"You got Ben's text, right, dear?" Frances Twist said quietly as she returned to her clinic from lunch. It had been a quiet one and pretty much a sack lunch that she had enjoyed in a small park near her clinic, which let enjoy the warm fall weather that they had been having. It's only interruption had been a text from Ben announcing that he had an emergency pack meeting that night.
"Yes," came her wife's, Samantha Twist, reply, "a surprise meeting to welcome a new werewolf to the pack."
"Another family moved in?" Frances asked.
"Not just any family," Samantha answered, "It's Jen and her son, Tad. I've just left her home while she's getting things settled after dropping off a handbook... just to give her some help with letting Tad know where all the property lines are and so forth."
"Oh..." Frances smiled, though her wife couldn't see that. She did remember her friend from back when she and Samantha were in high school and then college. Jen had married a werewolf named Jeff Decker and had moved out of Moon Lake shortly after college. "How is she?"
"Fairly well, I'd suppose," Samantha answered, "All things considered. Hurt that her husband was murdered... but that would be obvious. I made the offer that if she wants, she could join our pride... let her gave a group that will be closest to her and help her when she needs it."
Frances nodded, just about every group in Moon Lake operated that way. The werefoxes had their Skulk with its singular leadership. The werelions had their collection of prides in loose coalition with each other with a "king" that largely served as a final deciding vote on matters between individual werelion prides. Weretiger and wereleopard/panther prides were harder to pinpoint, as they seemed to be more limited to the nuclear family, and once a child grew up and was independent of the parents, they formed a new pride, though they did have exceptions and even with that, their prides generally worked together with rather democratic votes when they had issues. Werecat prides and werewolves packs had their collections of members, some with a leader some not, and largely grouped around specific areas of Moon Lake. All of them looked after their members and despite some of the obvious "rivalries" of werelion vs. weretiger, werecat vs. weredog, and so on, they even tried to support the others.
"So... with the boys out, I figured to give Jen a bit of a picnic welcome tonight," Samantha continued, "Some sandwiches, chips, soda or pop... and so on, and let Jen meet everyone. Shoot... it might be good for Martha too, since we welcomed her after our pride's normal yearly meeting."
"That sounds good," Frances smiled, "Though... you'll probably have to bend over backwards to see if everyone can come on such short notice."
"Hey... I'm sure I can manage it," was her wife's reply, "see you later. Love you."
"Love you, too," Frances answered and then hung up.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Harry and Jenny arrived on time for their appointment that afternoon with some degree of confidence. Their morning had gone very well, and not just the wonderful bout of "wake-up sex" that they had had. With some forward planning, they did have the appointment scheduled for a time period when they didn't have classes and that let them catch up with things they had missed on the previous appointment day when the scheduling hadn't been that easy. However, scheduling didn't appear what had made Jenny look more confident. Harry noticed it, and she looked better, confident, and even perky to a degree, and something told him that the scheduling for the appointment was not the reason for that.
They found Rudy sitting quietly as his desk as they entered and approached him. He looked up and gave a friendly smile as they approached the desk. Jenny stepped forward first and smiled back.
"Hi, Rudy," Jenny spoke, "I'm here for my appointment today... Jenny Harper soon to be Jenny Jenkins, if you need my name stated."
Rudy nodded, "It's okay. Dr. Twist returned a little while ago from lunch. I'll let her now you're here."
Harry and Jenny both nodded and moved to sit on the nearby couch while Rudy rotated on his chair to let Frances know that her patient had arrived. While they sat, Jenny smiled to Harry and held his hand. Harry smiled back, and still wondered what had fully made Jenny look so confident. Jenny, meanwhile, smiled to her mate, as much of her confidence was from her dream. It wasn't a nightmare and in a odd sense seeing the road to full recovery made her feel very good. She'd told Harry a bit about the dream in that she still had some things to do and be ready for.
After a few moments, they looked up to see Frances come around the corner from her office and therapy room and smile to the young werefox couple.
"Good afternoon, you two," Frances greeted them politely, "are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," Jenny answered, her tone of voice sounding slightly cheerful as she and Harry got up and then followed Frances back into the office and therapy room.
Frances offered both of them a seat as they made their way in and both Harry and Jenny made their way in. While the two werefoxes sat down, Frances turned and then shut the door to her office/therapy room. After the door clicked shut, Frances moved and sat down in her own chair and turned to Harry and Jenny.
"So... how are we doing today?" Frances asked to begin the session.
"Doing rather well," Jenny answered, "No nightmare last night."
"Well... that IS a good thing," Frances answered.
Nightmares were a common symptom of post-transformation-stress in scenarios where a transformation was incomplete, such as Jenny's. The fact that her parents were so difficult and were either in agreement with or were being manipulated by this Dieter Wilhelm character made things potentially worse for Jenny.
"It is... though the dream I did have was rather interesting," Jenny told her.
"Oh... what was it about?" Frances asked.
"Well... it opened with me as I am now standing alone... but it felt like Harry was around me, somehow," Jenny began, "with him not present, I wanted to find him and I heard something... like I wasn't alone."
"There was no threat to you?" Frances asked.
"No threat," Jenny nodded, "in fact the only other people there... were me. My werevixen and the old me came out of the darkness and the three of us talked."
"The three of you?" Frances asked.
"Yes," Jenny continued, "they said I'd made a big step and that I was getting close to being fully healed... provided..."
"Provided what?" Frances asked.
"Provided I can face down my folks... let them know that I won't be going back to Alabama and so on," Jenny answered.
Frances nodded. What Jenny had mentioned gave some indication that she was healing mentally and fully adapting to who and what she was now. That was good progress, and would allow Jenny to be a fully functional and healthy werevixen, which in the end was Frances' main concern.
"Was there anything more?" Frances asked.
"Yeah... all of the mes were in agreement... the me that I am now, the old me, and the werevixen me, and the old me and werevixen me assured me that when it comes to dealing with my folks, I wouldn't be alone," Jenny answered, "then Harry came out and hugged me... and behind him were you and your wife, my English professor, William Anderson, Ms. Tachibana, my roommate, Harry's family, and a large number of people I didn't down... but all of them smiled and I got this feeling of assurance and solidarity with them."
"Well... we have a rather tight knit community in Moon Lake," Frances answered, "both weres and normals. We'll always stand by you."
"And for that I'm very thankful," Jenny spoke and then thought of the fact that Yvette had simply clawed her as a means to escape custody and that made her shiver a bit, "but... it still doesn't explain what got me targeted..."
"Yvette Smith's reasons for going rogue are things that I'm trying to determine right now," Frances answered, "and those things can be tough... as it's a rarity that we've had issues with rogues like Yvette, and if it means anything, she's actually seemed surprisingly repentant of late."
Harry and Jenny traded looks for a moment and then shrugged.
"Has anything troubled you today or at least since we last met?" Frances asked.
Jenny sighed, "Still mostly the issue with my parents. I want them to understand and recognize that I'm happy and that I've made good choices and that Harry is a good person. I want them to accept that I am my own person and not Dieter's prize or their ticket to becoming rich... but I... I really don't know how, yet."
Frances nodded, as that was going to be the big thing for Jenny to wrestle with. On some level, their rejection was probably a fear that Jenny would have to face, and the fact that she was realizing that it was a fear she wouldn't face alone was a good step. Jenny would still have to face that fear though. The biggest problem with it, was that much of the situation wouldn't really be up to Jenny or Harry or anyone else in Moon Lake. They could make contingency plans to make sure that Jenny had a happy wedding that she'd remember fondly, but they couldn't control how Jenny's parents would respond.
"Much of that may have to wait and see how they respond to things," Frances told her as calmly as she could, "as they are their own people and one can never fully know how they will react."
"Would there be anyway to make it easier?" Jenny wondered, "maybe call and have them talk to Harry rather than me? They'd learn that Harry is a good man that way..."
"That could help," Frances commented, "though it could also hurt... that's really where you'll not only have to face your fears but have the faith that things could go wrong and yet stand firm and face them anyway... or respond to when they have questions. As dealing with them, for good or for bad... isn't going to be completely up to you, as they are their own people."