Samantha and Frances's night had been calm and relatively peaceful. They had managed to bring home dinner to share with Ben and then retired to their bedroom for the evening. Though as she shut the door behind her, Frances could also tell that Samantha was still worried over some things, particularly those that related to the meeting at City Hall. What Ben had told them in the morning about the rumors running around the High School were off the wall at times ridiculous, especially with the fact that all of them related in some way to the were secret, which was essentially Samantha's duty to protect when it came to welcoming new residents to Moon Lake. It had apparently been enough that Samantha at some point in the day had talked with Moon Lake's Deputy Mayor, who's task was to sit in on the City Council Meetings as a moderator and tie breaking vote, should there ever be a tie.
It was enough for Frances to know that Samantha was going to be stressed by the entire situation. Particularly with the fact that the meeting was supposedly about a new were wanting to reveal the existence of weres, or something along those lines. It wasn't necessarily a bad idea and while it wasn't frequent, it was something that came up from time to time. Especially with new weres, as they have generally tended to go into a sort of euphoric high after their first transformation, and that can have the potential to last for a fair amount of time, usually if they were romantically interested in the were that turned them. Frances even remembered having those feelings after her transformation into a werecat. The circumstances were complicated, and thankfully from a technical stand point Frances' transformation had been completed before it physically manifested, but that aside, once she transformed, she had no great desire to leave it and every desire to be by Samantha's side.
But Samantha worked in a position that required her to see that the were secret was protected and that often lead to plenty of potential frustrations, usually due to people who were tempted to try and flee after learning of the mandatory were law and the fear that those would then reveal the were secret on leaving. Frances didn't think it happened much, if at all, but there were some procedures and policies that were in place if there seemed to be any sign of that happening. Revealing weres to the world, would definitely mean a great deal of stress for Samantha as Town Chancellor, even if there was the possibility of the policy change being the right one. Thankfully so far as Samantha and Frances knew, the meeting was allowed with the intent of talking the new were out of the decision. In that with the end vote seemingly pre-determined, Frances had urged that they stay home and enjoy a quiet night together.
"Here we are... safely at home and with some quiet," Samantha commented as she heard the door click and soon heard Frances coming closely up behind her.
"Yes," Frances nodded, "quiet... something I'd suspect both you and I need. Between gun battles next door and then all the rumors related to this meeting... getting some peace and quiet would be a good thing."
Samantha moved to sit on the bed and looked over to Frances as she sat down. She gave calm smile as Frances approached and sat down slightly behind and to the side of Samantha. The did have hope for quiet and she well knew that some of the things related to this meeting were stressing for her, and Frances was probably right. She quietly slipped her shoes off before feeling a pair of hands softly beginning to rub her back. She looked back to see Frances smiling to her as Frances began giving Samantha a good back rub. It actually felt rather good. It didn't actually arouse Samantha, but it did feel good and she was content to give a soft purr as Frances continued, even while in her human form.
"You're very tense back here," Frances declared to her.
"Well... I'll admit to being stressed over things," Samantha answered.
"And I can help with that," Frances smiled as she rubbed in circular patterns up and down Samantha's back, happy to see Samantha purr in response to it.
And for a while the two sat comfortably together. Frances softly massaging Samantha's back and working out various tight muscles and she was pleased to see Samantha relax as they went on, though as Samantha began to relax some things began to lead into more heavy petting between the two. From there, the two eventually drift off to sleep more relaxed than they were immediately after dinner and hopeful that things would be better in the morning.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Morning did come, but it came with a bit of a surprise that hadn't been expected by either Frances or Samantha. They were jolted awake by their alarm with it going off at the time it always did and starting with a news update that was played by the College radio station. Like Moon Lake's low budget cable channel, funded by the city, the radio was often more open with were issues that related to were news than other forms of media. Much of this was in relation to the nature of the station and the way they were received. Both of which helped serve to protect Moon Lake's secrecy, despite some things related to its secrets being deliberately mentioned.
The cable station was run on a relatively low budget and largely covered news updates for Moon Lake. They would make recordings at key times of the day that were half hour programs. They ran major local news updates, tie ins from what was expected for the weather, and a list of scheduled events. The first would be in the morning, the next update would be at noon, and the last would be at around six in the evening. Between the updates the station would then rerun from the previous day to the most recent update, and they did have the means to make sure that people could tell the date and time for the rerun and that flashed through the entire update. That way people could stay up to date. There were a small handful of homes and cabins outside of Moon Lake that did get Moon Lake's "public access" channel and Moon Lake did test the response to them. Much of which came back that because of the low budget set they felt the programming was essentially a low budget sketch show pretending to be news and making things up to be entertaining, which served Moon Lake's purposes.
The radio station was different. The station was established on the college in the 1930s as part of a short range radio broadcasts. Tests had shown that the FM station could reach anywhere in Moon Lake's city limits easily, but due to the interference from the mountains immediately around Moon Lake, it didn't reach any of the settlements outside Moon Lake. There might be a cabin or two that was isolated here and there, but testing found that reception was so patchy that it was doubted that anyone would hear anything. This let them provide immediate news for Moon Lake, and since the frequency used was one that was not used anywhere else in the country, it was unlikely that someone would drive through Moon Lake and pick up that frequency by accident. And even if they did, the radio station only did a few short updates every two hours and more often than not they played various forms of music.
But as the radio came on, it played a news update and one that started and frustrated Samantha, as it was an update she did not expect. It opened with the host announcing the news, "Good morning, Moon Lake residents, last night was a City Council meeting that has promised major changes for our community, both here and around the world. After the argument of a Tom Herald, a werefox working for the Seattle news media, has convinced the City Council to begin looking into revealing our secret to the world. For the moment the process won't be much more than discussion on what to say, but it will mean that big changes are on the horizon."
Samantha sat up with a shot as she heard the report, though some of it was a bit fuzzy as she was still waking up. She heard "Tom Herald, Seattle news media," and "revealing our secret to the world" quite clearly. If there was anything in the radio announcement that she didn't hear clearly she attributed that to the fact that she was only just awakened. "That wasn't supposed to happen!"
"I'd wish they'd say why the vote turned out as it did," Frances commented as the report finished and then moved on to the next update and moving away from the meeting update.
"That wasn't supposed to happen!" Samantha repeated, "and it could fail..."
"And I share the fears," Frances told her wife, "but... we may be also reaching a point where it may not be possible. Just as I said yesterday."
"But you also didn't think that the vote would turn out this way!" Samantha turned, "This will change EVERYTHING."
"If it ultimately passes," Frances told her, "Right now its still early."
"Tell that to the weres who want to feel safe and secure here!" Samantha answered, "even if the decision is the right one... it's going to create a LOT of backlash. I'm not sure how Kat, Martin and I might be able to win reelection next year if this thing passes and someone decides the secret must be protected at all costs..."
"That's why I would have liked to hear why the vote ended as it did," Frances commented, "if its to deal with a changing world or changing situation... there may be a point and thus making it the RIGHT decision."
"Maybe..." Samantha sighed after taking a dep breath to calm her nerves, "but it will mean increased work... and I'll need to talk to Kat to figure out just what happened in the meeting."*
Frances nodded and offered some encouragement, "even with things as they are... I'm sure things will be fine and that there was a good reason."