Richard and Frank walked through the door that connected the house with the garage. Rachel recognized Frank, but the other man she couldn't identify. Rachel squinted her eyes as she tried to figure out who the other man was. It looked like her dad, but much younger and more buff. After a few moments, she stood up and said, "Dad?!? What happened?"
"Oh boy," Richard said quietly as he walked into the kitchen while rubbing his head. "Sit back down, Rachel. I'll explain what happened in a second." Rachel sat back down in her chair while Rob was just staring at Richard. Richard took a glass out of the cabinet and then headed to the sink to fill the glass with water. He then sat down at the kitchen table across from Rachel and Rob. "I'm not exactly sure where to start," Richard admitted, "As you might guess, quite a bit happened since your mother and I left."
"Why don't you start when you guys left?" Frank suggested. "What happened after you left?"
"Well, your mother caught me packing the bags when we had our argument," Richard started. Rachel inhaled sharply when she heard that, but held her tongue. "Words were exchanged and she suggested that we go out into the woods to find a were." He took a drink of water before continuing. "We found a werelioness in the wood, and she changed me by accident."
"By accident?" Rachel asked. "How did that happen?"
"Well," Richard said looking rather uncomfortable, "Let's just say that I made contact with a certain part of her body and I took in a certain part of her fluids that changed me." Richard didn't really care to go into too much detail as it was sufficient for their children to know what happened. "When I became a werelion, there were certain...instincts that I found it hard to control." He took a deep breath before continuing. "I did a few things that made your mother upset, and she ran off into the woods. She got lost in the woods and ended up getting attacked."
"Attacked?" Rachel said as her eyes widened, "Is she...okay?"
"Well, I ended up killing the mountain lion that attacked your mother. Other weres in the area heard the fight, and they came in time to help her." He took another drink as he continued, "We were able to get her to the hospital. The hospital checked her out and so far, nothing's broken. She suffered some cuts and bruises, but they're keeping her overnight just to make sure that there's nothing else wrong or anything like that."
"So, what does this mean for us?" Rob asked.
Richard took a moment to think about his answer before answering, "Well, you kids are still going to school tomorrow morning. I'll be going to the hospital in the morning after you leave for school to check on her."
"And your plan to leave Moon Lake?" Rachel asked.
He looked at Rachel and said, "I don't think we'll be leaving anytime soon." Rachel exhaled when she heard that with all the stress leaving her body. "For now, we'll keep up our more long term plans. Support Frank through college. Start up a sporting goods store. Things like that." He looked at the kids, "For now, you kids need to get ready for bed and school tomorrow morning. Life's going to stay normal for now."
"Right," Frank said, "And we'll pretend that nothing's happened?"
"Well, no," Richard answered, "We'll just take this one day at a time." He looked at the empty plates and said, "Let's start with cleaning the kitchen and then you kids should get ready for bed."