Work Text:
“We are going for a road trip,” Jody informed Donna as soon as Donna arrived in Sioux Falls. “No, I am not listening to arguments. You’re still all packed, so get everything in my car, and we are leaving.”
“Um… I kind of…” Donna protested. “Jodes, I really need…”
“We’re stopping at a gas station on the way out of town. Five minutes, tops.” Jody picked up her keys. “Let’s go.”
After the gas station, Donna looked over to Jody. “I think I deserve an explanation now, please. I didn’t even get to say hello to the girls!”
“That would be the reason.” Jody reached out and took Donna’s hand to give it a squeeze. “It’s not to avoid coming out. I promise you that. I would not have invited you over to come out in person if I were going to chicken out like this.”
“Then what, Jodes? Because that’s all I can think, that you got cold feet. I wouldn’t blame you, I’m terrified at the thought of telling my parents about this because if they reject me it’s going to hurt even more than when Doug the Dick dumped me, but if you say it’s something else…”
“It’s something else. The drama is so thick in that house I was halfway tempted to call and tell you to meet me at the station so I could get out of there that much sooner.” Jody sighed and shuddered. “Claire got turned into a werewolf, which sucks for her. There was a cure, which Claire volunteered to test. I was more pissed about her hunting alone and lying to me about it than her getting turned, because I know that wasn’t part of the plan. The thing is, Alex is being awful about it, and Claire’s being just as bad about insisting that she did nothing wrong. Which wouldn’t be so bad, she’s stubborn and young and thinks she has all the answers, but she hit Alex with a low blow about being a vampire honeypot.”
“She’s never held that against Alex before,” Donna said. “Why now?”
“You know Twilight, and how there’s this whole big *thing* between the vampires and the werewolves in those books?”
Donna burst into shocked laughter. “No. No way. You cannot convince me that Claire has read those books or watched those movies. You, sure. Alex, duh. Claire? No. NO!” Even if she weren’t a hunter and therefore knew perfectly well how bad the lore was, Claire would reject the books on principle just for being popular with teenage girls.
“Claire has watched pieces of the movies, but no, she hasn’t read any of the books and would deny even what she has seen of the movies,” Jody agreed with a grin. “Unfortunately, she’s absorbed enough from Alex going through a phase and pop culture osmosis that she knows about that, and thought that accusing Alex of just being mad because she’s on Team Vampire would get her to shut up.”
“Uffda. Wrong tactic to use.” Donna shook her head. “Claire’s come around on Castiel since actually getting to know him, but you’d think she’d understand that Alex hates vampires as much as Claire hates angels in general.”
“Yeah. That fight did not go the way Claire expected.” Jody glanced over again, a soft smile on her face. “Figure we go away for most of the weekend, do the coming out Sunday afternoon before you have to get back to Minnesota. Give the girls a chance to either kill each other or sort it out. I have threatened Claire on pain of calling Sam and Castiel to tie her up for the most tedious non-hunting history or science or math lesson they can whip up not to disappear before then because there’s something I need her to know and hear in person, so… there’s hope.”
“Sounds good to me, we can still get the coming out over with this weekend.” Donna turned to look out the window. “How are we expecting it to go?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure Claire’s into girls, and one of Alex’s best friends at school is a lesbian, so I’m not worried about a homophobic reaction from either of them. They both love you, so I’m not all that concerned about them having a problem with you being their adopted stepmom. Figure best case scenario is they’re thrilled, worst case scenario is ‘Ewwwwww Mom has a girlfriend that means we have to think about Mom’s sex life’, and what actually happens is somewhere in between or a combination or something.”
Donna laughed at that. “Sounds about right! So easier than with my parents, because my parents are an older generation that doesn’t like to think about it. I have never heard either of my parents say anything bad about gay people in general or any of their friends’ gay children, not even ‘I support them but I’m glad I’m not in my friend’s shoes’ or anything like that, but… I know it’ll be a shock to them, me bringing home a girl.”
Jody glanced over. “Haven’t told them that’s a possibility yet?”
Donna shrugged. “Not yet, because until I met you, I’d never really considered having a girlfriend that wasn’t the confusing ‘she’s my friend and she’s a girl so she is my girlfriend’ type that my mom has several of. Which, when I introduce you as my girlfriend, we are going to need to explain is not what I mean.” She paused and smirked. “Unless my mom needs to tell me that not only is she not straight, she’s also polyamorous and I’m the one who’s been misunderstanding her use of the term girlfriend…”
“No, I wouldn’t think that’s the case,” Jody said through her own giggles. “So best case scenario is hugs and welcome to the family, worst case scenario is rejection that you’re with a woman, and likely to happen is a bit of confusion followed by acceptance?”
“Sounds right. My dad… he will almost certainly shovel talk you, and he will make a point of bringing up that he knows that cops’ girlfriends and wives suffer domestic abuse at a higher rate than most other professions and he’s not afraid of being a cop killer. He hated that I was married to a cop, even with being one myself. I don’t understand his problem.”
“Well… he wasn’t exactly wrong. I know Doug never laid a hand on you, but the way he broke down your self-esteem to keep you dependent on him for love and affection, that was abusive,” Jody pointed out. “I’m not gonna promise to be the perfect partner, we will disagree, but I can promise that I will not be abusive.”
“Good point. That wasn’t a cop thing, though, that was a dick thing.” Donna started giggling so hard that Jody was tempted to pull over and call for help. Once she finally caught her breath, Donna explained, “Do you think it’d be a good start for explaining why with no warning I’m bringing a woman home as my significant other to say that Doug was such a dick it turned me off them all together?”