game plan of a different nature

who: billy and oz
where: osbourne household
when: late afternoon

Oz was sitting down at the top of the steps on the third floor. Dean was still downstairs, of course. Annd he was pretty sure that Dean wasn't at all going to be listening and coming back up. He'd go get him, but...he didn't know if that was the thing to do or not. Most of the time he had a clearer idea of what was and wasn't the thing to do. Just...not today. Today, when he felt like it was most important. It wasn't helping that he was acutely aware that she'd died on his watch for the second time. And he still was feeling very much like things didn't even out. It was all a mess in his head, in general, and he wasn't happy. It was also a full moon tonight. He'd be turning, and he couldn't go downstairs to his cage. He needed to be...doing something. He didn't know. Again, he felt lost, not sure what he needed to be doing, and feeling like he really should.

Billy walked up behind his friend, his steps sounding quietly across the floor. He stopped just behind the werewolf, then sat down next to him on the steps, leaning forward a little and looking across. "How you doing?" he asked, quietly.

Oz heard the approach, marked it as Billy. He wasn't sure how to answer the question, even if he figured it was coming. If there was an emergency, there would have been a lot more frantic going on. "Not entirely well." he said. "You?" He turned to look over at Billy, honestly wondering there. He knew that Billy had kind of a little thing going on with Lullaby, and he'd spoken up against her following through with what she did.

"Not great," Billy admitted. "I keep thinking there should have been more that we could have done," he admitted, his tone even and free of accusation towards anyone. He knew there hadn't been and, really, that was what got him the most. That feeling of powerlessness, that nothing could have been done to stop her doing that.

"I keep trying to tell myself that there wasn't much of a choice in the matter, but it's not helping." Oz said with a sigh, dragging his fingers through his hair. "I think she made up her mind there, but...yeah. I don't know. I keep thinking that it doesn't feel like it was worth it. And I keep feeling like I just...she's pack, and she died here. Again." Now she was more pack than she was then, of course. But that didn't really matter so much to Oz.

"It's never worth it," Billy agreed, quietly. he'd stood and watched as Maddie and Sophie had carried the sheet-covered body upstairs. He could just about hear the sounds of Sophie intermittently scrubbing at the floor in the games room, trying to get the blood stains out of the carpet. Everyone was quiet, everyone had been subdued all day. Dean hadn't come up from downstairs at all - the only reason Billy knew he was still there was the fact he'd got a text message from him and the fact that every couple of hours there was the sound of gunfire.

Oz nodded. Yeah. He'd back that up right now. "I think she would have done it anyways." he added. It was kind of one of the things he kept in mind, but it too didn't make him feel any better. "No matter what anyone said, I think she would have done it." He was quiet for a long minute. "Pretty sure Dean hates all of us right around now." he added. "Though I'm also pretty sure he reserves the majority of that for himself. And I tried to tell him it wasn't his fault, but there's a determination factor there."

"It's not easy, being in love with a martyr," Billy said, knowing the truth of that one. Thia had always reminded him of Maddie, Dean somewhat of himself - though he maintained that he'd never been that overly dramatic or pig-headed about anything, but he was constantly drawing the parallels there. Their situations were too similar not to. "Especially when you can't accept that's what she is - sounds like he's looking for someone to blame and doesn't want to blame her. She chose this. Doesn't make it any better, but accepting that makes it a bit easier. Maybe," Billy added, though he didn't sound sure. "Out of interest - why does he blame himself?"

"He's got this idea that if he hadn't gotten hurt, then this wouldn't have happened. Which...I've tried to tell him how full of holes that logic is, but he isn't listening." Oz answered. "And you're right, it doesn't make it better that she chose it. It hadn't been the slightest bit comforting. And I just have trouble because I know that it was probably the right thing to do. It just doesn't..." he was going to repeat himself if he finished the statement so he didn't, letting it trail off. "I don't know what to do right now to help him. Or her, for that matter, when she gets back. Who knows how she'll be feeling then. What--you've got some sort of connection with her. I guess I always meant to ask you about it when we had time." And now there was time, only it wasn't exactly the best of them.

Billy had been about o reply to Oz' observations on Dean when the werewolf finished his sentence and Billy's expression turned surprised and a little confused. "No - you and Sophie have a 'connection', Thia and I... We just get along, I guess. She's a nice kid," he said.

"I hang out with her sometimes, play music, spend some time. She does the same with Sophie. But when you and Maddie were over the other night, she texted you. You were called in to deal with...whatever. And don't think I didn't see how the two of you were when she decided to leave here, and she walked to your place." Oz pointed out. "There's something there. You were the first person to speak out against what she was saying, too. ...other than Dean." But then Oz had to wonder if Dean was bleeding out if he wouldn't still have told Lullaby no.

"'How the two of us were'?" Billy asked, cautiously at the wording of that. "Oz, I don't know what you're suggesting, but... We just get along. She sometimes needs someone to talk to that's not, no offense, but not part of this household. Someone separate. That's all. Somehow, it seems I'm it. As for today..." He tailed off. That was complicated. But wasn't everything?

Pausing for a second, Oz eyed Billy. "...there some reason you're taking offense to the idea that she's kinda latched onto you?" he asked. "And you seem to be doing fine with that? It's not a bad thing. I think she probably does need outside influences that don't live here. Just seemed to me like...I don't know. Like you two sort of clicked. ...sort of like Dean and I had, though I'm kind of wondering if that's over now." Which was something that greatly upset Oz, and that was clear.

Billy looked over then scowled a little. "No, it's just, the way you put it made it sound like..." he gestured. "A thing," he pointed out. "You know, you word things really badly sometimes," he added, though it was in a kind, almost pitying tone. "You should watch that." Not that billy was often any better, but he usually failed to see that.

Oz blinked. "...that's not--you really thought I'd say that for even a second?" he asked. "I--she's sixteen. And...Dean's." Not that they were much older and there were people in the world that would probably find either one of them in a relationship with a sixteen year old not that much amiss, but it still seemed like a completely fucked concept to Oz. He was also aware that Dean and Lullaby weren't together. It wasn't quite what he meant, but didn't have a more appropriate term. "And whatever anyways--not the point."

"And I'm about to be married," Billy supplied, because he thought that was rather more to the point than what Dean was or wasn't to Thia and definitely more to the point than what Thia was to Dean. "Which is why you got the reaction you did - because, no, I wouldn't have thought that you'd think that, but... Anyway, never mind. Moving on," he agreed with a small smile, pushing the lazy curls back from his face.

Rolling his eyes in something resembling good nature, Oz quirked a half smile back in return. "...yeah. Moving on. Now quit dodging around the point. She's adopted you. Or...something. Almost seems like we wound up with kids when we weren't looking." Only skipping over that all important baby part.

Billy blinked at that. "She.... No, no - I'm having kids. They're, it's - a whole eight months away, more even, maybe - but... She's just, we're just - she calls me sometimes, when she needs someone to talk to. that's all," he spluttered. "I mean, you - with the Dean thing, that's different. He's a relative, you're his guardian, of course he's going to... but. No. No." He paused. "Really?" he asked, stopping the flailing and frowning at Oz.

"Technically, Sophie's his relative." Oz said. "That's just not how it wound up in practicality." He watched Billy sputtering a bunch, and reached out to clap a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Yeah that's kinda how I sounded when Sophie told me about Dean listening to me and looking at me like that." he sympathized. It was...jarring.

"Oh," Was Billy's only reply as he took that on board. Was Oz right? Was that really the case? he wasn't sure - they'd talked a few times and they'd seemed to get on. And she had called him that one time when she needed someone, but... That was understandable. She'd needed someone to talk to about Dean, which ruled out Sophie and Oz and - did the girl even have anyone else to talk to right now? He wasn't sure - he'd always viewed her current situation as being a bit like Maddie's when she was dead. Lonely, isolated, too easy to get fixed on one person. He'd been planning on encouraging her to get out more, as much as she could and he suddenly realised with that thought that he'd been thinking about this far more than he'd realised he'd been thinking about it. Ah.

"Guess I can't ask you too much about it since you didn't seem to know." Oz assessed. He'd see how it developed. Right now, with that realization just kind of hanging, he didn't figure it was the best time to discuss what he was thinking was more and more necessary, as much as he hated it. Right now, however, he didn't really want to risk Dean getting even the slightest wind of it, and nothing could be guaranteed in their current circumstance. And that was if she came back at all. She was supposed to, but...could they ever be sure? Honestly now. "...I just wondered how you were, considering...with you two kind of seeming close and everything, and...yeah."

"I'm focusing on the fact she'll be back tomorrow," Billy told him. The dreamwalker had a lot more confidence in that fact than the werewolf did. That was how things worked. She was a fade, fades had that mostly-immortal thing going on. They died, they came back a day later. There was no reason for that not to happen. His reasons for not wanting her to die in the first place were gone now and he was facing the next step - surviving the night and her coming back again in the morning. "We're not going to be welcome there, you know that, right?" he added.

"...where, when she comes back?" Oz asked. "Or..." he wasn't quite sure so he figured it worked best to let Billy explain, and he could keep up with the rest of the class in a minute.

"Yeah, when she comes back. If Dean's still laying blame - which I'm sure he will be. Can you see him letting us anywhere near her?" he asked, a little sadly. Dean wasn't the only one who cared for the girl, after all though the way the kid acted at times, you'd think he was. he shook his head. "I don't know - maybe it won't go like that, but - you talked to him, you'd know better than I would."

"If by 'talk' you mean he ignored me as long as possible, kept trying to walk away, and then didn't hear a word I said...I guess." Oz said doubtfully. "Hell, he wouldn't even go upstairs to change." Picking at a frayed end of his sleeve, Oz continued. "He said something about how we let her die, too. How we did nothing. About how it was a choice between her and him, and we chose him." Which Oz didn't think was true. He thought Thia chose Dean.

"There's nothing we could have done," Billy told him, which he was sure Oz already knew. "She can take injuries with a touch. And she was determined to do that. Someone would have had to hold her down, keep her away from Dean - then we would have had to get him to the hospital. And there were more of them coming sooner or later and... The math there doesn't add up."

"I know. I just don't think he does. And he still came back to the idea that it was somehow all his fault." Oz said. "The entire situation sucks. ..do you think we should all just...let him be when she comes back?" he asked. "Give...time, or whatever? Space?"

"I think maybe it'll help if she explains things from her angle. And she will - I'm sure of that. You've seen the two of them, the one thing they do is talk. And he listens to her, even if he doesn't seem to be, it's all there. I've seen it," Billy admitted to his friend - and he wasn't referring to just watching them in waking hours. When he'd gone into Dean's dreams, after Thia had died the first time, he'd accessed the part of Dean's memories that were of the girl to manipulate his dream into something better. He'd got a whole lot more there than he'd really been expecting, but then Dean's thoughts of her had been so very close to the surface that night.

Oz listened to that, and tried to let it sink in enough to set him slightly more at ease. Not a lot was doing that tonight. He was going to be turning at some point, and everything else on top of that... But he listened. "I know they argue all the time." Oz said. He gave a slight half smile that died fairly quickly. "Hell, yesterday, we might not have even been around, when they were starting to get going..." They'd argued like they were perfectly alone and didn't have an audience. An audience of four adults that probably should have had more say in the proceedings, but they'd seemed to be wanting to do all the plotting...

Billy chuckled, remembering that. "Yeah, that was quite the show," he agreed, sounding mostly unbothered about it. "You know most of their arguments wouldn't happen if he'd just tell her how he felt, right?" He rolled his eyes. "That's what I just don't get - he's in love with her, she loves him. Hell, he even knows that and still he's pretending like there's nothing there. It just confuses the hell out of her and makes him seem to make no sense at all. And she's just clueless - how she's managed not to see it, I don't know, though I'll give him that he works pretty hard on hiding it, from what little I've actually seen of them together."

Considering that, Oz turned his gaze on Billy from where it had drifted down the stairs again. "Is that what causes it most of the time? I know they fight, I don't always know what they fight about. Most of the time I just know it's happening because they get these tones when they're doing it, so I pick up on those. It's just...often." he admitted. Then he was pondering what else Billy said. "He failed to mention that she loves him. He kind of...when he talks to me, he's got this big wall that he wants to keep there. He doesn't want her to know. I think he probably does do a really good job of hiding it--but I back you on that whole disbelief that she hasn't pegged him for it anyways. The kid practically lives and breathes her half the time. They get...intense." This, from the werewolf who was known for being overly intense himself. It was far easier to see in Dean and Thia, though! "When the hell did the love thing happen?"

"I haven't been there a lot of the time, but from talking to her, reading in between the lines - I'd be willing to lay money on the fact that most of their arguments come from that. Hell, yesterday's set to was rooted in the fact that they each try and put the other first. But she doesn't get how important she is to him - that's got to be a huge block there," the dreamwalker mused. "And the love thing - for him or for her?" he asked, turning a little to lean against the banister, relaxing into a more comfortable position.

"Her. I've known he was in love with her for ages." Oz said. He didn't need to be a dreamwalker for that. Not at all. It was just...really, really clear. At least, to him. And probably everyone else who knew him, other than the girl in question. She was oblivious as hell, but yeah. There were reasons, but he still wondered sometimes... It was right there.

"That I can't help you out with I'm afraid - I really don't know," Billy admitted. "But that's that that conversation was about. When she called me out that night. She'd told him, he'd freaked or something. Anyway, it was bad, she was upset, I did what damage control I could without hitting her upside the head and just telling her to open her damn eyes and see what the rest of us find blatantly obvious."

"I think Dean would kill us all if any of us actually told her." Oz said. "He's so dead set against it. I can't figure out why though. He seems to think she wouldn't be interested, or something, but if she's told him she loves him...that on top of everything else, considering how she behaves around him. You're right. Yesterday's argument was caused because they both want to put the other first." He paused, then in a much lower tone, he added something else. "...worries me, sometimes." And by 'sometimes', he meant 'all the time'.

"Oh I'm sure he would - which is why I haven't. Can't say it hasn't been tempting. Do you know how easy it'd be for me to play matchmaker there? He already dreams of her, it wouldn't be that hard to get her to dream of him, then just a few little tweaks and they'd be..." He grinned. "I wouldn't though, that's not right. But it's tempting at times, just to give that little extra push." Billy didn't have Oz' doubts, he was convinced that the pair would be good together, projecting as he almost always did, his relationship with Maddie onto them. "What worries you?" he asked, turning a little more serious.

Oz thought about that, what Billy said. The matchmaker thing. He could hear it in Billy's voice, that he thought it would be a good thing. Oz still wasn't convinced. "...I said it before--they're intense. I worry about how far he'd go for her. And...well. We know how far she'd go for him, that's why we have a body in the attic. Anything to do with her is always so blindingly encompassing for him. I just worry. And with the fighting...sometimes they remind me a little too much of me n Sophie." he admitted. He was still keeping his voice far, far down.

That got another chuckle. "They remind me of me and Maddie," he admitted. "And I don't think that's a bad thing. Body in the attic aside. Yes, they're intense- everything's the end of the world with those two, but to be fair, it's felt like that a lot of the time here lately. But being devoted to someone - there's nothing wrong with that," Billy said, glancing back towards his room, thinking of Maddie.

"No. There isn't." Oz said. He was the guy who'd decided he was mated at fifteen, after all. Then subsequently kept adopting people. "I don't know. Maybe it's nothing. I just feel like maybe things are at a level that's too much. I know it's hard on Dean. He doesn't want to say it's hard on him. Not really but I know it is. Her being here...everything. I worry about that, too. How much can someone really be expected to take? Especially with his total screaming insistence that she not find out how he feels."

Billy shook his head. "He really need to give that up. I don't get what he's so afraid of. Really, even if she doesn't love him like that, she really not the kind of girl who'd reject him out of hand and never talk to him again. He's got nothing to lose and everything to gain, he just needs to stop being an idiot," was the dreamwalker's swift assessment of how he saw the situation.

"Well, I'll back you on that. I don't think she's that kind of girl either, not to mention she's just as attached to him as he is to her, so...yeah. I don't know. Sometimes I wonder if it really would all be better if they just hooked up already." And the other time he worried that it would just make everything worse. Oz was still torn on the entire thing. "What worries me is...we were talking about devotion. With how they are, and everything else, my concern is one of them doing something that won't be fixable. Like her coming back the next day is fixable, but Dean won't come back. And what if sometime she doesn't? I could see them easily getting themselves in too deep, no foresight there." He shook his head. "Listen to me." he said. "When did I get to be the worried father here?"

Billy outright laughed at that. "Oz, you've been a worried father since the day I met you. You just have a son now to give you premature grey hairs. Maybe we need to be talking to them about this, after all this is over," he suggested, purposefully putting the 'we' in there since he was apparently involved in this. And because he thought that his friend could really do with the support right now.

Oz made a face, but didn't actually deny anything there. because Billy was probably right on that score. He sighed. "What would we even say?" he asked. "'Hey, we're worried about the two of you and how you are with one another. We had a corpse in the attic today, Sophie spent all day trying to get the blood off of the floor in the games room, and Dean, your best friend literally died in your arms. We're thinking it might be some levels of unhealthy, what do you think?'?"

"No, actually I was thinking more along the lines of 'we've been watching you guys for a while now, how you're like with each other. Things went really screwy there and somehow we think that if it came down to it, it'd happen again. How about we discuss that, figure out how we can get through it without one of you getting dead and the other getting....' whatever the hell it is Dean's doing at the moment. What is he doing anyhow? And is he okay just being left to it?" Billy asked.

"That sounds better. Not sure they'd listen, but it sounds better." Oz said. "And...he's down there, killing everything that comes up the stairs. He set up a bit of a barricade, as far as I could tell. Smart. Bottlenecks them really really effectively. But as for what he's doing...sitting there and probably spinning his wheels. He's making sure nothing gets past, so he's functioning, at least on some level, but...I don't think Dean belongs in any sentence that has the world 'okay' in it right now. I think he's dealing really poorly. Which...can't blame the kid, can I? He did just have the girl he's in love with bleed out on him. There's not really anything for that. Even if she comes back, I don't know if he'll be okay. Last time, he didn't have to see it. The first time he wasn't there at all. This time..." He shook his head.

"He shouldn't have had to deal with that," Billy said, with some feeling. "He's too young for that - even if he knows he's going to see her again, that it'll be okay, he's still too young to deal with that." Billy wondered if he should go and talk to the guy, but from what Oz had been saying, he doubted it would be welcome. And Billy knew that the last thing anyone wanted to hear in these circumstances was 'I know how you feel', even if the dreamwalker felt particularly qualified to say that. "he's going to be alright though? In a purely physical sense of the word? He's not..." Me

Oz didn't actually need Billy to finish that. "...he'll be okay. Technically." he confirmed. "I agree, though. That he's too young. Hell he shouldn't have had to deal with it at all. She's too young to have died three times already. When the vamps killed her, they left this scar on her neck, and she hides it. Checks the choker she wears all the time. I don't know. I don't know how particularly well adjusted she is to all of this either. I don't think she would have done anything different even if she knew she'd be coming back with a ton more issues than she died with." He sighed again. "Sometimes I wonder if separating them wouldn't be best." And it was very very clear how twitchy even saying it made him.

Billy considered that. "You think that separating them would prevent this kind of thing?" he asked. He wasn't entirely sure of that himself, but he was leaving his opinions open at the moment, waiting to see what Oz had to say.

"Honestly I have no idea. I know they'd both hate the suggestion. Probably really fight against it. But maybe if they weren't around each other all the time, if anything happened...I don't know. They wouldn't both be wrapped up in it at the same time. Or, it could make things worse, I have absolutely no clue. I've just been thinking about it for a while. I talk to Dean about things and he just seems...constantly stressed out over her, but he won't let go. ...or like we said, just tell her." Oz said.

"It's affecting him that badly? Like what?" Billy asked. He paused. "And where would you be wanting her to go?" That second question was asked lightly, but he had an inkling what the answer to that would be. He'd have to talk to Maddie - he didn't think that going back into the room and telling her that he'd committed her to taking in a teenager would go down too well. Plus he wasn't entirely sure it would be healthy for either female to be around someone else who thought that martyrdom for a cause was a good idea, but maybe Oz had something else in mind.

"I don't want her to go anywhere." Oz said first, propping his chin on his hand. "I really don't. I'd rather she stayed here. I just don't know if it's best for Dean and now I'm really starting to wonder the same thing about her..." He looked over again. "You're the only person I would trust to take her." he finished. "I haven't wanted to ask because I know you don't like being around anyone, and I know you still probably haven't done all your catching up with Maddie, either. If you don't want to do it, she'll just stay here and I'll think on other options. It might not even be a good idea at all, I just...yeah. Worry. What do you think?"

Billy didn't answer straight away, mulling this over. "I think it'll depend on Maddie," he said, in the end. "And it'll depend on Thia - I'm not saying no, but I'm not saying yes either. Let me give it some thought. Have you discussed this with anyone else? Sophie? Thia? Dean? Do you know how any of them feel about it?" he asked, thinking that if Thia was to leave, now might be a good time to subtly suggest it - her room was in tatters after all, though this house had other rooms, so it wasn't like they couldn't accommodate her, but still, it might be less of a wrench.

"No for the most part. I've mostly been keeping it to myself, until I knew more how I felt about it." Oz said. "Sophie...she's been being fine with Thia, but she's always going to hate anything to do with magic. Thia is by default. ...honestly I don't know what Thia would say. I know she's dependent on Dean. I know she's settled into her room here, which makes me think she's viewing it like home, which...it is. i don't really want to take anything away from her. I think she's happy here, I just think it's rough on Dean, and then there's that martyr thing. Obviously what she finds acceptable is...yeah. Anyways. I mentioned it to Dean a bit, kind of trying to say if Lullaby were with a powerful witch, maybe she'd be safe...he wasn't very happy at first, but said that I'd have to word it carefully to her so she didn't think she was being sent away. I don't know, he didn't sound like he was happy with the idea, but didn't necessarily shoot it down completely."

Billy raised an eyebrow at that. "So you can sell it to the boy on the basis that it's best for her - which, given the way he was acting yesterday, will probably work. Seems a case where each of them'll put themselves through anything for the other, so may as well play on that. And we can't send them away... But I could see if I could invite her," Billy mused. "Not that I'm agreeing to anything until I've spoken to Maddie," he added quickly, disclaimering that. "But... If I put it to her that I'm working really long hours. And Maddie's pregnant, and still not doing great with living in a modern house and we could really do with some help around the place..."

Oz thought about that. "...that might work." Oz said thoughtfully after milling it over for a few moments. "It would take care of her feeling like she's being sent away, which I don't want. I want her to be able to come back here if she needs to, she'll still have her room, of course. Hell. Maybe if it's just a break for them it'd be best. Don't put any pressure on it that it's permanent or anything, and we can just sort of...assess."

"You might want Sophie to add in there that it'd make it easier for you to redecorate her room," Billy suggested. "Which would reinforce the idea that it is still her room. Course, she might clue into the fact that I ahve a room here as well, but I've never lived here, but still, it'd be something." And I still have to talk to Maddie, he thought, but felt he didn't need to say - he should keep reminding himself of that though, he didn't want to go to her, mind already made up.

"Yeah. That would help, I think." Oz agreed. "And who knows, by the time the place does get remodeled, things would be better. I just keep thinking that things are...dangerous. Really riding the line of potentially disastrous. So...if it's okay with Maddie and you both, maybe we'll mention when this shit storm blows over. I'm not saying word one about this until she's at least been back a day or so. It wouldn't be--just no. That would be fucked up. And I wouldn't want her thinking it was because she'd died here." Again.

"We'll see how it goes. And don't say anything until I've talked to Maddie anyway - I don't want to end up lynched, and you know how she gets. And with everything else... I don't want to cause problems between us," he admitted. And that was a possibility if he wasn't careful, he knew. She'd always had this thing about how he just picked her up and put her down, treated her like she wasn't properly part of his life. And whilst he thought he'd put a great deal of that to rest, he didn't know how much of that was still hanging around - and the last thing he wanted was for any of it to resurface now that she was alive. So - careful.

"Yeah, I don't want you guys to have problems either. You just got your life together, I don't really want to see it crash and burn. ...which brings me to saying if you aren't okay with this one hundred percent, then let me know. I'll think of something else." Oz promised. And he would. He just...didn't know what.

Billy smiled a crooked smile. "Man, if I wasn't okay with this, you'd know about it by now, okay? I wouldn't be all helpful and shit. Besides, you were the one that's been telling me for years that I need to get over the whole 'isolationist' thing," he pointed out.

Oz chuckled a touch. "True. I guess I just never pictured it like this..." he commented. 'Here, take this adopted teenage girl for a little while, so my adopted son can dial back the aneurysm he's working on'. Yep. Their lives never did stop getting stranger. Just seemed like the brand of it was slightly weirder than usual.

Billy raised an eyebrow and gave the other guy a look. "Seriously, now - how much of your life did you picture being like this at all?" he asked, knowing that his own answer was 'no much'. Or at all, in fact. A random teenage girl was easier to imagine in the scheme of things than a pregnant, formerly dead, fiancee, after all.

"See this is actually pretty close...just like...sixteen, seventeen years too soon?" Oz suggested. "And with less crazy insane random deaths." Because Oz had always wanted a family. Always always always. It never left the list of things he wanted. He just happened to be getting one a bit early and it skipped over the finer points of actually raising children and skipped to the angsty teeangers stage.

"Well, then you're a lot closer than I am. I never saw any of this in my future - I was going to be the crazy old guy that talked to himself, remember?" Billy pointed out. "Living in the creepy house that the kids would dare each other to ring the bell at on Halloween," he joked.

"Oh, I remember." Oz said. "But...not anymore. Now you're getting a wife, and kids." he said. "And by the way, from here out, I'm just going to be arbitrarily deciding that Thia's yours. I have my hands full with Dean." he added, flashing a brief grin.

"You know? Out of the pair? I think I got the better deal," Billy told him, not sounding entirely displeased with this. He'd always liked Thia, she was a nice kid. She was friendly and open and he could talk to her. And yeah, maybe he thought that he could do some good there, relate to her from his own experiences. He felt he'd got through to her a couple of times at least and that'd given him a little buzz - to have actually really touched someone, helped them. he'd always liked that, he'd just never really done it in the real world before.

"She is generally less armed. And talks more. Smiles now and then...laughs." Oz agreed. "But I'll still take Dean. I get how he thinks. Even if that's probably really, really scary." he decided. "Watch out for her reasonable streak, though. It's devastating."

"Hey, you gave the boy the gun, didn't you?" Billy pointed out. "Created a monster," he chuckled as almost on cue it seemed, shots fired from downstairs. Billy paused, wondering if the guy would be okay, but he figured that Oz would decide that, and anyway, Billy wasn't exactly in the front line for defense. "It's good you understand him though - maybe that'll help. Or is it just the reason that you're so worried?" he asked.

"...can I just say I can't even believe how fucking amazing he is with that thing? He's a better shot than people who've been doing this for years. And it's all on the fly, too, all mid-crisis, when we both know he's also an emotional landmine right now." Oz had to say, that pride in Dean showing up in his tone again. "It's a good chunk of why I'm concerned. I know how my head works. And...I don't know. With Sophie, it's different. She's a lot less emotionally swayed than Thia is. Sophie'll think something through. And she'll make more responsible decisions. Thia...don't get me wrong, is smart. She and Dean planning shit together was...kinda scary to watch, possibly, since they had such sound ideas going on. I just...there has to be a stable part of the equation when things are so intense between two people. It just won't work otherwise. And I think with the strain Dean's been under for a while, he won't remain the stable one, and I don't know if she can..." he made a vague gesture. "Pick up the slack, I guess. I wouldn't blame her if she couldn't, but...get my point?"

"Sophie's also five years older than Thia," Billy pointed out. "She didn't always used to be like that." of course, Sophie had also run away ands tayed away for three years, so that possibly wasn't the best of things to point out to the guy either, "As for Dean - do you want me to check him out? Assuming that he's got to sleep at some point?" Which reminded him that the shadows here apparently had something to do with his dreamwalking, that was his connection, but he wasn't spreading that around. If it needed to be done? Well, he could fight better in dreams, couldn't he?

"I know she is. Sophie also wasn't brutally murdered a few weeks ago. I'm not saying it's her fault if she can't do it, I'm saying that if she can't, that's not good. Means that Dean has to be the stable one all the time and his stability is in question. I don't want to wind up with two teenagers having a breakdown...it would be a huge mess. Maybe she can do it, like I said. I honestly don't know. If I knew I'd probably feel a little better about things, but no way of telling that." he paused for a moment, thinking. "...I wouldn't count on him sleeping unless Sophie drugs him again." Oz said. "If you want to--go for it. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did. I'm not sure."

Billy actually considered this, then shook his head. "No - I think that drugging anyone right now would be a very bad idea. We might need him and Thia'd never forgive us if anything happened to him - or to any of us because he was out - when she gets back. Just - if you find he's sleeping, let me know and I'll see what I can do, okay? I don't think he even realises I was there last time still and I think that helped."

Oz nodded. "I will. If nothing else, I'm kind of hoping when she gets back, she'll make him go sleep or he'll decide he can or something. I'll let you know either way, though. I'd appreciate it." At least he'd have a better idea what was up, he supposed. He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, glancing towards the windows. He was going to be a werewolf tonight and he wasn't going to be able to lock himself up. Wow was he ever not looking forward to that. At all. "I should probably go grab people food and everything." he said. "Get ready for the night."

Billy noted the glance toward the window. "It'll be fine," he said, quietly.

"...yeah." Oz said, before he sighed and then headed downstairs, to get supplies for the night. Food, water, possibly more ammo up from the basement for Dean...see if he could scare up any other weaponry that might be useful, even though they already looked more than once. Then he'd sit and prepare himself for feeling vulnerable the entire night for reasons that had nothing to do with the crisis at hand. Back to the weirdness that was his life.