Only when she'd been outside for a while and had had time to clear her head, Buffy had fully realized that the house where she'd been held captive was on fire, burning from the ground floor to the roof by now; she flinched when several windows burst due to the heat, feeling sick when she saw the inferno that was raging inside the house, a cold feeling of dread filling her.
If there was one thing she truly hated, it were those moments when, despite being the Slayer, she could do nothing to improve the situation; she knew that, even if she still wasn't weakened by the poison that nearly had killed her, there wouldn't have been anything she could have done – being the Slayer gave her extra strength, speed and stamina, along with faster healing than normal people had, but it didn't keep her from poisoning herself with smoke or from getting burned.
Helplessly, all she could do was watch how the fire kept eating away at the house, her heart beating up to her throat as she tried to convince herself that both Pat and Willow would be fine and that they would make it outside in time; she knew that the flames couldn't harm the demon, but that Willow was just as vulnerable to them as anyone else – and once the house would break down, not even being a demon would keep Pat from getting hurt.
"Come on", she whispered, her eyes never leaving the burning building, "step through that door right now and be fine… Come on, please…"
For a moment, she nearly felt like folding her hands and sent a prayer to the Heavens; before she could do so though, the door suddenly got blown outwards as something inside exploded, the Slayer automatically jumping a few feet back, even though she had been standing far away enough to make sure nothing of the debris which now flew through the air would harm her. Feeling awfully helpless, all she could do was stand there and stare at the now ruined doorway, the flames flickering behind it looking awfully high to her; a sudden turn of the wind swept a gust of hot air towards her, so hot that momentarily, she was sure her eyebrows had been singed, and she briefly closed her eyes, suddenly sure that no one could make it out of there alive, not even a demon as old and experienced with fire as Pat.
"Please", she mumbled, without even fully noticing that she was talking out loud, "come on, come outside… Come on…"
For a few moments, she even considered going in there herself, even though she knew it would be suicide; and then, she spotted the tall silhouette appearing in the midst of the flames, her heart leaping up to her throat as she watched how Pat made her way through the fire, carrying Willow in her arms, the witch not moving, but to Buffy's relief not appearing hurt or burnt, either.
Now throwing all thoughts about her own safety overboard, Buffy hurried closer to the house, then stopped when she felt the heat of the flames on her face; briefly, she wondered how Pat had managed to keep Willow from getting burned, then shrugged it off as the demon stepped outside, quickly moving away from the house and towards her, still clutching the redhead tightly.
"Why are there no firemen?" she demanded to know, a question Buffy hadn't expected at all; all she could do was stare in reply, asking herself if she had heard correctly, realizing that she had when the black haired woman gave her an impatient glance as she waited for an answer.
"Willow's breathed in a lot of smoke, she needs oxygen", she then elaborated when Buffy remained silent, "firemen have oxygen with them, but there are no firemen, even though there is a fire, so… Why are there no firemen?"
"I guess no one called them", Buffy finally regained her speech, now focusing on the redhead Pat still was holding in her arms, "we should get her to the hospital…"
Before the demon could reply to that suggestion, the sound of sirens came up in the distance; Buffy and she looked at each other, then the taller woman carefully lowered Willow onto the ground, crouching down next to her and grasping her hand while Buffy observed that clearly, someone had bothered to call the firemen, looking around as if she could spot the one who had done so.
"Let's hope they have oxygen", she then added, looking down on her best friend; again, she briefly wondered how Pat had managed to keep her from getting even the tiniest burn, then the fire engine rounded the corner and stopped in front of the burning house with screeching tires, a surprisingly large number of firemen jumping out of it seconds later and hurrying to unroll their large hose, two of them making their way to the three and asking them if they were okay, forcing the demon to hold back a snarky remark about the barely conscious woman right next to her.
Moments later, one of them clearly noticed that it had been a rather stupid thing to ask and ran back to the fire engine to get the oxygen; the second fireman remained where he was, asking if they knew anything about how the fire started, to their relief obviously buying it when they all shook their heads, only commenting about how such old buildings often tended to go up in flames thanks to faulty wiring or other, equally silly reasons, completely missing the relieved look Buffy and Pat exchanged.
Fifteen minutes later, Willow already was sitting upright again, albeit leaning against a tree, the oxygen mask still on her face, the fireman who briefly stopped next to her reminding her to breathe slowly and deeply, clearly surprised about how fast she had recovered from what had looked like a pretty serious condition when they had arrived.
What none of them knew was that, the moment they had all been focusing on the fire, Pat had convinced the witch to do the spell which let her borrow her healing powers; if any of the firemen had noticed that the tall, one-eyed woman now had more cuts and bruises than she'd had when they had arrived, no one of them mentioned it, just as no one said a word about the fact that the redhead looked much better than she should, even after fifteen minutes of breathing oxygen.
"I feel bad now", the redhead mumbled as soon as the fireman had left again to help his comrades with putting out the fire, "now you look as if someone beat you up really bad."
"Well, that guy did", Pat had to admit, briefly grimacing as speaking brought up fresh pain in her now re-broken nose, "he's really fast, which is quite annoying. I'm just glad I didn't shout when all that healing came undone, that would have attracted the attention of those firemen for sure."
"Yup", Buffy agreed, "and you can also be glad none of them happened to look over while Willow did the spell, or they would have aimed that hose on you to put out the fire on your hand."
"What a bad mental image", Pat muttered, holding back the urge to feel her nose, hating how it felt as if it was three times as big as it was supposed to be by now, but knowing that touching it only would make it hurt worse – and that more pain would be added when either Willow or Buffy would slap her hand and tell her to leave it alone.
"Think we can go already?" the Slayer wanted to know after a few seconds of silence, "or would it be too suspicious?" With those words, she gestured at Willow, who still was breathing from the oxygen mask; she shrugged, then nodded, removing the mask, not surprised when immediately, a fireman came running over and asked her what she was doing.
"I feel fine", she told him, the strength of her voice and healthy facial colour making it obvious that she was telling the truth, "thanks for helping me, but I can go home now…"
"I guess it must have looked worse than it was when we came here", the young man replied, even though he did sound a bit doubtful; giving him a charming smile, Willow nodded, then came to her feet, holding back the urge to wince when the fireman looked at Pat and asked her if she didn't want to go to the hospital.
"You look as if someone beat you up, Lady", he added, eying her and the blood which had dried on her face, raising an eyebrow when she shook her head.
"I'm fine", she then told him, "thanks for your concern."
"Uh-huh", the fireman let out in reply, didn't say anything else though; he just gave the taller woman another curious look, then hurried back to his comrades, none of them even giving them another look as they left, suddenly more than eager to get back home.
"Ow, goddammit, fuck!" the demon cursed half an hour later, prompting Buffy to cover Dawn's ears with an exaggerated gesture, Pat just letting out another curse when Willow gave her a strict look, then reprimanded her with the usual "Language" – even though she understood the cursing this time, knowing how much iodine burned in open wounds, even if they were just small cuts.
"I don't even know why you insist on doing that", the black haired woman complained, giving her best to not flinch back when the witch dabbed the rather deep cut right above her eyebrow with the iodine-soaked cotton ball, "in a few hours, I can heal all that anyway!"
"Because there's no need to take any extra risk", Willow helpfully informed her in reply, "seeing how that guy beat you up, even your healing will have a hard time with taking proper care of that, you know it doesn't work on all wounds if there are too many of them…"
"Thanks for reminding me of how that asshole beat me up", Pat sarcastically gave back, then flinched after all when the cotton ball moved to yet another cut, another curse escaping her, her mood not helped by how Willow mumbled "Language" again.
"Is he that strong?" Buffy demanded to know, finally giving in to Dawn's tugging at her hands and removing them from her sister's ears, frowning when the demon sighed, then nodded, sounding glum when she replied.
"He is, and as if that wasn't bad enough, he's fast, too. And to make it even worse" – at this point, Buffy interrupted her with a groan, the demon raising an eyebrow at her, something which brought her a dirty look from her girlfriend since she nearly had ended up putting the iodine-soaked cotton ball into her eye thanks to that unexpected expression – "he's got more control over fire than I ever heard of. He just burst into flames when he realized I wouldn't team up with him and let them spread, and then made all those dramatic gestures to make them bigger."
"Team up with him?" Dawn echoed, giving the taller woman a shocked look, "he wanted you to team up with him?"
"Yup", Pat sighed, then her good eye lit up as she looked at Willow, sounding strangely proud when she went on. "And he told me how he framed me for those killings! He used a spell to make me fall asleep on patrol. See? I told you it wasn't me!"
"And I'm sorry for not believing you", Willow immediately gave back, looking regretful for a moment – before her expression became stern, the demon gulping audibly as she realized that she was in trouble now. "And he made you fall asleep on patrol? How come you never mentioned that? I asked you if something unusual happened on patrol and you said no!"
"Busted", Buffy commented, smiling innocently at the glare Pat gave her as an answer before she focused on Willow again, her expression immediately softening. "I know, and I'm sorry… I should have told you, but I was so angry at myself because that happened, and I couldn't figure it out! I didn't want to worry you."
"And you think I didn't worry when I thought you killed those people?" Willow demanded to know sharply, realizing that she had sounded harsher than she had intended when she noticed the look of surprise on her girlfriend's face, her gaze softening as well moments later.
"Sorry for snapping at you", she apologized, glad when her girlfriend's face lit up again as well, "and let's not fight again okay? That fight was bad enough to make me sick of it for another two to three years."
"Same here", Pat agreed at once, rolling her good eye when Buffy snorted, then shook her head, a hint of mischief in her voice when she spoke up. "That makes it sound as if you fight all the time, but you don't! That was the first real fight you had in years!"
"Well, I don't like it to fight with Willow", Pat stated the obvious, giving the Slayer another annoyed look, "I'd rather kick some vampire and demon asses, instead, it's more fun and it doesn't get me banned to the couch for the night."
"I never banned you to the couch", Willow immediately protested, "and Buffy's right, we hardly ever fight, anyway. Remember, the last time we fought before that incident last night was when Faith was here, and that wasn't even a real fight because you left before it could turn into one."
"So, we are one of the few couples who hardly ever fight", Pat shrugged, "I guess it's that way to make up for Xander and Anya, because they fight a lot. You wanna be like them?"
"Heavens, no", the redhead shuddered, giving her partner a startled look – before Buffy and Dawn started to giggle in perfect unison at her shocked expression, the witch and the demon joining their laughter a moment later, all talk about fights and how unpleasant they were forgotten as for a few rare moments, they all found themselves able to relax and ignore the current, still quite unpleasant situation.