PART FIVE

Oz's breath caught in his throat. So not what he needed.

"Uh. Hey." Oz replied.

"So, I get off work and I stop by Giles' and he's not home. What's up with that? So I call Buffy and she's not there. I'm smelling the conspiracy, so I call Will's and sure enough, she's over there. And I'm thinkin' somethings up. But the girls won't talk. Got any clue? Or is it just some girly facial thing?"

Oz was silent for a moment. He hadn't heard much of what Xander was saying. He was too busy contemplating whether or not he should tell him that his oldest friend in the world could very well be a werewolf.

"Oz? Hellooo wolf-man?" Xander's voice was making Oz's head hurt.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Are we all playing another game of 'Leave Xander out of the loop' right now or what?"

"Look, I really don't think you want to know."

He could hear Xander drumming his fingers impatiently as he sighed heavily. "We're supposed to buds! You know, working together for the greater good of manhood. Just tell me whether it's Hellmouthy or just some--" He stopped himself as something occured to him. "Hey, I bet I know what it is."

Oz's brow furrowed.

"You and Will had a fight, didn't you? Will sounded pretty upset and I thought I heard Buffy going into 'break stuff' mode when I called." He announced, obviously proud of himself.

"Not exactly." Oz glanced at his clock again, silently begging time to fly by so he'd have an excuse to hang up.

"Don't worry, man. Write her a song or get Devon to serenade her for ya and your bed'll be warm again in no time." He paused. "Well, theoretically."

Oz closed his eyes. "Look, Xander, I gotta--"

"Go. Sure, I understand. I'll probably end up Bronzehopping if you wanna come by and drown out your sorrows with some non-alcoholic beers later, though."

"Thanks." He said.

"You and me against the Hellmouth..." He heard Xander say as he hung up the phone. Oz leaned back on his bed and closed his eyes.

He needed to think. Think. Shouldn't be too hard, hell he did it all the time.

Yet for some reason everytime he tried to clear his mind all he could see was the look on Willow's face when he'd shown her the scratch. Complete and utter panic. And not the good kind.

He got up, suddenly, and grabbed his keys as he headed for the door. He *had* to think.

********** Willow was pacing nervously in front of Giles' couch when Oz opened the front door and slipped inside. Her eyes darted to meet his, and her whole body relaxed noticeably.

"Oz!" She walked hesitantly towards him, her hands wringing nervously in front of him. "Where were you?"

He tried to give her a tiny smile, but his eyes weren't behind it. "Hadta think, Went out to Breaker's Woods."

Willow touched his hand carefully. He stared down , but didn't break away. "That's kinda far away to go just to think. Not that you shouldn't, I just-- I was worried."

He locked eyes with her. "Sorry." Then he glanced around the room. "What's going on?"

She gestured towards Giles' office. "We're in 'looking up stuff' mode, as usual. And Giles is going to take a blood sample for me later." She looked down. "And, ah, we think that we should, you know, build an extra cage for... for me just in case."

Oz nodded slowly. "I can help with that."

"It's already taken care of."

Oz looked up to see who'd entered the room, but before he even had a chance to register the voice with the face, Xander's fist collided smoothly with his nose and he fell to the floor.

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Continues
Do you hate me yet?~Make your own fun