Of Blood and Other Things

Who: Dean and Oz
Where: their house
When: Night

Dean was washing paint brushes in the kitchen sink when he heard the car pull into the drive. He'd finished off Thia's room that evening and was onto the really dull part - the clean up. But, he didn't want to give Sophie any reason to have any kind of a go at him, so he was being good. He'd tidied all the dust sheets and everything out of Thia's room, bundling them all up and leaving them in the garage to return to Billy at some time, and now he was carefully cleaning the brushes the guy had loaned him to do the job, making sure every last bit of paint was off them. He was actually nearly done, and there was a row of clean brushes on the draining board as he started in on the final one.

"Hey, kid." Oz said as he entered the room, heading for the fridge to grab himself a beer. He didn't stray too close to the sink, the smell of paint--even if it was being washed down the drain--a little strong for him at the moment. He could deal with it if he had to, and did, but sometimes he liked to avoid the overwhelming sorts of scents. "How goes?"

Dean half looked round, enough to see where Oz was. "Not bad," he said with a shrug, turning back to his brush again, knowing that Oz would hear him no matter what. he didn't need to stop what he was doing. "You have a nice night?" he added, actually making an effort to be interested - something which he hadn't generally done until fairly recently.

Oz quirked a half smile at that as he took a drink of his beer, leaning back against the counter. "I guess. It's always strange meeting new people." he admitted. "Though, weirdly enough, she got on with Maddie. I'm still just a little thrown by that. Still. It's been a while since I actually had a set up meet and greet type thing. It's always a little weird."

Dean finished off the last brush and set it to dry, before washing his hands and crossing to grab a towel to dry them off. "I suppose someone's got to get on with Maddie - well, apart from Billy," he agreed, quirking a small lopsided smile. The witch he still found a little intimidating a lot of the time, though he'd come to the conclusion she wasn't as bad as people generally first thought.

"True. I like her. But yeah, most of the time people..." Well, the woman was kind of a lot sometimes. "Anyways. That's how that went. I guess she does black magic and such." he said, eyes ticking towards where Sophie had disappeared off to. She wasn't in earshot, but still. He knew his wife. Looking back to Dean, he gave a little smile. "Possibly not the world's best conversational topic though."

"Who? Maddie?" Dean asked, surprised yet not surprised at that. He knew there were a variety of different magics around, though he didn't know very much about any of them, other than he had a white magic spell tattooed onto his arm and blood magic could rip things apart like crazy. "Or this other woman you met tonight?"

"The woman we met. Though I think Maddie does both." he said. "Honestly magic kind of confuses so...I let that get taken care of by people who get it properly." He did his thing, they could do theirs. But he definitely didn't know the big differences between magic types, or what one could do with them. he knew just enough to get him by. As Dean dried his hands, Oz's eyes fell on the obvious ink there. "I don't recall you having a tattoo." he commented conversationally. "I'm taking it you got it in England." It didn't look like it was still healing much so he had to have had it for at least a bit.

Dean looked down at his arm and reflexively rubbed his hand over the tattoo, covering it up, then realising mid-gesture that that was ridiculous and turning it into a rub rather than a cover. "Er, yeah - I did," he said, unsure about how Oz would take that, given that he was only sixteen. And given that he'd taken to wearing long sleeves to keep it covered. "I, er - it's... There's a reason for it though! It's a spell - protection spell. Maddie designed it. So, y'know, it's not just... It's for a reason," he added, hastily, wanting to get that in there in the hope it'd affect the guy's reaction. "Look, see!" Dean headed back to the sink and grabbed one of the still damp brushes, swiping it across the inside of his arm, over the tattoo. It glowed bright blue for a moment or two, and then faded back to black again. "It's charged by water," he explained.

Oz let Dean flail for a second, then chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm not going to give you shit for it." he told him, letting him off the hook. Then he paused. "Maddie designed it? Somehow I didn't see her being a big tattoo artist or anything...how the hell did that come about? And what's it protection from?" he asked curiously, mind sort of ticking along the lines of that being a really damn good idea. A tattoo, if it worked, was something that wasn't like a charm or something, that could be taken off of your person or lost. Hm.

Dean caught the chuckle, but he was still hesitant and a little wary as he said, "...Thia asked her to. And it's just general, from things that might want to hurt me. Just makes me... Less easy to find, I guess. Like they don't notice me as much or something." He paused. "You're... not mad?" he asked, wanting to make sure of that.

Breaking into a grin, Oz nodded, laughing again. "I'm not mad. Just don't start coming home with tons of them, or like, on your face or something...met a guy with a barcode on his cheek..." he said, shaking his head. "And Thia came up with it, why am I not at all surprised?" he asked. Sounded like the girl. Oz had noticed Lullaby had a kind of tactical sense about her, and there was that reasonable thing she did. The spelled protection tattoo was a decent idea, and when Dean explained what it did, that was a great idea as well, or so he figured. "It's sound reasoning. Not at all a bad idea. And it recharges with water?" he asked. "How often do you have to do that?"

"I dunno how often, but I shower every day, so... I think that kinda covers it." He'd got used to the flash of blue when he got under the spray each day. "When she suggested it, I wanted her to get one too, but, well - we didn't know what affect it would have," he added. There was no way of telling what would happen if you forced a white magic spell into the skin of someone whose life depended on black magic, after all. "So, yeah - just me. And don't worry - not gonna get anything on my face." he paused. "Why would you get a barcode on your face anyhow?" he asked, puzzled by that one.

"Don't ask me, I have no idea. But I saw one, pretty recently, too. In town. Older guy and all." He shrugged. "But yeah, not mad, I think it sounds like a great idea. And...shit. Yeah, I'm not sure what kind of weirdness that might produce, if she got one. Though I'm thinking about everyone else. It wouldn't hurt to have. Might help. I think I feel better knowing you've got something like that on you at all times." he added truthfully. Oz liked anything that meant his pack was protected, and if he was off to school, or whatever, and had that, he could at least feel ever so slightly less paranoid. Not a ton, but some.

"That's kinda weird. I mean, I can see, I mean..." He gestured to the top of his arm, lightly, indicating he could see the attraction of getting ones in places that weren't so easily seen, or where they're be a choice about who would see it. "But, your face?" That would be far too obvious for the teen, who really didn't enjoy attracting attention to himself in any way at all. Purposefully getting something which would mean he stood out from the crowd didn't have attractions for him. He turned to thinking about what else Oz had suggested. "You think everyone should get one?" he asked, his voice light as he realised that he didn't like that idea. And he wasn't allowed to not like that idea, because it was a perfectly reasonable, sensible suggestion that shouldn't in any way rub Dean up the wrong way, only it did, because Thia had given him this, or at least, it had been her idea. For him, not anyone else. And he didn't want to share that. Only, he would - because it was a perfectly reasonable, sensible suggestion and he wasn't allowed to let his own twitches and feelings get in the way of that. "That... makes sense," he made himself add, keeping his tone light.

"I have a best friend who tends to attract trouble, and he can't even throw a decent punch." Oz pointed out. "And while I'd give up my other eye in a heartbeat if I had to? If things just tended not to go after him in the first place, that'd be cool too." he said. Because yes, Oz had actually paid pretty big in the name of protecting people. And he'd still do it. But avoidance of trouble, that was good. It was part of why they lived where they did. Why he liked the locations of the other houses. Prevention though...couldn't put a price on that. It was almost a little late that he caught Dean's lightness of tone, and he settled his eyes on Dean, head tilting to the side for a moment as he tried to assess what Dean might be feeling.

"Right, yeah," Dean agreed. "Well, I'd think Maddie would still have the spell - or I can draw it again for you. Though, I mean - if it was good for him, you'd think she would already have suggested it," Dean added, sounding actually almost reluctant at doing so. He'd already promised himself that he wasn't going to be pissy about this, that that wasn't allowed, even if he was sure that if Thia walked in right now she'd be able to see black clouds around him, but it was just a thought that also made sense. If the tattoo he had would work for Billy, why didn't he already have one? Wasn't Maddie some kind of protector or something? Surely she would have suggested it in the past.

"I'll talk to her about it, who knows if what you've got there is specifically designed for you." Oz said, noticing that whatever writing was there he sure as hell couldn't read. "And I don't know if she would have suggested it already, how common were tattoos in the thirties?" he asked, a rhetorical question. They were around, he was sure and all, but didn't quite know just how common. They were all over today. Publicly acceptable and all. Mostly. "She's not always thinking about things in today's standards. But still. Very good idea." He smiled. "You've got a smart girl." he noted.

Dean nodded, dropping his eyes. "Yeah - yeah, that could be it. So yeah, you should talk to her," he agreed, rubbing his thumb across his tattoo once and then glancing back at Oz, one corner of his mouth rising slightly. "Yeah, she's smart. I know I wouldn't have thought of it," he agreed. But that was Thia all over - always planning. Always thinking of other people. Like the necklace he wore, one of many she'd given out to all her friends to keep them safe. She was just that kind of a girl.

"I wouldn't have either." he said. Putting protection spells on the house? On the grounds? Yes. Coming up with one that was just there, on people? Yeah that would have been over his head. And what it did, too. He probably would have been thinking more complicatedly, like specific wards or something which likely would wind up meaning a ton of different ones, and...yeah. But that...useful, if simple. "Your cousin talked to you about school." he said, bringing that up seemingly at random.

The smile faded. "She did - and I've been going. I have," he told Oz, jumping straight to the defensive. "And I'm gonna stick with it, so you don't have to worry. And we've been given a project for history and I went round to my partner's house for it to work on it yesterday and everything, so you don't need to worry."

"She wasn't convinced you heard her." Oz said, holding up one hand to quiet protests. "She's just worried because you don't have a get out of jail free card like we did. There's not a fallback. So...I've got a deal for you." he said. "I get it. I know you don't particularly like school, and with what's been happening lately, I'm sure it's hard to care about social studies, or whatever." he continued. He'd been there. School had just whittled down to so little importance, when everything was going on. When life and death of the people you cared about was so much more a reality than it was otherwise. "If you need to leave school like you did the other day--call me. So I can call in for you. That'll at least cover you on the school authorities front, and that'll help. It won’t' be unexcused if I call in after you and say there was a family emergency." he said. "You don't get into trouble for it, and so long as you keep your grades up enough, it should be fine."

"I heard her," Dean protested. "Look, just because I don't stand there and parrot 'yes, Sophie. No, Sophie' like some moron doesn't mean I'm not bloody listening. She didn't need to go on the way she did anyway. I got it the first time round. I know, you know. I get it. I'm sixteen, I'm here on a student visa. I've got to be in good with the school or that'll get gone. And yes, I am aware that if I fuck up the... If I fuck up, then I can't do what you guys did. There's no hopping a plane to Vegas." And anyway, he was only sixteen and no matter what the circumstances, getting married for a green card was in no way on his agenda at all. "I get it. And I'm up to date with all my work and I've had a full attendance record since she spoke to me," he added, belligerently, before coming down slightly in the face of Oz' offer. "But, thanks - I'll... I'll do that. The other day... It wasn't just - I didn't just leave cos I didn't want to be there. She needed me," he said, slightly quieter. And the 'she' wasn't his cousin.

Oz nodded. He knew. He didn't know what had happened, but he knew it had to do with Thia. "And...that'll happen." he said, again speaking from experience. "That stuff, it doesn't pay attention to when you happen to be occupied at the time. So, just let me know, and I'll come up with something. You'll be covered." he said. Dean wasn't going to be the type who was going to fall in line on that. Oz wouldn't have. So he saw no need to try to get him to. The best thing was to at least make the situation more dealable in other ways. Like just taking away the problem of the school authorities getting miffed. He took another drink of his beer, eyes on Dean. "Sometimes, it doesn't seem like you're listening. Just so you know. I'm not trying to get on you about anything, but you shut down. I know you've done it to me when I've been talking to you, and it's impossible to tell if you've stopped listening at all, or if you've going to acknowledge it at all." That, he didn't feel the need to get into a discussion about. It was a point, he'd made it, and Dean could do with it what he wanted to. "What did she need?" he asked instead. "Is everything okay?"

Dean's look continued to have that belligerent edge to it. "I'm always listening. Always. And she's fine now. She needed me. She..." He looked away again. "She wouldn't tell me what was wrong over text, so I came home," he told his cousin. That was justification enough for Dean: there was something wrong, he didn't know what it was, and so he dropped everything to go and find out. The guy didn't get a whole lot more complicated than that.

Oz frowned a little bit. "...she texted you while you were in school to tell you something was wrong, but not what?" he asked, kind of not seeing the logic there. If you were going to hold out on information, you didn't go telling someone like Dean you had it in the first place. Especially not with something like that. Yes, he could completely understand why Dean had done it. Oz would have done exactly the same thing. But yeah, there was logic failure in there somewhere. Especially since--didn't Thia ride him about school?

Dean shook his head. "No - she didn't want to tell me at all. I texted her to ask what the matter was and she didn't want to say," he explained, before realising that Oz probably didn't know what he was going on about. He walked over to the other guy and showed him where the little heart-shaped pendant lay against the leather thong which he'd wrapped round and round his wrist. It pulsed, gently. "She gave me this a while ago. Another one of Maddie's jobs. It beats with her heartbeat - it's meant to be so I know she's okay." Though he knew it was horrible to wear it when he knew she wasn't - when those twenty-four long hours were dragging and the pendant was so very still. "It was racing, you see. So I texted her to find out what was wrong. And she wouldn't tell me. And then it stopped altogether. So - I came home. She'd said she would tell me when I got home."

Oz was confused as hell, then looked down at the pendant. Which was something else he never would have thought of. And good christ, was Maddie just making shit all the time, and not happening to mention it to anyone? He wondered if Billy knew, or if Maddie had just done it and not said a thing. Watching a metal pendant beat like that was trippy, he had to admit, so after a moment he looked back up to Dean's face. At least that story made more sense to him. "I always just...know when something's wrong with Sophie." he said. "It's part of the spell, if anything's seriously wrong...even when we were in apart, if something was too off, we'd get pulled into each other's dreams." Which hadn't always been easy. Sometimes it had been amazingly hard. "It was what brought her back here, actually. She knows when something's dire with me, too." Dean's seemed more general. "I know you said she's fine, but what was it?" he asked. "What had her worked up?"

"Thia knows when something's wrong with me - if we're together," Dean said, avoiding the question for now, not sure if he wanted to explain the whole 'her blood is instantly deadly' situation. After all, Oz had been twitchy about things with Thia before, and that seemed to have stabilised now, but the teen really didn't want to upset the balance once again. "She can see your mood, if it's bad. People give off negative energy. Especially me, cos of what I am. Apparently, when I'm in a really bad mood, she can see me coming before I even get in the room. She says it's like I'm surrounded by a cloud of darkness."

Looking a little surprised, Oz blinked. "Really? That's..." he paused, not even sure what that was. Useful? Kind of. A bit strange? Definitely. He chuckled after a second. "I don't know. Useful, I guess, at least sometimes, I'd imagine. I mean, I can usually tell when people are on edge, and...certain other moods and such, but that's through different cues. If she can see it and from a distance...huh." Yep he had no idea what kind of a practical use that might have, but imagined if it was needed at some point, it'd be good to know. He paused. "Would she be able to tell something like if someone wasn't telling the truth? How specific is it? Like...'bad' is pretty relative."

Dean was actually getting pretty good on negative energy these days, so he could answer that question fairly well. "Well, you put out negative energy based on your moods. Everyone does it, and it's exactly what it says it is - negative. So, it would depend, I guess. Say... if lying made you feel bad, she'd be able to see you feeling bad. But if you were someone who could lie and not feel bad about it, then no, she couldn't tell." He knew that he didn't fall into that latter group. She could always tell when he wasn't telling her the entire truth - most days he just didn't bother. And he knew that her abilities had helped solidify many of their communication habits. "And yeah, it is pretty relative. It can't be anything but that, really - it's not about what you're doing. It's how you feel about what you're doing. What she can see is emotions, not intent, or purpose or anything like that."

"Can she tell the difference between say...sadness and anger?" Oz asked. It was interesting. And again, something that was pretty good to know, all around. He'd read through the book on Fades, as shitty a source as it was, but there was a shit ton that was just kind of glossed over, or not nearly explained well enough. And, he figured, left out entirely. "I don't want to pry, I just...it's good to know what she can and can't do, just in case. You never know when something might come in handy, or be something we need to know." They'd been through two siege type situations in the house in short order, he definitely wanted to know what people could do.

Dean shook his head. "I don't really know - maybe? You'd have to ask her." Or he would. He would anyway, he knew. That had simply not been anything that had really come up, but now that it'd been raised, Dean knew that he'd want to know. It felt like something he should know - he never liked it when there were gaps in his knowledge that he felt shouldn’t be there.

He nodded. "No rush or anything, just good information to have." Oz said. "But you kind of deflected there, and didn't answer me with what was wrong." he pointed out, having lost that for a few minutes, but recalled now. "If something's going on, I'd like to know." he added, though gently, not really pushing hard for it. He also respected privacy.

Dean swallowed and nodded. He'd been thinking, a couple of times, whether it would be a good idea to tell someone - just to have someone to talk it over with. But every option seemed to be one he backed away from. He didn't have that many friends. The only one that knew about Thia was Caleb, and the guy had enough on his plate already. Plus, as much as he liked the guy, he did tend to go towards extremes and worst case scenarios and Dean didn't think he could really deal with that right now. Joshua was definitely out. So that left his cousin and people there. He didn't even consider Maddie and Billy. He didn't want to discuss things with Sophie, especially not after the way the conversation went the other day. But, when he considered Oz - there was that twitch, that wondering if it had been oz that had sent Thia away in the first place. That twitch of wondering if there was still a part of him that didn't want them to be together, for all he'd said he was cool with it. "She was at the orphanage and she got scared," he told the older man, skirting round the issue as he made up his mind. "When the beat stopped, it was her travelling to get home."

Well, Dean answered Oz' question before he asked it which was how she'd gotten there. The mirror thing--it was still something to get used to. An idea that just didn't really adopt itself well to common knowledge. "What scared her? Was there something there?" he asked. When he'd been there prowling the place while Billy put the cabinet and mirror in for her, he hadn't found anything, but there was clear activity around the place. People went there. Also, that didn't mean nothing nasty had moved in in the mean time. "You got here then left..."

Dean nodded. "Yeah - we went back to the orphanage. I took her back," he explained, still reluctant to say what had happened, but feeling like it was inevitable that he was going to - a fact that he felt both massively twitchy and oddly relieved about.

Oz stopped for almost a full minute, just watching Dean. "Let's go take a stroll down to the water." he said eventually. Because Dean was hiding something. But he wasn't outright just coming out and saying that he wasn't going to say. So, Oz figured they could go for a short walk, and maybe Dean would feel better about telling him. They'd gone for walks for other kinds of difficult subject matter conversations.

Dean met his eyes for a moment, then nodded. "I - I need to go get my coat," he said, knowing it was going to be all sorts of cold outside, especially with it being dark. He should probably get his hoodie as well - assuming it wasn't in the wash because Thia had nicked it again.

Oz nodded, and went to grab his own coat, knocking back the rest of his beer before he went to tug his boots on before he waited on the porch. It was a cold night. Snow had started to fall too, and he tilted his head back, looking up at the sky that he couldn't see any light in. Just snowflakes falling continually.

Dean disappeared upstairs, grabbing his grey hoodie - Thia had apparently taken his blue one again - and leather jacket, shrugging into that as he headed outside, bracing himself against the cold he really wasn't used to still. Capitulating, he pulled on his gloves, but held off on the hat in favour of pulling up the hood of his hoodie instead as he joined the werewolf.

Heading off through the yard, and down to the path towards the lake, Oz didn't say anything until they were well out of range of the house. "So, what's going on?" he asked, opening it up for Dean to tell him whatever it was the kid had under wraps. Here was hoping it wasn't something catastrophic.

Dean had been walking in silence, the only sound the crunch of their footsteps in the snow, and that weird absence-of-sound sound that you got when there was snowfall, like you felt that you should be able to hear the individual flakes hitting the ground but what you got was a moment of more intense silence instead. "When Thia moved to Billy's - did you have a hand in that at all?" Dean asked him, instead of answering his question. He'd never directly come out and asked before, but it felt important to know right now. What exactly had gone on there. oz had known that Dean had been having a hard time coping with his feelings for her, with her so close. And then suddenly she was moving out, because Billy had needed her to come stay - it just all seemed to be really convenient to Dean.
Shit. Oz thought. That was one question he didn't want to answer. Because he had. And he knew that Dean wasn't going to be happy with him about it. Which meant explaining himself, or trying to. He didn't answer for a few moments, giving himself time to try and come up with a good way of saying things. "I talked to Billy about it." he said. "A second opinion." He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I was worried. About both of you. The way you two were..." He broke off. "This isn't going to come out well and I know you're going to be angry, but it was done with your best interest, and hers in mind. And the fears that I had, well, they turned out to be bullshit, as far as I can tell. I didn't want you to end up like your cousin and I. We--I love her. I love her probably like you love Thia. More than anything. And I'd be willing to do absolutely anything for her. She...it was complicated, but you two fought a lot. And you fought like she and I did. And it...broke my heart every goddamn time. It was just going to be a trial. Just to see if things got better and if they didn't, then she'd come back. And she never had to leave in the first place, because I'd never force her to leave, and Billy would never force her to go with him. It was her choice...and Billy actually did need the help at the time. Maddie still spends time alone, probably more than she should." He sighed. "Go ahead and...say whatever now."

Dean didn't say anything for a long moment, several steps through the snow, his jaw set as he looked down at the ground before them, concentrating more on where he was walking in the dark than he normally would have had to, his hands thrust into his pockets even with gloves on. "We don't fight like that," he said, eventually, his voice tight. "We've never fought like that." He'd heard some of Oz and Sophie's fights. He'd lived with them when they'd been disagreeing, though he got the impression they tried to keep it away from him as much as possible, and he knew it had seemed better between them lately. "Yeah, sometimes we argue, but then we sort it out - right there and then. And we don't let it go until we both understand. That's why sometimes it gets heated. Because we're working things through. And before? We... There were things I couldn't tell her. About how I felt, and anything that stemmed from that. It confused her. And I felt like shit about that. But you didn't have to set her up to leave. And you know full damn well that telling her she was 'needed' is as good as forcing her out the door - there was no way she would say no to that. She's not that kind of a person." He fell silent again for another couple of steps. "She never felt right there," he added, his voice quieter.

Oz listened, sort of vaguely in the back of his mind wondering what that would be like. Arguing but working things through until they both understood. He didn't know he and Sophie had ever done that. Not really. Though, even if it gave him an irrational little spark of envy, it largely made him feel better. If that was the way of it, then...that was why he had noticed that he didn't think they'd had a fight since they'd got back. That the tension and everything else Dean had been going through weren't present anymore. "I know something was said about you two not liking it there..." he said. "Maddie sometimes mentions that she's still looking, but can't find anything." He paused. "Dean, if you're worried it'll happen again--it won't. Not unless things change with you two, and it's a decision you make." He paused. "As in both of you."

"I want to know you're not going to try and send her away again. Or suggest ways to encourage her to leave. Or anything like that, in any way," Dean said, laying it out bluntly. He'd believe Oz if he promised. He trusted the bloke, mostly. There was just this, this small chink in that total, blanket trust. And if Oz could promise him that now, it'd fix that little mar. And Dean knew that oz had basically just said that, but he wanted to be absolutely sure, a condition of taking this conversation any further.

"She's pack." Oz said, knowing that of anyone in that little grouping, Dean actually got that the most. "I'm not going to try and send her away again. It wasn't an easy decision to make in the first place. But it won't happen again. I hated it when you two were in England. I called. Every day, I called." Which he didn't actually know if Dean knew. He'd not talked to Dean. He'd talked to Dean's parents, and got updates on how both of them were doing.

"You called?" Dean asked, clearly surprised by that. "But - I called every day," he added. he had - he'd rung Sophie without fail every day, because he'd known that he needed to, even if nothing was wrong, he'd needed to. Like he'd called every day they were in Vegas. It was just what you did now. You kept in touch. you let everyone know you were safe, that you were alright.

"I know. But you phoned Sophie." Oz said. "I needed to hear it that you were both okay. That things were going okay. I didn't want to push though, if you didn't want to talk to me. So, I called your folks, talked to them." he confessed. "They humored me pretty well." he added with a quirked half smile, since they hadn't seemed to get sick of him. In fact, he'd gotten into some very nice conversations with them after they got used to the fact that he was going to be calling every day. "And Billy took me with once when he visited Thia's dreams, so I could check then too." He didn't mention they'd been to Dean's, too, because they hadn't had Dean's permission. But he still felt that it had been necessary.

Dean looked across at him. "Is that the time she was attacked? Were you there? I know Billy was - shadows. She woke up hurt," Dean said, an edge to his tone. Nobody had mentioned Oz being there to him, but then, with everything that had been going on, maybe he just hadn't been told, a maybe that really didn't sit very well with the teen, hence the edge there.

Oz shook his head. "No, when we went, there wasn't any attacking going on. Just...a carnival." he said, sounding a little unsettled about that. Because it had been an unsettling place, and he still couldn't quite shake the whole thing where he knew she'd died going home from one. She'd still even been within sight of the place. So yeah that kind of bothered him. "We never figured out what that might have been, and I don't think Billy's Walked since."

Good. Dean bit back that comment and just nodded, once. He didn't want that guy anywhere near Thia's dreams - or anyone else's if there was even the slightest risk to them. "Carnival?" he asked, making himself sound interested and not at all like he was biting back a pissy retort about the guy's best friend. No, he was completely swallowing that one, honest. Well, he was trying his best, but he knew he always got defensive when the subject was Thia.

"Yeah, it was a carnival. Though it was kind of...off. And it was strange being in her dream, because the sound was all off." he said, remembering that, because it was such different environment than he was used to. He had werewolf hearing. So Thia's dream had been massively strange. "Things were kind of degraded and all, hard to explain. She was looking for you." he added, because he thought that was important.

"She's mostly deaf," Dean reminded him. "So the sound was probably normal to her. And that can't have been a good dream, not if it had anything to do with her death. Did she find me?" Dean asked, curiously.

"I don't know if it did have anything to do with her death. And yeah, I know about her hearing issues, it's just one thing to know, and another thing to experience what things sound like to her." Oz said honestly. "But...anyways we stopped and talked to her, and Billy made sure she found you before we left." he told Dean. "He won't leave people with bad dreams, or even...whatever that was. Anxiety, maybe? I'm not a dream analyst. I just know she was looking for you, and was pretty stuck on that for a while."

Dean smiled very slightly at that, then felt guilty for it. Because hearing she'd been looking for him gave him a warm feeling inside, but then it didn't sound like it was a good thing either, so he should be getting happies from someone else's unhappiness. "Well good that he fixed it that time then," he said, belatedly, and the only concession he was willing to give the dreamwalker.

Oz glanced at Dean out of the corner of his eye. "It's not his fault she got hurt, you know. And he felt awful about it. He's helped her before with bad dreams, helped other people too." Like you. he thought, but didn't say. Wouldn't say. That was just...information that Dean didn't need.

"She never got hurt any other time in dreams. Just that once. When he was there. Even if he didn't mean for it to happen," Dean said, his tone fixed. "How would you be if it was Sophie?" he asked.

"Upset, but not at Billy." Oz said. "Just being present doesn't make something someone's fault. That'd be like saying what happened on the full moon might as well be my fault because I happened to be in town." he said. "We don't know what it was, and until we do, it's not fair to land blame on someone, especially when I know he was just there to help."

"No, it's not like that - the town's not your own private, personal space. Look, it doesn't matter - I get it, it wasn't his fault," Dean said, brushing it off. Clearly it was just him having an unreasonable twitch and he'd just have to deal with that. It wasn't like he hadn't had them before - he had them all over the fucking place, the trick was to keep them in line. Keep them to himself. Deal with them so he didn't alienate the entire bloody world. He stepped forward, walking a little quicker until they emerged onto the snow covered beach and he headed for the waterline.

Oz followed, not wanting to press, there. Dean was going to feel how he was, Oz had made his point about Billy, and the kid would do with it whatever he was going to do. He gave Dean a minute, walking at his same pace until he got up next to him by the water, and looked out over the vast expanse. "...so what happened at the orphanage with Thia?" he asked, finally coming back around to the subject that had got them going for a walk in the first place.

Dean stooped down and scooped up a handful of snow, compressing it down into a ball before launching it out across the water in lieu of skimming stones. "She discovered something else about being a fade," he said, before glancing over at Oz. "It's not exactly sunshine and rainbows, but what is?" Just another thing for her to hate about herself, Dean thought with a deep anger at the world over what had been done to her that didn't even generally get acknowledged, let alone addressed.

"Very little." Oz said, frowning a little bit. "What is it? Is she okay? Is it something we need to help out with, or... That book sucked." he said, putting that in there. Really with the tone of it, it had been difficult to get through, mostly because since he knew one, and she was a sweet girl, it was offensive.

You want to help out? Don't treat her like a leper when I tell you what's up, Dean thought to himself as he reached down for more snow. "She's okay, just... We found out that... Her blood... See... It's poisonous," he said, finally - choosing that word because it seemed better than 'toxic' or 'kills instantly', though there weren't many great choices there. "Not for skin contact, but - if it gets inside. Like - do you know if Sophie saw what happened with the vampire that killed Thia that night? Because... We think it might have died. Like properly-properly died. Because it bit her."

If it had been skin contact they all would have been dead a while back. That girl had spilled enough blood in the house, something that Oz had always wished was different. He was quiet for a moment, thinking about it. "I know she saw? But she hasn't talked about it." he admitted. Sophie didn't generally do that unless pressed to, and they'd had so much else going on that really? That hadn't made the list. Besides, what was there to say? She'd seen the girl killed. It wasn't fun. "I'll have to ask. But, poisonous, huh? That's...not good. Is she okay? How'd she figure that out?" he asked. He was thinking about things along the lines of blood borne pathogens. People had toxic blood these days. Diseases traveled that way and all, so there were already precautionary types of things that could be done to help guard against that sort of thing. And maybe it was the fact that he was a werewolf and all, and his bite was infectious, but he didn't quite leap to the overreaction levels of things with the news. Then he paused. "...and now her wanting to get BB declawed makes much more sense."

"Yeah - she doesn't want to take any chances. Just in case," Dean agreed - and he wasn't going to be arguing with Thia on that one. He figured it was a sensible measure and he was all about taking sensible measures so nobody had to overreact about anything here. Which had been what she'd tried to do when she first found out. "She was in the orphanage and she cut herself - there were rats and they - went after the blood that dripped on the floor. There were lots of dead rats when we got there," he explained, skirting round several issues. Like the fact that she'd been there to clean his gun that was still locked up there. Dean didn't even know if Oz knew that he didn't have the gun anymore. Or how the guy would feel about it if he'd known. He'd given Dean the gun for a reason, maybe he'd be cross that Dean had given it up. Best just not to mention it at all if possible.
Nodding, Oz took that in, thinking things over. "Well, we'll need to tell people. Just so if anything happens, there won't be accidents. Other than that, we'll just need her to be careful, and we'll have to be too. I know Sophie's already got supplies of gloves and such for all the first aid kits. So that shouldn't be a problem. People live with making sure their blood doesn't come into contact with others all the time, I'm sure she can too." His mind was kind of sliding down a different track. "A lot of dead rats just from a few drops, you said?"

"Yeah, that's kinda what I told her - she... was kind of the opinion that nobody should ever come near her. But I pointed out that people deal with problems in blood all the time, so it's workable." He just hadn't thought of the 'telling everyone' part. He didn't want people to freak out. "And yes - it's... very poisonous," he added.

"Well that's ridiculous." Oz said. "No one should go near her...no. We've all been near her up til now, and we're all fine. So that's not going to happen." he said without even having to think about it. They didn't do that, they didn't work like that. They weren't the type to, and really, if they'd been going to shove her out, it would have been a long time ago, when her father was the biggest threat. This was just something they'd all have to work with. "And 'very'. Right." he said. He paused for a few long moments, debating with himself. "...having a vial of it around in case of emergency might not be a horrible idea." he said delicately. "How quick does it work?"

Dean looked at the guy, his eyes narrowing. "Tell me you really didn't just suggest that we take her blood to use as a weapon," he said, slowly, his voice low.

Oz didn't say anything for a long, long moment. He looked out at the water, then back to Dean. "If we'd had something like that when the vampires showed up, she might not have died that night in the first place." he said. "If it's that potent, and if it works fast, if what she said was right, and the vampire died just because it bit her? It could have helped. Bullets didn't work so well against them, but if they were coated in that, they might have been." he said, tone light.

Dean didn't say anything at all as he looked at Oz, clearly not at all happy - something that was only confirmed when he turned and simply walked off. That had been a low blow as far as he was concerned, using her death like that, and right now he didn't want to talk to the guy at all.

Wincing, Oz sighed, and looked off after the teenager. Vaguely, he wondered what Thia would be seeing if he looked at her boyfriend right now. "Dean, hold up." he tried, not at all sure that was going to work out for him, but he wanted to try.

It didn't work out for him as Dean carried on walking up the beach, though not directly back towards the house. He figured that right now was one of those big black cloud moments and he didn't want Thia to see him like that. he didn't want Thia to get it out of him that oz had suggested that they use her blood as a weapon, didn't want to talk about how that was one thing in this world he hated almost above everything else - that idea that someone could be used in that way. She knew that, but at the same time he got the feeling that she might just come down on Oz' side in this one - she might just think that it was a good idea. Hell, she'd probably see it as something useful she could do and he didn't want to have that conversation, not now. Really, really not now.

Oz drew in a breath, and let it out slowly, wondering just how long Dean was going to be mad about this. Probably a while. He always did over react when it had anything to do with Thia. It was just what the kid did. "Don't be out too long." he called, trailing behind a bit, though heading more towards the house. He didn't directly head up though, keeping his eye on Dean.

He was just going to keep on walking. He was just going to keep on walking and he wasn't going to look back and he wasn't going to say anything and did the guy really think he was stupid enough to stay out long enough to freeze to death and it was snowing anyhow and he wasn't going to say anything and he was walking and then he'd go back to the house and... Dean's mind went round and round, grinding that out - it was better than concentrating on everything else right now. He didn't want to think, he didn't want to think about anything. He just shouldn't have said anything, he should have just kept quiet and kept it to himself and he knew Oz was being too cool about shit and that had to end sometime and he wouldn't use Thia as a weapon, he wouldn't allow it and it wasn't his decision anyway so what he would and wouldn't allow was neither here nor there and if anyone said anything to her she was going to go for it because she was fucking selfless at times and just wanted to make up for everything her fucking father did and it wasn't her fault and she didn't have to and she'd do it, he knew she'd do it and she'd let them cut her and take her blood and they'd give it to him - they'd make him shoot fucking bullets covered in her blood and he couldn't do that, he couldn't do it, he couldn't, none of it. He didn't want any of it. His brain just didn't stop as he disappeared into the trees, out of sight.