Two hours later, Pat had fallen asleep on the couch, snoring softly as she sat with her head on the backrest and her feet up on the living room table; with a slight look of dismay, Dawn was staring at her, as if she could wake her up by just doing that long enough, until Buffy nudged her in the ribs and gave her a strict look.
"Don't you dare to wake her up", she whispered, making sure to keep her voice low so she wouldn't do what she had just forbidden Dawn to even try, "after all that turmoil today, she deserves some peaceful rest."
"Yeah I know", her sister whispered back, without taking her eyes off the demon though, "she must have felt so bad after what happened with poor Willow… but still. I wanted to watch that movie with both of you."
"We can watch it tomorrow", the Slayer replied, rolling her eyes, "it's not going anywhere. Pat might though if you wake her up now, and she said herself she doesn't want to be alone, so just let her sleep a bit longer."
"Yeah, yeah", the teenager sighed, directing another dismayed glance at the subject of this whispered discussion, "but sooner or later, we'll have to wake her up, unless you want to let her sleep on the couch in that position all night."
"Of course not", Buffy replied, incredulous, "if she doesn't wake up on her own until we go to bed, we'll wake her up of course, what kind of host do you think I am?"
Deciding that it be wiser not to answer that, Dawn just smiled at her, then focused on the TV again, where the movie she'd been planning to watch with both her sister and the demon was still playing; only now, she realized that the whispering probably had been unnecessary, since the volume of the TV wasn't exactly low, and still the black haired woman slumbered peacefully, now even letting out a low grunt as she shifted on the couch a bit.
"I wish Willow was here", Buffy commented, covering her mouth with one hand to stifle a giggle, "this is just too cute."
"I wonder if she grunts and snores like that all the time", Dawn gave back, eying the sleeping demon curiously, giggling as well when next to her, her sister nodded, smirking when she let the teenager know that it had taken Willow a while to get used to that when they had moved in together.
"Poor Willow", she showed some sympathy, "but I bet she's missing that right now, lying in that nasty hospital bed and not having her by her side…"
"Probably", Buffy agreed, momentarily feeling sorry for both the demon and for her best friend – after all, they hardly ever had been forced to stay apart since they had moved in together, and she knew how hard it had been for both of them each time it had happened.
"Let's hope Willow can go home again soon", the brunette stated, making her sister agree once more; then, they both fell silent as they focused on the movie again, only to be distracted again a few minutes later when on the couch behind them, Pat let out a low groan, shifting slightly again, Buffy noticing with alarm that she was clenching her fists when she turned to look at the taller woman.
"What's up with her?" Dawn whispered, having done the same and finding herself unable to look away again, mesmerized by how fast the black haired woman's good eye was moving beneath the closed lid, making it quite obvious to Buffy what exactly was going on.
"She's having a nightmare", she pointed out to her sister, "not surprising, after what happened today… I'm quite sure I'll have one, too, once I go to sleep."
"Should we wake her up?" Dawn wanted to know, still unable to take her gaze away from the demon; before Buffy could answer that question though, Pat herself made it moot by suddenly sitting up on the couch, so fast that she nearly threw over the table when her feet involuntarily kicked it, her good eye wide as she stared at the Slayer and the brunette sitting on the floor in front of her and looking back at her.
"The hospital", she said before any of the two had the chance to speak up, "I need to go there, now, something's wrong…"
"You just had a nightmare", Buffy tried to calm her down, not sure what to think of this sudden outburst and wondering what exactly the demon had been dreaming about, "not surprising after what happened, I mean…"
"No", Pat interrupted her, "it wasn't… that was no regular nightmare Buffy, something's wrong there and I need to go there, it's Willow… Something's happening to her, I couldn't see it properly, but…"
She raised both hands to run them through her hair, and anything Buffy had come up with to convince her that it merely had been a bad dream was wiped out of the blonde's mind at once, the demon freezing in mid-movement as well, staring at her hands as if seeing them for the first time, and with good reason, as the Slayer had to admit. When they had finally come home after the time at the hospital and killing the nightmare demon, the first thing Pat had done had been washing her hands, since they still had been covered in blood from when she had tried to stop the bleeding of Willow's injury; now though, the skin that had been clean when she had fallen asleep was covered in crimson again, making her look as if she just had gone out and killed someone.
"What the…", Buffy finally broke the silence, looking from her friend's bloodied hand to her face, their eyes meeting; for a few moments, there was silence again, then Pat spoke up and broke it, saying exactly what the Slayer had been fearing the moment she had seen the blood on the taller woman's hands. "There's another one. This isn't over."
The night had been surprisingly quiet – especially for a hospital in Sunnydale, as all the doctors and nurses there knew – and the nurse manning the front desk just had decided that she could tempt fate by taking a short break in the form of a cup of coffee and her favorite weekly gossip magazine – when the double door which served as main entrance not just was pushed open, but practically flew open, and two women hurried into the lobby, making the poor woman jump and nearly spill her coffee.
"Excuse me!" she called out after a moment of shocked silence, during which she had noticed the alarmed look on the faces of the two and the blood on the hands of the taller one, "can I help you? Do you need help?"
"No", the taller one snapped, quite rudely, in the nurse's opinion; the smaller, blonde one looked at her for a bit longer, than grabbed her companion by the arm and whispered something to her, making her nod after a moment.
"Sorry for barging in here like that", the small blonde then said to the nurse, smiling pleasantly at her, "but it's kind of an emergency, and not the kind anyone of you is equipped to deal with. My friend here and I would be forever grateful if you'd just forget you saw us and let us go on our way, alright?"
Under normal circumstances, she never would have allowed that, she was a very assiduous nurse and took her job very seriously; she also knew though that in this town, circumstances were hardly ever normal, and now that she'd gotten a good look at the blonde woman, and recognized her as the one who had heroically butted in when strangely deformed men had tried to bite her neck several months ago, all those concerns and thoughts were blown out the window.
"I know what kind of town this is", she let the pair know, briefly looking at the taller of the two when she raised an eyebrow, "and I know you, you saved me a while ago, you probably don't remember, but I do… So… Yeah, do whatever you have to do, turn the deformed men to dust again like you did back then or whatever it is, I never saw you."
"Okay", Buffy gave back, a bit startled about how fast this had worked out – already while she had been talking, she'd been sure that the nurse wouldn't just let them go on, and it made her feel a bit ashamed to admit that the other woman had been right when she had said that she probably wouldn't remember rescuing her, but before she could ponder this further, Pat already started hurrying on, prompting her to follow after giving the nurse another short, but thankful smile, the young woman returning it heartily.
"Wait", Buffy then called out, hurrying to catch up with the demon, "do you even know where you're going?!"
"Of course", Pat snapped back, irritated, "I remember in which room they put her, what do you think I am, dense?"
"Will you calm down", the Slayer almost ordered as an answer, "if you're right and there really is something in that room with Willow right now, you won't help her much if you just blindly storm in and get yourself killed right there."
For a moment, the taller woman looked as if she wanted to protest, then deflated visibly and let out a sigh, nodding her agreement to her friend's words, then taking in a few deep breaths before she moved on, still at a fast pace, but not with the headless hurry she had shown before. Still Buffy had troubles to keep up with her, barely managing to stay by her side as they moved through the corridors together; just when she wanted to ask if they had to go much further, the demon suddenly stopped in front of one of the doors lining the hallway left and right, her brow furrowing as she listened for any suspicious noises coming through the thin wood.
"I can't hear anything", she then muttered, "but be ready to fight anyway, just in case…"
Nodding, Buffy clutched the handle of the sword she had brought along concealed beneath her coat, ready to pull it out the second she'd spot anything hostile; without even noticing that she was holding her breath, she watched how Pat grasped the door handle and pushed it down, then let the door swing open slowly, already clenching her fists, the smoke that started to curl towards the ceiling from them showing that she was prepared to let them flame up any moment now.
A few seconds later, the smoke vanished into nothingness though as the demon just stood there and stared; worried about what might cause such a reaction, Buffy moved to look past her, her eyes going wide as well when she saw her best friend lying in the bed, her face contorted in what only could be pain, sweat glistening on her brow as she moaned softly every now and then.
"What's wrong with her?" she demanded to know, pushing past the taller woman and into the room, "she looks like she's sick…"
"I don't know", Pat gave back, moving up to the bed and nervously running one hand through her hair, looking down on her partner and hating how helpless it made her feel to see her like this, "seems she's running a fever or something… Shouldn't they be doing something against that here? This is a hospital, dammit!"
"Wait", the blonde mumbled, more to herself than to the taller woman, "I think I've seen her like this before…"
"When?" the demon demanded to know, impatient, her gaze flickering back and forth between her partner and the Slayer, her good eye briefly widening when Buffy replied a few moments later, without taking her gaze away from the redhead. "When she was going through withdrawal… After that time she quit with the magic."
"But why would she go on withdrawal?" the taller woman helplessly gave back, moving another step closer to the bed, "she didn't quit with the spells or anything…"
"The demon, of course", Buffy answered at once, "she's never told you about those times? It was horrible for her, painful and draining, of course it'd be one of her nightmares… and of course that demon would use it, not only does it give her pain, it makes her practically powerless."
"What can we do to help her?" Pat wanted to know after pondering this unpleasant fact for a few moments, frowning when Buffy just shrugged helplessly, her gaze moving to the witch once more as she replied. "I have no idea… back then, all she could do was try and sit it out…"
"But back then, she didn't have a massive knife wound in her gut", the black haired woman pointed out, running both hands through her hair now, "who knows how that will affect this withdrawal or whatever it is… We need to find that demon and make it reverse what it did to her…"
"I doubt it will be that easy now", Buffy sighed, her voice and face full of dismay as she finally focused on the demon again, "when she was on her magical rampage after Tara had been shot, we suggested cutting off her power to Giles… And he said that can't be done, it'd kill her. Obviously, it didn't do so now, but who knows what might happen once it all rushes back…"
"There's got to be something we can do", Pat replied, the frantic sound of her voice making Buffy uneasy, "we can't just let her…" She trailed off as an idea dawned in her mind, and for a moment, she found it hard to believe that she hadn't thought of this earlier, nearly slapping herself when she realized that her solution at least might take part of the danger her partner was in away.
"The spell", she voiced at least part of her idea, only resulting in a blank look from the Slayer, forcing her to hold back a sigh before she elaborated. "The spell so she can borrow my healing… Go to our place, she keeps a bag with the ingredients I'll need in her little wooden magic box, get that and come back here, it's a little leather pouch…"
"What will we tell the doctors then?" Buffy wanted to know, not sounding all too convinced by this idea; still she accepted the keys to the apartment when the demon handed them to her, the taller woman shrugging afterwards, not sounding all too worried when she replied. "That it's a miracle? This is Sunnydale, they'll be used to weird stuff. If they even notice, I mean, so far no one has noticed that she's running that fever."
"Good point", the Slayer admitted, then promised her friend that she'd be quick, making her nod; she still took the time to tell Buffy that she should be careful, then her attention fully focused on Willow, so she didn't even notice anymore how the blonde left while she pulled one of the visitor chairs over to the bed and sat down, carefully grasping her partner's hand.
"You'll be alright again soon", she said after a moment of silence, not even sure if Willow could actually hear her; if she did, there was no reaction, her eyes remaining closed, the only noise coming from her being the soft moans she let out every now and then while sweat trickled down her brow.
"I promise", Pat went on anyway, tenderly squeezing her hand just in case she'd feel it, "once Buffy gets back, we'll do that spell, then we'll find that demon and kill it, and you'll be fine…"
She trailed off and fell silent, not sure what else to say; and so, she just sat there, holding Willow's hand and looking at her, waiting for Buffy to come back, not allowing herself to think of what might happen if her partner's state got worse before the blonde's return.