To the demon's endless dismay, it almost took an hour until Buffy finally did come back; during that time, Willow's state hadn't improved a bit, but at least also hadn't gotten any worse, making the black haired woman wonder if she'd gone through exactly the same when she had been on withdrawal the first time – or if the demon responsible for this was worsening it, to make sure it'd get as much sustenance from her pain as possible.
"There you are at last", she greeted the Slayer, forcing those thoughts aside for now, "did you find it?"
"Yeah, here it is", Buffy gave back, handing the pouch to the taller woman; quickly, she opened it and peered inside, then nodded, quite sure that all the stuff needed for the spell was in there. It would have been much better if she'd just been able to ask Willow, but since that was out of the question, she figured she'd have to take the risk; hoping that she wouldn't make anything worse, she carefully poured some of the fine powder into her palm, then grasped the witch's hand again before she took in a deep breath and started reciting the spell, Buffy automatically moving back, well aware of the demon's tendency to accidentally flame up during that certain magic.
Hoping that no one would enter just now, she watched how Pat finished the spell, to her happiness not messing up any of the words despite how nervous she had to be; she had a moment to wonder if Willow had practiced with her after the last time that spell had been used to save her, then the taller woman blew heartily on the pile of powder in her hand, and seconds later, her free hand flamed up, the by now well-known fleshy noises of quick healing filling the silence another moment later.
"There we go", Pat muttered, her free hand clenching into a fist as she felt the magic's effect, "am I glad I did that right…"
Nodding, Buffy moved up to the bed again, making sure to stay away from the flames that still flickered on the demon's hand; looking down on Willow, she wondered if the spell would do more than just heal the wound in her stomach, a progress she couldn't see since it was covered up by a thick bandage, but the noises were more than enough to tell her that it was healing as quickly as it was supposed to with the aid of the magic.
Finally, after almost a full minute, Pat let go of her partner's hand and took a step back, the Slayer noticing with alarm that the hand she ran through her hair was trembling slightly and that her face had gone pale, prompting her to ask the taller woman if she was alright, making her nod after a few moments.
"Yeah, I think so", she then said, moving to the chair again though and sitting down on it quite heavily, "I tried to keep the spell longer than usual, to see if it'll help with the withdrawal, but it only drained me, didn't seem to do much good…"
"It was worth a try though", Buffy reassured her, making her nod; then, she took in a few deep breaths before she got up again and carefully started to remove the bandage wrapped around her girlfriend's stomach, relief filling her when she saw that the knife wound was indeed gone.
"At least that worked", she let Buffy know, glancing over her shoulder and at the blonde, "but the withdrawal symptoms are still as they were before I did the spell…"
"I'll call Giles", the Slayer decided in reply, "let's get her out of here and to my place, it's closer than yours, and we don't want a doctor to walk in and try to check on her, no matter how high the weirdness factor of this town is…"
"Yeah", Pat agreed, "just give me another moment, that spell really drained a lot…" She let out another shaky breath, Buffy watching her with concern; finally though, she seemed to get a grip on herself again, since she got up from the chair, then carefully picked Willow up, making sure that she had a proper grip on her before she nodded at the Slayer, prompting her to open the door and peer down the hallway, making sure no one was around to see them leave.
"Hallway's clear", she let the taller woman know, "let's go quickly, before someone catches us after all."
Again, Pat nodded her agreement, letting Buffy take the lead; the blonde did so, looking left and right again before she hurried down the hallway to the emergency exit, hearing the demon right behind her, feeling relieved again when they made it to the heavy steel door without anyone spotting them.
"Let's hope this isn't connected to an alarm", she muttered, a vaguely agreeing sound coming from Pat in reply; she glanced down the hallway again, then held her breath as she pushed the door open, glad when nothing happened, especially no screeching alarm being raised and alerting anyone to their little escape.
"For once, we're lucky", she muttered, more to herself than to the taller woman behind her, hurrying down the short stairway; moments later, she was in front of yet another heavy door, and when she pushed it open, she found herself in the hospital parking lot, relieved to see that it was empty.
"About time", Pat grumbled behind her, still clutching Willow in a tight grip so she wouldn't accidentally drop her; nodding her agreement, Buffy started walking again, eager to get to her home as fast as possible, with the black haired woman right behind her, the only noise apart from their hurried footsteps being the small moans and groans the witch kept letting out, stirring weakly in her partner's grip every now and then without waking up though, making them both ask themselves how bad her state really was – and if there would be any way to help her, or if they'd be forced to just wait and see how things would develop.
An hour later, Giles was sitting on the comfortable double bed in what once had been Joyce's bedroom, before she unexpectedly had passed away; as always when he was in distress or nervous, he had taken off his glasses and was cleaning them, his eyes never leaving the still unconscious form of the witch though, not even when he spoke up, addressing Buffy and Pat, the two women standing a few feet behind him and watching him.
"I've never seen something like that before", the Watcher finally broke the uncomfortable silence which so far only had been interrupted by the soft moans Willow still was letting out in irregular intervals, without having woken up once since she'd been taken here, "and as much as it pains me to say this, I'm not really sure how to help her…"
"But there has to be something we can do", Pat repeated the statement she had made earlier, giving the Brit a helpless look, "can't you ask the coven or something? There must be some spell or some potion to help her, we can't just let her suffer like this…"
"I know", Giles agreed at once, looking from the witch and at her, "and of course I'll contact the coven, but I'm not sure if even they'll be able to help. You need to understand that, even though it is possible to sever the connection between a person and their magic, it usually is a lengthy process, usually aided by rituals and various spells, as far as I know, it never has been done like this before, so abruptly and brutally. To be fully honest with you, I'm a bit surprised this didn't kill her."
"I'm glad it didn't", Buffy sighed, "but poor her, she seems to be in so much pain… Isn't there anything we can do? Just to make this a bit easier for her?"
"Sage might help", Giles let her know after thinking about this for a few moments, prompting Buffy to remember that Amy had tried to sneak exactly that out of the house in the middle of the night, back then when she had been friends with Willow and had led the redhead to Rack and his dangerous dealings of magical power, "burning it close to her so she'll breathe in the smoke, it might help soothing the withdrawal."
"I know she has some of that stuff at our apartment", Pat replied to that at once, "I'll go and get it, if it'll help her just a tiny bit, it'll still be better than just leaving her likes this until it passes on its own or something…"
"Be careful, but try to be quick", Buffy advised her, making her nod; she told them that she'd hurry, then asked them to keep an eye on Willow until she'd be back, the Slayer and her Watcher reassuring her that they would; she still took the time to give them a thankful, but brief smile, then turned and hurried outside, barely stopping to grab her jacket and put it on as she left the house.
Just as Buffy had told her, she gave her best to be careful as she hurried towards the apartment with steps so fast that she was nearly running; since all her worst nightmares involved Willow in one way or another though – except the one about losing her other eye –, she wasn't all too worried about getting attacked, figuring that the demon only had done this to her partner to keep them busy until it had fed enough so it could go back to sleep for another thirty years.
Still, she glanced around every now and then as she walked to the apartment as fast as she could without really breaking into a run; once there, she quickly made her way up to the second floor, unlocking the door and, without even taking off her shoes or jacket, moving to the cupboard where Willow kept her supplies for magic, relieved when she spotted the half-full bag of sage right after opening the door of said cupboard.
Holding back a sigh of relief, Pat grabbed the plastic bag and stuffed it into the inside pocket of her jacket, where it wasn't in any danger of falling out; she took another moment to look at the rest of the ingredients, wondering if any might have a chance of helping as well, then decided that it'd be better not to experiment and left the apartment again in a hurry, getting out her cell phone to send a text to the Slayer while she made her way down the stairs, not bothering to wait for the elevator.
Got the sage, on my way back now, she informed the blonde, then tucked her phone back into the pocket, figuring that it didn't really matter if Buffy would write anything back or not; again, she walked so fast that she nearly ran, her thoughts now fully focused on Willow again as she hoped that the sage would help to ease her withdrawal symptoms, not wanting to imagine what the redhead had to be going through right now. She still remembered how she had felt when her demonic side had been taken away from her and she'd been reduced to a mere human, how empty it had made her feel; and since she was well aware of how much the magic meant to Willow, she figured that the witch would feel the same once she'd wake up and realize that it was gone.
Frowning to herself at those dark thoughts, Pat kept hurrying on, glad when the Summers house appeared in the distance; some of that gladness vanished though when already from afar, she could hear the sounds of fighting coming from said house, and now, she did speed up to a run, suddenly fearing the worst. Momentarily, she almost called out Buffy's name as she entered the house, then bit down on her tongue, stopping herself in the last moment – if anyone was up there and attacking the little group, it'd be foolish to alert them to her presence by shouting, and she'd lose the element of surprise, an advantage she might need badly, depending on how dire the situation would be up in the bedroom.