William took his time to fully dress himself in clean clothes and put his dirty clothes away. He then came down quietly to find Martha setting down plates of sandwiches. One smelled like tuna fish and another smelled like roast beef and cheese.
"You're just in time," Martha said to him, "Lunch is ready."
"That's good," William gave a weak smile as Martha offered him the roast beef sandwich.
He took it and slowly sat down at a seat at their dining table. Martha took her tuna sandwich and sat across from him. For the moment the two sat quietly, unsure of what to say. All of William's instincts focused on her. He knew his human side had been too easily lead astray, but he kept finding more and more that the fox in him had no interest in anyone but Martha. He could admit that the Twists were physically beautiful, and he could even admit that Yvette was physically beautiful, but they weren't Martha. They didn't smell like her, and even with her new werecat scent, which he had picked up before Martha had even said what she was, she still had the same base scent that she had had when they married, and it smelled nice. And when Martha smiled, the fox in him was happy.
Of course, the troubles in their marriage had limited that which frustrated him. Both from his personal shame at being so easily lead astray in the past and that Yvette had forced things had made it worse. Instinctively, it made him want to do anything to make Martha smile, and while she had gone through a similar secondary transformation to his own in that she looked younger, her hips were slightly wider, her butt was firm, her breasts looked a bit bigger... smaller than Yvette's but not by much, and his instincts seemed to tell him that Martha's were better than the vixen's, and she obviously looked younger. Just as his muscles were now better defined, not much larger than before but much better defined along with the obvious enlargement of his own equipment. A part of him had wanted to try and seduce her, show how much he loved her physically, but she had said she wanted to take things slow and his instincts also reminded him that his sex drive had been the problem in the past. That left him pondering some way to make her happy.
"I was thinking..." Martha commented.
"Oh?" William asked, "about Nate and Eric? Or the Twists?"
"Actually... more on me," Martha answered, "Nate and Eric are growing up... Nate will be eighteen in two years and will be going to college soon. Eric is younger... but four years for him will fly by. So... it's not like I really have the mothering duties I had with them any more..."
"You are a good mother," William said to her, thinking she might be thinking over her abilities as a parent.
"Both of us were good PARENTS," Martha gave a weak smile, "I was actually thinking about a job... rejoin the work force and all that. I want us to reconcile and get a new start together... but it wouldn't be a bad idea to get out of the house more. Meet other weres and learn more about where we're going to be living for quite awhile."
"You want to go back to work?" William asked, remembering some of the talks that they had had before the incident with the coed.
Martha braced herself for possible disagreement. William hadn't been opposed to the idea, but in Minnesota he had voiced worries about someone being there for Nate and Eric if both of them were working. Martha had been teaching elementary school when she and William had started dating and when they got married, but when Nate had been born, she had agreed to resign and be a full time mom. But now that wasn't an issue.
"Yeah," Martha answered, "I mean... the boys are growing up, so it isn't like I need to be home all the time for them."
"Do you want to teach again?" William asked, "I know your certification has expired from when you were teaching little kids... but you did have one. I could talk to the Dean and get you a couple of make up classes to catch up... and if you don't want to do that, I'd think that if you can pass the national and state tests for teaching... be it the PRAXIS or some other test that is unique to this state... you could be able to get your certification reinstated fairly easily. You did seem to enjoy working with kids..."
Martha only blinked in a bit of surprise. It wasn't that she expected him to be opposed to it, but that she expected him to still concerned over Nate and Eric needing parenting.
"I did," Martha said after a moment, "but... I'm not sure on how that will work... I mean there is a national teacher shortage... but this is Moon Lake. Nearly everyone is a were-beast and won't be old until they're closer to a hundred and seventy five years old if our lifespans are now between two hundred and three hundred years..."
"I got a job here teaching," William commented.
"You may have replaced one of the few normals," Martha answered, "and neither of us know all the weres here."
"I could ask the Dean to see what he knows... you could ask the Twists regarding the school populations," William offered, "see if there might be one who is approaching the big century and a half.. and even if you want to do something else... you'd probably run into the same problem in Moon Lake... and we're pretty remote. If you get a job in one of the neighboring towns... you'd be looking an hour commute one way."
Martha blinked and nodded. If all the teachers were were-beasts, it would stand to reason that people in many of the other jobs were also were-beasts and their long lifespans in a community like Moon Lake would let them keep working as long as they wished. Outside of Moon Lake, they might have to retire before their lengthy lifespans threatened to expose themselves to humanity in general and then move because of the economic needs that their lengthy lifespans would require. She figured that was why Moon Lake was probably such a tight community for were-beasts. And she did admit she'd enjoyed working as an elementary school teacher. William preferred the lecture and deep discussion of topics at the College level, largely with regard to English and American literature, but Martha had enjoyed seeing little kids figure out two plus two, writing their name, and nearly all the other things that went along with elementary schools.
"I suppose you can ask the Dean and I can talk with Samantha and Frances," Martha gave a weak smile, actually proud of his support on the issue, something that had brought them together in the first place, "but I would like to explore my options. I mean... we have a good car... If I need to commute for work, that wouldn't be too bad... Just to get out of the house and so on."
William nodded and actually smiled when he saw Martha smile.