Angel and Doyle filled in the blanks the oracles left. Cordelia made comfortingly bad coffee. Giles assured him that it was all true and that they could take care of it. Ethan put a shot of Doyle's whiskey in his coffee. Spike promised not to kill Willow unless there was no choice. And Xander gave him a necklace. A silver wolf's head the size of a half-dollar on a braided leather cord. The charm would allow him to control when and how he turned. When he asked Giles why he'd never had one before his answer was simple. There had never been anyone in Sunnydale who was strong enough to make one.

Oz had officially chosen his side in the upcoming battle. It was hard to believe. So much had happened. Xander and Spike, trying to convince Willow that something was wrong with Buffy, Giles making him promise not to tell the others he was leaving for L.A., and Riley... Two days after Giles left they found Riley beaten unconscious in his dorm room. Buffy had cried and told Willow it was a demon working for Spike, but the only person Oz smelled on Riley was Buffy. He hadn't told Willow, she wouldn't have believed him anyway. 

That was when the dreams started. Horrible images of a truth he had been trying to avoid for nearly a year. He knew something was wrong with the relationship between he and Willow. How was it possible that he had forgiven her for infidelity when that was something he had absolutely no tolerance for. He'd watched his father's cheating tear his mother apart until she'd finally thrown him out. He could forgive a lot, but not that. But he had. He'd completely forgiven Willow and put all the blame on Xander. He'd known something was wrong with that, but he could never think his way through it. Willow's voice kept getting in the way.

The same with Devon. Every time he tried to talk to Dev, her voice filled his head. He'd grown up with Dev, best friends since before birth was what they use to tell people. A few weeks before he met Willow that had started to change. The best friends were spending all their time together, Oz had fallen asleep in Devon's bed a coupla of times and woke up to find them wrapped around each other. He'd been a little freaked out, a little shy, and a lot happy. Dev had been the same way. But they were going slow, relearning how to be together now that they weren't just friends. Dev had a history for going through groupies like kleenex and he knew about Oz's faithfulness issues, but Oz had known his friend was serious about him when Dev stopped going out with anyone but him. 

Then Willow showed up, and Devon had disappeared from his mind. But not his heart. Dev was always in his heart. When this was over he was going back to Sunnydale. Then he was going to get Dev alone if he had to kidnap him. And then, he was going to tell him everything, werewolves, slayers, vampires, witches, and love spells. He would ask his friend to forgive him and he would do what ever it took to get them back where they were before Willow. After that...he was nailing Dev to the first mattress he found.

tbc