Fork in the Road

Who: Megan and Oz
Where: Commune
When: Late Afternoon/Evening-ish

Her and Dorian had sat around at the party for what felt like hours until the Fae showed them to a door back to their homes. Splitting away from the group, Megan headed back to the commune. She was exhausted and unhappy and confused as all hell with what her and Dorian talked about and all she really wanted was to go home and crawl under the covers and go to sleep.

Hitting the pack lands, Megan relaxed some and looked around to see if anyone was milling around. She heard rustling in the woods but other than that, she didn't see anyone until the house came into view. Megan looked down at her decorative sandals and costume and felt shy all of a sudden. She never wore things like this and she wrapped her arms around herself and kept walking. She saw the front door open and heard hollering. Yeah, it was good to be home.

Said hollering didn't happen to be from Oz, even if he was the one who opened the door, and was already rushing out towards Megan. The shouting was from Maddie, who was inside giving hell to one of the pack members, something about shedding and vacuuming up later. Oz, however, wasn't even in a mode to shout. He just had been watching out the window for the five, ten minutes he'd let himself be home before he was out searching for her again, and the second he caught sight of her he was out the door and running over. He caught her up in a hug, which pulled her off her feet. There was something in there that sounded a lot like 'god I was so worried' but it was mildly difficult to tell, considering his voice was muffled.

Megan was just about to wave hello when she was caught up in the hug and she gave a surprised 'oomph!' when he grabbed her up and she dropped her platinum moons in the ground. After a moment, Megan returned the grab with a hug on her own end. "M'okay, Oz. Promise," she squeaked out because Oz was holding her pretty tight and for a short guy, he had a pretty strong grip. "You can put me down now." But she was still hugging him so maybe she didn't really want to be let go of.

He set her feet back down but didn't actually let go, keeping her in the hug. "Are you sure? Where have you been? What happened? God, I've been searching everywhere..." he said. "The whole pack is, and no one could catch even a scent--you promise you're okay?" he asked, rattling off the questions in a rush. He'd held it together in front of people alright, but in the end, he'd been missing a pack member and in no way could he actually deal with that in any way that could be considered 'well'.

"I'm fine, Oz, I promise," Megan said and gave him another squeeze. It was good to know that she was missed. That people had been worried and had been searching for her. "I was in Germany. Fae kidnapped me." She pulled back a little bit and rubbed at her eyes. No, she wasn't crying. Nope. Not her. "There was a bunch of us from around town. Mathias and Dorian Lockwood and that bartender, Jocelyn. Some people from Manhattan. They wanted to promote, damn, what was it?" She remembered them talking about it but her head was starting to hurt a little. "They got through Maddie's wards. From Germany."

He was sort of having a little trouble following what she said, but he tried. And he also recognized she probably wanted to breathe, and therefore he let her go finally and stepped back, crouching to pick up what she'd dropped. "I didn't tell Dean, Thia and that household. I--they've got teenagers to take care of for the moment, I know they would have freaked out too. But everyone here was searching high and low, and okay that makes sense. There's another wolf around, Astrid? You'll have to meet her, she was looking for the Lockwoods too." he added. He looked at her for a long moment, then gave her another hug. "I'm glad you're back. I'll tell Maddie about the fae thing." Maybe she just didn't have fae wards. It was possible, right? Really at the moment he was far too engrossed in being relieved she was back than anything else. Everything else was just details, semantics. But she was back. Thank christ.

"New wolf? Looking for Dorian?" Female wolf looking for Dorian? "How long was I gone for?" Megan knelt down when he did and grabbed the other hairpiece. "Dean and Thia are okay though? Has everything been okay here?" She kind of swayed a little bit and carefully stood back up and looked around as if she would see some big gleaming sign that would give her an update. "I'm... really hungry. Is it dinnertime yet? I'm really hungry."

"For the Lockwoods, not for Dorian specifically." Oz corrected. "And a day or so." he told her, stopping entirely as she swayed, and he put his arm around her to help her towards the house. "They're okay. Just...dealing with a house full of boys now. And it's dinner time right now if you're that hungry. So let's eat." he said. "I think it's around that time anyways." He hadn't been paying much attention, having been more focused on finding her than food.

Megan nodded obedietly and let him guide her up to the house. She looked down at the moon in her hand and felt something weird inside but she was feeling weird already so she just pushed it away and tried to focus on the here and now. Just like she was told to do. "The fae threw us a costume party," she grumbled. "They snatched us out of our bed and then threw us a party and everyone seemed to be okay with that. How could they be okay with being kidnapped?" What time was it anyway? Dinner time, if there was dinner. But was it early dinner? Late dinner? "I thought they were going to kill us." Irrational? Maybe, but she was freaking the hell out.

Oz gave her a squeeze as they headed inside. There, where everyone seemed to want to push in and give Megan hugs and nuzzles and other sorts of things, both in people form and wolf form. "Why did you think they were going to kill you?" he asked, tone very careful there. Basically, he wanted to know if they needed to be on alert for fae now too. Which was entirely possible, he knew next to nothing about them.

Megan took in all the hugs and nuzzles. It felt kind of weird, but it was nice too, to feel all the love there. She was an isolated girl and sometimes she thought she didn't fit in, but for the first time in awhile, this felt like family. Really felt like it. So she didn't answer Oz right away. Just took in the comfort for a bit before she said she was pretty damn starving so she was gonna get some food. Setting the moon barrets on the hall table, her and Oz went into the kitchen. "Full moon last night and one of us happened to be a werewolf. I spent that first day scared out of my fucking mind and managed to get out of the group and go hide before night fell. Came out the woods the next day wondering what was gonna happen and they're throwing a costume party. Fae have powers. Glamour and I don't know what else, Dorian and I didn't talk about fae much -- he's writing a book on them -- but they were ruling the whole town with some big gateway into the dreaming up there I guess. And no one else seemed to be angry that we were kidnapped in the middle of the night. Some people woke up at their castle, I woke up with some other people on the ground in town... It was just not fun. And I didn't know if anyone here was safe at first. That the fae had like, decimated the town and brought us there to sacrifice or whatever the fresh hell what." She knew she was freaking out. Megan was sure that she was freaking out and she sat on a stool and rested her head on the counter. She was still pretty shaken up.

Oz frowned a little as she spoke, and then he rubbed her back lightly when she put her head down. "Megan," he said, voice very light. "You know why we're out here?" he asked, the question rhetorical. "It's because we fear being judged. Because we fear people deciding we're going to wipe out the town, and eat people, or whatever." he told her. "And you're doing that to them." he continued. "You didn't have any information, and instead of trying to find any out, you just went directly for the worst possible thing you can think of--and if we want to live in a world where this stuff eventually eases back, and stops? Then you can't do to everyone else what they're doing to us."

"They took us out of our homes in the middle of the night, Oz," she said with her head still on the counter. Megan was not cool with that. Not cool with that at. All. "They saw nothing wrong with that. But they're fae and fae's are all 'we're the best, everyone else sucks' so I guess that's why." Oz rubbing her back was very soothing and Megan lifted her head a bit so she could fold her arms under her head for a pillow. "I was doing okay at first. Well, I freaked out a bit when I first woke up with this one girl from town. She wanted to go exploring right away and I thought that was a bad idea because it all smelled really damn strange. Really wild, and I didn't want to do that until we figured out where we were. So I made her hide in a shed with me because she screamed pretty loud and I knew people would be coming. So we pinpointed foreign country and then we headed out and I tried to be really assessing and everything. Tried to think of what you would do in the situation. Met up with Tad, who said he woke up with another guy he didn't recognize and so... things felt a little calmer? Then BAM! I got the date. Remembered the full moon was last night. Freaked out. Not too bad in front of them." She'd been absolutely terrified. People ate werewolves. Which she found out from Dorian ages ago and now wish she never had. "Today was a little better. I found Dorian. I tried to be social. I think I did okay, but I was so scared." Megan very carefully rubbed her eyes. No, she wasn't crying. She just had itchy eyes and that's the story she was sticking with. "I tried to be understanding but I was scared and I just wanted to go home."

"No one was here, Megan. Whatever happened to you, it was hardly people barging in and grabbing you and forcing you to do anything." Oz said. If it had been he'd have been going even more insane, but there hadn't been anything at all. He didn't say anything further than that, he just gave her a hug, arm going around her and he sat next to her and was there for a moment, just being present, and comforting. "You're home, and you're safe. Nothing bad happened to you." he pointed out. And really, as a girl who'd been through as much trauma as she had in her life, she should have the perspective to recognize that but maybe she just didn't. Or, maybe she needed to have someone point it out. He didn't know, really, and didn't venture a guess either. Right now he just knew she was upset, so he was being there with her.

Megan frowned a bit, wanting to say that yes, they forced her to dress up and have a party, but that was kind of insignificant and it wasn't such a big deal. "I'm home and I'm safe and nothing bad happened," she repeated and took a deep breath too. She was safe. Nothing bad had happened after all. "I tried really hard to be calm. I tried." She lifted her head a bit so she could look up at him. "I... I think I need help." She bit her lip for a moment because it was really really hard to admit this. "Professional help."

Oz smiled a little at her and reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear. "Then we'll find you professional help, hon." he promised. "Okay? I promise. We'll find you help. And we'll find a way to pay for it, or whatever has to happen will happen. You'll be okay." he told her, sounding fully confident in that. He gave her a reassuring look, and kept his arm around her, rubbing the back of her shoulder lightly.

"I'll get a job," Megan promised. "Maybe Dor will hire me or I'll find somewhere else." What was going to happen when the money ran out? Not just with the commune, but everywhere else in town too? Was that going to be a problem? She couldn't remember money being addressed in apocalyptic movies, but people started bartering. "I've been trying, but I don't know. But I think I need one." She rubbed her eyes and sat up a little more. She was not weak. She didn't need to put her head down and cry on the counter like she was doing. It wouldn't help anything.

"Only get a job if you think you can handle it. Right now you're fine. You don't have to get one." Oz told her first, because frankly he wasn't entire sold on the idea that Megan could handle a job, not with her social ineptitude. That and her kind of freaking out over everything lately. He wanted her happy and stable much more than he wanted any income she might try to bring in. "And if you think you need one then you probably need one." he told her. "So, we'll find one. It'll be okay." he reassured her again. "I believe in you."

Megan gave him a small twitch of a smile and a little nod. "I'll figure it out. I'd like to get one anyway, if I could find a place." Exhaling slowly, she ran her hands through her hair and just tried to let herself feel back to normal. Back home. Food cooking. Pack around and safe. And Oz believed in her. That was nice to know. It was good to know. Maybe she wasn't as hopeless as she thought she might be. "How're Dean and Thia?" she asked. "And the boys?"

"Hangin in there. The house is still standing, so far, so I'm calling it good." he said with a light smile. "I'm sure they'd love to see you." he added. "Maybe after you've had some rest and all. Maybe head over there for dinner tomorrow--Thia's been kind of doing dinner every night, something she's been insisting on. I'm sure she'd love if you went for a meal."

That sounded like something Thia would do and that got Megan smiling a little more. "I bet she likes that. Maybe I'll see if she wants help too." Megan could cook some. She knew enough not to set things on fire anyway. "Although it's gotta be hard going from just the two of them to what? Six of them together under a roof?" And it's not like Dean and Thia could go out someplace to get away, right?

"Seven if you count Nic, who I think spends more time there than at her house." Oz said. And he understood it, too. He'd wound up with a teenager, and then another one, and yeah. He knew all about suddenly having nothing in the way of privacy, but sometimes you just did what you had to do, and that was the end of it. "But I'm sure she'd talk to you about it if you asked. Or offered to help make dinner. The boys are outnumbering in that household now by a lot."

"Which can't be fun," Megan said thoughtfully, because it didn't. Although if the boys were well behaved... Still. "Maybe I'll try do some really girly things with her." She pursed her lips. She could do girly things. She knew how to paint nails and braid hair. "I'll do that. I'll see if she needs help around too. And if the boys are going to school, then that gives her some time too." She didn't know if that was going to be a thing, but the school was still going and she was pretty sure that Dean's brother and his friends were still school age.

"I think she'd just like if you were around." Oz said. "Dean too. Go spend some time at their house in the next few days. Relax, see your friends. It'll be good for you." he told her, very much believing that. That and he had faith in Dean and Thia's ability to be theraputic. They were both level people.

Megan nodded again as Oz spoke, just taking in the suggestion. She liked Dean and Thia. They were like a brother and sister to her. The hours they used to spend in the basement working on the trains. Just occupied with creating something. Maybe she'd go look for something in the basement that she could take over for her and Thia to do. "I want to spend more time there, just sometimes I haven't been sure. Because it's the two of them and I don't want to intrude? I run past there sometimes when I'm out. I know you do. Just to check on them." She was kind of thinking out loud there, hoping that her thoughts weren't rooted in the completely wrong place. "I think if they're cool with it, I'll try stop in more. Not sleep there or anything. There's only so much room, but spend more time." She glanced over at Oz. "Would that make you feel better?" Because she knew Oz went over there often. Oz worried about them. And maybe Oz would feel less worried if she was there in case anything happened.

Oz quirked a half smile. "Megan, I think you need to do what's going to make you feel better, don't worry about what might make me feel better." he told her. "But if we're just talking hypothetically speaking, knowing you were around too would probably ease my mind a little bit." he admitted. Everyone knew he wasn't overly happy with Dean and Thia not living at the commune with them. But things just went the way they went, and there wasn't always anything for it.

She returned his half smile with one of her own, although it was closer to the smirk end of the spectrum. "Doing things that make me feel better will feel even more better if I'm helping someone else out too." It was comforting to know that Oz's mind would be eased some if she was there, which made her feel suddenly very trustworthy. "Do you know how well they're doing with the boys?" She knew that it was more of a question she should ask Dean or Thia, but Oz was an outsider and she could at least go in having an idea of what to expect. "Are the boys okay?"

"I think it's too soon to tell." Oz said honestly. "But so far I know there haven't been any major problems. But I think people are still getting settled, and we won't see anything actually pop up until later. There's always a grace period while people settle in." he said, something he realized when he'd started taking in people to the commune. Everyone was on their best behavior for a while, it wasn't til after a sort of honeymoon period that real problems started to rear up.

"One of them's really in a bad way, isn't he?" Megan recalled hearing something about dungeons and dragons and Oz had been pretty stressed at the time. Then again, it had been a stressful situation so it wasn't like that was to be unexpected or something.

"Yeah." Oz said, nodding. "One of them has...a passing relationship with reality. He kind of thinks everything around him is just some part of a dnd campagin." he admitted, thinking she should know that. She could watch for it then. "Thia assures that if you don't draw attention to it and just roll with it, it's fine, but he freaked out at me when I spoke to him. So just...be careful, but don't avoid. I don't think that would help either."

Were werewolves considered enemies in DnD? Megan couldn't for the life of her remember, but it's also not like they knew she was one, right? Megan hadn't changed form while they were in Manchester. "I'll be on my guard," she promised. If Thia had found a way to make it work, then it had to work. Thia was pretty awesome like that, and if he'd freaked out on Oz? Well, she didn't know the conversation or if he randomly freaked. So that could be either a wolf thing or just a general unstable sort of thing. "Hell, maybe if I get this therapy thing going, maybe I could see if anything can be found to help them. If it's needed." And Megan had a pretty good idea that therapy might be needed for those four. Especially with that hell they were in. "And moving onto a completely random subject change, but how did you and Sophie wind up together?" Completly random was an understatement, but it had been something on the back of Megan's mind since the conversation she had with Dorian earlier.

"That's always an option." Oz agreed, thinking therapy for the lot of the boys was a good plan, but yeah. Who knew if they'd even agree to go, and as far as he knew, therapy really needed to be voluntary. He wasn't looking to commit anyone. He looked surprised at her question, but he smiled. "...completely weird, random circumstances that wound up with my inner wolf recognizing her as Mate." he said. "It's...kind of a long, convoluted story." he admitted.

For some reason, Megan felt discouraged at that and she leaned back against the counter with a thoughtful look on her face. "Does she recognize you as her mate?" she asked, hoping that wasn't too personal. "Or did you guys do some kind of spell when you got married -- are you guys married?"

Oz nodded. "Yeah, we're married." he said. He glanced around. "If you want to know the whole story, I'll tell you." he said. "We could take a walk down to the dock." he suggested. It was just a weird story, was all. A very weird story. But if she wanted to know, then he'd certainly tell her--it wasn't a secret. And it wasn't any weirder than Billy and Maddie's story either, not that he thought most of the people at the commune knew there was even anything strange in any of their histories.

She looked a little surprised but nodded and messed around with the ribbons on her sandels and slid them off. She didn't want to ruin them because if she was honest? Megan really liked them and she'd already walked around in the gravel. Stomach growling, Megan grabbed an apple off the counter and followed Oz outside. It wasn't a steak, but it was food and Megan was pretty hungry still. She took a deep breath when she got outside and she relaxed considerably. There was nothing better than being in your own backyard.

He headed them the very short distance down to the dock, walking out onto it and he sat down, dropping his bare feet into the water. "I met Sophie when I was fifteen." he said. "She was new, and had the accent, and well. She was gorgeous." he said, smiling. "And I kind of didn't actually care that she was older than me. I flirted anyways. Told her I was assigned to show her around the school, even if that was total bullshit." he admitted. "But anyways, we got to be friends, of a sort anyways. She humored me." Which was likely closer to the truth. "We lived in a place that was a lot like here, though. It kind of had Weird wandering around like you wouldn't believe. And anyways, there was the school play that got put on. And we both tried out for parts. And we both got cast--in the leads. Romeo and Juliet."

Megan had never been to school. She'd never been to a school play, but she'd seen enough television shows to know that those sort of things couldn't always end up good, especially if you had Weird already going on in your town. But Megan also knew that not everything that happened in movies or television happened in real life or followed the same rules. "And that changed everything?" Megan tried.

"Yeah, it did, just not in y'know, the way you'd figure." Oz said, sighing. He looked down at his wedding band, and tapped it against the wood of the dock lightly. "A spell got cast on the play. I still don't really understand why or by who. One of the teachers helping with it, I guess, and the spell sort of had everyone 'becoming' their roles?" he said, looking at her to see that she was following. "Like I started behaving like Romeo, everyone else behaved like their part, all that. And we would even go so far as to set up situations like the play, or situations fell into place, I was never clear on that either. But either way, two things happened. One, we tried to get married. And were were far too young to do that at the time, so we just found someone who agreed to do it--which kind of...well." He sighed. "He was pretty much a shady bastard, truth be told, and he did the ceremony alright, he just did a demonic wedding ceremony, which basically binds people together. Mystically binds them." he said. "And y'know, there's a scene in that play where they consummate the marriage. And that happened, so not only were we bound by this ritual thing, but from that night on, I was Mated." he told her. "Long story short, the spell was broken before we killed ourselves, obviously but it was a close thing. Sophie even spent time in the hospital due to it."

She was quiet for awhile. That was really, really heavy and Megan leaned over and bumped her shoulder against his gently. "I'm sorry you had to go through that," she said quietly. That sounded not easy at all and Megan considered herself lucky that she never had to go through something like that. "What happened after that?"

Oz quirked a half smile. "Thanks." he said. "That honestly wasn't the hard part, though." he said. "The hard part was afterwards, I was alright with the binding spell, she really was not, and she wasn't really cool with the Mate thing either. I asked her to marry me, but she didn't want to, and the next time trouble hit town, she left. For England." he said. He tried to keep his tone even, but there were giveaways that spoke of the fact that the guy still hurt over that. "I tried writing her letters, but never heard anything. Then I literally just wandered. I traveled around, basically just trying to find a place I felt like home at. Which is why I wound up here, actually. This place felt like home. For her, she was in England, and I guess realized she'd made a mistake? But it was too late to contact me, I'd already dropped off the grid. Then, here, I was going through the rituals to get control of the wolf. But it nearly killed me, and when it did, I dropped into a coma. When I woke up, she was there."

What did you say to something like that? Because when Oz said that the hard part was afterwards, he wasn't kidding. "Was it the binding spell that called her back? Since you said that you went off the grid?" Because she didn't think a mate bond could do that, especially since Sophie wasn't a wolf. She wouldn't have felt that mate bond, but spells, well, Megan wasn't sure about those things. "And how did you survive on your own like that without a pack?" Cursed wolves weren't born with the instinct, but Oz was just as good as a born wolf what with him being Alpha and the connection he had with that part of himself.

"Yeah, I guess it pulled her to me? Like she just felt that something was really wrong with me and the next thing she knew she was buying a ticket--and she didn't even know where she was buying a ticket to." Oz quirked a half smile. "I didn't do a very good job. It was why I was so restless, I needed people around, I needed a lot of things. Let's just call me a total wreck during that time and say it was putting it lightly. Then I got here, and there was the pack lands and such, and things got better. Plus, Billy wound up around the area too, and so I had my best friend back. Then Sophie got here, and...well." he shrugged one shoulder. "We worked things out eventually."

Megan leaned more against one of the dock pillars and looked down at the water, listened to it lap up against the wood. "Is that bond still in place?" she asked after a moment. "The spell, did you guys try to get it undone?" Although it did occur to her that maybe, at the end of it all, Sophie didn't want to get rid of that marriage bond, it seemed to make things complicated. Like, if Sophie was with Oz against her will. Not that she didn't think Sophie loved Oz. She'd seen them together, obviously. They were happy and in love, but if she didn't have that spell, she still wouldn't have a type of mate bond that Oz had as a wolf.

"As far as we know it can't be broken." Oz said. "I know she looked, or I think she did pretty extensive looking, but she never found anything. And by now it's kind of a moot point. She was going to be deported, and so she finally agreed to marry me." he said, sighing slightly. Nope, he didn't have abandonment issues or anything. Really.

Well that sounded incredibly confident and pleased. Megan looked down at her hands, then past it back at the water. "I know I'm the last person who can give advice on the subject and you're not asking me for it, since I asked you how you two got together, but Oprah says that when stuff is bothering you in your relationship, you should talk about it, and it sounds like that might be something you should do?" She gave him a nervous sort of look. He was her alpha and everything and she just gave him unasked for relationship advice. She couldn't not though. The sound of that sigh, the shift in body language, he looked like he was still pretty torn up about it. "Maybe everyone should go look into the therapist thing. Maybe we'll get a group discount."

"We've talked about it. We've talked about it a lot." Oz told her. Some things just don't really heal, that's all. he thought but didn't say. "Don't worry about it. But that's the story of us, which was what you asked about." he said. "Need to know anything else? Or should we head back in, get you more food and let everyone fawn over you?"

Even though he asked, Megan felt that the particular subject should probably be closed. It gave her enough to think about, even if it wasn't the average wolf/human relationship, but she filed it all away for later examination. "No, I'm, um, good. Thank you though. None of it sounded very easy." Which was an understatement but Megan wasn't entirely sure what to say so she kept moving on. "Everyone fawn over me, huh? Well, I am a goddess today," she joked in that serious tone of hers and plucked at the skirt. "But I am never one to turn down food." Especially when there were so many other people in the house. Sometimes it felt a little like 'survival of the fittest', and Megan just really didn't feel like shifting and hunting down rabbits.

Oz smiled and gave her a one armed hug, kissing the top of her head. "I'm glad you're back." he told her honestly. "And Maddie'll look at all the wardings as soon as she can, I'm sure. Just to try and make sure nothing at all, even fae can get through them."

Megan leaned against him for a moment and wrapped her arm back around him and just took the moment to let herself feel 'home' again. "I think it's what bothered me the most. Is that they got past her wards like that," she said. "Hell, maybe she'll have fun with it and come up with something new and inventive." If that's how spells worked. Megan was still unsure about that part.

"I hope so." Though Oz didn't think Maddie would view it as 'fun'. He figured there'd be a whole lot of cussing going on for quite a while until she figured it out. But he didn't say that. He helped her up, and started to lead her back towards the house. "I'm sure she'll come up with something."