'...and then he said, ‘You know I’d do anything for you,’ and I said ‘You would?’ and he said, ‘Of course,’ and then we... You aren’t listening, are you?'
Willow prodded Buffy gently. 'You haven’t heard a word I’ve said.'
'Hmm? Oh, no, I was listening. You... you were talking about the date you had with Oz last night.'
'Yeah. Where did we go?'
'Uh, um... the Bronze?'
Willow smiled good naturedly. 'Good guess,' she said. 'So where were you? Mentally, I mean. You looked a thousand miles away. Were you with Angel?'
Buffy stared at Willow in confusion. 'Angel?' she said.
Willow’s normally cheerful face took on a worried cast. 'You remember, Angel, dark, handsome, vampire? Older boyfriendly type turned stalker? About so high?' Willow waved a hand in the air, roughly indicating Angel’s height.
'Oh! Angel! Of course... Uh, I’ve gotta go.'
Willow watched, bewildered, as Buffy disappeared into the crowd.
* * *
Buffy elbowed her way through the throng of students, deliberately avoiding all thoughts of why she felt so miserable just because Willow had a date with Oz. But she couldn’t hide from the truth forever. As she boosted herself over the fence and onto the street, immediately breaking into a run, she felt the full force of the recognition hit her.
< I love Oz > she thought, sadly. < I love him so much it hurts to be around him, and even more to be around Willow. Now I know how she felt when Xander fell in love with me. > Buffy reached the graveyard, and slowed to a halt.
'Ohhhh,' she moaned, dropping to her knees by a gravestone. 'What am I gonna do?'
* * *
'So none of you have seen her since lunch?' The four teenagers shook their heads in response to Giles' question.
'But she was acting really wiggy when I talked to her. She barely heard a word I was saying and when I asked her if she was thinking about Angel she stared at me like she had no idea who I was talking about.'
'Buffy daydreaming about something *other* than Angel? She hasn’t thought about anything except him for the past month. This may be worse than I thought.' Giles turned to the phone. 'I’m going to call her house.'
'Are you sure that’s a good idea? With the amount of classes she’s been skipping lately, it’ll just get her into even more trouble,' Xander pointed out.
'Oh. Yes, I see your point. Well, what can we do?'
'Look, this may be the dumb question, but what about waiting a while before assuming she’s in trouble? She may just have something else on her mind, and need some time alone.' Oz asked, as he cradled Willow’s hand in his own. 'I don’t mean to sound judgmental, but you have been a little over protective of her lately. Buffy’s a big girl, she can take care of herself, but being followed around all the time and having people constantly asking how you’re feeling could get a little claustrophobic.'
'You mean, she just wants some time out?' Xander clarified.
'W-well, it would make sense. I-i-i-i suppose we should just wait and see. Oh, have any of you, uh... I seem to have lost one of the Watcher diaries. Well, it wasn’t a diary as such, just a supplement. I was just wondering... it contained some rather vital information to an ongoing research project of mine.'
Oz glanced at Giles. ‘Ongoing research project’? It sounded like the librarian had taken a deeper interest in Oz’s lycanthropy than he’d thought, but if he knew about the power of Slayer blood why hadn’t he told anyone? Oz decided to talk to Buffy first, before confiding in Giles.
'I have to go,' he told Willow at the doors.
'What about our date tonight?' she called after him. They’d planned to go for ice-cream and a movie, before finishing with a bonding session over some chains and manacles in his basement.
'Oh, Will, I’m sorry. I totally forgot. Can I get a rain check? I’m just real busy right now.'
Without waiting for a reply he jogged off around the corner.
Cordelia watched him go with a thoughtful look.
'I don’t know what’s got into him lately,' Willow said suddenly. Cordelia and Xander stared at her in surprise. 'He misses dates, he forgets to call, he’s never home when I call. He’s been skipping loads of classes too.' After a moment, Willow corrected herself. 'Well, more than usual.'
'Hmm,' Xander said, in a tone that indicated he was having a *thought*. Willow shot him a questioning look.
'Well, it’s just that, *usually* when a guy starts actin’ like that, it’s ‘cause he’s got other interests, if you know what I mean,' Xander explained.
'No,' Willow said, honestly. 'I don’t.'
'What I mean is-'
'What Xander means is, maybe Oz has something else occupying his thoughts.' Cordelia interrupted quickly, gazing at Xander meaningfully. 'Like band practice, or trouble at home.'
Xander, dense as always, didn’t catch the hint. 'But what it’s most likely to be is- Ow! Cordy, what is up with you?'
Cordelia smiled sweetly at him. 'My foot must have slipped,' she said. 'I’m late for class. Walk me.' Xander eyed her, confused, but he complied.
'What was that about?' he asked her when they were out of earshot. Cordelia sighed.
'I think... there’s a possibility that there may be something between Oz and Buffy,' she explained. 'But I don’t want Willow to hear one word about it till I’ve spoken to Buffy.'
'What! That lowdown, dirty, dogboy!'
'Xander! Not a word until I talk to Buffy! For all we know it may be something perfectly innocent, like... study help.'
Xander gave her a skeptical look. 'You mean Buffy would ask Oz for help when her best friend is a genius?'
'Not a word,' Cordelia repeated, warningly.
'Right. Not a word,' Xander agreed, knowing it was more than his life was worth to disagree with his girlfriend.
* * *
'I thought I’d find you here,' Oz said from behind her.
'It’s funny how you’re the only person... - creature, you can’t really call vampires people, I guess - to ever sneak up on me,' Buffy said. 'Not even vampires can get past me. Not even Angel. But you. You get me every time.'
'Maybe I’m just lucky.'
'So this was the first place you tried?'
'No. I just said that ‘cause it seemed like the right thing to say. It’s what they always say on TV. Actually, I checked a dozen places.'
'Why?'
'Because I’m worried about you.' Oz settled down beside her.
'I was afraid of cemeteries when I was a kid,' she told him, gazing into the distance. 'I hated having to go to a place full of dead people. Now, this is comforting to me. Especially in the daytime, but also at night. I know there’s danger out there, and I did when I was a kid, too. But now I know I can deal with it. So now I figure the cemetery is about the safest place there is for me. Only thing that comes in here is something I can fight. No famine, no suffering, no heartache. No war. Just plain old, run of the mill bad guys.'
'What are you afraid of now?' Oz asked curiously.
'You,' she replied honestly. Then she changed the subject swiftly, not wanting him to see the truth in her eyes about why she was really afraid of him. Why she was terrified to be near him, in case she did something they’d both regret. She turned to look at him. 'You have to be a werewolf to take the blood,' she explained. So it’ll have to happen tonight. I’ll meet you here half an hour before sunrise.'
She stood up and was several feet away from him before he called her back.
'Are you sure?' he asked, softly. She smiled at him.
'It’s what I have to do, Oz,' she told him, before she resumed her walk. Oz simply stared after her.
* * *
Giles carefully tucked the crossbow into his bag, on top of several stakes, two jars of holy water, and a few assorted crosses. He slung it over his shoulder, and locked his apartment door behind him.
Buffy was obviously in no condition to hunt tonight, and he intended to check on her after a couple of hours of patrolling. She’d been home when he called earlier, but had seemed distant and withdrawn on the telephone, and he was worried about her.
He was also worried about the journal of William Drake, a Watcher who had encountered a werewolf, an event which led to himself and his Slayer becoming werewolves themselves. He had written the only account of anything resembling a cure for lycanthropy that Giles had ever heard of, or indeed had the entire Watchers association. But he had left some important details out of that particular copy.
Giles suspected Oz or Buffy had found it, and that this was the cause of their strange behaviour, but he resolved to talk to them tomorrow about why it couldn’t be done. Buffy had told him she was staying in tonight so he had time to put a stop to it, if indeed it was those two who had the journal.
Xander and Cordelia followed Buffy as quietly as they could, but it was fairly obvious caution was unnecessary. The Slayer wouldn’t have noticed if she was being followed by Angelus wearing a dress and riding an elephant.
Willow was sitting at home alone, after trying to call Oz, Buffy, Xander, Giles, and even Cordelia, and receiving no answer. She briefly wondered if they were all out Slaying together, then dismissed the idea. They would have invited her. Then she glanced out of her window just in time to see a familiar figure walking purposefully down the street. She slipped on a jacket, and hurried to the door.
By the time she got outside he was gone from sight, but she knew where he was going. For some reason her boyfriend had stood her up to go visit the cemetery, and Willow wanted to know why. She also wanted to know what he was doing out twenty minutes before the full moon rose, walking away from home.
* * *
Oz saw Buffy immediately. 'We’ve only got a few minutes,' she told him. 'We’d better hurry.'
'Uh, just exactly what is your plan to get the werewolf to drink your blood without biting you?' Oz asked, worriedly.
'It has to be fresh, and it has to be done in the light of the full moon,' she explained. 'That’s why I can’t just give you a little doggy bowl while you’re chained up in the basement.'
'How was all this stuff found out if it only happened once?' Oz asked.
Buffy looked at him darkly. 'Experiments,' she said, and Oz shivered. 'The Watcher’s weren’t all friendly old tweed guys. They had a job to do, and they did whatever they could to do that job well, even making innocent werewolves suffer. But a Slayer died, and they stopped the experiments.'
'Innocent werewolves? And just how do you know all this anyway?'
'I listen to Giles a lot. He talks to people on the phone in England while I train sometimes. Plus, he’s been making notes on this. I caught a glimpse of his diary.'
'Yeah, I figured he was looking into it. Why didn’t he tell me earlier though?'
'Who knows?' Buffy said, although she knew perfectly well why Giles hadn’t told them. Why he thought it would never work.
'It’s happening,' Oz said between gritted teeth, 'Maybe you should draw the blood now.'
'Draw the blood?' Buffy asked, as Oz fell to the ground, trembling with the energy needed to complete the transformation.
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