Samantha and Frances were both exhausted and tired when they arrived home. The day had started well and relatively calm with Frances getting through her sessions with Yvette, Jennifer Harper, and Jen Decker fairly well and Samantha managing to work through a quiet day without too many problems. Samantha had found that to be a rather good thing, since the mayor was out of town on more personal business. Then came the whole issue with Luc/Lucie Damocles.
The "virus" or "curse" or "enchantment," depending on your point of view, that created were-beasts produced great changes in people that joined were-society. Some ultimately had their better qualities enhanced, as William Anderson with regard to his bond to Martha. Some had gained confidence in themselves from it, as Martha Anderson had with regard to her bisexual nature. Some simply found joy in it, not to mention massive physical enhancement, the way Jennifer Harper had with Harry Jenkins. However, based on what was known, what made were-beasts were-beasts didn't change people's genders. Those weres that had a single gender couldn't mate with normals of the opposite gender because of way the were-virus for those specific were-beasts entered a normal's system.
Yet, recently they'd had two incidents in which a man had been transformed into a fully functional and "healthy" female were-beast. Rick Plunkett went through it in a way that most of Moon Lake's medical and scientific community would understand. Having XXY chromosomes, the worst effects of a female only were-virus on his system were delayed and transformation would begin before the cellular decay was noticed. His accidentally being scratched by a werecheetah didn't put him in a position where he faced near immediate death, and the hospital was able to save his life. While a rogue geneticist had interfered and tested a retrovirus on Rick, which fully enabled Rick to change genders, the hospital stood firm that they believed that Rick would have lived even without the geneticist's interference. Rick Plunkett was now Rikki Tucker, a fully functional werecheetah, though Frances had noted that some complications that came from her transformation had made her younger and gave her some sense of amnesia. Her ability to learn didn't seem to be affected, but it appeared as though she'd lost whatever she had learned previously as Rick Plunkett. The Tucker family adopted Rikki and were doing their best to give her a good life.
The second was Luc Damocles, who had supposedly found some potion that enabled him to transform from a man into a werecat named Lucie. He had been one of Frances' patients, but at one point had dropped off the map for all intents and purposes. He had still been seen in Moon Lake, but his contact with others was limited to the barest of necessities. Since he hadn't caused trouble or committed any crime, the Moon Lake Police, the city government, and Frances had no reason to force him to continue therapy. Frances had only heard about him AFTER his transformation into Lucie from Tabby Halberd. It would appear that the werecat had had her own issues regarding her relationship with Luc that she never addressed seriously enough and had effectively jumped at the promise of being with Luc/Lucie. The fact that Luc became Lucie and survived was another great surprise, but was sure to have large and potentially frustrating consequences for all parties involved, which Samantha was sure the city government would have to clean up after to make sure things didn't leak out about the truth behind Moon Lake.
"What a super day," Samantha sighed heavily as the Twists finally made it home.
Dealing with the Luc/Lucie situation had consumed nearly all of their afternoon and a good portion of their evening. The sun and gone down, as the two werecats looked up, the could see the starts of the night sky twinkling above them. It was a nice setting, but both were too tired and too frustrated to do anything but go inside and put something together for their own dinner.
"In all fairness, it could have been worse," Frances commented, "Luc could have been killed by this... but he wasn't and did become a she."
"Yes, I know that," Samantha commented, "but the fact of the matter remains that one, we have rules regarding how the transformation of a normal are carried out, particularly with regard to single gender were-beasts. And those rules have been strengthened after the discoveries with Rikki's genetics. The way we transformed Martha would be illegal now due to the reforms..."
"That would be ex post facto, and you know it," Frances countered.
"I know, and with Martha... that isn't my point," Samantha answered, "the point is that with Luc... Lucie... those laws are in effect. Even if there wasn't the danger of the werecat virus in Tabby's system KILLING Luc, it's pretty clear that neither of them bothered to follow those laws and regulations that are there, for the good of ALL Moon Lake. And they didn't bother... regardless of love and whatever else... the rules should be followed. If not... we might as well not have rules at all and let things get to the point were we're exposed in a way that will surely bring the country down on us as enemies..."
"I know you're frustrated dear, but wouldn't be a bit much?" Frances asked as she opened the door to their home.
"Maybe," Samantha said with a sigh, "though, I do still hold that we have rules for a reason and the more this stuff happens... the less effective the rules will be."
The two of them slowly made their way inside. Frances could clearly tell that Samantha was frustrated, and it did make sense. Her points on law and order and why Moon Lake had many of the rules it had were important, but Frances didn't think that Lucie or Tabby were entirely so deviant that they'd just abandon the rules. Luc/Lucie's issues were complicated and desperate to be with Tabby and had been depressed when Tabby became a werecat. The fact that Tabby loved Luc/Lucie just as much had probably created a perfect storm that was unique to their situation. Difficult and frustrating, sure, but nothing to the point that would mean that Moon Lake would be exposed. And given the seclusion that Luc had been in, it wasn't likely that anyone could have known what was going through his head.
"Again, dear," Frances said again, "while it may be a frustrating issue... it could have been worse."
Samantha sighed and nodded.
"Not to mention that Doctor Tucker doesn't believe in the whole magic thing, either," Frances pointed out to Samantha as they walked inside, "she will surely find a scientific explanation for the transformation."
Samantha nodded again, "I'm just glad to be home and through all the drama for the day."
"Yeah," Frances agreed, "It is good to be home and hopefully Ben had a better day than we did."
Samantha nodded and looked around, and it was only then that they noticed that the house was completely dark and silent. There were no lights on and the only sounds they could hear was that of the house settling. That gave a clear sign to both of them that no one was home, which they didn't expect. Ben had stated that he had a whole day planned at the college with Kenya, but they assumed he would be home for dinner, though as Samantha checked her watch, dinner would be rather late tonight and might not even be much more than a frozen pizza given the way their day had ended.
"Ben! Are you home?" Samantha called into the house, hoping that if he was home, he would hear the call.
There was no answer and they found no handwritten note. After checking the house and making sure that Ben wasn't there, Samantha returned to find Frances in the kitchen checking her phone. She seemed rather calm and pleased with whatever she was reading.
"Ben is at Kenya's," Frances stated, "he sent a message while we got into the mess with Luc/Lucie. She invited him to dinner and to Skype a message with her parents in New York."
"Hopefully things go well for him then," Samantha commented, relieved that Ben was in no trouble, "Is there anything else?"
"He also wants to talk about his future with us tomorrow," Frances spoke, "which we can arrange for at some point. You still have the rest of the Luc/Lucie situation..."
"And you have your last day with Yvette," Samantha commented.
Frances nodded. She normally didn't work on the weekends, but the issues that related to Yvette Smith was demanded by the city as part of determining Yvette's sentence, and thus Frances had some work still to do to make sure that the evaluation would be completed on time. She felt she had made great progress and had what she needed to write down her evaluation to present to the DA and the judge that had heard the case, but she had one day left and hoped to use that day to get Yvette some closure that the vixen needed due to her own odd upbringing. Especially thanks to Frances's talks with Yvette and the police investigating issues related to Yvette's mother's death. Yvette was looking at a potentially long time in prison for violating Statute 1A, some closure regarding her family would surely be needed.
"True," Frances agreed, "but I'm sure we can arrange something to help Ben be ready for the future."
Samantha nodded and smiled, as that would be something that would be something that she and Frances could look forward to. In a way it'd be a way to distress after some of their recent issues of frustration. And, as parents, they saw always hoped to see Ben doing well. The age difference between Ben and Kenya was an issue, but so long as Kenya treated Ben well, they wouldn't mind the age difference.
"So... what's for dinner?" Samantha asked, "I really don't feel like much after the issues that we ended up walking into today."
"I don't feel into doing much today, either," Frances agreed, "would you settle for frozen pizza tonight? I promise we can do something better tomorrow."
Samantha gave a small smile, "I don't mind, so long as my dinners are with you."