At Simon's home, while Lucy and Melody were constructing their nests, there was still a lot of confusion over Reverand Jack's presence. Whitney had never recalled Reverand Jack doing business with the Slug Person colony before, though, now with some access to their hivemind and having first-hand experience with some of the abilities Slug People had to protect themselves from outright attack in most cases, she wondered if some that might have been a result of those abilities. That a Slug Person had been to the church for Reverand Jack's services and their innate potential in magic just made her and others forget or not notice. All of this was wandering through her mind at a million miles a second and had been enough that she'd lost track of what Simon was doing.
"I... I have so many questions," was all Whitney could manage after a moment.
"Me too," Zoe added, "you've been working with the Slug People?"
"Did you know about what Cupple is doing or would do?" Grace added.
They watched as Reverand Jack rolled his lips inward for a moment, and then lifted a hand up to scratch his chin. Whitney could tell he was clearly thinking on something.
"That is a lot to answer," Reverand Jack said after a few moments, "and I would like to tell you... though... that may be something to wait until your son and eldest daughter arrive. I'm sure they'd want to know these things too..."
Reverand Jack's voice fell off at the end, which seemed to indicate a measure of unease, an unease that Whitney did not expect from the man. As he'd generally struck Whitney as a highly honest individual and one that would try to be as upfront as possible. Whitney couldn't understand that and picking up feelings of confusion from Zoe and Grace as well, there followed a rather awkward silence as Reverand Jack's voice fell off at the end of the sentence. That was actually enough for Whitney to hear the click of two plastic items coming together and that was enough to get her turn her eyes and find that Simon had moved away and wasn't close to either the Chapmans or to Reverand Jack. As she looked around, she eventually found Simon coming around a corner with a weak smile. His lips were pulled back into a forced grin, but the sensory stalks at the corners of his lips pointed downward.
"Is something wrong?" Grace asked to him, picking up on Simon's look as well.
"Nothing is necessarily wrong... but more..." Simon spoke slowly as his eyes looked to Whitney, "complicated."
"Complicated?" Whitney asked.
"Yes... in a way, some of the news is actually good, but is complicated by the shadow that Cupple presently casts over the colony and your family," Simon gave a sigh. His voice was calm, but it seemed as though he was trying to be very deliberate about something and that only added to some of the worries and nervousness that Whitney had over some of the answers that Reverand Jack had given earlier.
"Good and complicated?" Grace and Zoe said to each other.
It was actually Reverand Jack who gave the first clear guess at what Simon was getting at.
"Their son, Jeff, hasn't been with your daughter, has he?" Reverand Jack wondered.
"Jeff would never force himself on anyone," Whitney found herself coming to her son's defense, "I mean... my children were able to break away from Cupple's mind control spell before they changed... He's still very much himself... at least so far as his mind is concerned."
"And that may be true... though given our race's naturally high libido, and the fact that your son is a male Slug Person, were he to make any flirtations with my daughter, she would not necessarily be inclined to say no, at least for a "one night stand," as I believe humans call it," Simon answered, "but no... your son was not with my daughter..."
Things were silent for a moment.
"It would appear that the attraction between our daughters was stronger than you may have surmised," Simon spoke, "and it would appear that Melody and Lucy had a lot to bond over last night."
"You mean...?" Whitney blinked.
"They fell in love," Simon commented and turned one eye to Reverand Jack, "and I believe I overheard the idea of you doing the wedding."
"They fell in love!?" Zoe and Grace actually cheered.
Whitney was a bit happy at that sort of thing. To a degree, some of it was quick, but then, at the same time, she'd known enough about her eldest daughter to know that Lucy wouldn't just rush into something without thinking. Lucy had high standards and a strong sense of self that wasn't going to let herself get controlled by anything or anyone. It was this sort of thing that generally had enabled Lucy to bring her moral fury to a situation where the boy in question was merely wanting to get in her pants, and at times in college, most of the time Whitney had talked to Lucy on was when Lucy was ranting about how the boy she'd been dating wasn't more than some empty headed lout that wanted her to take her shirt off. The fact that Melody had attracted Lucy's attention and the mention of love being there made Whitney happy for her daughter.
"Yes, and the things that often happen with young love," Simon answered, his eyes focused on Whitney, "and particularly young and spontaneous discovery of that love... it grew very quickly."
It was at this that Whitney began to catch on to what Simon was building towards. It wasn't just the report that Lucy had found love and might have someone that met her standards. It went BEYOND that.
"Lucy got your daughter pregnant, didn't she?" Whitney said slowly.
"They both impregnated each other," Simon answered, "I don't think it was expected for either of them... both in how fast the courtship developed and then how things moved from there, but they did. And from what Melody told me... or at least what I can tell from how she reported it... your daughter may be nervous on this. That you would be angry or disapproving of her."
"I'm not angry," Whitney spoke, "just disappointed. As after how I behaved two nights ago when I first transformed... I would have thought that Lucy would be more attentive to these things and waited until at least AFTER Cupple was defeated."
Reverand Jack carefully took Whitney's hand, and this surprised her to a degree. As while she wasn't secreting a lot of slime at the moment, she could still feel that outer layer of slime... or mucus... covering her body.
"The timing may not be great... but if it's come out of love, things could be a lot worse," Reverand Jack spoke, "and at the same time, I've known Simon for awhile. He won't let anyone come onto the colony's grounds and do them harm. Lucy and Melody... and their eggs should be safe here."
"Okay..." Whitney nodded, "I would like to see her though..."
"And we can do that," Simon spoke, "as it may be best to move the meeting to Melody's home."