviour forgotten.