Work Text:
“Waverly,” said Nicole, looking up from her smartphone, “why doesn’t Purgatory have a movie theater?”
“Hmm?” Waverly raised her head from what she was currently doing, which was spreading jam on toast points. And not just any jam. She’d finally located someone who carried her hard-to-find favorite, gooseberry jam, and had waited until weekend brunch to indulge. Handing a slice to Nicole, she said, “Here, try this.”
“A movie theater,” repeated Nicole. “It’s a small town but it’s not that small, right? You’d think we could support at least one little theater here, but no, gotta drive to the city and the mega-screen multiplex.” She took a test-sized bite. “Oh, my. Waverly. That’s really good.”
“See?” said Waverly, her nose wrinkling with a delighted smile.
“Mm. Kind of like blackberry but - even more so,” sighed Nicole, her eyes closing for a blissful second bite.
“We had a theater, once. Burned down under mysterious circumstances twenty years ago,” said Waverly. “I remember when I was a kid, there was a ‘Bring Back The Moviehouse’ campaign, flyers and posters and stuff, but it went nowhere. They eventually tore down and rebuilt the whole block, it was where Fong’s is now.”
“Really,” said Nicole.
“I doubt we’ll ever have a theater again, most people get by fine with Redbox or video streaming,” finished Waverly, frowning. “Or whatever the heck replaced Redbox.” She resumed her quest to unearth the perfect jam-to-toast ratio. She’d have to find a source for fresh gooseberries next season, she thought. They could be difficult to track down some years but oh they’d make a spectacular torte.
“That’s too bad. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think some movies are worth seeing on the big screen, with a kick-ass sound system,” said Nicole. “Besides, I don’t want to wait for DVD or streaming.”
“Me neither,” said Waverly. “I heard Gal Gadot is amazing.”
“Okay, then. Let’s drive in and see it. Tonight, or tomorrow?” Nicole picked up her smartphone again with her jam-free hand, scrolling for showtimes.
“Tonight,” grinned Waverly. “It’s a date.” She really liked saying those words, and the smile they brought to Nicole’s face.
*****
Tickets, popcorn, drinks and a box of Red Vines for Waverly were all duly procured, and they had settled into their seats. Waverly’s phone chimed, for the first time. The incoming text notification was quickly repeated a couple more times.
“Better put that on silent,” Nicole said, leaning towards Waverly. “Who’s spamming you, anyway?”
Waverly pulled the phone out of her purse and unlocked it, glancing down at the screen. “Wynonna. She and Dolls are checking out something near the old Harris ranch.” She scrolled, and added, “She wants to know if you’re with me.”
“Do we need to worry?” asked Nicole, her brow lightly furrowed.
“No, don’t think so,” said Waverly, tapping out a short reply as the lights dimmed in the theater. She shut off the phone’s screen, slipping it into the inside pocket of the lightweight jacket she was wearing in the chilly auditorium. Then, smiling, she snuggled down in her seat, leaning into Nicole and wrapping her hands around her bicep, as the silver screen illuminated in front of them.
They whispered silly snarky comments to each other, giggling, as the interminable parade of promos and previews and advertisements rolled by. The phone chimed again. “Crapalicious,” said Waverly. “I forgot to silence it.” She read the text, murmuring, “Might be something, after all. She says they’re okay though.” She silenced the phone, and put it back in her pocket, just as the ‘Feature Presentation’ card flashed onscreen.
*****
The movie unfolded, the images lush enough to take Waverly’s breath away. She sighed and threaded her fingers with Nicole’s, popcorn and drinks and the theater around them fading from thought. She found herself tensing up during a dramatic fight training sequence, squeezing Nicole’s hand a good deal harder than she meant, and laughed at herself a little for getting so carried away. She glanced up at Nicole.
Astonishing.
Nicole was transfixed. Her eyes were wide and glowing in the reflected light of the screen, and her jaw was dropped slightly open in plain awe.
Waverly just stared at her enraptured girlfriend for a moment, before her own eyes drifted back to the screen, and the story. A stray thought lodged in the back of her mind: if her own self was affected deeply by this movie, how must Nicole feel, a woman who was not just past the verge of discovery, a woman who had been open and unapologetic about herself for years. Seeing female images of strength and wisdom and grace, and so many of them, was probably more than simply entertaining - it was affirmation in a way that did not frequently happen.
Waverly leaned gently into Nicole’s shoulder, drinking in the movie, drinking in her girlfriend’s happiness.
*****
Over an hour into the film, her phone started buzzing. A lot.
“Sorry,” mouthed Waverly to the woman sitting one row behind her, who was frowning mightily as Waverly tried to discreetly check messages.
She wasn’t sure what the glaring woman hissed at her next, too quiet to completely catch - it might have been ‘turn it off’ or maybe it was ‘shit, enough’ - because Nicole was whispering in her ear, with her lowest voice. “Distracting, Waves. What’s up.”
“Wynonna needs me to bring her a thing,” whispered Waverly.
“A thing?” Nicole raised her eyebrows.
“Jeremy made a sonic device thingy that, well, neutralizes whatever they’re chasing,” Waverly replied.
“Why doesn’t Jeremy give it to her?”
“Because I made Jeremy give it to me.” The woman behind her hissed again, shut up, a little louder this time.
“Should we…?” asked Nicole.
“After the movie,” said Waverly, sinking lower in her seat, trying to make herself immune to the unknown woman’s displeased glare. It wasn’t like she wanted to be making a fuss. That other person didn’t need to be quite so rude about it.
*****
It wasn’t much longer until Nicole’s phone lit up, first with an incoming call, then multiple texts. She’d silenced the device, at least, but they both caught the light from it in their peripheral vision, since Nicole had stuffed it in her shirt front pocket as well.
Waverly’s small prayer that she would ignore it went unanswered. Nicole pulled out the phone, trying to shield the light from it with her hands, but Waverly could still lean over and read the screen:
[Wynonna]: tell Wav we need it
[Wynonna]: now
[Wynonna]: wtf
[Wynonna]: GET HERE
Nicole looked at her, and Waverly sighed and gave a tiny nod. They were going to have to abandon the movie after all. Goddamn Earp curse.
Then, Nicole started to stand, to try that crouched-over walk to the aisle that wants to be unobtrusive but utterly fails. Waverly grabbed her sleeve and hauled her back down. “You can't leave now,” she hissed, horrified.
“But Wynonna - “ Nicole began to argue at a whisper.
“It’s the No Man’s Land scene. SIT DOWN.”
*****
“So, where are we going?” Nicole pressed her lips into a thin line as she threw the car into drive, crisply merged into the sparse westbound traffic and started weaving her way past slower vehicles. They’d waited a couple more minutes for a lull in the movie before making their escape. After the big fight scene in the town square, they had their chance. Nicole had murmured ‘sorry - work emergency - sorry’ the whole way as she climbed and stumbled over movie patron’s legs to reach the aisle, Waverly scampering in her wake.
“Wynonna, um,” said Waverly, rapidly scrolling through her messages. “She says they’ve got it cornered. They’re south of the old barn on the Harris spread. An outbuilding? Oh! The pump house. I know where that is.” She squinted as she looked up, orienting herself. “You’re going to turn left on Range Road 31. Where the fire station is. There’s a gravel road when you get to the end of Braemar. Take that for about two klicks.”
“That’s not far,” said Nicole, stepping on the gas. “I can get us there in fifteen.”
*****
Thirteen and a half minutes later, as they crested a small rise on the gravel road, Waverly spotted Wynonna and Dolls, picked out by the glare of the headlights. “There, over there,” she said, pointing through the windshield. Nicole nodded.
Dolls spotted them as well, waving his arms wildly to indicate where he wanted them to park. Nicole pulled close and brought the car to a hurried stop, gravel rattling in the wheelwells. Waverly was out practically before the car came to a halt, carrying a gray-black box she’d fished out of her purse.
“Here! Sorry! Sorry,” she said, handing the cube over to Dolls.
“Got it,” he said in his brusque way, and then he was setting up the device on a little platform he’d already prepared. Waverly retreated to the car, moving to stand by Nicole’s side, who was slightly crouched behind the open driver’s door, her hand resting where the butt of her gun would be if she wasn’t in civvies. Waverly wound an arm around her waist, feeling the tension in both their bodies.
“Ready, Earp?” Dolls shouted over to Wynonna, standing in the open about twenty meters away, Peacemaker already unholstered.
“Finally. Let’s get this damn show on the damn road already,” she yelled back. Dolls flipped a switch on the machine.
“Okay, it’s go, go, go,” he shouted, and Wynonna strode forward, kicking open the door to the small outbuilding with a booted foot. They all heard the strange hollow hum, the ringing bark of Peacemaker, and then Wynonna came walking back out, casually stuffing the ridiculous long barrel of the gun back in the holster.
“Let’s go. There’d better be someplace open where I can get pancakes.” Wynonna said, with an overly dramatic grimace. “Jesus H. Christ on a softtail, I’d give my right tit for a Denny’s in Purgatory.”
Nicole looked at Waverly and said, “That’s it?” She frowned. “I really hope someone can tell me what the hell is going on.”
*****
Since they were already halfway between Purgatory and the big city, they ended up backtracking a short way to a truck stop/diner off the main highway. The food wasn’t good, but it was cheap, and Wynonna could get her stack of pancakes.
“…once we figured out it was kind of like a banshee or something, with weaponized sound…” Waverly was explaining for Nicole’s benefit.
“We.” Wynonna interrupted, scoffing. “We didn’t figure out shit, that was all you, baby girl.”
“Anyway,” continued Waverly, “after that, Jeremy came up with the idea to reverse engineer something with the noise-cancelling headphones…”
Nicole just scratched her head, listening. The group was sure that the creature had been responsible for some of the recent mayhem in Purgatory, including a bunch of unexplained power outages, and PSD would be happy to hear there wouldn’t be any more of that, at least. It had taken the ex-Black Badge demon crew a few days before they’d figured out what they were up against, and that it was something Dolls categorized as infiltrator because it had crossed into the Ghost River Triangle when Willa had weakened the boundaries, laying low and gathering strength afterward. Once the research and technical pieces were complete, Doc had set about tracking it down.
Nicole sat and listened to the banter that flew around the table, rough and loose, the unwinding nervous energy after victorious battle. After a while, she finally voiced a question. “So let me get this straight. You found and cornered this…whatever…even though you didn’t have Jeremy’s device with you?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Wynonna mumbled around a mouthful of pancakes.
“We have got to have a little discussion about tactics, Wynonna,” groused Nicole.
“In fairness, we could not know how long it would take to locate the creature,” Doc volunteered. “It was only by good fortune that I was able to find the track so quickly.” He brushed crumbs from his mustache, giving a grand flourish with his napkin, before he resumed demolishing a club sandwich.
“See?” said Wynonna. “Totally not my fault. Things just got a little…crazy…at the end there. But we were handling it just fine.”
Dolls cleared his throat, and added flatly, “There was a possibility of a catastrophic failure to the water impoundment system. An unacceptable risk.”
“Wait, a dam break? Where?” yelped Waverly, but Wynonna was shushing her.
“Okay, okay,” huffed Nicole, not completely mollified. “Just, if this sort of thing is going to be happening, maybe give us a heads-up next time so we don’t go to the movies in the middle of it, yeah?”
Waverly leaned her head against Nicole’s shoulder. “We’ll go to another showing, see the second half. Tomorrow?” she said, and Nicole’s frown started to fade.
“C’mon, Haught-stuff,” said Wynonna, snatching a stray piece of bacon from Doc’s plate, “you can’t tell me for one second that you mind seeing all those buff chicks more than once.”
Waverly glared at her sister. “And Wynonna is buying our tickets.”
*****
Later, as they were driving back to Purgatory and home, Nicole said, “Really, I should expect this by now. I mean, this is how date night goes, right? Always interrupted by some Wynonna-emergency? I’m trying not to be ticked off.”
“Don’t be ticked off, baby,” said Waverly, idly tangling her fingers into short red hair. She didn’t want to distract Nicole, so she tried to keep it low-key, but she just couldn’t help herself. “Everything ended okay tonight, so there’s that.”
“Yeah,” sighed Nicole. “Look, I’m just saying. If we want to go to a movie when Wynonna is out doing her thing, we need a much better exfil strategy in place. Let’s sit on the aisle from now on.” She flashed a quick grin at Waverly, which made Waverly think that all the annoyances were already being put behind them, and also made her feel warm in a whole bunch of special places.
“Deal,” said Waverly. “So, I’m thinking of ways I can make it up to you?”
Now Nicole’s grin came wide and slow. “Got something in mind?”
Waverly giggled, mostly at the way Nicole had snapped to attention. “Mayyybe,” she singsonged.
“Tellllll me,” Nicole singsonged back, honey-sweet.
Waverly leaned as far as the passenger-side seatbelt would allow, murmuring, “Well, I know you like it when I dress up…and I was thinking…those wide gold bracelets that I have…”
The way Nicole’s eyes flared, all heat and raw desire in the semi-darkness, sparked Waverly to her boldest. She went for broke.
“And, also, weird question, or maybe not weird, but…do you have a sword to go along with all those fancy knives you have?”
Nicole breathed out, “Yeah. I do.”
That one little detail, and everything tumbled into place in Waverly’s head, and she knew exactly what she wanted to make happen.
And that was how, after the no-longer-disastrous date night, Nicole ended the evening on her knees in plain worshipful adoration of her most favorite goddess, and Waverly determined to reward such adulation in the most lavish way possible.