Author's Notes/Rambling:

Okay, this is my first Buffy fic. Yay me! I love Willow and Oz and really wish they could have made it. I wasn't ever really on board with the whole Tara thing because I love "first love" stories and tend to ship them (Buffy/Angel, Willow/Oz, Xander/Cordelia...you get the idea).

A couple things one should note in order for this to make sense:

-this fic goes AU after the Season Four episodes "Fear Itself" and "Wild at Heart" (kind of). In my world, Willow and Oz, as my mother would put it, "folded the laundry" (translation: had sex) after the haunted house debacle. The events of "Wild at Heart" remain canon, and Oz leaves Willow. :'(.

-This is will be a multichaptered fic, as one has most likely observed. I have it all planned out and this makes me excited. I can tell you that it definitely will get more interesting soon, but there's always all the set up that must be done.

-This is mainly Willow/Oz fluffy goodness, but there will be supernatural crap to fight. :3. What's Buffy: the Vampire Slayer without something to actually, you know, slay?

-Last one, I promise. I will try my darndest to get stuff right, but I'm not perfect. Feel free to nitpick. It's been a while since I've seen past season three, so bear with me, children.

Without further ado, I claim no rights to anything in this story except for (spoilers) Willow and Oz's child. Mkay?

Willow curled up in a ball on her bed, pulling a quilt over her head. Nothing had ever hurt this much before-Oz leaving, Miss Calendar dying, watching Buffy cry over Angel, seeing Xander in pain-none of it compared to this. She was completely alone this time, she was sure of it. She unfurled her fist and peeked at the plastic stick in her hand to make absolutely sure she wasn't hallucinating, that she'd read it right the first time. Nope. No hallucinations, no April Fool's joke. The tiny test's plus sign glared at her with all the condemning force of a murder jury. How she was going to explain this one to Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies was beyond her.

Well, Willow, it's really not all that difficult, her sarcastic side told her. They all know about the birds and the bees...even Xander knows about the birds and the bees now!

"Oh, shut up." She told herself. The opening and subsequent slamming of their dormitory door signaled Buffy's arrival.

"Is it just me or are all the professors here completely crazy? I mean, I wrote my own paper, which is way more than I can say for some of my classmates, and I had you look it over, and I only got a C+?" Buffy noticed at the end of her rant that Willow wasn't really listening. In fact, her best friend oddly resembled a cloth ball in the middle of her bed. "Willow?" She poked the ball and it moved. "Did a spell go wrong or something where you turned yourself into a blanket?"

Willow sat up and unwrapped the quilt from around her head so she could see Buffy, keeping her hand concealed. "No, no spells gone bad here. I wish it was only a spell gone bad." Her eyebrows scrunched together and her eyes showed hurt.

"What happened, Wills? What's wrong?" Buffy sat on the bed next to Willow. "Talk to me."

Willow wordlessly handed her the positive pregnancy test.

"What?" Buffy didn't realize at first what Willow had given her. "Oh. Oh, God. Willow, are you sure?"

Willow nodded. "That's the second one today, and they all keep telling me the same thing. Darn those tests and the same answers over and over. I want a Magic 8 Ball. That's not the answer I want."

"Well, Will, it looks like that's the answer you got. It's Oz's, right? The baby?"

Willow scowled a little. "Don't say the 'b' word just yet. And yeah, he's the only possibility outside of a Virgin Mary type thing, which I really doubt. She was all holy and stuff. I bet she made a great mother. Me? I'm pagan, vampire-slaying assistant Willow. I don't know if I can be Virgin Mary- mommy Willow." She began to panic and fidget with her hands.

"Well, we'll worry about Virgin Mary later. Have you considered everything, like giving it up and stuff? Wait, how long have you known and you didn't tell me?" Buffy settled on the bed for a lengthy talk and Willow did the same.

"I thought maybe it's a possibility about four weeks ago and I've been taking tests for four days now. I bought every one the pharmacy had, even the one on sale for a dollar ninety-nine cents! Even the dollar and ninety nine cent test told me I'm pregnant! Those things are never supposed to be right. I thought about it sort of, but I don't think I could. It just doesn't feel right." Willow bit her lip hesitantly. She never had been one extreme or the other on the issue of abortion, she hadn't thought about it much, actually.

"Yeah, I get that. When will you tell Oz?" Buffy asked.

"Geez, enough with the Inquisition already!" Willow protested.

"Sorry, Will, but these things kinda have to be taken care of. Oz should know." Buffy's tone was scarily serious in Willow's opinion.

"I know, but he's who-knows-where and he left me here. I don't wanna tell him just yet." Willow nervously looked away. "It's just that it hurt enough when I thought that Oz was gone forever, and it started to fade a little, but this brings all back up again. I don't know if I can deal with him coming back right now. One step at a time."

Buffy reluctantly nodded. "All right, Will. You win."

Willow's mouth suddenly dropped. "What am I going to tell Xander? And what about school? What am I going to say? 'Sorry I'm a big fat hoe and got pregnant, so I can't come to school anymore'? I like school. I want to stay here." She began to reach what Buffy recognized as full out Willow panic mode when Willow hopped up and began pacing the floor. "And my family? My mom and dad still think I'm completely clueless about...about well, you know."

"Sex?" Buffy supplied to a blushing Willow.

"Yeah. What am I going to do, Buffy?" She sank back down onto the blanket and began to fidget nervously again.

"Well, first, you're going to take a very deep breath. Next, Xander will understand. Maybe not at first, but he'll come around eventually. After that, I think the school can make exceptions for this kind of thing. And as far as your family is concerned, you've got us, Will. I know that sounds super Hallmark movie cheesy, but you do. You've always got me and Xander and Giles and...well, Anya will follow Xander in the 'eventually' category. Maybe. But the point is, you're not going to be alone with this thing. We'll fight through it like we always do."

Willow was trying not to cry and was losing the battle. Buffy hugged her tightly and Willow was grateful for it. She felt like she might just come undone when another thought occurred to her.

"Buffy?"

"Yeah?"

"What if the ba-... the, uh...what if it's like Oz?"

"Well, I kinda expected the silence and deep thinking as part of the it takes two theory." Buffy replied, a little confused.

"No, I mean the werewolf thing? What if it's genetic and it turns into a wolf or something?"

"Oh. That way of taking after Oz. Um, well, maybe you could ask Giles to do some research or something. I'm sure this isn't the first time a regular human is having a werewolf's ba-" She was cut off by a warning look from Willow. "Will, you will have to admit at some point along this road that it's a kid."

"Hey, one step at a time theory." Willow pouted.

"Okay, fine. But I'm sure this isn't the first time this has happened."

"Well, this idea's all fine and dandy except for the part where I have to tell Giles about it and that means I have to tell Xander first cause if I told Giles before Xander, I'm pretty sure I would hear about it until the world actually ends one of these times." Willow began to freak out and ramble again.

"Well, then, I happen to know that Xander's at the pub. We could stop there on the way to see Giles." Buffy got up and gathered Willow's coat and bag for her.

"This so doesn't coincide with my one step at a time theory." Willow grouched as she took her coat and bag from Buffy and followed her out the door.