Author's Note: urgh, I royally messed up and somehow managed to delete most of the chapters accidentally, so I had to upload them again... Sorry for any inconvenience I might have caused with this :-/
To the demon's relief, Willow agreed on going to Giles' place with her girlfriend, not even asking why; she just wanted to know if she had time to eat something before they'd leave, clearly happy when Pat told her it was no problem and hurriedly making her way into the kitchen, fixing herself a rather big sandwich there, the demon watching her with fresh concern showing on her face – for a while, she had thought that at least the redhead's appetite about food was back to normal, but seeing her munch down that thick snack showed her that this wasn't the case.
"Did you have lunch at the college?" the black haired woman demanded to know after just watching her eat in silence for a while, surprise filling her when Willow nodded, even blushing a bit, taking the time to swallow the huge bite she had taken from the sandwich before she answered. "Quite the big one, actually. Must have been all the dancing yesterday at the Bronze, and the magic."
"Yeah", Pat mumbled, frowning, "must have been that." Now frowning as well, Willow looked at her for a few moments – before she asked the question the demon had been dreading, and didn't really want to answer as long as she wasn't at Giles' place with the witch, and with the others around to help.
"What is it?" the redhead demanded to know, either not noticing her girlfriend's discomfort or deciding to ignore it, "something's bothering you, what is it?"
"You", Pat sighed in reply, hurriedly speaking on when Willow's face fell and hurt showed in her features. "No no, not like that", she explained, quickly moving closer to the witch and tenderly taking her into her arms, "I'm just worried… You have to admit that your eating habits changed kinda drastically lately, and so did, um, well, your other appetites… Plus, you've become kinda reckless about using magic as well, like yesterday, in the Bronze…"
"So you think something's wrong with me?" Willow demanded to know, not sure if she should be touched about her girlfriend noticing such things or angry about the fact that until now, the demon hadn't said a thing.
"Not just me", Pat had to admit in rely, figuring that, if she already was talking about it, she could tell her loved one everything, "the others noticed it too. Actually, we're afraid that someone put a spell on you, causing all of this, so, Giles made a potion to find out if you're under some magical influence."
"I see", Willow replied, her voice strangely calm; she looked down on the sandwich she still was holding, then put it aside, her voice growing cold when she spoke on. "And when did you plan to tell me this?"
"Today", Pat reassured her, hoping that this wouldn't end in a fight – they hardly ever had fights, but if they did, it always bothered the demon endlessly. "At Giles' place. Please don't be mad, Sweetie, we're all just worried about you…"
"And that's why you talk about me behind my back?" Willow demanded to know in reply, now giving her a glare so intense and angry that she almost took a step back. "Strange way to show your worry. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"We wanted to be sure we're not overreacting", the demon tried to explain, asking herself where this was coming from – even during the few fights they had had, Willow never had looked at her like that before or had spoken in such a cold, uncaring voice.
"You're sure of that now?" the redhead wanted to know, moving out of the embrace so she could cross her arms over her chest. "You know now something's wrong with me?"
"Come on", Pat tried reason in reply, "you have to admit that all of this is weird! You eat more than I do even after demoning out, and you know how high my appetite gets then, plus the magic use in public and the way you behaved during patrol… That's not you, Sweetie!"
"Maybe it is", Willow snapped, now clearly getting angry, something the demon couldn't quite follow, "maybe I changed. Did you ever consider that? Instead of thinking that I'm under a spell? I would notice if I am, being such a powerful witch, right?"
"Apparently not", Pat gave back, trying to control her temper, but unable to keep herself from getting annoyed as well now, the emotion clearly showing through her gaze and voice. "Or you would have noticed that you did change, and I'm afraid it wasn't as voluntarily as you try to make yourself believe."
"You just can't handle it that I'm taking care of myself now", Willow accused in reply, the demon clearly taken aback by those words, since all she could do in reply was stare at the smaller woman, prompting her to go on after a moment. "You always liked it when you could protect me, didn't you? And now that I can do that myself… You don't like that. That's it, isn't it?"
"No!" Pat finally regained her ability to speak, "that's a load of bullshit, and you know it! If you're so sure that you're not under some kind of spell, come to Giles' place with me and drink that potion, and if we are wrong, and there's no magical influence, I'll never mention this again."
"…fine", Willow agreed after thinking about this for a few moments, "let's go then. Now." With those words, she threw the remains of her sandwich into the trash, then marched past the stunned demon; it took Pat a second to snap out of it, but once she had, she quickly hurried after her girlfriend, her mind running wild as she tried to figure out how the conversation had ended up that way – and if this was yet another sign that something was clearly wrong with the witch, the thought troubling her more than she would have thought possible.
The moment Willow entered Giles' house, everyone could see that she was highly pissed off; the Watcher gave her a worried look while Buffy almost automatically rose from her seat, a questioning expression on her face, Pat raising her hands behind the witch and shrugging helplessly in reply.
"So", Willow started once she had taken off her jacket and shoes, "I hear you all think that there's something wrong with me and that you, Giles, brewed up one of your famous potions to find out if that's true. So why don't you give me the stuff and I'll gulp it down, and then this will be settled?"
Behind her, Pat shrugged again when Giles raised an eyebrow at her; the Watcher held her gaze for a moment longer, then cleared his throat and nodded, getting up from his seat and making his way into the kitchen without another word.
"Willow, are you okay?" Buffy unnecessarily asked, nearly taking a step back when the witch looked at her, with such anger in her eyes that momentarily, Buffy was eerily reminded of the horrible times when her best friend had been out for revenge, fuelled by grief and a desire for vengeance so big that it almost had been insanity.
"Oh, I don't know", the redhead now replied, her voice full of acid, "my friends all seem to think I have lost my mind, but other than that, I'm fine!"
"We don't think that", Xander was the first one to speak up, "we're just worried. You did behave kind of out of character the last few days."
"Whatever", Willow muttered, throwing an impatient look at the kitchen; uncomfortable silence filled the room while they all waited for Giles to come back, their relief when he finally did so clearly showing through their expressions.
"Here", the Watcher stated, holding a glass filled with light green liquid out to the witch, "I added some honey to make it sweeter, so it won't taste horrible."
"Thanks", the redhead replied sarcastically, taking the glass from him and emptying it with a few big gulps; while she did so, the Brit explained how the potion would work, letting the others know that, if Willow really was under a spell, a glow the colour of the potion would start surrounding her within minutes after she had swallowed the last drop.
Without even fully noticing that she was holding her breath, Pat closely watched her girlfriend finish the potion, waiting for the glow to appear; covering her mouth to stifle a burp, Willow handed the glass back to Giles, then crossed her arms over her chest, a slightly triumphant smirk forming on her face when five minutes later, nothing had happened. By now breathing again, the demon couldn't help herself, but just had to stare at her girlfriend – she had been so sure that some kind of magic could be blamed for the redhead's strange behaviour, but if Giles hadn't messed up the potion, there was no sign of a spell on her.
"See?" the witch now found it necessary to point out the lack of any green glow, "no spells on me. As I said. Now, can we stop talking about how I've gone insane and accept that I just changed?"
"No one said you've gone insane", Pat protested, the glare Willow shot in her reaction in reply making her gulp audibly; still, she spoke on, clearly not willing to give up so fast. "We're all just worried about you", she tried to explain, to her dismay obviously not getting through to her girlfriend, since the witch just gave her another glare.
"Well, you don't have to be", she stated, "because, as I said, everything's just fine. Now, is there anything else you want to accuse me of, or can I go home?"
"Um, sure", Buffy gave back, a bit startled by that behaviour as well, "there's nothing else going on… But maybe—"
Before she could say what maybe should happen or should be done, the redhead had turned and marched off, slamming the door close behind her; stunned, they all looked after her for a few moments – before, without another word, Pat hurried after her, leaving the rest behind trying to figure out what just had happened.
Even though she had followed Willow just a few seconds after the redhead's departure, the witch was nowhere to be seen when Pat stepped outside; frowning, the demon moved from the front door to the sidewalk, her frown deepening when she still couldn't spot her girlfriend.
"Willow?" she called out, feeling a bit stupid, the feeling vanishing though when no response came, only to be replaced by worry; not sure what to do, the demon looked left and right, trying to figure out where the redhead had vanished to so quickly, several unpleasant possibilities running through her mind, ranging from magical departure to some bad guy kidnapping her, even though she had to admit that this last one was highly unlikely to happen.
The sound of the front door opening once more distracted her from those unpleasant thoughts, and upon turning around, she found herself looking at Buffy, the Slayer jogging up to her, clearly worried as well when she couldn't spot Willow anywhere.
"Where'd she go?" she demanded to know, a question which seemed rather stupid to the demon – after all, if she'd known where Willow had gone, she would be there now, try to calm the redhead down and convince her that none of them thought she had lost her mind.
"I don't know", she answered, holding back a snarky remark about how this had been quite the stupid question, "she just… vanished. Do you think she did some spell or something?"
"I don't know", Buffy gave back, looking up and down the sidewalk as well, as if she could just make the redhead appear by looking hard enough, "I know that she does know some teleportation spells, but as far as I remember, those only work on others… Plus, they are quite straining, she used on Glory back then when we had that whole trouble with her and it gave her a nosebleed and she had a headache for days."
"What a calming thought", Pat mumbled, quickly finding her cigarettes and lighting one of them up afterwards, once more looking left and right after taking the first drag, to her dismay still not spotting the witch anywhere though.
"Maybe she got better at it", Buffy tried to calm her down, without too much success though, "or maybe she just left really fast… But where would she go?"
"I don't think she really went home", Pat sighed after thinking about this for a moment, taking another drag of her cigarette before she spoke on. "I guess I know her well enough by now to figure out that she'll expect us to go looking for her after that dramatic exit, and we'd naturally go there first, so…"
"The campus, maybe?" Buffy guessed after a moment during which she had pondered if the demon could be right with her assumption and had came to the conclusion that she probably was, "it's big, and she has a few favourite places there, like the library…"
"If you know that this is her favourite place, she won't be there if she doesn't want to be found", Pat pointed out a capital flaw in the Slayer's plan, making the blonde frown when she realized that this was quite a good point.
"You think she won't want us to find her?" she asked after another moment, the demon letting out a sigh before she shrugged, sounding so dismayed when she replied that Buffy momentarily felt the need to step closer to her and hug her.
"I guess so", the taller woman stated, another drag of her cigarette following before she went on. "She was quite angry after all, actually, I've hardly ever seen her so angry before…"
"That was quite out of character", Buffy muttered, replaying the scene in front of her inner eye, "so even if there isn't a spell on her – assuming that Giles made the potion correctly, which I'm quite sure about, he's good at that stuff – there's still something wrong with her, but as long as we can't find her…"
"… we won't be able to figure it out", Pat finished for her, another sigh following her words. "We should look for her", she then added, finishing her cigarette and throwing it on the sidewalk, putting it out by stepping on it, "maybe one of us will be lucky and find her, even if she doesn't want us to."
"Good idea", Buffy agreed, "I'll go and get the others, you got your phone with you, right?"
"Yup", Pat reassured her in reply, patting the pocket where she kept said phone as if to underline her words; Buffy nodded, then gave her a reassuring smile, briefly touching her arm as she spoke up. "Try not to be too worried, okay? We'll find her, I'm sure of it…"
"I'll try", the demon gave back, smiling weakly; the Slayer returned the smile a bit more heartily, then went back inside to get the other members of the gang while Pat lit up another cigarette, another sigh escaping her as she tried to figure out where her girlfriend had gone – and if they'd be able to find her, and what might happen if they wouldn't succeed.