Richard, Tim and Kelvin all piled into the 4X4.
Kelvin took the back seat and Tim got into the front passenger side.
"Aren't we looking L.L. Bean tonight. You two wearing something from the 'Manly Logger collection'?" Richard said jokingly in response to the plaid flannel shirts Tim and Kelvin wore with their jeans and boots.
"Aw man, just shut the Hell up and drive, smart ass!" Tim said, feeling a little embarrassed.
Richard chuckled and started the car. "You two are just the cutest couple with your standard issue 'Bear' uniforms." Richard said as he drove down the dusty path leading around the neatly stacked piles of salvage.
Tim rolled his eyes and snorted.
Kelvin laughed, "He's right Tim, we look like stereotypical middle aged bears. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if we both weren't dressed the same way."
"Well, I can't help it. It's what I had in my closet that would fit you and it's not made out of leather." Tim said and realized he'd just left himself open for another verbal jab from Richard's rapier wit.
Richard laughed.
"Tim," he said and chuckled some more, "That's just more than I wanted to know about you guys. Too much information!" He laughed again. "Did your dad know about your leather fetish?"
"Of course he didn't!" Tim was shocked; "You don't talk to your dad about shit like that."
At that Kelvin roared with laughter, in a minute, tears streaming down his cheeks as he tried to breathe.
Tim turned around to Kelvin, "You're not helping, you know." He said to his newfound love. "What's so damned funny anyway?"
Kelvin, still chuckling between words said, "I just got the image of your old man walking in on you at fourteen in one of those leather outfits and deciding he needed to have 'the talk' with you."
Tim was blushing nicely.
"I'm just teasin' boss." He patted Tim on the shoulder.
They all settled down and started talking about what they wanted to order when they got to Little Bull's and then the conversation turned to Shifters.
"Look, Richard, I don't want to be impolite and ask the wrong things, but I need to know some information. Kelvin and I weren't Shifters as of this morning and I'm really kind of lost." Tim said.
"Well, we can worry about that after dinner. I figure we can all get together in the evenings and talk over at the center." Richard said.
"Center?" Kelvin asked.
"Yeah, the 'Thrope Center, sorry, The Therianthropy Center. Therianthropy is a fancy word that means people like us that can change their shape. Anyway, it's a sort of support group for new Shifters. There are a lot of emotional issues for those who are new to being a Shifter. Hell, there are emotional issues for those of us born to it: bigotry, self-control, alcoholism and antisocial behavior. The center is sort of a council of elders, like there used to be for our kind in ancient times, before the monoforms all but wiped us out. Our elders used to teach us how to control our shifts and how to interact with the monoforms, but a lot of elders died in the hunts and those that didn't went into seclusion. Some died without passing on their wisdom, and of course, no one wrote anything down for fear it would be found and they'd be burned at the steak. A lot of persecution happened to our kind in the middle ages. We were burned as witches and demons. Of Course, they stopped burning magic using folk after Elizabeth I declared that she was forming a Ministry of Magic and that Sorcerers and Witches were to be licensed and employed by the state. To this day, the Minister of Magic is still the Queen's official Court Wizard; has official vestments and a heraldic coat of arms for his office. Of course Washington had Franklin as his Chief Mage and scientist. Neat sleeping spell he put on those Hessians so Washington could cross the Delaware and catch them all in their underwear on Christmas."
Richard sighed.
"But we 'Weres' weren't granted an official place in society by Good Queen Bess. It's rumored that Sir Walter Raleigh was a werewolf and that that's why he was beheaded. I've seen pretty good documentation that he wasn't, but werewolves still claim him as one of their martyrs. There's still a distrust of us from monoforms. Look, I council people of all ages at the center from kids who've just changed because they've hit puberty to older parents and their newly changed adult children to elderly weres who never had any acceptance before the equality laws were passed and are still working through emotional troubles. I volunteer my time because I was lucky enough to have my own elder growing up." Richard said.
There was silence then as the Shifters drifted off into their own thoughts about who and what they were.
Before long the were at Little Bull's Place. The climbed out of the 4x4 and met with Richard's family. Richard introduced them to Kelvin and Richard's wife greeted Tim with a warm hug.
"Hi Tim. It's been ages since you've been over for dinner! How are you?" She said.
"I'm good." Tim replied.
"I think the last time you were over was right after Hank died. He was such a good man. I miss him." She said.
"Yeah, me too." Tim said. "Hey, let's go on in, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!"
"Not exactly on the menu, buddy!" Kelvin said and play punched Tim in the arm as he went into the restaurant.
The little group went in and found that Tal had already reserved a table.
Meanwhile, outside of Little Bull's, a nondescript grey van pulled into the parking lot. A few minutes later, a black Cadillac pulled up beside it and Agent Sloan Cosgrove stepped out and approached the grey van.