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Jody arrives home in the early hours of the morning, while the world is still bathed in darkness and the birds are just waking up, their first songs wafting through the air. It was stupid of her, to take hunt. She can feel the tiredness in her bones and a blurry veil clouding her mind, but it was urgent, and she was the closest hunter available. Checking the time, Jody decides that there’s no point trying to go to sleep, she needs to be at the station in two hours anyway. Coffee it is then.
The whirring of the coffee machine disrupts the quiet in the house, which makes it sound much louder than it actually is. For a second, Jody worries that it’s going to wake Alex, but there’s no way that the coffee maker’s noise makes it to the other side of the house.
Lifting her arms to rummage for a mug in one of the higher cupboards, Jody groans as her shoulder aches where it connected with the edge of a gravestone earlier after a furious ghost threw her across the cemetery. The hunt itself hadn't been too difficult, a haunting in a house a few streets from where she lives, so she knew who to talk to and where to find the remains. Another reason why it made sense for her to take the hunt instead of waiting for someone from out of town.
As the smell of coffee fills the kitchen, Jody realises that she needs a change of clothes and more importantly, a shower. She smells of earth and fire, and while she’s used to the fire smell by now, being a firefighter, the combination with the earth smell always unsettles her, reminding her that she’s the one setting the fire instead of putting it out. After digging up a grave no less. No matter how often she’s done it, that’s something she can never quite get used to.
The bitter taste of the coffee wakes Jody’s sluggish mind, but her body still feels heavy and clumsy as she makes her way to her room, careful not to stomp too loudly. Alex still has one hour until she needs to be awake, and Jody wants to give her that hour.
In her room, as Jody rifles through her closet for fresh clothes, her eyes fall on the calendar she has hanging next to her door, the date two days from now circled in green, the word Hibbing written in neat letters beneath it. Jody almost forgot about that, the fire captain retreat in Minnesota the fire chief volunteered her to attend, even though she’s been reluctant to leave Alex alone for a few days.
It doesn’t sit right with her to let Alex fend for herself for too long, even though she’s old enough. Jody’s chest tightens at the thought of it, the feeling growing worse the more she thinks about everything that could go wrong. For some reason, she is imagining every kind of scenario she can come up with, from the mundane problems that could arise to more improbable supernatural threats that could endanger Alex. Jody knows that the probability of something bad happening while she’s away is small, especially with the way she’s warded the house, but the fear still persists. Thinking about what could happen opens wounds Jody thought had scarred over.
On her way to the bathroom, Jody lingers outside of Alex’ bedroom door, resting a hand on it. She’s not been here for long, but Jody has grown attached to the girl, has started seeing her as a daughter. Part of her is happy to have a child again, to have a daughter she can guide and raise and help find her way in the world. Another part is scared, thinking of her son and the way she had to lose him twice.
Jody isn’t sure how long she’s been standing in front of Alex’ room, but when she hears an alarm go off behind the door, she knows she’s been here for longer than she intended. Shaking her head, she makes her way to the bathroom just as she hears rustling in Alex’ bedroom. As she’s in the shower, the warm water washing away all signs of what Jody did that night, she relaxes. Her worries dim, not more than a tiny nagging at the back of her mind.
Alex is going to be fine. There’s no reason to worry. Jody is going to get the retreat over with and return as soon as possible, and everything is going to be fine.
‘This is fine,’ Jody thinks as she helps Alex scrub at a stain of dubious origin on the living room carpet. Teenagers throw parties. It’s not as if Jody never took advantage of the times her parents left her to her own devices to get up to all kinds of shenanigans. Hell, she probably threw wilder parties than anything Alex could come up with. She’s not even really pissed off, Alex deserves a normal experience as a teenager, wild parties and all.
Alex is keeping her head down. “So, how much trouble am I in?”
Jody sits up, her back cracking as she puts away the cleaning supplies. She was hoping to relax after the retreat, not clean up her living room. She looks at Alex. She still feels relieved that nothing bad happened to her while Jody was gone, so her parenting instincts on how to deal with this right now are probably a bit off. She shakes her head.
“You’re grounded for… two weeks. And next time please look up how to get alcohol stains out of carpets yourself.”
Alex nods, accepting the decision with no complaint. Jody brings the cleaning supplies back to the kitchen, storing them under the sink, then she huffs, running a hand over her face. She’s exhausted after the drive here, after too many days of not enough sleep, after a weekend that was supposed to be a calm retreat to try out new gear and mingle with other firefighters and paramedics.
She wishes she could just go to sleep, but she’s also hungry, so she opens the cabinets and checks the supplies. Enough there for some pasta with mushrooms and tomato sauce. Nothing fancy, but it’s going to do.
Just as Jody starts to cut the mushrooms, Alex enters the kitchen, standing in the doorway, as if she’s not sure what to do.
“I’m not angry at you.” Jody says after a few seconds of awkwardness, and the relief visibly washes over Alex as her shoulders slump. She enters the kitchen properly and sits down at the table.
“How was Hibbing? Did you get some rest?” Alex asks, resting her chin on her hand.
Jody huffs. “I wish.” She pours the mushrooms into a pan and then she turns towards Alex. The girl is looking at her with a quizzical look on her face, one eyebrow raised. Jody takes a second to decide if she should tell Alex about the hunt. She has made it clear that she wants nothing to do with that part of Jody’s life, and Jody understands. Alex wants to leave it in her past. But Jody also wants to be honest with her.
“We ran into some complications.” Jody stirs the pasta, then the mushrooms.
“Complications?” Alex asks, folding her arms in front of her chest. “What kind of complications?”
“The supernatural kind.” Jody sees a shift in Alex’ position. Her shoulders slightly draw together, her hands grab harder at her arms. It’s such a minuscule change that Jody wouldn’t have seen it if she hadn’t been expecting it.
“We ran into a group of vampires, but it’s fine, we took them down. There’s nothing to worry about.” Jody is keeping her voice level and calm. Because there really is nothing to worry about, and she doesn’t want Alex to get all in her head. She deserves some damn peace.
But Alex decides to totally forego the vampire part in Jody’s announcement. “We?”
Jody smiles, taking the pasta off the stove and moving it over to the sink to drain it. “Yes, Sam and Dean Winchester came up to help.”
“I thought Dean Winchester was missing?” Alex asks. Jody frowns, trying to think of when she’d have told Alex about that. While she tends to be honest about her own hunts to Alex, Jody tries to keep her away from any Winchester related issues. They’re on a bit of a different level, and most of the time Jody herself doesn’t want to be dragged into their messes (though if they’d ask for help, which they never do, she’d be there), much less let Alex anywhere near them.
“Did I tell you about that?” Jody asks as she adds both mushrooms and tomato sauce out of a can to the pasta. She can’t remember ever mentioning it.
Alex shrugs, then she gets up to set the table. “I overheard you on the phone once. I think you were talking to Sam.”
“Ah. Well, he’s not missing anymore. He seems fine.” Jody thinks back to seeing Dean this weekend, thinks about how he seemed a bit on edge. He told her he was fine, so she believed him (she doesn’t really believe him, but the man is too stubborn to talk to her).
“You don’t sound so sure about that.” Alex picks up on Jody’s uncertainty. Jody dishes out the pasta.
“It’s none of my business. Whatever they’re caught up in again, I doubt I can do much to help.” The Winchesters have always been a bit isolated from the other hunters, and they don’t seem to want to change that. Who is Jody to butt into it, really.
Alex regards Jody for a minute, her eyes narrowed. “But you’re a good hunter.”
Jody huffs again. “I don’t think I want to be involved in the things the Winchesters are getting caught up in. It’s above my pay grade.”
They both turn to their dinner. Jody wants to ask Alex about what she was doing while she was gone, but she already knows the gist. She’s not sure she wants to get into the details of what exactly was going down during that party.
“Anything else exciting happening in Hibbing?” Alex asks between bites. Jody thinks for a minute. There was the hunt. There was Donna Hanscum, who’d started out as a thorn in Jody’s side with her positivity and energy and insistence to butt into Jody’s business, but then somehow turned into a potential new… hunting partner? Friend? Jody isn’t exactly sure. She just hopes that Donna won’t go out and get herself killed.
But otherwise, nothing worth mentioning went down. For a second, Jody considers telling Alex about Donna, but something makes her hesitate. She’s probably never going to hear from her again anyway. There’s no chance Donna is going to get herself involved in any other hunt-related emergencies.
“Not really.” Jody shrugs, then she and Alex redirect their attention to the pasta.
It takes Donna exactly three weeks and two days to call. Jody was not counting. She just happens to look at the calendar when she picks up the phone and notices it.
“Hey there, Jodes. How’s it going? I was hoping to catch you before your shift.” Somehow Donna manages to sound as chipper as she did back in Hibbing, even though it’s too early in the morning to be anything but exhausted and craving coffee.
“Hi Donna. Everything alright?” Jody asks, pouring out a generous helping of coffee into her thermos. She needs to drive to the station in five minutes and she’d rather finish this conversation before that.
“Yes, yes, all good here. Listen, I’m just coming off my last shift and… let’s just say something really weird happened on my last call?”
Jody wants to groan, but only just keeps herself from doing it. She doesn’t know what it is, but she has been noticing that whenever someone learns about everything that’s out there, cases just start cropping up left and right. It was only a matter of time before Donna would stumble onto something.
“What is it?” She asks, taking a big gulp of coffee, then refilling the thermos up to the brim.
Jody can hear the hesitation in Donna’s voice before she explains. “This is going to sound really freaky, but there was this guy and he was… well he was bleeding out, but we couldn’t really see where the bleeding was coming from. And then when we moved him onto the gurney, this weird little bag fell out of his pocket and… the bleeding just stopped. And we still couldn’t find a wound. I was thinking, you might know what was going on there.”
Jody closes her eyes, running a hand through her hair. “Do you still have the bag? Can you tell me what’s in it?”
She hears shifting on the other line, then Donna’s voice comes back. “Looks like a bunch of herbs and… animal bones, I think? You know what this is, Jodes?”
Jody sighs. “Sounds like a witch.” For a second, Jody wants to tell Donna that she’ll be on her way, but then she remembers that she needs to get to work. “I can make some calls, see if anyone is around your area.”
“Another hunter?” Donna asks, her tone even more chipper now. She sounds excited about it, it’s a bit unnerving. Hunters aren’t usually excited about their jobs.
“Yeah, I’ll tell them to get in contact with you. Anything else?” Jody asks, finally screwing the lid on her thermos closed.
“That should be it, thanks Jodes!” They say their goodbyes and hang up. On her way to the station, Jody calls Garth, who makes some calls of his own, and halfway through her first hour at work, Jody gets a text message saying that a hunter named Bucky Sims was in the area, so he’s helping Donna out. Jody nods and goes on with her day.
She’s not worrying about Donna on her first witch hunt. The woman is in the hands of a capable hunter. Jody can’t shake the feeling that it should be her helping out, but there’s no way she could have gotten out of work on such short notice. She tells herself to stop worrying, but keeps checking her phone. At some point in the afternoon, she puts it in her locker, so that she doesn’t feel tempted to look for new messages or missed phone calls.
The next day, a text comes in from Donna, telling Jody that they got the witch and that everything and everyone is fine. A weight is lifted from Jody’s shoulders. She’s not sure why this has affected her so much.
“And it just jumped! From the roof of that building. Let me tell you, Jodes, that was a very high building.” Donna’s voice sounds as chipper as ever, despite the subject matter of her story, and it makes Jody smile. Nothing better at the end of a shift than listening to an enthusiastic recounting of a werewolf hunt. Jody can’t believe that thought isn’t in the slightest sarcastic.
“That’s actually how we got it. I think the guy wasn’t really aware of exactly how high the building was. I know you said silver is the only thing that hurts werewolves, but let me tell you, crashing onto concrete from high buildings will do it too.” A serious undertone bleeds into Donna’s voice, and Jody’s smile stales a little. She wonders if this is the first time Donna killed someone.
It isn’t, she knows that. Donna decapitated that vampire back in Hibbing, and who knows what happened to the witch the other day. But still, it changes a person. Sure, Donna said the guy who died jumping off a building was horrible, both during the full moon and in normal life. That doesn’t mean killing him was going to be easy.
“Sounds like quite the hunt.” Jody replies, even though there are a thousand other things she could say. Ask Donna how she’s doing, what she’s thinking. Tell her that it’s okay to feel bad that the person who jumped down the building is dead.
Jody shakes her head. Those are thoughts hunters never linger on for too long. Instead, she listens to the steady flow of Donna’s voice on the other side of the line.
“Oh it was! What about you, any interesting hunts you’ve been on lately?” Donna asks. Jody thinks about it, but everything she did lately feels like routine. The hauntings in Sioux Falls are unusually frequent, so she’s been spending a lot of time digging up graves and burning corpses. Jody doesn’t think it’s particularly fascinating, but figuring that Donna hasn’t done a ghost hunt yet, maybe that’s interesting to her.
So Jody starts talking about her latest hunt, a teenager from the 80s who died in a car crash. Donna is curiously asking questions, and Jody smiles through the whole conversation.
“Okay, and then you’ll need some incense and lavender, mix it with the rest and burn the whole thing.” Jody rattles off a yellowing page from an old book of Bobby’s that only survived the house fire because he lent it to Jody ages ago and she always forgot to give it back.
“And you’re sure that’ll work?” Donna asks, and Jody isn’t sure if she sounds concerned or sceptical. It’s probably a bit of both.
“Yes, I’m sure. I’ve used the spell before.” Jody doesn’t remember the ingredients by heart, but she does remember that they worked.
“Alright, thanks Jodes! I owe you one.” Donna hangs up, and again, Jody hopes that everything is going to be fine. She can’t relax until she receives a text three hours later, reassuring her that Donna is still alive and on her way home.
The thing is, Jody was expecting the calls to become less and less frequent over time. The more hunts Donna goes on, the more hunting contacts she gets. Hunting contacts that are not Jody. There are now many other people that she could call instead of her. But the number of phone calls Jody gets doesn't decrease. They keep dripping in.
It’s becoming a habit, a part of Jody’s day-to-day life. She talks to Donna at least once a week, texts almost daily, and she can’t imagine what it would be like to stop. Of course it’s never Jody who calls Donna, and really, why would she. She doesn’t have a reason. Every time Donna calls or sends a message, it’s actually to ask about some new monster she encountered or to talk about her newest adventures in hunting or to get stories out of Jody about her experiences. It’s not like they’re friends calling for the fun of it. It’s mostly about survival. They don’t talk about much else.
At least that is until a warm day in June comes around, and Jody is lounging in the hammock in her garden, enjoying a rare day off. Alex has gone to the cinema with her friends and won’t be back for a few hours, so Jody is taking advantage of the quiet. Or she would be, if the phone didn’t choose that moment to ring.
“Donna? Everything alright?” Jody picks up after quickly checking the caller id. A call from Donna always requires some degree of urgency. So much for taking the day to relax.
“Hey Jodes, all is well. I just wanted to check in. See how you’re doing?” Donna’s cheerful voice rings through the connection.
Jody sits up carefully. “Yes, I’m fine. How about you? No new case you need help with?”
There’s a pause on the other side of the line, and it stretches for a few seconds longer than Jody would like. She sets on to say something to get the conversation flowing again, but Donna breaks the silence first.
“Ah, I was just thinking we could talk. About something other than hunting for once. But it’s alright if you don’t w—if you don’t have time, I can call you when I need something.”
“No, wait!” Jody says when she hears that Donna’s tone has taken on a defeated edge and realises that she is about to hang up. “We can… we can talk.”
Jody shakes her head at herself as she waits for an answer. She’s not sure why she suggested it, it’s not like she knows what to talk to Donna about. Luckily for her, Donna doesn’t have the same hang-ups. Conversation comes much more naturally to her than it does to Jody.
“Ah, well then.” And with that, Donna launches into a recounting of the latest feud between her neighbours, asking Jody for her input from time to time. In return, Jody tells Donna about an upcoming neighbourhood barbecue.
That day, something shifts between them. It’s a small shift, almost unnoticeable, but Jody feels different afterwards. The fear that the phone calls become less dims considerably, until she stops wondering why Donna keeps calling her. She realises that after weeks of talking, they’ve actually become friends.
A warm feeling blooms in Jody’s chest at the thought. It’s been a while since she had a proper friend. She has acquaintances, hunting contacts, colleagues, but the last time she let someone get close enough to become her friend was before her child and husband died.
Jody doesn’t sleep well that night, but for once it’s not because of nightmares and worries. It’s because she’s excited.
Jody and Donna still talk at least once a week, sometimes more often. The phone calls start out with discussions about hunting, but quickly develop into conversations about life. Slowly, they find out things about each other. Jody knows that Donna would kill for a good doughnut the way Jody would kill for a decent cup of coffee.
Jody tells her about Alex, about the trials and tribulations of trying to raise a traumatised teenager. She doesn’t tell Donna what exactly Alex went through before living with her, it is on Alex to decide who gets to know her story, but Donna knows Alex had a run in with vampires that didn’t end well. In return, Donna tells Jody about her niece, trying to relate to raising a teenage girl. It’s not exactly the same of course, but they manage to exchange some useful advice.
They balance each other out, Jody notices. Donna’s almost constant good mood meshes well with Jody’s down-to-earthness. Their talks are refreshing and leave Jody in a better mood than when she picked up the phone. No matter how trivial the conversations, she feels like she can take something away from each of them, some new snippet of information, some new habit or mannerism.
Donna is a morning person. She has tried out and failed to complete at least three diets (Jody reassured her that she doesn’t need a diet). She prefers books over movies and needs reading glasses (which Jody only knows because they broke a week ago and Donna was complaining about needing to go to the optician). Before she became a paramedic, she was a firefighter like Jody. Donna likes to go on walks and collect pressed flowers and leaves. This provides a funny contrast to her hunting knife collection, which are coming in handy for hunting.
The folder in Jody’s mind that contains every tidbit of information she discovers about Donna becomes thicker. She hopes it keeps growing.
“Hey Jodes, how’s it going? How’s the kid?” Donna asks one late Wednesday afternoon after both their shifts have ended. It’s one of those days that Jody is exhausted and just wants to crawl up in bed and listen to one of Donna’s stories.
“The kid multiplied.” Jody answers, chuckling to herself. It’s not a funny situation, but if she can’t make jokes about it and laugh, she might want to start throwing things. “The Winchesters sent another teenager my way. Lost both her parents to the life, doesn’t talk much.”
Jody hears some shuffling on the other side of the line, before Donna asks. “Uff, how’s she doing? Getting along with Alex?”
Jody chuckles again. Donna managed to mention the exact issue that makes her want to throw things. “Well, she’s very angry, not that I blame her. And Claire and Alex… let’s say they’re a work in progress.”
Saying that it’s a work in progress is generous, but Jody doesn’t want to get into it.
“Ah, I see. I’m sure it’s all gonna go well. She’s gonna feel at home in no time.” Donna tries to be reassuring, and it would make Jody feel better if she had seen Claire when she first arrived and understood the situation. That kind of anger is going to stick around for some time, and all Jody can do is hope that she’ll be able to help.
“Yeah, let’s hope so.” After that, Jody redirects the conversation to Alex’ latest high school project, and her worries about Claire float to the background for a few minutes.
Sometimes the phone calls are more silent than talking. It’s a comfortable quiet, the kind people can revel in. Some nights, it’s too quiet, so Jody calls Donna and they talk for a minute, but stay on quietly for half an hour until they barely manage to hang up to fall asleep. There’s something about listening to Donna’s breathing on the other side of the line that grounds Jody.
Sometimes in those quiet moments, topics come up that otherwise wouldn’t. It was in a quiet moment that Donna told Jody about her ex-husband. It was in another quiet moment that Jody brings up that she sometimes wishes she wouldn’t know anything about vampires and werewolves and ghosts.
Donna takes that and runs with it. “So? How’d you find out about it? We both know why I started hunting, but what is it for you”
Jody’s breath catches in her throat, and for a second she can’t speak. It’s not something she likes to mention, she never talks about it. She’s not sure she ever told anyone. The people that needed to know the details were there when it happened.
“Jodes? You don’t have to answer if you don’t feel like it.” Donna asks after a while. Jody isn’t sure how long it’s been exactly. She considers it, not telling Donna. It would be easy to just stay quiet and let them both forget the question was ever asked. But now that she’s been reminded, what happened keeps playing in her head over and over again. She needs to get it out of there if she wants any chance to fall asleep tonight.
“No, no it’s… it was zombies.” Jody starts, swallowing uncomfortably. “I kind of… lost my husband and my son, I…” She trails off. She closes her eyes and takes a few seconds to just breathe. It helps marginally. “Anyway that’s when I met Sam and Dean. And found out that a guy I’ve known for years is a hunter too.”
“Oh.” Donna’s voice sounds small, as if she’s not entirely sure what she’s supposed to say now. “I’m really sorry.”
Jody shakes her head, even though there’s no one there to see her do it. “Don’t be. You had nothing to do with it. I was just at the wrong time at the wrong place. Or city, rather.”
Then it’s silent again. It’s different, less comfortable, more filled with hesitation. They’re in new territory here, and Jody isn’t sure what to do. She hasn’t told Donna the whole story, and she doesn’t know if she ever will. It’s something she keeps close to herself, but it’s also something she’d rather not think about. She dealt with it, processed it, but the hurt it caused is never going to go away.
Donna clears her throat. “So how’s Claire doing? Still hunting imaginary ghosts?”
It takes Jody a moment to adjust to the change in subject, but “Ah, yes. Scared two poor teenagers yesterday. I need to take that sword away from her, but… it feels like a step too far.”
Donna gasps. “She has a sword? What’s that girl doing with a sword? And why have you not confiscated it already?”
Jody chuckles and rolls her eyes, thinking about that damn sword. “She had it with her when she came, and… there’s something about it. It’s personal, the way she hangs on to it, so I’m not gonna take it.”
“Ah, gotcha.” And as they grow quiet again now, it feels the same as it always does. The earlier conversation isn’t forgotten, but they’re distracted from it. Jody manages to fall asleep just as she hangs up a few minutes later.
“So, I have a few free days coming up and… well, I don’t know if you’re free too, you’re probably working, but on the off-chance that you are, would you want to come over for dinner?” Jody starts out today’s call. She’s been staring at her calendar for a few minutes in indecision, the three free days coloured in purple, until she’d finally made a plan and picked up the phone. “You could stay with me, of course, in the guest room. It would be an awfully long drive just for dinner.”
“I’d love to!” Donna sounds the most enthusiastic Jody ever heard her, and it makes a smile slip on her face. “When would it be?”
“Next week, Monday to Wednesday. Gotta go back to work after that.” Jody confirms after a quick glance at the calendar.
After a second of silence, Donna cheers. “Hey, I’m free Tuesday to Thursday, so I can swing by!”
“That sounds great! I’ll send you the directions.” The warm feeling is back in Jody’s chest. She hasn’t seen Donna since Hibbing, and she can feel the excitement bubbling just under the surface.
“Awesome. See you then.”
“Yeah, see you then.”
After they hang up, Jody picks up a red pen and puts Donna’s name down under Tuesday.
Jody wakes up on Tuesday morning, her skin buzzing and her mind clear. As soon as she’s in an upright position, she can’t stop moving. She's excited. It’s not like this is the first time she invites hunter friends over to stay for a while. Her guest room is actually a pretty busy place, hunters needing a safe place to stay for a night before they move on. Donna is not going to be the first person to stay over, so Jody isn’t sure why she’s so jittery about it.
“You okay?” Alex asks at breakfast, frowning over her coffee. “You look tired, I thought you’d take the free time to rest.”
Jody frowns back. “I’m sure I don’t look that bad.”
Alex quirks an eyebrow, but doesn’t contradict her. Jody smiles.
When Alex is on her way to school, Jody bangs on Claire’s bedroom door. When there’s no immediate response, she keeps on banging.
“God, what!” Comes a muffled response after what feels like more time than the few minutes it actually was. “I was sleeping.”
“Get your ass in gear, you’re coming grocery shopping with me.” Jody yells through the door.
She hears some tired and uncoordinated stumbling on the other side of the door, then it opens and Claire stands before Jody in a sweatshirt and boxers, her hair in tangles, scowling. “Not this early in the morning.”
When Claire attempts to close the door again, Jody catches the edge and keeps it open. Claire might be particularly strong for her age, but Jody’s been working a job where she has to have an unusually high muscle power for her whole adult life. She’s no match for her.
“It’s nine in the morning, that’s not too early.” Claire looks like she’s going to protest, but Jody won’t let her. “Listen, you’re living under my roof, so you gotta contribute somehow. You don’t wanna go to school? Fine, I can’t force you. You don’t wanna get a job? Again, I can’t force you, but that means you gotta help out. I’ve given you a few weeks to get used to living here, to process whatever it is that brought you here, but you have to stop chasing around people that haven’t done anything wrong because you see a case where no case is.”
Claire rolls her eyes, but Jody barrels forward. “You need an outlet, so you’re going to help me with dinner. Including a trip to the grocery store this morning. So get dressed and meet me downstairs.”
Jody waits for a second, but all Claire does is roll her eyes again before walking over to her closet. Jody leaves her be.
In no time, the two of them are sitting in Jody’s truck on their way to the supermarket. Claire has her arms crossed in front of her chest and hasn’t said a word to Jody since she first came downstairs. She’s staring out of the window, not acknowledging that Jody is even there, and so Jody doesn’t even try to start a conversation. She’s grateful enough that she got Claire to leave the house for something other than a case that doesn’t exist.
Surprisingly, as they’re entering the store, Claire grabs the grocery list out of Jody’s hand and leads the way, grabbing food and putting it in the cart Jody’s pushing around.
“My mom liked to take me.” Claire mumbles over a pack of potatoes and it’s so quiet and quick that Jody almost misses it.
“What?” She asks, and Claire doesn’t look at her, just puts the potatoes in the cart and buries her hand in the pockets of her black hoodie again. She didn’t bother fixing her hair and simply hides it under the hood. A long strand hangs out, and something about it makes Claire look like the most moody teenager Jody has ever encountered. Which isn’t entirely inaccurate.
“My mom.” Claire says, still very quietly. “She took me grocery shopping. Let me hang on to the cart handle. Everything seemed much bigger then.”
Claire doesn’t talk any more for the rest of their trip, but Jody doesn’t mind. This is the first time Claire opened up to her, and even if she didn’t say much, she said something. Jody doesn’t really know anything about her, all Dean told her was that Claire’s parents are both dead and that her situation is complicated. He didn’t elaborate and Jody didn’t ask more than making sure it’s actually safe for Claire to be living with her.
It's none of Jody’s business what happened to the kid, but she does want to help. It’s not easy to help when she doesn’t know what’s wrong.
The rest of their trip passes uneventfully. There’s no more conversation than Jody asking Claire to get something specific. The whole thing becomes repetitive, reaching for groceries and putting it in the cart. But that’s what life is, Jody thinks. Repetition after repetition after repetition.
On their way home, they get Chinese take-out for lunch and Jody finds out that Claire hates soybeans, but loves egg fried rice. She puts the information away for later.
After they’ve eaten, the two of them stand around the kitchen counter, Claire with her hands stemmed on her hips.
“How much are you planning on making that we have to start on dinner now?” She asks, the annoyance in her voice sounding more put on than real. She moves over to the sink.
“I just want it to be done before Donna arrives. It would be nice not to be stressed out when she gets here.” Jody starts laying all the ingredients out on the table, making sure that everything is accounted for. Having to swing by the grocery store again because she forgot the stock would be less than ideal. Jody almost cheers when she finds it hiding beneath the carrots.
“Does cooking stress you out?” Claire asks, watching Jody warily, drying her freshly washed hands with a towel.
“Well, there’s always so much to think about.” Jody rifles through her cookbook until she finds the appropriate page and lays it down on the kitchen table. “Okay, can you peel the potatoes and carrots? I can get started on chopping the eggplants, they need to be salted and then rest for a bit.”
And with that, they start working. Claire is surprisingly good at peeling vegetables, though why Jody is surprised by that she doesn’t really know. It’s not like Claire never lived a normal life. At least that’s what Jody is guessing. Maybe her parents started her on this as early as the Winchesters. But then Jody thinks back to Claire saying her mom used to take her grocery shopping, and something about the way she said it makes Jody believe that that happened at a time when things were normal. When Claire didn’t know what was out there yet.
They work slowly, and Jody isn’t sure if she likes that. She does stress when she cooks, having to think of a hundred different things at the same time. She likes doing it. The stress can be grounding, telling her there’s a reason for her to do things. But today, Claire slows her down. She has a very different approach to cooking, all slow movements and careful consideration.
She puts more concentration and attention into her tasks than Jody expected she would. It’s strange, seeing the teenager that’s usually so angry and hectic take so much care peeling potatoes and dicing tomatoes.
When late afternoon rolls around and the food is as good as ready, Jody is glad that Claire slowed her down. They would have finished much too early if they’d gone at her usual pace.
“Hmm, it smells good in here.” Alex says as soon as she enters the kitchen, her backpack hanging from her shoulder.
“Thanks.” Claire says as she’s cleaning cutting boards and knives at the sink.
“You cooked?” Alex asks, crossing her arms, doubt in her voice.
Claire turns around, frowning. “Yeah I cooked. You got a problem with that?”
Alex lifts her arm in mock surrender and sets on to counter something, so Jody decides to intervene. “Hey, you both go get ready for when Donna arrives. And no fighting.”
Alex rolls her eyes, but she does go to her room. Claire doesn’t move.
“You too, go on.” Jody gently pushes Claire to the doorway.
“But I am ready?” Claire looks down at what she’s wearing—ratty jeans, that same black oversized hoodie, and she still hasn’t fixed her hair—and looks back up at Jody as if she doesn’t see what she looks like right now.
Jody keeps pushing her to the stairs. “Go get changed. And do something about your hair.”
When she hears Claire’s bedroom door fall closed upstairs, Jody slumps against the wall. Teenagers.
Donna arrives at five thirty, exactly as they’d planned. Jody appreciates the punctuality, but she wouldn’t have been that put off if Donna had been late. It is a long way from Stillwater to Sioux Falls.
“Jodes, hey!” Donna greets as soon as she’s out of her car, and the first thing she does after walking up the porch towards Jody is hug her.
For a second, Jody isn’t sure what to do. She has never felt off-balance because of a hug, but this one feels too tight and not tight enough at the same time. Maybe it is because neither Claire nor Alex are especially fond of physical contact—though Alex is slowly warming up to it—and Jody just isn’t used to it anymore. Before she can agonise over it too much, Donna lets go. She misses the touch immediately.
“How was the drive?” She asks, leading Donna into the house.
“Oh you know… long.” Donna enters, looking around curiously. “But I was listening to some good music, so it wasn’t too bad!”
Jody is almost overwhelmed with the enthusiasm Donna exudes. She’s heard it through their phone calls, but experiencing it in person is another thing entirely.
“A great home you have here.” Donna comments as they’re walking into the kitchen, then she stops in her tracks and closes her eyes. “Oh, it smells heavenly in here.”
“Don’t exaggerate.” Jody chuckles.
“Hi!” Alex is leaning against the doorway, not looking much different than before, and at the same moment, Claire barrels down the stairs, her hair actually brushed and done up in a loose braid. She stops in her tracks when she sees that Donna is already there, then mumbles a greeting and crosses her arms in front of her chest.
“Hello! You must be Alex.” Donna grins and points at Alex, then she turns to Claire. “And Claire! I’m so excited to meet you.”
Something about Donna’s enthusiasm must be infectious, because both Alex and Claire smile (in Claire’s case it’s small, but nonetheless there).
They eat and they talk. Donna compliments Jody and Claire on the food, which makes Claire’s smile disappear for some reason. She doesn’t become more moody though, so Jody doesn’t take it as a loss quite yet.
The conversation flows easily and the transition from phone calls to face to face talks goes over seamlessly. It’s easy, talking to Donna, and it’s easy, including Alex and Claire. It feels right, the four of them sitting around the table. Donna listens to Claire telling her about a case she’s putting together (it’s nothing, Jody already checked it out, but Claire won’t hear it), while Alex talks about high school. Donna is showing an equal interest in both, which makes a warmth bloom in Jody’s chest. That happens to her a lot lately, she’s not sure what to make of it.
After dinner, Claire is the first one to leave. Alex lingers, talking to Donna about her job as a paramedic. Jody notes the way she perks up listening to the woman, who is recounting a day on the field. Jody files the information away for later, to find out if Alex’ interest is genuine or just polite. Maybe there’s something there, an idea for Alex about what to do after high school.
It takes a few more minutes until Alex excuses herself and retires to her room. Jody and Donna are cleaning the dishes (after Jody protested Donna’s help and Donna protested Jody’s protests), the evening is winding to an end.
“The food was really good.” Donna repeats as she dries a plate. “You’re a really good cook!”
“Thanks! I actually put effort into cooking again when Alex started living here. It’s different when you feed other people with your food, you know? More motivation to be good at it.”
Donna smiles, and they finish off the dishes in silence. Jody checks the clock hanging on the wall and sees that the time passed quicker than she expected. She shows Donna her bedroom and they say goodnight, both tired. When she leaves the next day, it’s with a promise to come back.
On a Thursday, Jody meets an angel. She doesn’t realise it at first, so when she comes home after her shift and sees a man in a trench coat waiting on her porch, she’s not sure what’s going on. He seems inconspicuous, just a normal guy. Maybe he wants to sell something, Jody doesn’t know.
“Do you need anything?” Jody asks as she walks up to him. He’s standing between her and the front door, which is less than optimal. She itches for a weapon, even though this man hasn’t shown any signs of being a threat yet. He does look harmless, but something about him puts Jody on edge. The longer she looks at him the more uneasy she feels. Something’s not right.
“I’m looking for Claire.” He says, nothing in his face showing anything about his intent. He’s standing completely still, and if he weren’t breathing, Jody would think he’s a statue. There’s something about him that makes him seem almost surreal, infinite, but Jody can’t put a finger on what it is. Maybe it’s the way his face is completely blank. Maybe it’s because he looks slightly dishevelled, but stands stiff as a board. Maybe it’s the eyes.
“What do you want with her?” Jody asks defensively. Her hands grab around nothing on her hip, at the place where she usually keeps a silver knife during hunts. “Who are you?”
“I’m Castiel. Dean might have mentioned me.” The man says, and for a moment Jody feels like she can’t breathe. Castiel. Dean’s angel. An actual angel is standing on Jody’s porch.
“Oh. Hello.” Jody feels slightly off-footed. How is she supposed to talk to an angel? She’s never been in this situation before, and while Dean has told her about this specific angel before, this is not what she expected.
Castiel looks much more normal than Jody would have thought an angel would look like, but she’s not sure what her expectation was in the first place. There are pictures she saw once, of wheels on fire and creatures that are more animal than angel and have twelve pairs of wings. When Jody was picturing angels, it was something along that line, not an accountant.
“Hello.” Castiel greets back, and then he is silent again. Staring at Jody. It's all suddenly very awkward. Castiel is obviously not particularly smooth.
“What do you want with Claire?” Jody repeats, because angel or not, she sure as hell is going to protect that kid. However, before Castiel can answer, the front door opens and Claire peeks out, frowning.
“What are you doing here?” She asks, her voice harsh, and Jody wonders if it’s wise to talk to an angel like that. One look at Castiel tells her that it didn’t really matter. Confronted with Claire, he looks small. Jody is confused.
“I just wanted to see how you were doing. I was worried.” The concern is evident in Castiel’s voice, and Jody’s confusion rises. She knows that the angel cares about the Winchesters. He’s their friend. However she also knows that angels are dicks. The Winchesters and Bobby told her multiple times. She’s not exactly sure how Claire figures into this and why Castiel cares.
“I thought we could talk. Um… catch up?” Castiel asks when Claire stays silent for a few seconds too long. This time, the question is asked in nervousness. A nervous angel makes even less sense to Jody.
“... okay.” Claire says reluctantly and lets go of the doorframe, leaving the house. She walks closer to the angel but keeps a distance between them that’s a bit larger than a distance between conversation partners would normally be.
When Jody doesn’t move away from where she’s standing after a few seconds, both Castiel and Claire turn to her in unison. They look eerily similar as they do it, and that’s when Jody realises why Castiel’s eyes stood out to her. They’re the same as Claire’s. Now she’s even more confused.
The both of them keep looking at her until she gets the message.
“I’m just gonna… I’ll wait inside.” Jody says, unsure of what else to do. She doesn’t want to leave Claire alone with him, but she gets the sense that whatever is going on here is none of her business. Claire nods and Jody leaves.
She keeps an eye on them through the window. They talk for a while, both standing stiff. After around an hour, they hug and Jody raises an eyebrow in surprise. A few seconds later Castiel vanishes. When Claire comes back inside, she seems lighter, a little bit less angry. Jody is still confused, but she doesn’t ask. If Claire wants to tell her, she’ll take the first step.
Donna sitting in Jody’s kitchen isn’t as much of a novelty anymore. It’s still exciting and fun to have her here, but at this point it isn’t new. And that thrills Jody just as much.
Her reason for staying this time around is more practical than leisure. There’s a vampire nest about two hours away from Sioux Falls, a big one. The kind of big that requires multiple hunters, so Jody and Donna have both been recruited.
They’re going over all the plans tomorrow, so tonight they are distracting themselves.
“Donna?” Alex asks, sifting through the rest of her rice with her fork. “How did you decide to become a paramedic?”
Donna takes a moment to consider, then she smiles. “Well it was about helping people for me. I tried out the whole firefighter thing, but I felt like there was something missing, you know? It’s exciting and I got to save so many people, but… it didn’t feel like it was for me. But then, on one call the paramedics were short-staffed and they needed a helping hand, and I just volunteered. It wasn’t a conscious decision, I just raised my hand when they asked for someone, and well. Here I am now. A paramedic. It felt so good, working on people. Not just dragging them out of fires and car wrecks, but actually caring for them. I switched over to paramedics and haven’t looked back since.”
Alex is hanging on Donna’s lips throughout it all, a glimmer in her eyes. When Donna finishes, she nods to herself, and then she smiles.
“I think I decided. I think I wanna go to nursing school.” Alex announces.
“What? That’s great!” Jody grins. On the other side of the table, Claire rolls her eyes and scoffs. The glimmer in Alex’ eyes dims a little as she scowls at her.
“Yes, that’s awesome!” Donna reaffirms, and that gets Alex smiling again. Crisis averted.
“I figured it’s how I can help.” Alex says, continuing to eat her rice. When Claire gets up and leaves the kitchen a few minutes later, mumbled goodbyes, Jody isn’t sure if it’s because of Alex’ announcement, or because she is being her usual moody self.
Alex walks off a little while after, saying she needs rest for a quiz in tomorrow’s class. Soon, it’s just Jody and Donna again, standing by the kitchen sink and washing the dishes. This has become some sort of ritual between the two. Donna’s whole visits have a routine to them.
Donna comes over for dinner, they all eat together, Claire leaves first, then Alex. Jody washes the dishes and Donna dries them. Jody leads Donna to the guest room, they say goodnight, and the next morning, they have breakfast together and then Donna leaves. A few weeks later, it all starts anew.
It’s become routine, having Donna over, and Jody likes that. It makes her feel like Donna is part of the family, of the little life they’ve built for themselves here.
“What are you thinking about?” Donna asks, hip leaning on the kitchen counter and dish towel thrown over her shoulder.
“Do I have to be thinking about something?” Jody asks, smirking.
Donna chuckles. “Well you’ve been washing that one plate for over a minute now, there must be something on your mind.”
Flustered, Jody rinses the plate and hands it to Donna, who grabs the dish towel with a flourish, then dries the plate and puts it back into the cupboard.
“Nothing, just… I’m glad to have you here.” Jody finally says, smiling at Donna, who beams right back.
“Well, I’m glad to be here.” Donna dries off the last of the cutlery, and then they’re done for the day.
“So, Alex is becoming a nurse.” Donna prompts. They’re still standing at the kitchen counter, shoulder to shoulder. “Sounds like a great decision.”
“It is. I’m glad she’s found something she wants to do.“ Jody says. “She wants to help people. This seems like the best way for her to do it.”
“Has she never been interested in… your career path?” The hesitant way Donna asks makes it very clear to Jody that she’s not talking about the firefighter part of Jody’s job.
“She doesn’t want to hunt. I think that’s good, one less person I need to worry about.” Jody thinks of Claire and all the shenanigans she gets up to with that sword of hers.
“Huh. That’s true.” Donna says and turns towards Jody. “Am I one of the people you worry about?”
At that, Jody turns towards Donna too, and is instantly made aware of how close they’re actually standing. She’s looking right into Donna’s eyes, their faces not as far from each other as would be comfortable, but for some reason Jody doesn’t want to move away. She feels Donna’s breath on her skin and her eyes wander down to her lips, and all of a sudden, Jody wonders what it would be like to kiss her.
The thought startles her enough that she takes a step back. Donna’s facial expression becomes uncharacteristically guarded.
“I… I’m tired, I should go to sleep.” Jody says, looking everywhere but at Donna’s lips.
“Yeah of course.” Donna says with a smile, but it doesn’t look real.
It’s only when Jody actually lies in bed that she realises—she’s fallen in love with Donna.
"I’m coming with you.” Claire sits on top of the kitchen table when Jody comes in, her sword next to her.
“No.” Jody doesn’t even hesitate with her answer. “We’ve talked about this, you’re not ready for a nest this big.”
If it were up to Jody, Claire would never be ready for any kind of hunting, but she knows she can’t stop the kid if it’s what she really wants.
“Why are you so hellbent on hunting anyway?” Jody asks, tired of this conversation already. They’ve had it before and she’d never gotten an answer that explained anything. The farthest they’ve come was to establish that Claire’s parents are dead and that it somehow had to do with angels. Every time Jody asks about Castiel, Claire just shrugs and tells her he owes her, but never elaborates.
It's exhausting, not knowing what’s going on and still feeling the urge to help. Having the same conversations over and over again without receiving a different outcome.
Jody makes way for the coffee machine when she hears Claire draw in a sharp breath. Jody freezes, waiting. If Claire is about to say something different for once, Jody is not going to ruin it by interrupting.
A few seconds drip by, time moving impossibly slowly, but then Claire talks. “I just don’t know what else to do.”
Jody turns around and looks at her. Claire looks smaller than she usually is, hunched in on herself, gripping the handle of her sword so tightly her knuckles are white.
“It’s the only thing I can do, the only way I know I can be useful. If I’d known more about hunting I could have saved my mom, I… I don’t know what else to do.”
Jody moves closer to Claire, slowly moving her hand to her shoulder, giving Claire enough time to flinch away. When she doesn’t, Jody draws her into a hug, conscious of the sword. Claire freezes at first, tension collecting in her shoulders, but then she lets her body fall against Jody’s, pushing the sword away and hugging back.
They stay like that for a few minutes, as Jody rubs Claire’s back and Claire just breathes.
“What happened to your mother…” Jody squeezes a bit tighter. “That wasn’t your fault. And getting yourself in danger for no reason isn’t going to bring her back.”
It doesn’t matter that Jody doesn’t actually know what happened, what’s more important is that Claire hears those words and believes them. She can’t come on that hunt with them. It’s not going to make her feel any better.
“I’m tired.” Claire mumbles, the words slurred and muffled and Jody almost doesn’t register them at first.
“Well, it’s early.” She says, knowing that’s not what Claire actually meant. It’s a conversation to have after the hunt. “Maybe you should go back to sleep.”
Claire extricates herself out of Jody’s arms, not doing much more than nodding and avoiding eye contact, then she grabs her sword and leaves the kitchen. Jody can hear her stomp up the stairs. Sighing, she returns to the counter and drinks her coffee.
“You ready for this?” Donna asks, her cheery tone cutting through the tension that has built up in the car on their way to the vampire nest. It’s different, sitting next to Donna now than it was before, even though nothing really changed.
Jody now realises that they haven’t worked a case together since they first met in Hibbing. It should probably mean something. Jody isn’t sure how she feels about it, but there’s a warmth in her chest, an ease she usually doesn’t experience before a hunt.
“As ready as I can ever be, walking into a nest full of vamps.” Jody sighs, mentally going over the layout of the warehouse. She needs to focus, but can’t keep throwing quick glances towards Donna in the driver’s seat. She’s not sure what to do with the revelation she had the night before. It’s not that she’s confused about liking Donna, that doesn’t actually surprise her when she thinks about it. It has more to do with the fact that in all the years she’s been alive, Jody has never questioned if she could be into a woman like that.
But as Jody gets out of the car to grab her machete from the trunk, she decides that now is not the right moment to think about it.
It’s not the right moment to think about it, Jody repeats to herself as she hacks away at vampires and tries to keep her balance on the rickety staircase.
It’s definitely not the moment to think about it when Donna has to haul away a vampire that managed to disarm Jody way too quickly. She needs to focus. In return, she cuts a vampire’s head clean off before it can wring Donna’s machete out of her grasp.
They work well together, moving along as one, filling the spaces the other one leaves behind. They make a good team, should probably hunt together more often.
She’s not sure how much time it’s been since they started, but at some point the hoards of vampires that seemed infinite at first begin to thin out, and soon the last stragglers are defeated. Jody hopes they actually got them all, but there’s always a chance that one or two escaped.
But that’s not her concern anymore. Some of the other hunters that joined in told her they’d take care of any stray vamp they can find. Instead, Jody and Donna leave the warehouse, machetes and clothes covered in blood. There’s some in Donna’s hair as well, blood and grime and dirt, and Jody supposes that she doesn’t look much better. Her cheek feels sore where a vamp’s elbow connected with her face, and she’s pretty sure it’s going to bruise.
“You want me to drive?” Jody asks, taking in Donna’s slumped form. She’s favouring her left leg, and Jody remembers seeing a vampire hit her right knee with a crowbar.
“That would be wonderful, Jodes. You’re not too tired?” Donna cleans off her machete with a rag, then she puts everything back where it belongs. Her movements are a bit sluggish, but Jody would be more surprised if they weren’t, after a hunt of such calibre.
“I’m good, I’ll drive.”
Donna falls asleep before the car even starts. It’s the sudden stop of the adrenaline rush, and Jody half expects to crash soon as well, but it’s not happening. Every time she glances over at Donna, she feels wide awake again. The drive seems to stretch out eternally.
It’s two in the morning, and Jody can’t sleep. She is thankful she doesn’t have to go to work today, because she would not be able to survive a shift without falling asleep. Doing her job while being this tired is far too dangerous to risk.
She’s tossing and turning for a few more minutes, then she eventually gives up on sleep. It won’t come, she knows that. Her thoughts are racing too much.
Slipping down into the kitchen, Jody does her best to be quiet. She doesn’t want to wake the girls, and she knows that Donna is exhausted. However, when she pushes open the kitchen door, she sees that she’s not alone.
“Hey, couldn’t sleep?” She asks when she recognises Donna standing by the sink, glass of water in her hand, only illuminated by the streetlights shining through the windows. Jody doesn’t switch on the light.
“I slept too much in the car. I’m wide awake again.” Donna replies, her voice quieter than Jody has ever heard it. She sounds thoughtful, a bit dazed, as if Jody interrupted her in deep thought.
She opens one of the cupboards and takes out a glass, moving to the sink to fill it with water. It puts her right into Donna’s personal space. Donna doesn’t move away.
“Are you okay? Your knee isn’t hurting too much?” Jody asks, her voice not more than a whisper.
“It’s aching a bit, but it’s fine.” Donna moves her face to the side to take another sip of water, but when she turns back to Jody, she’s even closer than she was before. Her hair is freshly washed, surrounding her face in soft waves. She’s close enough for Jody to see the darker specks in her eyes. If she could choose to, Jody would stay here, staring into Donna’s eyes, for the rest of her life.
“Good.” Jody says, swallowing, and then she bridges the last of the distance between her and Donna, and kisses her, pressing their lips together. Donna seems to have been expecting it, because she reacts before Jody even realises what she’s just done, their lips moving against each other.
It’s a short kiss, but it’s gentle and sweet, and Jody starts smiling before they even separate.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a while now.” Donna chuckles, and then she puts down her glass of water and hugs Jody tight.
“You did?” Jody asks, feeling laughter make its way up through her chest. “I didn’t know I wanted to do that until yesterday.”
At that, Donna laughs too and for a moment they just stand in the kitchen, holding onto each other and laughing.
“What does this mean now?” Donna asks when they’ve calmed down, her hand still around Jody’s waist.
This is the part Jody hasn’t actually thought about yet. “I don’t know. I guess we could go on a date?”
“You guess?” Donna starts laughing again. “I would love that!”
And then Donna moves back in, the kiss longer this time, deeper, and all the worries Jody had about this, all her doubts, fly out of the window. This is where she belongs. In this house, with her two girls and Donna by her side. It feels a little surreal, but that’s just her life these days.
“So you’re gonna take me on a date.” Donna starts smirking. “What will it be? More vampires? A few ghosts?”
Jody can’t keep from laughing again, happiness bubbling up. “Maybe we can find a witch or two.” She keeps joking, and then she kisses Donna again, just because she feels like it. She gets to do that now. It makes her feel incredibly light.
“And all of this because I needed a hunting contact.” Donna smiles brightly, running a hand through Jody’s hair.
“I’m glad you needed one.” Jody takes Donna’s other hand, threading their fingers together. In a way, she needed Donna more than the other way around. She’s been hunting contact for a while now. She finally found it.
