During the walk to the Summers' house, Willow noticed once more that Pat was unusually grumpy and quiet this morning, something which should have changed by now, after she'd had not just one coffee, but two; the fact that the demon was walking with her hands stuffed into the pockets of her jacket instead of holding hands with her only added to her concern, since they hardly ever walked anywhere without grasping each other's hand.
"Are you okay?" she finally asked, moving a bit closer to the taller woman and keeping her voice low so no one else would hear and maybe feel the need to butt in, "you're even grumpier than usual today. And quiet, when you're not snapping at Anya for making more bunnies, that is."
"I'm fine", Pat gave back after a moment of silence, not bothering to add anything else, a fact which only worried Willow further, making her give the black haired woman a concerned look while she moved another step closer and hooked one hand into the crook of the demon's arm.
"Are you sure?" she wanted to know, glad that no one else of the group was paying attention on her partner and her, "I don't want to be pushy or annoying or anything, but… you don't seem fine."
In response, the demon looked at her for a few moments, then surprised her by calling out to Buffy and letting her know that they'd catch up, the Slayer nodding her agreement with a curious look on her face, not asking any questions though; afterwards, Pat stopped walking and sighed, getting out her cigarettes and lighting one of them up before she finally replied.
"Okay, you know me too well, and no, I'm not fine. Not fully. You know, when that treacherous Jim was here and told you that story about me leaving the little group then to kill again… That happened to become one of your nightmares, didn't it?"
"More like a fear", Willow admitted, frowning – before the implications of the question hit her, and her eyes went wide.
"Wait", she started, looking up at her partner with fresh concern in her eyes, "you're feeling that need again now, aren't you?"
"Yes", the demon confessed after a second, with another sigh, "since I woke up today. I'm giving my best to ignore it, or to withstand it, whatever, but if this demon gets any stronger and manages to increase it…"
"We'll have to get rid of it before that happens, then", Willow decided in reply, "and it means a lot to me that you're not just giving in to it…"
"Of course not", Pat gave back, smiling wryly at her, "at least not right now, as I said, I've been giving my best to ignore it… I just hope it won't get stronger."
"Me too", Willow grimaced, "I mean, you'd come back once the demon is dead and the influence is gone, at least I hope you would, but I'd hate it to be away from you…"
"Same here", the taller woman agreed at once, "so let's kill that demon quickly, before its powers grow stronger and it can kinda force me to leave."
Nodding, Willow moved closer to her, smiling when her partner embraced her after a moment and pulled her even closer; she stood on the tips of her toes to steal a quick kiss, then suggested that they shouldn't tell the others for now, since it only would make them worry unnecessarily.
"Not so unnecessarily maybe", Pat pointed out, "but yeah, we shouldn't tell them, not yet, they'll know anyway in case that need gets too big."
Willow nodded her agreement to that, briefly tightening her hug on her partner and demanding yet another kiss; afterwards, she suggested to catch up with the rest of the group now, the demon moving back from the embrace as an answer and relieving the witch even further by grasping her hand before they started walking again, quickly catching up with the others again.
"Everything okay?" Buffy wanted to know as they reached the group again, Willow nodding at once, giving her best friend a smile, glad when this seemed to convince the blonde, since she just smiled back after a moment.
"You both looked kinda serious", the Slayer added, "so I was worried there for a moment."
"No need to", Willow reassured her, "everything's just fine…"
"Good then", Buffy smiled, momentarily making Willow feel bad about lying to her – before she shrugged it off, telling herself that it'd only make Buffy worry unnecessarily if she told her about Pat's troubles and that this would distract her best friend from the upcoming fight against the nightmare demon.
"I hope we'll get that demon soon", she changed the topic, not very subtle, but if Buffy had noticed, she didn't comment on it, merely nodding, briefly glancing at Pat – who had gone back to the glum and brooding look she'd been showing the whole time, once more making her wonder if things really were as okay as Willow had claimed – before she replied, her words making Willow smile slightly. "Indeed, before it does worse things than give Anya the power to create bunnies. Even though Anya would probably disagree about how that is not too bad."
"Let's just hope she won't say that word again", the redhead giggled in reply, making Buffy laugh as well and, to the Slayer's happiness, even managed to put a little smile on Pat's face, the demon sounding just a tiny bit amused when she added her two cents to the conversation. "Yeah, cause if she makes any more bunnies, I'm gonna yell at her, that was so annoying back at Giles' place."
"I agree", Giles threw in from where he walked a few steps ahead of the three women, Anya and Xander even further ahead and thus not hearing any of the conversation, "and I'm glad you put them all outside, Pat, I don't want to imagine what would have happened if they had stayed in my home and had started to mate."
"Many, many bunnies", the taller woman smirked, the Watcher grimacing in reply; before he could say anything though, Anya suddenly called out to them, gesturing up ahead excitedly, momentarily making them all wonder if she had spotted more bunnies – before they also saw the reason for her outcry, namely a woman running from what looked like a bunch of normal guys at first glance, the demonic and twisted faces only being noticed by the group when they took a closer look.
"Nightmare?" Pat asked, already reaching for the dagger she'd kept concealed beneath her jacket until now, having figured that going out without a weapon would be a bad idea with the situation at hand; already looking around for the responsible demon, Buffy nodded, a plan quickly forming while the woman came rushing closer to them, yelling for help.
"Xander, Anya", she spoke sharply, "get the girl out of here, but don't move too far away. Willow, try to stop one or two of them with magic, and Giles, help her if you can, and keep an eye out for our demon… and Pat, you're up to kicking ass with me?"
"I always am", the demon gave back, smirking; Buffy smirked back at her, then flexed her fingers, taking in the group of men still chasing the yelling woman, judging their strength and speed as she watched the muscles of their legs tense and relax beneath their tight jeans and noticed their broad arms and shoulders.
"Help me!" the woman cried out as she reached the group, by now panting heavily, sweat gleaming on her forehead, "please, help me!"
"We will", Xander told her, giving his best to sound kind and soothing, "just come with my girlfriend here and me, and our friends here will take care of those… guys."
Nodding with a thankful look on her face, the woman let Xander and Anya lead her into the relatively secure area of a nearby side alley; there, they'd be able to watch the fight which surely would start soon, but hopefully wouldn't be in any danger of getting involved into said fight.
"Hey, you handsome boys", Buffy called out to the advancing men, eager to gain their attention, "why don't you take on someone of your own size?"
"Yeah", Pat agreed, lazily tossing the dagger from hand to hand, "come on, it's been a while since I killed something, I'm just in the right mood."
The men let out low growls and guttural sounds in reply, probably attempting to talk, but not quite managing; not wanting to get caught in the fight, Willow and Giles moved a few steps backwards, the Watcher looking this way and that as he tried to spot the nightmare demon who had to be responsible for this, asking himself what kind of nightmare exactly they were dealing with here, not wanting to imagine what those demonic men might have done to the woman if they'd managed to catch her.
Obviously though, the woman had been wiped from their minds, at least for now; the five of them kept growling, now moving slower as they approached Buffy and Pat, clenching their fists, the Brit noticing after a closer look that two of them were actually drooling, grimacing in dismay.
"They're quite gross, aren't they", Willow said out loud what he was thinking, keeping her gaze on her partner and her best friend though, watching how the men finally came into fighting distance and were promptly greeted by a punch from Pat and a kick from Buffy.
"Indeed, they are", Giles agreed, "let's not think about what they were after when they were chasing that poor woman, I hope Xander and Anya will manage to calm her down."
"Me too", Willow gave back, watching how Pat slashed at one of the men with her dagger and seemingly effortlessly cut his throat, the man grasping at the deep wound and gurgling loudly as he went down, "the poor girl was so freaked out…"
Nodding, Giles looked around again, frowning when he couldn't spot the nightmare demon anywhere; next to him, Willow kept her attention on the fight, ready to help with magic the moment it should be necessary, but from how the battle was going, it didn't seem as if that would be the case anytime soon. She couldn't help it, but just had to smile when she watched how Pat finished another one of the demonic men off, burying her dagger in his chest and yanking it back out while next to her, Buffy got rid of a third one by breaking his neck; she briefly wondered if this fight would help to lessen Pat's need to kill again, then a tingling feeling at the base of her spine distracted her from those thoughts, and she looked around as a shiver suddenly ran through her, asking herself what was going on.
"Willow?" she heard Giles next to her, sounding worried, "are you alright?"
She looked at him with the intent to answer him, and tell him about the strange feeling she suddenly was having; before she could even open her mouth though, the feeling suddenly increased a hundredfold, and moments later, with the blink of an eye, Giles was gone from her side and she was in the middle of the fight instead, her eyes going wide when she realized too late what had happened – wherever the nightmare demon was hiding, it obviously was strong enough by now to use the wrong-headed logic of dreams against them, and had done just that by replacing one of the demonic men with her, putting her right in front of Pat – just as the demon had rammed her dagger forward with the intent to bury it in the man's gut.
Slowly, she looked down at herself, wondering if there shouldn't be pain while she studied the handle of the dagger her partner still was grasping; then, Pat's voice came, so full with terror and shock that she just had to look up at her again.
"Oh God", Pat brought out, finding herself unable to let go of the dagger, the blade stuck deeply in her girlfriend's stomach, all the way to the hilt, "oh God, Willow…"
Finally, the fact that she just had been stabbed seemed to reach her nervous system, since all of a sudden, there was pain, and a lot of it; and then, her knees gave in beneath her and she went down, the last thing she saw before the darkness enfolded her and took her away being the wide-eyed, shocked look on her girlfriend's face.