Title: ...And Back Again

Authors: the OzMIA RR gang: Lily, Vashti, Karen, MD, quantumLiz, Tabitha, and Little Faith.

Spoilers: Through "Same Time, Same Place"

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: The only thing we own is the weirdness.

Summary: Round Robin Fic from Oz: Missing In Action.

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Oz put his hands slowly onto his butt. Hmm. So it was his butt that the woman had touched, and apparently it hadn't been some sort of weird empathy thing going on.

"You okay?" the woman asked, concerned.

"Maybe." Oz looked at her. He held out his arm. "Pinch me."

"What?"

"Pinch me."

She tentatively reached out two fingers and put pressure on the skin of this forearm. He stared at his arm for a few seconds before shrugging.

"Hmmm."

The woman removed her fingers from where they had come to rest on his arm and
felt his forehead with her palm. She looked into his eyes while she checked for a fever, and Oz had, for the first time since he had seen the woman, an odd sense of recognition.

"Oz, dear, come into the bathroom. I don't think you have a fever, but I want to be sure. Let's get the thermometer." She moved into the small hotel-room bathroom and he followed her. She reached into a toiletries case and pulled out the thermometer.

He sat on side of the bathtub, with the blonde between him and the mirror. He let her put the thermometer in his mouth and waited patiently for her to remove it.

"Fever dreams?" he asked.

"What? No fever." She showed him the thermometer, safely at 98.6. She shrugged once more and left the room, mumbling something about getting ready for tonight. He stood up and caught his first glimpse in the mirror.

His hair was tame and close-cut. Slight wrinkles ran out from the corners of his eyes and mouth. He was still standing, looking at himself, when she popped back into the bathroom.

"Oz?"

And then he recognized her.
**end thirteen**
"Anya?"

She batted his hand away. "Stop that. It s only funny the first day after I change my hair color. And you liked the blond last week."

"Don t let him bother you," Oz heard.

He pushed past Anya. "Spike?"

"What about it?"

"Why are you in my house?"

"You livin in the hotel-room now, mate? Since when? Oi! Why don't anyone ever tell me anything anymore? Anyanka...!"

Anya stormed past Oz. "Don t blame me! He s not really living here anyway. He s just confused still. A little."

"You check him for a fever?"

"Of course. Don t you trust me?"

"Not as far as I can throw you."

"Oh Spike!" Anya sat on the vampire s lap, "You say the sweetest thi--"

"Um, not to interrupt," Oz said, interrupting them from the bathroom door, "but could someone lend a little clarity to the moment?"

The couple turned to him. "Is it just me or is he a card short of a deck," Spike whispered into Anya s ear.

"I d say a whole book," she whispered back.

"I can hear you."

Spike frowned, chagrined. "I thought we agreed you wouldn't listen in on private conversations anymore. That s right rude, mate."

"Will someone just explain what s going on?!" Oz said, uncharacteristically angry, and his voice unusually hoarse. Like maybe he was old enough to have a near-adult kid.

Who, like the proverbial devil, appeared. "What s wrong, Dad?"

"Where s you re mother?"

"At home. Why?"

"Call her."

"I thought you too weren t speaking."

Oz looked to Anya and Spike for confirmation. They were too busy confirming each other s necks. He turned back to his daughter. "Call her anyway."

A phone appeared in his daughter s hand. "Mom, don t hang up. Dad wants to talk to you. He s been acting all funny since our dreamwalk."

"Sweety, you know your father and I aren t--"

"He *told* me to call you. It s gotta be important right?"

Oz knew that voice.

*Sigh* "All right, put your father on."

His daughter handed him the phone. Which had pictures. Moving pictures that we glaring up at him somewhere between annoyed and angry.

"Oz, this had better be important."

And were those flowers behind her smiling?

Oz opened her mouth to say her name....

*fin fourteen*

"Faith?"

The dark-haired slayer stared at him expectantly. "I don't have time for this, so just get it out."

Oz nodded, more to himself than to anyone currently watching. "I think I was pulled into the future. Is that a problem with anyone?"

"Pulled into the future?"

"Or I'm having a dream of Dorothy Gayle proportions," the werewolf said, sinking onto the unoccupied hotel bed. "Should have stuck with being a Jedi."

"Jedi? Oz, if this is some strange, Xander-worthy plot to make me feel sorry for you, it's not working."

"Wait, wait." The daughter Oz didn't remember having took this opportunity to interrupt. "I think I know what's going on."

end part 15

Oz's daugher grimaced, "Dad I think you've had something inserted into your brain. Didn't the Initiative have you for a while back in the late 90's?"

Oz stared at her. "They only had me for a second and I kinda don't like remembering that day. Willow turned out to be gay and cruel... Riley saved my life, but I spent most of the day cold, nake and alone." Oz clamped his mouth shut. He'd been talking too much for him and that made him think he was being suspiscious. He would have to eye himself carefully in the mirrors from now on. He might be shifty.

"Bear with me Dad. Maybe you got a chip in you and it's going wrong. That's why you're hallucinating and forgetting who my mom is and thinking it's Faith or whatever... You're not crazy. You're malfunctioning." She beamed and twinkled her blue eyes at him.

Oz stared around the room that had settled into a comfortable living room not unlike the one at Buffy's house. Oz sat down in a squashy chair. "See, that doesn't work. Spike's chip kept him from killing people..."

"And?"

Oz shrugged, "I've killed a lot of people since Willow broke my heart."

Everyone stared at him. "What?" His daughter asked, her lip trembling.

Oz nodded, gripping the arm rests. "Ten at least. I ate three of them...Rough mornings. Training for control broke a few... eggs."

Faith laughed, "Way to go Oz! You're F*cked up!"

Oz's daughter fell to the floor and melted away.

Seriously f*cked up.

"I don't understand any of this." Oz told the puddle that used to be his daughter.

"That's okay, I can explain it..." Said...
end 16

Said Giles as he crossed his legs at the ankle. He took off his glasses and cleaned them with a handkercheif from his pocket.

"Are you really Giles?" Oz asked.

"As far as I know."

Oz got up and looked at himself in the hall mirror. Nope, not shifty. He wasn't high either. His pupils weren't dilated enough.

"You're you too. If you were wondering."

Oz pinched himself.

"And you're quite awake."

"What year is it," Oz asked as he sat across from Giles again.

"That's what got us all into this mess in the first place, don't you think?" Giles uncrossed his legs and sat foreward, his arms resting on his knees. "What year do you think it is?"

"2002. Weren't you supposed to explain everything to me?"

"Oh yes, I did say that, didn't I. Quite the slip up. I must admit I had no intention of explaining anything to you at all."

Oz would have been shocked, but his shock meter was broken. He kind of missed it. For a moment he wondered where he could go to get it fixed. He asked Giles.

"No where around here, I imagine. Although perhaps Buffy could do it for you."

"Buffy's here?"

"Why wouldn't your sister be here?"

Tempted as he was to say "MY WHAT?!" it came out more as a raised eyebrow. And a vague choking sound that might or might not have been really dangerous. Until he realized it was a stomach-growling sound and that he was hungry. "You wouldn't happen to have any food?"

"I believe Willow brought something with her. It should be in the kitche--"

"Willow's here?"

"Of course. She's your...."

end 17

"...home! Everyone!" Willow shut her eyes. Opening them one at a time, she noticed the extreme absence of people. She could hear Dawn watching TV in the other room, but, other than that, everything was quiet. She sighed and turned to go upstairs, but stopped when she noticed that there was one other person in the room.

"I thought I told everyone to go home," she said, half to herself.

"My home."

"What?" Willow was beyond confused.

"Giles. He said you were my...my home, I guess." Oz shrugged. "It kind of makes sense now, but...weird."

Willow was still confused, but now she was smiling. After all those years, and all that confusion, and all that they had both done, he could still melt her heart right into a puddle. Whether or not she was actually interested in him anymore as more than a friend, it was always nice to hear that you were someone's home.

"What happened to the...the," Oz began, "...nevermind."

"What?"

"Well, before...you told everyone to go home, and then we talked about you being in England, and I knew all about it even though I had no idea what you were talking about, and then I was with these flowers who were talking...I think you were crying about something...and I had a daughter, she was beautiful...but she was confused too...and Faith and Anya and Spike were there, but I may or may not have been living in a hotel. I don't know. And I may have had a fever. I was old, but then I wasn't. I was with Giles, and he said you were my something, but then you said, 'home,' which is what you said the first time, and I was right back where I started from." Oz took a deep breath. It had been a long time since he had said that much in one go. "Does that make any sense at all?"

"Not really," Willow admitted, "but this has been a weird day for everyone."

"A glitch in the Matrix?" Oz suggested.

"Nah, I'm pretty sure this one was all me." Willow looked at the floor, then at Oz again. "So, now you're here."

"Here I am," Oz confirmed.

"Well, I could use some coffee..."

She paused and shook off the weirdness of the day, grabbing her jacket off of the kitchen counter.

"You could probably use some too, after all that zipping around you did. Espresso Pump sound good?"

"The best."

He smiled and followed her out the door.

*The End!*