By Tracy
Author's Notes: Thanks to Laura, Amy and Serendipity, who inspire me more than they'll ever know. Thanks also to Annie, who volunteered to beta this for me. This fic is dedicated to everyone who sent me feedback for Tunnel Vision. You guys keep reading, and I'll keep writing. Deal?
Part Five
Despite the protests from her friends, Willow insisted on going back into the cage, where she again cradled Oz's head tenderly. She was bent over, speaking to him softly, while the three other occupants of the basement stood careful watch outside the door. Buffy kept the tranquilizer gun in hand, in case he happened to awaken."I'm, uh, going to go get some medical texts and some books on werewolf lore," Giles said. "Will you three be all right?"
Buffy nodded, her eyes never leaving Willow and Oz. "Go. Hurry."
*** "I'm sure you'll be fine Oz. I'm sure of it. Just ride it out. Just hold on. I'm here. And Buffy and Xander are here, and Giles," she stopped, noticing Giles was gone, "um, will be back soon, I think." She stroked his head gently, pausing to kiss his face every now and then. Her tears were wetting his fur, causing it to mat and curl. "Please Oz, come back. Even as a werewolf, I don't care. Please." Her heart was beating double time, despite the fact that she was perfectly still except for her arm. "I need you Oz, you know that. I love you. You have to come back. I know you're in there somewhere. Listen to me. Come on, Oz, just hold on."
She glanced at his chest, pressing her fingers to his neck to be sure he was still with her, continuing to murmur in low tones. "I'm here, Oz. I'm here. And you've got me worried, see? So I'm babbling, and you love it when I run on like this. All you have to do is wake up and tell me so. Please? Just say "I love when you do that'. Please…"
She wasn't sure when Xander entered the cage, but she felt his arms encircle her and she fell silent. Begging wouldn't help. Nothing would help.
"I hate the first night," she said, raising her tear-stained face to her friend's.
Xander kissed her softly on the forehead. "I know."
And with that, Willow did something she hadn't done in a very long time. Since she and Oz became a couple and he became the one she turned to first for everything. Willow buried her face in her oldest friend's shoulder, and let the tears come.
*** Giles closed the latest book with a sigh and checked his watch. Five-thirty-seven. He still hadn't been able to find anything saying that a werewolf's body could build up an immunity to tranquilizers, and was beginning to think that the idea was a dead end. He had, however, learned a great deal about the metabolism of a werewolf. If he was correct at guessing Oz's weight in werewolf form, Willow was going to have to increase the amount of meat she fed him.
He glanced about the room, noting Willow and Buffy still in the cage, with Willow pillowing Oz's head on her lap. The redhead was absolutely beside herself. She had stopped crying long ago, but her expression was still agitated… Guilty… Even overwhelmingly panicked on occasion.
Xander sat across from Giles at the table, with several books and a chart of the moon cycles, trying to determine whether there was something special about this full moon that would have affected Oz in the werewolf form. So far, he hadn't been able to determine anything out of the ordinary either.
Giles reached for the next book, and dropped it suddenly. He stood abruptly as he remembered that the sun was supposed to rise at five-forty. "Willow! Buffy! It's almost time for sunrise!"
The two girls in the broken cage looked alarmed, before Willow calmly took charge. "Buffy, put the towels up. I'll get his clothes."
Buffy set the tranquilizer gun aside and began unfolding the stack of towels, smiling gratefully when Xander took them and began threading them through the holes in the grid of the cage. Willow got the clothes Oz had left out the night before and left them in a neat stack beside the sleeping werewolf, pausing to touch him lightly before retreating from the cage again.
Giles kept a careful eye on his watch as the seconds to the change ticked away. Tasks completed, Buffy and Xander joined him, followed by a sullen Willow, who seemed reluctant to leave Oz alone for any length of time.
"This might get him to wake up, right?" Xander asked. "I mean, it's a whole new ballgame when he's regular Oz, right?"
Giles seemed to nod and shake his head simultaneously until he decided to just shrug. "I have no idea." He caught the flicker of hope dying in Willow's eyes as he spoke. "I'm sorry, Willow. I just don't have any answers yet."
The redhead shook her head. "It's not your fault, Giles."
The sounds of the transformation began behind the towels of the cage, and Xander and Buffy grasped Willow's hands tightly. She clutched them like a lifeline, squeezing with an intense desperation. Xander moved to stand in front of her, and began telling her a joke that she didn't hear at all. All she could hear was the lack of whimpers and yelps that usually came from her boyfriend as he changed back. The silence surrounding the sound of flesh and bone shrinking was the worst quiet she'd ever heard.
Her hands shook as the room became totally silent. Xander released her hand and hurried into the cage, draping a towel over Oz so he was modestly covered. Willow approached the cage with dread. What if he didn't wake up? What if he *never* woke up? It would be her fault. She had shot him, it all came back to her.
She stared at his still form for a few seconds before kneeling beside him. The face she loved was back in place, the hair and elongated nose of the werewolf gone for the time being. "My Oz," she whispered, reaching out to touch his cheek lightly. She noted that his chest had the same steady rise and fall she'd watched all night - only minus the hair. He was so still, so unresponsive to her touch that she felt her heart begin to break.
Giles stooped beside her, reaching out and feeling the pulse at the base of Oz's neck. Willow waited until he withdrew his hand and then searched Giles' eyes questioningly.
Buffy voiced her question, "Well? How is he?"
Giles removed his glasses, dreading to give them the news. "The same, I'm afraid. His heart rate is still extremely slow." He moved to a small medical bag near the table and withdrew a small syringe. He carried it back to Oz and carefully took a blood sample from the unconscious teen.
Willow looked at Oz sadly, and shook him a little. "Oz? You awake?" She waited a few moments and then shook him again more insistently.
Giles laid a restraining hand on her shoulder. "He's not on the verge of waking up, Willow."
The redhead sat back on her heels, "He was… He was going to make us breakfast," she murmured.
"Will," Buffy began, laying a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Take him to the hospital now?" Xander interrupted.
"I'm afraid we can't," Giles answered. "There's the possibility that he may not be released from the hospital in time for tonight's change. It's too risky." Giles injected the blood from the syringe into a vial. "I can have this tested, however, at the medical lab over at the university." He offered the teenagers a slight smile. "The Dean there owes me a favor."
"We should get him into bed," Willow said, nodding towards the stairs as immediately Buffy and Xander moved to scoop Oz up. "The least I can do is make sure he's comfortable."
Willow trailed them up the stairs and paused as she caught sight of the living room. She tried to make her heart believe that she'd done the right thing. But the right thing had hurt Oz. There weren't enough words in the world to describe the pain and the guilt she felt watched Buffy and Xander carry her unconscious boyfriend up the stairs. She watched Giles pick his way through the debris to the front door carefully, and he turned to wave to her as he reached the exit.
"Hurry, Giles," she said, following her friends up the stairs.
Giles sighed. They always wanted him to hurry.
***
on to part six