Frances Twist went about what house work was needed. It wasn't much and generally gave her the time to think over things. Normally, this related her work as a psychologist and therapist. Recently her work had focused on helping Jennifer Harper fully adjust to being a werefox and overcome her lengthy period of being "incomplete." She felt she was making good progress there in that Jenny was adjusting and gaining confidence in herself, with only some of the complications that came from her strict upbringing and the fact that she also had a random power company manager interested in her despite her having no interest in him. Even with all that, Frances felt she was making progress.
However, for the moment, her thoughts were more focused on the news alert that she and Samantha had seen earlier. She had been a were for years, ever since her first time with Samantha, and had all the same fears that any were would have at exposure. There were too many long histories of normals and weres not getting along. The powers and strengths weres had frightened normals, particularly when rogues caused trouble and thus created the image of them being monsters in folklore and movies, and thus why Frances and Samantha didn't let Ben see werewolf movies. Their heightened libidos made them more open about sex and more willing to engage in it, which tended to make many normals respond in a rather "prudish" manner to a point that Frances figured amounted to jealousy. What had happened in Seattle created the real fear of old threats coming back with the terror of modern weapons. Frances hoped that Samantha would be able to keep Moon Lake, at least, safe from discovery as a were-sanctuary.
As she moved around to dust or put things that were out of place back in their place her ears picked up the ringing of her own phone. It interrupted what she was thinking over and she was quick to answer her phone. When she heard her wife's voice her hopes rose that things were solved and there was nothing to worry about, but that didn't last long.
"No... I'm afraid we may have a great deal of work ahead of us that will last awhile," Samantha gave a sigh over the phone, "a week... a month... I really can't say how long this may last, and there isn't too much action we can actually do right now."
That didn't sound good to Frances and what Samantha said next wasn't any better.
"The reason I'm calling is because Martha saw the news report too," Samantha spoke, "and she's very spooked about it. I think William is trying to comfort her, but not doing that well."
"He probably has the same fears," Frances spoke, "They're new weres and adapting to being weres, and doing very well in this in my opinion..."
"But it makes them more sensitive to the prospect of being discovered as weres," Samantha spoke, "but Martha's fears are more on Eric. Her little merman has gained a great deal of happiness and she's afraid of the consequences of Seattle's adventure robbing him of that happiness."
"Merman?" Frances said slowly.
"Apparently he and Julie committed themselves to each other this past Friday," Samantha spoke, "which in itself is nice... but given the timing..."
"His parents are worried," Frances finished.
"Yeah," Samantha asked, "can you go over and provide some help... Ease Martha's fears?"
"I can do my best, hun," Frances spoke, "Let me know what you can regarding all the stuff at city hall."
"Will do," Samantha promised, "thanks, hun."
From there the call ended and Frances knew that Samantha was headed back to work. She quietly and quickly readied herself to go out and was soon walking across her lawn and onto the Anderson's front lawn and moving toward the door. She rang the doorbell and waited patiently. It was William who answered the door, with a look of nervousness on his face.
"Samantha called me and told me about Martha's call to her..." Frances spoke before William could ask why his neighbor had come over, "is there anything I can do to help?"
William stepped back and made a polite gesture to let Frances enter. Frances entered to find Martha seated on the couch and holding a framed photograph. Frances noted that it had been taken down from the wall where many of the Anderson family photos hanging, and as she approached she also could see who the photo was of. It showed a picture of Eric from his middle school graduation. He stood in front of a middle school building in Minnesota holding a small placard that pretty much amounted to a diploma. The Eric in the photo had a small and slightly nervous looking smile. Martha was focused on that photo.
"We feel rather helpless about all this," William spoke after a few moments, "becoming weres... it's been fun... wonderful... It's fixed so much that was straining our marriage. It's a dream come true for Nate. And it's gotten Eric out of his shell as it were and provided for him someone who loves him and who he can love dearly."
"It's made him happy," Martha said weakly, "After all he went through growing up and dealing with bullies... he came here, fell in love, became a weremer and became happy. He CAN'T lose that."
Frances sat down beside Martha and slowly began to rub her fellow werecat's shoulders. There wasn't so much that any of them could do about the possibility of weres being exposed thanks to what had happened that morning. That exposure could bring either good fortune or horrible consequences, and Frances knew that weres would fear negative responses and being hunted. There was nothing that she could really do or say that would change the situation. She could only rub at some tense points that she felt on Martha's shoulders and try to assure her that things would be fine.
"The people of Moon Lake won't let that happen," Frances promised, "we've had weres and normals getting along for the longest time. They see that we aren't monsters and we all work together."
"And people will accept that?" Martha asked, "weres are generally treated as the bad guys in the werewolf movies Nate's liked... We're not like that, but people won't just suddenly accept that weres are good because of Moon Lake's existence..."
"They may," Frances commented, "it'd be best to be optimistic that things will be okay."
"And if they aren't?" William asked slowly, "I'm not afraid for Martha and I... and to a great degree for Nate. We can disappear into the woods if need be... but even if Eric escapes attack... his safest location would be the sea and apart from us. We wouldn't know what would happen to him... We wouldn't be able to protect him."
"If it really comes to that, I'm sure the Stovalls would do their best to protect him and Julie," Frances spoke, "but I wouldn't think that things would really come to that. The plans and contingencies that Moon Lake has would be able to show the truth if things come down to it, and for the moment it doesn't look as though they know about Moon Lake..."
"But people could still start some kind of purge and go across the country, meaning they could stumble onto Moon Lake," Martha said nervously.
"They could," Frances spoke, "but I don't think it's that likely. Moon Lake has had occasional scares like this before, and so far, we've come through it without the worst possible scenario coming about."
"You're sure?" Martha asked as she looked up.
"I'm sure," Frances nodded, "Samantha will do her best to make sure everything stays safe, exposure or not. We will do our best to keep you all free and for Eric to have a long and happy life."
There was a bit of forced bravery on Frances' part, but she could see that it relieved some of the tension that both William and Martha felt. William gave a very visible sigh of relief and Martha sank into a small hug from Frances. Frances gave a low purr and hoped that she was right in her assurances that things would be okay.