During all her life, Pat never had been too fond of hospitals, no matter if it was one of the more or less nasty hospices of her youth or the more modern and clean ones like the one she was at now; still, that dislike had been mild, a mere annoyance, compared to what she felt now as she sat on one of the horribly uncomfortably plastic chairs in the waiting room, doing just what the room's name implied, namely waiting for the doctor who was responsible for her partner to come and tell her that things would be fine.
Next to her, Buffy was sitting, playing with the hem of her shirt as she waited for the same thing; Giles was standing leaning against the wall opposite of the two women, cleaning his glasses again and again, making Pat wonder dully if sooner or later, the lenses would be rubbed away to nothingness.
"Anything new?" Xander's voice unexpectedly came up as he returned from the vending machine with Anya and Dawn in tow, all of them carrying bottles of soda; his face fell when Buffy answered by shaking her head, then gave him a thankful look as he started handing out the drinks, Pat just taking hers and staring at it, not opening it though.
"It might take a while until there are any news", Giles spoke up, making the young man look at him, "the wound is quite serious…"
"All of this could have been avoided", Dawn suddenly said in reply, the strange sound of her voice making them all look at her, even Pat, their eyes widening when they realized that she was speaking with two voices at once – her own and a much deeper, malicious one. "If you had just let me feed, no one would have gotten hurt. Let me finish my feeding in peace and let me go back to sleep, and I promise I won't harm anyone else of your circle."
"You", Pat snarled in reply, the bottle of soda falling to the ground and rolling away as she came to her feet and glared at the teenager, "show your face, coward, and don't go around possessing others!"
"That wouldn't have been a wise thing to do", Dawn replied, still with the freaky doubled voice, "and if you have merely an inch of wisdom, as well, you will do as I just suggested. All harm will end once I fed enough and went back to sleep."
"I will find you", the taller woman gave back, her voice now deadly calm, "and then I will kill you."
"Did you listen to a word I was saying?" Dawn demanded to know, now sounding irritated and making the whole situation quite absurd, "if you don't leave me alone, more of you will get harmed, or even killed. I have no interest in that. I just want to feed until I can go back to sleep, this world is making my head ache."
"My sympathies", Buffy dryly threw in, giving her best to hide how much it was freaking her out that the demon had chosen to possess her sister, "but you've already caused harm and pain before one of us got harmed, and I will not let you get away with it. I'd be a bad Slayer if I did."
"Bodily pain and harm are unfortunate casualties", the demon replied, now looking at the blonde with her sister's eyes, "casualties I have no real interest in. A word of warning though, the last Slayer who tried to go up against me ended up in a mental institution."
"I'm not like other Slayers, though", Buffy confidently gave back, "and I'm not afraid of you."
"Well, you can't say I didn't warn you", the nightmare demon replied, not sounding all too impressed – before Dawn's eyes suddenly rolled back into her head and she collapsed, Buffy jumping forward and catching her in the last second, keeping her from falling face first to the floor.
"That demon must be really scared of us", Giles commented, watching how Buffy carefully lowered her sister to the ground and took her head into her lap, "possessing people takes a lot of strength for demons who are not used to it."
"How do we know this one isn't?" Xander wanted to know, making the Watcher look at him, a slight smile on his lips as he replied. "The doubled voice was a dead giveaway. Demons experienced with possession take over completely, avoiding that certain effect."
"So it'll take it longer now to gain enough strength to go back to sleep", Buffy figured, "giving us more time to find and kill it."
"Which shouldn't be too hard", Pat finally spoke up again, making them all look at her, "the nightmares of the people here aren't exactly low profile."
"No", Buffy agreed, "but you'll have no part in the finding and killing, you'll stay here with Willow." She saw the look that appeared on the demon's face in reply to that and quickly continuing, not wanting the taller woman to blow up at her. "I know you're after the whole vengeance-for-my-girlfriend thing now, and I really can't say I don't understand you, but right now, you're too upset to go after a demon with such powers. Not to mention that Willow will want you right at her bedside the moment they get done with treating her and she wakes up."
"I'll find and kill that thing before that happens", Pat gave back, not really surprising Buffy – she hadn't been expecting the demon to give in so quickly, anyway.
"And the rest of you will wait here", the taller woman went on, glaring at the Slayer when she tried to say something and effectively stopping her from doing so, "I'm not taking the risk of anyone else getting hurt because of our nightmares."
"And what if it hurts you?" Buffy demanded to know, figuring that it wasn't too late yet to try a reasonable approach, "bad enough so you can't get up and demon out to heal? What should we tell Willow then?"
"Won't happen", the demon replied, "you seem to be forgetting what I've been doing for two centuries before we all met. I'll find this thing and kill it before it'll even know what hit it."
"I can't let you do this", Buffy gave back at once, crossing her arms over her chest, "not in that upset state you're in. Wait until they told us that Willow's gonna be alright and then we'll go find this thing together and kill it, alright?"
"Or you'll knock me out again?" the taller woman snarled, mimicking the blonde's position, "like the last time you didn't want me to go with you?"
"If I have to", Buffy replied, ignoring how the rest exchanged confused looks since they never had been told that particular part of their last adventure; for a few more moments, Pat kept staring at her, as if trying to figure out if she was serious – or maybe, if she should try knocking her out first – before she suddenly and heavily sat back down on her seat, her shoulders slumping, the sight giving Buffy the urge to move over to her and hug her, something which was made considerably harder by the fact that Dawn was still out cold and lying in her lap.
"It'll be alright", she thus said instead, relieved when at least, the demon looked up and at her, her voice quivering slightly when she replied, just enough to let the rest of the group notice. "Killing this thing is the only way I know how to handle this…"
"I know", the Slayer kindly gave back while behind her, Giles moved over to the demon and stopped next to her, making her gaze move to him; he gave her a small, but reassuring smile, then placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it slightly, the wordless gesture being enough to make her weakly smile back at him after a few moments.
"And we will kill that thing", Buffy went on, making the demon look at her again, "but we'll do it together. As soon as we know that Willow will be fine."
To her relief, Pat nodded her agreement to that; she gave the demon another smile, then Dawn started to stir in her lap and making her focus on her along with the rest of the group, none of them noticing the brooding look that appeared on Pat's face again the moment no one was paying attention on her anymore.
It took another two hours until finally, the door to the waiting room opened and the doctor stepped inside, looking at the small group of people with a slight smile on his face; Buffy was the first one to speak up, asking what they all wanted to know. "Is she gonna be alright?"
"Yes", the elder man replied at once, his smile widening slightly at the collective sigh of relief that came from the group as an answer to that, "I'm happy to tell you that soon, Miss Rosenberg will be as good as new. Of course, she'll have to stay here for at least two weeks, but we were able to repair the damage done by the knife and gave her enough transfusions to compensate for the blood loss. Now, I've been told her life partner is here…?"
With those words, he looked at Xander, then, when he noticed the young man holding hands with Anya, at Giles – with a slightly raised eyebrow – forcing Buffy to hold back a giggle as she realized that the paramedic hadn't bothered to tell the doctor about who exactly was Willow's "life partner", as the doctor had called it, a realization that was confirmed when Pat cleared her throat and the doctor looked at her, his second eyebrow wandering up as well when she told him that she was Willow's partner. To his credit though, he regained his composure remarkably quick, his eyebrows returning to their normal position while he smiled again, then told her that, if she wanted, she could see her partner now, for ten minutes at the most, pointing out that his patient needed her rest.
"Follow me please", he then added, making the black haired woman nod and get up from her seat; she still took the time to let the others know that she'd tell them how Willow was doing afterwards, making them nod before they watched her leave with the doctor, another relieved sigh coming from Buffy when the door had closed behind them.
"Am I glad that Will's gonna be okay", she then said, making the rest of the group nod, "I don't even want to imagine what Pat might have done if the doctor had told us much more dire news…"
"Maybe she would have gone on a bloody rampage", Anya suggested, with a hint of glee in her voice that made Xander look at her oddly, "like Willow did back then when Tara died."
"Maybe", Buffy gave back, raising an eyebrow at the ex-demon's mild joy about this possibility as well, "let's be glad we won't have to find out anytime soon."
"Indeed", Dawn agreed, "and I'm still pissed at that demon for possessing me, so once you go to kill it, kick it from me, okay?"
"I've told you I will the first twenty times you said that", Buffy gave back, smiling at her; Dawn let out a low "Hmph" noise in reply, crossing her arms over her chest, making her sister reach over and pat her arm, successfully putting a smile on her face again.
"I wonder if Willow's awake or still knocked out", the teenager then wondered aloud, "the doctor didn't say."
"I'm sure Pat will tell us", Xander shrugged, smiling at the brunette and making her nod; she shifted on the uncomfortable chair a bit, then checked her wristwatch, looking at the door again afterwards as she saw that the ten minutes the doctor had given Pat to see her girlfriend were up and that thus, she had to come back any moment now.
As the minutes ticked by and no demon returned to them though, Buffy grew more and more restless, starting to check her watch as well, her frown deepening further and further with every look she took at it; and by the time almost half an hour had passed, she realized that maybe, Pat hadn't been fully honest when she had told them that she'd be back soon and let them know about Willow then.
"Dammit", she muttered to herself, getting up from her seat and making the others look at her in surprise, prompting her to explain the reason for her dismay. "Pat's been gone for too long", she let them know, "I'll just go and check where she is, maybe some nightmare came true again or something…"
"Or maybe she left to kill that demon", Giles sighed, the blonde grimacing in reply while she nodded, exchanging a brief worried look with the others before she finally hurried off to find the taller woman.
Shifting on her seat again, Dawn kept her gaze on the door, clearly worried; obviously not as concerned, Anya wanted to know from Xander why it would be so bad if Pat had gone after the demon on her own, only to frown as well when the young man reminded her of the nightmare demon's powers in reply and pointed out that having one member of their gang badly hurt and in the hospital was bad enough.
Just as he finished explaining that, the door opened again and Buffy returned, the look on her face telling them all enough before she even opened her mouth and told them what they had been fearing they'd hear. "She's gone. The doctor said she left twenty minutes ago, right after he'd asked her to leave Willow's room."