Alex had learned to recognize Jody's "there will be no arguments and that's final" voice. She just wasn't expecting to hear her use it on a Winchester.
"Absoultely not," Jody was saying, and all three girls and Gavin could hear her from in the living room, even though Jody had taken her call out onto the porch. The girls were bored out of their minds from being on house arrest for nearly a week, and it was taking its toll on Gavin as well – he kept casting longing look out the window at his F150, desperate to get back behind the wheel.
Now, though, they were all concentrated on Jody's phone call.
"Sam or Dean?" Claire whispered.
"Dunno," Alex whispered back.
"I swear, I will come down there and kick your seven foot ass," Jody threatened.
"Sam," Sara and Alex said in unison.
"No, you listen to me!" Jody continued. "I am not just going to – would you let me finish? You're worse than the girls, you know that? As I was saying – I am not just going to uproot my entire life here and move to Kansas. I have a job here, you know that? In case you didn't notice the police cruiser and shiny badge that has the word 'sheriff' on it?" She listened for a few minutes, sighing heavily. "I understand the girls, but I can't, Sam. I'll have to talk to them about it first but I don't think they're going to like it. But . . . have you heard anything about . . . I see. No, I'm not worried, but she is. Because that's what you do, Sam, you worry about family – you should know that better than anyone. Yeah. Alright. And no lead on that Levithan? Alright. Well. Finish cleaning up Bobby and Rufus's mess and then stop by here. We'll talk then. Okay. Be careful. You, too." She hung up, and the girls and Gavin scrambled to look busy, grabbing for phones or books or the TV remote as Jody entered.
Jody looked around the room, frowning, and sighed. "I'm not an idiot, you eavesdroppers."
"What're you talking about?" Claire feigned, flipping a page in her book.
Jody scowled. "That book is upside down, Claire."
Claire glanced at the book, hesitated, and looked back up. "You mean this isn't my Swedish textbook? Coulda fooled me."
"So what was that about?" Alex asked, fiddling with a string on her jacket.
Jody took a deep breath. "The boys want to move you girls."
"I told you," Sara told her siblings.
"You knew?" Jody frowned.
"I guessed. I'd be willing to bet my father made the arrangement with Sam and Dean about moving if anything ever happened. I'm pretty sure he doesn't trust me to not be a complete and utter moron."
"That's what dad's do, worrying about their kids being morons," Jody pointed out.
"Coulda fooled me," Gavin replied, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. "When I was a lad he was always telling me I was a total moron."
"That's awful," Claire said.
"Got used to it," Gavin shrugged.
"And where exactly were the double mint twins planning on moving us?" Claire asked, frowning and crossing her arms.
"To their bunker, presumably. Lucifer can't get in and it's in a safe place, warded against – well, everything. Even humans apparently – something about cell phone scramblers, I don't know."
"Well, I'm not going," Claire said, picking up her book and pretending to read even though it was still upside down.
"I don't know," Alex hesitated. "It might not be such a bad idea. Sam and Dean have a pretty good set up – I could run tech while they're out in the field, tracking Lucifer and this Darkness stuff."
"Seriously?" Claire put her book down, rolling her eyes. "You just want to play with the grown up toys. Besides, how do you know what they have in the bunker?"
Alex flushed bright red. "I just, I mean, I just assumed . . ."
"If I turned myself over to Lucifer, would this all be over?" Sara asked nonchalantly.
Everyone stared at her, stunned. Then, everyone started talking at once.
"What, are you nuts?!" Claire exclaimed, jumping up.
"Do you have any idea what Dad would do if he found out you even considered that?" Gavin snapped.
"It's not going to work like that," Alex agreed.
Sara jumped, startled, when Jody grabbed her shoulders, gripping them tightly and looking into Sara's eyes with fear and anger.
"Sara, you look me in the eyes and you promise me you won't ever even think of doing that ever again!" Jody said, giving her shoulders a little shake. "Promise me right now!"
"Okay, alright, I'm sorry," Sara said, frightened. She'd never seen Jody so . . . passionate. It was almost comforting.
"Letting yourself get caught would solve literally nothing," Claire agreed. "Look, if it'll help get the devil outta Cas, I'll go to the Bunker."
"Me, too," Alex agreed, and Sara nodded.
"I'll be able to get back out there and hunt if the girls are safe," Gavin agreed. "This is the best option."
"But what about you, Jody?" Claire demanded, and everyone looked at her.
Jody shook her head. "I've got a job to do, kiddos. Town needs a sheriff. Besides, Lucifer doesn't even know who I am. I'll be perfectly safe." She looked at her watch and sighed. "Well, get some things together, then – Sam and Dean will be here in the morning."