John Harper woke up a bit nervously. It wasn't dawn, but it was fairly early and he could hear the faint sound of footsteps in another section of the Jenkins home indicating that someone was up. It might just be Janice, as he didn't notice her on the other bed in the room, but he really couldn't know for sure. A part of him didn't want to advertise that he was up, largely to let those he were asleep stay asleep. It was something that be a benefit to the others that was denied him the previous night. He looked down to his hand, still a very human hand with its pink skin and five digits.
"Still human," John thought to himself with a bit of a sigh as his mind went back to the nightmare from the previous night. Dreaming of being a weretiger and laying with an unknown lover only to have his father burst in with a gun and aiming the weapon right at John. The thought of it alone made John shudder with the thought that his father would be violently opposed to John or Janice staying in Moon Lake if he knew the truth about the town. He wouldn't approve of the town's weres and that brought him some worries for Ginger and only complicated John's attempt to worry about who he was.
"John, you up?" came Janice's voice from behind him.
"Yeah," John managed as he looked back over his shoulder to seeing his younger sister sticking her head in the doorway, "What's up?"
"Mrs. Jenkins is making waffles and Jenny sent me to get you... make sure you didn't miss breakfast," Janice answered.
"Okay... I'll be out in a few minutes," John said slowly, "I just need to get dressed."
Janice nodded and made her way out. John then set about getting dressed and going for something calm and comfortable while his mind tried to dwell on all the things that had happened that lead into that nightmare. The tour of Moon Lake with Ginger the previous day had gone quite well, and he had no complaints about that. He found her to be a great friend and hoped she would remain so for as long as possible. But it soon overlapped the other issues that had related to James Harper Senior's raising of his children. His father was controlling and had always seemed to take it to the point where one or all of his children would get him out of the gutter regardless of what it cost them.
The proposed engagement between Jenny and Dieter Wilhelm had been one of those things. Because the man ran the power company in area in which they'd lived in Alabama and was well off, there was the idea that by marrying Jenny to him, Jenny could then funnel some of Dieter's money to the rest of the Harper family through gifts or paying off student loans and so on. John had overheard enough of those rants to understand that much. He'd never heard anything about his father looking to hook Janice up with someone until Janice had told him after waking him up from the nightmare, but then it wouldn't actually surprise him if his father had had an idea like that.
That of course only reminded John on his own personal struggles and whether or not his father had ever had plans like that for him or James Harper Junior. He'd never heard of anything like that, though he thought he might have heard his father make some suggestions about James Jr. using his college degree to start a business and then employ his father as manager or something along those lines. It was just one of those things that made James Sr. at best a difficult human being, and a part of John figured that would be putting it politely. For he'd always lived in fear that his father would find out about his own struggles over who he was and punish him for it, and even freed from his father's oppression, the shadow still seemed to loom over him.
"I can't even escape the shadow..." John gave a depressed thought as he straightened his shirt and moved out.
That thought sort of stayed with John as he finished dressing and then made his way out. He found Harry and Jenny seated in their fursonas at the smaller breakfast table near the windows that would let them look out on the back-yard. Both were dressed, though by now, John was getting more and more used to their were forms and more comfortable with them. Jenny with her cream colored fur and overly large ears, showing her Fennec Fox based were form with Harry's silver-gray, tan, and white coloration representing his Gray Fox form. The two seemed calm and comfortable, chatting about something, which lasted until one of Jenny's ears turned and she then turned to face him.
"Good morning, John," Jenny spoke with an almost forced smile, "Lisa's making waffles, so I hope you're hungry."
"I can always eat," John returned the smile, though it was also forced in a way.
In general he was okay and in some ways he felt he might be making some progress on answering who he was as some of his interactions with Ginger were indicating that he did have at least some attraction to girls, something he'd never had in Alabama. But then, most girls in Alabama didn't seem that interested in him, possibly because of how some families reacted to him after some of the interactions and rules that his parents had used become more "known" through interactions with James Jr. and Jenny when they went through the local public school system. But Ginger was different and she had shown some interest, that on the surface was at least platonic friendship, but the more he talked with her and hung out with her, the less he could really deny the fact that there were parts of him that were attracted to her in some other ways.
However, the question there was fast becoming was whether or not he was straight or bi, and there he really didn't have much of a sample size of interactions to work with. Ginger was about the only person he'd met and talked with on a major basis, and she was female. Figuring out whether or not he was also interested in men was something that would require more interactions, at least on a social level, with other males his age and seeing if he had some of the reactions like those that he'd had with Ginger. That likely wouldn't happen until he was in Moon Lake's school system, which hopefully wouldn't be too far away. And some of the talks that he'd had, be it with the adult werecat that he'd met in Martha Anderson, talking about how she'd surprised her own bisexual nature or his talks with the older Jenkins son, Huck, on how Moon Lake was pretty open when it came to same sex couples. It comforted him on that part, though the shadow of his father still seemed to be there, now with the added fear that he'd find out who he was only to have his father rob him of the happiness that finding out who he was would bring about.
Jenny quietly rose to her feet and John watched as she approached him. Jenny had been taller than him, but mostly due to the fact that she was between four and five years older than him. She was a bit taller now in her were form, but much of that was more due to her much larger ears, particularly when they were perked in a near straight up expression. In this, even as a were, Jenny wasn't that much taller than John. He didn't tower over him in the way that Ginger did in her fursona or even the way Mrs. O'Toole did in her human form, but then foxes weren't as big as tigers. That, however, wasn't really something that concerned John too much and he felt that Jenny really didn't concern herself with that much, either. John found his older sister extremely happy with Harry and that was what mattered. Though, at present, with her eyebrows raised and her present crimson werefox eyes focused on him, John got the sense that she was worried about something.
"You're safe here, John," Jenny said to him as she pulled him into a hug, "Dad can't hurt you any more."
John frowned at that for the moment, but accepted the hug and even returned it. His mind wandered and he glanced to Janice who was seated on the other side of Harry and looked just as perplexed as he did. The line left him wondering as to whether or not anyone else knew about his nightmare from the night before. Janice knew, as it was hard for her sleeping in a separate bed in the same room not to hear him scream in terror at the dreaming image of James Harper Senior coming to kill him with a shotgun or a rifle. John's mental memory of what his father carried in the nightmare was a bit blurry. But he didn't want to admit it, as he didn't want to really be a burden on Harry and Jenny, at least any more than was necessary.
"I'm fine, sis," John insisted as he looked up to Jenny.
Jenny's response was to grip him tighter, though making sure that her claws were not in contact with his skin.
"Physically... yes," Jenny said softly, "mentally... I'm not so sure..."
"What?!" Janice and John gasped.
"It's okay," Jenny promised and nuzzled her muzzle to John's cheeks, "Now that you're both here and away from dad, all of that will be fine. You just have to get away from the demons, dad tried to leave behind..."
That seemed to strike more at the nightmare that John had had the night before and he looked to Jenny, "You heard..."
"All of us heard you scream," Henry Jenkins spoke from another portion of the kitchen as he came around one counter with a plate of waffles in each hand. He passed one to Harry and set another at the place where Jenny had been seated, "the walls in many of the houses in Moon Lake may be thicker to muffle some of the sounds that many mated weres make together, but that doesn't mean they're completely soundproofed."
"And with ears like mine, it's hard not to hear things," Jenny added, "and I thought you were in danger..."
"Just a bad dream... it' was nothing," John tried to say, not really wanting to admit the full details of the nightmare that he'd had as he didn't want to worry Jenny.
"You can be fully honest with us, John," Jenny told him, "I had some pretty bad dreams too at times when I first settled into the dorms at the college... particularly with the knowledge that I had every intention of getting away from dad. And finding such a wonderful man in Harry began giving me more incentives to stay in Moon Lake. After I became a werefox and Harry and I cemented our bonds to each other... that became a given..."
"But you had bad dreams too?" John asked.
"Some were from memories of how tough dad could be and the knowledge that there was the odd sense of hope that dad would "grow up" as it were," Jenny commented, "and some were part of somethings that I went through while recovering from what happened to me when I became a were."
"But didn't you just find Harry and things went happily ever after?" Janice asked her older sister and glanced to Harry for a moment.
"Jenny was the one who transformed me," Harry told her, "Remember? Jenny was clawed by a rogue werevixen before our engagement. And that was soon complicated by the fact that the transformation process from normal human to human-were is complicated."
"The rogue left me incomplete for quite awhile," Jenny nodded as she looked down to John and then released him to let him sit down at one of the other chairs that had been placed around the breakfast table, at least for the morning. As John sat down, Jenny sat down and began to spread butter over the various pockets on the waffle before her. "And while my transformation was completed... because it was incomplete for as long as it was... there was a lot my mind had to heal and process through. Some of the stresses related to the potential of dealing with mom and dad with regard to Harry's and my engagement was one of those things. Some of the first bad dreams were about what made me a were...but much of the rest focused on dealing with the problems that dad put all around him and that became part of the therapy sessions I had prior to the wedding."
"I didn't know you had bad dreams and nightmares..." John said slowly as he looked to Jenny.
"Because I tried to hide them where I could," Jenny answered, "but you don't have to do that, John. You're free of dad and you'll be here with Harry and I. You'll have good "in-laws" with Harry's parents. You can share what's troubling you with us and we won't judge. And if you'd like... we could see about scheduling a session or two with Doctor Twist. She can help you, just as she helped me."
"She helped you?" John asked, remembering the auburn haired woman that had chaired what was Jenny's last session that became something of a joint therapy session shortly after Harry and Jenny's wedding.
"Yes... and she's fully trained as a therapist," Jenny answered, "she can help you and do so in a way that you can feel confident in letting everything out. No one but you and her would know."
As much John wanted to hide the mental strain of that nightmare, something about Jenny's words and even just her hug seemed to make things better. He nodded and simply said, "thank you."