when american tourist mia osbourne met a star manchester united midfielder during a family trip to england, it was love at first sight for her. bert osbourne had the legs of a god and the arrogant personality to match. she thought his accent was just to die for. their affair was short-lived, however, as mia's mother found out and quickly put them on a private jet back to the states. seven months later, mia was back in london, knocking on bert's door with the good news. they were going to be a family! her mother had cut her off from the family fortune and kicked her out of the house, but everything was going to be fine. bert's first and last attempt to be a stand-up guy saw them married shortly before the baby was born. nearly a year after that, he blew out his knee in a car accident. being removed from the footie field, permanently, was something bert couldn't accept. even after they got a hefty sum from a settlement with the other driver and sank it into a small pub. as it turns out, budding alcoholics shouldn't own a bar.

with a name like orvel osbourne, it was pretty clear bert's only son was going to have a rough life from the start. the short legs, thick build, even thicker glasses, and poor middle class parents made sure there was plenty of cannon fodder for the other kids to use against him. they were easy enough to deal with, however. his father had become a man with a lot of anger, who thought drinking made it all better. when that didn't work, he took it out on his wife. in an attempt to deflect some of his rage, orvel started instigating fights with his father, so the man would tire himself out knocking his kid around and pass out before he could get to his wife. elementary children, in contrast, weren't nearly as intimidating. orvel learned quickly to speak up for himself and the bruises he often wore were like a warning sign that he wasn't to be messed with, unless you wanted a fight. shortly after he began going by his surname, which shortened to "oz" over the years.

in college, oz was respected on and off the field. he understood the material in his ap classes and he hit hard on the footie - which had made his father briefly proud during a short sober stint. oz often pulled double-duty, school during the day, working at the pub at night. first as a bus boy, then as an underage barkeep when his father hit rock bottom again. the roller coaster that was his home life, sometimes extremely good, sometimes nightmarish, ended during his father's last rock bottom. that was when bert supposedly fell asleep, drunk, with a cigarette in his mouth, and their flat above the pub caught on fire. they lost everything that night. including bert himself. while mia was devastated, oz remained oddly calm after, brandishing a brand-new gash above his left eye that no one asked questions about. that was also the first time he met his american grandmother, elenor grimaldi. she was fabulous and terrifying, all at the same time. and she quickly became his favorite person when she flew in to rescue them, whisking them off to the states to live with her after the funeral.

going to school in america wasn't all that different. except people seemed to gravitate to him more, claiming they loved his accent or his "soccer" skills or how he actually knew what was going on in science class despite showing up mid-senior year. by graduation, oz knew he wanted to stay in america. while his mother spiraled in her new life without her abuser, oz flourished. he got accepted into northeastern university, close enough to his grandmother's main home in massachusetts. there he majored in marine biology and met a girl, rosie, whom he instantly fell in love with the second she refused to date him because she wanted to be a doctor and not some jock's girlfriend. they remained close friends, despite his constant insistence that they should be more. the summer before grad school she caved and they became one of those madly in love couples that grossed out their friends with their pet names and open affection. needless to say, when she moved to california to go to grad school, oz followed. everyone told him moving for a girl was dumb. but oz followed his heart, traveling across the country with rosie to enroll in the university of california. there, he had an amazing time, never regretting his choice for a single second.

things were good between him and rosie for a long time, which was only slightly surprisingly, given the complete opposite had been modeled for him for years in his parents' terrible relationship. getting engaged was the next step. but while they had both been excited about it at the time, neither were prepared for life after grad school. they'd moved in together into a little apartment in san fransico, looking forward to their new adult life, ready to get great jobs and maybe start a family. as it turns out, adulting is hard. it took a long time for rosie to find a job. although oz got one immediately, being a veterinarian for household pets wasn't his dream. he wanted to be at sea, studying ocean life, or even at a marine mammal rehab center. instead, he spent his days checking kitten gums and picking thorns from dog paws. still, he was the only one bringing in money and that weighed on rosie, who was so very independent. when she finally did get a job at a local hospital, it was grueling hours. they rarely saw one another. eventually, it got to be like living with a ghost, for both of them. the end of their engagement came with a single, long delayed conversation. during which they both agreed that they needed time to figure out life for themselves, before they could properly share it with another.

oz's mother was no help to anyone, too often off in her own world. so he turned to his grandmother. she had always given him the best advice, never biting her tongue or worrying about anyone's feelings. she set him up in one of her properties in the bay area, so he could be close to work, but he insisted he would pay her rent until he could find a suitable place - not that he thinks he can find anything even half as nice for double what he pays now. he got a break-up puppy and has been looking into switching careers, despite really enjoying the owners of his current vet clinic. he simply wants to be in the ocean, getting his hands dirty and wet, and not standing around in a lab coat.