Now we dive into how it's effecting everyone.
Her brother had crossed the line. It had seemingly started innocently enough; a possible slip of the tongue, referring to her husband as Jesse instead of Aaron as agreed upon. Not that he did much to try and fix it.
That in turn had left the media questioning just what her brother had said, leading to multiple articles that hit closer and closer to the truth as each one had come out. It left Jesse pulling further and further away from everyone in town until he went into full withdrawal mode. She hadn't seen him this withdrawn since when he first came to town and it hurt to see.
Neither of them were eating or sleeping well, due to the stress of it. Everyone was more worried about Jesse than finding out he had kept a big part of his past from them. They may have been hurt by it, but they cared more about the two of them, than what was hidden from them. They all understood having something in their past they didn't like to talk about; particularly Jon, with who knows what he had seen in the war.
They had all wanted to stage what they were calling an intervention, to show that while a little hurt, they understood and that no matter what this turned out to be, they'd still be there for them.
It had taken her a lot of coaxing to get him to go to Flo's again; including a phone call from Lyn and Stephen, but she did get him there. It ended up seeming like a surprise party with everyone's excitement at seeing him being dragged along with her. They all had been missing their Doc, and they certainly let him know. When they entered Flo's, everyone was standing and had almost let out a cheer, while Mater did cheer.
She nudged him in the ribs softly, just enough to get his attention. "I told you everyone was worried over you."
"We're worried over both of you sugar. It hurts us all to see you like this. We thought you were over this hiding thing." Flo scolded softly. "Jesse, honey, none of us here would have cared, sugar." She finished firmly.
"Yeah man, we wouldn't have treated you any different. You're our Doc, and have been for years already. Nothing is going to change that." Ramone tacked onto his wife's statement.
"Hey man, we're all family here. We all got to stick together man, have each other's backs, man." Fillmore added his say.
"The hippie's right, leave no man behind." Jon said.
"Whoa, man, did we actually agree with each other? Rad." Fillmore said breaking into a hazy grin.
"Give it a break Fillmore, everyone agrees with this." Sarge rubbed the centre of his forehead after rolling his eyes.
"They're right Doc. None of us here, care about what you used to do or be; we know who you are now and we know who Alex is. We don't think anything worse of you, mainly because there's nothing to think worse of you for. We'll standby both of you."
"Thanks Michael, I needed to hear that; from all of you." Jesse addressed the group of his friends.
"No more hiding?" She asked looking straight at her husband.
"No more hiding." He said back.
"Good, we've missed you sugar."
They had all ended up saying something supportive to him by the time they left. It had been a needed moment for everyone and had brought her husband out of hiding. It had gotten them back to a more normal pace of life. Just in time for her brother to completely up end their lives more than before.
They had been keeping quiet in hopes that it would die down and be forgotten about.
But no, her brother had to confirm those speculative articles. And not only that, but had directly said that they lived in Radiator Springs, Arizona. It didn't take long after that article being released for reporters and journalists to show up in town to try to get their next big scoop.
The first couple of times they had been approached in public, had taken them by surprise, but had been rather tame with other people milling around. They had been able to turn them away politely without too much fuss.
When it became apparent that they weren't going to answer questions in public that's when they had people starting to show up at their door to try a more private approach to see if they would break their silence.
In a couple instances they ended up having to call Michael when the person refused to leave when they asked. After those couple of instances, anyone who entered town who wasn't recognized was interrogated to see if they were reporters or journalists. If there was so much of a hint of so, they were denied service and turned away.
There were often phone calls with Lyn and Stephen, both of them concerned and wishing they could be there with them. Neither pleased at what their father had started and wishing they could do more. She was just happy that other than vague mentions the kids were being left out of it.
It was a struggle at times and while Jesse wasn't hiding like he was at the beginning, when he thought everyone in town would be against him, there were still times where together during the day they'd hide from those trying to get their say from them.
It was getting old quick and the only good thing that so far seemed to come out of this was that now everyone in town knew that Jesse had raced and was a well known champion. She didn't know if there would be anything else good to come from it, or if anything else good could come from it.