Chapter Text
“What could be taking so long?” Nicole demanded, wringing her hands together. She glared at the door to office, willing it to open. She’d expected to hear screams, and see flashes of light. The silence was worse.
“Here.”
Nicole turned toward Wynonna’s voice, reaching mechanically to take the to-go cup she offered. The coffee nearly scalded her tongue, but she didn’t care. Even the small distraction was welcome as she continued pacing every available inch between Nedley’s office and the back room.
“Sorry it’s not stronger.” The smile Wynonna offered almost made Nicole laugh. She breathed a chuckle, remembering walking in on Wynonna that morning as she was hurrying to clean up what had been a bottle of whiskey.
“Stupid kid!” Wynonna griped, using a towel to mop up the quickly spreading liquid. Waverly had quickly left the room to get an actual mop while Nicole moved into the kitchen to help Wynonna gather the larger pieces of glass.
“ What happened?”
"The punk kicked me!” The elder Earp gestured toward her stomach.
“ The baby kicked?” Waverly asked, coming back and getting to work.
“ Right on my bladder!” Wynonna confirmed. “I was grabbing this—for Doc—” she was quick to reassure them, “and then I was nearly peeing my pants, and it slipped.”
Nicole had had to fight the urge to laugh out loud. Of course Wynonna’s baby would already be able to recognize alcohol. Though if the little one could already make such a big mess, Nicole didn’t want to imagine how much work the three of them were in for. She flushed a little at the idea that she’d be allowed to stick around that long. Unconsciously, her eyes slid to Waverly, wondering if her girlfriend was picturing that far ahead.
“We’ve done the ‘stronger’ thing. Twice.” Nicole grimaced, coming back to the present with the less-than-pleasant memory of the wicked hangover she’d suffered through after their trip to Pussy Willows.
“So young and innocent,” Wynonna smirked. “Adorable too.”
Nicole opened her mouth to retort that hitting a power box from across the room while seeing at least two of everything should count more as bad-ass than adorable, but something scraped against the office door, and the words died on her lips as both she and Wynonna froze. They waited, staring at the door handle for a long minute.
“Still nothing,” Nicole muttered. Wynonna wandered across to the door, listened for a moment, and then settled onto a nearby bench. Almost before she’d sat down, she was readjusting. Eventually she ended up on the floor, leaning back against the wall.
“It’ll be okay,” she reassured the still restless officer.
“How do you know that?”
“Because Jeremy is scared of Dolls, and Dolls cares about Waverly too. Bad at showing it, but whatever.”
The logic was simple, and sound. Still, Nicole had never been good at sitting on the sidelines, especially when someone she loved was involved. She was much better at the “protect and serve” and “put yourself in danger to save others” than the “wait patiently while your girlfriend goes through who knows what.” She wanted to break down the door, and only the idea that she might interrupt some extremely delicate, super important…thing kept her from following through. She grasped the ring on her left hand, rubbing at the cool metal to help get herself under control.
“Haught!” Nedley’s voice surprised them both. “What are you doing here on your day off?”
“Waverly needed something from the other office, sir,” Nicole replied, attempting a casual shrug. She wasn’t sure how much he was supposed to know, so she decided to be vague and leave any further explanations to Dolls. The sheriff didn’t seem too keen on knowing what happened in the commandeered part of his station, so Nicole didn’t think he’d press her. All around, it seemed like the best plan.
“Earp? What are you doing on the floor?”
“Making you ask questions,” Wynonna retorted, raising an eyebrow at her sometimes nemesis.
They stared at each other until Nedley cleared his throat and moved away. Nicole thought she caught something like “don’t know why I bother” but she wasn’t quite sure. She watched her boss disappear into his office, and forced herself to sit down. It was one thing to try and wear a hole in the floor while only Wynonna was around to witness it. If Nedley saw, not only would it spark more questions than Nicole wanted to answer, but it might affect her work life as well. She took another sip of her coffee, and, discovering that it was quickly losing its heat, chugged it down. It was neither strong, nor particularly tasty, but it gave her something to do. When the liquid was gone, she fiddled with the empty cup: removing the lid to stare inside, twisting the cheap plastic into various shapes—just to see how flexible it was—dragging her blunt fingernails against the outside of the cup in meaningless patterns. She eyed the trash can sitting about ten feet away, and was just considering how elaborate a shot she could feasibly make when Wynonna shot to her feet.
“Gotta pee.” She hurried around the corner. After a moment’s consideration, Nicole followed the nearly waddling woman, hurrying to open the door before Wynonna could get there.
“Such a gentleman.”
They wandered inside the bathroom, and Nicole leaned against the further of the two sinks while Wynonna squeezed herself into the middle stall. It probably didn’t need to take as much effort as Wynonna expended, but it was amusing.
“So…” Wynonna drawled, her voice echo-y and tinny in the strange acoustics.
“Is this awkward?” Nicole asked. She’d grown up in a small house with a big family, so sometimes usual social boundaries didn’t register until it was too late.
“A little,” Wynonna confessed. “But I understand not wanting to be alone.”
Nicole rubbed her eyes, wishing that Wynonna hadn’t seen through her so easily. Sure, she was right, but it seemed pathetic to be so transparent. For her part, Wynonna sat on the toilet, wanting to say something, but not quite sure what. She thought back to the long nights after her father's death, remembering how loud the silence roared in her ears as all the self-recriminations competed to drown her. That situation wasn't even close to this one, but the elder Earp wondered if Nicole was struggling against darker memories of her own. She cast around for anything to break the silence between them, considering and discarding several ham-fisted attempts at talking about their emotions. That wasn't her strong point anyway.
“Tell me the least interesting thing about you.”
“What?” Nicole laughed, taken aback by the request. Wynonna stayed silent, waiting for the answer. “Okay. I guess it’s that I graduated high school right on schedule.”
“That makes one of us.” The toilet flushed and Wynonna emerged from the stall. She moved to wash her hands at the other sink. Nicole cursed internally for not considering that what seemed mundane for her, the things she’d taken for granted, could be someone else’s pipe dream.
“What does Dolls expect to find?” she asked, trying to divert the tension she’d caused.
“Hopefully nothing.” Wynonna dried her hands and then exited the bathroom. Nicole followed. The office door opened just as they came back around the corner.
“Waves!”
The brunette smiled shakily, reaching out for her girlfriend. Nicole hugged her tightly before holding her at arm’s length and checking for any sign of injury. Impatient, Wynonna cut the examination short and collected her sister for a hug. They swayed back and forth a little, unintentionally inching further away from the still nervous officer. Nicole tore her eyes away to meet Dolls’s gaze.
“So?”
“Everything checks out,” he assured her.
Jeremy skidded around the corner, an unfamiliar instrument in his hand. “Hey, could we—” When it lit up, his words died. Following its direction, his eyes came to rest on Nicole. He moved the device, pointing it at Waverly and Wynonna. The light almost disappeared, sinking into a weak, barely perceptible flicker. He pointed it at Dolls. The light pulsed, slow but steady. Taking a deep breath, he pointed it at Nicole again and the indicator blazed to life.