"Home, Doctor Twist?" Tora asked with a frown, "You're not staying?"
"That man has no human sympathies, and if I stay around him any longer... I'll tear him apart!" Frances declared in anger, having never seen anyone be so pig-headed in the worst way. Samantha could be pretty tenacious when she set her mind to something or made some judgement on someone, even when she was wrong, but more often than not, Samantha truly had good intentions and did catch herself when she was wrong. James Harper Sr. showed no credible ounce of concern or willingness to even consider being wrong, and since he didn't show any outright psychological disorder, Frances really had no reason to stay around him. And for the moment, she was mad enough that about all she could think on was simply going home and putting that man out of her thoughts.
"He has been difficult..." Tora answered, "but HE wasn't what I was referring to. You came in with the woman who was brought in with labor... Jade Drake."
That made Frances stop cold. Her morning had pretty much started with the gun battle between Dymixious Drake and the Moon Lake Police. The police had tried to keep it peaceful, but their target showed no willingness to come quietly and pretty much attacked the arresting officers, who ultimately gunned the man down in the battle. To make matters worse, is that the battle had stressed the man's heavily pregnant wife into premature labor. Frances had come in with her as a back up "coach" and had been with her when Tora came by to ask about talking with James Harper Senior. Frances had only accepted because she knew that labor could take up to twenty hours with a first child, and since Jade had said that this WAS her first child that there was the time... and Frances reluctantly agreed to visit with the Harper family patriarch. However, Frances's anger at the man didn't change that Jade still needed a "coach" to get her through labor.
"Yes... of course," Frances sighed, "I should get back to her... as... she is otherwise alone... It's just..."
"As I said, Mr. Harper has been difficult for EVERYONE," Tora answered, "thankfully his son talked his wife into okaying the angioplasty before you came in... we're just waiting for that okay to clear their insurance now... From there... we can okay a return to Alabama... though I'm trying to get in touch with the clinics in their part of the state to see about it being done as a transfer. Straight from here to there."
"What happens with him isn't my concern, and..." Frances began and then stopped, realizing she was close to revealing why Jenny had made "Moon Lake" as her choice of college, to essentially get away from her father. It'd make sense, but Jenny had told her that in a session and was thus part of doctor/patient confidentiality. Eventually she composed herself and finished, "and I should be getting back to Mrs. Drake... Hopefully at least she gets SOME joy out of this day."
And with that, Frances left the area and turned to head back to the maternity and birthing ward in the hospital, hoping that this distraction didn't hurt or disrupt Jade too much.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
It was some time after noon when Samantha got home. The morning had carried its stressful parts, with a early morning meeting concerning Dymixious Drake and the legal troubles that he potentially posed to Moon Lake. It had been agreed that the man would be taken into custody and the Moon Lake police would try to secure some custody and jurisdiction claim that could keep the werekomododragon in Moon Lake. Where, even if he went to jail for life for the crimes committed, he'd at least be in a situation where Dymixious's status as a were WOULDN'T be revealed to the general public.
The attempt, however, lead to a fight and shots fired, which only made her worry, as she'd left Frances sleeping. Moon Lake was a pretty small town and generally speaking they didn't have too much in the way of criminal activity, but when it did occur it was something that got everyone's attention. And that didn't even relate entirely to things that were necessarily "were-beast" related. Chief O'Hara had made some mention of a car chase the previous night related to ultimately drugging charges, though for the moment, her worries were over whether or not Frances was okay to get any more details on what the Police Chief was talking over. As soon as it was reported that Dymixious Drake was in custody and on his way to the hospital, Samantha made it her mission to complete her tasks related to providing her notes on the meeting and getting home to check on her wife.
She found the house dark and quiet which only added to her worries. While Ben's vehicle's absence wasn't exactly expected, Samantha had a good idea on where Ben was and trusted him enough to return home before his curfew and so far had no reason not to trust Kenya. However, that DIDN'T mean that the lights should be off. Unless there was something "big" going on, Frances's therapy clinic was closed on the weekends. That meant that Frances couldn't have gotten up and gone into work, and she didn't hear anything that would sound like anyone was doing yard work or anything outside, which had to mean that if anyone was home, they had to be inside.
"Hello! Frances!" Samantha called as she made to the front door of the Twist home, hoping that her wife was safe and calm and only had some pleasant surprise of sorts waiting.
However, the entry hallway was rather dark. It wasn't pitch black as some natural light did filter in from the windows in other rooms that bordered the hallway. Samantha could see where some light from the kitchen entered into the entry hallway from the doorway to the kitchen. There was a similar amount of daylight that filtered in from the living room windows through the doorway to the living room. But other than that, the hallway was a bit dim and the house was quiet. About the only sounds that Samantha heard was the sound of her shoes hitting the floor, and that only fed her worry for her after the report came in that Dymixious had fought back against the Moon Lake Police.
Police units had been becoming increasingly militarized in recent years. Between the legacy of riots and mass shootings leading to SWAT being formed as a specialized unit for riot and major crime control and soon where even patrol officers were getting at least rudimentary training in the things that SWAT units did, along with the assorted equipment that went with it, including the military grade rifles to deal with those sorts of threats, there was increasingly less and less difference between a police department in a civilian city and a military unit. One could argue that it was necessary, and things like the 1966 mass shooting at the University of Texas and the actions of radicals in other cities and the "war on drugs" as well would make that case well. In fact the Moon Lake PD, while they would favor avoiding a gun battle wherever possible, did go through that sort of training, just to be ready for whatever came.
That only added to her private worries on whether or not something might have happened to Frances when the police had their battle. She made her way into the kitchen, hoping to find her there, and found it quiet and empty. Her cell phone lay on one of the counters and Samantha saw that its messages light was on, which meant that Frances hadn't answered the phone calls that Samantha had made to Frances on what happened. That only added to her worries and she then made her way toward the bedroom with the last hope that Frances had slept through the battle and was still asleep.
It was about the only hope that she had. The past fall had been one that had been filled with all sorts of stresses that normally she didn't have to deal with. First came the Andersons, and while they weren't a problem, the attack by Yvette Smith on William Anderson put the whole town on edge and William Anderson's actions that lust controlled state of being incomplete and personally put her on edge. Things didn't get any easier when Yvette Smith escaped jail and then clawed another normal, then Jennifer Harper. Then came all the nonsense that Dieter Wilhelm put Moon Lake through, and the Charleston family and another Jenkins family. The former was escaping a group of New York/New Jersey gangsters that had been chasing them. The latter was soon being targeted by a woman who had a reputation in Moon Lake for targeting normal men to milk them for child support and had been the center of a fight that lead to his becoming a weretiger.
Many of these things related to Samantha's role as Town Chancellor and the fact that there had been so much difficulty on the issue had put her under a great deal of stress and stress she tried to power through. Sometimes it worked, but other times it didn't. And when it didn't, having Frances there to talk to and feel her love helped her get through it, as they did the previous night. It was Frances who got her through her frustrations then, and now there was the worry that Frances might have been harmed in the battle with Dymixious.
"Frances!" Samantha called again as she looked into the bedroom, only to find the bed empty and unmade. Its covers were flung over toward one side and the upper layers had actually fallen to the floor. With that sight and the remaining silence in the Twist house, Samantha's worries got greater. She saw no damage to the wall or the windows in the bedroom, which was some relief, but that didn't explain why Frances wasn't home and had left no note. The sound of a vehicle driving by the house and slowing to pull into a driveway nearby soon sent her flying toward the front door.
"The Andersons!" Samantha thought with some realization, "William and I might not have gotten off on the right foot while he was incomplete... but since his transformation was completed he's been decent company and Martha is part of our pride... Maybe she with them to church or breakfast and just forgot to leave a note..."
Samantha came out to find to find that William and Martha did NOT have Frances with them. They had clearly gone somewhere and were coming back, but they did not have Frances with them. They didn't even have their children with them.
"Samantha...?" Martha spoke slowly as Samantha approached them, "are you okay?"
"You look a bit tense..." William added, almost not recognizing the woman coming toward him and his wife. Since arriving in Moon Lake, joining were society and having contact with the Twists, he'd known Samantha to be a rather strong woman that wasn't going to be surprised or overcome by much. The look that Samantha carried was very surprising to him.
"Have either of you seen Frances?" Samantha asked quickly, "I just got home a little while ago and... she wasn't there."
William looked to Martha and then back to Samantha, "the last we saw of her was at the Halloween Dance last night. We dropped Eric and Julie off and then came back to hand out candy and fulfill our responsibilities with the Skulk's activities for the night."
"Once that was done... we ended up spending the night out in the woods to the south of Wood Street," Martha said pointing, "it was the gunshots that woke us up this morning."
"You haven't seen her?" Samantha asked, sounding nervous and almost shaking.
"I'm sure she's fine," William assured her, "she was there for the showdown with Yvette and came out okay. And Mr. Stovall told us that the no civilians were short or hurt in the battle that went on this morning."
"Martin..." Samantha blinked, her worries for Frances clouding her mind at the moment and forgetting that the Anderson's younger son was dating Martin's daughter, Julie.
"We thought there was a danger to Eric or Nate when we heard the gunshots," Martha answered, "but Nate's at the Ramsey's and was fine and Eric was Julie at her home. When we checked on them, we then went to a big breakfast with Julie and Melissa... along with a friend from our Den. Martin joined us when breakfast became lunch and told us that everything was fine."
"And with no one shot that shouldn't be shot," William answered, "I'm sure Frances is fine... If she's not home... maybe the police asked her to run a psych evaluation on the guy or something like that."
Samantha blinked. That was possible. Frances's clinic didn't deal exclusively in psych evaluations for criminals. In fact, most of Frances business was pretty typical for a therapist and helping her clients get through fairly routine stresses, though Frances couldn't tell Samantha about those sessions. But on occasion when Moon Lake needed a psych evaluation done, Frances was the one they called, and given some of the quirks of Dymixious's behavior that had been discussed in the meeting it was possible that Dymixious Drake would fit within that category. However, when Samantha's work was done, the only report was that Dymixious needed surgery to repair damage and wounds sustained in the fight and might not survive. As such, it seemed a bit early to ask for a psych evaluation.
"Martha..." William looked over to his wife and noticing Samantha's confusion and obvious worry, "I'm sure Frances is fine... but... given things..."
Martha nodded as William tossed the car keys to her. She caught them with ease, something she wouldn't have managed before becoming a were, and then turned to Samantha. "Come on... We'll go down to the hospital. I'm sure Frances is fine and just got called in to do something for them. We'll go down and you can see."
"We didn't want there to be a battle this morning," Samantha spoke.
"We know," Martha answered and slowly lead Samantha to the front seat of the Anderson family's SUV, "but somethings just happen that way..."
Martha then waved to William and then restarted the car before heading toward the hospital. She noticed that Samantha looked a bit calmer with the suggestion that Frances had been called to give an evaluation for someone, and Martha was glad for that, but there was some worry that was still on Samantha's face, which made sense. Frances had to be everything to Samantha, given what the two of them had told her about their relationship and that they were both totally dedicated to each other. To know that a battle had occurred and not finding Frances, Samantha had to be nervous that something dangerously wrong had happened to the love of her life. Martha knew she'd potentially feel the same if anything had happened to William.