{{Hopefully, it's only a nightmare...}}
After being dropped off in front of the building that housed her practice, among other establishments, Doctor Frances Twist walked into her office, still worried about her wife Samantha and the stress she was under trying to help protect the town.
The fervor over a wererat being exposed in Seattle and potentially exposing Moon Lake* seemed to have become a non-issue now, as far as the media was concerned, but that still left the more major worries surrounding the Harper-Jenkins wedding Saturday to address.
As Frances started to enter the outer reception area of her office, she couldn't help but smile as her receptionist/office manager Rudy Sanchez waved at her as he was booting up the computer system for the day as the sound of the coffee maker warming up filled the air.
They discussed business and that day's client schedule, then Frances went to her private office to prepare for her first patient.
"So, how are we doing today?" Frances asked Jenny Harper, as she and her fiance Harry Jenkins sat next to each other across from Doctor Twist.
"I will admit to having mixed feelings about having to stay in the campus safe room overnight, but the nightmare I had before waking up this morning was worse," said Jenny.
"About the wedding?" assumed Frances.
"Yes. Our wedding went off without a hitch," said Jenny happily, as she reached out to hold Harry's hand in hers. "It was a beautiful ceremony and I became Mrs. Jennifer Jenkins."
"So I take it the problems began with the second wedding," surmised Frances, the one that would be staged for the benefit of the Harper family and Dieter Wilhelm.
"Yes," confirmed Jenny. "My whole family entered the chapel with my father yelling at the top of his lungs to Stop this farce! Then we had the traditional shouting match between me and him, especially since that was the first time they've seen the new me," she added, pointing out how she looked now since joining were society, compared to her old appearance.
"Go on," encouraged Frances.
"Well, even though my parents and I were arguing over whether or not I had given into the devil's temptations of plastic surgery, I could see Wilhelm staring at me with lust in his eyes. He's never cared about the person, just the conquest, when it comes to women and I'm no exception. But the moment Harry identified who he was, Wilhelm pulled out a gun from within his suit jacket and shot my husband point blank in the forehead before anyone could stop him!"
The room was silent for a moment before Jenny continued.
"These guys in black suits suddenly rushed forward and skewered Dieter with swords, but all I could do was cradle Harry's lifeless form in my arms as I felt the life/soul mate bond between us shatter," cried Jenny, as she gripped Harry's hand tighter.
"There, there, dear. It was just a bad nightmare," he said, trying to console her.
"You have absolutely no idea what that was like, and I hope you never do," she told him. "I could still feel and sense you, in my heart, mind, and soul; but there was absolutely no response from you Harry, and I don't mean just because you were lying dead in my arms. It was like... still living in the home you shared with a loved one your entire life but were painfully aware that they were gone as well. There were echoes and memories of you everywhere, despite our relatively short time together so far. I knew you were still here," added Jenny, pointing to her heart with her free hand, "but I had absolutely no way to communicate with you."
"I know about the bond between Skulk partners," confirmed Doctor Twist. "You manage to go on with your life eventually, but the surviving partner never remarries or falls in love ever again. They just... pass the time until death reunites them with their mate," she added, thinking of Tachibana no Akane, who still missed her late husband, despite the fact that he died in the final days of World War 2.
"The sensation of losing that special bond between us was bad enough," said Jenny, not letting go of Harry's hand. "I hope to never experience that for real, but what happened next..."
"What?" asked Frances.
"Because of the emotional trauma I had just experienced, I naturally had shifted to my fursona. My family was in shock to see a werevixen sitting on the floor of the church, wearing my wedding dress while cradling a dead man in her arms," began Jenny, recalling the rest of her nightmare. "But somehow, during all the confusion of what I'm guessing were Tachibana security guards making sushi out of Dieter Wilhelm, my father somehow managed to pick up his gun and was pointing it right at me!
What kind of a monster are you? he demanded to know.
The only monsters around here are you and him, I said defiantly between tears, while nodding my head toward Dieter Wilhelm's lifeless body.
"My father didn't hesitate to pull the trigger and kill me where I was, still cradling my husband's lifeless body!" cried Jenny.
As Harry tried to console Jenny some more, Doctor Twist contemplated how best to address the situation, and hoped it was just a traditional bad nightmare brought on by pre-wedding jitters and the troubles she was aware of within the Harper family dynamic, and NOT a prophecy dream that might actually come true.
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*In our companion Earth 1 thread "Moon Lake, Tad".—tmw.