What to do?

Who: Billy and Oz
Where: Oz's old house
When: Afternoon

Oz pulled up outside his house, which was still a long way from being finished, and killed the engine. He sat there, listening to the ticks in the engine as it cooled, knowing he needed to get inside and deal with things, but he just felt drained. He felt absolutely emotionally exhausted. That was never a good plan. After a good five minutes, he got out, and headed up the house, squinting in the light since he'd left so fast that morning he'd forgotten his sunglasses, and now had a splitting headache. Oh well, he had decent meds for it in the house. Walking in and shutting the door behind him, he called for his friend, and went to the first floor bathroom to grab meds before he had to start talking seriously with Billy.

Billy had called Oz earlier, after Dean had left, offering to meet the guy somewhere, but he'd offered to come here. So, the dreamwalker had gone back to work again while he waited. He was replastering a wall in one of the upstairs rooms, but when he heard himself called for, he headed out and downstairs, meeting the guy downstairs. "So - I hear there's problems," he said, downplaying it in his usual way.

Oz finished swallowing down the pills before he leaned against the counter, taking another drink of water as he regarded Billy. "There are." he said. "That traveled fast." he added, not surprised in the slightest. He drew in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "So....got a say?" he asked. "I'm listening."

"Well, the current consensus seems to be you should just marry the girl already," Billy told him easily. "Which I'm positive is something you've considered today - and looked into? What's the verdict?" he asked, knowing his friend well.

"I can get a marriage license, but it won't go through for a month." Oz said, since that had in fact, been exactly what he'd been looking into. "Which means we need to find a way around that. Which...I can really only think of one solution there. Which is we hop a flight to Vegas, and get it done there. Of course, that's if she would even agree to it. Because remember the part where I've been actively trying to get her to marry me since I was fifteen?" he asked. "It's not not happened for lack of trying. It isn't because I haven't gotten round to it."

Billy raised an eyebrow. "You really think she'd say no?" he asked, doubtfully. He couldn't see that himself. He knew that Sophie had been consistently refusing to get married, but he'd never thought that that was at all stemmed in not wanting to be with him.

"She has every fucking time to date." Oz said. He sighed, and dragged his fingers through his hair, and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, shutting his eyes. "I don't know. We talked about it a few weeks ago, and came to an...impasse I guess. Haven't talked about it since. I didn't really want the subject to come up again due to something like this. I didn't want her to actually agree to marry me because she has to, or she can't be here anymore. But I don't see any other way."

"Coffee?" Billy asked, thinking that this wasn't a talk to be having standing around in a bathroom. At least in the kitchen they could sit down - they'd left msot of the furntiure behind, of course, since Billy's old stuff hadn't been of a satisfactory quality for their new home.

"Please." Oz said, following out to the kitchen, where he did sit down at the table, and covered his bad eye with one hand, to block out as much light as possible for a while. He didn't say anything, figuring Billy had more to say on the subject, so he gave him time to do that.

Billy poured a couple of mugs from the pot he'd made earlier. Glancing round, he saw Oz covering his eye and leaned over, dropping the blind down over the kitchen window, cutting out a lot of the light to the room. That done, he sat down across from Oz, pushing his coffee toward him. "I got the feeling from talking to Thia earlier on that you two haven't actually talked options or anything yet," he said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Thank you." he said for both the coffee, and killing more of the light. It allowed him to take his hand away from his eye, though he figured he'd be having his headache for the duration of the day. That's how it usually happened when he fucked himself over like that. "She told me this morning, and I left for town to find out as much as I could about things. Sophie seems..." he paused, not sure how to word it. So he took his time thinking it over, and in the end, he didn't come up with a single word, he just started explaining. "She's been kind of unhappy lately, I think. Or sometimes I can sense it. We've both been...twitchy, I guess. But neither one of us want to fight in front of the kids. So, we haven't been. But then I guess things get shoved back. But whatever, that's not the point, I got sidetracked, sorry. This morning she just seemed...lost. Usually, if there's something normal she can take care of, she's doing that. Immediately, no questions asked, it's just something she does. Today though..." he shook his head. "She just seemed frozen."

"You guys having problems? Or is the twitchiness something external?" Billy asked, though the fact that there'd been talk of not fighting suggested relationship problems pretty firmly.

"I don't know." Oz said, with pure honesty. "I think so? I just don't know what they all are. Or what half of them are, or how many there are, or anything, sort of. I think it's just us. I don't think it's really external, though this obviously has thrown a wrench in the works. I think we hit a point where maybe something was supposed to change and it didn't." Then he sighed. "Or I'm fucking projecting, and that's just how I feel, and she could be feeling something else entirely."

Have you asked her? No, that wasn't a question to ask right now - Oz didn't need the extra pressure of a relationship drilling right now. He needed to be able to talk if he wanted and he needed some sympathy and support. "That's gotta be tough," he said, instead, leaving it open for Oz to talk if he wanted to.

"...I didn't want it to come to this." Oz said honestly. Then he paused. "And something's been in the back of my mind all day, and I hate it." he said. He was quiet for a long moment, sipping his coffee. "She had to know this was coming. And I keep...wondering if she couldn't have stopped it. If she couldn't have re-enrolled at some point, or if she was just...I don't know. Waiting for the axe to drop, and never mentioned it to me. I mean, I knew she was here on a visa. I knew it had conditions. But I'm not..." he made a vague gesture. "I'm not up on all of that. I don't know what they are."

Billy gave him a look. "Do you really think that she's just - what? Been letting this lag so that she has an excuse to leave?" he asked, not bothering to hide the fact that he thought that was a load of crap. At least, he hoped it was a load of crap, or Sophie wasn't the person he'd known since high school. "Knowing that Dean would have to leave as well?"

"Well, you explain it to me then, Billy, why just she knew she had to jump certain hoops to stay here, didn't, and then continued to leave it until she's told she has to leave? Without...I don't know...even trying to find ways around it, or anything?" Oz said. "How does that come off to you?" he asked honestly.

"Vampires," Billy told him, counting the reasons off on his fingers, though he did it kindly. "Vampires, shadow beings trying to kill us, weird fucking mine dreams, hell - having a teenager to take care of. And then two - who, by the way, is moving back in with you as of today. It's not like you've both not had a lot on your plate," he reminded his friend.

"Billy, I'm not saying I don't know why she didn't go back to class. I know that." Oz said, patiently. "What I'm saying, is that it just seemed like she was ignoring it, and waiting for it to crop up, instead of...I don't know. Talking to someone? Seeing what could be done? Signing up for courses probably only would have taken a day, and I know while shit has been crazy, we've in fact, had quite a few random days that she would have been able to. I just don't get why it seems like absolutely nothing was done at all, and now it's just 'hey you have to be out of here in a week'."

"That I don't know," Billy admitted, shrugging. "I don't know the first thing about how this shit works. Maybe... Maybe she had to be full time? That random days wouldn't be enough - maybe she looked into it and there wasn't anything she could do." Though, that didn't explain why she hadn't talked about it to Oz until the shit had really hit. Then again, if they hadn't been talking, and if Sophie had seemed upset recently anyway. "Maybe that's what's been up with her - maybe she'd been looking into it, knew it was coming and just didn't know how to talk with you about it," he suggested.

"...and you don't think she should have talked to me about it?" Oz asked. "And not waited until she was leaving?" he asked. He sipped more coffee. "You sound like you're defending her. Just so you know. I'm not even technically saying anything against her, and you still sound like you're just...yeah."

"I'm not defending her - I'm trying to come up with reasons why this happened this way. Or at all," Billy told him, not rising to that. "And yeah, I think she should have talked to you about it, but I was suggesting maybe she didn't know how to. You know as well as I do that you guys haven't got the best track record for communication. You're saying it seemed one way, I'm suggesting that it could be another. What do you want me to do? Not try and spin this more positively for you? Be more down on her, all doom and gloom and saying that yeah, her behaviour is inexplicable and unexplainable and leave you spinning your wheels on the worst possible reasons for her to act like that?" Not that he wanted to come out and call his friend paranoid, but he'd shown a streak of that when it came to Sophie in the past.

Oz frowned at Billy. "No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is I'm sitting here, right on the verge of losing my family, and you're sitting here spouting off about how maybe there's absolutely nothing wrong with the way any of this was handled from her end." he said. "Which I'm sorry but is fucked. Look, maybe you should just go talk to her." he said, not really in an angry sort of tone, more just tired. He didn't have the emotional stamina to deal with this kind of thing right now. Pretty much at all.

Billy shook his head. "No, what you were saying, from where I sit was that you're right on the verge of losing your family and why had this situation ever come up in the first place. Why didn't she do anything about it to stop it. And what I was saying was maybe she couldn't avoid it," he said, keeping the calm tone. "But, when it all comes down to it, it doesn't matter about the 'why', does it? We're here and that can't be changed now. And she obviously doesn't want to go."

"It might matter to me." Oz said honestly. He looked away, and drained the rest of his coffee. "Because if she's just...you know what, nevermind." he said, cutting himself off entirely.

"Then go and ask her," Billy told him, trying not to get exasperated. "But, let me ask you this - would you believe what she tells you?" Because it always seemed to him, whenever they talked about Sophie in the past, Oz seemed determined to take the worst possible take on anything the girl said. And yeah, sometimes it might have been justified, but occasionally Billy wondered if it wasn't just some kind of masochism on Oz' part.

Getting up from the table, Oz started for the door. It was better than saying what was on his mind, really. He'd been getting a lot of practice at saying nothing for a while now, and while he was aware it didn't necessarily work, but it saved on arguments. Which he didn't even want to get into right now.

Billy got up and followed him. He'd known before this came that it might not go well. That it probably wouldn't. "What do you want me to say, man?" he asked. "Or - is there anything I can do here?"

"I didn't ask you to say anything. You said to come talk to you, and I have. But I have a whole lot to deal with right now, and don't especially need to hear you singing the 'everything Sophie does is on the level' song, when we both know that not everything she's ever done has been. And I don't even know how to begin reconciling in my head that she waited until she was going to be sent home to even bring it up. You tell me to ask her then immediately come down on me asking if I'd believe her. When we first started talking, you were talking like it's my fault we're not already hitched, when you know perfectly well that I've been asking her for years. Saying if I really think she'd say no, well she did every other goddamn time I asked her in the past year or so, so what, I'm supposed to just automatically assume that now because she can't string me along anymore, she'll manage a yes? You act like because I'm having to stop and wonder about the way this went down that I'm the asshole here, when I really don't think that it's completely out of the question that shit flat out didn't get handled, and that's what the woman does. She takes care of things. She takes care of everything like that. You know that. I'm fucking tired of claiming blame for everything. So you know what? Just go. Talk to her. I'm sure it'll be a better conversation." Oz said, still walking away--though he wasn't headed for the car. He was heading towards the back, out for the woods.

"Fuck," Billy swore quietly as he watched Oz walk away. He'd royally screwed that one up, hadn't he. And he hadn't meant half of that the way it had been taken at all. But, he knew he couldn't leave it like that, so he ran off after Oz, grabbing him by the shoulder to stop the guy. "Oz, wait - look. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that at all." In fact, he was sure that some of the stuff he'd just been accused of hadn't actually happened. Like - he very much doubted that he'd actually said anything about the fact that they weren't already married being Oz' fault. He knew that wasn't the case. But, arguing semantics here wasn't going to get them anywhere. "I know the reason that you're not married is down to her. Shit, man - you've wanted this for years. And you're not an asshole - all I was trying to do was come up with maybe a better way of looking at things. I don't know if it's right, who knows what she was thinking, but I just thought... It doesn't matter what I thought. But I'm not blaming you for any of this. I'm trying to not blame anyone. I'd really like - I love your guys. You've been my best friend forever now and I want to see you happy. So sue me if I'd like to see this turning out to be a situation that doesn't lead to you guys having more arguments about whose 'fault' this was. Or for it to be yet another situation that's going to cause problems. Maybe that's wishful thinking, maybe I'm being naive. But you make it sound like I'm taking sides here, when all I want is for you to be happy. Both of you."

Oz stopped, of course, turning to look back at Billy, though one eye was squeezed shut. "Honestly, the first thing that crossed my mind was just to try and get it fixed. Just...marry her and deal with whatever later. Because we've only got a week. That's it, to make this not happen. I found out we can't do it here, and from asking around, there isn't really much else that's viable, option-wise. That's pretty much it. So, when I get back, eventually, I'll talk to her about it then. I don't know how I'm going to talk to her about it, and I don't know what I'll say, but...I'll figure it out. And just...sit on whatever issues I've got right now. It's been on my mind all day, I never said I was going to bring it up with her, or throw it in her face, or...or whatever it is you think I might do. I was talking to you about it. Because you're my best friend." He stopped and looked away for a minute, before looking back. "I don't really know what you expect out of me but I kind of get the impression it's not good."

"I don't 'expect' anything out of you," Billy told him. "Though - Okay, I'll admit, I was worried. I was fairly sure that you'd immediately go to marriage. It's the obvious option, it's simple and god, you've wanted it for so long anyhow. It's perfect - except I know that she's turned you down or put you off fairly consistently for fucking ever now. And, if you guys get married because of this? That question's always gonna be there, isn't it? Is this the only reason she said yes? It - it seems like a shitty basis for a marriage, y'know? And I'm not saying don't do it, but - but maybe you should talk about that when you talk. Because, maybe that won't bother her, but I know you, man - it'll sure as hell bother you. Probably for the rest of your life."

Silent for a long time, Oz eventually spoke up, voice quiet. "I'd rather be bothered for the rest of my life than not have her in it." he said honestly. And he knew what that said about him, but...that's just the way it was. He wasn't arguing with Billy on the point--because he was right. He'd even said it earlier, that he hadn't wanted it to be like this. But he didn't have a lot of choice in the matter, as far as he could tell.

"I know," Billy told him. He paused. "What if she's still saying no?" he asked, though, if she did, he'd definitely be going to have a conversation with the girl. He'd promised Thia and he'd do what he could. "Would you go with her? I don't know what the rules are for immigration in Britain, but maybe you could?" he suggested.

Oz blinked and just stared at Billy for a long moment, stricken. "Billy, I couldn't leave you." he said. "And you couldn't come with, Maddie's bound here...right? Have you tested that? I..but I couldn't just..." He quite suddenly was faced with a completely terrifying possibility, which was that Sophie and Dean would be in England, Billy and Maddie would be in the states...he had no idea where Thia would end up. But either way, he'd have to be spending a whole lot of time flying back and forth. Just the thought of his pack that broken up was almost crippling, and he actually did sit down where he stood, staggered by that. He'd been concentrating so much on the fixing of the problem that he hadn't even thought about what might go down if he couldn't.

Billy sat down with him, now really, really concerned. He hadn't meant to break his friend like that. "No - Maddie and I haven't tested it, but - we wouldn't be leaving anyway," Billy told him. The idea of leaving Marquette. No - they had a house there, a wonderful house. And they'd already picked out a room for the baby and it was going to be perfect and wonderful. They couldn't just up and leave.

"I couldn't just leave like that. And I couldn't let her just...and Dean too, and...I'd just have to..." He'd have to go between is what he would have to do, and it would very likely drive him completely mad after a while. And not in that 'oh that'll be annoying' sort of manner. Like he could honestly see him cracking eventually. He knew how he got, he knew how his head worked, and the instincts, and how it all lined up, and the idea that they'd all be split down the middle between two countries, that didn't compute.

"Okay, okay - bad idea," Billy told him, not quite understanding the issues, but he could see that it was really affecting Oz, so he didn't need to understand. "So, you'll get married and everyone'll stay. Nobody going anywhere. It'll be fine," he added, hastily.

Oz tried to clear his head enough, and looked up at Billy, making eye contact again. "I couldn't just leave like that. I would have to go back and forth. I couldn't leave them, I couldn't leave you, I'd just have to...float." he said, almost as if Billy hadn't said anything. Mostly because now that he was thinking about it, he was recognizing the fact that yeah. That could in fact happen. Realistically, it could go down that way.

"Float?" Billy asked. "Oz - it's not like this is the easiest place to get to in the world, if you're talking about travelling in between the two places... It's not practic..." The dreamwalker considered things. "But, okay - if that's what you need to do. But, look, if you all have to go and it's me and Maddie here. You know I'd miss you, right? You know I wouldn't want you to go? But - there's dreams. I can come visit you. Regularly. I can bring Maddie with me as well," he pointed out.

Oz didn't know if that would actually work. He'd be willing to try, maybe? But that didn't cover the baby, either. Whom he was going to be a godparent of. He shook his head, eventually, after considering things. "Thanks, I appreciate the offer, but I don't think it would work." he said. "...doesn't cover the baby."

"Baby's not here yet," Billy pointed out. He didn't even know if baby's dreamed - but he'd be finding out. He'd want to make sure his daughter had the best possible dreams if she was, he knew. "But, look, if it needs it, we can work things out. But - let's hope it doesn't come to it. I know Dean doesn't want to go - he and Thia were over earlier and. Yeah, they're both fairly desperate for you two to get hitched."

Nodding, Oz didn't say anything just then, and just tried to absorb the information. He realized there was something he'd ignored earlier, and finally caught up to it. "...you said she's moving back with us?" he asked finally. Way, way late.

Billy nodded. "Yeah, they told me earlier - I'd hoped they're at least run it past you," he admitted, but he'd been more than aware that that was a vain hope. After all, he hadn't even paused earlier on when he'd told Oz as though it would be news. Dean and Thia, from what he'd seen of them, weren't going to be asking permission of anyone. Definitely not when it came to each other - in any other circumstance, he wasn't sure of.

He shook his head. "No, I...about five minutes after I found out, I was out the door." he admitted. So he hadn't been spectacularly available, and it wasn't necessarily up to just him anyhow. "Okay." he added. Right now he couldn't in any way be bothered with that. He had bigger issues to deal with, and if they were both feeling even a smidgen of what he and Sophie were, he wasn't going to be the guy who told them no, they weren't allowed to spend as much time together as they could. "When I'm not in full on internal flailing mode, you'll have to fill me in more on how you think things are going with them. Your take."

"When you're in a better place," Billy agreed. "Just ask." They amused the hell out of him, that was for sure, though he wasn't sure how he managed to surround himself with people who seemed determined to make the whole relationship thing look so damn hard all the time. "But yeah - so, y'know, if you wanted me to bring up a spare bed this evening, I could do that. No idea where I'd put it, but we can think of something."

Oz tried to turn his mind towards that. Really he did. He even tried for a minute to think about where a bed would go, or what they should do, and just...couldn't manage it. "If you can think of someplace...sure, if not I'm sure they'll...probably sleep in his room. Or something, I'm not sure. It's not like they haven't done it before." he said. "Sorry, I'm..." he made a vague gesture that was meant to articulate that he was all over the place. "Reeling." he finished the thought.

"Okay, well - look, do you want me to drive you home? Then if you want anything, you can give me a call later. Anytime - you know that," Billy told him, aware that Oz really wasn't meant to drive.

Shrugging one shoulder, Oz tried to clear his head more. "What should I do?" he asked. "Honestly. Just...whatever you say, I promise I won't snap at you, just what do you think I should do?"

"Do? Go and talk to her. Other than that, I don't know. I..." Even the simplest things seemed to be complicated with those two. He had never really understood it. "Just talk to her, get her to talk to you. And grab a flight to Vegas - Maddie and I'll keep an eye on the kids for you. And I'll forgive you for not asking me to be your best man," he joked.

"You wouldn't come with?" Oz asked, that catching his attention. Because he had always thought Billy would be there. He knew he'd have to leave Maddie...and yeah. "...nevermind." he answered his own question. She was pregnant, and this was Marquette, and she might not be able to leave. "If she could leave with, would you?" he continued, going with his train of thought.

"If she could leave, yeah, we'd come," Billy told him without pause, but even as he said it, he knew it was a lie. He couldn't imagine leaving the house, not even for a few days and he found himself hoping Maddie was, in fact, bound. It would make things so much easier.

Oz took that as truth, never suspecting that he'd be lied to. So he smiled. "Good. I never really wanted to do this without you involved." he told him truthfully. "Anyways, I'll let you know what she says." he said. "Wish me luck?" he asked, pushing himself to his feet. "...think I might leave the car here though...take the long way back. Give myself some time to clear my head more before I do try talking to her."

Billy stood with him and clapped him on the shoulder. "Good luck man. Really - I hope this all works out for you," he said, this time with utter honesty. "And sure, we'll organise something about the car later."

Nodding, he gave Billy a bit of a grim sort of smile. "Thanks." he said. "I'll talk to you later, tell you whatever's going on." he promised. Then he started off towards the woods again, knowing he needed the time to think everything over before he got there. Everything that Billy had said, everything he thought. What he was going to do if things went wrong. It was a lot to try and process.