Chapter Text
Eustace opened his eyes after what felt like an eternity. The world in front of him felt far away and insubstantial as cigarette smoke.
Vaguely he registered he was at home with his wife and sister hovering nearby
"It's just not like him to go out and get drunk like this" Mary mused
"You don't think he takes after daddy with his taste for the sauce do you ?" His sister replied
"Dad wasn't an alcoholic. Mom kicked him out for having an affair with auntie Maud" Eustace replied. He stopped that was a secret he had sworn to take to the grave. His dad had made him promise never to reveal the truth about why mom kicked him out. The two women stared at him in shock.
"Wh..What the fuck?" His sister stuttered
Eustace's mind felt like his head was full of molasses but a small quiet part of his brain registered he was not meant to say that.
"I'm also not drunk" he continued calmly "I've been drugged" His sister snorted
"Yeah that sounds about right you are certainly on something brother of mine!"
/ I'm serious this guy took me and gave me something please help /
"You're not my sister they adopted you"
Nothing was coming out as he wanted all of the thoughts he kept safe in his head seemed to tumble out
"I don't know what you took but you need to leave right now" His sister snarled
"Come on chastity he's just drunk he'll sober up and tell us it was all a joke. He loves us really "
/ please help it burns /
"I don’t love you, Mary. I'm in love with Gary from accounting"
The two stared at him in disbelief
"Get out of our house!" Mary screamed
/ I can't stop /
"It's not our house I lost it to a loan shark a month ago to cover my debt"
"GetOut!"
/ help /
~*~
Wynonna cradled her coffee the warmth leech in into her hands warding off the biting cold. Since she had returned to Purgatory the weather could only be described as bleak. The entire town was preparing for what was being called the worst snow storm in living memory. Just one more thing they could thank Wyatt Earp for. She remembered from her childhood the bitterly long winters which plagued the town until her father's death. That night flashed into her mind, Wilas abduction still as clear in her mind as the day she was taken.
Alice will be another Earp heir not to grow up on the homestead. She thought sadly
She stamped her feet to get some blood flowing into the cold appendages, steeling herself before scuttling into the station where a bored Dolls was sitting with his feet up.
“what’s up boss?” she called as she hung her huge fuzzy coat up “you look …cheerful? Annoyed? Gassy? I can never tell” shooting her a disapproving look he pushed a note across the desk towards her.
Hi team,
Gone for comi-con back in a week
Hugs
Jeremy.
“Aww, I thought he was working on a revenant algorithm. I was looking forward to sending a few more revenant assholes to meet satan”
and take some of my anger out on them for various reasons.
“you know this means we have nothing to do” he replied
“what really?! I get the week off until Jeremy gets back?” she literally jumped a little at the thought of a week of no revenant hunting.
“well Bobo is in a well” Wynonna laughed “and the rest knowing you are out for blood they have all found rocks to climb under. So we can spend this time researching Bulshar” Dolls leant back in his chair in an effort to be as far away as possible when Wynonna realised she wasn’t really on holiday.
“WHAT! No uh no, I have earnt a week’s holiday! Even soldiers get downtime come on Dolls”
“Welcome to the Army of Purgatory where we are literally fighting demons. We don’t get time off or you know people die” He replied, deflating Wynonna threw herself in a chair petulantly.
You suck the fun out of everything asshole
“I'm no good at research” she whined
“did someone say research,” Waverly asked as she all but floated into the room followed closely by Nicole.
“yeah buzz kill here, instead of letting me have a week off he wants me to ….read,” she said with a shiver.
“come on Wy we can make it fun! Whoever gets through the most books by the end of the day wins!”
Why does no one see the importance of knowing about this guy? I wish I had gone to College there people actually like reading.
“and what would we be winning?” Nicole asked
Please let it be dinner
“uh the satisfaction of having read the most!” she replied. Everyone in the room groaned at the prospect.
~*~
Wyatt had always said Doc was a romantic stuck in a gun-slingers body, in another life you could have been a tortured poet he joked.
It may have been a joke but Doc truly was a romantic, he believed in soul mates and love all that hokum. However a life of lost romances and betrayals had made him wary, his heart closely guarded.
The one exception was Wynonna.
She had wormed her way into his heart one day at a time, he may not want her there but she was firmly entrenched.
Wistfully he remembered his parents married in secret to conceal their love from their parents.
Wynonna flashed unbidden into his mind.
130 years ago he would have courted her and been her husband within a month. But this was not his time things were not as simple as they once were. The situation with Wynonna was even more complex, it was impossible not to fall in love with the sight of her growing large with his child, but it was convinced in the passion of the moment rather than love.
The main issue he had was Wynonna’s blasé attitude towards romance and relationships. That and her literally stating her disregard for anything more than sex.
But she was constantly berating him for turning off his feelings.
But she kissed him in the woods.
But she and Dolls had a weird ...thing going on.
So many buts and no concrete answers
He had once alluded to Waverly that he knew his feelings but Wynonna did not feel the same.
It was like they were two ships passing but never quite meeting.
Well, he had just about enough of missing Wynonna Earp.
~*~
Eustace remembered little about his trek from his home to town but his hands were frozen and painful. His destination came into view… at least he thought it was everything was hazy and confusing. There was a man in front of the door stopped with his hand raised to the door. Lurching forward he all but threw his numb body against the stranger.
~*~
Doc was formulating a plan of action when a very frostbitten gentleman collapsed on him. The first contact with the man's icy cold skin stung a momentary burn on the Gunslingers' hand. Shrugging it off Doc dragged him into the station calling to the team
“a little help would be greatly appreciated!”
It was Wynonna who reached him first followed closely by Nicole, Waverly and Dolls
“friend of yours?” Nicole asked as Wynonna fumbled with his shirt, hissing as she touched his bare neck before continuing to look for a pulse. Nicole lifted one of his hands which was black and frozen sliding his sleeve up she tried to see the extent of the damage brushing the pink skin on his arm stung like an electric shock but she continued her work calmly. Waverly fussed around the unconscious man balling up her sweater for a pillow she lifted his head ignoring the sting when she touched his skin.
It was then that Dolls noticed the reactions to touching the man
“Stop! Stop touching him” he yelled
“he's dead anyway” Wynonna replied wiping her hands on her jeans.
“he stung you” he grabbed Waverly’s hand roughly looking at the red mark on her palm despite her protests.
“it was an electric shock Dolls not a stab wound” she growled pulling her hand away.
“I got shocked too” Doc suddenly blurted out quickly followed by similar statements from Wynonna and Haught.
“ok no one touches the body until we get the autopsy”
“paranoid” Waverly replied in a sing-song voice before slapping her hands over her mouth “I didn't mean to say that out loud! Sorry”
Nicole helped her girlfriend to her feet
“come on we need to go … make out in Neely's office” she was greeted with shocked expressions “I mean ...make out in Neely's office”
“yeah Haught I think we heard you the first time” Wynonna laughed as Waverly looked mortified before storming out of the room.
“I meant to get back to work! Waves wait!” Nicole called following her
“I think she is in Haught water” Wynonna joked and was greeted by Dolls deadpan, “I think I'm funny”
“I think you're better at killing than jokes darlin” Doc replied,
“yeah well you both suck!”