Everyone leaving the Lawson house split up between Samantha Twist and Alex Ramsey's cars. Martha Anderson, who had gotten a ride there from Maggie Lawson, rode back with Samantha as her son Eric sat silently in the back seat. Her husband William rode home with Alex.
Despite not being a were himself, Eric overheard most of what the adult women said as they discussed the situation on the way home.
That creep who hurt Spencer is back and she's in trouble, he realized. She's my friend. Maybe even my girlfriend. I have to help her. But how?
Both cars parked in the Twist family driveway, Alex's behind his boyfriend Ben's, and then everyone went inside.
Frances made no secret of how glad she was to see her wife home safe and sound, hugging and kissing her sister werecat the moment she walked in the front door.
"I've got to call City Hall and see where things stand, but it's great to see you too darling," said Samantha, reluctantly breaking the kiss but not the hug as she reached into an outer slacks pocket for her cellphone.
MEANWHILE...
Ben gave his boyfriend a brief hug and a peck on the cheek, but was more emotionally restrained than his mothers. There would be plenty of time for a more joyful reunion later.
William and Martha Anderson retreated to a quiet corner for a brief chat.
"Are you all right?" they both asked each other almost simultaneously. With the couple being werefoxes, the life/mate bond was strong between them. They smiled and hugged each other before William asked, "Where's Eric?"
"He asked if it would be okay to go to the bathroom, so I let him," answered Martha.
"Okay," replied her husband, before relating to his wife what Eric told him on their walk to the Lawson house about how and why their son officially ended his budding relationship with the were-mermaid Julie Stovall, along with his new friendship, and perhaps more, with Spencer Lawson.
"I'd love to give Julie Stovall a piece of my mind," said Martha angrily, as her vulpine eyes briefly went feral, "but I'm more worried about Eric. We'd hope the move here would help Eric come out of his shell, but now..."
William was about to say something when Samantha spoke.
"OKAY. LISTEN UP EVERYBODY!" began the Town Chancellor. "The police are on the trail of Spencer, Evan, and Jeremy. The Feds are on they're way here now, so we're gonna do our best and try to contain the situation to keep them from finding out about weres. Otherwise, I have to get back to City Hall, but for now, there's nothing any of us can do but wait."
Then Samantha kissed Frances once more as she got ready to leave. "Hey Eric. It's Samantha. Could you please hurry up? I need to go before I go honey," she said politely, while knocking on the bathroom door.
With the Twist family home only being a one story structure, it didn't take long for a crowd to gather outside the bathroom door.
"Eric? It's mom. Everything's going to be okay. Can you come out now?"
Ben Twist took a quick sniff at the door and said, "He can't come out because he ain't in there!"
With that announcement, the men ran for the backdoor while the ladies opened the bathroom to discover it empty, but the lone window to the facilities was wide open and the screen pushed out from the inside.
"Do we follow?" asked William, sniffing the air to get his son's scent.
"I'll alert the police, but otherwise we don't dare. This is a big enough mess as it is," said Samantha, joining them outside. Like most Moon Lake residences, what passed for their backyard opened into the surrounding woods behind her house.
"But what does the kid hope to accomplish?" asked Alex.
"I don't know, but he isn't going in unarmed. I left all my softball equipment here on the back porch after we played ball Friday afternoon, and my aluminum bat's missing," said Ben, pointing to the pile of sports gear by the back door to the Twist house.
MEANWHILE...
Eric, bat in hand, was making his way back toward the Lawson house through the woods.
From there, being just a normal human, all he could do was follow the physical tracks left by everyone else the best he could, and hope that he'd somehow be able to help Spencer.