Work Text:
Waverly flicked through her keys as she walked towards Nicole's front door, hoping to let herself in quietly and find her girlfriend sleeping off her nasty cold. She'd even gone home and changed shoes on the way so that her loud, both in style and step, boots wouldn't cause any unnecessary disruption. She found the right key and turned it in the door until there was a soft click as it unlocked. There was a creak in the old wood as she opened the door, but she needn't have feared for waking Nicole, as the grating and painful sound of her spluttering in another room was practically shaking the walls. Waverly winced and still made sure to close the door softly, feeling the need to minimize the noise levels as her ears buzzed from the effect of Nicole's cough. "Nicole?" she called quietly when she saw no one on the couch, then slightly more contentiously when she spotted her in the unlikely and frankly baffling position of lying beneath the sink, toolbox by her side, "Nicole!"
Startled by her girlfriend shouting her name, Nicole sat up, sharply hitting her forehead on the underbelly of the sink above her and collapsed into a coughing fit. “W-Waves...,” she managed after a moment. “What are you doing here?” She sneezed and coughed a few more times, and then weakly lifted her monkey wrench back to the joint of the u-pipe she’d been fighting with.
Waverly dropped to her knees beside Nicole, her skirt riding up her thighs in the process. She put the back of her hand against Nicole's forehead and then against each of her cheeks. "Are you feverish? Hallucinating? Calamity Jane hasn't been speaking to you, has she?"
Nicole nudged Waverly’s hand away irritably. “Stop,” she said, as clearly as she could manage around the congestion in her sinuses. “I’m fine. I just wanted a drink of frickin’ water.”
Waverly removed her hand but didn't move away. "Are you crazy?" Admittedly, watching Nicole with her sleeves rolled up and getting to work with a toolbox wasn't beyond the realms of a fantasy or two she'd had, but there had been considerably less mucus in those scenarios. "You're barely in condition to even pour a glass of water."
“Stupid faucet was leaking,” Nicole muttered, refusing to be distracted from the task at hand. “So I went to turn the stupid water off and discovered that the stupid u-bend was leaking too so I... I... I....” She sneezed violently causing her wrench to slip from the pipe. Again. “Goddammit!” She slapped the tiles next to her hip. Nicole wasn’t one to hate. But she hated being sick. Such a waste of time, illness. She had better things to do. Stupid Nedley sending her home. She was fine. Fine!
"Nicole, get out of the sink," Waverly commanded like she was talking to a 2-year-old, or a drunk Wynonna.
“I’m fine, Waves,” she sighed, coughing slightly with the exhalation. “Let me just finish this.” She reached up with the wrench again.
"Nicole, I'm not asking," Waverly repeated, taking the wrench from Nicole's weakened grip.
Nicole’s empty hand fell by her side. She laid, unmoving, staring at the sink above her. She felt like hell, and she was past frustrated. She tried to take a steadying breath and sneezed again instead. “Waverly,” she said, as firmly as she could manage, “I am not –” COUGH “- an invalid.”
"You are sick, no matter how much you might hate to admit it," Waverly returned, "I was so happy when Nedley told me he forced you to go home, since at least you'll listen to him if not me. So now you're going to get that cute butt upstairs to bed before you unleash a seriously cranky Waverly."
Slowly, Nicole extricated herself from beneath the sink. The change in orientation from laying to sitting caused her head to swim and her vision to blur slightly. She sniffled and wiped her nose on her rolled up sleeve, too far gone to care if it was gross or not. Working to refocus she fixed her girlfriend with as firm a tone of gaze as possible - given that she couldn’t feel her face. “I can’t just leave the sink like this.”
"I'll fix it," Waverly replied evenly, "Then I'll bring you up water and the medicines I picked up."
A number of hazy options drifted slowly through Nicole’s sick-addled brain. Not the least of which was a feeling of dubiousness that Waverly even knew how to fix a sink. Still, the logic center of her mind was working well enough to advise her against making such a suggestion to her already pissed off girlfriend. Nicole realized she’d have to admit defeat. But she was going to do it on her terms. “Fine,” she said, grabbing a kitchen chair and hoisting herself up to standing position, “but... whoa—.” The world spun and she started to rock on her feet.
"Baby!" Waverly exclaimed in concern, wrapping her small but mighty arms around Nicole to steady her.
Regaining her equilibrium, Nicole attempted to pull herself up to her full height and gently push away Waverly’s grasp. “I’m fine,” she said, “just stood up too fast.” She sniffled again. “Look, I’m gonna take a shower, ok? Try to loosen this crap up.” She gestured generally at her face.
"You almost just collapsed, Nicole!" Waverly said with some exasperation, "You need to rest, properly rest."
“And I will rest,” she replied. “But I can’t rest if I can’t breathe. Please, Waves, just let me take a shower. It’ll help relax me. It’s what I like to do when I’m sick. Okay?”
Waverly relented, though not without throwing her eyes to heaven for a moment. "I'll help you upstairs."
This was another reason why Nicole hated being sick. She could not stand being coddled. She was an adult, for heaven’s sake. She knew Waverly meant well, but the implication that she couldn’t take herself upstairs made her skin crawl. “I can go upstairs on my own,” she said stiffly.
"And I'm sure you’d tend to your own gunshot wound if the situation really called for it Nicole, but you can still accept a little help every now and then too," Waverly replied pointedly, "From someone silly enough to care about you?"
Nicole softened slightly at that. “Fine,” she said, “you can help me upstairs. But please let me undress myself, ok?”
Waverly cracked a smile. "I don't hear that too often."
Nicole laughed weakly. “I’d like to keep some things for sexy time, if I can.” She tried waggling her eyebrows. She had no idea if she succeeded.
Waverly pondered the scrunched up face and the best she could figure was Nicole was holding in a sneeze. "Okay, let's get you upstairs."
“Okay,” Nicole agreed and trudged past Waverly into the living room. She was half-way to the stairs when she stopped suddenly. “Wait,” she said, eyeing the coffee table. “Those magazines...”
"I'll bring them up to you," Waverly reassured, "I'm basically offering servitude, Nicole, take it while you can."
“No,” said Nicole, “I don’t want them. I meant to recycle them last week.” She coughed again and sniffed. “And the laundry needs to be put in the dryer... and I haven’t cleaned Calam’s box yet today,” she groused. “You shouldn’t have to do all that, babe. Let me just take care of that stuff—” Nicole started for the magazines.
"Am I going to have to physically fight you upstairs?" Waverly replied, vaguely threatening, "Because honestly Nicole, I never thought it would have to come to this, but I think I could take you."
“I have to do these things, Waverly,” Nicole snapped, turning to face her. “I have to do these things because if I don’t do these things then all I will be able to think about is how these things aren’t done! And I won’t get any of the rest you want me to get!” She sneezed powerfully and was overtaken by another coughing fit that had her doubled over and clutching her sides.
Waverly caught Nicole again and held her steadily but with a gentle grip to not cause any unnecessary pressure or pain. "Baby, please," she said softly in Nicole's ear, "Can I ask you the biggest favor in the world? Could you trust me to take care of you and your home just until you feel a little better? Would you do that? For me?"
The fit subsided and, gasping slightly, Nicole tried to steady her breath. She looked up at Waverly from her bent position, feeling how heavy and irritated her eyes were in their sockets. This was a battle she couldn’t win. “Okay,” she said finally, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “Okay.”
"Thank you, baby." Waverly kissed Nicole's cheek, "Do you want to sit in the bath and turn the shower on?"
“Sure.”
Waverly brought Nicole upstairs and into the bathroom, leaving her to rest against the toilet with the lid down. "I know you want to undress yourself, so I'll just turn this on and let you get in while I go back downstairs okay?"
“Okay.” The fight had truly gone out of her. Nicole realized that what she suddenly wanted more than anything else was sleep. She looked over at the bathtub and it seemed a million miles away. Slowly, she lifted her hands to her shirt and started undoing the buttons.
Waverly turned the faucet to hot so the room would start to steam up. She glanced at Nicole but made sure not to appear like she was staring. "Are you okay?"
“I’m fine,” Nicole answered softly. She peeled the shirt off her shoulders and held it in a wad in her lap, staring off into space.
"Okay," Waverly replied, keeping her tone easy as actually fighting with Nicole was the complete opposite of why she came over, "Well, you know the code word if you need help..." She left the bathroom but hovered behind the door to listen.
Nicole stayed, unmoving, for several long moments. Her brow furrowed. Code word?, she thought, surely she doesn’t mean... Nicole smirked. If she wasn’t currently feeling like death warmed over she would have laughed. No, Nicole shook her head a little, she would definitely not be using their safe word in any context other than it’s intended purpose. She took in as deep a breath she could, and coughed. Again. Growling quietly in frustration, she tossed her rumpled shirt to the floor and continued undressing.
When Waverly heard movement again, she ventured back downstairs and approached the sink first. She rolled up her own sleeves and bent down underneath it. She'd had to attend to a beer tap or two in Shorty's absence and knew enough to get it back in order. It became a more necessary skill moving back to the homestead with the old pipes and the unwillingness of local plumbers to visit Earp ground. With a firm twist of her taut arm muscles the u-bend was back in place and water flowed nicely. "Take that, societal gender norms," she said with a proud nod of her head as she flattened her palms against her skirt. Calamity Jane appeared as she finished up and Waverly remembered to quickly change out her litter and give her a quick pet. "You've been staying out of the way. That's...probably wise." Calamity Jane meowed in agreement and snuck off again. Waverly went out to the laundry room to change the clothes into the dryer and brought the magazines out to recycle just so she could reassure Nicole that everything was as she wanted and maybe even get her girlfriend to let go long enough to get some shut-eye. She went out to find where she'd left her purse to retrieve the cold medicine and cough syrup and finally poured a large glass of water to bring it all upstairs. "Nicole?" she called on the way up, "You still in the bathroom?"
“Just finishing up,” Nicole croaked as she wrapped a towel around her body and tried to stop the uncontrollable shivering wracking her bones. The shower had helped. She’d managed to expectorate a grotesque amount of congestion but whatever relief she’d felt under the steam was quickly being replaced by a clammy sensation that rolled down her spine and across her forehead. She braced herself against the sink. “Wave...”
Waverly quickly placed everything in her hands on the nearest empty space of shelf and hurried over. "It's okay, baby. I've got you."
“Just got a little dizzy,” she mumbled. “Are you cold? It feels cold.”
Waverly smiled softly, just gently rubbing Nicole's back. "Well lucky I make you keep four blankets here, huh? Come on, let's get you into bed."
Nicole allowed herself to be led. By the time Waverly was tenderly pushing her down between the covers Nicole’s teeth were chattering.
"Oh baby," Waverly said under her breath as she rubbed Nicole's arms to impart some warmth before securing the blankets, "I'll be right back." She quickly got the medicines and water and returned to coax Nicole into swallowing the pills and cough syrup.
She swallowed the medication, wincing at the sensation of the tumescent tabs rolling down her sore throat. Looking back at Waverly holding a spoonful of cough syrup she adopted a pitiful expression. Did she really have to take that stuff, too?
"It'll make you feel better," Waverly encouraged, "I got bubblegum flavor."
Nicole couldn’t stop the expression of disgust that washed over her face. She literally felt herself turn green.
"What?" Waverly asked in confusion, "It's the best flavor."
“Waves, I can’t,” Nicole protested. “I’ll throw up.”
Waverly put the spoon down with a sigh. "Well what flavor do you like?" she asked, silently berating herself and trying very, very, hard not to think that Shae would know.
Nicole pulled the blankets up tightly under her chin. “Um, cherry? I guess,” she wheezed, trying to physically suppress another coughing fit. It wasn’t going well and she could tell by the increasing tickle at the back of her throat that it was going to be a doozy.
Waverly fussed with the blankets to make Nicole snugger. "I'll go get you some cherry. I can be back in fifteen minutes, ten if I step on it."
Nicole reached out and clasped Waverly’s wrist. “Wave... don’t go.” Unable to hold back any further she started to hack furiously.
Waverly scooted in closer and got her hand under Nicole's back to rub and help get it up. she plucked a tissue from the nightstand and held it to Nicole's face to catch anything. "Oh baby," she comforted.
Nicole curled onto her side, tucking her knees around Waverly’s back. The coughing subsided and she was left exhausted and, unusually for her, seeking comfort almost like a child would. She didn’t like being seen as weak. She didn’t like being fussed over. But, Nicole did have to admit, she was really sick and having Waverly here at her side was a comfort.
Waverly curled herself around Nicole, stroking her hair and back and murmuring comforting words. "Try and sleep Nicole. You'll feel better after sleeping."
“Stay until I’m asleep?”
Waverly kissed Nicole's temple. "I'll stay right here."
“Okay,” sighed Nicole. She finally let her eyes drift close, even as she continued to clutch at the sleeve of Waverly’s shirt with a loose grasp.
Waverly just stayed locked into Nicole, long after her breathing finally evened out. The cough syrup could wait another ten minutes.