Tom would have plenty of work to go through the day and he wasn't about to quit his journalism work at the present time. While he and his editor had had their differences over how Tom covered certain stories over the years, with Lionel Ulysses' tail being the latest of those instances, it actually hadn't been a bad working relationship. His editor seemed to respect the truth too, with the big difference that with his workload, he couldn't get into the sort of in-depth digging that Tom would do for every individual story. He had a whole paper to run, articles to proofread, and stories to coordinate. To a degree, that WAS understandable.
And it was for that reason that he would stay with the Seattle paper, as he respected his employer and saw that there was truth to tell. And he knew that Alice wouldn't want to give her job running her small store, at least not in the long term. However, Moon Lake and Seattle were within reasonable commuting distance, which meant they could commute to work, which at the moment seemed to be the safer option, at least for Alice. The two werewolves that had confronted him struck him as the sort that would not be above doing anything to attain their goals, fitting the whole secret agent/society type of vibe that he got off of both of them. In this, Tom was fairly certain that had they stayed in Seattle for the moment, those two might well attempt to use his bonded mate as a bribe to make him stay silent, and in a big city like Seattle, there was the potential that if done correctly the two of them could probably pull off that threat.
However, Moon Lake would give Alice more safety. While he figured that most of Moon Lake wouldn't be that supportive of his idea, at least not openly supportive, but he also knew that the small town was not a place where the sort of sort of secret activities that those two men likely engaged in would be harder to hide. As people would recognize them, or might recognize them and wouldn't justify murdering Alice out of fear. It'd give Tom the personal confidence to move forward with things and handle his work for the paper while also working with the planning and negotiating for the "Big Reveal," as he called it. As, while he could expect that things wouldn't be easy, they were also getting to a point where certain risks would have to be taken in that regard before something happened that would make things far worse.
His full reasoning for why those two werewolves had decided to engage him in those bullying type tactics might relate to fears over the loss of the were secret, but at the same time it still struck him as the same old sort of fear driven mindset that had long blocked a lot of progress in the country. That fear was understandable, but it only confirmed to Tom that it didn't really work as well as they thought it would in the long run. It was, in fact probably miracle that no one in that diner overheard them talking, especially after the two of them went out of their way to talk about it. And that was the big part that made little sense to Tom. If they were trying to protect the were secret, why be so open about it?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Meanwhile, Josephine and Jacob Decker sat quietly on the couch in Jen's room with a nervous silence hovering over the room. Beside them was their grandson, Tad, who was practically the spitting image of his father, Jeff Decker. Seated in an easy chair by the wall to their right was their daughter-in-law, Jen Decker and beside her stood a young woman they didn't know. The young woman's name was Claire and had been introduced to them as Jen's new girlfriend. There was some sense of concern over the fact that Jeff Decker was their son, but at the same time they also knew that their son was dead... killed by Lionel Ulysses and that they couldn't expect Jen to remain totally single over hundreds of years, given how long weres could potentially live. However, there was still some curiosity on their part about Claire, which even came to the point where it soon overtook their concerns on what they'd heard on the radio earlier in the morning.
Claire, meanwhile, nervously stood by Jen as she looked to the two older people that had come to visit. Some of it was nervousness over the fact that these were people she didn't personally know and some of it was with the knowledge that the two were in a way connected to Tad and Jen. However, it wasn't quite like meeting Jen's parents the other day, in which while there may be some question of parental approval, but Jen's parents were also both werecats. Josephine and Jacob Decker were both normal human beings, which meant that Jeff Decker had been his family's "family were" when they moved to Moon Lake, which could well mean they might not be super open on the idea of their daughter-in-law and mother of their grandson dishonoring their son's memory. In this, Claire didn't want a fight and didn't want to make it seem like there was any desire to remove any memory of Jeff Decker from Jen's mind.
Tad sat by quietly glancing between is paternal grandparents and his mother and her new lover. He hadn't expected Josephine and Jacob to come and visit that morning to be as nervous over the local radio's report on what had happened at the City Council Meeting the previous night as they were. However, they had come over and that left Tad observing the interaction between the two groups. Claire and his mother looked a bet nervous while Josephine and Jacob looked largely curious. There might have been some disappointment, but they looked more curious to Tad than anything else.
"So... when did you meet?" Jacob asked slowly.
"On Halloween... at the Halloween Dance," Jen answered slowly.
"I've been working the college as their day shift custodian and was there with some hope of winning over some one that would at least turn me so that I could be a werecat," Claire added with a glance to Jen, "and that's all it was at the time. Jen was willing... and well... things sort of progressed from there."
Jen reached up to hold Claire's hand for a moment and provide some assurance while she looked back to Jeff's parents.
"It is fast and was a great surprise to me that it happened," Jen tried to explain, "but... it doesn't change my thoughts on Jeff. I do still love him dearly... and I will ALWAYS miss him. He was the only man for me that I could see myself with..."
Her voice fell flat after that. For the moment there was no great desire to marry another man, but she also knew that she was a bisexual werecat and was only in her forties. Baring something catastrophic she'd live for well more than three hundred years before old age would finally claim her. In this it was entirely possible that she might be with another male were eventually, as Jen had to privately admit that her bisexual urges would attract her to males as much as females, and at some point she knew she would be able to fully recover from her grief. For the moment she had no desire to find another man, even if only for a fling, but that would not mean that that couldn't change in time. She couldn't tell that to her in-laws, though.
"It's okay," Josephine gave a weak smile, "it may be a bit soon for us that you'd move on... but you're still a rather young woman, even by normal human standards. We couldn't expect you to be fervently single forever..."
"I'm not out to replace your son's memory in Jen's heart," Claire spoke up, "nor... nor would I try to argue for a higher place in her heart and memory. As... well... from everything I've been told he was a good man."
"He was a great man," Jacob said with a smile, "the best son parents could ever have."
"I wish I could have got to meet him," Claire spoke, knowing full well that if Jeff Decker hadn't been killed, it'd be likely that her growing "love" for Jen as a new werecat would never be returned in any way other than as a "friend with benefits."
Jacob and Josephine nodded with a small smile. They had the sense that Jen and Claire would probably remain a couple, and as weres, that was understandable. Claire did seem to be fairly friendly, so it wasn't like Jen had become attracted to someone of low character. The biggest thing, though, was that Tad, their grandson looked to be in good spirits and was okay with Jen and Claire being together, and that was good enough for them.
"We were just getting ready for breakfast before you guys came over," Tad spoke up, interjecting his voice into the conversation, "Maybe we could eat."
"That would be nice," Josephine commented, "the radio gave that alert when the alarm went off... and it was a surprise and shock... made us worried that... that well, if the secret gets revealed..."
"That it'd be "the end" as it were?" Tad asked.
"Yes," Jacob gave a small shrug, "Samantha Twist wasn't the Town Chancellor back then, but the role was still the same. Someone had to become a were, and Jeff ultimately made that decision in order to make sure the secret was kept. And in a way, it has given us reason to want it to stay that way... You and Tad, Jen. Not just Jeff..."
"And you too, now, I suppose, Ms. Claire," Josephine added.
"There may be a lot to fear," Jen commented slowly, "and there will be a lot that everyone will be nervous over this... but at the same time with all that Tad and I have seen... the world is changing, and sometimes that will mean WE have to change with it. Hopefully, things will go right."
There were a few sighs of relief at that, though a gurgle from various stomachs soon brought things back to the issue of breakfast. Tad even managed a bit of a sheepish grin as his grandparents turned to him as his stomach rumbled.
"But breakfast WOULD be a good idea," Josephine commented.
"Breakfast... I had some things on the stove!" Claire jumped up and moved forward toward the kitchen, "I was just saying it was ready!"
Claire then rushed out to head to the kitchen while Jen slowly stood up with her tail slowly swishing back and forth.
"You are welcome to join us," Jen said to her in-laws.
Jacob and Josephine nodded and then stood up to follow Jen and then Tad, where they would join in having breakfast, which thankfully had not been burnt.