November 26th, 2042
DJ practically threw himself out of the passenger side as the car rolled to a stop behind the assortment of vehicles parked at the end of Jody's driveway, his boots crunching in the light dusting of snow obscuring the lawn.
"Fucking finally," he groaned, stretching and shaking out his legs. "My ass has been numb for the past hour."
Dad laughed at him, unfolding from the driver's seat and leaning over the roof of the car.
"You know," he began, eyes twinkling, "back in my day…"
"Oh, shut up," DJ retorted, making a face.
"Come on," Dad said, still grinning. "Let's go and see what Jody's made for supper."
They shouldered their bags and let themselves in, shutting the door behind them to keep out the chill. Enveloped by the warmth of the house, they shrugged out of their coats and scraped their boots against the mat in the entry.
"Gran, they're here!" someone shouted from the living room, and Jody came hobbling to meet them with a wide smile.
"There's my boys," she greeted them warmly, embracing DJ first.
"Hey Aunt Jody," he smiled into her shoulder.
"You too," she flung out an arm in his dad's direction. "Get over here, Winchester."
Jody tugged his dad down by his shirt collar in order to press a quick kiss to his temple before letting them both go and looking DJ up and down.
"You got taller," she observed, approving. "But you need a haircut."
"I'm growing it out," DJ answered; his dad huffed an affronted sigh on his behalf.
"Geez Louise, Jodes; let the boys sit down and unthaw a bit," Donna chided teasingly, wiping her hands on a towel as she emerged from the kitchen.
"Donna!" Dad exclaimed, pleasantly surprised, and stepped around Jody into the living room to hug her as well. "I thought you weren't getting in until tomorrow."
"I think the sheriff's office can manage all right without me for an extra day," she scoffed lightly as she turned to DJ. "Youse guys have a good trip?"
"Dad always wants to drive straight through without stopping," DJ complained, rolling his eyes at his dad over Donna's shoulder as he accepted his own hug. "But it wasn't too bad; roads were pretty clear."
"Old habits," Dad offered up the explanation with an unrepentant shrug.
"Well," Jody said, sidling around the group in the living room to get back to the kitchen. "Turkey's done, but I've got to take a peek at the pie. Why don't you boys settle in while we get supper on the table? You can spread out between the girls' old rooms, if you like."
"Claire's not coming?" Dad asked carefully.
Jody shook her head.
"She's down in New Mexico with Kaia; said she'll be home for Christmas, though," she answered over her shoulder.
"Oh; did they work things out, then?" Dad queried, shifting his duffel as he started down the hall.
From her position on the couch, Alex snorted loudly.
"They'll still have things to work out when they're ninety," she muttered sardonically; then, tipping her chin in DJ's direction, "Hey you; come and tell me about school once you've put your stuff down."
"Liam!" Jody called to the elder of Alex's boys. "Can you and Noah set up the table?"
DJ listened to the screech and clatter of the table extending and the leaves dropping in as he chose a room at random and tossed his bag inside. He returned to the living room to find it largely abandoned in favor of the kitchen, where Donna was insisting that Jody sit down while she, Alex, and Patience laid everything out for supper.
"She's so stubborn!" Donna complained to dad, who had taken the initiative to pull out Aunt Jody's chair from the head of the table.
"Well, she's in good company," Dad answered, settling into the next seat over. "Come on Jody; take a load off."
Helpfully, DJ took her cane and propped it up against the table as Donna gently pressed her into her seat. That done, he installed himself across from his dad and immediately reached for a still-steaming yeast roll, juggling his buttery prize back and forth between his hands until he could set it on his plate.
"Hot bread!" he hissed, shaking his hands to cool them; beside him, Noah laughed and choked on his drink.
"Tyler's not going to make it," Alex shut the refrigerator door with her hip as she tapped out a response to her husband, sounding disappointed. "They need dad to pull a double; sorry guys."
"It happens, mom," Liam said, offering her an understanding smile as he continued to pound his little brother on the back.
"That's too bad," Patience responded sympathetically, leaning over DJ's shoulder to set a hot casserole down on the table. "We'll save him a plate."
The conversation picked up as portions were dished onto plates; DJ filled Alex in on the progression of his senior year before politely asking how Liam's freshman year was going—the kid still wasn't sure what he wanted to major in, but he was doing well enough in his general courses. Noah didn't care to talk about school, but he flushed bright red when Patience asked about his girlfriend, who was apparently out in Montana visiting her grandparents for the holiday. DJ spread his hands wide in the universal gesture of surrender when Patience rounded on him to ask after his own relationship status.
"Just trying to get through school, Patience," he deflected. "One thing at a time."
"Boy, you are the most boring twenty-something I've ever met," she snarked, but she let it go.
On the other side of the table, Jody and Donna had their heads together with dad, who was showing them something on his phone. DJ was reminded that he hadn't checked his own in awhile; he tugged it free of his back pocket and held it in his lap, a series of social media notifications and a few obligatory 'Happy Thanksgiving!' texts from his classmates lighting up the screen. Frowning, he swiped across to his open chat thread with the twins, still frustratingly idle after nearly three weeks.
"Something wrong?" Alex asked, noticing his expression.
"No," DJ sighed; it wasn't as though it was unusual to go weeks without hearing from the Fitzgeralds. "Just haven't heard from Cass and Sam in a bit; makes me nervous."
"You talking about Garth's boys?" Donna broke in, looking up from his dad's phone.
"Yeah," DJ nodded. "Last I heard, they'd gone back up to the packhouse; I guess no news is good news?"
"Yeah, you betcha," Donna said slowly, measuring her words. "But I've got the news; they came out and stayed at my place for a couple days, little over two weeks ago now. I guess they had a big fight with their daddy when they got home; needed some space to cool off."
DJ cocked his eyebrows in acknowledgement; that sounded about right.
"Anywho, I put them on a case down in Quad Cities; bodies were turning up with hearts missing, sounded like our kinda thing," she continued. "I figured it would keep them busy, but close by, just in case."
He knew that Donna's wink was meant to reassure him, but a knot of anxiety bloomed in his chest anyway.
"Those hunters are still out there, though," he protested quietly, tearing another yeast roll into small pieces.
"Oh, not for long, buddy," Donna said reassuringly, reaching across the table to pat DJ's arm. "The security footage your daddy brought us is gonna be a big help."
"I wish I could have brought you more," Dad grumbled, passing off his phone to Jody. "But these days it's a toss-up, whether hunters hear the name 'Winchester' and fall all over themselves trying to help or whether they threaten to take me out back and shoot me because of the whole—" he paused to wiggle his fingers in midair. "'Witch' thing."
"They wouldn't dare," Jody said bracingly, still squinting at the phone.
"No, they wouldn't," Dad agreed begrudgingly. "But they won't talk to me either."
"Still," DJ persisted, unable to help himself. "Did you have to put them on that case? It sounds like a bitten werewolf; what if other hunters catch wind of it and turn up?"
"Dean," Dad said warningly.
"It's DJ!" he snapped back sharply; Noah shrank a little in the seat beside him.
"Kid's got a point, Donna," Aunt Jody intervened, glaring at dad and pointing her fork at DJ to indicate they ought to behave themselves. "It'd be awfully hard to stay off the radar of hunters looking for wolves when they are wolves."
"Sorry," DJ muttered out the side of his mouth to Noah as he slouched down into his seat.
"Those boys know how to keep a low profile," Donna said confidently, arching one eyebrow. "They've been hunting for what, a year now? And Garth never suspected a thing. They'll be fine."
"Mmm," Jody pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Won't it be hard on them, though, hunting their own kind?"
"Actually, that's probably the easy part," Dad said, taking a sip of his beer.. "The Grantsburg pack is different; they believe that human life is sacred, and they consider it a mercy to put down bitten wolves who are killing people. It's how they were raised. Hell, I believe it too. No one wants to live like that. Not really."
A tense, awkward silence descended over the table.
"Okay," Alex clapped her hands together, breaking it. "I think we've talked enough shop. Who wants pie?"