William's afternoon went about as well as could be managed, though the report of what this agent of Dieter Wilhelm had done still troubled William greatly. Especially since William didn't know as to whether or not this agent had been caught. He knew that trouble had occurred and affected a student that William felt personally responsible for. He would remain professional, as he promised the dean, but that didn't mean he and Martha wouldn't be the "parents" that Jenny deserved. As he left the English department building, he pulled out his phone so that he could update Martha on what he had learned. It rang for a few short tones before an answer came.
"Hey, hun," came Martha's voice when she answered, "what's up? Big meeting?"
"No... no faculty meetings today," William answered, "I just finished my last class and all the work I have for today, and I'm getting ready to come home."
"That's good," Martha purred back, "It shouldn't be too long before dinner is ready. Nate is doing homework with Ben and Alex upstairs and I think Eric is at Julie's."
Martha sounded fairly cheery and confident, which William knew would fade when he told her about what had happened. He was silent as he took a few steps toward the parking lot near the English department building. Eventually, Martha caught on to something being not quite right.
"Will?" Martha asked, "Is something wrong?"
"With us directly, no," William managed to answer, "however larger events seem to be swirling around that is causing trouble."
William got silence in return, and after a moment he continued his explanation.
"Apparently this morning an agent of this Dieter Wilhelm shot a man he thought was Harold Jenkins," William continued.
"The new male werefox from the Skulk induction ceremony?" Martha asked.
"Yes," William nodded, "Jennifer Harper's mate... and she was the other person Yvette clawed."
William was pretty sure Martha knew that, but felt the reminder made sense to let his report continue.
"The agent thought he'd shot Harry, but in fact had shot Harry's brother," William spoke, "the dean and Akane came in to get Harry and Jenny to let them know what happened and gave them the excuse to go to the hospital. I'd presume they've been there all day."
"Is he okay?" Martha asked. Neither she nor William knew Huck personally, but that didn't mean they didn't hope for the best for him.
"From what I've been told, he made it into surgery, but beyond that is anyone's guess," William answered, "the report that I got from the dean gave an indication that there was something of a chase with the agent after he took his shot, but even that didn't reveal as to whether or not the guy was caught."
Martha's answer to that caught William by surprise.
"The sirens..." Martha said slowly.
"Huh?" William asked.
"This morning, during second period the Middle School rang a bell that took everything into lock-down," Martha answered, "Kat and I had to take all the kids into the locker room to make sure there was no threat to them..."
William's face paled and he very nearly dropped his phone. The country had been plagued with far too many school shootings in recent years and that was something that no teacher at any level wanted. When Martha said that, the first thing that came to his mind was someone with a gun threatening his wife.
"Are you okay?" William asked when he managed to recover from the surprise.
"Yes, I'm fine," Martha answered, "in the end, no one came into the school. I was a bit flustered, but I'm fine. There was some fear, especially when I heard the sirens go around outside the school and having the lock-down... but no one came into the school, so I'm fine."
"That's a relief," William sighed.
"Yes," Martha agreed, "and I'd guess that the sirens were probably the officers chasing this guy who shot Harry's brother. The big thing is what to do now?"
"I don't think there is anything that we can do right now," William said slowly, "but it would mean that we'd need to extra alert at the wedding to make sure that this Dieter Wilhelm or Jenny's biological parents pull anything."
"Okay," Martha answered, "We will... You'll be home soon?"
"Yes, love you," William spoke.
"Love you too," Martha answered and from there the phone conversation ended.