About 30 minutes after Tad had returned home, Jen was sitting on the couch with Claire, talking to her about what Tad had told her and what she had told him. Tad had gotten up and moved to the armchair to give them some room. Then, unexpectedly, someone rang the doorbell.
Jen turned her head towards the door. "Who could that be this early in the morning?" she asked aloud to Tad and Claire, wondering if either of them knew.
"I'll go check," Tad said, getting out of the chair and walking out of the living room and into the small hallway that had the front door at the end. When he was at the door, Tad twisted the knob and opened it, surprised to see Josephine and Jacob Decker, his paternal grandparents, standing there.
"Grandma Josephine? Grandpa Jacob?" Tad asked. "What are you doing here this early?"
"What, no 'It's good to see you grandma and grandpa'?" Jacob asked, chuckling. "I'm only messing with you."
"Ignore him dear," Josephine said. "We came because we heard the news this morning."
"About how the city council is talking about exposing weres to the world," Tad confirmed. "How about you come inside and we can talk about it more?"
The young male stepped out of the way so his grandparents could get in.
Once they were inside, Tad guided Josephine and Jacob to the living room. The two elderly normals were somewhat surprised to see Claire sitting next to Jen, who was still in her fursona.
When Jen noticed her in-laws, she quickly stood up from the couch. "Josephine! Jacob! What a pleasant surprise!" she said happily. "I wasn't expecting you two to be coming over, so I was spending a little more time in my fursona. If you'd like, I'll go upstairs and change back to normal."
"No no, it's fine dear," Josephine said, walking over to hug the female werecat. "It's been too long since Jacob and I last saw you like that. And may I ask, who is this young lady with you?"
"Oh, let me introduce you," Jen said, breaking the hug after a second. "Claire, this is Jacob and Josephine, my in-laws. Jacob and Josephine, this is Claire...my girlfriend."
Jen found herself quieting when she said the word "girlfriend"; not because she was embarrassed, but because she was saying it in front of her deceased husband's parents.
"I know that this is a bit hard to understand, but I felt like it was time to move on," Jen explained quickly. "I will always love Jeff and I'm not trying to replace him, but I knew I couldn't grieve over Jeff's loss for the rest of my life. One day or another, I had to find someone else. But to be honest, I never expected it to happen so soon."
The room was quiet for a minute or two before Jacob broke it. "Well...we can't be angry at you. You were just following your heart and doing what you felt was right."
"Jacob, dear," Josephine said. "I love you, but that was very sappy. But as long as you're happy Jennifer, we're happy too. Anyway, we came over because of the news this morning."
"The City Council is actually considering exposing weres?" Jacob asked. "It's a bit concerning to us. Even though we're 'normals', we both have friends who are weres, a step-daughter who's a were, and a grandson who's a were."
"Who knows what could happen..." Josephine said. "With the world in the state that it's in currently, who knows how people will react. The Government could kidnap you and preform experiments on you. Organizations bent on eliminating weres could be formed. Angry mobs could storm into Moon Lake and hurt everyone..."
"I know it's concerning," Jen said. "But I'm sure that city council knows the risks and they're doing their best to prevent any of that from happening. If weres are exposed, who knows how many people would jump at the opportunity to become weres themselves. It's only a matter of time before it happens, and when it does, we can hope that the world will accept us as who we are."