AN: Old one shot I dug up. Post Hard Enough Left AU. Jesse unintentionally shares his secret.

He probably should have listened to Emily's suggestion and bowed out for the night.

But he hadn't.

He'd felt guilty for the way he'd snapped at her and looked away quickly with a murmured apology. He'd felt even worse when she rest her fingers around his wrist gently. She had to have been able to feel his heart pounding. Maybe she could even hear it.

Alex had been boasting for the last half hour over his 1954 Piston Cup while a few of the regulars and residents of town stayed at Flo's after hours. Every once and a while, on Friday nights, Flo would keep the grill going and a few booths would be filled with people well past midnight.

She also brought out beverages that Michael was forced to turn a blind eye to.

Alex had obviously discovered this and helped himself.

"He either can't hold his liquor or he's been at it since sundown." Ramone commented.

"Wouldn't doubt it." Jesse muttered darkly, watching his brother-in-law from their corner booth.

Emily had tried to distract him, ask if there was any work he needed to get done before going back to school on Monday. Jesse had only replied that for once they weren't given work to do at home.

"Maybe we should go anyway." She'd been watching and listening to her brother also, and linked her arm around Jesse's elbow before tucking her shoulder against his side.

He'd set his jaw, still staring across the diner. "I'm staying here."

"Jesse..."

"No. Why am I always the one made to leave?" His look of offence startled her for a moment before she quietly conceded. His apology was awkward and Emily would have to be blind to not notice how uncomfortable he was, or the hurt he kept hidden behind the thin veil of annoyance.

Alex's voice was more obnoxious than usual. "That was a good year. I'd won the Piston Cup and had gotten married a few weeks later-"

Some of the locals who didn't know him as well, or any of them for that matter, laughed as a women commented. "You're a Piston, though, right? They should have made that year's trophy twice the size."

"Can we not feed his ego please?" Flo muttered while setting another round down in the booth that Michael, Ramone, Jesse and Emily occupied. She leaned her hip against the table and eyed her friend. "Your brother is a piece of work."

"You're telling me..."

It was hard not to hear the conversation two booths over as those less learned in the sport asked some mundane questions that Alex would answer with a puffed chest. Some of his responses were outright lies, though. Whether it had to do with the progression of the sport, or current statistics, less than half of what he said was true.

"Yeah, well-" He was just subtle enough not to cause suspicion or be noticed, but he glanced sharply in Jesse and Emily's direction as he continued. "-the track has really cleaned up in the last few years. The field is larger but drivers are better."

Jesse's teeth clamped together, and while his attention was supposed to be on whatever Michael was saying, he only continued to glare over his friend's shoulder.

"Wasn't there a nasty accident a few years ago?"

"Oh yeah."

"Are they afraid of something like that happening again?"

Alex shrugged nonchalantly and looked out the window in to the dark. "Not really. They made sure not to let him back, can't have him endangering the rest of us."

"Jesse-" Emily muttered lowly, whether in warning or not, she wasn't sure.

He was wound tighter than a spring, attempting to put his attention elsewhere. Emily watched him in silence as he pat down his shirt pocket and checked his jeans pockets only to come up empty.

"You need a smoke, man? Here."

"Thanks, but no. I'm gunna grab mine from the truck." With a telling look at Emily he added, "Need some air anyway, it's getting a little deep in here."

Ramone only laughed. "Tell me about it."

Jesse had barely made it out of the booth when Alex practically shouted across the short distance between the tables. "You've heard about that incident, right? It must have shown up in one of your fancy medical classes." He paused and then looked to the group he'd been speaking with, as if a thought had suddenly struck him. "Or maybe even in a medical journal?"

Emily's eyes darted between the two, knowing Jesse wouldn't put up with much more.

"I know about it."

"Pretty idiotic move wouldn't you say? How do you lose control of-"

"No more idiotic than winning a season on technicality."

Alex's expression fell ever so slightly, glancing back at the group of people he'd been speaking with when they studied him in curiosity.

Jesse inclined his head. "Failed to mention that, hm? Did he not explain that the only reason he won was because most drivers were disqualified-"

"Careful what you say, Jesse, you are talking to a Piston and champion."

The mild mannered and charming medical student was gone in an instant, replaced with a hot tempered and embittered Piston Cup veteran who'd been kicked one too many times. Jesse's voice was sharp and biting as he crossed the distance between them, and the only reason Alex didn't suffer a broken nose, or better yet, a broken jaw, was because Michael had jumped up and kept a shoulder between the two. They shouted at one another but Jesse's words were clearer.

"You're a champion because I nearly died and they wouldn't award me a Cup without finishing the season. The rest of the field either withdrew one too many times or were lost in the circus that your precious administration couldn't sort out! Your one cup is useless and has nothing to do with skill, Piston. You could barely keep a consistant run in the top five. Don't presume to think you can tell me-" He held up three fingers even as Michael warned him with a hand against his chest. "-the three time reigning champion, that you're better than I am. You never were and you never will be!"

The diner was silent and Emily sat with her hands clasped in front of her face. She blinked rapidly a few times to rid herself of the tears that had sprung forward and bit her lip.

Michael was muttering something lowly to Jesse in an attempt to at least get him to back away but it was Jesse's complexion that said it all. He'd just shouted his biggest hurt, his largest most painful secret to his friends as well as complete strangers. He felt like he might be sick.

Someone from one of the booths that had been unfortunate enough to only be witness to the whole episode whispered to their companions, "That's The Fabulous Hudson Hornet..."

Jesse glanced briefly at Michael before turning to leave the restaurant. Passing Emily, he only grinned a little regretfully. He paused when she stood up and glanced about those who were present before whispering to him.

"Are you-"

"I'm going home."

"I'll be there in a little bit..."

He gave her a quick kiss before leaving, and apologized to Flo for making a scene. He let her know that he'd see himself out and hoped that the rest of the evening went better.

The was a brief pause after the door closed behind Jesse, while a room full of people watched his form disappear as he walked the short distance, leaving the truck he commuted in at the cafe. Conversations picked up again hesitantly as Flo put a hand on her hip and eyed Emily. "So that is why you don't talk about your racer anymore."

"It's a long story..."

"Mmhmm. I expect to hear it sometime sweety but first I think we're getting your brother out of here."

Michael and Ramone were already on it. Even without the sudden realization that their friend wasn't exactly who they thought he was, there was no way they were going to allow an uppity loud mouth like Piston treat him that way.

"-c'mon Michael, everyone here's been drinking-"

"All I see is one visibly intoxicated man who doesn't know when to shut up. It's time to go home, Piston."

"Why do you all take his side-"

"This had nothing to do with sides. It's just decency."

"Anyway." Ramone made an impatient show of waiting for Alex to move as he lit a cigarette he'd offered Jesse only moments prior. "Should have realized somethin' sooner, I mean have you really seen that car?"

"That car's a piece of-"

"Alexander!"

What little conversation had started fell silent again, but this time all eyes were on Emily, standing irately at the booth where she had been enjoying herself that evening until her brother had to run his mouth.

She threw the twisted napkin down on the table and marched across to stand in front of him.

"I don't care what you say about Piston Cup, or your trophy or our family or me, but I'll no longer tolerate you speaking of Jesse that way. Like it or not, Alex, you have to accept the fact that we're-"

"I still don't understand why you're so interested in a charity case like-"

The diner went completely silent when she slapped him.

Emily's hand stung, and she curled her fingers while eyeing the red print she'd left on her brother's cheek. Michael hadn't expected that, and only put a hand on her shoulder to pull her back away from Alex.

No one had expected it, and in the stunned silence that followed, the look on Alex's face shifted from surprise to betrayal.

"Emily-"

"Don't. Just don't. I'm tired of your nonsense. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Grow up."

Without waiting for a response, she turned on her heel and gathered her things while muttering an apology to Flo. "I'm sorry for ruining the evening-"

"This isn't on you..."

"-I'm gunna go home..."

Flo only ushered her out the door silently, and the last thing Emily heard from within the cafe was one of the people who'd been talking to Alex. They must have been questioning the individual who had mentioned Jesse's former title.

"Who's The Fabulous Hudson Hornet?"

She found him on the back porch, sure that he had to be on his fifth cigarette at least as he sat on the step and flicked the ash to the ground.

"It wasn't supposed to follow me here."

"Jesse..."

"I was just gunna be the doctor, no past, no former life..."

He cut himself off, and Emily watched the orange ember on the end of his cigarette brighten as he inhaled. With a hiss, he huffed and rubbed the spot between his eyes with the heel of his hand.

"And I'm the one who- I should've-"

"Jesse." She murmured, sitting beside him and resting her hand on the middle of his back. If she thought he'd been wound up before...

"I shouldn't need to be right. I should've walked away- I'm not a twenty-two year old kid anymore-"

"You're barely twenty-eight..."

She watched his profile in what little light there was and took his free hand, threading their fingers together. "He was out of line, it wouldn't have been appropriate even if he was speaking of someone else."

He remained silent, and she felt that if she were still enough, she'd be able to actually feel him trembling slightly.

"You know they aren't going to care."

"I do."

"I know you do...but they all love you, Jesse. That won't change."

"I'm not just Jesse now...there's- I don't know- expectation, judgement...pity-"

She'd never seen him like this, and it worried her.

"I can't stand their pity." He shook his head. He'd worked too hard to integrate in to the town for everyone to start looking at him the way people had in Thomasville. It had been easy enough to read on their faces, Poor Jesse Hudson, whose dreams were shattered after he'd come back from death.

Emily reached over with her free hand, running her fingers through his hair before gesturing for him to face her.

"We don't pity around here, if you haven't noticed. We sympathize. If you don't want to talk about it, I doubt it would ever be brought up again."

Racing had so much to do with it, everything to do with it, but she also knew that the moment he thought back to racing, he'd think of Ruth, and the fact that there was still someone back East who deserved better than what he'd given.

"Just sleep on it, hmm? Let it settle a little bit."

She could tell how he felt about that, and knew he wouldn't be able to sleep for a while.