For Tom the drive back to Moon Lake was a bit of a surprise in the sense of timing. He knew that he'd need to visit the town to work out the plan for the big reveal and make sure it balanced everything and gave weres the ability to control the story and the narrative. Show the good and that there were more positives than negatives. He had no illusions that things would be easy, but he also knew that were society really had no choice in the matter. If they didn't come out now in a situation where they had a chance of showing the positives first, some rogue or some other altercation would happen that would show the negatives first and kill any chance weres would have at controlling the story.
And if they could secure that, many of the concerns, such as the state of the US government, wouldn't be as much of the potential doom and gloom scenario that many envisioned. Did things like intolerance and hatred enter into American politics, yes, but it wasn't some uniform block that all of one group were the proverbial haters, and historically many of those sorts of problems had the potential to affect all sides of the political spectrum. Which to Tom brought things back to the point of what they HAD to do, in order to prevent something like the arrest of Lionel Ulysses being repeated elsewhere and there being no way to hide or cover it up. The truth was the truth and one way or another it came out. In this, weres had to accept some degree of risk and potentially go through some measure of hardship in order to protect the freedoms they had, before a crime associated with weres happened, exposed them, and generated the very conditions they feared.
However, the confrontation he'd had was not what he fully expected. It was quick and it seemed like the two werewolves were determined to keep things quiet regardless of the facts and seemed quite willing to make threats. In this, Tom couldn't fully trust Alice's safety in Seattle, for those two found him pretty quickly and were pretty open about it. And if they could do that, he wouldn't put it past them to pull something that would harm Alice or him when they were at their most vulnerable. In this, he figured Moon Lake would be the safest place, as while many in the town might not understand the real position they were in and why the big reveal would have to happen and might even oppose it, he had some trust that Alice's wereraccoon father and werefox mother would be better able to protect them. And given that Moon Lake was only an hour from Seattle, it wasn't like commuting to work was impossible for them.
The real thing for the moment would be handling many of the other potential consequences that would go along with the big reveal...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Meanwhile, Tad had been waiting out on the front landing outside the front door waiting for Amy to arrive so that he could introduce her to his paternal grandparents. The wait had been rather quiet, for the most part, but was interrupted when he heard a strange and loud noise. It sounded like a great "thud" and most alarmingly to Tad was that it had seemed to have come from inside the house. It got him to his feet and quickly coming through the door, leaving it open to find out what was going on.
He hadn't expected anything "big" to be going on that would be a threat. After all, his mom had seemed happy with Claire and his grandparents, Jacob and Josephine Decker had struck him as kind and even proud of their son. They also seemed to be proud of him, which had been part of the reasoning for having them meet Amy, and neither he nor Jen had been involved in anything that would lead to some massive attack or conspiracy against them. Which then raised the fear that the big noise was a surprise and one that Tad hoped wasn't too serious.
He came through the entryway, turned into the dining room and found Claire nervously checking on Josephine, who was seated on the floor with her legs up and hanging over the side of tipped over chair. Jacob stood a few feet away with a look of surprise on his face as he looked onto the scene, though his eyes seemed to shift between looking toward the kitchen doorway and down toward Josephine, who was rubbing the small of her back at the moment. For the moment, Tad couldn't see Jen, but he thought he heard some scuffing in the kitchen. It was something that startled him and even made him a bit nervous, as his grandparents were both still Normals and weren't exactly young anymore.
"What's going on? What happened?" Tad spoke quickly as he came into the room looking between Claire and Josephine. "I heard a noise... like a big "thud" and..."
"It's okay, dear," Josephine managed as she slid her legs of the chair and let Jacob move the chair, "I just had a small start, that's all."
Tad nervously watched as Josephine got to her knees and eventually got to her feet. Claire even helped her, offering the older woman an arm to help pull herself up on. Tad had some relief in that Josephine didn't look to be in any pain and actually looked more embarrassed than anything else. That was a good thing, as he didn't want his grandmother hurt. The real question though was what caused all the excitement.
"But... what causes this start, grandma?" Tad asked, "are you sure you're okay?"
"Jacob and I were just chatting with your mom and miss Claire while waiting to meet your girlfriend," Josephine said weakly, "I said I was a bit thirsty and your mom offered to get something from the fridge. She then walked by and went into the kitchen."
"What happened next?" Tad wondered, as none of that sounded out of the ordinary. Needing a drink certainly shouldn't be enough to startle Josephine to the point of falling off her chair and taking the chair with her.
"Josephine turned in her chair as your mother went into the kitchen," Jacob picked up the explanation, "it was THEN that things went a bit haywire and spooked Josephine..."
"But what was it?" Tad wondered looking between Josephine, now standing by Claire and Jacob standing near the head of the dining table.
It was then that Jen entered the room from the kitchen doorway to the dining room. She was still in her fursona, and Tad noticed her licking her lips as she did so.
"It was a mouse," Jen spoke, "I think it'd been behind the fridge when I entered the kitchen and it panicked and ran as I opened the fridge door."
"That spooked me... I've never liked mice," Josephine said weakly, "I understand that the wererats/mice may be among the cleanest weres in Moon Lake in terms of the attention they pay to cleanliness, but still... I've NEVER liked the mundane rodents. So when it ran... squeaking as it went, I jumped and ended up falling backward out of the chair. Don't worry, Tad, dear, I'm fine. Don't worry."
"What happened to the mouse?" Tad wondered.
"I did," Jen gave a very pleased smile and then licked her lips again.
Tad watched with mild surprise as Claire then looked to Jen with a look that was almost jealous and even though Claire was in her human form, she still licked her own lips as well. Though he supposed that made some sense in that mundane animals like rats and mice might come into homes looking for food. He'd also remembered his mom telling him that many predatory weres did often have the urge to hunt, particularly with the sorts of animals that they would normally prey on. For large predators like werewolves, weretigers, werelions, wereleopards/panthers, werebears and so on, this could put large animals like deer on their menus, which Tad had found himself enjoying with Amy a couple of times so far since moving to Moon Lake. For smaller predators, like werecats and werefoxes, this would mean smaller prey like rats and mice, birds, and rabbits. In that, Tad guessed that some of that was instinctive on both his mother's and Claire's part.
"And you're sure you're okay, grandma?" Tad asked
"I'm fine, dear," Josephine assured him, "it's not the first time I've gotten jumpy at a mouse, and it probably won't be the last, either."
"Has your girlfriend arrived yet?" Jacob wondered.
"Not yet," Tad answered, "She said on the phone that they had their own sets of excitement over last night's meeting and so on. But nothing "bad" as it were."
"I think most of it will be more at the surprise of the decision," Claire spoke up, "Moon Lake's kept its secret pretty tightly for quite awhile. I mean... I never thought weres were real when I first moved here and that revelation was a real shock for me... And the mandatory were law was explained as a means of protecting that secret. For those that have been here for a long time, the decision to come up with a plan that could lead to a deliberate reveal would be something very surprising... And many people don't always want to give up what they feel has worked well for years."
Tad nodded at that.
"In the meantime, why don't we wait in the living room," Jen offered, "the couch and chairs there are far more comfortable and there shouldn't be any more mice."