A/N: The wonderful Canon_Is_Relative asked: Soooooo what happened between the boys walking in in fed threads and Jody giving Donna "the talk" ... And them heading out to the impala... That necessitated them changing their clothes. and I wanted to write her something hot and funny and wincesty in answer to that, but somehow I ended up with none of those things and not very much of anything. Sorry.

Unbetaed, apologies for any mistakes.

Comfort

When they get back outside, Donna with a half-freaked, half-determined expression, Jody feeling fiercely proud and protective of her (because damn those maternal instincts will never die), the boys have already changed out of the fed suits and into their usual denim and plaid.

Dean is leaning against the wall next to the entrance, a jacket slung over his arm, his head resting in his hands. Sam is standing beside him, jacket crumpled in his fist, gazing at his brother, careful and dejected. He's saying something, quietly, and Dean shakes his head.

The sight makes Jody's heart clench. It reminds her of Alex, strolling around in an abandoned factory yard, a joint in her hand, her face bleak, and guilty, and defiant. Why can't those damn boys ever be fine?

More than anything, she'd like to sit them down after they've taken out the vamps and make them talk, but she already knows she's not going to do that. If there's one thing she's learned from living with a (brilliant, difficult, brilliantly difficult) teenage girl, it's not to push. Not that it was an easy lesson – there's nothing worse than to just stand by and watch, choking on an excess of love and faith, never knowing if it's going to be enough.

As soon as they notice her and Donna, the boys push themselves off the wall, assuming a more nonchalant posture.

"Done with pretending to me?" Donna asks, looking them up and down.

Sam glances down at himself and shrugs a little awkwardly, while Dean tilts his head and flashes a quick grin at Donna. "I hate those things. And when you go out there hunting monsters, you might as well get comfortable."

They start walking towards their car, shrugging on their jackets as they go, and it's so overly casual a move that Jody's once again reminded of Alex, slinking off with her head held high after they've had a fight, desperate to prove that she couldn't care less.

Staring at Dean's back, Jody thinks how all the denim and plaid in the world won't help make him feel comfortable in his own skin, and how that all too brittle grin was simply the self-loathing smile of someone who hates making jokes about monsters to an audience that understands it's not all one big joke.

She wonders how often the boys have had to explain the existence of monsters to unsuspecting people. She wonders if there's ever been a single instance where Dean didn't regret it.

She wonders how Bobby coped with those boys and all their guilt and regret.

Her suspicions of what's caused this sudden drop in Dean's and, consequently, Sam's mood are confirmed when Donna states, "It's the only lead we've got." Jody can see Dean glance up briefly at his brother before he turns to frown at Donna, and Sam immediately jumps into action. "We? All due respect, sheriff, but vampires are far more dangerous than the Johns you throw in jail."

"You're gonna sit this one out," Dean adds.

While it's lovely and sweet of the boys to worry about Donna's safety, and while it's lovely and sweet that Sam's worried about his brother and as anxious to give voice to Dean's objections as to his own, Jody's had it up to here this weekend with guys thinking women aren't capable, so she's opening her mouth to tell them to shove their stupid worries where the sun doesn't shine, when Donna says, "Stuff you, Dean, or whatever your real name is."

Jody wonders how she could ever have doubted that this woman could hold her own and grins. "Hanscum's good."

"Jody…" Sam interjects in an infuriatingly parental you-don't-know-what's-good-for-you manner, but Jody's not ready to have her Mom voice used against her, so she repeats in a no-nonsense tone, "I said she's good."

Sam and Dean look at each other, hold a short, silent conversation with their eyes, and cave in (the way they should), a little resigned, a little lost, a little weary (not the way they should), and that awful self-deprecating smile makes a fresh appearance on Dean's face. Suddenly, Jody is filled with a whole new wave of sympathy for Bobby. She hopes that she'll never spot an expression even vaguely similar on Alex's face – because that would mean she failed her utterly and completely.

You'll get through this, she thinks, climbing into the back of the car where Donna's already seated, thrumming with tension and excitement, and isn't entirely sure who she's referring to this time.