Work Text:
“But wait, it gets better,” grinned Nicole as she twisted in the driver’s seat of her patrol car to face Waverly more fully. They were stopped at the Frisko Freeze Drive-In, Purgatory’s oldest burger joint and the only one that still had carhops (on roller skates, no less). They’d ordered and were waiting on their food to be delivered. Nicole had suggested the stop on their way back to the cop shop after leaving a particularly frustrating crime scene earlier. Nicole had asked Waverly along as a representative of BBD (or whatever it was called these days. Jeremy had suggested ‘DFDD’ for ‘Dolls’ Freelance Demon Disposal’ but had been met with several snorts of derision). “So we, I mean, Laura, Christy and I were all at this music festival in Thessaloniki, Greece,” she went on, with the sort of energy one has when recounting a particularly hilarious anecdote, “and we decided we were going to camp out, right?”
Waverly nodded encouragingly as she watched Nicole's face light up even more, straining to hold back laughter. She didn't always get to see her girlfriend so animated, especially after a day like they'd just had.
“So the festival is at this park and in the middle of the park is a little lake,” Nicole explained. “Like, too small for it to be an actual ‘lake’ lake, but too big to be a pond? And the campsites are all around the perimeter of it. So we set up camp at the far end of the lake - it was all that was left - so we’re, like, two and a half football fields away from the stage and everything.” She paused to catch her breath and stop herself from laughing prematurely at the memory. “So it’s getting late and we’ve been hanging out with this group of Germans who are about midway around the lake. They’d brought their own beer! And Waves, it was... so good.”
"The Germans know their beer," Waverly concurred with her lips sloping up on one side as she too held back laughter, not wanting them to end up in wordless convulsions laughing at each other's laughter.
“They do,” Nicole exclaimed, agreeing heartily. “But it was super strong, at least compared to what we were used to here at home. So we got blitzed. At some point I was so gone that Laura and Christy had to practically carry me back to our tent. Which must have been a sight because I was almost a foot taller than both of them. I don’t remember any of this, I was totally black-out drunk, gone.” She shifted in her seat again and held up her hands in a ‘but wait, there’s more’ gesture. “So they tuck me in to my sleeping bag and tell me to ‘stay’ and apparently I zonked out immediately. So they head back out to party some more. They end up at another camp at the very top of the lake, nearest the stage and guess what?”
"What?" Waverly asked affectionately, more enamored with Nicole's story-telling than the story but curious to hear how it would play out.
“I was already there!” She said, laughter bubbling up from her chest. “And not only was I already there, they said it was like I had been there for ages. I was totally holding court with about twenty sauced Italians! Laura and Christy were convinced I’d teleported. Like, it was the only way they could figure how I’d gotten there before them. Plus, they were adamant they’d left me asleep. So basically, I have a drunken super power.” Nicole beamed, supremely proud of herself. It was her favorite story to tell of her backpacking days. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t shared it with Waverly until now. “Laura spent the entire rest of our time in Greece going on about it. Kept trying to get me drunk again to see if I’d pull a repeat. But Christy always stopped her from pushing too hard because we were ‘cultured’ now that we’d been through Europe and it was beneath us.” Nicole busted up laughing again. It had been so annoying at the time, but now it was just a fond and funny memory.
Waverly chuckled and reached out to run her fingers down Nicole's arms. "And I thought your drunk superpower was transforming into a puppy."
“That’s my ‘slightly schlitzed’ power,” she joked back, tangling Waverly’s fingers in her left hand.
Waverly dropped her head softly against the headrest, glancing to their conjoined fingers and then back up at Nicole. "When were you in Europe? Was that before or after Shae?"
“Before, by a couple of years,” Nicole replied easily. “I’d just gotten my undergrad, it was the summer before I started on my Masters.”
"I'm surprised you didn't come across Wynonna," Waverly joked in a way that didn't quite come across as 100% playful, "She was in Greece around that time."
“I’m not sure we ran with the same crowds,” Nicole quipped, but then she paused as she noticed Waverly’s ever-so-slightly disgruntled expression. “Hey...you okay?”
"Of course baby," Waverly replied with a soft smile, which was real if not a little jaded.
“Europe was great,” said Nicole, looking down into her own lap. “I mean, it was amazing, but... it was nice to be home when we got back.”
"Missed Beaver Buzz?" Waverly teased gently, glancing at the empty can sitting in the cup holder.
“And poutine.” She looked back up into Waverly’s eyes, her own twinkling with mirth and reassurance.
"And you hadn't even eaten my poutine yet," Waverly replied with an answering look.
Nicole grinned wolfishly, “Yours is the best I’ve ever tasted, baby.”
Waverly smiled and placed her palm on Nicole's thigh, just letting it settle there. "Do you still talk to those girls? I haven't heard you mention them before."
“No, actually,” shrugged Nicole, “I haven’t talked to either of them in... years.” She blew out a breath between her lips; it made a soft raspberry sound. “We’re Facebook friends still, but I haven’t actually talked to them. We don’t really have anything in common anymore.”
Waverly's brow crinkled. "But you shared so many adventures," she said with a bit of childlike awe escaping through her tone.
"Yeah," she replied, her voice lilting slightly, as though it begrudged her to make the concession. "But we were all so very different to each other. Once the trip was over, we all went our separate ways. Plus, there had been a lot of arguing while we were backpacking so... we were sort of happy to be rid of each other,” Nicole rolled her eyes. "None of us were dating," she added hastily, to clarify.
Waverly shook her head to herself. "It's always sounded so idyllic when you've described your travels...getting out there...seeing the world." She paused and gave Nicole a wry smile. "Sometimes I've been jealous of all of your friends, not because I thought you were dating...but because I wanted to be involved in something you looked back on with such joy."
"Well, I've only really told you the good stuff," said Nicole, "there was plenty of bad that I choose not to dwell on." A knock on the driver's side window startled them both. Nicole turned and looked to see a beleaguered carhop holding a tray of food. "Oh," blurted Nicole, spinning back around to roll the window down. "Sorry," she apologized, reaching up to take the tray and anchoring it to the lip of the window.
"S'okay," sighed the car hop, "enjoy." She skated off.
Nicole picked up the two wrapped burgers and read the wax pencil markings on top. "Your turkey-burger, m'lady," she said passing the sandwich to Waverly.
Waverly took the burger and held it in her lap, slowly peeling away the packaging. "Did you see everywhere you wanted to see?"
"No," Nicole admitted with a half-shrug. "We made it to Paris, but didn't get to the Louvre, or the Eiffel Tower. I mean, we saw it, kind of hard to miss, but we didn't go up in it." Her face turned down. It was still a sore spot. All because Laura hadn't wanted to be 'too touristy'.
Waverly was still gazing at her lap too, shyly preparing her burger to eat. There was nothing but the sound of paper rustling until she finally looked up again. "Maybe sometime we could complete the trip."
"I'd love that," beamed Nicole. "I think...," she paused gathering her thoughts. "I think that's why it's been so easy to leave that summer trip in that past, you know? Because it wasn't with people that I care about. Traveling with those two girls was more of a... a means to an end. It would mean so much more to share it with you. Because... because I know it would be an experience we'd get to share and look back on for the rest of our lives." She smiled coyly and fiddled with her burger wrapper.
Waverly knew an ear-to-ear grin was threatening to break over her face, so in a move only marginally more attractive than that time she blew peanut butter from her nose when her hot and sour soup splashed a little bit too enthusiastically in the bowl, she shoved the burger into her mouth and took a bite nearly matching the entire circumference of her cheeks. She realized her mistake almost immediately and tried to cover by looking out her window and chewing furiously. "Gweat burbur," she attempted to say easily while simultaneously trying not to choke; a feat of multi-tasking that was, unsurprisingly, awkward as all hell.
Nicole smirked and kept one eye on her girlfriend, for safety purposes - of course - as she took a bite of her bacon cheeseburger. "Mm," she intoned, agreeing as she chewed, "Mm-hm."
Finally Waverly regained control of her oral capacities and casually sat back in the chair, convinced she'd gotten away with it. "I don't want to just do you, you know? I want to do you, with you." She looked at Nicole in anticipation as if she'd made any sense.
Nicole chewed thoughtfully, rolling the words around in her head and trying to decipher them. Finally, when she felt she understood she said. " I want to do you, too. I want you to pick places and for us to go there. I'm actually a little jealous of you, too, you know."
"Well then you pick...I don't know where to go like you do," Waverly replied, shoulders slumping a tad, "Haven't gotten out much, you know."
"That's what I'm jealous of," she replied.
Waverly looked over and arched an eyebrow. "You're jealous of my small-town-hick...ness?"
"I'm jealous of your 'baby-eyes'," Nicole clarified. "I'm jealous of how you'll get to see things for the first time, and with someone you actually want to be with - I hope." She tacked on with a knowing grin.
Waverly said nothing, but reached over and brushed her fingers against Nicole's cheek. The tips of her fingertips loosely flicked some red hair away from Nicole's face and her fingers dragged along Nicole's jaw and off her neck again.
Nicole's eyes fluttered at the caress. She turned her head and kissed the center of Waverly's palm.
Waverly smiled softly. She brushed her hand against Nicole's arm before taking her hand back. "So if I get you drunk enough to teleport will we save on airfare?"
Nicole barked out a laugh. "I'd say we could try, but I really don't want to ever be that close to alcohol poisoning again." She took another bite of her burger.
Waverly quietly continued eating too. "It feels like big continent-jumping trips are nowhere on the horizon. Like everything else, we're kind of just...on hold."
Reaching over her shoulder to the tray still attached to her window, she grabbed the medium cup of soda there and took a pull off the straw. Passing the cup to Waverly she said, "Doesn't mean we can't make plans. Just means we have to allow for flexibility as to when we follow-through on them."
Waverly smiled from behind the straw. "Because we have time."
"We definitely have time," Nicole agreed with another toothy smile.
"I want to go where the ocean is warm," Waverly started to say, eyes lighting up in anticipation as Nicole's had in recollection, "I want to see places older than anything I've ever touched."
"Then we will," resolved Nicole, setting her half-eaten sandwich on the dash and reaching out to place a hand on Waverly's knee. "We'll go anywhere you want. Greece, Italy, Egypt, Spain... anywhere. We'll swim in the ocean and we'll climb the Pyramids. Or anything else you want to do or try."
Waverly grinned wickedly. "Can we join the mile high club?"
Nicole felt the blush rush up her neck from chest, settling in her cheeks. "Um, we could try," she swallowed self-consciously. "Although I'd really like to avoid having 'arrested by air marshal' on my record."
"Well then you'll just have to try and be quiet."
"I'm not the one with volume issues," she retorted, eyebrow raised cockily.
"You don't usually call it an 'issue'," Waverly retorted in a matching tone
"We're not usually bothering anyone other than Wynonna, and that's just sweet revenge for all the times she's interrupted us."
"Wait, are you thinking about my sister when we're...?"
Nicole's eyes blew wide open and her face took on the expression of a very confused and mortified puppy. "Oh my god, no!" She scrambled for an explanation. "It's more of an... after glow, smug-type, thought. Not during!"
Waverly clutched Nicole's arm gently. "Oh baby, you really think you're getting one up on her don't you?"
"Aren't we," she asked plaintively.
"Wynonna is very...sex positive," Waverly replied evenly.
"When it comes to herself, sure," countered Nicole. "But when it comes to us she's all, 'gross', and 'blech' and making gagging and puke-y faces."
"In front of you, maybe."
Nicole spluttered. "Wha? Bu... We....," she drifted off and then sighed. "Dammit."
"I'm sorry that sleeping with me has lost some of its appeal," Waverly said wryly.
"Oh yes," answered Nicole, with a forcibly neutral expression, "the only reason I've been sleeping with you was to annoy your sister." She exhaled and ran a hand through her hair, acting as though she'd come to accept a hard truth. "Guess we'll be embracing lesbian bed death sooner than later."
Waverly suddenly looked terrified. "Wait what's...what's lesbian bed death?"
Nicole laughed, covering her mouth with her hand to stifle the sound. "It's, it's nothing, baby," she giggled. "A myth, honestly."
"Is it another stupid thing straight people say?" Waverly asked with a sigh, "See, I wasn't a good straight even when I thought I was."
"A fact for which I am truly grateful," Nicole replied, placing her hand over Waverly's holding the soda and drawing both toward herself. She took a sip from the straw very slowly, maintaining eye contact with her girlfriend the entire time.
Waverly's eyes flickered to Nicole's lips and she felt her heartbeat start to speed up. "Is there a mile...or two outside Purgatory club?"
Chuckling, she relinquished her grip on the cup and sat back a little. "Not while I'm on duty baby," she answered. Suddenly the radio on her shoulder crackled.
"Haught, you still 10-7?"
"Speak of the devil," she sighed, reaching up and depressing the button on the side of the comm. "Just for a few more minutes, Linda," she said, "I'm finishing up now."
Waverly crumpled up her empty wrapper and stuck it between the cup holders. "Going where the danger is baby?"
"Well, hurry up," crackled Linda's voice, "Got a 10-14 and Lonnie is still out on a call."
Nicole's face took on a look of concern. Eyeing Waverly, she squeezed the button again, "Location?"
"Dray residence."
Rolling her eyes and sagging in her seat she said to Waverly, "only if 'danger' equals raccoons in garbage cans. 10-4, Linda. I've got to drop Miss Earp back at the station and then I'll head over. We're not far. I’m 10-8." She looked to Waverly again, "Sorry, baby. Duty calls."
"I understand," Waverly replied, though not without a sigh, "Can't date a sexy cop if they don't cop."
"Truer words," she sighed. Nicole lifted the tray from her window and stretched her body out far enough to set it on the top of a waste bin nearby. Rolling up the window she settled back into her seat, re-did her seatbelt and, checking that Waverly had done the same, turned over the engine. The patrol car roared to life. She backed out carefully and then turned the wheel, pulling back onto the road. She started running through the rest of her day in her mind. She'd deal with the 'prowler', which she was certain was just another raccoon. Then, back to the cop shop for paperwork until her shift was up. And then home. To Waverly. And to making plans.
Waverly didn't mind that she was going home to keep the bed warm until Nicole finished her shift. She already had plans to plan. And planning their future had become Waverly's favorite plan of them all.