parental-type concern

who: oz and dean
where: out by the lake
when: before dark

Oz had had an...interesting sort of day. What with having to deal with the possibility of Billy dropping down off the deep end again, and then hey! What was it with the women in this town pulling surprise resurrections? Not that he was complaining, it was just jarring. He was happy though. He'd take it. If Maddie was back that meant he didn't have to worry about Billy slowly letting himself die. He never really had to worry about outright suicide with his best friend, but just not doing anything to survive? Yeah. That. Death by extreme apathy. Either way, that worry was settled, thank christ. Of course that also meant that he'd had a redhead barking orders at him all day. But even with that...he'd seen her smiling at him out of the corner of her eye. With something that might have been affection, beneath the 'well get a move on, wolf' of it all. So...weird day.

He also hadn't seen much of the kids, either. He noted when Dean had taken off, which he couldn't really blame him for. It had to be kind of rough, the whole situation. So...he let him go. House full of people, mostly antisocial guy--he could see it. It was starting to get late, though, and while dark was a long ways off, he didn't want to take any chances, either. So he'd tracked the kid down easily, finding him down by the lake. He made noise as he came up behind him, knowing that usually he was kind of quiet. Habit, he supposed. Paranoia, others might say. He walked up next to him, and knelt down to flick water with his hand. He didn't say anything immediately, and looked out at the water, risking pushing his shades up on top of his head, as the shadows where covering him well now. Trees were awesome that way. "How're you?" he asked Dean, finally looking over at him.

Dean had been sat on the shore, knees pulled up to his chest, the book on psychics at his side, the pages fluttering in the breeze, forgotten about. He'd finished reading a while ago - there wasn't enough information there. Not enough to answer his questions, not enough to satisfy him, just enough to make him concerned and more worried. It hadn't made anything better at all. Apart from one point, but that was a fairly masochistic one. Since he'd put the book down, he'd just been sitting there, staring out over the lake, waiting for some kind of inspiration, some plan or idea to hit. Something, but there was nothing. "Yeah," he said, dull, not looking round as Oz sat down, though he'd heard him coming.

"You're 'yeah'?" Oz asked, arching an eyebrow. "Okay I'm just going to take a leap here and assume that means 'bad'. And since I'm doing that I can hop right on forward to the question of what's wrong?" He glanced down at the book, then moved to sit properly next to Dean, and he picked it up, noting that it was a book on psychics. Huh.

"I know you were bit before you can really remember, but... If someone had told you that you were going to become a danger to people, that you'd be able to hurt them even if you didn't want to - what would you have done?" he asked, his voice sounding hollow. He'd read the book, he'd read up about disruptors, he'd read about how as his powers developed, Thia was right - he was going to be able to start affecting living things. He just didn't have enough faith in himself to believe that he would be able to avoid doing that accidentally.

Oz blinked and stilled, looking at Dean for a long moment before he answered. "...didn't matter that it happened young, Dean, I lived with that every day." he said. Because that was the truth. "What I did was tried to take as many precautions as I possibly could, and for a long time I sort of...wasn't very social." He gave a little rueful smile that didn't last. "Then I noticed girls and decided that was stupid. And I met your cousin, and a lot of other people that changed my life. In the end all I could really do was be as aware of it as possible, and try to make sure everyone around me knew the risks too. Because I tried hiding it for a while...but that was kind of a stupid thing to do. Well that and I had to try and explain the fact that I wasn't really a stalker, even if that's kind of how I acted..."

"I found out today that..." He broke off, figuring he should start a little further back. He didn't really know how much oz knew about him. "You know I can break things, mentally," he said, trying to find the right words. His head was such a fucking mess right now, he didn't know if that was possible. "Apparently I'm a 'disruptor' to give it a technical term. I can channel negative energy to disrupt mechanical and electrical systems. Which I've known for a while - not the technical side, but the practical effects. But I found out today that I haven't reached the peak of what I can do yet." He didn't sound too happy about the idea there was more to him, that was for certain. "Apparently, as I get older - as my abilities develop, I'm going to be able to affect more than just inanimate objects. Because every living thing runs off electrical systems as well. So, as my abilities grow, I'm... I'm going to be able to hurt things." He paused for a minute, that now familiar hole opening up once more in the pit of his stomach. "But - but a disruptor's powers aren't totally controllable. I make things break unintentionally already, and apparently that's only going to get worse as my abilities grow. Which means that I could... I might not be safe to be around."

"You know for sure that there isn't levels of control you could get?" Oz asked. He was assuming Dean had gotten the information from the book he held. "This tell you that?" he asked. "And..." Oz paused and drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. There was that weird back of his mind feeling again. The 'hey, when did I become a father?' bit, but he wasn't paying that much attention to it. "Everyone can hurt things. You can just do it in a slightly less hands on manner than most people, Dean. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Not in this town. Not in a world where oh...vampires come and disrupt everyone's lives, killing and pillaging and everything else for a week or so. I remember what you said before, about not wanting things to go...in certain directions. But just because you can never means you have to. Nothing's forced..." Unless that whole bit where he would never get full control was there. Then it might be, but even then, he didn't know how often that was or anything.

"Yeah - instead of using my fists or a gun apparently all I need to do is walk down the street," he said, bitterly, because, yes, he was feeling rather self-pitying today. "People don't even get the benefit of saying 'oh look, that guy looks dangerous, better avoid him' - no, I'm just like a walking plague carrier. And hey, with me around, they won't need vampires and evil shit to hurt them." And that was even without Thia and the fact that she'd take him to whole new levels, which was something he'd yet to find a way round and god, how he'd looked. he'd already made up his mind - daybreak tomorrow he was going into town and if Nevermore wasn't open, he was breaking in.

"You sound like you're just going to be dropping people with no warning." Oz said. "And correct me if I'm wrong, but you said could do this. As your abilities develop. If you don't want this to happen, don't go there. I still suggest control. If you know what's coming, and you can learn to actually control it, I say it's an asset you could really have. Especially around here. Like...if I wasn't a werewolf, you wouldn't be here. Because Billy would be dead, I'd be dead, and possibly your cousin too...I don't know if the backlash would have killed her, and I never want to find out. But one fell swoop, bang. So it's definitely a double edged sword, but that doesn't mean you're going to become what you're saying. Especially not if you're looking to find out more about it, and we can all help with that. If I could figure out ways around killing all my loved ones for years, I'm pretty sure we can handle this, Dean. Don't give up yet. That's bullshit."

"Could do it - shouldn't be able to yet. Shouldn't be 'good enough'. But..." Dean swallowed passed the lump in his throat, the one that seemed to have taken up permanent residence there since his talk with Thia. "But it looks like maybe..." He looked down, through his knees, his head hanging, forehead resting on his arms. "You know I said that I channel negative energy? That my abilities are based on that? Well, Thia is negative energy, like that's what maintains her, that's what... Anyway, seems that when I'm around her, it's like a power boost."

Oz didn't say anything for a few long moments as he watched Dean. That...probably wasn't good. "That why you're down here, and she crashed out a few hours ago?" he asked, a rhetorical question. He drew in a breath and looked back out at the water for a second. "Okay well if that's the way that is, what does that mean exactly? Just that she jacks up what you can do? Does she actually make you better? Like...are you thinking that if you're around her that 'getting better' step isn't needing to be taken?"

"We don't know," Dean told him, closing his eyes as he felt again the loss of his best friend, felt her slipping away from him. That had been like a big block since he got down here, that freaking scary big panicking possibility that made it so hard to think. "She makes things easier, I think." He'd remembered the time at the orphanage, made that connection - had that been her? He'd done more that night than he'd ever been able to do before. "I can do more with her there. And since - since she came back, more things have been going screwed up as well. I just - I've been putting it down to stress, but what if it isn't? What if it's her? What if..." He couldn't finish that.

"Hey..." Oz said gently, frowning. "Don't do that to yourself." He took a moment to think more on the information he'd just been given. "Alright so she makes things easier for you, and you've been fritzing more. You didn't answer me earlier. Did this book say that you'll never have full control? That you're always going to accidentally set things off? Or is that something that's just happening because you haven't learned that control yet?"

"It suggested I'd never have full control," Dean said, looking up a little and over at Oz for the first time. His eyes were still bloodshot and he looked like he hadn't slept for days, for all that he had, actually, managed to get some rest lately. "Apparently I'll get stronger, but so will the side effects." Which meant he'd be getting sicker as well, but that didn't bother him as much. Hurting himself he could deal with, it'd just be a fact of life. Hurting the people around him? That was something else altogether.

"Did it say that you'd be getting better at this regardless of if you're trying to work to get better?" Oz asked. His mind was ticking over everything, and he was unfortunately thinking that this might all really come down to an intensely shit decision for the kid. But he didn't go there yet, he wanted as much information as he could get first. He was noting that Dean looked like absolute hell. And really, he couldn't blame him there. Not with this on his chest.

"No - it didn't say. There was - there was a lot that it didn't say, I think. It's not a specific book on disruptors, just a couple of chapters. I picked it up for Thia when I got her a book on fades, because she wanted to look into what I could do too and she had time on her hands. And I didn't really know what I was then - not a name. I'm figuring that there's more at Nevermore. I'm gonna go and have a look tomorrow." he still had that hope, that maybe he'd find something, maybe there'd be something he was missing. He'd jumped to the wrong conclusions before, after all. He was known for it - making snap decisions based on little evidence, but he also knew how hard it was for him to get over that once he'd jumped to that conclusion. And his conclusion right now was that he was fucked.

"So basically you don't know." Oz said, not unkindly. "Alright then. We've still got room here. We also have a no longer dead woman who's been around for ...something like nearing eighty years or so back at the house, who's specialty is magic, and wardings, and all sorts of shit. Never know what's rattling around in her brain, or what she might be able to come up with to help you. I know for a fact there's shit out there you can do with the right know-how that makes it so people can't like...read your mind or whatever. And you're apparently some kind of psychic. So...maybe she can do something for you. I don't know, you'll have to talk to her. But there are always things to look into, Dean. This isn't the end of the world. I know it probably seems that way, and I think you're sort of worst case scenario-ing yourself here, which I more than understand. But I don't think that this is a situation that we won't be able to deal with." He sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Really, he didn't know if Maddie could help or not, but he knew she'd try, if she knew the score. And really who did know what she might have seen in her time? More than any of them, anyways. "What are you thinking about Thia?" Since he was also aware that that had to be playing in heavy right around now.

Dean knew that Oz was trying to put a positive spin on things right now and whilst he was grateful for the effort, he didn't feel particularly positive, a masochistic streak wanting to dwell on the horrible on the nightmare, lost in self-pity. "I'm thinking I'm losing my best friend," he told the werewolf, because that question tapped right into the source of his current mental state, because that didn't have a positive spin.

Oz looked at him for a moment. "...you only lose her if you let that happen." he said. "Honestly. You don't have to. It's not a requirement. That only happens if you let it. If that's what you actually want." he continued. "This is all in your hands, Dean. This goes the way you want it to. And all of us here? We're here to help--hell, that's why you're here. Because we deal with this kind of bullshit all the time. But ultimately, things having to do with you are your decision. So...what do you want?"

Dean looked back over the lake. "I don't want to hurt anyone," he said, quietly. "She doesn't think she should be around me - she tried to leave today. She said she shouldn't be here. But she's not the problem I'm the problem - she can be around anyone else and it's all fine. It's just me. Cos apparently the world hasn't been shitty enough lately and we needed more crap."

"Oh knock it the fuck off." Oz said, though again--it wasn't actually unkindly. "Look. This shit? Happens. Especially to people like us. We're magnets for trouble and bullshit of the utmost proportions. We draw in stupidity like flies on shit. It's the way it works. And sometimes, it all decides to happen all at once. And sometimes, you can go years and nothing will. So learn to take the good while you can get it, hold on to what you have, and know that there will be punches to roll with. They're going to happen. But just about everything can be dealt with in some manner. Fuck, Dean, I'm a cursed werewolf, and as far as I can tell? I'm one of the only ones around period that found a way around that. And yes, alright, it nearly killed me, but it worked. It needed to happen, I found a way. There's almost always a way. So give this time. I know things seem really fucked up and end of the line-ish right now, but that doesn't mean they are. You're not in this alone, okay? You've got a lot of people just in this house who've been at this kind of thing for a long time now, have a little faith. We'll figure something out. You won't have to hurt anyone you don't want to." He paused, before adding a little more. "And you're not a problem. You're never going to be a problem. You're Dean. You're not what you can do. You're not a problem unless you want to be one."

"Yeah, well apparently you found Sophie and she made your problems better, didn't she. Me, I..." He didn't finish that off, it didn't matter anyway. It was all just stupid. He looked up at the sky that was beginning to show the first signs of the end of the day, though sunset was still a ways off. He looked up as far as he could, hanging his head back, taking some deep breaths before he slowly exhaled and dropped his gaze back to the horizon. "So - what should I do?" he asked in a more normal voice.

"Well, technically speaking, she makes your ability better too. You just aren't happy with the result of that." Oz said. "I suggest you talk to Maddie. I suggest you find every bit of information you possibly can on exactly what you are and what you can do. I suggest you figure out the limitations you're at right now, and the effects she has on that. Test the boundaries, find out where the lines are. What I don't suggest is you try going at any of this alone. And I don't suggest you drop your best friend because of it. This is a snag. It'll get dealt with and everyone'll move on. It'll be alright, one way or another. I'm going to talk to Sophie and everyone too, see what can be come up with. This doesn't have to ruin your life, Dean. It doesn't have to ruin anything. It's just something we're now aware of, that we weren't before. It'll be okay."

It didn't feel like a snag - it felt like the end of the fucking world. And it felt like Oz was humouring him, but some of what he said got through. "That's gonna be hard, with the shit in town. But, maybe. I'm... I'm thinking that if we're going to test the effects she has on me we should do that somewhere where we're not around people. Just in case. But - what if I hurt her, doing this?" he asked, falling right back into that pit he'd started to make an attempt to climb out of.

"Then I'm pretty sure she'll let you know. And that'll be part of figuring out the limits. If you feel like you have to do this away from people, that's fine. We sort of live in the perfect place for random experimentation with abilities anyways, there aren't a lot of people around. So...you've got it. And if you need people to take off for a while...well, after this is all over, that is...then we can. But you can do whatever. If you seriously hurt her, we'll make sure we're not far. Or...Maddie's into white magic, I think you can do some healing type shit with it, I'm not sure but now that she's back we can ask. And by the way just so you know, she's a Protector--they're kind of built to watch out for people around them. So she won't be thinking that we're imposing or anything. Hell, she already decided to ward the living shit out of the house, and she's only been back since this morning." He smirked faintly and rolled his eyes. "And sure, she's a bit scary, but hey. She's also my best friend's girl, so...she's got to have a soft spot in there somewhere to put up with the likes of him. And I digress. Back on track--you might not hurt her. And if you do we'll deal with that too." he said firmly. "And at least you'll know."

"At least I'll know?" Dean asked, his head whipping round to look at Oz. "How would you feel? if you attacked Sophie? If you hurt her seeing whether you had control or not? Would that be worth it? Would finding out that you didn't, that you'd hurt... Would that make it all okay for you? Because then you'd 'know'?"

"Dean--I highly doubt you'll do anything that can't be repaired." Oz said immediately. "You already said you aren't even there yet. And if you are, then it's not going to kick into full overdrive immediately, just because that's what you're afraid of. But yes, at least you'll know, and you can stop torturing yourself with the what ifs. I found out my limits the hard way, I didn't have anyone to do anything with. I found out that if I took too much damage that it triggered the change, and I found that out while trying to protect a friend of mine. I wound up turning on her, and chased her into a tree. But after that I knew better than to do anything like that again. And Dean--I really hate to say this to you but please...with what she is, even if you really want to lay out the worst case scenario--she's the only person who will be able to take it and come back."

"Well, fine - then I'll skip the experimentation and go straight to the 'not doing anything like that again' stage. learn from your mistakes. And then maybe I won't have to find out what it's like to kill my best friend," Dean said, harshly, pushing himself up and stalking away from the shoreline. He didn't want to be here right now - not with a guy who'd apparently just told him it was okay to risk Thia just because she'd resurrect. What about me? I don't know if I could live with myself if I killed her. She might come back from that, but I don't think I would. And that, he realised, was in more ways than one. Because he knew now what he hadn't known before - that if he ever killed someone with his abilities, he was likely to die too, his body couldn't take it. And as he thought about that he realised something else. He realised that the only person who could save him in that circumstance was Thia. And so, if he hurt her, if he killed her with his abilities, they'd both die.

Oz stood up and followed, but not close behind, giving the kid space. "Now you're just looking for how fucked this can be. Look I understand how shitty this is? Trust me, if anyone does, I do. But that doesn't change facts. And right now, these are the harsh ones. You have an ability you can't fully control, and it might wind up where you don't want it to be. You have a best friend that kicks that into overdrive. You need to know where the lines are, Dean. You need to figure out the limits, you need to figure out where it ends. If you don't, you're going to wind up doing more damage later. If you figure it out now, you can figure out what to do about it, or work on how to go around things, but you can't do that if you just won't figure it out. You said yourself that the book says that you probably won't get full control. So it isn't as if you can just stop it and that's it. It's not going to go away. And I know--I know what she means to you. I really, really don't think you should consider the alternative of getting rid of her. I know this all sucks, and the choices are shit, but again--this is an issue that's dealable. Things will get figured out. It's just never easy and half the time isn't pretty. But it'll get there. I still don't think you'll do anything so bad to her that she'll die. It's just what you're most afraid of, and that's fucking with your head right now."

Dean stopped and turned on him. "Maybe if I stop now, I'll just not get any better, then we won't have to worry about it. She can bump me up and I'll... Just stick with shorting out lights and cars and shit. It'll be annoying, but at least I won't be dangerous. I've been practising - pushing what I can do for the past few years. Maybe if I just stop then I won't improve any more. Maybe I'll get out of practice or something. Neglect it, be normal. Just a normal guy who happens to be clumsy when it comes to electrics. Wouldn't that be a better idea? Wouldn't that be less risky? And then we can all just get on with it and... You think I want to consider the alternative? You think I wouldn't move the world for a way... That's what I've been doing this afternoon, all afternoon! Looking for a way round this. Any way that means I don't have to... I don't want to lose her, Oz."

"Dean, I wasn't saying practice. I'm saying find out where you are. You're worried about hurting people, find out if you even can before you have a heart attack over the what if of it. That's what I'm saying. That's why you need to figure out exactly where you are. It'd be a lot better than worrying yourself sick over it if it's not even there. But finding that out shouldn't take you long, either. It wouldn't be like you're striving for it, pushing yourself along to attain the goal, it's more to pinpoint for you what the score is." Oz explained. "I know you don't want to lose her. You won't have to. I promise that, alright? No matter what, something will get figured out, and even if it takes work and a whole lot of time and effort put into trying to find some way, it'll get done. Again--you're not alone here. You don't have to figure this all out on your own. You don't have to do this by yourself. And I'm sure she doesn't want to lose you either. Sophie mentioned to me that she barely had anything, that she bought her things. She's pretty alone right now. I'm sure she hates the idea of losing you too."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, there's just me and Joshua." He looked down a little. "She was talking earlier about what would happen if she told her parents. If she went home. She's fairly convinced they'd freak, and then bundle her up and ship her off out of town. Start her up with a new life somewhere else, new identity, the whole thing." And as much as he hated the idea, he did sometimes wonder if that wouldn't be the best thing for her to do. She wouldn't have to be so alone then, she could have a life, could have friends. She could start again and be happy.

Oz listened, and leaned his shoulder against a tree, watching Dean. "What do you think about that?" he asked, voice neutral on it. He was also thinking that Dean had ideas on where Thia was going to be spending her time. Or had. Maybe that changed when he found out about things today. He knew he'd have to ask, to discuss it. But this question had to be answered first.

"For me, or for her?" Dean asked, but carried on anyway. "For her - I think maybe it'd be a good thing. She said she couldn't ever imagine leaving Marquette, being somewhere else. That she wouldn't want to go. But it would allow her to have a life again - a new identity maybe, or just be somewhere where she can walk down the streets. She'd have her family again. For me? Well, we've already covered that whole 'I don't want to lose her' part, haven't we? I can't bring myself to encourage her to go, but if she decides that's what's best for her, I won't... I won't try and change her mind," he said, hoping his voice sounded steady as he did so, ignoring the fact that he'd begged her not to go earlier on. That was different. He'd let her go if she had somewhere to go to. "I want what's best for her."

Oz nodded, still keeping his eyes on Dean. That really had to be hard on him. It was almost painful to watch, but there was that little faint stab of pride in Dean again. He wanted what was best...that took a lot. "And if she doesn't go home?" he asked. "What's the next step?" Because he knew Dean's gears would be turning on that. Again, Oz was more aware of what he figured Dean had had in mind for the girl. He wasn't sure he'd discussed it with anyone, but it was just a feeling Oz had.

"Now? I don't know." Dean said, finding himself calming down a little - Oz had given him something to focus on and he always did better when he had something to focus on. "Figure it out, I guess. This afternoon, when we were experimenting, there was a difference when she was just in the next room. And we only tested to see if there was a boost when I was holding her hand. So, I guess, first thing - just don't touch her," he said with the faintest of smiles, trying to sound light hearted, but at least he was attempting to deal.

Oz quirked a half smile at Dean. I'm sure that'll be more difficult than it sounds. he thought. But he kept that to himself. "Something to keep in mind is that you can take precautions now, but you're still going to have to deal with her as a person, and if you don't want things to completely alter between the two of you, you're going to have to learn to deal with things as they are. So...you can learn to deal with how things work if there is physical contact." He glanced away for a second, half smile still there and then looked back. "See now if you were best friends with another guy, this wouldn't be a problem, but you're best friends with a huggy girl."

"She'll understand," Dean told him. "Anyway, she already thinks of me as not really the huggy type," he shrugged, knowing he'd never actually done anything to disabuse her of that notion, even though he was starting to think he was, in fact, the huggy type - it wasn't something he'd ever tested before. He and his mates at home... well, there wasn't a huge amount of physical contact of the huggy description to be found in a group of teenage lads. But with Thia, he was changing, fast and he was really coming to appreciate physical contact, even of the purely platonic variety.

Oz thought Dean was setting himself up for trouble. If he dealt with it head on and adjusted the new information in and fit it into the current dynamic, there wouldn't be tension there. But because he was thinking of just a strict 'no touching' rule, it was going to be an issue. It would be there. Hell, the reason he knew Thia was a huggy girl in the first place wasn't because he'd seen it. He hadn't, actually. The reason he knew was because half the time when Dean came around, he could very clearly catch her scent on him. And sometimes, it was a permeating scent, not the kind you get from just a quick 'see you later' sort of embrace. Putting a 'can't' on something really just made it loom that much larger in people's minds. So even if they hadn't thought about it before, they were now. He just didn't know if Dean would even believe him if he told him that. "I'm not sure that will work very well." he said finally. But he said it in a tone that was 'it's up to you'. "And I still don't think you have to go severely altering your life to deal with this." he added.

"I hope I don't - but in the meantime, whilst we figure this out, we should be careful," Dean said, wondering whether he should suggest that Thia moved to one of the upstairs rooms. Which were, of course, all occupied. "I was thinking about rooms - she's got the room next to mine. I don't know whether that's such a good idea. But, I guess, maybe it doesn't matter - I'm not anywhere near anyone else, so..." He didn't think that he'd be randomly affecting people in another part of the house, after all.

"So you're still planning on moving her in here." Oz said. That answered that. Or he thought it did. If he was wrong? Dean would correct him. This was...going to be interesting. In probably a huge way. Because ohhh yeah. He had his own reservations about Thia coming to live with them that had nothing to do with anything going on. Nothing to do with the supernatural, nothing to do with any horrors. They had purely to do with Dean, the feelings he had for that girl, and human nature.

"Well, she's been here for days and the vampires aren't showing any signs of leaving," Dean pointed out, though he knew he'd already started to think about her residence with them as a long term thing. He just hadn't connected that up with the term 'moving her in'. That put words to it that, whilst correct in all forms, hadn't really sunk in with the teen. "She doesn't have anywhere else to go - she was living in an abandoned house, on her own," he pointed out, his tone suggesting he was gearing up for a fight if necessary, because whilst he hadn't thought in detail about her staying, he wasn't willing to have her thrown out on her ear by his guardians either.

"Have you really thought this over?" Oz asked. It wasn't actually any sort of confrontational tone, either. He was asking. Because he was willing to bet that Dean hadn't, not really. He'd probably thought it over and just wanted to do what was right by her, and hadn't paused to think about the effect it might have on him. "I don't have a problem with her staying here--though for future reference, it would have been nice had you perhaps discussed this with your cousin and I before you started making decisions that'll effect all of us. ...not too sure how Sophie will feel, I'll have to talk to her. But Dean--have you seriously thought about it?"

"I know I can't think of any other option," Dean told him. "She doesn't have anywhere else to go. I would have suggested Joshua, but... I dunno, they seem to maybe be having problems lately. And then there's Sean and - I don't think he'd be too happy to have her around. And the only other place she could maybe go is back with Billy, but with Maddie back... And it wasn't like I wasn't discussing this with you, or making decisions behind your back. I hadn't really thought about it in so many words or anything, but there is nowhere else for her to go. It only makes sense. And she'll be no trouble - you've seen how she's been helping out and everything and Thia said that she and Sophie had had a long chat yesterday and sorted things out and things were much better between them. Thia said that it was like... Sophie understood. With what happened with you guys and everything. Like there was a parallel between them. Because of the magic."

"I get the logic." Oz said, holding up a hand, so Dean could stop explaining. "Honestly, you don't need to keep saying, I get it. What I'm asking is have you thought at all about what this will mean for you." he clarified. And he was pretty much waiting for a blank look from Dean, because he was really positive that the kid hadn't considered it.

Dean hadn't, really, but he could see what Oz was getting at. He'd realised some of that during his conversation with Thia earlier on when he'd realised that she was right there and if he tried for space, she could just follow him. "Look, I'm not stupid - I know it's not always going to be easy. You're talking about the fact that I'm not going to be able to... She'll always be there, right? I'll deal with that."

"Yes. That's what I'm talking about. And with the way you feel about her, with her in the next room..." Oz shook his head. "That's signing yourself up for a lot of rough times, I think." He didn't add on the 'especially now' even though it was valid. He figured Dean would do that on his own. "Are you at all sure you could handle that? Have you really honestly thought about the practicality of being that close all the time to her? And...hell, it isn't even like you could go home and not deal with her for a day, she'd be here already."

"She's got nowhere else to go," Dean said, stubbornly - by now completely at odds with the fact that all afternoon he'd been thinking along the lines of the fact that he was going to have to lose her forever. Somehow that had got turned around once more in his head, a side effect of Oz trying to convince him that it wasn't all over. And now he was suggesting that maybe Thia should go? Or not - he was agreeing she could stay, but... His head hurt.

Oz was aware of the sort of back and forth nature of things as well. Though he had kept saying Dean didn't have to lose her. But her moving in was kind of something else. He could still have her in his life, and not actually have to deal with her every day. "That kind of not the point." he said. "Look, I know you're trying to do the right thing, I just want to know that you've sat down and seriously thought about that it's going to be like if she's living here." he said patiently. "I know she's your best friend, but I'm pretty sure she's a little oblivious too. Not sure how she manages that, but that's not the point either...I'm just saying I think it's going to be a lot harder than you think it would be, and I'd like you to consider that for a few minutes before you make any decisions, alright?"

"Suggest somewhere else she can go and I'll sit down and think about the realities of her staying," Dean told him. "Because right now, the reality seems to be that we have no options and unless you're telling me that she's not welcome in your house - which I don't think you are - me thinking about it will just mean sitting down and acknowledging that this isn't going to be easy. Which I already know. Give me choices and I'll make decisions, but right now, when the choice is limited to her staying here, or her returning to an abandoned house in a town full of marauding vampires? That's not a choice at all."

"I'm definitely not saying that." Oz agreed, nodding. "And I'm also not saying that she'd at all be leaving with the vampires still in town--because that ain't happening. End of story. No one is leaving here until that's over with. That's not even on the table." he assured Dean with a firmness to his tone that said if anyone was stupid enough to try that, they'd have one hell of a fight on their hands. There were reasons he and Sophie had a huge house. That was one of them. "You mentioned before Billy...not sure he'd go for that. He kind of gets a little twitchy around people, and he's a bit...set in his ways. Not sure having a random teenage girl in his house would be doable. I'm not saying I have answers, just that maybe we should start looking for some. If you really think you can handle things, I'm not going to argue with you. I just couldn't not say anything on that."

"I want her to be safe, and I want her to be happy. I'm not doing this just to torture myself, you know. But I've done an alright kind of job of not letting... my feelings... get in the way of things so far. I can deal with this, with them." I'll have to. He thought again of how he'd reacted earlier when she'd complimented him, when she'd been talking about why they were friends, about how hard those moments had been and how he'd just needed to not be around her for a while. And how he'd not been able to make an exit, take some space. But she had nowhere else to go and that was the bottom line. "If you come up with other options, I'm willing to hear them," he agreed, his tone suggesting that he wasn't just talking about immediate options either.

"I know, you wants what's best for her. I'm worried about what's best for you." Oz said. "I'm not sure it's this. I'll think about it. You think too. I'll talk to Sophie in the meantime...and...out of curiosity--have you talked to her about this?" He glanced at the sky, knowing they would have to be heading back soon, but they had a little time.

"I've mentioned it to her a couple of times," Dean told him. "Kinda. In passing." He paused, considering this. "Possibly not like 'I want you to move in here' or anything. I mean, until you said something, I hadn't really thought about it like that, but she knows I don't want her to go back to Journey's and I've brought the subject up a few times."

"So that'd be a no then." Oz said, quirking a little half smile. "Might want to do that." Of course, all of his concerns would be for not if the girl decided Dean didn't get to decide where she stayed and went back to town after all of this was over anyways. He was in a weird place where he thought what was best for Thia was to stay with them, but what was best for Dean was he kept her close but not in the same house close. There was a difference. It was not a good situation, by any stretch of the imagination. He half wondered if he could afford to put her up somewhere.

"Well, considering that the last time I talked to her she wanted to avoid me completely, I think that now might be a bad time to have that conversation, don't you?" Dean posed, shifting a little. "I mean, you said you didn't want anyone at all leaving until the vampire problem was solved, so we've got that time to sort things out and maybe I could talk to her after that." He really didn't want to get into an argument about what a bad idea this was and he knew Thia - she'd try and put what she thought was good for him first. And in her head right now, he knew that meant her not being around.

"Up to you." Oz said, shrugging. "Whatever you think is best. Just saying." he clarified. "We need to get back though. I don't want Sophie sending out search parties." He flashed a little grin at that. "But...yeah, I don't know. I'm around, and think about things. And we'll figure shit out. Tomorrow, we can head into town and look for books and all that for you. I'll talk to people tonight, in the event of there being time to do that."

"Yeah, Thia said she'd come looking for me if I wasn't back before sundown," Dean agreed with a strange little smile. He hadn't forgotten how much that single comment had helped his mental state. Hadn't totally rescued it by any stretch of the imagination, but it'd helped. Made him feel so much less alone in this, the idea that she wasn't just going to let him go. That this meant at least a fraction as much to her as it did to him.

Oz noticed the little smile and all that really did was serve to make him think even more that the girl living with them was going to be a nightmare for Dean. Maybe not all the time. In fact, he would probably really like it a lot of the time. But there were going to be times where he would probably wish he'd thought of anything but what he had. Or that she hadn't been permitted to stay. So absently, Oz wondered if he'd eventually get blame for that, but didn't really put too much thought into it. If it happened, it happened. He'd gotten shoved into a parental role whether he liked it or not--and really he didn't mind--and that was going to mean that shit was going to be blamed on him sometimes. He'd deal. So he started leading the way back towards the house. "She probably would, wouldn't she." he said in an offhand sort of manner.

"Without a doubt. She's stubborn like that." Unless Joshua had distracted her, but still, he'd like to think that maybe she wasn't that distractable. of course, that could simply be playing up his own importance in the scheme of things, wanting to believe that he was up there.

"...good." Oz said. It might be an odd comment, but stubborn people had a strength in them that he could appreciate. Occasionally it drove one nuts too--Sophie, for instance--but still. Also, if she really would stick to her word on that, it meant to Oz that Dean meant a lot to her too. He hadn't seen them together enough to know for sure, though he'd heard their discussions. Not the words, but the tones. They actually sounded a lot like he imagined he and Sophie had a long time ago. Up and down a lot. "Just try not to break any windows or anything when you guys get to arguing. You seem pretty good at it." he said, and there was a note of humor to his tone. He smirked as he walked as well, glancing at Dean out of the corner of his eye.

"It's not arguing," Dean told him, though he sounded slightly amused, as though he were talking about a naughty but cute puppy. "More of a heated debate every now and then." A lot of the time he couldn't even remember what the initial disagreement had been about. Unless it came up again.

"Heated debate, that's a nice way of putting it." Oz said with a chuckle. "You guys do that a lot. Though you don't seem bothered, so I'm assuming that means it's because you have a good relationship with someone you can 'discuss' things with, as opposed to just a volatile one." he added. And if he was wrong, then Dean was fucking hopeless, because if he still felt about her like that and she was just poison--not that he could picture that, Lullaby seemed like a sweet girl--then yeah. That would be bad. He didn't think so though, just from Dean's tone. And the fact that whenever he did hear them having said debates, he usually heard them even right back out again.

"She wouldn't be my best friend if we didn't have a good relationship, Oz," Dean pointed out as the house came into view. "I'm not in the habit of putting up with stupid people - they get on my nerves too much."

"I suppose not." Oz said. He also thought that it was a touch naive of Dean to say, most people in relationships that weren't good for them didn't actually see that. But maybe that was just something you figured out when you were slightly older. And he did mean slight...fuck he wasn't actually that much older than Dean. He'd just...been through a shit ton of more shit than the kid so far. As he looked up towards the house, he noticed the girl in question sitting on the back porch steps, watching for them. That answered that, he supposed. In a way. "Everyone better head in." he said. "Another long night, I suppose." And he was really hoping the vamps would fuck off here soon. Seriously. Though part of him was slightly twitchy. If he didn't have quite so many responsibilities, he would have wanted to go vampire hunting. But he did. So...yeah.

Dean caught sight of her sitting on the steps and slowed, meeting her eyes and, somewhat reluctantly, giving her a 'go back in the house' shoo. He didn't much want to, but keeping his distance from her right now was only sensible. Hard, but sensible.

Oz noticed it, and internally sighed. Yeah...this was going to be a mess. He might find out he'd lose her in other ways he wasn't thinking of. But that was for Dean to figure out. He couldn't tell him this shit, he'd probably get blown off anyways. So...yeah. He said nothing, and just kept walking like he hadn't noticed. Then it was up and into the house, for another fun filled adventure starring the Osbourne mix and match household.