Tom's day went about as productive as he figured they would. He was still covering the Seahawks' practices and getting their injury reports for Sunday's game. In some ways it was a bit repetitive and since he didn't follow football, be it NCAA or NFL, closely he really didn't know the story-lines that went around the team. He did his best and ultimately had to go over the articles the guy he was filling in for had written just to understand the paper's coverage. He did his best and didn't do too bad, but he did have to admit that it wasn't his best work. For the most part he could only hope to make it through the game without making any major factual mistake and make his coverage as interesting as he could manage.
As he did so, Tom found himself musing over the bigger stories that he had to cover and deal with and how they related to Alice and his new life. Were-beasts were real and he'd become one. But they lived in secret and in complete fear that any discovery of their existence would lead to bad results, and he had to admit that he had some of those fears as well. That something would go wrong and Alice would be taken from him, effectively ripping Tom's heart into pieces. He couldn't allow that. Alice deserved to liver her life happily and being who she is. That of course meant that in the end, weres would NEED to come into the open and win full civil rights and acceptance.
"That'll be tough though," Tom thought to himself as he jotted down notes for the days coverage, "Lionel Ulysses' capture, tail, and mysterious death might attract negative attention because of his criminal action... Surprised people may draw the connection to the existence of weres and then make it seem as though being a were is what lead him to criminal activity... It may be better to let that go for awhile. As he probably got INTO crime for the same reasons many Normals get into it. That reveal would need to wait until the story can make weres in general appear more like Alice..."
Tom felt himself smile as thought of his bonded mate. She was lovely, hardworking, kind, loving, and his mind was certain they would be very happy together for a very long time. The big thing that he needed to do was make sure she could be free and truly free, not hiding who she was with the fear of being outed. It'd mean risks... but she'd even told him that those risks didn't guarantee a bad result. However, there would still need to be some time to let the "heat" cool down and put things together. And even if the heat had cooled down already, Tom knew he'd need to wait until Monday to at least begin putting the reveal article together and even there he'd agreed to get some sources that could make the case for how that reveal could or would work, so that it came choice for weres and not forced exposure. He figured that'd mean additional time to wait for everything to be put together. And there, Tom knew he'd need to wait until he had the time to handle things.
The big key to the big reveal was in a friendly response, but as Tom thought about it, he figured things were fairly safe in that regard. Wit Halloween 2015 coming up and the present administration was in the last two years of its second term, the actions had been such that things were often thought through and that all facts were considered. It gave Tom the room to be able to provide the facts to shape public opinion for a good response. And while there was a lot of political jabber going on regarding the party primaries and the general election after it in 2016, so far it looked as though the big reveal wouldn't lead into a lengthy fight over a political football if done right. Tom also figured that if Sanders could win the Democratic nomination, even if the issue DID become a political football, the odds a negative response would go down.
"Of course... it's still too early yet to try and sort all that out," Tom thought, "and for the most part... even most Republicans have tried to be supportive of civil rights type issues. Maybe not in the same way as their counterparts... but it hasn't been as though they've been truly urging minorities to be lynched. So... so long as the truth is respected, things should be okay and we can make a world were we're all truly open and free."
And for the moment, Tom left things at that. He'd had some time in the past in doing things that related to civic leadership, but his support on the issue of backing the truth above all things had ultimately took him into his job as an investigative reporter and so long as the truth was respected, he saw no reason truly get into the mud that was politics. He'd be content to cover events and work with the opinion writers to provide the honest information to support a fair and truly balanced campaign.
But that all related to the story. Tom also thought over other things he would need to do with more personal matters. He and Alice would need to settle on where they would live, would he move in with her or she to move in with him? How would her family react to him? Would they like him? Or because he had been born human would they shun him for not being born a were? He would have to tell his own parents about Alice and he hoped that they actually would like Alice. He figured his parents would ultimately accept her, but given the troubles that he'd had in his own romantic relations earlier in his life, he wasn't sure they'd get too excited about finding his true love and the one he'd bonded to.
"Convincing them... like the big reveal... will be something best done delicately," Tom thought to himself as he pondered how to get his parents excited about Alice.