Finding Eric safe and unharmed came as a great relief to William and Martha, as they had heard gunshots when they woke up in the woods after a fun night as weres in celebrating the Skulk's pranks for Halloween Night and that was more than enough make them worry. Thankfully the worst of the whole thing that Eric had run into was that he'd left his phone and his Halloween costume out on the back deck of the Stovall home. However, the all clear, as given to Melissa Stovall didn't entirely mean complete peace, as the rumbling and gurgling of six stomachs was soon heard. It was enough of a reminder that all of had missed breakfast.
Melissa had missed it because of her private worries over what problems Martin was having to confront on a Sunday, a day in which the Moon Lake City government usually had off, and combined with her own present concerns and worries about potentially being pregnant or even wondering if she and Martin should TRY to conceive, since Julie was growing up and growing up fast. Eric and Julie had missed breakfast as they'd just come in to find Melissa trying to work through what she was worried over and heard the gunshots soon after. William, Martha, and Joyce had missed it as they had been in the woods and had only just woken up when the gun shots had reached their ears.
Thankfully, Melissa had the perfect solution, since after some of the surprises, she didn't think anyone felt like cooking, and offered a trip to the Local Diner. It was a quant shop that had been a fixture of Moon Lake for years. Melissa remembered it being there when she first came through on her way to her interview, and it became the prime destination that she and Martin had gone on many of their dates to. It's hours on Sunday were reduced, but it did serve a great breakfast special.
"I really don't want to impose on you, Mrs. Stovall," Joyce spoke up after the suggestion was made, "It may be more of a family thing for you and the Andersons because of... things."
Eric blinked and noticed Joyce's eyes focused on the pearl necklace he'd given Julie after his transformation before she continued.
"... But... while I'm a member of the Wood Street Den with William, and with Martha as an honorary member, that doesn't always mean that we're all super close with everyone's friends," Joyce finished somewhat weakly.
"It is no problem, and I'd figure we could ALL use some breakfast," Melissa assured her.
Joyce answered with a warm smile and said, "thank you."
"Though... we may need to find some way to fit everyone," Melissa said slowly and raised hand to rub her chin.
"Martha and I can drive Joyce and meet you there," William offered, "we'd need to pick up some things anyway."
Melissa nodded to that and that soon lead to the group briefly parting ways. William and Martha hugged Eric again and assured him that they'd see him soon. As they departed out the front door to head for the Anderson home and specifically their SUV which was in the garage, Melissa soon lead Eric and Julie along through the living room and toward the small hallway between the living room and kitchen that lead to the Stovall garage.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The arrival at the local diner was quick and easy and soon carried a very normal air about it. In a way it very much felt like any normal family and friends going out for breakfast. They were ultimately seated at a round table that sat them all around it with it going William, Martha, Joyce, Melissa, Julie, and Eric. With that, all six were fairly comfortable and discussion soon turned to the normal things that one would expect from such conversations. Eric and Julie talked about some things that were going on in school, though of course that soon meant wishing they had classes together. Joyce was soon interested when she heard them mention the school's science fair.
"I remember the science fair," Joyce commented, "I remember it being fun and everyone getting a day off from regular classes. We had to explain our projects to the judges, of course, but it was fun..."
"Did you win?" Eric wondered.
"No... I was never THAT good in science," Joyce admitted, "but it did provide enough of a benefit that I felt I learned something. That's says something, right?"
"It's okay, neither William nor I are particularly great at science," Martha told Joyce, "It's Eric who's the science wiz in the family."
"What do you plan on doing this year?" William asked to Eric while they all waited for their orders and took a sip of the coffee that had been delivered.
"I was actually thinking on something that would compare the various theories that we have with regard to real life science regarding "faster than light travel" and compare them to what science fiction has created to allow for it and ultimately see how "realistic" each fictional universe is, based on what we know," Eric mused, "with much of the point of emphasis being on aspects of real life science that science fiction simply can't over come."
"That sounds interesting," Melissa commented.
"There are plenty of things that could be of great surprise to people in it," Eric nodded and looked over to Julie, "what where you thinking on?"
"Well... this may be a bit more simple, but do you remember a couple of those news reports a year or so ago that talked about how certain rivers had drugs polluting them and that this included both legal and illegal drugs?" Julie asked and waited for Eric and his parents to nod in response to her question. Once they nodded, she continued, "Well... I was thinking on idea that could essentially filter that stuff out before it enters the river system... A filter that could be placed where the storm drains empty into a river that would catch those sorts of things and what sort of filter would work best... cloth, some other fiber, and so on. From there people would be better able to remove if the "pond" the filtered area holds and thus preventing fish from ingesting large amounts of Tylenol and so on, only to pass it on up the food chain."
"Sounds interesting..." Eric said slowly, "but wouldn't whatever you use as a filter need to be periodically cleaned to make sure it doesn't either break or let things through?"
"That could be," Julie nodded, "but it'd be easier to clean a filter and a small pool than cleaning an entire river and a substantial part of the ocean."
"Well... it will appear that both of you will have a lot to work on as the semester moves along," Martha commented with a smile as their waiter arrived with their orders.
The waiter placed a plate French Toast and fresh fruit in front of William, an omelet with cheese and sliced ham in front of Martha, and some Belgian waffles in front of Joyce. Melissa had an order of fried eggs with hash browns and bacon, while Julie and Eric both had scrambled eggs, hash browns, and toast. The only spot where Eric and Julie's orders differed was in that Eric had bacon while Julie had sausage links. All of it smelled good and they were quick to dig in.
"Mmmmm... that feels good after all the excitement that's gone on," Martha felt herself purr, "a tasty breakfast that covers everything."
"And lets friends and family have fun together," William smiled to his wife as they ate. "Among other fun had through the night."
"Which related to the each other... or...?" Eric wondered, "tick or treating?"
"Well, we started with trick or treating," Martha answered, "I gave out candy and William helped guide trick or treaters to the houses that were giving out candy."
"The biggest issue was a couple were upset that I wasn't in a formal costume," William gave a small costume, "though they did accept that my fursona was to be my costume."
"And we both found all the kids to have adorable costumes," Martha added, "before we got to the official pranks at the end of the night."
"How did they go, by the way?" Joyce wondered, "the excitement from this morning sorta left a distraction..."
"I'm afraid Martin and I never noticed," Melissa spoke, "we wanted to start with the dance... but he was soon otherwise distracted. We came home while trick or treating was still going on and were otherwise... engaged."
"Well... so long as you were happy, that's all that matters," William told her, "The three of us had plenty of fun together to... and THAT should be all that matters. You and Julie had fun at the dance, right?"
"Yes," Eric nodded, thinking over all the dances they had together and how no one made fun over how they danced together. There was also some thoughts over the brief conversation that he and Julie had with Trevor Tyson and Melissa Jenkins that had some thought. The biggest issue there was the sort of drama that came toward the end of the dance as several couples had seemingly gone out behind the school, which was likely for more adult-like fun, but had lead to Melissa's name being called out at least once and Trevor in a panicked and near angry mood charging out of the gym. However, Eric thought he saw him return with her later, and the fact that she was both fully dressed and in human form while he was still in his fursona was enough to assure Eric that Melissa Jenkins was rescued from any danger that she might have been in. With that, he didn't feel to get into anything more than the dancing that he'd enjoyed with Julie that really needed to be mentioned.
He didn't want to mention that his return to the Stovall house was almost purposely to have sex with Julie, just as Martin and Melissa Stovall had admitted to him and Julie that their return home had been for the same reason. Eric also figured that his parents were probably aware of that to some degree as well, just as he was aware that both of his parents had in their own way had hinted at having sex with Joyce as well. And while he privately guessed that his parents had some private thoughts and wishes that he and Julie held off of that sort of thing, as per pretty standard parental thoughts, there was also the sort of acceptance on their part that they knew that Eric was growing up. There was the sensation that they accepted it to some degree in the sense that as weres, they recognized that as a young were, Eric was bound to feel those sorts of sexual urges and with one that he truly loved, avoiding sex might be rather difficult. In that, things sort of stayed at a sort of "don't ask, don't tell" level.
"And you treated her right?" Martha asked.
"Yes, he did," Julie told her.
Eric and Julie both watched as William and Martha gave a warm smile and said in near perfect unison, "then that's all that matters and we're glad you're happy together."
Melissa smiled at the acceptance and happiness of things. It showed that the Andersons were adapting quite well to being weres and the sort of drama that had hit them when William had been brought into were society against his will. And while the situation between Eric and Julie was vastly different from what Yvette Smith had forced on Eric's father there was always the potential that the loving bonds between weremers, and even weremers and normals wasn't always easily understood by others. And seeing Eric and Julie happy together and seeing their love bloom so beautifully and without Eric asking questions for ten years made her smile. Especially with Eric's parents also accepting it. It was a happiness that made her happy and made many things very normal, however you defined normal.