William and Martha felt fairly good as they finished up in the kitchen after dinner. Dinner had been quieter than what they had expected, especially as since moving to Moon Lake, it had often included some discussion on Eric's day and his talks with one Julie Stovall. Those things had been something that they had felt had gotten their youngest son out of his proverbial shell. They'd also accepted what the Stovalls had told them regarding weremer courtship in that "love at first sight" was very real for them. It wasn't quite what it was like for them when they first started dating, but then there were a lot of things about Moon Lake that were very different from life when they started dating, and William equated it to the bond he felt to Martha as a werefox, though from what the Stovalls had told them, there were some differences in how a weremer's abilities worked from a werefox's. Still, things had looked good between Eric and Julie, and they were happy for that.
However, after Eric became a weremerman, both Anderson parents had some concerns that they wanted to talk over with Eric. It especially related to how fast things had seemed to be moving between Eric and Julie. It wasn't as though they disapproved of the pairing, as Julie seemed to be smart and caring and from what they'd seen seemed to go out of her way for Eric. However, they did have concerns that related to a were's libido and how fast Eric and Julie's relationship seemed to move in that regard. They could see and smell that Eric was far more active in that regard than what most parents wanted out of their youngest son. And as a werefox and werecat, William and Martha could well understand the joys that elated being new weres.
For William it'd secured and perhaps even saved his marriage and for Martha it had helped her accept who she was. In that, the two of them had been far more active than they'd ever been, and could understand that desire on Eric's part. However, while they might not fight tooth and claw to get Eric to be totally celibate, they DID prefer that Eric focus more aspects of his relationship with Julie that didn't focus on sex. These were actually things they thought drew Eric to Julie in the first place, and their talk with Eric seemed to vindicate that opinion on their part, as Eric had seemed to share feelings of nervousness and borderline jealousy regarding Julie's attention to another weremer classmate and confusion at a new were that had come to town being rather open in her "hello" with Eric.
As, while a weremer's "love at first sight" might tell them who their "true love" was, that didn't necessarily mean that it couldn't be broken the way a werefox's bond couldn't. However, from what Eric had told them about his talks with Julie and from how they'd seen the two interact, there didn't seem to be any indication that Julie had done anything to "break" that love between them. In this, talking with Julie and being patient with things was going to be more important than getting emotional or rushing ahead with regard to anything. That was what they'd tried to accomplish in their conversation with Eric. Openness and honesty would probably also help solve whatever problems that Spencer Lawson's introduction to their son might cause as well. Eric seemed to accept that and relieved some of William and Martha's "worries" regarding some things they'd noticed.
And with the dishes done and another day on the way, both Anderson parents went about turning out the lights and heading upstairs. At first there was some idea of some fun between the two of them, but as William stepped onto the landing at the base of the stairs he could hear a series of low sniffles and perhaps even sobs coming from upstairs. He glanced over to Martha and saw a look of concern flash over her eyes as well. Despite being in their human forms, their hearing was still far sharper than what a normal human could hear and they could hear something that didn't sound right coming from upstairs.
William was quick to ascend the stairs, hopping up two steps at a time as he went. Martha was quick to follow and easily kept pace with her husband. They arrived to find Nate poking his head out from his bedroom door. Their older son wasn't wearing a shirt at the moment, but the bigger thing that was noticed was his look of concern, puzzlement, and perhaps confusion.
"I didn't do anything! I swear!" Nate protested seeing his parents own looks of concern, "I just got back to bed and..."
"It's okay," William spoke, "Go on to bed... your mother and I will find out what is going on... I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about."
William tried to sound hopeful, but something didn't quite work as well as he'd hoped for. He remembered how isolated Eric had made himself from the world back in Minnesota and how much he and Martha had tried, even in the midst of their own troubles, to get Eric to open up. He remembered that there were a few times when they'd heard Eric cry himself to sleep at times, and that was the last thing any of them wanted, and after hearing Eric's worries and concerns over Julie paying attention to Arthur, those fears were reborn in his mind. Nate gave a low frown and didn't move for a moment, which showed that he had the same sense that his parents did, and while Nate and Eric may have had their moments of sibling rivalry, it was never open to the point where there was ever anything hurtful.
William and Martha made their way to the doorway to Eric's room. The door was open, and they found that Eric was still up and seated at his computer. The machine was still on and the light from the screen was about the only source of light in the room, though William and Martha's eyes both adapted to it easily as they entered. They found Eric seated and bent forward with his head resting on his arms, which had pushed the keyboard forward so that it was under the monitor completely and they could hear the heavy sobs and only further confirmed that something wasn't right with Eric.
"Eric?" William spoke and reached over the black back of Eric's computer chair to touch Eric's shoulder.
"Sweetie?" Martha asked.
Eric looked up and both William and Martha could see tears rolling down their son's cheeks.
"Eric... what's going on?" William asked as he spun the chair around and pulled it and Eric away from the computer, "What's wrong?"
"She couldn't talk to me..." Eric whimpered and looked down at his lap for a moment.
"Who?" Martha asked, "Julie?"
"We always talk before going to bed!" Eric declared, "even before I became her merman we'd talk! But she couldn't talk with me... she didn't talk with me!"
Martha sighed and began turning off the programs Eric had running, and glanced to see that his homework was done. She was thankful for that, though the fact that other things didn't seem to be going well only brought back her worries. William calmly took Eric's hand and held it for a few moments before also patting it gently with his free hand. It eventually got Eric to look to him.
"Couldn't or wouldn't, Eric?" William asked.
"What's the difference?!" Eric answered, more a statement a question, "I'm supposed to love her and she's supposed to love me. We're supposed to be important to each other!"
"Yes," Martha nodded, "but like we said earlier, Eric, being important to each other and being in love does not mean that YOU are the only boy that Julie will have a social relationship with..."
"And sometimes we have responsibilities that we have to tend to that go beyond our own wants and desires," William said softly.
"You're one to talk!" Eric said in a low voice, "cheating on mom for as long as you did! You put your own desires ahead of your family!"
William sighed and looked down. Eric probably didn't mean to have as much venom in his tone of voice as he put into it, but that didn't mean he was entirely wrong. If he'd had better control over his own libido in the past and not simply gone out looking for "fun" because he was horny and because Martha had been conflicted over something at the time, many of the problems that had brought the Andersons to Moon Lake wouldn't have come to pass. The city may have provided them with their new beginnings, but that didn't change that mistakes had been made.
"I know I've made mistakes, Eric," William said after a moment and kept his hands around Eric's, "and I deeply wish that I'd been a bit smarter and not made those mistakes... but that doesn't justify forcing yourself on Julie in any way, especially if you don't have evidence of any disloyalty on her part. As... if she COULDN'T talk, that could well mean that she WANTED to, but because of rules or time or some other legitimate reason was unable to. If she WOULDN'T talk, she'd be consciously trying to avoid you. Did she do that?"
"No," Eric sniffled, "her dad called her to bed... but..."
"You can't be paranoid or possessive over Julie, Eric," Martha spoke, "being possessive of people can be just as bad infidelity… as it would mean you're trying to control her."
William and Martha slowly walked Eric over to his bed and calmly undressed him as they went. They left him in his underwear and set him down on the bed, before letting him roll under the sheets. He still looked up to them with some nervousness.
"But what if it wasn't real? What if she was only playing with me?" Eric asked weakly, "because I KNOW Arthur was into her."
Martha sat down on the edge of the bed and stroked Eric's cheek with the back of one hand, "But does Julie know that? From some of the things that you've told us... you both share a fair number interests in the sciences and your school work. She may have not noticed his attention with her focus on her school work."
"But... the love at first sight... she'd know that with him, he's another weremer," Eric answered.
Martha continued to rub the side of Eric's head and began to purr as she did so. She hoped it would comfort him.
"But she saw YOU and that's what set you both on the path to each other," William commented, "Just because she knows how the process works doesn't mean she's going to automatically recognize that someone else might have romantic feelings. In this... from everything you've told us already, the one who she saw as her one true love was you, and that makes YOU special to her. And you've already said she hasn't done anything to be untrustworthy."
Eric slowly nodded.
"I don't think you have anything to worry about," Martha assured him and then leaned down to kiss Eric's forehead, "I'm sure everything will be fine."
They sat with Eric for a few moments before he seemed to drift off to sleep. From there, William and Martha both walked quietly across the hall to their own bedroom. Though by now, they were far less confident than they were a little while ago and any thoughts of some other fun were gone as worries for their youngest son remained.
"Do you think that helped?" Martha asked softly as they began to get ready for bed.
"Maybe," William answered slowly, "though... we might have only dug the proverbial hole deeper..."