Willow put the phone down, and just stood in amazement at the phone call she'd just received. Oz, her Oz, was on his way back to Sunnydale, back into her life. Back to join the fight against Caleb, and that was all.

After Caleb was gone he had to leave, he couldn't stay. He didn't say why, just that this was something he had to do and that he'd explain when he got here.

Willow still stood there, dumbfounded. Although she was now firmly in the lesbian camp she knew that part of her still loved Oz, would always love Oz. And part of her would always wonder what would have happened if she had chosen Oz instead of Tara way back when.

This was just too monumental for her to take in at the moment, yet she wouldn't let herself fully believe that Oz was on his way until she saw him standing right in front of her. Willow made her way to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water, and it was only when she did that she realised how much she was shaking.

"Calm down." She told herself. "It's only an old friend coming to visit. A very welcome old friend whose help is going to be invaluable, but still only an old friend."

She didn't sound very convinced, and if Willow couldn't even delude herself over this then how would she be able to convince Xander or Buffy. "It's okay. I'll be okay when I see him. I'm just nervous is all, yeah, just nervous."

As Willow made her way through to the living room she managed to convince herself that it was just nerves about seeing Oz for the first time in years rather than any lingering doubts about her sexuality that was making her react this way.

Oz made his way to Buffys' house. He'd called there just before he got to Sunnydale, and had been surprised when Willow had answered the phone. He'd hoped that Buffy, or maybe even Giles, would have been his first contact. He hadn't really worked out what he wanted to say to Willow, so just keeping talk to business had been all that he could do when she answered.

Not that it hadn't been good to talk to Willow, not that he didn't want to. It's just he'd wanted to prepare himself for it. He smiled at that thought. He'd had three-and-a-half years to prepare himself for talking to Willow again. So why did her voice still manage to take his breath away.

"I'm just nervous about seeing her again." He told himself as he saw his hands shaking on the steering wheel. "It's just Willow." He whispered, almost as if trying to keep that fact even from himself. "She's just an old friend. One old friend amongst a group of old friends that I'm seeing on a fly by visit."

That was the one thing he'd really kept from Willow, why he was so desperate to get this over with. It was the one thing he would keep from Willow, from everybody, even though he would dearly love to share what he held so dear to him with her. But he couldn't, it was too much of a bombshell and he wasn't sure whether she'd accept, or even understand.

Finally Buffys house came into view and Oz parked the van up. He noticed that his hands were still shaking. "Okay, maybe a lot nervous." He told himself as he got out and walked to the door. Pausing before the door, Oz managed to still his hands and then knocked.

Willow heard a knock at the door and her heart almost jumped into her throat. Xander, Buffy and Dawn were still out, and wouldn't knock anyway. Willow made her way to the door and slowly opened it and saw Oz standing there smiling at her, but not saying a word.

"Oz." Willow gasped as she threw her arms around him in a hug. "It really is you."
"Hey, it's really you too." Oz replied as he returned the hug. "So what's the big bad?" He asked as he extracted himself from her arms.

Willow motioned for him to follow her into the house and as she sat down on the sofa turned to him. "The First. You remember the thing that brought Angel back from hell?" Oz nodded in response. "Well, it's back and brought a whole bunch of riends with it. The most immediate of those being Caleb."
"The preacher guy?" Oz asked.
Willow nodded. When did Oz get so serious? She thought to herself. Was he that desperate to be away from here, from her, that he wanted to get straight down to business. He hadn't even had time for a proper hello.
"The First has always been one step ahead of us. It killed off the slayer line so now there's only Buffy and Faith left. We tried rounding up the potentials, but the First always managed to get there before us." Willows eyes teared up at this. The thought of all those girls dying just because they might, one day, become the slayer.

Oz saw the tears in her eyes and reached out to put his hand on her shoulder, then drew her in for a hug. `Just old friends' he thought to himself as he felt his lips brush against her forehead. She pulled back to look at him, almost quizzically, before moving in and kissing him full on the lips. Willow eventually pulled back from the kiss, took Oz by the hand, and led him upstairs.

"That wasn't supposed to happen." Oz told Willow as they lay next to each other on her bed.
"I know." She replied, grinning inanely at him. "What with me being gay and all." It was when Oz had walked back through the door into her life that she realised that her sexuality, and the gender of her partner, didn't matter. It was the love that mattered and she still loved Oz, as much as she had loved Tara.

"I still need to leave, once this is all done." Oz told her. "I don't want you to get your hopes up. I can't stay."
"I know." Willow replied, a slight sadness in her voice. "But you can stay, until we defeat the First."
"I can only stay for a couple of days Willow. There's people that need me People that are relying on me to get back to them in one piece." Oz told her. "I'm here to help in the attack on Caleb, that's all. I'm sorry." He could see the sadness in her eyes, and felt like he was letting her down all over again. "But you could come with me. When you do defeat the First you could meet me in L.A."
Suddenly there was a noise from downstairs, causing Willow and Oz to look at each other in alarm. Neither of them had heard anybody coming in. Both got up and dressed quickly before heading downstairs.

At the foot of the stairs they were confronted by a figure. A man dressed as a preacher. Without thinking, Oz transformed himself into his wolf form and went on the offensive. Willow just stood there, frozen to the spot as she watched Oz attack the man that even Buffy couldn't defeat alone.

Oz could feel his strength sapping, Caleb was matching him blow for blow, which only went to show that he was something more than human. But Oz was sure that Caleb would make a mistake, he had to. Oz knew Caleb was getting as tired as he was, and the fight had slowed down from its original frenetic pace.

He could still see Willow standing there, frozen to the spot, not even able to call out. He needed to defeat Caleb, find a weakness. He couldn't let Caleb take her away from him now, couldn't let Caleb take him away from the people he loved.

And then he saw it, an opening, and he was that shocked he almost missed it before the opportunity was gone. But almost as soon as Caleb let his hands drop slightly and leave his neck exposed Oz jumped at him open mouthed and grabbed his throat with his teeth. He now managed to bring his front paws up and grab hold of Calebs head as his back paws still pounded at his body.

Oz let go with his teeth and twisted with his front paws, and heard the bones in Calebs neck snapping, and then felt Calebs body go limp.

Returning to human form Oz ran across to Willow and hugged her tightly. "It's okay Willow, it's over. He's dead." He said, trying to comfort her as he felt her sobbing into his shoulder.

"So you're heading back to L.A then?" Willow asked.
"I have to Willow, I told you." Oz answered.
"You told me that there were people who needed you, were relying on you. You're needed here as well Oz. If it wasn't for you Caleb would still be running rampant here. What's so important that you have to leave for L.A immediately ?" Willow asked insistently.
Oz looked at her, and came to a decision very quickly. He could trust her.
"What's so important, is my son."