Archive of Our Own

Wynonna is sleeping peacefully—or peacefully enough, anyway, since that’s sort of a sliding scale for her—when suddenly she’s awake, courtesy of her old-as-balls de-vamped gunslinger baby daddy. At first, she thinks Doc’s having a nightmare; nightmares are pretty familiar territory given their line of work. Or past line of work. Whatever. Their lives have been shitty. They have nightmares.

He has pure terror on his face, so Wynonna assumes it’s a hell dream, but his eyes are open and after a second she realizes he’s coughing. A lot. “Wynonna,” he gasps. “Take Alice and go.”

“What?”

“You have to—” He cuts off to cough some more. Wynonna can hear phlegm rattling in his chest and she makes a face. Gross. “Get away!”

Wynonna’s going to blame the fact that it’s the middle of the night for why it takes her so long to figure out what’s happening. Also the fact that they’re back in Purgatory and sleeping in the barn, when she’s actually gotten used to sleeping in real rooms and real beds lately. Her brain’s a little behind.

But then it does click into place. Doc is coughing. Doc is…sick?

“Oh, shit, you’re sick?” Wynonna says.

“Go,” he urges again.

The level of fear he’s at does not make sense, until the other thing clicks into place. Doc coughing. Tuberculosis. The whole reason he’s even around more than a century past his expiration date to be her old-as-balls de-vamped gunslinger baby daddy.

“What the fuck?” she says. “Tuberculosis?”

“Wynonna,” he growls, the way he always does when he’s trying to save her and she doesn’t listen. She’s always found it very sexy. But this is not really the time to bring that up. Probably.

“How would you have tuberculosis? We don’t—I don’t know anyone who’s ever had it. I mean, besides you. I don’t think it’s a thing anymore. Not here.”

He rolls away from her, like putting his back to her will keep the germs at bay. “It must have come back,” he says.

Wynonna feels weak. This can’t be happening. “No,” she says out loud. “That doesn’t make—no. I’m calling Jeremy.”

She’s not entirely sure why Jeremy is who she needs right now, but he is. He knows things. He’s all sciencey and nerdy. He’ll fix this. She puts it on speaker so Doc can hear too. They’ll both hear Jeremy tell them that everything’s fine. And everything will be.

Despite the fact that it’s 2:45 am, Jeremy answers. “Why are you awake?” he asks, which feels very hypocritical.

“Jeremy, tell me Doc doesn’t have tuberculosis,” Wynonna commands. “I mean, tell him.”

“What? Why?” Then Jeremy gasps. “Oh, no. Oh, fuck me. Is he sick? Is he okay? Doc, do not go toward any light, baby! Stay with me!”

“I don’t know if he’s okay!” Wynonna snaps. “That’s why I called you!”

“Wait, okay, let’s try to think,” Jeremy says shakily. “I thought his deal with the Stone Witch got rid of his TB?”

“She could have lied,” Doc points out. He isn’t coughing anymore right now, but his voice is hoarse and he sounds stuffed up.

“Good point,” Jeremy admits.

“Glad she got her head cut off,” Wynonna says.

“But when Waverly healed you, wouldn’t she have healed that, too, if it was still there?” Jeremy reasons.

That stops both Wynonna and Doc. Doc looks back over his shoulder. “I…do not know.”

“There’s no way Waverly would leave you mortal and sick,” Wynonna says. Waverly wasn’t really Waverly at the time, sure, but still. Wynonna should’ve realized that. She could’ve avoided waking up Jeremy.

“But…” Doc sounds cautious now. “There is quite clearly something wrong.”

“He sounds awful,” Wynonna tells Jeremy. “And he’s coughing.”

“Well…you’re sleeping in the barn, and it’s October, and you have a toddler who goes to that play group thing,” Jeremy points out. “Couldn’t it just be a regular cold?”

Those are all true things. Alice goes to some date thing twice every week so she and ten other toddlers can cough on each other and lick things. Plus, they’re mostly still living with Gus in Montana and she’s got a little farm, and Doc’s been in heaven playing cowboy again. He’s been spending a lot of time outside doing manual labor and sniffing horse shit. And while that seems to be an essential part of the care and feeding of her 1800s gunslinger, that’s probably kind of rough on his immune system.

Wynonna looks over at Doc. Doc looks nonplussed. “What does that mean?” he asks.

“You know, the flu,” Jeremy says.

“Flu?” Now Doc’s all freaked out again.

“No, okay, not like that!” Jeremy insists quickly. “Sorry, I know people died from the flu a lot back then. I mean, people still die of it now.” Doc’s eyes bug out again.

“Jeremy,” Wynonna warns.

“Sorry!” Jeremy says again. “Look, I really, really doubt your TB’s back, Doc. I think it’s a common cold, the kind people get all the time and fully recover from in a few days with no lasting problems. You can take some cough medicine and rest and you’ll feel better.”

“And Wynonna and Alice?” Doc asks worriedly. Wynonna’s heart squeezes a little in her chest. She knows he’s scared he’s sick again, but his first concern is her and Alice, keeping them away from him if he is.

“Well, I won’t lie to you, buddy, you’re contagious,” Jeremy says. “They could get it, too. But a cold isn’t really that bad, Doc. People get colds all the time. Alice is going to catch colds in her life.”

“Yes, I know,” Doc says. “Not everybody died with every sniffle in my day.” He’s getting a little annoyed now, so Wynonna knows he’s embarrassed.

“You can go to the doctor in the morning if it’ll make you feel better,” Jeremy suggests.

“Can we come to you?” Wynonna asks.

“You guys know I’m not a medical doctor, right?” Jeremy checks. “I have doctorates, but I’m not that kind of doctor.”

Wynonna did not know that, actually, but she doesn’t mention it now. “We can’t exactly roll up to a regular doctor and say, hey, he’s 500 years old and used to be immortal and then he was a vampire but now he’s just human and we’re worried his Old West tuberculosis came back.”

“I am 168,” Doc protests.

“You probably could in Purgatory,” Jeremy points out. “But yeah, okay. I can run some tests. Oh my God, vaccines. Doc has none. He has the immune system of a newborn baby! He could get measles!”

“You still have measles?” Doc asks, dismayed.

“Do we?” Wynonna wonders.

“I’m going to get all of that under control,” Jeremy promises. “I’ll get him up to date on his shots.”

“Jeremy, he’s not a shelter dog,” Wynonna says. “He’s my—” She doesn’t quite know how to end that sentence. “Person. He’s a person.”

In the background, they hear a man ask, “Jeremy? Who are you talking to?”

“Who is that?” Wynonna demands, delighted.

“Gotta go, love you, bye,” Jeremy says quickly before unceremoniously hanging up on them.

“Go Jer Bear,” Wynonna says, getting back under the covers. She looks over at Doc. He’s still got his back to her. She can tell he feels stupid. “It’s okay, you know.”

“I am sorry for waking you,” he says, all stiff and prissy.

Wynonna rolls her eyes and cuddles up to him. “It’s okay that you freaked out.”

“I was—” Doc waits and considers his words. “Yes, I freaked out.” He says it with audible air quotes. He finally rolls over to face her.

“So did I,” Wynonna points out.

“It is an awful disease,” Doc says quietly, brushing her hair out of her face without meeting her eyes. She thinks of him hiding in a crawlspace to listen to his mother die slowly, remembers when she was in that vision quest thing and saw the blood on Doc’s handkerchief, and her chest hurts. “I could not bear it if you or Alice contracted it.”

“Well, we won’t,” Wynonna promises, pressing her forehead against his. “And even if for some reason we did, we wouldn’t die. They can cure it now, Doc. But that’s not what’s happening now. It’s a cold. A cold sucks, but it’s not a big deal. I can go into the house and get some medicine that’ll help you sleep.”

He tightens his arms around her and shakes his head. “If I will not kill you by doing so, I’d prefer to keep holding you.”

It makes Wynonna huff and roll her eyes, but she can also feel herself blushing a little. How can she still blush at that stuff? He’s been talking like that for years, in fits and bursts when she’d let him, and he’s only ramped it up in the six months they’ve been all in. She’d blush less if he were just talking about her tits or something, but making it all lovey-dovey gets her. It’s just that he’s so earnest about it. And so hot.

They settle back in. After a second, Wynonna remembers something. “Wait, how often is Jeremy calling you baby?”

“Hm.” Doc shrugs. “More often than you might think. I do not think he realizes when he does it. I just let him do it. I suppose he has earned the right by now.”

That makes Wynonna laugh a little. “Have I earned the right?”

“My love, you have every right to me that exists,” he says. It’s the kind of thing that makes Wynonna want to kiss him and climb all over him until they’re as close as physically possible.

But his eyes are closed and his voice is coming slow, and she can hear that he’s all congested and not feeling well. So instead she just nestles in closer to him and closes her own eyes.

She can’t fall asleep, though. Because she’s thinking about it now. Doc is human. Doc is mortal. Doc can get sick. Doc can die. Technically, he could’ve died before. Technically, he did die before. That was already agony beyond anything she thought she could possibly feel, and Waverly brought him back before his heart had even really stopped.

Wynonna thinks of Daddy and Willa, remembers staring at Dolls on the ground at the top of that ravine. She feels like she can’t breathe, like there’s a weight on her chest. Fear for the people she loves has lived behind her ribcage since the night she killed Daddy.

But she’s rarely had to worry about Doc. He’s been either ageless or immortal for the entire time she’s known him, save for a few months between breaking the seal and when he went all fangy blood sucker on her, and now for the last the last six months. He disappeared a few times, and she was terrified then, but somehow she’d always assumed he’d come out on top. But now…there’s no magic or curse or supernatural anything keeping him safe.

They live absolutely ridiculously. Well, they did. The number of gun fights they’ve gotten into in the last six months is a reassuring zero, but it’s not like they don’t still sleep with their guns within arm’s reach. Doc just barely stopped sleeping with his knife under his pillow. Oh, God, he smokes like a chimney. No wonder he’s coughing.

He’s snoring right now. It’s very irritating. But kind of comforting at the same time, since it means she can hear that he’s breathing. She slips carefully out of his arms. The fact that he’s sick is probably the only reason she can do it without waking him up. He’s not a deep sleeper.

She puts on her coat and her boots and walks up to the house. She watches Alice sleep for a little while. They’d all agreed it was best if Alice didn’t sleep in the barn. It’s warm enough, but it’s drafty and kind of smells and there are all kinds of dangerous things out there, ranging from whisky bottles to old rusty nails.

Tetanus. Doc should get a tetanus shot. Wynonna should probably get a tetanus shot, too, actually.

Wynonna presses a little kiss to her daughter’s cheek and goes to find some cold medicine. It’s right there in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, neat and tidy thanks to Waverly. Who, of course, comes creeping in behind Wynonna.

“What are you doing?” she whispers.

“Doc’s sick,” Wynonna says, and she’s suddenly crying, covering her mouth with her hand to stay quiet.

“Wynonna,” Waverly says. She puts her arm around Wynonna’s shoulders and makes her sit down on the lid of the toilet. “Hey, what?”

“He’s mortal, Waves,” Wynonna chokes out. “What if something happens?”

“Yeah, welcome to what the rest of us go through,” Waverly teases gently. She’s barely taller than Wynonna even though she’s standing. She pulls Wynonna in for a hug. “He’s tough, right? He’ll be okay. And it’s not like you guys are going around fighting demons anymore.” She pushes Wynonna back a little. “Right?”

Wynonna grabs some toilet paper to wipe her nose. “Right,” she says. “Alice hates the carrier thing too much and her legs are too short to keep up when we have to run.”

“Very funny,” Waverly says, rolling her eyes. She rubs Wynonna’s back. “It’s scary,” she says, “thinking that the person you love could die. I know. I make Nicole wear a bulletproof vest every day now, even just for snow shoveling duty, because if anything happened…” She shakes her head and smooths down Wynonna’s hair. “But that’s the price we pay to love someone for life.”

“Well, I think it blows,” Wynonna says.

“Isn’t it better than the alternatives?” Waverly asks softly.

The alternatives. Doc as a vampire, hating himself for how he had to survive, getting out of control before he could learn to rein himself in. Or how he clung to Constance Clootie’s ring, to the point where he wouldn’t even give it up to get out of the well. Though Wynonna still has her doubts that Bobo would’ve actually let him out.

Or the big one, the one that almost happened. Not loving him at all. Or not being with him, anyway, because Wynonna knows the not loving him part isn’t going to happen at this point. It’s too late for that. It’s been too late for that for longer than she was admitting. She loves him so much she can’t breathe sometimes, and the alternative to the risk would be the way she felt for so long, loving him and pushing him away from her, feeling like she was missing a limb.

“Yeah,” Wynonna says, hugging Waverly again. “A lot better.”

She checks on Alice one last time before she goes back to the barn. She slips back into bed beside Doc and presses close into his chest. He murmurs a little but doesn’t wake up, resting his face in her hair and sighing a little.

Yeah, Wynonna thinks. She can take some fear.

“Well, good news,” Jeremy says. “No TB.”

It’s a few days later, because apparently testing for a disease that’s been around forever and wiped out a gazillion people and almost killed Doc takes days. Wynonna feels like that’s kind of an oversight on science’s part. Get it together, doctors.

Doc nods. “Thank you, Jeremy,” he says. “I apologize for being in such—”

“Oh, don’t apologize to me!” Jeremy cuts him off. “Makes perfect sense, Doc. And you know you can call me any time. Day, night, evening, afternoon—”

“Jeremy,” Wynonna says.

“Yep, getting the shots.” He looks at Doc. “Sorry. Not the shots you like.”

Doc slumps in disappointment. Wynonna’s not sure why that does it, but it does. “We have to get married,” she blurts out.

Jeremy drops the clipboard he was holding and full on screams. Doc has a gun drawn before Wynonna can even turn around to see what Jeremy’s screaming about. Wynonna doesn’t keep Peacemaker on her hip anymore, especially since Purgatory’s all peace and love now and it comes off as a tad aggressive to brandish the one thing that can kill anyone and anything, but she can still have Peacemaker out in under thirty seconds if she needs to.

But Jeremy’s just looking at them, and pointing, and clapping, and Wynonna realizes he’s reacting to her.

“Good Lord in heaven above,” Doc mutters, holstering his gun. He looks at Wynonna. “What is happening now?”

“You can die, Doc!” she reminds him. “You can die, and you can get hurt, and I can’t—we have laws now, you know, and hospitals won’t let me make decisions for you if we’re not—and, you know, if you’re ever on trial for murder, well, again, there’s—they can’t make me talk. So we have to get married. Oh, and you have to stop smoking.”

“I have been thinking about that,” he admits. “I read about something called secondhand smoke. I could be hurting you and Alice.”

“Why did your mind go straight to murder trial?” Jeremy asks. “Wait, no, that’s a stupid question. Disregard.”

“And you need to cut back on the drinking,” Wynonna says.

Doc narrows his eyes at her. “Alcohol is medicinal.”

“Not that much alcohol,” Jeremy says under his breath.

“And will you be cutting back on the alcohol?” Doc asks, crossing his arms over his chest. “Because, darling, you have been mortal this whole time, and in case you have failed to notice, you dying is very low on my list of priorities.”

Wynonna purses her lips. They’ve both already cut back, a little bit, for Alice. Wynonna knows what Waverly meant, with that whole intervention thing and the crack about going from fun drunk to mean alcoholic. Wynonna grew up with Ward longer than Waverly did, after all, and she can’t bear the thought of Alice looking back someday and thinking of her the way Wynonna thinks of her father. Also, Gus is not above locking them out when they get home late and rowdy.

But Wynonna knows Doc is going to want her to drink even less, if she’s going to make him drink even less. Especially if Waverly sends him an article about liver damage because she sent it to Wynonna and Wynonna laughed and deleted it. Doc will read the whole thing and google terms he doesn’t know and say something weird like I shan’t ain’t let a beautiful liver like yours be hurt my darling love or whatever. Stupid sexy Doc and his stupid sexy devotion.

“Fine,” she snaps. “We make a pact. My liver for your liver.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of what marriage is,” Jeremy says. “So I’ve been told. Not so sure on the liver part, but, you know, marriage generally is a pact.”

Doc blinks. He swallows hard. “Oh,” he says. “Yes. That.”

“That,” Wynonna agrees, heart pounding.

She never thought she’d be the marriage type, despite the tiny little slip-up with Waverly’s dress. She was never like Waverly, with scrapbooks and plans and dreams. Wynonna’s always been the realist, and the psycho bitch in and out of St. Victoria’s who ran off with a biker gang before becoming the world’s foremost demon hunter was not going to get a white dress and a wedding cake.

But, well, realism is staring her in the face right now, and it says that if she doesn’t get some kind of paper tying her to Doc, something could happen and they could keep her away from him. Whoever they are. Wynonna’s never been very clear on that.

“I’m going to hyperventilate,” Jeremy announces.

“It’s not even your proposal,” Wynonna says.

“In a way, it is,” Jeremy says. “Also, not much of a proposal at all.”

“Is there a reason you need to be all up on my jock about this?” Wynonna complains. “I think after about the third time you pledge your eternal loyalty to someone and make it clear you’re willing to die for each other, you get a pass on a big proposal.”

“Valid point,” Jeremy admits.

Doc’s got tears in his eyes. “If you are serious,” he starts.

“As a deep, dark well,” Wynonna says.

“Stop, he’s going to change his mind!” Jeremy protests.

“No, he won’t,” Wynonna says, looking at Doc. It’s kind of a scary thing to realize, to know that deep inside herself as sure as she knows anything. If he came back to her after she shot Holt in the back, nothing’s going to keep him away.

“I will not,” Doc agrees, voice quiet. “I will never. Not in my unnaturally long life nor in any kind of afterlife to come. I am yours, Wynonna, in any way you wish to have me.”

“Oh, Jesus, John Henry,” Wynonna says. Now she’s crying.

“But if you will allow me to say so,” he goes on, still so soft and choked up, as he takes her hands, “the way I wish you to have me is, indeed, as your husband.”

“Oh my God,” Jeremy says breathlessly.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Wynonna jokes, throat tight. She pulls Doc’s face close to kiss him as many times as she can before she runs out of air. They’re both crying, and Jeremy’s crying, and then Waverly and Nicole walk in with Alice.

“Oh my God, no,” Waverly says, voice shaking. “I didn’t heal his tuberculosis?”

“We’re getting married,” Wynonna tells her.

“Oh my God!” Waverly repeats, louder now. “We are?”

“We already did, babe,” Nicole points out.

“We are!” Jeremy says.

“Point of clarification,” Wynonna says, sacrificing one hand from holding Doc’s face to hold up one finger. “By we, I mean me and Doc. And no one else. This is a closed marriage.” She looks at Doc and raises her eyebrows. “Got that, Holliday?”

Doc’s got the biggest smile on his face she’s ever seen. “I believe I can accept those terms.”

Waverly runs over and throws her arms around both of them, and then Jeremy follows suit, and then Nicole laughs and brings Alice over and Alice promptly shoves through all the arms in her way to crawl into Doc’s lap, and Wynonna thinks her heart might just burst at this point.

Realism sets back in pretty quickly, as soon as they get home for Alice’s nap and Wynonna starts thinking. “You’re already married,” Wynonna says. She’s pacing in the barn. Doc’s lying on the bed, watching her pace.

“It was a common law marriage,” Doc says.

“So what does that mean? We have to find Kate to get you a common law divorce?” Wynonna asks.

“I do not believe anyone is going to hold me to any kind of marriage from 1877,” he points out dryly. “We were not exactly on speaking terms when I went into the well, anyway.”

“Okay, good,” Wynonna says. “I mean, sorry, or whatever.”

Kate became a vampire for him. So at some point they loved each other, even if Doc chose Wynonna in the end, and Wynonna knows Doc’s sickness clouded every decision he made back then so it’s probably not very fun to think about.

“She had me arrested for a murder I did not commit,” Doc says.

“And people say romance is dead.” Wynonna goes back to pacing. “But are we doing a real wedding? Or should we just get the paper? We’re not really wedding people. Right? But Alice would look so cute as a flower girl.”

“That she would,” Doc agrees.

“But who would be your best man? Jeremy? But then what about Waves? And if I choose Waverly, what about Nicole? And maybe I want Jeremy.”

“I think we both know Jeremy would pick me if we put it up to him,” Doc says. He’s very smug about it. Wynonna flips him off and continues wearing down the floorboards.

“We’re just too beloved,” Wynonna says. “We can’t pick. We’ll have to pick no one so no one’s left out. No real wedding.”

He’s not saying anything and he’s got his damn poker face on, so she can’t tell anything about how he feels. He’s just lying on the bed, hands behind his head, watching her.

“Well?” Wynonna demands. “Are you going to say anything?”

“Are you done?” he asks.

“I don’t know.”

“I was planning to wait you out. You will make a decision and we will do that.”

Wynonna crosses over to the bed to stick her finger in his face. “Don’t be like that. Don’t treat me like I’m some—some—silly woman and you’re just going to indulge me. Tell me what you want.”

“I want you,” he says simply. “That is all I have ever wanted. I want you to be happy.”

“Yeah, well, I want you to be happy,” Wynonna snaps at him. “So stop being a dick and give me some input!”

He’s just grinning at her now, and it’s pissing her off. He can tell, so he wipes the smile off his face. That’s progress; there was a time he would’ve kept pushing her buttons just to keep her mad. He sits up and puts his hands on her hips. “Wynonna,” he says softly. “What exactly has you so lathered up about this?”

Wynonna blows out a breath. She leans down to press her cheek to the top of his head. “I think I want a real wedding.”

“That is more than fine with me.”

“I feel stupid.”

Doc pushes her back a little without letting her go far, just so he can look at her. “Love, you ain’t been stupid a day in your life,” he says. “And if you want a church wedding, I will be there with bells on. You deserve it. I already know how stunningly beautiful you look in a wedding gown. You took my breath away,” he says softly. “Put some ideas in my head, I will tell you that.”

“I’m not the one who gets the big wedding,” Wynonna says. “I never wanted it, anyway.”

She’s a little choked up. She just feels so stupid about all this. She’s the realist. She’s not the one who wants doves and flowers or whatever other bullshit people do. It’s just a piece of paper. It doesn’t change any of their feelings for each other. She shouldn’t be fucking crying right now.

Doc stands up so he can pull her into his arms. He kisses the side of her head. “I think,” he says, chest vibrating against hers, “there are a lot of things you have wanted in your life that you did not let yourself want because you didn’t think you could have them.”

Wynonna nods, crying a little now. “You,” she manages to say.

He tightens his arms around her. “You’ve got me,” he promises. “And if you want your wedding, we will have a wedding. And if anyone tries to tell you it is silly or not for you, well, I will simply shoot them.”

That makes her laugh. “I love you.”

“I love you,” he says. “Even when I don’t need to shoot anyone for you.”

She laughs again. “You’re sure?” she checks. “If you don’t want to do a wedding, we don’t have to. We can just have…whoever the judge is now do it. I’m just being—I don’t know. I’m being stupid.”

“Please stop saying that,” he says. “Wynonna, why would you think I wouldn’t want a wedding? You think it pains me any to stand up in front of everyone we know and tell them all how much I love you?”

Wynonna huffs. “No.” He pretty much does that every day already. It’s kind of embarrassing, actually, to walk into a room and hear him telling Alice all about how wonderful her mother is. Embarrassing in kind of a good way.

“You think I wouldn’t want to see you in a gown?” he asks. He raises his eyebrows. “Or get you out of it?”

“Assuming it’s non-cursed,” she says.

“We can always hope,” he agrees. He puts his hands on her face and kisses her. “I will admit I never thought I was the wedding type, either. But I think it is long past time we stop trying to care less and just let ourselves have as much as we want from one another.”

She hides her face in the crook of his neck. He runs his fingers through her hair and she can feel tension sliding out of her shoulders. She pushes back and looks him right in the eye. “John Henry Holliday,” she says solemnly. “Do you want to have a big, stupid wedding with me?”

“I do,” he says with a smile. He kisses her again. “But so you remember, you will not be marrying John Henry Holliday. You will be marrying just John Henry.”

“Oh, yeah,” Wynonna says. At some point, Dolls set Doc up with some documentation as a living human being. Doc hadn’t had any idea what any of it was for, but luckily he’d held onto it all. One more thing Dolls did for them. “I kinda wish it said your real name,” she admits. “I don’t want to marry some dweeb with a first name for a last name. And how old does it say you are?”

“Thirty-eight,” Doc says.

Wynonna shakes her head. “Too young for me.”

He rolls his eyes at her. “Still far older than you.”

“Six years is not far older. That’s hardly an age gap at all. I like at least a century between me and my baby daddies.”

“Well, I hope one of the others has a paying job,” Doc says. “I would thoroughly enjoy being a kept man.”

That gets Wynonna to laugh out loud and Doc looks very happy with himself about it. Wynonna leans in and gives him another kiss. “I’m not doing it in a church, though,” she says.

“I believe you already have,” Doc says, raising his eyebrows and smirking at her.

“That was not a real church,” she protests. “It was a community center where people sometimes had church meetings.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, darling,” Doc says.

“We can’t copy the gal pals and have it here,” Wynonna frets. She leaves his arms to start pacing again.

“Why not?” Doc asks. “If you were religious folk, you’d all get married at the same church.”

Wynonna tips her head, conceding. “It’s October, though,” she points out. “A little cold to be outside.”

“Waverly can wear her fuzzy boots,” Doc says. He smiles a little, looking around. “Perhaps we should come in here. We surely do have a lot of good memories in this barn.”

Wynonna laughs again. “I don’t know if anyone else wants to come visit our sex barn.”

“Well, I never,” Doc mocks. “I only meant all the talks we have had in here.”

“When have we ever been good at talking?” Wynonna murmurs, raising her eyebrows.

“We are getting better,” he points out.

They’ve been working on it. Slamming doors, screaming at each other, and leaving before getting blackout drunk aren’t exactly the best communication strategies with a kid involved. Or without a kid involved, either, but it’s always easier to try harder with Alice in the equation. Though it’s definitely getting easier even just when she’s considering Doc. And even herself.

“I don’t know about being a wife,” Wynonna thinks aloud, wrinkling her nose. “That doesn’t seem like something I’d be good at.”

“You were worried about being a mother, too,” he points out. He’s not joking around anymore.

“That’s kind of a sink or swim situation,” Wynonna points out. “Wife…there’s a lot of choice there.”

Doc walks over to her so he can stroke her cheek and says, “Wynonna, if you do not want to get married—”

“I do want to,” Wynonna cuts him off. “I’m the one who asked, remember? It just feels weird to think about. And don’t go thinking it’s something wrong with you,” she says sternly, because of course he would. “I just never thought about being somebody’s wife. I never thought I’d ever get this far.”

“I know what you mean,” he says. Then he puts his hands under her thighs and lifts her up. Wynonna’s stomach swoops instantly and she grabs onto his shoulders without a second thought. Doc kisses her as he carries her back over to the bed. “Maybe what we need is some practice.”

“I think we’ve always been pretty good at this part of it,” Wynonna says breathlessly as he drops her onto the bed and covers her with his body.

“Well, there is always room for improvement, I suppose.”

Wynonna means to make some kind of snappy comeback. But Doc starts doing other things with his hands and his mouth, and words kind of fly right out the window.

“I can’t believe you’re making me share best man duties,” Nicole complains.

“Hey,” Waverly says. “You’re supposed to like sharing with me!”

“I love sharing with you,” Nicole says. “I’m just pointing out that I didn’t make Wynonna share with anyone at my wedding.”

“Not my fault you don’t have any other friends,” Wynonna points out.

“Your other friend is your sister,” Nicole says, rolling her eyes. “Um, who is obviously the best, most wonderful woman on Earth.”

“Nice save,” Wynonna says. “Look, Doc was giving himself a stroke trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings by picking a best man, so I told him he wasn’t allowed to have either of you because, let’s face it, Jeremy would never recover if Doc had anyone else.”

Nicole and Waverly both nod, because they all know it’s true. “Wait, are you saying you only picked us to make it easier on Doc?” Waverly asks, offended.

Wynonna rolls her eyes. “Yes, Waverly, I only chose you guys for Doc. I don’t even like you two. I was hoping Bradley would be my best man, but I got stuck with you.”

Waverly rolls her eyes right back. “Well, at least our breath smells better.”

“I just really can never look at him the same way,” Nicole confesses. “I know it wasn’t his fault because of the genie thing, and I’m trying not to judge people after the chicken kicking incident, but that’s a lot.”

“Can we stop thinking about shit-eating Bradley and focus?” Wynonna asks. “I’m getting married in two days.”

“Yes,” Waverly says. She has a checklist and a pen at the ready. “We need a cake and a dress and rings and music and an officiant—”

“No, Nedley’s doing it,” Wynonna says.

“Aw,” Waverly coos, touching her chest. “I bet he was so happy when you asked.”

“I haven’t asked,” Wynonna says. “But I know he’ll do it.”

“Have you done…anything?” Nicole ventures.

“Uh, I proposed,” Wynonna points out. “That seems pretty important.”

“Oh, yes, very beautifully and romantically because you were worried about interspousal privilege and power of attorney,” Waverly says. Wynonna rolls her eyes again. She doesn’t care if everyone else thinks it was lame. She knows Doc was fine with it.

“Yeah, I’m after his money,” Wynonna says sarcastically.

Rachel comes walking in the front door just then. She sees Waverly with a list and a pen and gets a deer-in-headlights look. “Oh, no,” she says, turning to leave.

“Stop!” Waverly commands. “We need you.”

Rachel sighs and turns around. “Why?”

“Wynonna has proposed to Doc,” Waverly starts.

“Oh my God!” Rachel cries. “Nice. Get him on lock.”

“Rachel,” Wynonna says seriously. “Were you the one who told him Netflix and chill meant watching TV and drinking cold beers?”

Rachel snorts. “He asked, and I wasn’t going to talk to him about sex!”

“Rachel! He asked Nedley to Netflix and chill,” Wynonna reveals. “We were all scarred for life.”

Rachel cracks up laughing. “That’s one way to make friends.”

“He has made plenty of friends that way,” Wynonna says.

“But not anymore,” Waverly sing-songs. “Now he’s a one-woman man.”

“Well, not always. Sometimes a two-woman man. And sometimes even a one-man-and-one-woman man,” Wynonna says. “Uh, I mean one other man. When we’re feeling saucy.”

“Oh, God,” Nicole groans. “I could’ve gone my entire life without hearing about your sex life.”

“Need I remind you of the thin walls in this place?” Wynonna says. “Be thankful I had the common decency to go to the barn. Most of the time.”

“Wait, where was Alice conceived?” Waverly asks. “Please do not say in the kitchen.”

“There is no fucking way I could pinpoint which time it was,” Wynonna says, waving a hand. “And it’s not like we stopped when I was pregnant. Or after she was born. I mean…the kitchen is definitely a possibility. But there’s also the sitting room, my bedroom, the front porch, the barn, the salt flats, the backseat of Charlene, oh, both front seats of Charlene, uh…the woods, the basement of Shorty’s, the stairs at Shorty’s, behind the bar at Shorty’s, on top of the bar at Shorty’s…”

“That is not hygienic,” Rachel says.

“Definitely a health code violation,” Nicole agrees.

“Not the apartment above Shorty’s?” Waverly asks.

“I could not fuck him where you used to fuck Champ,” Wynonna says, making Waverly groan and cover her face.

“Maybe we should go there,” Nicole says. “Mark my territory.”

“Oh my God,” Rachel says.

“The BBD office, the sheriff’s office,” Wynonna goes back to listing.

“What.” Nicole glares at her.

“Oh, what, is that a ladies only sex zone?” Wynonna asks. “Don’t pretend you didn’t do it.”

“That is my workplace!” Nicole protests.

“So it’s worse that you did it there,” Wynonna says. “Oh, behind Pussywillows once.”

“Wow,” Waverly says. “Being immortal really kept his blood flowing, huh?”

“Hasn’t slowed down with him being mortal,” Wynonna says with a little chuckle.

“Ew,” Rachel says.

“Well, you know what they say, leave no stone unfucked under,” Wynonna says. “Oh, that reminds me…we need to take a little trip to the Glory Hole.”

“Maybe save it for the honeymoon,” Nicole suggests.

“Focus, people!” Waverly commands. “We have a lot to do in two days. We need food! We need music! We need clothes! We need rings!”

“No rings necessary,” Doc says, coming in behind them and making all of them scream. “Beg pardon,” he says, alarmed. He never understands how other people don’t have the spatial awareness he does and notice when anyone comes within 100 yards of him.

“How long have you been in here?” Wynonna asks suspiciously.

“Long enough to hear you forget the Pine Barrens. Perhaps we should go back so I can refresh your memory.”

Wynonna snaps her fingers. “Ah! Knew I was missing something.”

“I will handle the rings, if you do not mind.” He puts his hand on the small of Wynonna’s back and smiles at her. “I have something in mind.”

Waverly crosses it off her list. “Great. Music?”

“No,” Rachel says. “He cannot be in charge of music.”

Now Doc looks offended. “I know all about classic rock,” he starts.

“He told me yesterday his favorite song is a Bon Jovi song,” Rachel tells them.

"Not Adele?" Nicole asks.

“The fucking Blaze of Glory one,” Wynonna groans.

“It sounds like it is about me,” Doc says. “It is extremely relevant to my life.”

“Dolls told you that as a joke,” Wynonna complains. “He didn’t think you were going to take it seriously.”

“Oh, God,” Nicole says. “Waverly! If he sleeps with dudes sometimes and doesn’t like good music, that means we failed him as gay guides.”

“Oh, no, you’re right,” Waverly says, dismayed. “Doc, we could’ve gotten matching bi pride face paint.”

“What is happening?” Doc asks Wynonna.

“Don’t worry about it,” she reassures him. “Did you ditch our kid somewhere? Should we make a run for it?”

“She and Jeremy are outside. They are looking at…well, I don’t actually know. Critters of some sort.”

“Critters,” Rachel echoes, laughing. “Dr. Mustache, you’re so funny.”

Doc looks a little confused, but he nods. “Thank you…?”

“So I guess Rachel was volunteering to handle music?” Waverly says, pen hovering over her list manically.

“Fine,” Rachel sighs.

“That leaves us with Wynonna’s dress, makeup, and hair, Alice’s dress, food and cake, asking Nedley to officiate—”

“Oh, a wonderful touch,” Doc says.

Waverly glares at him, and Nicole advises, “Don’t interrupt her when she’s on a list.”

“It is my wedding,” Doc protests. It gives Wynonna a happy little shiver to hear him say it.

“Are you going to plan it?” Waverly asks severely.

“No,” Doc says, cowed. “Thank you, Waverly.”

“You’re welcome,” Waverly says primly. “Oh, the last thing on the list is for me and Doc to have a heart to heart about how if he doesn’t treat Wynonna right, I’ll rip out his. Heart, that is. I got it to start beating again, and I will go right ahead and stop it.” She smiles sweetly. “Oh, look, now I can cross it off!”

“Jeez, Waves,” Wynonna says.

“An unnecessary but understandable sentiment,” Doc says approvingly.

“I know, and I trust you fully,” Waverly promises. “But still. Had to be said.”

Doc and Waverly nod at each other and Wynonna kind of gets the urge to hug them both and maybe kiss and pinch their cheeks. Since she and Doc decided to get married, she’s been feeling very…loving. She keeps wanting to hug people.

She hasn’t actually done it, except with Doc, Alice, and Waverly, but she did slap Nicole’s ass yesterday as they passed each other in the hall. It conveys the same message.

She leans into Doc and he immediately pulls her into his side. It’s not like Doc was ever stingy about touching her or comforting her, but over the last six months it’s started to feel like their bodies are extensions of one another.

She used to be hyperaware of him, because she was spending so much time and energy holding him at arm’s length. Or trying, anyway. Only emotionally, obviously, because physically he’s always been much closer than arm’s length. The only time she felt perfectly in sync with him was when they were fighting together or fucking.

Now sometimes she doesn’t even realize he has an arm wrapped around her waist until she tries to walk away with him still holding onto her. They sit practically on top of each other, and any time her head gets heavy, his shoulder is right there to catch it.

Jeremy comes in with Alice just then, her cheeks pink from the wind. She’s on Jeremy’s shoulders, squealing with laughter as he pretends to eat her knees, and Wynonna gets the feeling again, that urge to hug everybody.

“Wynonna,” Doc says, jumping a little in surprise. Okay, so she reached down and goosed him. Not quite the huggy thing she’s feeling, but always fun.

“I, um,” Wynonna says, voice tight. “I really love all of you.”

“Oh my God, are you dying?” Jeremy asks worriedly. “I love you, too, obviously. And I’ll take care of Doc, I promise.”

“She’s not dying,” Waverly says, smiling at her softly. “She’s happy.”

Wynonna nods. “Yeah,” she says. “Really happy.”

Doc kisses the top of her head. “The feeling is mutual,” he says.

“Mama!” Alice says. “Maymee has squirrels!”

“I’m going to be kind of sad when she figures out how to say my name right,” Jeremy admits, handing Alice off to Doc.

“I know,” Nicole laments. Alice mostly calls her Inkhole, which Wynonna finds hysterical beyond explanation. Waverly’s just Wavy. But she’s sure got Gus and Mama and Dad down. Not that Wynonna’s smug about it or anything.

“You have squirrels?” Wynonna asks.

“Well, you have squirrels,” Jeremy corrects. “A nest of them in your wood pile.”

“I want to make a joke about a wood pile and a nest, but I can’t think of one,” Wynonna says.

“I have a wood pile for your nest,” Doc supplies.

Wynonna tips her head. “Good enough. Thanks.”

Alice is patting Doc’s cheeks now, singing something nobody can understand but herself, and Doc is nodding seriously at her like he gets it. “Laba baba deedo!” she cries.

“Is that so?” Doc asks like it’s the most interesting thing he’s ever heard. Wynonna doesn’t know how to handle this big love in her chest.

“I’m gonna fudging explode,” Wynonna says.

“Save that for Shorty’s,” Rachel says.

“Jeremy,” Doc says, a little muffled because Alice is stuffing her fingers in his mouth now, “I have something to ask you.” He passes Alice to Wynonna and stands in front of Jeremy with his hands on Jeremy’s shoulders. “You have always been my friend,” Doc says, voice getting tight. “You have believed in me beyond what I deserved for far longer than I deserved. And you have forgiven me for things I thought truly unforgiveable.”

“Oh my God,” Jeremy says, a little choked up, hands over his mouth. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“I have always known I could count on you to be by my side,” Doc goes on. “You have helped to keep me myself when I was not even sure who that was. And so, Jeremy Chetri, will you be by my side again and be my best man?”

“Of course I will!” Jeremy cries, diving into Doc’s arms.

“That was a more heartfelt proposal than ours,” Wynonna says.

“Well, that makes sense,” Nicole reasons. “Bros before hos.”

Wynonna’s jaw drops in offense. “I can’t believe you’d call me a ho in front of my own daughter!”

Alice takes Wynonna’s open mouth as an invitation and sticks her hand in there. Wynonna does not get the kid’s obsession with shoving her hands in other people’s mouths. She’s lucky Doc doesn’t have fangs anymore.

“Oh, like that’s the worst thing someone’s called you in front of her,” Nicole says.

“There is nothing wrong with being a ho,” Doc says. He still has his arms around Jeremy.

“How does he know what a ho is?” Rachel wonders.

“Probably the first thing he learned,” Waverly mutters.

“Of course you’d say that,” Wynonna says to Doc. “You’re one of history’s greatest hos. Manwhore across two centuries.”

“Darling, I always do it for free,” Doc points out with a wink that makes Wynonna laugh despite herself. She’s not actually mad at anyone, obviously. Right now, she kind of feels like she can’t be mad ever again.

“Is this a bad time to tell you guys it’s supposed to rain on Saturday?” Rachel asks.

Well, there goes that feeling.

“Rain on your wedding day is good luck!” Jeremy promises. “Just ask Alanis.”

“What are we going to do?” Wynonna asks Doc.

Doc shrugs. “Could do it at Shorty’s,” he says. “Or we do need to stop in at the Glory Hole. It would be an efficient use of time.”

“Blegh, stop!” Rachel says.

“Shorty’s is where we first met,” Wynonna muses.

“Where I first laid eyes on you,” Doc says, smiling softly at her now. “And I knew I would protect you for the rest of my life.”

“Which was supposed to be a super long time,” Jeremy points out.

“Before you helped Bobo try to kill me,” Wynonna reminds him.

Doc tips his head, like what can you do. “I was unsure of how to show my affections.”

It’s nice that they can joke about it now. For a long time, Doc would just get tortured and broody if Wynonna tried to joke about his past misdeeds. She still has to catch him in the right mood, but they’re getting there.

“Let’s talk bachelorette,” Waverly says. “I’m not pointing any fingers, but my bachelorette party was…not the best.”

“I said sorry,” Wynonna says. “We could go to Pussywillows. Something for the gals.”

“Aren’t Doc and Jeremy going to Pussywillows?” Rachel asks.

Jeremy immediately cringes. “Please, no,” he says. “I mean, it’s your bachelor party. So we can. If you want.”

Doc huffs a laugh at the look on Jeremy’s face. “I believe you were going to teach me a children’s game where I could be a knight?”

Jeremy’s face lights up. “Oh God, yeah! I’ll call my guys. D&D night!”

“Don’t turn him into a nerd,” Wynonna pleads.

“He came that way,” Jeremy points out.

“That’s what she said,” Wynonna says automatically.

“Wynonna, do you want to go to Pussywillows?” Waverly checks. “We can go back to the place you took us with the guys.”

Nicole makes a face. “Yeah, sure.”

Wynonna feels a little touched at Nicole’s sacrifice. But she shakes her head. “I think I may be officially retiring my singles, ladies.”

Doc smiles over at her. “You do not have to,” he says. “I really do not mind. Long as you come home to me in the end.”

Wynonna bumps her hip into his. She can’t hold his hand or anything because he’s still hugging Jeremy. “Strippers lose their appeal a little when it’s a guy you took health class with in tenth grade.”

“Oh, how is Tyler?” Waverly asks.

“Besides, we can’t get too crazy with Rachel there,” Wynonna reasons.

“Oh,” Rachel says, surprised. “I—I’m invited?”

“Hey,” Wynonna says. “You’re family, okay?”

Rachel ducks her head, smiling. “Okay.”

Doc rubs Wynonna’s shoulder. “Alice can stay with me,” he offers. “So you ladies can get up to whatever you please.”

“You’re really not going to have any strippers or anything?” Wynonna asks. “Last night of freedom.”

Doc shrugs, a little smile on his face. “Oh, well, I feel more like I am running toward freedom than leaving it behind.”

“My God, you’re romantic,” Jeremy says. Wynonna’s pretty sure he’s ten seconds from planting one on Doc. She’d understand it.

“I swear he’s got a heartfelt-feeling-a-day calendar,” Wynonna says. “Don’t know how else he’d come up with this stuff.”

“Good inspiration, I suppose,” Doc says. “And, I must point out, I have had more than my fair share of professional women. The shine does tend to wear off.” He nods at Wynonna. “Though not, of course, if present company were still in the profession.”

“Sounds like someone’s angling for a trip to the Glory Hole,” Wynonna tells him with a smirk. “And it is working.”

Waverly snaps her fingers in front of Wynonna’s face. “I will get a spray bottle,” she threatens. “We have too much to do for you two to go have a pre-wedding sexcapade.”

“Says the woman who had barn sex the day of,” Jeremy points out.

“Aw, man,” Nicole says. “I just realized we’ve all been putting in a lot of hours in that barn.”

“The family that barn sexes together—” Wynonna starts.

“Absolutely not,” Nicole cuts her off, at the same time Waverly says,

“Oh my God, stop!” and Doc says,

“Wynonna, do not be foul.”

Wynonna looks down at Alice. “They won’t let a good ho get her jokes in.”

Alice puts her fingers back in Wynonna’s mouth in response.

“Bachelorette party!” Waverly cries, holding up a bottle of champagne. They’re just at home, which is beyond crazy for anything Wynonna would’ve expected for herself. She never thought about having a bachelorette party, but she knows no one would’ve ever thought she’d be happy to be in the homestead without a stripper or a mechanical bull in sight.

She is, though. She and Doc have been playing house for six months now, and Wynonna feels…settled. They aren’t playing, is the thing. They actually just are settled. It’s not a feeling she’s very used to. She doesn’t feel like she settled, as in she’s not getting all she wants. She feels settled in the way that means she feels calm. Like, inside herself.

She could still go for a mechanical bull, actually. But Rachel couldn’t get in anywhere that had one, so Wynonna will save that for another time. Or maybe she’ll ride a different kind of bull later. Less mechanical, more historical.

Waverly pours the champagne into glasses while Nicole gets some music going. Rachel looks around. “Wow,” she says. “I can’t believe I’m at a bachelorette party.”

“Don’t get used to this kind of bachelorette party,” Wynonna tells her. “I have been to some wild nights out with chicks getting married in the morning. Like this one time, when I was in Athens—”

“Wynonna,” Nicole cuts her off. “Is this a story that ends with you naked on a public beach?”

“No,” Wynonna says, a little offended. “It’s a story that ends with me naked on a public bench. You beach.”

Nicole rolls her eyes, then squints at Wynonna for a second. “You sure this is what you want?”

“What, Doc?” Wynonna asks, surprised. She knows Nicole and Doc have had their rough spots, but sheesh. “Nicole, I really, really am. I’ve actually never been surer of anything. Ever.”

“I meant the bachelorette party,” Nicole says. “But I’m really happy to hear that about you and Doc.” She gives Wynonna a soft little smile and kicks her foot. “You really do seem different these days. Really happy. And really…” Nicole searches for a word.

“Peaceful,” Waverly supplies, her own smile fond. She plops down beside Wynonna on the couch and hands her a flute of champagne.

Someone knocks on the door. “It’s open!” Waverly calls out.

“Yeah, I’m gonna need more than that!” It’s Mercedes. “Can’t come in uninvited, remember?”

“Mercedes, get your blood-sucking ass in here!” Wynonna yells.

Mercedes opens the door and points at Wynonna. “My bitch! So excited you’re marrying my vamp daddy.”

“Oh, that’s weird,” Nicole groans.

Wynonna shrugs. “Honestly? For all the shit we’ve seen? That’s not even top ten weirdest relationship shit we’ve got going on.”

“That’s true,” Waverly says. “I mean, Wynonna’s marrying her great-great-grandpa’s ex.”

“What?” Rachel asks.

Waverly winces. “Oops.”

“I mean, I kinda wondered,” Rachel says. “You’re not the first person I’ve heard say that. Just the first one I believed.”

“God, what I wouldn’t give to see that,” Mercedes says. “Sorry, girls, but Wyatt Earp was a stone cold fox. And those two together? That’s a lot of mustache.”

“Okay,” Wynonna says. “How about we stop talking about my ancestor and my soon-to-be-husband’s torrid love affair?”

“Was it torrid?” Mercedes asks, eyebrows raised.

“Have you met Doc?” Nicole mutters. “You can’t walk through Purgatory without tripping on someone wanting to tell you all about having sex with him.”

“Well, his dentistry ads did always have a satisfaction guarantee,” Waverly points out.

“Many repeat customers, I’m sure,” Mercedes says with a nod.

“He has definitely gotten around town,” Wynonna says with a little laugh.

“Wait, you’re not mad about that?” Rachel asks.

“Mad?” Wynonna asks. “Please. I didn’t even have to break him in. He’s had so much practice and when he eats—” Wynonna stops. “Hmm. No, probably not.”

“Oh my God,” Waverly says. “Wynonna, you just showed restraint in the middle of a story about sex.”

“I am truly growing and changing as a person,” Wynonna brags. “But I also realized if I said what I was about to say, Mercedes was going to go find him right away and try to bang him.”

“I’m halfway out of my chair anyway,” Mercedes agrees. “Just from the way he bit my neck, I could tell.”

Wynonna nods. “Yeah. Trust me.”

“Oh, I do,” Mercedes promises.

“Wynonna can’t exactly point fingers about being experienced,” Waverly says. “Oh, God, sorry! That sounded so judgy. You know I don’t judge.”

“I have, traditionally, been a huge slut,” Wynonna agrees. It makes Rachel choke a little on her sparkling cider.

“That’s right,” Mercedes says, high-fiving her. “Liberated women, represent!”

“But I have hung up my condoms,” Wynonna says. “Well, no, we still use those. You get what I mean.”

“You’re not going to give Alice a little sister?” Nicole asks.

“Jesus, Haught,” Wynonna says. “I’ve had the kid for six months. Let a hoohah heal.”

“Your hoohah healed years ago,” Waverly says. “It’s more about your heart-ha healing.”

“I will spare you the details, but there is still some hoohah healing,” Wynonna reveals.

“I don’t think I like bachelorette parties,” Rachel says, looking down into her cider.

“Where is the hoohah ripper?” Mercedes asks, looking around like maybe Alice was hiding under a couch cushion.

“Our favorite werewolf is babysitting,” Wynonna says.

“Freddy the florist?” Mercedes asks excitedly. “He’s such a cutie. I could eat him up. He’d taste horrible, though.”

“I’m pretty sure Jeremy’s eating him up,” Waverly gossips. “But you didn’t hear it from me!”

“What happened to wedding guy?” Wynonna asks.

“Oh, Jeremy’s become quite the little dater,” Nicole says. “Ever since Purgatory became, you know, welcoming, we’ve had a lot of gay guys come through. And Jeremy seems to be the official greeter.”

“Oh, my God, Jer!” Wynonna says. “Is it weird that I feel proud of him?”

“I’m just so glad he’s getting back out there,” Waverly says.

“I’m gonna give him a big ol’ smooch when I see him tomorrow,” Wynonna decides.

“What a wonderful thing for Jeremy,” Nicole says.

“Don’t cross me, Sheriff,” Wynonna says. “I was going to let you grab my top-shelf ass. Don’t talk your way out of it.”

Nicole snorts. “Like you’d ever stop someone from grabbing your ass.”

“Well, you got me there.”

They go on for hours, catching Wynonna up on the Purgatory gossip. It’s nice not to be a starring character in the rumor mill anymore. There’s no debauchery to be found in her bachelorette party. She thinks of telling Bulshar they were having a stitch and bitch. There will be no stitching—Wynonna will never be settled enough for that—but she likes this part.

It’s nice to have this. It’s always been easy to find drinking buddies, but most of them disappeared when she got too sloppy or the drinks ran out, and the ones who stuck around at that point weren’t trying to take care of her. She went a long time without real friends, without having anyone who wanted to sit with their feet in her lap and watch a stupid romcom with her and do a face mask. She almost didn’t realize it meant so much.

That’s happening a lot these days. She’s realizing something was missing by finding she has it now. And she’s starting to learn to appreciate it.

Doc comes back late, tiptoeing around like he doesn’t want to wake her up. She’s in the hazy spot between awake and asleep, watching him hang his hat carefully on the bedpost, drop his pistol holsters and slip his knife under his pillow, and finally get to the main event. He doesn’t sleep with a knife under his pillow in Miracles anymore, but here in Purgatory, old habits die hard.

Wynonna wolf-whistles when he starts unbuckling his belt. Doc looks at her, eyebrows raised. “Thought you were asleep,” he murmurs.

“I was waiting on my stripper.”

A smirk spreads across his face. “Oh, is that so?”

Wynonna sits up and slaps around on the TV dinner tray that serves as a bedside table out here until she finds what she’s looking for. She waves a dollar at him. “I’m ready.”

His smirk turns into a deep, full laugh, the kind he doesn’t do nearly enough. It makes her laugh, too. “Well, before we get to that,” he says, “was Freddy a suitable babysitter?”

“He taught Alice the difference between roses and daisies,” Wynonna reports. “And he fed her three different vegetables.”

“What were they?” Doc asks.

“No clue. Didn’t ask. She’s asleep. Now take off your clothes.”

Doc snorts. “What a forward woman you are.” Then he goes back to smirking and nods. “Well, your wish is my command. You are, after all, the bride-to-be. And I always did love a bold woman.”

His striptease is not objectively sexy. For one thing, he has to start with his boots, and it just is not possible to take boots off in a sexy way. His jeans are also pretty tight these days, which Wynonna is not complaining about, but it makes them a little hard to get off. It’s less a striptease and more just Doc undressing with an audience. Still, Wynonna watches with rapture, her throat actually sticking a bit when he peels off his shirt.

Doc rubs a hand down his chest. “Is the show to your liking, ma’am?”

Wynonna nods. “Oh, yeah,” she says. “But you’re missing something.” She sits up and grabs his hat. She holds it out to him and says, “Put it back on.”

Doc kind of harumphs, because he thinks it’s very ungentlemanly to wear his hat in the bedroom. He’s told her this more than once. It’s also ungentlemanly to not remove his hat when he kisses her, sees something heartfelt or sad happening, or stands near any kind of religious ceremony from any religion. He once took his hat off just because some (non-demon, probably) nuns were crossing the street near them.

Wynonna actually loves that he still holds onto that kind of decorum. Doc has worked hard to change a lot about himself, but there are some things he stubbornly refuses to let go of, and they’re all things that give her that huggy, cheek-pinchy feeling.

But he takes his hat, holding eye contact with her the whole time, and puts it back on his head. Now he’s standing there in nothing but his hat and mustache. Wynonna’s throat is a little dry. She’s feeling something alright, but it’s not quite the huggy, cheek-pinchy variety. Not the cheeks on his face, anyway.

“Gonna come get your reward?” she asks, hushed.

He nods without speaking and climbs onto the bed. He grabs her hips and pulls her so she’s back to lying down. He’s never rough with her, not really, not the way other men have been in her life, but he’s strong and he can push and pull her to go where he wants her to go without making her feel trapped. She’s always liked that.

He stops a few inches from her face, resting his weight on his forearms. “You still want my hat on?”

Wynonna shakes her head, biting her lip. “I’ve always liked the way you take it off to kiss me.”

He does just that, then slips his hands up the negligee she’d worn specifically for this. “Did you enjoy your night?” he asks against her lips.

“Yeah,” Wynonna says, hooking her legs around his waist and pulling him closer. “Have fun at your dork fest?”

Doc laughs a little, nuzzling his face against hers. “It was certainly…long.”

That makes Wynonna laugh. “You got something long for me?” She leans in to kiss him but pauses, because he smells different. Something’s missing. “You’re not drunk,” she realizes. She’d just assumed he would be; it was his bachelor party, after all. Drinking is pretty much the main event at those. Especially if he let Jeremy and the nerd-burgers go full throttle.

“Had one whisky,” he tells her. He nudges his nose along hers. “Made you a promise, and I aim to keep it.”

“And you always hit whatever you aim at.”

Her mouth is dry again. She wouldn’t have counted him drinking tonight as reneging on their deal, but he would. Because he promised her he wouldn’t drink as much, so he won’t.

It’s a little scary, how much he loves her. She still wonders sometimes if she’s worth that. She still wonders sometimes how long it’s going to take before he realizes she’s not. She doesn’t wonder that as much as she used to. She knows, logically, he won’t, and that’s enough to keep her from pushing him away preemptively like she used to. He’s more than proved himself and earned her trust. But that little kernel of fear is still there sometimes. She knows it’s more about herself than about him.

“You are not drunk either,” he points out, like he can hear her self-doubting thoughts.

“Yeah,” she says. She’d had two glasses of champagne and then switched to sparkling cider with Rachel. Partially because she hates champagne, but not entirely. “Well. I like keeping my promises, too.” She pulls his face close again so she can kiss him. “Working on having some honor. Maybe some of that self-respect thing I hear so much about.”

“Then I will be in good company,” he tells her. “Because I have more respect for you than anyone I have ever met.”

“Woof,” she says, because that’s a lot right now when he’s naked and on top of her. She sucks at his neck to remind him where this is supposed to be headed. “Respect me in the morning, okay?”

“I sure can do that,” he murmurs. Then they finally stop talking and get to what they do best. They’re working hard on the whole talking things out thing. But sometimes, they communicate just fine without words.

Their wedding day goes about as smoothly as they should have expected. It is, in fact, pouring down rain, which will turn into snow in the night and make going anywhere tomorrow a bitch and a half. Alice doesn’t want to wear the adorable flower girl dress she’d insisted she loved at the store, and she spends the morning wailing.

“Just let her wear something else,” Wynonna finally calls down the hall, exasperated after listening to Waverly and Nicole trying to wrangle her into her dress for half an hour. “I don’t give a shi—shoot anymore!” Alice is starting to hit that mimicking stage, and the last thing Wynonna needs is some other mom at playgroup judging her toddler’s potty mouth.

“Wynonna, she wants to wear jeans and chaps,” Nicole says. “I mean, go for it, girl, but to your parents’ wedding?”

That makes Wynonna laugh. She doesn’t even care that things aren’t going to plan. The most important part of the plan is going to happen, no matter what else goes wrong: she’s going to end up at Shorty’s with Doc and get married, and the other details don’t mean all that much. She’s not worried about him getting cold feet. She knows the only thing that would keep him away is dying.

Which is why they’re getting married in the first place.

“Well, her dad will love it,” Wynonna points out. “She’s got holsters for her toy guns, too. She’ll scream if you forget those.”

“Do you want me to curl the back of your hair?” Waverly asks.

“Yeah,” Wynonna says. “Inkhole, you think you can handle getting Alice dressed on your own?”

“I’m getting better at the tiny buttons!” Nicole says brightly.

Waverly comes into the bathroom. She freezes when she sees Wynonna. Wynonna’s already got her dress on and her makeup done. “Wynonna,” Waverly says, tearing up.

“Stop it!” Wynonna threatens. “Waverly, if you cry right now, I’m going to cry, and then I’m going to punch you in the boob.”

“Please, don’t!” Nicole calls out.

Waverly blinks hard and dabs under her eyes. “Okay,” she says firmly. She sniffles a little and shakes her head. “But just so you know, you look—” She stops and puts a hand over her mouth. “Oh, Wynonna.”

“Goddamnit, baby girl,” Wynonna complains halfheartedly. “Come here.”

Waverly hugs her carefully, conscious of her dress and her makeup, and Wynonna has to close her eyes tight against the tears that are threatening to well up. Her mascara’s waterproof, but she doesn’t want to test it just yet.

Waverly sets to work on Wynonna’s hair. It feels like a thousand Saturday nights they’ve shared over the past few years, getting ready together even if Waverly disapproved of how drunk Wynonna was going to get. That’s not a problem anymore. Hopefully. Wynonna’s trying really hard to not let it be a problem anymore.

“I’m so happy for you,” Waverly says softly. “I’m so glad you let yourself have this.”

“Me too,” Wynonna says. “I’m so happy you made me let myself have this.”

They both laugh, a little teary, and then Waverly says, “Okay, no more or our makeup won’t survive.”

Nicole comes in with Alice on her hip. “Oh, Wynonna,” she says. “Oh, my God.”

“Don’t even start, Daddy,” Wynonna says.

That makes Nicole laugh. “Well, Doc’s definitely going to want to go straight to the Glory Hole.”

“Glory Hole?” Alice repeats.

“Oh, spectacular,” Wynonna says, but she can’t stop herself from laughing.

“Wow, those little ears really are always listening, huh?” Nicole asks, chagrined. She jiggles Alice in her arms. “What do you say, Alice? Should your mommy and daddy go get married?”

“Yeah!” Alice says, like she has any idea what they’re talking about. All she knows is they keep talking about cake. She’s pretty interested in that part.

Doc spent the morning at Jeremy’s getting ready. Wynonna thinks the whole not seeing each other before the wedding thing is stupid, but Doc wouldn’t budge. He still hasn’t seen her dress, even without her in it. She asked if he wanted to and he’d practically run out of the room with his hands over his eyes. He wants to be surprised. Wynonna can admit, only to herself, that she’s excited to see his face when he sees her.

Nicole brings the car as close to the front porch as she can and she, Waverly, and Rachel run beside Wynonna with umbrellas so the rain won’t get her. When they get to Shorty’s, there’s a whole lineup of people holding umbrellas.

“What the…” Wynonna says.

Freddy gives her a little bow that Wynonna thinks is very adorable. “Doc and Jeremy asked us all to keep you ladies dry,” he says.

“Aw, Freddy, thanks,” Wynonna says, genuinely touched. “That’s so sweet I’m not even going to make a joke about you keeping women dry.”

Freddy scowls a little. “Are you going in or what? I’m also supposed to offer you my arm to get out of the car.”

Wynonna smiles. She might possibly even giggle, if she were the type to giggle. That request has Doc written all over it. “Oh, boy,” she says, shaking her head. “He’s a good one, huh?”

“Yeah, he is,” Freddy says, looking a little dreamy. Jesus, everyone in this town wants her man. He’s like some kind of supernatural catnip.

“Okay,” Wynonna says. “I’m about to marry him, so keep your boner to yourself.”

“Right.”

He helps her out of the car and a few demons hold her train. It’s quite the procession. Only in Purgatory. They get inside Shorty’s and hustle her around the back so Doc can’t see her. “This is getting kind of stupid,” Wynonna complains. “I’m not the nuclear launch codes.”

“We’re not disappointing Doc!” one little teenage demon squeaks out.

Wynonna shakes her head. “Fine.” She decides it’s better that her almost-husband is king of the demons instead of bottom of the food chain. “How long am I going to be back here?” she asks. “Should I crack a bottle?” She’s totally joking. Totally. It was kind of a reflexive question.

“We’re starting in two minutes,” Waverly says. She’s back in planning mode, and pity anyone who gets in her way.

“Doc’s here, right?” Wynonna jokes.

“Nedley said Doc’s been here for an hour and a half,” Rachel says. “He’s really excited.”

Waverly presses her hands over her heart. “Oh, my God.”

“You two,” Nicole agrees.

“I’m going out there,” Rachel says. “You look great, Wynonna.”

“Thanks, kid,” Wynonna says.

Nedley pokes his head around the corner. “Ready?” he asks. He takes a second to look at her and smiles. “You make a beautiful bride, Wynonna.”

“Thanks.” Wynonna’s getting dangerously close to tears now. “God, let’s go.”

Nedley winks at her. “Got it.”

Nicole goes out with Alice to make sure she walks in the right direction. Wynonna hopes someone got a picture of Doc seeing Alice in her outfit. She wants to see that.

Then Waverly takes her arm and gives it a squeeze. “Ready?” she asks. She’s teary-eyed and Wynonna can’t look at her.

“I’m ready.”

They walk out around the bar and Wynonna meets Doc’s eyes. He looks stunned like somebody pistol-whipped him. Or some normal amount of being stunned. Wynonna’s frame of reference trends toward violence.

“My God,” he murmurs when she gets to him. Waverly hugs Wynonna and gives Doc a kiss on the cheek and then stands beside Nicole and Alice. Doc puts his hands on Wynonna’s hips and shakes his head. “A sight from my dreams.”

Wynonna’s dress looks a lot like Waverly’s original dress, the one she spent a day in running around with Doc and kept catching him staring at her. But this one isn’t cursed. Wynonna waved Peacemaker over it like a wand a bunch of times to check.

Mercedes, sitting in the front row, wolf-whistles. Wynonna blows her a kiss. Nedley raises his eyebrows. “You want me to get started?”

“Absolutely,” Doc says. He hasn’t taken his eyes off Wynonna since she came around the corner. He’s wearing a suit that’s tailored to every part of his body, and Wynonna is very much looking forward to peeling it off him the second they’re alone.

“Dad!” Alice says. “Where’s your hat?”

Everybody laughs and coos over how cute she is. Doc finally looks away from Wynonna to smile down at her. “Well, darling, a gentleman cannot wear his hat to his own wedding. It just won’t do.”

“Put it on later?” Alice asks.

“Yes, ma’am.” Doc looks at Nedley and nods.

“I’m going to keep this pretty short,” Nedley says, “since these two waited long enough to get here. And because someone threatened to send me back to live in the forest if I took too long.” Doc gives Wynonna a look. She shrugs unrepentantly. It’s her wedding day; she’ll make all the threats she wants. Nedley doesn’t seem all that bothered. “I just want to say, even when I was at my least trusting of you, Doc, I knew I could always count on you to be on Wynonna’s side.”

“Always,” Wynonna whispers to Doc. He nods at her, smiling softly.

“Wynonna, you and I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye. Almost never, really, except on the Spice Girls. But I hope you know I would do anything for you, and I’m glad to call you my family.”

“Aw, Nedley,” Wynonna says.

He huffs. “Alright, well, I’ll let you two handle your vows and telling everybody how much you love each other.” He looks at Wynonna. “I know how much you love to be vulnerable with an audience.”

Wynonna snorts. “Thanks.”

She’d almost told Doc they shouldn’t do vows, just let Nedley do the regular kind from TV weddings and be done with it. They’re sappy and heartfelt enough when they’re alone, and Wynonna doesn’t like being sincere in public very often.

But she’d stopped herself. Part of it is because she’s trying to do what Doc said, to let herself take what she wants. But most of it is because she thinks Doc deserves to hear her say it in front of a roomful of people. Wynonna spent a long time telling him and everybody else within earshot that she didn’t have feelings for him, that it was just sex, that she wasn’t in love.

She knows he knew better, and she’s done her best to make up for it now, but she still wants to say it publicly. In a dive bar with an audience of demons, vampires, and werewolves. Just how every little girl pictures her wedding day.

“Would you like me to go first?” Doc asks. Wynonna nods gratefully. She’s going to need to work up some courage, and it’s always easier to be sappy and lovestruck after he’s given her some heartfelt speech about how much he loves her.

Doc just looks at her for a second, not saying anything. He shakes his head a little and lets out a little puff of a breath. “Oh, Wynonna,” he says. “I hardly dared to hope we would ever get here. I walked into this bar and saw you and I knew right then and there, you would be in my life for as long as you allowed. Because I would never be leaving you. I know I did my fair share of keeping us apart. I did not always make the best of decisions. But I have always loved you.” His voice breaks. “I was in a dark well, darling, and you were the light and the rope to get me out.” Wynonna laughs a little, but she’s tearing up. Damn, she shouldn’t have let him go first. She’s going to be crying before she gets to her part. “I hope you have always known how much I would do to keep you safe and happy. There is nothing you could ask that I would not give you. And I will stay at your side until God himself comes to drag me away.”

Wynonna lifts Doc’s hand so she can kiss his knuckles. He strokes her cheek and smiles at her and she’s a goner. As if she weren’t already. She takes a deep breath. Her turn.

“Doc,” she starts. She has to stop for a second, because she looks at his face and he’s actually crying now, and then she loses the control she was clinging to by her fingertips. “John Henry,” she starts over shakily, because using his actual name kind of does something to him. “I told you once that I never run.” A little pain flashes over his face, because, yeah, not a fun conversation to invoke on their wedding day. But still. “We both knew I was lying. I’ve run a lot in my life. I ran from ghosts and bad memories.” She glances over her shoulder to Waverly at that, another little apology. Waverly mouths I love you. “I tried to run from my destiny. I ran from mobs of townspeople.” That gets a little laugh out of everybody. “But most of all, I ran from you. Over and over. I ran from what you were trying to give me. And you always waited. You always came when I needed you, no matter how many times I pushed you away. You stayed and you protected me. And you protected Waverly.” Her voice breaks. Doc brushes a tear off her cheek and she turns her head to kiss his palm. “I’m not running anymore, Doc. Or if I have to run, I’m running right to you. Thank you for staying. Thank you for catching me. Thank you for changing me and making me brave and always giving me your gun.” She sniffles. “Both kinds.”

“Wynonna,” Nedley complains, but Doc’s laughing, so everyone else can go to hell.

“Thank you for never giving up on me,” Wynonna manages to choke out, squeezing his hands tighter when she thinks of almost losing him in Bulshar’s sick game. “And I’m never giving up on you. I love you.”

Doc pulls her in and kisses her. “Never,” he murmurs. “Not ever.”

“You know you’re supposed to wait to do that until the end,” Nedley says.

“Well, get the show on the road then, Nedley,” Wynonna says. “You’re taking forever and I’m going to let the fuzzballs have you again.” She glances around. Jeremy’s full on sobbing. It makes Wynonna laugh a little.

Nedley raises his eyebrows, but Wynonna could swear he’s a little misty-eyed himself. The old softie. “Fine,” Nedley says. “Wynonna, you take John Henry to be your husband? I’m not going to bother with all that better or worse, sickness and health stuff. Think you’ve established all that.”

“I do,” Wynonna says through her tears.

“John Henry,” Nedley says. “You take Wynonna to be your wife?”

Doc looks straight into her eyes. “I do. With every breath I have, until the day I die.”

“Rings?” Nedley asks.

“I have them,” Jeremy chokes out. He hands a ring to Doc and one to Wynonna. Wynonna gets a little hasty and slams that ring onto Doc’s finger. He jumps a little.

“Sorry,” she murmurs. He’s much gentler putting her ring on. There’s no diamond in it; Wynonna hadn’t wanted one. Doc had made her swear up and down she was telling the truth. It’s just a silver band, the type that would’ve been the default if they’d gotten married back in his time. He wouldn’t have worn one back then, apparently, but he hadn’t needed any convincing to wear one now. The rings make her think of Peacemaker, for some reason.

“Alright then,” Nedley says. “I now pronounce you husband and wife. Happy?”

“Oh, that’s one word for it,” Doc says. He’s smiling so wide he can barely kiss Wynonna, but they don’t let that stop them.

Everyone cheers, and she can hear Jeremy sobbing through his cheers, and then Doc picks up Alice and the three of them hug. Wynonna looks at Waverly over Doc’s shoulder. She’s crying, holding onto Nicole, and Wynonna presses a kiss to Alice’s hair while she smiles at her sister.

It’s all so much more than she ever thought she wanted. So much more than she let herself want. Doc was right; she stopped herself from wanting things because she knew she couldn’t have them. She never thought a happily ever after was in the cards. Not for her. She told herself if she got that for Waverly, that would be enough.

But of course Waverly couldn’t be fully happily ever after if Wynonna wasn’t. That’s not Waverly’s style. So of course it was Waverly who kicked Wynonna’s ass into going after Doc. It was Waverly who kept pushing them back toward each other. It was Waverly who held onto Doc when Wynonna couldn’t.

Waverly comes over and hugs them all, their little family. Wynonna kisses the top of Waverly’s head. “Thank you, baby girl,” she chokes out.

“Thank you, baby girl,” Doc echoes, because of course he knows it was Waverly who got them here. Well, okay, maybe they deserve some credit themselves. But mostly Waverly.

“I love you guys,” Waverly says. “I’m so happy for you.”

Nicole comes into the family hug, and then Jeremy, and then Wynonna says, “Smalldez, get in here. You too, Nedley.” After a second, she says, “Okay, Billy, too.” It’s not his fault his family sucked donkey balls. He did his part to change that. And right now, Wynonna’s so happy she thinks she could let shit-breath Bradley into the hug.

Wynonna thinks of walking back into Purgatory years ago, alone and angry and scared. That’s never going to be her again. Never alone. Sometimes that feels literal, when Alice won’t even let her take a shit in privacy. But that’s better.

She’s got her people. Her family. Her whole world right here in Shorty’s, slightly crushing her against Doc’s chin and Alice’s little boot, with Jeremy’s elbow digging into her kidney and Waverly’s hair in her mouth and Nicole’s boob pressed against her back.

There’s nowhere she’d rather be.

“The ocean,” Waverly says wistfully when Wynonna tells her their honeymoon plan. “Wow.”

Waverly could go to the ocean, but Nicole can’t. So Waverly won’t. It almost makes Wynonna change her mind. If Waverly’s never going to see the ocean, Wynonna won’t go ever again, either. But she makes herself stop. That is absolutely not what Waverly wants. They’re working on being less codependent.

Well, they’re trying. They’re considering trying. They’re considering thinking about trying.

Wynonna doesn’t know if it would be better or worse to offer to bring Waverly some seashells, like she used to mail back to her when she was running around on her own.

Instead, she just pulls Waverly into a hug and kisses her cheek. “I’ll think of you the whole time.”

“Hopefully not the whole time,” Waverly says. “It’s your honeymoon. Gross.”

“Wave!” Wynonna says. “You guys got all mad at my barn sex joke.”

“That was disgusting,” Waverly says.

“I don’t want the toilet!” Alice cries down the hall. “Gonna suck me in.”

Wynonna sighs. Potty training is going swimmingly. It actually was going swimmingly, and Alice was almost completely potty trained during the day. But Wynonna had made the mistake of taking her to the bathroom at a store with automatic flushing toilets and now Alice is terrified of the toilet.

“I know it is very frightening,” they hear Doc commiserate. “So loud and unexpected.” Wynonna and Waverly meet each other’s eyes and crack up laughing. It’s probably not very nice, considering the poor guy went into the well when people were still pissing in holes in the ground, or whatever they did back then. “I promise you, it will not suck you in,” Doc goes on. “I would never let that happen.”

Wynonna can’t help the smile that steals over her face. Alice is almost three, so she can’t understand just how much Doc means that, how far he’d go to protect her. She can’t grasp that Doc is always going to be there to make sure nothing bad ever happens to her.

Well, within reason. Wynonna’s tried warning him that Alice is inevitably going to fall off her bike or lose a game or go on a bad date, but Doc’s pretty stubbornly refusing to accept any of those. Especially the date one. He seems to think their genetic predisposition to go for toxic assholes will at least skip a generation.

“No!” Alice insists. “Not doing it!”

Doc sighs. “You are your mother’s daughter, darling, anyone ever tell you that?”

“I can hear you!” Wynonna yells.

There’s a pause. “…It was a compliment.”

“Don’t test me, Holliday,” Wynonna tells him. “There’s a whole show about women offing their husbands.”

Wynonna can practically hear him smiling at her calling him her husband. “I am familiar,” he tells her. He loves reality TV. He thinks it’s educational, and Wynonna doesn’t have the heart to argue. Though he did learn how to retile a backsplash, so apparently he’s at least partially right.

Doc does, eventually, get Alice to go to the bathroom, but only by holding onto her while she’s on the toilet and promising to wait to flush until she’d run out of the bathroom. That’s going to get annoying. But they’re leaving Alice here with Waverly and Nicole while they take their honeymoon, so it’s not her problem for at least a week.

Driving back to Miracles to leave her with Gus hadn’t made sense, and there’s a little part of Wynonna that’s happy about that. She and Gus are mostly cordial with each other these days, and Wynonna will always, always be grateful beyond words to Gus for keeping Alice safe when she couldn’t, but there’s a certain insurmountable stiffness there because of all their history. Doc isn’t Gus’s biggest fan, either, and vice versa, but they all try to stay as polite as possible for Alice. They’d told Gus about the wedding ahead of time, and she’d congratulated them without even offering to drive down for it, and that had been that.

Doc comes back into the kitchen, and the sun coming in the window makes his wedding ring shine. Wynonna catches his hand and runs her finger over the ring. “You never told me where you got these,” she reminds him.

“Oh,” Doc says. “Well. I had them made.”

“Had them made?” Waverly asks. “In three days?”

Doc shrugs. He looks at Wynonna and smiles a little, then shakes his head. “No, I had these made four months ago. I was just waiting until you wanted it.”

“Aw, Doc,” Waverly says.

“You sly old bastard,” Wynonna says, squeezing his hand.

“I hoped someday you’d want to wear it, even if we didn’t do anything formal.”

“Oh, I see,” Wynonna teases. “You wanted another common law wife.”

“I wanted you as any kind of wife you wanted to be,” Doc says.

“Who made them?” Waverly asks.

“Blacksmith out in Miracles,” Doc says. “Since I already had the metal, it was easier.”

“You already had the metal?” Wynonna asks. “From what?”

“That bullet I split to hit the Widows.”

Wynonna looks at him. “So you’re telling me I was in labor and you needed to go handle an apocalypse, but you still took the time to stop and grab two pieces of bullet from the nasty Widow dust?”

Doc doesn’t even try to pretend to look sorry. “Wynonna, I split a bullet in two,” he says defensively. “You know anyone else who ever did that?”

“Well, there’s a samurai in India who did it with a sword,” Waverly says.

Doc stares at her. “Is that in your phone? Can I watch it?”

“It’s not the phone, Doc, it’s the internet,” Waverly says patiently. “And yes. I’ll send it to you.”

“This world,” Doc marvels. It makes Wynonna feel all soft and warm inside, like a marshmallow. Now she wants a s’more.

“Wait, couldn’t we have used those bullet pieces against Bulshar?” Wynonna asks.

Now Doc looks offended. “You think I would hold onto that if it could have helped? You cannot reuse a bullet, not like that. The melting process would not have left us with enough for another bullet, not the right size for the Buntline, and you likely would have misfired and only harmed yourself. Which can kill, if you recall.”

“Oh, really, Doc? No, I forgot.”

“For a woman with such a powerful weapon, you do not know much about guns or ammunition,” Doc complains.

“Aw,” Waverly says, resting her chin in her hands and smiling at them. “Your first married fight. Of course it’s about guns.”

“This isn’t a fight,” Doc and Wynonna say together.

“No one’s even brought up a horrible, possible world-ending mistake full of past trauma,” Wynonna points out.

Doc snorts. “No one is drunk, either.”

“Yeah, who knew all that alcohol was really making our fights worse?” Wynonna asks. “They should probably make a PSA about that.”

“I do not know what that means,” Doc says. “I did once see a program on the television about a family dealing with alcoholism.”

“It was Celebrity Rehab,” Waverly says with a wince.

“Oh, God,” Wynonna says. “Baby, we gotta get you to stop watching so much TV. Didn’t anyone ever tell you it rots your brain?”

“No,” Doc says honestly, sounding confused.

“That may or may not have been what inspired my, uh, little intervention attempt just before…you know,” Waverly admits. “I mean, not that episode specifically, but just in general.”

“Yeah, well.” Wynonna sighs. “Right idea, anyway.”

“Wrong time,” Waverly says. “You weren’t ready yet.”

“Obviously you should’ve just waited until after you got lost in the fog and we all almost died in two different potentially world-ending events,” Wynonna points out. She tips her head. “And until after we went and got Alice. And been Doc making a marriage pact.”

“Yeah, why didn’t I think of that,” Waverly deadpans.

“My liver for your liver,” Doc says. “Only way we know how to do things.”

“Go big or go home,” Wynonna agrees. She nudges Waverly. “Hey. What was your first married fight about?”

Waverly laughs. “Oh, it’s so silly now,” she says. “The handcuffs we like—”

“Oh, absolutely not,” Wynonna cuts her off.

“My good gracious,” Doc says, sounding like someone’s scandalized grandma, and then Wynonna and Waverly fall all over each other laughing at him. He rolls his eyes at them, but Wynonna can see him biting down on a smile under his mustache. She knows sometimes he plays up the old timey stuff just to be funny, but his poker face is so good it’s hard to catch him in the act.

“Waverly,” Doc says, serious now. “There is something I wanted to make sure to tell you. I know it was obvious for you to stand with Wynonna at the wedding, and Jeremy with me, but I hope you know that I—well, Waverly Earp, I consider you one of my deepest friends.”

“Family,” Waverly corrects softly. She’s tearing up. “And yes, Doc, of course. Me too.”

“I truly believe we would not be here if not for you,” Doc says. “Not just saving my literal life, but…well, Waverly, I think I started to change because of your faith in me. I wanted to be worthy of Wynonna, of course, but even before that, I wanted to be worthy of your opinion. You had such faith in me that I most certainly did not deserve at first.”

“You more than deserve it now,” Waverly chokes out. She stands up and throws her arms around Doc.

Wynonna’s definitely crying at this little display. He didn’t even warn her beforehand, which she thinks is probably a breach of matrimonial duties that she will be complaining about later. He can’t just spring such an emotional moment on her.

“Mama!” Alice yells at the top of her lungs, triumphant. “I went poop on the toilet!”

It kind of breaks up the sentimentality they’ve got going on. They all laugh tearfully. Wynonna wipes her eyes. “Good job, baby girl!” she calls back.

She’d been scared to call Alice that, at first, and she’d told Waverly about it like she was confessing a sin. Waverly had, of course, laughed at her, and then told her it made perfect sense for Alice to be her baby girl.

Nicole comes home then, Rachel and Billy in tow, and she’s on the phone with Jeremy about dinner. It’s Doc and Wynonna’s last night before they take off for their honeymoon, so they’re gathering up the family again. The homestead is bursting with people, with laughter and Alice’s singing and with love. It’s the best feeling in the world.

“Lord almighty,” Doc breathes, looking out at the water. He looks absolutely hilarious in the sand, a pistol on each hip and his hat on with his jeans rolled up and his bony white feet bare, but Wynonna can’t even laugh.

He’s so awed. He’s been alive for 168 years and had never seen the ocean until this exact moment. He lived less than 200 miles from the ocean when he was a teenager, but he told Wynonna that without any pressing reason to go, it had never made sense to go so far. A trip that would take them under three hours in a car would’ve been days of travel for him back then. When he got older and could’ve made his own reason to go, the doctors told him to head southwest and avoid the wet ocean air because of his tuberculosis.

Wynonna’s seen the ocean. She’s seen more than one ocean. She’s never really understood why people freak out over it. A beach is a beach, and she never cared if she was at a lake or an ocean or a pond. As long as she had her bikini and a drink, she was happy.

But now, seeing him see this, Wynonna gets it. Maybe it’s just the fact that Doc never had the chance before. Maybe it’s that Wynonna herself has changed. But either way, they stand there together in the cold sand and don’t say a word.

October isn’t exactly beach weather. There aren’t a lot of other people out, but it’s not deserted, either. After a while, Doc says softly, “This has been here since before me. And it’ll be here after I die.”

“Nah,” Wynonna says.

He looks over at her. “What?”

“Well, let’s face it, you’re going first,” Wynonna points out. “And after you kick it, that’s it. I’m blowing the whole world up. Game over.”

He snorts. “You and Peacemaker against the whole ocean, huh?”

“Yep.”

“Well, if anyone could do it, I would place my bet on you.” He pulls her into his side. “But you can’t do that. I likely will go first. And I will go happily this time, because I have made my peace, as you like to say, and have gotten all a man could ever ask for in this life.” He kisses her hair. “But I can only go happily if I know you and Alice will keep on living for me.”

“That’s not very fair,” Wynonna complains mildly. “You’re dead and I have to live without you?”

“Well, I lived without you for 160-odd years,” he points out. “You only lived without me 27, and you will likely only make it another five or ten after I go.”

Wynonna laughs out loud. “What, you think you’re the one driving this bus?”

“You could last longer if you move back in with Waverly and the sheriff,” Doc allows. “But otherwise, who would feed you?”

“Good point,” Wynonna admits. She’s still absolute shit in the kitchen. Doc has a recipe Pinterest. “Well, suicide pact it is.”

That makes him laugh. He turns her face toward his and kisses her. “No, none of that,” he murmurs against her lips. “Living pact.”

Wynonna doesn’t fight the smile that wants to take over her lips. “Living pact?”

“Yeah,” he says. “We make a pact to keep living.”

“Together,” she says.

“My love, that is a foregone conclusion,” he promises.

She kisses him again. They look out at the ocean and Wynonna watches him watch the water from the corner of her eye. She thinks of Alice and Waverly and Nicole, all safe and loved and happy at home with Rachel and Jeremy. Nedley and Billy. Mercedes. Even all the werewolves and demons hanging around Purgatory who call out hellos to them as they walk down the street. Sometime in the past few years while she thought her death was inevitable, she really built up a life. And now, more than ever, she wants to keep it.

“Good plan,” Wynonna tells Doc. “You got it.” She takes his hand and squeezes it, then raises their clasped hands to the ocean like they’re raising an invisible glass. “To living!”

Doc laughs. He squeezes her hand back and presses a kiss to her forehead. “To living,” he echoes quietly. She rests her head against his and breathes deep. Yeah, living. She’s ready to give that a real try.