Chapter Text
The cold wind was biting, the kind that chills you to the bone. The few unfortunate souls out in the streets hustled without a glance towards their fellow miserable travelers. Propped against the nook of the building these travelers were heading in and out of, a man sat with his eyes closed, oblivious to his surroundings until a paper caught by a gust smacked him in the face. Perturbed by the disruption, his eyes flashed anger as he crumbled the offending item when something suddenly stopped him. Now more alert with his eyes fully opened, he smoothed the wrinkles out of the three day old newspaper and scanned an article. Without glasses, he strained to read the small print. Slowly, his countenance changed, anger fading into concern and then determination. He lifted himself from the ground and walked towards the entrance of the bus station as the newspaper was once again aloft and quickly flattened against a mailbox. From a distance the only words legible were The Purgatory Free Press banner and a headline that read: Purgatory Sheriff Missing.
Waverly was wearing a hole in the carpet of Nicole’s office. She had tuned out the chatter around her focus only on her own spiraling thoughts. Four days. Four long, confusing, and fear fueled days of her wife missing. It certainly had given her a newfound appreciation of what Nicole had endured for the 18 months, 3 weeks, and four days Waverly had disappeared some years ago. She wasn’t as strong as Nicole, and she wasn’t sure how much more of this she could handle.
“Baby girl.”
Waverly was drawn from her reminiscence by the sound of a familiar voice. She looked up into the piercing blue eyes of her sister, whose expression was vacillating between anguish and anger.
“They want to know if Nicole ever mentioned the whereabouts of her parents?” Her sister Wynonna inquired.
“Wha..what, why?” Waverly uttered.
“These city boys think Nicole’s run off.” Randy Nedley, the former Sheriff of Purgatory, chirped. Nicole was like a daughter to him and he would make sure these fools wasted no time wandering down this path.
“We are just trying to understand what Sheriff Haught’s options and resources might be.” Agent Lucado, a special agent assigned to missing persons, offered.
“Resources? You want to talk resources? My wife has been missing four freakin days! Where's the helicopters, where's the search team, where's anything? Are you guys even looking for her?!” Waverly yelled.
The agent gave a sympathetic look towards the wife and stated with trepidation “You have to admit it's possible she’s left the area.”
“SHE CANNOT LEAVE!”
Wynonna put her hand on her sister who was now visibly shaking. They couldn't exactly tell these investigators that Purgatory is supernatural central and Nicole pledged herself to her wife and is now actually bound to the Ghost River Triangle. That crazy talk will get a girl locked up. Instead Wynonna steered her sister out of the room for some fresh air before there was bloodshed leaving Nedley to deal with the agents.
Waverly smiling at her from the front steps of the homestead, Waverly kissing her on Nedley’s couch, Waverly down on one knee proposing, Waverly her wife.
An endless loop of images filling Nicole with warmth. She could stay here in this feeling forever.
The old bus rattled as it pulled away leaving the man who had just stepped off it in a cloud of dust. The closest one could get to Purgatory was an intersection of desolate road just outside of town. He could have called his wife to pick him up, but the man wanted to use this time to sort his thoughts and survey his surroundings and the two mile walk into town would provide just that. The wind continued to kick up dirt and the cold sent a shiver through him, he adjusted the collar of his jacket and cowboy hat in a feeble attempt to fend off the elements. As he set out, his mind was a kalediscope of chaos in search of answers to one burning question. Where was Nicole?
Wynonna slowly closed the door to her sister’s bedroom door. The strain of the past few days coupled with a lack of sleep had come crashing down upon Waverly and she was now resting courtesy of a concoction administered by their good friend Jeremy. Entering the kitchen, Wynonna snatched the half empty bottle of whiskey sitting on the table and took a swig before grabbing a tumbler from the cupboard and pouring a proper drink. She had just sat down in the living room, when the front door opened.
“How's she doing?” Wynonna’s friend Mercedes asked as she sat down on the couch.
“She's asleep right now.”
Mercedes nodded in acknowledgment and the two sat in silence for a few minutes before being interrupted by the sound of Mercedes’ phone ringing.
Wynonna looked at her friend intently trying to decipher the meaning of the conversation. When she had hung up, Wynonna stared at the woman with pleading eyes.
“That was my pilot. He just finished a run down the Ghost River and up to Steve’s Gulch.” Mercedes waited a beat before continuing. “There was no sign of Nicole's cruiser."