Across the country, a different couple was trying to settle back into what were normally familiar surroundings, and in a way they were still familiar. However, FBI Agent Theodore Green was now experiencing things in his Washington DC apartment in a way that he never had before. When he'd first met Marci Trent, he was a normal human male, and while the initial meeting all those years ago had been rather innocent, even if unique, the two of them had grown close and had then included finding out that Marci was a werecat, getting married, and then trying to protect Marci's secret and her. Theodore, or Teddy as friends knew him, had never known much about weres before meeting Marci, but he had enough knowledge on pop culture that the werewolf in the movies was often the bad guy or at least cursed. In this as fell in love with Marci, protecting her had always been a big thing for him.
But over the years, it had also created other issues. Namely circumstances that related to Marci's status as a werecat. She'd explained it to him that the werecat strain of the were-virus was gender specific and females only. In this, while the two had loved each other, they could never truly be together as the "werecat" in Marci would kill the normal human male in Teddy. As such, Teddy had to become a were before the two of them could truly be together, and for years the two had searched for some other were that could turn Teddy to let them be together. The preference had generally been weretiger, but over time there had been the acceptance that any were that Teddy could safely become would do.
Then came a series of chance events that changed things radically for the FBI agent and his wife. Teddy had been assigned to assist military police forces in the murder of a Marine Corps Major in Quantico, Virginia, on the Marine Corps base there. The investigation ultimately turned up leads to Moon Lake, Washington State, which had turned out to be a were sanctuary of sorts. Neither Teddy nor Marci had really known of it, but it did provide some opportunity for them. The chief of police there had apparently caught Marci's scent on him and guessed that the two were close, which then allowed Teddy to then talk with other's in the small town's city government that finally offered Teddy the chance to be with his wife in every way. After the case investigating Lionel Ulysses reached its official end with his wounding and then murder, Teddy was able to get time off to take Marci to Moon Lake. That assured some of the suspicions among some of those in Moon Lake and let him become a were, himself, and pretty much the precise kind of were he and Marci had long hoped for, a weretiger with his were form based on the white tiger, a color variation in the Bengal subspecies that was the result of recessive genes. Marci seemed to like it and Teddy liked it as well, as he was finally able to be with her in every way.
But they couldn't stay in Moon Lake forever, as neither were at a point where they would have to retire and their time off wouldn't last forever either. In this, they had to come home to their apartment in Washington DC. They'd left Moon Lake as there had been a great deal of rumor about some city council meeting, but their flight out of Washington State had been such that they weren't in Moon Lake for that meeting. In fact by the time the meeting happened, they were already settling back into their apartment and generally preparing to return to their rather normal schedule. They'd had a rather quiet Saturday to rest and relax, and the same would hold true for Sunday, but come Monday, it would be back to the daily grind. Teddy with his work in the FBI in the area around Washington DC, northern Virginia, and Maryland and Marci as a lawyer that often handled a fair number of constitutional law cases, though the firm she practiced with did criminal law as well.
And some of that didn't fully sit well with Teddy in terms of adjusting to things. Saturday had been quiet with no major activity, but now being a were, many of the sounds and smells that he couldn't pick up too well as a normal human were now easily heard. He could smell the scent of the cleaning agents that he and Marci used to clean their tub and bathroom. He could smell other cleaners that they had for the dishes and laundry. They weren't exactly the most comfortable smells out there, not bad as in rotten, but not exactly the most natural scents either. Even those that were intended to smell like flowers generated that sort of sensation in him. And as he lay in bed next to Marci, the sounds of cars driving by, horns blaring, sirens going off in the distance, and even the sound of the pipes settling in the apartment building seemed to disturb him. He could hear some of these things before, but they came as being soft enough to be pushed out of his mind for a moment. Now, with a weretiger's hearing, these sounds were far louder, far more distracting, and at times it made him wonder how Marci put up with it over the years of their marriage. Even Moon Lake, which seemed to come alive at nigh with the pleasure filled roars, howls, barks, mews, bellows, and cries of weres enjoying their respective partners seemed quiet by comparison... or at least more soothing.
This left Teddy restless in bed as he tried to get comfortable, and eventually his constant flipping and rolling in the bed jostled Marci awake. Her eyes slowly fluttered awake as Teddy rolled back to her and she managed to speak in a groggy voice as he rolled to face her, his eyes meeting hers.
"Teddy... are you okay? It's..." Marci began as she looked to her husband, "I don't know what time it is right now... but it is early."
"I think it's after midnight... I'm sorry," Teddy answered, "I just can't get comfortable. The pipes rattling... horns blaring... I just can't get comfortable."
"Too loud, I take it?" Marci gave a small smile and cuddled up to her husband.
"How do you..." Teddy began.
"In some ways much the same way you have before now," Marci gave a chuckle, "and if you think traffic in DC is loud at night, you don't want to be in New York at night. There is a reason that city never sleeps."
Teddy blinked and then remembered that Marci's mothers presently lived up in New York City. From what Teddy remembered, they were there to pursue a career in acting and had earned some decent roles on Broadway and other theaters in the city. They'd raised Marci there, and Marci had only come down to Washington DC because that was where she'd gotten into law school. They were a good couple and he'd been grateful they'd accepted him, though at the moment the reminder was more a reminder on the fact that Marci had never been in Moon Lake before their brief vacation, which in turn meant she was more used to many of the noises that went along with the big city.
"Sorry..." Teddy managed weakly.
"It's okay dear..." Marci said soothingly, "many of these noises are things that weres don't always work easily with... shoot, even normal humans can be bothered by it. And now that you are a were... things that the apartment's walls muffled from the outside for you before will now be heard and making things that you could here before more of a distraction."
"I can't spend all night tossing and turning just to get some sleep," Teddy said slowly, "I'd assume that even weres need sleep..."
Marci slowly reached over and gently rubbed her husband's left shoulder. Mostly as it was the shoulder that he wasn't laying on at the moment, but there had been some times in the past where he'd had some muscle aches and strains, likely the result of some cases that required a lot of activity in the past. She could easily feel that his shoulder and arm muscles were now larger and very well sculpted, something that had made her yearn deeply for him since he became a were, but for the moment the contact was simply to provide him with comfort.
"Everyone needs sleep," Marci agreed, "though... I suspect the sounds aren't the only thing keeping you up..."
"They are what has prevented me from settling," Teddy admitted, "but since I haven't gotten to sleep... it's left my mind to wander. On how I will explain all the changes in me to the bureau. They will notice... they're not dumb."
"You were always fit and handsome," Marci told him and snuggled her head to his neck, "they may not fully notice on how well defined you are now..."
"I still look a bit younger than I did before... you know... It's like I'm in my twenties again," Teddy answered.
"Well given that a were could live up to four hundred years before old age will claim them, both you and I are rather young for weres," Marci admitted, "as for the bureau... you could just say that I talked you into it. They may think it vain, but then it wouldn't be too far from the truth. We've agreed on finding a were that could turn you for years and sought to find one... until we found Moon Lake. Them thinking I talked you into Rogaine or some other anti-wrinkle type cream would be a good enough cover what has happened. And in pure theory it won't be too long before you reach the point where you'd be expected to retire from the FBI anyway..."
"Unless they promote me," Teddy told her, "and even without that sort of cover, it's not as though we can just get by without some income."
"We can cross that bridge when we come to it," Marci answered, though she did understand the point. Outside of an area like Moon Lake where just about everyone knew the population was largely made up of weres, weres had to live in some fairly tricky legal grey areas that related to protecting the were secret. She imagined that even Moon Lake had to play with fairly similar tricks to keep someone from getting suspicious over certain financial crimes. It was something that had privately left her wondering if that secret was really worth keeping. For technically it had meant that weres were often committing fraud just to hide who they were, and if someone was smart enough to tie some of the inconsistences together, there was the risk that the money trail could lead to that which was hidden being exposed. Coming out might provide some means of stabilizing a were's financial future that some of the measures that had worked, but were legally questionable at best wouldn't be an issue.
Of course there was the obvious counter or worry that people would respond out of fear, though the lawyer in her was reasonably confident that if it came out in the right way, the law could be used to protect weres from outright persecution. It might still mean many changes to were society, but she also knew that a good prosecutor in a criminal case would often try to play to the emotions of a jury. Coming out in a situation where such a situation couldn't be legally played to would then give weres better legal standing ground. Particularly as the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments could easily defend the rights of weres to be, so long as there wasn't some crime that was connected to the discovery. Not that fear was something easily overcome. Teddy knew these things just as well as she did, and even before he became a weretiger, he seemed to be more concerned about protecting the fact that she was a werecat than she was.
And while Marci was privately confident she could argue for were's legal protection IF the secret was revealed, she wasn't as confident on actually carrying out the reveal in a way that would work. She'd struggled through explaining that she was a werecat to Teddy when their relationship started to get serious and privately felt that she'd gotten lucky that Teddy cared more for her than anything else.
"In the meantime," Marci then spoke, "let me put on the radio... set it to some nature sounds on low volume and that might help soothe things for you. You'll still hear it, of course, but it won't be as mechanical as car horns. It does help..."
She paused in her snuggling to roll over to the alarm clock on the nightstand beside her. She flipped a few switches and then set the radio to a timed play. The soft sounds of a brook soon filled the room. The sound didn't fully overpower the sound of the cars outside, but it was more "natural" and generally was something that Marci had found helped on days that had been especially stressful. It would probably help Teddy as he acclimated to his now sharper hearing. And as she lay back down on the bed, she reached over and held Teddy to her. He did seem to calm down a bit.