[X] Ignore it. There are a lot of people working with you that have troubled pasts, and as long as it stays in the past it isn't a problem now.
"I think Giles is right," Buffy said. "This isn't what this was supposed to be about."
"But people died!" Willow said. "Maybe there was a whole secret war!"
"Like ours?" Anya commented.
"That's different," Willow said. "We're saving the world. Sometimes we have to bend the rules."
"And Matt's done that for us," Buffy said. "He could've hung us out to dry with how we dealt with Amy, that was when we barely knew each other. And every other time something's tried to ruin our day, he's stepped up to the plate again. We hired him to be a Police Chief we could live with and not have to work around, and he's done that. Has anyone here had any problems with how he does his job up until now?"
"I was kinda worried at first he would try to push me around," Xander said. "What with me being just a literal teenager without any convenient magic powers to put on my resume."
"Xander-" Buffy started.
"I kid, I kid," he said. "But I didn't get any of that from him. He was eager to learn."
"We've done a lot of good work together," Willow admitted.
"And I know it feels bad to leave a mystery unsolved, but honestly? He probably had good reasons. The people on the other side were willing to kill cops." Buffy could tell Willow was coming around. "We couldn't let that be either if it was happening."
"OK. I guess we can let it lie," Willow said, looking mournfully at the two ballistics reports. "If we even get a sniff of something like this happening again though-"
"We'll be all over it like Harm was on that coyote," Xander said.
"Eww, don't remind me, that was seriously gross," Willow said.
Buffy smirked just a little. She'd been at that training exercise too, and 'gross' wasn't precisely what she'd have called it.
"Was Daniel Osbourne planning to take his van off the roster for some reason?" CyberWillow said out of nowhere, breaking the moment.
"What?" Xander said. "Does Dingoes have a gig they need it for or something?"
"Not until Saturday," Willow sounded very worried all of the sudden. "Why are you asking? Is something happening?"
"He's unloading the SDCW materials," she explained. "Including the onboard server and speakers. His response to my initial query was uninformative and since then he has switched his radio into privacy mode."
"We'd sure have egg on our faces if he was the spy," Anya leaned back into the couch and putting a hand on her chin quizzically. "But if we do end up needing some top tier vengeance, I still know people in the industry."
"I'm sure there's some other explanation," Giles said.
"Wouldn't make a lot of sense to politely return all our stuff if he was about to do a runner to the other side," Xander said.
Willow got out her radio and punched a few buttons. "Oz? What's going on?" There was no response, and she punched a few more. "Oz, I know you can hear me, why won't you answer?"
"He's left his radio in the Watch House, with a folded note underneath it. The light and angle are not sufficient to read the contents through the back of the paper." CyberWillow said. "He's getting back into the van."
"Willow, maybe-" Xander was using his 'stay calm' voice, but she wasn't hearing it.
"We have to catch him!" Willow said, then looked around frantically, taking in the room full of scoobies and random papers. "Buffy, can you let me ridealong? You're the fastest."
She had a feeling this was going to be bad. Probably for the best she was the one there. "Sure, let's go. CyberWillow, you have a bead on him right?"
"I'm evaluating his likely routes and will direct your course," she answered.
Willow zoomed out the door, ahead of Buffy for once. With her out of sight for a second, she turned and gave the rest of them (and the disaster of a room) a helpless look. "You guys can pack this up?"
"Just take care of Willow," Xander said.
"I'll try," Buffy moved out, easily catching up with Willow. When she reached her, she cautioned. "I don't have a helmet with me, so we probably shouldn't go too fast. Or at least not too too fast." Normally Willow wasn't the need-for-speed type, but she could read the writing on the wall.
"You can just catch me with superspeed if we crash right?" She hopped up to the back part of the seat, raring to go.
"Not exactly something I've had occasion to try," Buffy said, getting on in front of her.
"And you're a way better driver these days too," Willow continued.
"Thanks," Buffy said, pulling away. "Wait! I was a good driver before. Maybe not great, but-"
"Just go, it'll be fine. If we're too slow he might get outside the city," Willow at least got a firm grip on her, so she decided to split the difference and speed just a little bit. Seventy was perfectly safe at this time of night, with the roads emptied out.
After a couple minutes driving it was clear from CyberWillow's directions that Oz was leaving town. The motorcycle was not quite too fast for Willow to hear anything Buffy said, and the conversation took turns as predictable as their route was.
"He's not really going to leave right?" Willow shouted over the wind. "It's a stunt. To make me pay attention."
"Definitely," Buffy reassured her.
"And the only reason we're driving out is to nip it in the bud," Willow said. "Avoidance behaviors like this aren't productive. He needs to learn to talk things out instead."
And that was exactly what he'd tried to do. It must have sucked to get shut down like that from all sides. But right now she had to be supportive. "Don't worry. No avoiding us now."
"That's right," she said. "How much farther?"
"Estimated intercept in 280 seconds," CyberWillow answered neutrally. "Take a left turn on State street in a quarter mile."
Oz's van came into sight soon after they'd pulled onto the highway, and Buffy effortlessly ate up the distance between them. Willow was beyond bluster at this point, but her grip had measurably tightened.
She pulled up on the driver's side, matching speed with both of them going sixty or so now, and thought about how she was going to get Oz to stop and pull over. She could flash her siren. She'd done it before. But it definitely wasn't her first choice. It wasn't like Oz was a criminal. And if she did and he ignored it, what then?
She locked eyes with him through his window, trying to project how much she would really like him to make this less awkward. She could only imagine Willow's expression behind her.
Thankfully, Oz shook his head, seeming to sigh, and then started changing lanes. He quickly reached the highway shoulder and was able to slow down and stop; Buffy pulled to a stop ahead of him, absently executing a drifting brake that left her bike facing down the front of his van. They were barely outside of Sunnydale proper, but the silence of the desert seemed to make the clear night weigh down a little deeper.
Willow hopped off from behind her, not saying anything as she raced up to his driver side window. Buffy was more hesitant, kicking the stand out to park properly and then inching forward. She didn't want to intrude on the conversation, but she could guess Willow might need some support here.
"Oz." Willow said his name desperately.
He got out of the van, not quite maintaining the unperturbed look he usually kept on his face. "Hey Willow. Buffy. Funny meeting you two out here."
"Why?" Willow was right up in his space, but she wasn't touching him.
"Think you know," he said.
"No. I don't know," she'd flipped like a switch from desperate to annoyed. "Is it because you lost the argument? Am I not kind and soft enough for you anymore? Or do you just feel like reading the first edition of the LA Times today?"
"I understand what you're doing. I can't do it," he said it like he was pulling teeth.
"Nobody's making you," she snapped. "You bailed on me because you just couldn't bear to watch me using the Box. How is this any different? Why not go back to the dorm and ignore it again?"
"That's not how it works," he said.
"Coulda fooled me," Willow said. "It's see no evil and hear no evil, right? As long as you don't have to be there when I do the dirty work, you can stay up on your moral pedestal."
Buffy had known the spider ritual had made things fraught between them, but somehow she hadn't expected this level of venom. It was the kind of thing she should've known about, but they'd both been so busy with everything. Willow more than her, with a full course load and magic research and a bunch of City Hall stuff on top. There wasn't a lot of time for gossip like there had been in the old days.
"Willow, this isn't just about you," he said, some resolve in him finally breaking. "And it's not just about this. It's like every week now, there's some new awful thing we have to do. Something that six months ago, would've been what we were fighting against."
"Would you rather go back in time?" Willow turned away from him and waved an angry gesture at the sky, electric sparks trailing off her fingers. "Back to when we couldn't do anything but react? Back to when nobody respected us, or everything we've done? Back to when I wasn't special, when I was just some nerd that-"
"You were always special," he interrupted.
"No I wasn't!" She screamed. Static hissed from Buffy's radio. "I was a victim. First to stuck-up schoolchildren, and then to vampires and demons. I have tried and worked and fought so hard to be strong, and now that I am, what, you don't like it? You'd rather have the virtuous maiden in the Eskimo costume?"
Buffy felt so out of place standing there. She couldn't go closer, and she couldn't slink back.
"It's not your power that I don't like," Oz was finally starting to sound angry himself now. "It's what you do with it."
"So keeping us safe is wrong now?" She replied.
"It is if you do it this way. Would you have stood for any of the things you do now a year ago?" Oz shook his head. "Cameras watching us everywhere? All the phones tapped? Ripping the most private things people have out of nowhere and going over them with a fine toothed comb? Would you stand for it now, if it was coming from anyone but you?"
"If it's so wrong, why didn't you stop me then? Instead of running away and putting your head in the sand?" Willow said.
"I should've," he replied, the heat draining back out of his words. "But it's too late now."
"Too late to fix me?"
"Too late to help you."
"Sure. Whatever. So you're just going to give up and leave?" Willow's voice broke a little at that. "You can't! Where will you go? How are you going to manage the wolf?"
"I've got my van," he said. "I've got plenty of money. All of us do. And I've got ten days. I'll work something out."
"Yeah? Well, we will too! We'll work out how to save the world from evil gods and dimensional mergers and Maggie Walsh's idiocy, and we'll do it without you." Unlike Oz, she was just getting angrier.
"I'm sorry," he said, turning around and opening his door.
"Get out!" she screamed at him. "Just get out!" The shock of static from her radio was louder now, and she thought she could even hear something from Oz's car. Whatever it was, it didn't stop him from turning it on.
Willow started crying then, slowly, as the tips of her hair turned black, and Buffy rushed forward to catch her as she went down to her knees. She shared a last helpless look with Oz through his mirror as he drove away, and then had to turn all her attention downward as Willow broke down into a sobbing mess.
Vote: It's 3AM on Thursday morning. What's Buffy doing tomorrow?
[] Get Willow home, and definitely spend some time hanging out with her tomorrow, but not the whole day. You've both got tons of responsibilities and everything's on a knife edge right now.
[] Shelve everything for a day (including mayoring, class for both of you, Harmony, investigations, the potentials, the works) and just spend it decompressing with Willow. It's been way too long, and she needs this bad. (Maybe stunt something calm)
[] Not only do you need to spend a full day with Willow, but she needs something wild and crazy to forget this. Clubbing out of town, having a huge party, and/or maybe spending a bunch of that money you earned beating up Wolfram and Hart. (Extreme stunt mandatory)
