Work Text:
Writing prompt for an anon on Tumblr: Prompt #43 - "I'm not going to lose you again!"
Future fic. When Bulshar comes across Bobo and Waverly, Bobo has to make a decision if he's going to protect his angel or himself.
Lose You
It had all happened in a blur of chaos, like everything in their lives.
One minute she had been sure he was evil. Absolute, pure evil that could manipulate a child to help him attack her family, steal her sister away, and bring about every ounce of pain that they'd felt. That certainty had overshadowed any goodness, any fond feelings that she had had for him and it had given her the will to push those memories down that countered that understanding… even if they crept up and in and around like a reminder that this whole situation might not be as straight forward as she was trying to make it.
Then Doc had told her that Bobo had offered her to Clootie and she'd felt a sense of confirmation. She had been right to distrust him when she saw him with the Widows, even if he'd just helped her to bring Wynonna back.
Things were never that simple when it came to Bobo Del Rey though. There weren't just two sides to a story, but many. They were broken and fractured, making it very difficult to tell what game he was playing at or whose side he was actually on, but then he'd fought free of Clootie's hold and he and Wynonna had made their deal. He was going to help them. If Wynonna was willing to end Clootie - Bulshar - once and for all, he was willing to help them finish what he and Wyatt had started so many years before.
Waverly hadn't trusted him right away. How could she? The fact that a part of her wanted to was beside the point. It was childish and naive, just as she had been when she'd slipped through the fenceline to go play with her so-called imaginary friend. In the weeks that he'd worked with them she found herself remembering those days and the way he had hoisted her up on his shoulders and paraded her around until she nearly fell from her perch giggling. Or the way he'd pulled her from the icy lake and wrapped her up in his coat to make sure she was safe and warm. Or how they'd sat together at the fenceline and she'd told him about how lonely she felt and he'd promised her - he had promised her - she would never be alone. As long as she wanted him, he would be right there with her.
She had started to see glimpses of what she remembered in him, but she hadn't quite let herself trust. Not yet. She had pushed him away on the rare occasion he tried to reach out, she had done everything that she could not to let the brief flash of real emotion in his eyes make her heart ache. He had been her very best friend once and she didn't dare risk that kind of attachment again if it hadn't been real.
And then Clootie had come to make good on the promise Bobo had made while under his influence, and instead of giving Waverly up to him he'd put himself between her and the demon. Bulshar had reached out, power ripping through the air, and Bobo's boots had left the ground as he'd been lifted into the air, his entire body rigid and his scream echoing across the space.
There was nothing Waverly could do as she'd seen his eyes flash red, deep and dark and angry, and that last strip of dark hair on his head turn white as the demon set him down, crumpling and twitching at the dark power that had rushed through him, and when he rose he wasn't the man she'd hoped was real. Clootie had him again.
This wasn't fair. He had given himself up to protect her and now he snarled, a sick smile twisting his lips as he watched her, tilting his head. His eyes were red. They remained red. She'd never seen a Revenant so fully possessed. So void of anything less than evil. It wasn't fair. This wasn't him, and somehow it had taken seeing him like this for her to know for sure that the man she'd known as a child was how he should really be.
"Run along, Little Sister," Bobo said, his voice low and vicious. "The deal won't last long."
The deal. Him for her. That had been the deal he'd struck with Clootie. He would give himself willingly if Bulshar would let the youngest Earp sister run.
Her vision blurred and she balled her fists at her side, digging her boots into the soft ground. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Stupid child," he growled. "Go."
He was there. She could hear him just behind the violence and the cruelty of his tone. He was trying to get to run. Trying to save her one last time, but if he could do that then he wasn't entirely gone. She could still save him.
Tears slipped down Waverly's cheeks as she took a determined step forward. She didn't have any backup and this might be the biggest mistake of her life, but she wasn't going to leave. She'd lost him once. When her daddy had died, when Willa had been taken, and Wynonna had been committed, Bobo had stopped coming to see her. She'd lost everything in one fell swoop, and she had hated him for it. Part of her had hated him enough to convince herself it had never happened. Not really.
But it had, and this man that had been there for her when her own daddy never needed her now. No matter how complicated it was, he was her friend. Somehow he always had been.
"I'm not losing you again!" Waverly screamed, her voice cutting through the air and a sob escaped her as she found herself directly in front of him now. She could feel the darkness coming off of him in waves, but he was fighting it. He was trying. For her. And if he was going to fight for her, she was sure as hell going to fight for him. It was passed time that someone did. "I'm not losing you again. You don't get to make that choice for me again."
He was frozen in his place, his expression taught as she stood in front of him. She must have looked like a mess with the way the tears were streaming now and she could hear Clootie whispering through the air. He stood back, though, waiting to see what his would-be servant would do.
Waverly swallowed hard, her voice still cracking as she spoke. "You protected me. You made sure Willa didn't drown me and that even if Daddy forgot my birthday that you wouldn't. You listened to me and let me drag you into tea parties and woodland princess games and…. It's my turn. It's my turn to be here for you. Just…" She squeezed her eyes closed, but when she opened them she reached out, her hand outstretched to him. "Just don't go. I don't wanna lose you again."
Bobo faltered, the darkness around his eyes fading and the hue shifted back to their natural blue. He loosed a pained breath, shoulders hunched forward and he looked like he might fall towards her. "Angel," he breathed. "I can't. He'll take you."
The gunshot went off, startling both of them, and Bulshar jolted at the shot. It hadn't made contact, but it was enough to send him skulking backwards. Waverly whipped around to see Wynonna standing on the hill just a few yards away, Peacemaker aimed and a deadly expression on her face. Doc, Dolls, and Nicole stood with her, all armed and ready for the fight.
"You want to live today, Bulshar, you leave without them. Both of them," Wynonna warned dangerously.
Waverly looked back to see Clootie slipping back. He was outnumbered and perhaps even outpowered without Bobo fully on his side. He hissed a threat into the air and Bobo shuddered at it, pitching forward suddenly and Waverly caught him, not quite able to keep him on his feet but she sank to the ground with him.
He struggled to pull air into his lungs, blue eyes unfocused head of him and Waverly reached a tentative hand forward to his arm. "Hey?"
That drew his attention and he clicked his teeth, clearly struggling to regain control. "Yeah," he breathed out.
"You with me?"
"Yeah."
"You okay?"
There was a pause there, a flash of pain deeper than she'd ever seen from him before in his eyes and he closed them. "You shouldn'ta stayed." His gaze flickered up and behind her to Wynonna. "You shouldn'ta come."
"Tough," Wynonna huffed. "You know, when you told us you were on our side and we accepted that, that meant we were on yours too. We don't leave people behind. Even asshole Revenants."
Waverly shot her a look and her sister shrugged. Bobo was staring at them both, his expression confused. The younger Earp sister offered a smile and reached forward, latching her arms around his neck in a tight hug that left him rigid. "What Wynonna's trying to say is…. You're stuck with us."
He didn't relax, didn't even return the embrace, but as Waverly released him she saw a very tentative sort of acceptance in his gaze. They all had a lot to prove to each other, but she knew one thing for certain: she wasn't going to lose him again. Not if she could help it.
Notes: I have several themes that I'm hoping to see in S3, and one of those is that Wynonna and Waverly both choose to trust Bobo. Even when it gets difficult, they stick it out with him where he doesn't feel like anyone else has.