Author's Note: And here we go with the final chapter of this story. I hope you enjoyed it :) the next one will be started on Thursday – yup, still on a roll here.
When Giles' call had torn her out of her peaceful slumber, Buffy had been annoyed only for a second, namely during the time span between picking up the phone and mumbling "What?" and the Watcher's response; she knew that he'd never call her without a good reason, and moments later, he had proven her right once more by telling her what was happening to Willow, all sleepiness falling off her when she heard the danger her best friend might be in. Without asking any questions, she had promised Giles to meet him at the apartment building the couple lived in as fast as possible; and after she had hung up, she had put on clothes as fast as possible, had grabbed a weapon and had left, but still, the Brit had been faster than her, waiting for her in front of the building when she arrived there.
"The lights are on in their apartment", he told her as a greeting, gesturing to the window, "but I couldn't hear or see anything. Are you ready to go upstairs?"
"Of course", Buffy gave back, raising her sword slightly as if to underline her words; Giles nodded, then surprised her by reaching beneath his jacket and bringing out a weapon as well, a one-handed axe which easily could be hidden from the eyes of the public.
"I hope we won't need those", he stated while he pushed the door open and entered, the Slayer close behind him; she stayed there until they reached the elevator and had ridden up to the second floor, then pushed past him so she'd be the first one to enter, figuring that it'd be the smartest thing to do, thanks to her strength and fighting experience.
Already on the hallway, she could hear the sounds of fighting coming from behind the closed apartment door; the noises prompted her to speed up, almost falling into a run as she hurried to the door and, without bothering to knock or ring the bell, kicked it open.
With Giles close behind her, she stormed down the hallway and into the living room, the fighting noises clearly coming from there; upon entering, she found Willow on the couch, the witch looking quite upset as she was struggling to aim her spell correctly, something made harder by the fact that a few feet from her, Pat was on the floor with some sort of slimy black creature on top of her, snarling and spitting at her while it was struggling to get a horribly long and sharp claw down to the demon's face, something which was made considerably harder by the fact that Pat had grabbed the arm of the monster and was pushing it away from herself with all her might, her face reddened and the veins at her neck standing out clearly.
It took Buffy just one second to figure out what the monster was trying to do – the sharp claw was trembling right above the demon's good eye, and her mind started to race as she tried to figure out how to stop the creature fast enough to keep it from ramming that claw into the black haired woman's eye without endangering her friend.
Before she could come up with something though, Pat solved the situation herself; with a surprisingly loud, throaty growl, she put all her strength into one mighty push, managing to get the creature away from her and shove it a few feet back, using the few seconds this gave her to come to her feet. For a moment, Giles considered throwing her his axe, then he heard her growl again, the sound followed by the noises she made as she changed into her demonic form; deciding that she wouldn't need that weapon then, the Watcher kept the axe to himself, standing back a bit so he wouldn't get into the line of fire – literally – when both Buffy and Pat now charged at the monster.
"Be careful", the demon rumbled, ducking a swipe from the creature's clawed arm aimed at her chest, "it's growing awfully fast, we better finish it off quickly!"
"What is it?" the Slayer demanded to know in reply, bringing her sword around in a glittering arch of steel and managing to cut the monster's side; it shrieked in pain, and all at once, Buffy knew where she had seen such a creature before, her eyes going wide as the realization hit her.
"Fighting now, explanations later!" Pat now snapped, punching the creature as hard as she could and making it howl again when the flames sizzled on its skin; it stumbled a few steps back, giving Willow the chance she had been waiting for, taking the time to call out a warning to both Buffy and Pat to keep them from charging at the creature again before she unleashed one of her spells, blue fire running over its body the blink of an eye later and making it shriek in terrible pain.
"Good one", Buffy complimented, moving closer to the monster again as soon as the flames had stopped crackling, raising her weapon; before she could bring it down though, the creature reacted with surprising speed, especially considering that it just had been hurt, and spun around, it's spiked tail hitting the Slayer and sending her flying until the wall stopped her harshly.
With another growl, Pat jumped the creature as it's back was turned at her, wrapping both arms around it and increasing her fire as much as she dared to in the apartment; although it wasn't burning as bright and hot as it could have, it still seemed to be enough, since the monster let out another shriek, then helplessly started swatting at the demon clinging to its back, not managing to do more damage than some superficial wounds though, scratches which healed almost as quickly as they were inflicted.
Looking a bit dazed, Buffy came to her feet again, picking up the sword and shaking her head to clear it – before she rushed forward, calling out to the demon and prompting her to let go of the creature, just in time to get out of the danger zone, the Slayer running the monster through with her sword moments later. With a harsh twist, she jerked it back out, then brought it up and swung it in another powerful arch; the sharp steel bit through the creature's neck, only slowed marginally by the resistance of the spine, effectively decapitating it, the head falling to the carpet and the body following a few seconds later.
"Oh gross", Pat commented, shifting back to her human form while she watched the blood drip from the neck and head and seep into the carpet, "that stain will never come out. But good job, Buffy."
"Thanks", Buffy dryly gave back, wiping her sword clean on the carpet, figuring it didn't matter since it already was messed up anyway, then gave the taller woman a curious look, gesturing at the dead creature with her now clean sword. "And now, wanna tell me where this thing came from? It looks like the one that came out of that portal when we fought the horsemen."
"Sit down", Willow was the one to answer, even though Buffy had been asking her girlfriend, "this'll take a while. Do you want something to drink?"
After a moment, the Slayer nodded, then moved to the couch and sat down; Giles did the same while Pat vanished into the kitchen, returning a short time later with several cans of cooled coke and taking the seat next to her girlfriend, handing out the drinks before Willow started talking, telling her best friend and the Brit about everything which had happened since they last had seen each other.
"…wow", Buffy stated several minutes after Willow had finished talking, "that's quite the gross story, you know! You puked that thing up?"
"Wanna know how gross it was for me?" the redhead demanded to know in reply, a bit annoyed about the fact that this seemed to be all Buffy cared about.
"How did this thing get inside you?" Giles wanted to know, putting his glasses back on; while Willow had told her story, he had cleaned them so much that she was surprised the lenses were still there and hadn't been rubbed away to nothing, his question making her shrug helplessly.
"No idea", she then found it necessary to add, "do you think it's inside someone else as well?"
"I think we would have noticed", Pat commented dryly, making the witch look at her briefly before she focused on the Watcher again, relieved when he shook his head.
"I think Pat is right, even though I would have chosen a different wording", he then stated, giving the demon a brief strict look – which she shrugged off anyway – before he focused on the redhead again and continued. "If anyone else had been… infected by this creature, it would have become obvious, seeing how strong your symptoms were. And during the fight, only the three of you were present, so it'd have to be either Buffy or Pat, and none of them show any of those symptoms."
"Good point", Willow had to admit, sounding relieved – the thought of one more of those little spawns of Hell growing within one of her friends had troubled her for a while ever since it had left her body.
"Did this thing hurt you when you fought it after it came through the portal?" Giles wanted to know after thinking for a moment, his face falling when Willow shook her head, Buffy speaking up a second later and destroying his small theory even further. "Pat and me got hurt, but we're not the ones who ended up… kinda pregnant with its offspring."
"That was not a pregnancy", Willow immediately protested, "it didn't exactly get born the way regular babies do."
"Oh God, just imagine how gross that would have been", Pat grimaced, shuddering at the mere thought; nodding, the witch made a face as well, then her eyes lit up as she remembered something, sounding excited when she spoke up again.
"It spat that stuff at me, remember?" she asked both her girlfriend and her best friend, "that slime? That must have been how that thing got inside of me, I'm pretty sure I swallowed some of that stuff or breathed it in…"
"You did brush your teeth before we kissed again after that, right?" the demon demanded to know in reply, making Willow raise an eyebrow, the simple expression being enough as an answer since Pat just cleared her throat and reached for her pack of cigarettes, not bothering to ask again.
"So, this must have been how the parasite ended up inside of you", Giles concluded what everyone else already had figured out anyway, "I assume that this is more or less good, since no one else came in contact with that slime you described… right?"
"Right", Willow agreed, clearly relieved that this meant no one else of her friends was infected with such an unpleasant creature, "and that really is good, but it's even better that we got rid of that thing."
"Um, more or less", Pat pointed out, reminding them all of the creature's corpse by gesturing at it, "we still need to get rid of that thing, I don't really want to keep it around here as fancy decoration or something."
"We'll take care of that", Buffy gave back, rising from her seat and giving Giles a look which prompted him to do the same. "Can we just have a bag for the head?" she then added, "so Giles can carry that, I'll take the body."
"Good that it's in the middle of the night, then no one will see us carry that thing around", the Watcher muttered while Pat went to get a plastic bag, returning with one half a minute later and handing it to the Slayer; she picked the severed head up with an expression of disgust and dropped it into the bag, then handed it to the Brit, a sweet smile on her face now while the disgusted look appeared on his features as he accepted the bag, his disgust increasing when, after a moment, the demon added the plant she had used to keep herself from puking on the carpet.
"Thanks for taking care of that", the witch smiled while Buffy hoisted the creature's body up on her shoulder, "I would have done it with Pat, but honestly, I just wanna go back to sleep. Puking that thing up was really tiring."
"I don't even wanna imagine", Buffy grimaced in reply, then told the redhead to get that sleep she needed before she started to move towards the door, carrying the corpse with ease; Giles followed closely behind her, the plastic bag in one hand.
Even though the lock had been broken when Buffy had opened the door quite roughly, Giles pulled it close behind him as he walked out; Pat made a mental note to herself to have it repaired as fast as possible, figuring that she could ask Xander to do that, before she focused on her girlfriend again, giving her a slightly crooked smile, feeling tired as well now that all the excitement of the evening was over.
"We should get that rest Buffy suggested", she stated, making the witch nod – before she squealed as with surprising speed, the demon moved over to her and picked her up, a giggle escaping her when the taller woman turned away from the couch and started carrying her into the bedroom.
"I'm not so sure you need that sleep", she smirked once she had calmed down again; in reply, the demon just smiled back at her, then entered the bedroom and kicked the door close behind herself, the apartment falling silent again not too long afterwards.
In the next morning, Willow was the first one to wake up, even though she had switched off her alarm clock before going back to sleep the previous night; technically, she had classes at college that day, but after the excitement of the night before, she'd figured it'd be alright to miss them once, and that she could risk it to sleep in once and skip the lectures of the day.
Already when she woke up, she felt that now, after she had gotten rid of the creature that had been living inside her, everything was back to normal; she did have a healthy appetite for breakfast, but not the monstrous hunger she had felt during the last several days, something she took as a clear sign that with getting rid of the parasite, her problems had ended as well.
With a small, happy sigh, the witch rolled over and just laid there for a while, watching her girlfriend slumber; briefly, Willow pondered if she should wake her up, then decided against it and finally got out of bed, giving her best to make not too much noise as she left the moved on into the adjoining bathroom, closing the door behind herself before she started her morning routine.
While she brushed her teeth, she thought of how she had sat in that bathroom the night before and had stared at her tummy, how the skin had bulged; she shuddered at the memory, then pushed it aside, telling herself that it was over and that there was no need to think of that anymore. Focusing on her morning routine again, she successfully kept those thoughts away; once she had gotten done with that, she made her way into the kitchen, smiling slightly to herself as she filled up the coffee machine, then checked the fridge and tried to decide on what she should make, finally settling for waffles.
While she started to prepare the dough, she heard the sound of her girlfriend getting up, the noise making her smile again; it didn't take long until Pat came trotting into the kitchen, rubbing her good eye and yawning before she gave the redhead a sleepy look, letting herself fall into one of the chairs at the kitchen table.
"Coffee's almost done", Willow told her, her smile widening when the demon only let out a grunt in reply, then lit up a cigarette; holding back at the urge to giggle at her loved one, the witch focused on the dough again, quickly getting done with it and beginning to pour it on the waffle iron.
While the dough sizzled on the hot iron, the redhead moved to the coffee machine, where the coffee had gotten done by now; quickly, she poured the liquid into the two cups she had readied, then added milk to hers and several spoonfuls of sugar to Pat's, the demon letting out another grunt when the cup was put down in front of her. After taking another long drag of her cigarette, she picked the cup up and downed half of it with one big gulp, clearly not minding the fact that the liquid was still steaming hot; after that rather large dose, she also was capable of speech, her first words of the morning making Willow smile again. "That's one of the reasons why I love you, you always make my coffee just right."
"Well, that's not hard", the redhead gave back, moving back to the waffle iron and checking on the dough inside, "all I have to do is pour ungodly amounts of sugar into it. I love you too, though. What are the other reasons?"
"Too many to list", the demon smirked, making Willow giggle in reply; even though the waffles were almost done, she took the time to move to the table and steal a quick, but tender kiss, then focused on the waffle iron again, removing the finished food a few minutes later.
"You know", she stated while she poured another portion of dough onto the hot iron, making it sizzle, "I'm kinda surprised that we got off a bit lightly with that parasite thingy, I mean, now that it's gone, everything's back to normal, as if it never happened."
"Better be happy about that", the black haired woman gave back, taking a bite of her waffle before she spoke on. "You're not feeling any pain or something, right? When you puked that thing up, it surely looked painful."
"No, I'm fine", the witch reassured her, "it did hurt when it came out, but apparently, it managed to do so without hurting me."
"Good for that thing, or I'd kill it all over again", Pat grumbled, making her girlfriend giggle once more; afterwards, the two smiled at each other over the breakfast table, both of them glad and relieved that everything had ended so well and that for now, everything was back to normal, both of them eager to enjoy this rare state as long as it would last.
End.