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Honestly, she should have known that this would happen. That here, on the one day that everything was supposed to be calm and perfect, that something would go to shit. That is exactly how Waverly Earp, on her frickin’ wedding day, found herself in an ambulance on the way to a scene with a store on fire. An arsonist had decided on her ONE day that he should set fire to all of Chicago. What a shit ticket.
“Honey, please don't char your face off, I still want to kiss those pretty lips of yours later today when we say ‘I do’.” Waverly said to the phone as Chrissy raced through the streets.
“I’ll try, love. You almost here?” Nicole’s voice came through the otherside side of the phone.
“Yep, Chrissy is doing her thing, we’ll be there in a second.”
“Wait, isn’t it bad luck to see the bride before the wedding?”
“Well nothing today is really going to plan so oh well. As long as we’re married by the end of today, I’ll be happy. Even if I’m covered in blood and you in soot and dirt.” Waverly smiled as she said the words. Chrissy screeched to a halt at the fire Nicole was at and the two jumped out of the ambulance. Nicole spotted her fiance and ran to her side.
“Okay, Ron has burns on his forearm, Justin has a broken leg from a fallen beam, and Wynonna cut her finger and is bitching up a storm.” Nicole said to Chrissy and Waverly as she ran to them. Chrissy nodded and headed off.
“Of course she is. How are you?” Waverly asked.
“Glad you’re here, but I would rather be at the altar right now, for the record. How are you, soon to be Mrs. Haught?”
“Having a hard time resisting to pull you into this ambulance and just let you do all the things to me.” Waverly replied, giving Nicole a ‘please just do it’ look.
“Mmm don’t give me any bad ideas.” Nicole’s name was called off in the distance. “Be safe. And shut Wynonna up and tell her to get back into the damn building.” Nicole said as she ran off in the other direction.
***
When everything was said and done, it was 11:48 pm and all of the fires set were finally all out. Waverly and Chrissy had followed Nicole and her station to wherever they were called to. When Nicole finally sauntered over to Waverly, tired to all hell and covered in sweat, soot, and grim from the day, she looked about ready to collapse.
“I’m sorry about our wedding, love. This really just was a shit day.” Nicole said when she finally reached her fiance.
“It’s okay, hun. Just as long as you’re safe. The wedding can be postponed.”
“But this is the third time we’ve had to because of our schedules and last minute crap. I promised you last time that I would marry you today and that would be final but then this all happens.” Nicole said solemnly as she gestures to the flashing lights of police and fire trucks and the smoke billowing out into the dark night sky. “Now the day is over.”
“Well, not quite. We still have eight minutes.”
Nicole chuckled. “Yeah, and where are we gonna find a minister or judge in eight minutes, huh?”
Waverly just smiled as Wynonna walked over and held a phone in front of Nicole’s face. “Did you know that you can get ordained online? That shit’s crazy. You can do anything on the internet.” Wynonna said.
“Ready to get married?” Waverly asked.
“Hell, why not.” Nicole laughed as Wynonna stood between the two, one a firefighter, one an EMT. Both crazy in love. Nicole took off her helmet and set it on the ground and shed her turnout, leaving her in the coveralls held up by suspenders and the sweat soaked under shirt.
“Ehem, dearly beloved. We are gathered here. Okay do I really have to read all of this shit? It’ll take me forever.”
“Oh my god, just skip to the end, dingus.” Waverly said.
“Okay, okay. Jeez. Umm… Hmm Hmm Hmm, blah blah marriage blah blah… Oh! Here we go. Waverly Earp, do you take Nicole Rayleigh Haught, as your wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do you part?”
Waverly’s eyes glistened with tears as she held the hands of the tall redhead standing before her. She looked so dirty and probably smelled like shit, but to Waverly, she had never looked better. “I do.”
“And do you, Nicole Rayleigh Haught, there is no way that is your real name, take Waverly Earp, to be your wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do you part?”
“I so do.” Nicole chuckled as she gazed into the eyes of her love and her future.
“Good answer. By the power vested in me by getordained.com and by the State of Illinois, I now pronounce you, wife, and Haughtsauce.” Waverly glared at her sister. Wynonna turned away from the two. “Okay, you can kiss now.”
Waverly grabbed Nicole’s suspenders and kissed her long and hard, Nicole dipping Waverly as they continued to kiss. Chrissy and the other firefighters erupted in applause near them.
“Okay, save some for the honeymoon, will ya.” Wynonna said as she turned back around. “Opa!”
“Opa!” The onlookers responded as Nicole and Waverly, now newly wedded, looked at each other, still clinging to one another.
“I love you.”
“I love you more.”
***
While moving from Chicago was hard, it was the best decision for the new family. With one baby on the way and a puppy, the apartment they shared in the city was just way too small. So they moved to the country, back to where Waverly and Wynona were from and moved back out onto the homestead land. Nicole built them a house and took a job at the firestation. It wasn’t as much action as the city, but that suits Nicole perfectly fine. It just meant more time with her wife and baby when they came.
Atlas Nicolas Haught was born a short two months after returning to Purgatory in the country lands of Illinois. He was a real handful for the woman, but he was the most precious thing on earth. Waverly, after her maternity leave, took a job at the hospital and worked as a nurse as she went back through medical school online to become a doctor. Now, five years later, she has finished her residency and was given a spot as lead attending for general surgery.
Nicole still runs into fires and sometimes her wife gives her the stink eye when she waltzes in, after refusing to be taken in by a stretcher, and sits on a gurney while Waverly cleans a wound or stitches a cut. She always gets kisses afterwards though so the stink eye isn't so bad.
When she comes home and a five year old runs up to her legs and grabs on for dear life, Nicole thinks she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world. And when she goes to the kitchen and sees her wife with a seven month old on her hip and a stuffed elephant in her hand, smiling at the baby girl in her arms, well then she definitely knows there is no place better.
The part she could maybe do without though, is the slamming of their front door as her sister-in-law comes into their house for their weekly dinner night. Those hinges were sure to give out one day or another.
All of those things are amazing, but nothing is truly better than the sweet kiss the brunette gives her and the, “Welcome home, my love.”
Which she always follows up with, “It’s good to be home, with my wife.”