Chapter Text
The crackly sound of the radio, the sun setting over Purgatory and empty roads creates an almost picturesque scene.
Nicole can only glance at the view with a sigh as she pulls her car onto the last road to get home. As the lights pass over the front of her house, another vehicle makes her pause.
The blue and white of Wynonna’s truck unquestionable in the remaining daylight, Nicole has to think if she forgot any plans with the older Earp sister.
Parking next to the truck, Nicole glances inside as she makes her way up to the house to check if she was waiting out here or had let herself in.
Nicole opens the door and sees some of her lights have been turned on but there’s no shoes or coats by the door. Sorting out her own and locking her gun away she listens out for any signs of life from the rest of the house.
Making her way round the corner to the kitchen she’s surprised to see Waverly sat the table.
“Wave-” Nicole starts to say before cutting herself off when she sees Wynonna is stood in the kitchen as well, leaning against the sink with her arms crossed.
Both Earp girls share the same look and if Nicole had to guess she reckons it can’t be good.
“And Wynonna. I wasn’t expecting either of you, did I forget something?”
There’s no response but Wynonna scoffs and looks away.
“What’s going on?”
“Nicole, can you sit down please.”
The tone Waverly uses makes Nicole’s stomach fall, something isn’t right. Moving from the corner Nicole takes a seat at the table and tries to make eye contact with her but she doesn’t look up from the table.
“Is there anything you have to tell me?”
Nicole is shocked more by the tone of the question than the question from Waverly.
“No. What’s going on?”
“Nothing?”
“Seriously, what is this about? I know we’ve not been seeing much of each other recently but that goes both ways right?”
“This isn’t both ways Deputy.” Wynonna sneers at her.
“Please just tell me what’s going on.”
Waverly doesn’t respond, she just picks up something from in front of her and leans over the table to place it in front of Nicole, still not looking at her.
Nicole doesn’t look down yet, keeping her eyes on Waverly trying to find out why she won’t look at her.
“Waverly...”
“Take a look Deputy.”
“What’s with Deputy?”
Wynonna doesn’t answer her just moves her head to indicate in front of Nicole.
Finally, Nicole looks down at the table and sees a stack of photos. Straight away Nicole is confused because they look like surveillance photos. Surveillance photos of her.
“What is this?”
“What does it look like Deputy?”
“You’ve been following me?”
“Not the take away here Deputy, keep looking.”
Nicole looks back down the stake of photos and starts flicking through them. She can see there’s photos from different days, but always the same places at either her house or another house in Purgatory. The other main feature is her and another female. It suddenly clicks.
“You think I’m having an affair!?” Nicole shouts the question as she spins to look at Wynonna.
“No.”
Nicole whips her head back to look at Waverly when she hears her response. There’s a moment of hope before she sees the look on Waverly’s face and she still won’t look at her.
“I don’t think you’re having an affair.”
Nicole can only look at the defeated and angry look on Waverly’s face. She goes to respond but is cut off by Waverly.
“I know you’re having an affair.”
Nicole can’t form any kind of response, she’s just in shock.
“Nothing to say Deputy.”
Waverly still won’t look at her.
“You think I’m having an affair?”
“No. I know.”
“How?”
“What more do you want Deputy.”
“Seriously, back off Wynonna!” Nicole shouts. “Waverly. Look at me.”
Waverly shakes her head and refuses.
“Look at me.”
Again a shake of her head.
“You’re going to accuse me of an affair, you’re going to have to look at me.”
Nicole isn’t sure whether its the repeated request or the anger that’s entered her voice but finally Waverly raises her head and looks at her.
It’s almost more painful than the accusation of an affair to look into Waverly’s eyes. There’s none of the warmth Nicole had grown to love in them, no familiarity. Just tears, pain and anger.
“None of these photos show anything. There’s no kissing or touching or clothes being taken off. So tell me, why do you know I’m having an affair?”
“That’s your question!? The photos show more than enough and very clearly what happened after they were taken!”
“I’m pretty sure I told you to back off.”
“You think I’m going to stand here and let you get away with this!?”
“Why are you here? This is between me and Waverly. You being here helps no one. Or are just waiting for an excuse to shoot me?”
“Don’t give me more ideas.”
“Enough. Wynonna you can wait in the truck.”
Wynonna goes to argue but the look on Waverly’s face stops her. She moves to walk out shooting daggers at Nicole as she goes. There’s a slam of the front door, then a car door before silence and its just the two of them.
“You can’t seriously think I’m having an affair?”
“I’ve told you. I don’t think you’re having an affair. I know you’re having an affair.”
Nicole can’t believe what she’s hearing but looking at Waverly she can see she believes what she’s saying.
“How do you know?”
“Does it matter?”
“I think it does. Especially when it’s not true.”
“It is. I saw you.”
“Saw me what?” Nicole points to the photos. “Like these? They don’t show anything.”
“No, I saw you. With her.”
“I’m asking you to be specific. What did you see?”
“Like I said. I saw you with her. How easy it was with her. How you looked at her. How you joked with her. How you spent all your time with her. The light touches you shared with her. Leaving with her. Whispering with her. Smiling with her. Everything.”
“None of that makes you believe I’m having an affair. Something must have happened to make you think that.”
“I watched you walking out of the station with her, you looked so comfortable with her. You were chatting and didn’t see me, I heard your conversation.”
Nicole can only wait with confusion as Waverly pauses.
“You were talking about the previous night. How you didn’t think you’d enjoy it as much as you did. How much fun you had. How well you moved together.”
Nicole can feel the anger increasing with every sentence Waverly speaks and each time her heart breaks.
“I didn’t want to believe it but watching you two together it was obvious.”
“So you had me followed?”
“Wynonna saw it too and appeared with the photos a few days later. It just confirmed what I already knew.”
Nicole can see Waverly is fighting tears and she’s quick to wipe a tear that starts running down her cheek.
“None of this, NONE of this, actually shows me having an affair. You’ve had an idea and then got everything to fit your perception.”
“What?”
“I’m not having an affair.”
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Lie to me.”
“I promised you I would never lie to you again. No more secrets. I’m telling you. I’m not having an affair.”
“I don’t believe you. At least with Champ I knew.”
“You’re going to compare me to Champ, seriously?”
“He never lied, he just told me what I wanted to hear and I took him back.”
“This can’t be serious.”
“It is.”
Nicole isn’t sure if it’s the continued accusation or the comparison to Champ but the overpowering surge of anger suddenly hits and she can’t hold back.
“You know what. I’m not having this. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you but I am NOT having an affair!”
Waverly just looks at her.
“Ok answer me this, when was the last time you were here.”
“What?”
“Simply that, when was the last time you were here?”
“A few weeks ago.”
“Actually, it was just shy of three months ago. We’ve not spent a night together in three months.”
“So you went elsewhere to get laid?”
“Seriously!? That’s what you think of me?”
Waverly shrugs.
“Don’t do that, you’re to smart and mature for that.”
Waverly narrows her eyes at her.
“What else am I supposed to think?”
“How about the fact that I love you. How about after what happened with your test results and Rosita we were beyond that. That we had grown from that. Or even if I thought we weren’t working anymore I would talk to you, not go and find some random person to sleep with whilst we are in a committed relationship.”
“But she wasn’t random was she?”
Nicole looks down at the photos and back up to look at Waverly.
“The last time you were here, do you remember me talking about a big case I was going to be working?”
“What? How is that relevant?”
“Do you remember that conversation?”
“No Nicole, I don’t. I’ve been a bit distracted lately.”
“Clearly,” Nicole pauses. “Because if you remembered that conversation you would remember how excited I was to be working with an old friend. Someone I went through basic training with. Someone who I’ve known for years and is one of my closest friends.”
Nicole waits to see if Waverly will respond. When she doesn’t, Nicole continues.
“It was a big case, one that required outside support and expertise. I was asked if I knew anyone who I thought would be a good fit.”
Still Waverly stays quiet, just watching Nicole.
“I obviously stayed in touch as we were friends so I jumped at the chance to have one of my friends come and help. Show her my new home. Introduce her to my life here, my job, my girlfriend.”
Again Nicole pauses to gage Waverly’s response but still nothing.
“Imagine my disappointment when we she arrives and I introduce her at work. Show her around the town I now call home. Yet I don’t introduce her to my girlfriend. My girlfriend who I hadn’t seen for a week, barely shared any messages or calls. A girlfriend who cancelled any plans we made. Would barely have a conversation with me when we passed at work.”
“You’re going to blame Black Badge for this? Wynonna?”
“You think that little of me?”
“What are you trying to say then?”
“I’m saying if you took a second to stop picturing me doing something I’m not and instead at yourself and our relationship recently you’ll see I’m not blaming anyone.”
Nicole pauses for Waverly to respond but when she doesn’t, carries on.
“We’ve barely spent anytime together in months. I’m not blaming her but you’d cancel dinner plans because Wynonna needed you. I’d ask you if you were free for lunch but you pointed to your desk and said you were to busy. I asked if you wanted a lift home to spend time with you and you said you already had a lift. We drifted apart and I’m not entirely sure why but it was definitely before Danielle arrived. She’s one of my closest friends, we’ve been rock climbing together so many times and she was excited to meet you.”
Another pause in the conversation and Nicole can still feel her anger simmering when Waverly shows no sign of any response.
“I think you should go.”
That finally gets a response from Waverly, her head shoots up.
“What?”
“I’ve been trying to work out where I went wrong. How I’d upset you and how I could make things better. Now I’m sat here thinking what’s worse, finding out I did something wrong that I didn’t know about or doing nothing wrong and being accused of having an affair?”
“So you’re blaming me now?”
“Is that what I said?”
“It’s what you’re implying.”
“I just asked you when you were last here and you didn’t know. You don’t even remember our last conversation. Something happened, I don’t know what, but we became distant. I’m not saying I blame you and it hurts that you immediately jump to that. I know we’ve both been busy the last few months, this case has taken so much of my time. At least I’m willing to look at myself and try and find out how to fix it. You’ve barely spoken to me in months and now you’re accusing me of having an affair. I’m worried I’m only going to say something I can’t take back and despite why you came here and what you think, I’m not having an affair. So you need to go and I think we both need to take a minute and look at this relationship.”
“You can’t just tell me to leave.”
“I can.”
“You still haven’t explained these photos!”
“I shouldn’t have to and yes I did, I can’t help it if you’re not listening to me... still.”
Nicole slowly stands from the table and moves over to the window, looking out she can see Wynonna glaring at her from the front seat of the jeep. Turning back round she leans back against the counter and crosses her arms with a sigh. Waverly hasn’t moved from her spot at the table but Nicole can see her hands clenched into fists as she looks at the photos.
“You still don’t believe me do you?”
Nicole was hoping to get a response but Waverly remains where she is, fists still clenched, not saying a word.
“Then I think you should go.”
“You know what Nicole, I’m not doing this. You don’t get to tell me to leave when you won’t give me the answers I came here for!”
“You’re only here for answers? Not here for me?”
“Can you blame me?”
“Yes Waverly, I can! Because I’ve done nothing wrong and your supposed to be my girlfriend!”
Waverly scoffs, pushes her self up from the table and picks up the photos. She looks at them before throwing them at Nicole.
“So much for girlfriend!”
Nicole can only throw her arm up to bloke her face as the photos hit her and fall to the floor. Looking up she catches the back of Waverly walking round the corner. There’s the noise of the door opening before it slams shut. Nicole can hear the jeep engine turn on and peel out of her driveway.
“Shit.”