Two chapters tonight since they're so short! Enjoy!
"I dunno, Sara. It does look pretty suspicious."
Gavin frowned at the simple text of the coordinates. He scratched at the stubble on his chin – he'd been on the road nonstop since the last time he'd seen the girls, only stopping occasionally at cheap motels for a nap and a shower. His hair was thrown in a bun and he had a recently stitched cut above his eye.
"I know, I know it does," Sara said nervously, afraid he'd keep them from following the lead. "But Gavin, it's our dad. I know it is. My powers have been going crazy since we got on the road – I can't go more than two hours without my eyes changing. It's gotta be a sign, yeah?"
"Or your own nerves," her brother replied. "If it's Da, why didn't he just appear to us? Or call?"
"He might be in trouble, Gavin," Sara begged. "Please, you've spent years trying to find him again. Are you really going to pass up this chance?"
Gavin sighed, running his hand over his face. "Why are you so attached to him anyway? He ditched you, and me."
"The same reason you've been looking for him," Sara reminded him. "He's family."
Gavin huffed, looking back at his truck. "Alright. Get your stuff."
Sara tried to keep from squealing as she ran to grab her backpack. Claire and Alex exited the convenience store, carrying bags of water and snacks. "So what's the verdict, Crowley Crew?" Claire asked. "We doing this or what?"
"We'll take my truck, it has more room," Gavin nodded.
"Awesome sauce. My turn to drive?" Claire started towards the truck.
"What? Claire," Gavin frowned, following after. "No, no, Claire –!"
Alex looked at Sara, offering a supportive smile. "Should be fun."
It was, for the first fifteen minutes. Then Claire and Gavin got into it.
"Do you have any idea what you're even saying?" Claire demanded.
"Do you?" Gavin retorted, gripping the steering wheel tightly and keeping his eyes on the road despite Claire's loud tone and angry movements.
"You seriously think that the Stones are better than the Beatles? That's wrong! It's un-American!"
"I'm Scottish!"
"Yeah, and from like, 1700! What do you know about music?"
"I've been here for three years! I think I've learned enough to know which bands are better than others."
"Obviously not, if you think the Rolling Stones are even slightly superior to the Beatles!"
"Are we there yet?" Sara groaned.
"No!" Gavin and Claire exclaimed together.
"I bet I can settle this," Alex said, pushing forward from the back seat and plugging in the aux chord. The Immigration Song bean to beat from the speakers. Claire and Gavin glanced at each other, before begrudgingly succumbing to the power of Led Zeppelin.
It was past midnight when they arrived in Hayden, AZ, each one as exhausted as the next from shifts of driving. The motel they got was old and about as dusty inside as it was out. They got two rooms, one for Gavin and one for the girls.
"Alright, let's get some real sleep and regroup," Gavin said as they stopped by their rooms. "We'll check out the coordinates in the morning."
They split up, each going to their rooms. Alex immediately set up her portable base, her tablets and laptops set up on her bed. Claire started stripping, mumbling about a shower, and Sara checked her phone again. No new messages. Sighing, she fell onto the small couch, curling up and rubbing her temples.
"You okay?" Alex asked, glancing at her.
Sara nodded, opening her eyes. She could feel the odd, burning sensation behind her eyes and her eyesight became significantly better.
"Headache?" Alex asked, moving away from the computers to sit across from Sara, who nodded as her eyes slowly faded back to their normal brown.
"Maybe you're like Harry Potter," Alex said lightly, and Sara smiled a bit.
"So you really care about him, huh?" Alex said after a minute.
Sara shrugged a bit, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them. "I didn't," she admitted. "For a long time, I . . . I was just so mad at him. My whole life I've been the freaky girl with a dead mum and a deadbeat father. Then when I left London and things got stranger and stranger, the only thing I could think of, could dream of, was being normal. But then Crowley showed up and . . . well, I guess I realized normal doesn't have to be my only option."
"But the demon part? It doesn't bother you?" Alex asked, tilting her head in genuine curiosity.
Sara shrugged. "The demons weren't the ones who tried to put a blade through me," she pointed out. "A demon isn't the one possessing Castiel and trying to attack us and quite possibly take over the world. Maybe things aren't so black and white, good vs. evil – maybe there's a grey area."
"I honestly never thought of it like that," Alex admitted. "I guess after getting away from the vampires I thought that if it wasn't human, it was bad."
"I get the feeling that's the case sometimes," Sara agreed. "But there are bad humans, too."
"You guys are getting way too deep for me," Claire said as she came out of the bathroom, hair wrapped in a towel. She pulled on a pair of pajama shorts and a t-shirt, pulled the towel off her head, and ran her fingers through her hair.
"I'm going to find a soda machine," she continued. "You guys want anything?"
"No thanks," Alex sighed, heading back to her bed to continue her research.
"I'm good too. I think I'll take a shower now, actually," Sara said, getting up and heading for the bathroom.
Claire shrugged and headed outside, finding a Pepsi machine outside. The only thing they weren't out of was regular Pepsi, and she had to kick the machine a few times, but she finally got it. On her way back inside, she paused outside of Gavin's room, hesitating. She knocked, and cracked it.
"You up?"
"Yeah," he said, sitting up. He had changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt and was lying in bed, a large book in his hands. He set it aside as Claire entered.
"Doing some light reading?" Claire asked, gesturing at the book and sitting on the edge of the bed.
He chuckled. "Just catching up on some history," he said, sitting up. "There is a lot of it."
"Wouldn't know," Claire admitted. "It's not my strong point. Alex and Sara are good at it."
"What are you good at?" Gavin asked, amused.
"Umm, mini golf," Claire said, thinking. "Puns. Nicknames."
Gavin laughed. "I don't know much about golf. What's the mini part?"
Claire blinked. "Oh, sweet lord. It's like, the best kind of golf."
"I'll be sure to try it, then," Gavin laughed.
"I'll pop your golfing cherry," Claire grinned. She rolled her soda between her hands. "So, the whole being shot several hundred years into the future thing . . . does it bother you?"
Gavin shrugged, looking thoughtful. "It did when I was getting used to things. I had no money, no home, and no idea how things worked. But once I got used to it all, I realized I'm much better off. I mean, at least in the future, I won't face an early, watery grave . . . hopefully," he added with a grin.
"But didn't you leave anything behind?" Claire asked, taking a drink of her soda. "A mom? Friends? Girlfriend?"
"Never knew my mum," he shrugged. "Most of my friends had moved on to start families, and girls . . . well, girls weren't particularly interested in the town drunk's soon."
"Yeah, I was a normal kid until my dad ran off, mom ran off, grandparents died, and the foster homes looked upon me with terror," Claire nodded in agreement.
"We're quite the pair, then," Gavin said, raising his eyebrows.
"Bonnie and Clyde," Claire said, taking another drink of soda.
"I don't know who those people are."
Claire choked on her drink. "Oh, honey," she coughed, standing. "You have the internet – get started" she said, pointing at his laptop. "There'll be a quiz in the morning."
