November 27th, 2042
When DJ emerged from the bathroom the next morning, still toweling his hair dry, he found his dad leaning heavily against the doorframe and looking like he'd aged about a decade overnight.
"Good morning," he ventured cautiously; he could only imagine the hangover.
The older man grunted in response, eyes closed and brow furrowed as he shouldered past DJ into the bathroom to splash cold water on his face.
"Coffee?" DJ suggested kindly, offering his towel.
"Coffee," Dad agreed tiredly, accepting the proffered towel to mop up his wet face.
DJ made a pitstop in his room to shrug into a hoodie before ambling into the kitchen, where Jody was minding the stove while Donna sat at the dining room table with her head in her hands, moodily watching the coffee pot drip.
"Oh my god, are you making French toast!?" he exclaimed, peering over Jody's shoulder at the softly sizzling golden-brown squares.
"Yup; now scoot. I need elbow room to flip these," Jody replied, nudging him out of the way with said elbow.
He obediently shuffled sideways, opening and closing cupboards as he went, pulling down mugs and sugar and setting them next to the coffee pot in anticipation of the finished cycle.
"Get down a few more," Jody instructed without looking away from the stove, having plated the first batch of French toast and occupied with getting the second on the griddle. "Alex and the boys will be back for breakfast; and maybe Tyler, if he's not too worn out."
The coffee pot began to gurgle and hiss as he rooted around in the refrigerator for Jody's half-and-half, indicating that it was finally done. DJ poured for Donna first, and she accepted the steaming cup with a grateful whimper.
"I always forget I'm too old for this," she said pitifully, touching two fingers to her temple as she took a measured sip.
"You know where to find the ibuprofen," Jody said dispassionately, prodding at the slices she'd just laid out to cook. "DJ, would you bring the eggs and bacon over here, please?"
Dad came shuffling around the corner as DJ ducked back into the fridge, looking somewhat damp but significantly less disheveled. He made straight for the coffee pot.
"Oh, he lives!" Jody gibed. "Morning, sunshine."
He scowled at her, narrowing his eyes as he gulped down half the cup he'd just poured, sucking air through his teeth to cool his scalded tongue.
"Morning," he grumbled, turning to pluck the Advil out of the cabinet above the sink.
"Trade ya," Aunt Jody said to DJ, jerking her chin toward the platter of French toast as she took the egg carton and bacon package out of his hands. "Gotta get this stuff on the table while it's hot."
DJ's mouth started to water as he busied himself setting the table. Without being asked, his dad picked up the butter dish and a bottle of maple syrup, tucking the bottle of ibuprofen into the crook of his elbow and bringing it all with him to the table. Having safely deposited the condiments, he cracked open the painkillers and swallowed a small handful dry before shaking the container meaningfully in Donna's direction. She winced at the sound, but held out her palm for a substantial dose of her own.
"Something smells good," Patience said, yawning and stretching as she came into the room.
"Bacon," DJ said helpfully, a timely pop of grease punctuating his explanation.
Patience was still rolling her eyes and pulling up a seat when the front door banged open, admitting both of Alex's boys and a rush of cold air.
"Scrape your feet!" Alex bellowed from behind them. "I did not raise you in a barn!"
Tyler trudged tiredly in after his family, kicking the door shut and dusting snow out of his beard. He looked pale and worn, and he hadn't even changed out of his EMT uniform.
"Tyler!" Jody called from the kitchen. "Cup of coffee?"
"No thanks," he called back, stripping off his coat and gloves and scraping his feet obediently. "I need to wind down."
"Rough night?"
"You know how it is, sheriff," Tyler answered gruffly as he found a seat. "There's always a few morons who try to deep-fry their turkeys without defrosting them first."
Jody snorted a laugh while Donna made a face and hummed sympathetically. The conversation devolved somewhat after that, into stories of the stupidest calls the first responders had ever been out on, interspersed with a few of Alex's tales from the emergency room. In the meantime, Jody finished up with the bacon and eggs and gave the platters to DJ to set down in the middle of the table.
"Dig in," she urged, sinking into her chair with a relieved sigh.
"Wait!" DJ interrupted, hovering one hand over the steaming plates while he fished in the pocket of his hoodie with the other.
"Why are you taking a picture of the bacon?" Noah wanted to know.
"Okay, go ahead," DJ said, putting his phone away and sliding into his own seat.
His dad's contribution to the discussion were some of the most far-fetched excuses he'd ever had to come up with on the fly to excuse hunting injuries to hospital or clinic staff, which led to no small amount of speculation as to whether a few of the more preposterous calls the others had been out on might have actually been attempts to cover up or explain away supernatural events. The general consensus was that this was highly probable.
"Whew," Donna sat back in her seat, still chuckling. "We should do this more often."
"Yes!" Patience emphatically agreed.
"You boys should come up for Christmas, too," Aunt Jody said, looking between DJ and his dad.
"It'd be nice to see Claire," Dad allowed. "It's been awhile."
"I could probably swing that," DJ said, and his dad frowned.
"I thought you were going to your mom's for Christmas?" he said, quirking one eyebrow.
"Yeah, well," DJ cleared his throat and dragged a piece of French toast through a puddle of syrup. "Now she's going skiing with Mike in Colorado, so..."
His dad's frown deepened, but he didn't say anything else. He fiddled subconsciously with the ring he still wore, and Jody exchanged a meaningful glance with Donna, who asked:
"Mike? Isn't that the kid who installed her gutters last summer? I thought that was just a fling."
"He's not a kid," DJ mumbled, uncomfortable.
"Sweetie, he's half her age," Aunt Jody said, lips pursed in evident disapproval.
"Do we have to talk about this?" DJ groaned, giving up on pretending to eat and covering his face with both hands.
"I just feel like your mother is a little too old to be having a midlife crisis," Jody sniffed.
"Let the woman have her fun," Patience broke in. "Hell, it's not like this life is easy. You take whatever good you can get, sometimes."
"Would you feel the same way if she was a man dating a woman half his age?" Alex demanded, bristling a little.
"They're both adults," Patience responded blithely. "Age is just a number, especially if there's chemistry."
DJ felt like his face was on fire; he did not want to think about his mother's chemistry with anyone. His dad slouched in his seat, an absurd attempt to make himself seem smaller. Tyler was rubbing the back of his neck and looking anywhere but at his wife, who seemed intent on picking a fight with her sister. Blessedly, DJ's phone chose that moment to begin vibrating in his pocket.
"Thank god," he muttered, shoving his chair back from the table. Then, louder, "I gotta take this."
With his mother's love life providing sufficient cover for his escape, he ducked into the hallway and answered the call.
"You suck," Cass declared without preamble.
"I love you too, Cass," DJ replied, rolling his eyes.
"He gets grumpy before breakfast," Sam said, his voice muted slightly by his distance from the receiver.
"He sent me a picture of bacon!" Cass responded indignantly. "That means he's at Jody's, and Jody cooks like a boss."
"Really, dude? That's why you finally called me back?" DJ grumbled, letting himself into his borrowed bedroom. "Not the half-dozen voicemails or the twenty-odd text messages, but a picture of food."
"Don't be a clingy bitch," Cass chided. "We've been busy."
"Yeah, about that…" DJ said, flopping backwards onto the bed. "What the hell are you guys doing in Lincoln? Donna said she sent you to check out those attacks in Quad Cities."
"Goddamnit, Sam! I thought I told you to turn off your GPS!?"
"I did! I swear!"
Scuffling and tapping sounds indicated that Cass had taken the phone away from his ear to check it; DJ sighed as he waited for the other man to come back on the line.
"Okay, how did you know where we are?" Cass queried suspiciously.
"Relax," he answered lightly. "Patience offered to scry on you for me, but I turned her down. She taught me her tracking spell, though."
"Spell?" Cass sounded both confused and annoyed. "Patience is a psychic, not a witch."
"Eh," DJ shrugged, even though he knew the other man couldn't see him. "There's a lot of overlap. Anyway; why are you there?"
"You're awfully nosy," Cass groused, evidently not ready to give up on being offended.
"Cass!" DJ was gratified to hear Sam join him in nagging his twin.
"All right!" Cass snapped irritably. "There's a fucking psycho werewolf on a murderous rampage, okay!?"
DJ blinked. That did not sound remotely okay.
"Jesus Christ, Cass," Sam complained. "That's like, the worst possible way you could have said that. Gimme the goddamn phone."
There were scuffling sounds again, this time accompanied by grunting and cursing as the twins wrestled for the phone.
"Hey DJ," Sam panted into the receiver after a few minutes, evidently the victor.
"Hey Sam," DJ grinned in spite of himself. "So, psycho werewolf on a murderous rampage?"
Sam sighed heavily, and DJ could tell that the conversation was taking a sober turn.
"Cass was exaggerating, but not by much," he said grimly. "This guy is totally out of control; these crime scenes are brutal, dude. It's really fucking weird, though. The Duvals usually aren't this sloppy."
"The Duvals?" The name niggled at DJ's brain; he felt like he ought to recognize it.
"They're like the werewolf mafia. In Chicago," Cass supplied helpfully, voice muffled as though Sam was still pinning him.
"Oh; the purebloods," he said, remembering. "You think it's one of them?"
"No; like I said, they're not that sloppy," Sam continued. "But it has to be one of their turns; this guy can shift outside of the full moon, just like us. He started making kills during the waning crescent, and it was practically a spree during the new moon; we've been chasing him all over the place."
"Wait, how many kills are we talking?" DJ asked, sitting up.
"Six in Quad Cities; four each in Iowa City and Des Moines, two in Omaha, and one in Lincoln. There might have been more in smaller towns along the way, but we couldn't stop everywhere. We think he might have dropped another body in Hastings, though. We're headed there, next."
"Fuck," DJ swore softly.
"Yeah, fuck," Sam agreed. "Usually, the Duvals clean up their own messes; they don't like to draw a lot of attention to themselves. But they either totally dropped the ball on this one or they just don't fucking care."
"Couldn't it have been a different pureblood?" DJ spitballed.
"Not likely," the other man snorted. "They barely tolerate us up in Grantsburg, and that's four hundred miles away. Territorial sons of bitches."
"Well, he does seem to be running away from them," DJ reasoned, generating a mental map. "Do you think they turned him on purpose or by accident?"
"Oh, by accident, definitely; they're fucking eugenicists," Sam spat vehemently. "No, somebody botched a hit."
"We've gotta catch up to him soon, though," Cass interjected. "Full moon starts tonight; dude's gonna go nuts."
DJ made a face, remembering the last full moon.
"Have you guys eaten?" he demanded.
"Yes, mother," Cass drawled, and the eyeroll DJ imagined was epic.
"Well, sucks to be him then," DJ forced out, tamping down on his mounting anxiety. "Full moon gives you guys a boost, too."
"He'll never know what hit him," Sam said, too brightly, and DJ could tell that the positivity was mostly for his benefit.
"Just be careful," he warned.
They were all quiet for a few minutes, having run out of things to say.
"All right, this is getting weird," Cass broke in. "We'll talk to you later, man."
"You'd better," DJ muttered, and the call disconnected.
I'm so sorry about the long gap between updates! I've got the next couple of chapters plotted out, so you shouldn't have to wait as long for the next one!