"I heard there's a new cop in town."
Waverly heard Willa's cloying, emotionless tone escaping from the kitchen just as she was about to head out to town for her shift at Shorty's.
"Some redheaded dyke. I know Nedley is the hick sheriff of a godforsaken hellhole, but you'd think he could at least pretend some moral decency like most country people."
Waverly rolled her eyes. Willa was in a mood again. Which really wasn't a thing, because Willa was always in a mood. She should technically probably be happy that her older sister's wrath was being directed at someone else.
This was pretty much what her life always was nowadays. Once their parents died, the three Earp sisters were sent off to live with their aunt Gus and uncle Curtis. Well, two of them really. Wynonna was a troubled child, and after erratically passing through therapists and juvie pretty much left town the moment she could. She still occasionally passed back through though.
Willa, however, set herself up with a job (she was mum about the details) and returned to the family homestead when she came of age. She also convinced Gus to let her take Waverly with her as she was technically next of kin. Obviously, Willa continued to treat her exactly how she did when they were little kids: miserably. Waverly had no idea why she actively chose to take her in, other than that maybe she actually needs to be making somebody miserable.
"It could just be rumors. Even you couldn't imagine half of what people say about us Earps." She just tried to keep things civil and get out of the house.
"And most of them are true." Willa retorted. "It doesn't matter. A new cop is sure to show their face at the local watering hole. You might as well introduce our little family."
"Will do." Waverly just threw out an agreement and ducked out the door.
By the time she had arrived at Shorty's, Waverly had nearly forgotten all about what Willa had said. As much as it may be a dusty dump filled with groping misogynists, it was still her home away from home and only escape from Willa.
Consequently, it was an almost complete surprise when it was not just a stranger who walked into the bar that rarely saw any non-regulars, but an—as far as she could tell—extremely beautiful redheaded stranger in a police uniform.
She just barely stopped herself from staring before the woman reached the bar and quickly returned to handing out tepid beers to look as nonchalant as possible.
"Hey!" She pretended she was just noticing the woman and offered an enthusiastic greeting as she took a stool at the bar. "You want something to drink? Or I suppose you can't drink, since you're in uniform. I mean, you can drink; we've got water, and ginger ale. But you can't drink drink."
"Oh my God. Why did I just say any of that?"
By the time Waverly was done, she immediately regretted her rambling. Worst of all, she had no idea why she was rambling to a random woman. She was acting like a schoolgirl with a crush to a woman she literally saw for the first time three seconds ago.
It was just that she looked so dashing walking in with that uniform and stetson hat.
"Like a handsome cowboy. I suppose I was just imagining she was like a handsome man rolling into town."
"Okay…" Waverly nearly jumped once the woman spoke up, reminding her why she was embarrassed in the first place. "I'll remember that."
The woman laughed, but with a gentle kindness in her tone.
"But I think I'll pass on the ginger ale. I really just came in to introduce myself. Hot." The last word was spoken clearly and separately.
"Huh? Oh. I guess it's the crowd. I can check the thermostat." Waverly was still flustered enough from her embarrassment to barely notice the oddity of the sudden seeming shift in topic.
The woman just chuckled again.
"No. Haught. My name is Nicole Haught. Miss…?"
Waverly blushed fiercely, realizing how badly she was messing up this conversation.
"Most people would already be sick of me."
"Earp!" She blurted out, probably a little too loudly. "Earp. Waverly Earp." She managed more calmly.
"Well, I'll let you get back to work Miss Earp. You're clearly busy right now." She stood up, and tipped her hat. She was right, several customers were staring, clearly waiting for an opening. Only the uniform had likely scared them out of shouting over the conversation to demand drink. "I'll be sure to stop by when I can have a drink."
She started towards the door.
"As long as you're on duty." She threw back a wink.
Waverly's mind insisted on returning to that minor, uneventful introduction for the rest of the day, and, in fact, the next few days as well.
Why did she find herself so tongue tied? Why did the woman-Nicole-seem to just find it charming? What did she really mean by her wink and promise? She still didn't believe Willa's petty little spiel. Not that she insisted on inherently believing everyone is straight . She did, however, insist on not taking anything Willa says at face value. And this Nicole had done nothing to make her believe otherwise.
Unless that was flirting.
But would she really flirt with Waverly on first sight? Waverly didn't delude herself into believing she wasn't nice looking. Hell; not even Willa bothered with that. But was she really so brazen as to immediately flirt with what she almost certainly already knew was the town reject? And also flirt with another woman in front of a whole town of drunken hicks?
No, she must just have been being friendly.
"Oh my God! I'm angst-ing over whether a girl likes me. Come on Waverly! Not only are you straight, even if you weren't you have a boyfriend already!" She mumbled to herself. It had been three days, and she hadn't seen Nicole again yet except for her police car occasionally passing by on the Earp's commute to or from Shorty's.
"Did you call?"
She nearly jumped.
"Uh…! No, it's nothing Champ."
Waverly had forgotten she wasn't alone in the bar. It was one of the dead hours of the day, and she was cleaning up in preparation for the evening rush. Champ Hardy, her on and off boyfriend of the last several years, had stuck around lazily eating nachos and playing on his phone.
"M'kay. Hey, we're still going back to my place when your shift ends, right?" He checked between bites.
"Of course. It's not like there's anything else to do around here, is there?" She chuckled.
"Or anyone else."
"You got that right." He agreed, before quickly losing interest in her again in favor of his phone. "Oh shit! Sorry babe, gotta run. If I don't finish the work I promised Grissom he'll kill me." Champ did odd jobs and farm work for several of the nearby ranches. He preferred any work that helped keep his "perfect" (his words) body in shape.
He rushed out the door, planting a sloppy kiss to her cheek on the way out. Waverly couldn't help but be relieved to see him go.
"It's not that I don't love him. I'm just too stressed right now."
It felt more like she was trying to convince herself than anything else. Waverly decided she just needed to talk to Nicole one more time, then she could stop dwelling on that one, unimportant meeting.
Much to her surprise, it wasn't long before the opportunity to do just that presented itself.
Not long after Champ left, Waverly heard the doors open again. She nearly dropped the bottles she was rearranging when she saw it was Nicole entering the bar, wearing the same uniform (obviously) and, most of all, the same strangely dashing hat.
"Welcome to Shorty's" Waverly felt the same racing heart, shortness of breath, and difficulty thinking straight that caused her to embarrass herself the first time she spoke to the redhead. In order to counter that, she decided to fall back on a reflexive greeting. After all, it's not like she technically knew this woman better than as a patron anyway.
"Good afternoon Ms. Earp. I don't suppose you have coffee? Nedley seems to want me to know the town from all shifts within my first week." Nicole strode up to the bar taking her hat off and placed it down on the counter.
"Well, Officer Haught." She playfully mirrored the policewoman's greeting. "We've got whiskey, cheaper whiskey, and beer. Purgatory has yet to embrace the gastropub. Or that 'Drink where Wyatt Earp drank'" She pointed to the sign that acted as the only draw for out-of-towners to the place. "doesn't mean they can't update the menu since Wyatt Earp's time."
"I guess I'm out of luck then. The coffee at the station is terrible. And I think someone is spiking it with that cheaper whiskey." Nicole complained, but still with a smile to Waverly on her face.
"No." Waverly insisted almost too quickly. "Shorty keeps a machine back in his office. I can get you some."
"I wouldn't want to get you in trouble." The redhead looked concerned.
"It's no problem. Shorty offers it to some of our morning customers. He wouldn't mind."
Waverly disappeared through a door in the back, more than ready for a reprieve to figure out what to say.
"Okay, you're doing better Waverly. Now how do I talk to her? What do I even want to talk about? 'Hey, I just wanted to ask: why do you seem weirdly attractive?' I don't think so."
She brewed the coffee, grabbed a tray of cream and sugar, and took it back out to the redhead.
"Here, I didn't know how you want it."
"Thanks." Nicole accepted it. "I don't want to sound like a sexist cliché, but what is a girl like you doing in a place like this? You seem smart, and driven. Why are you still a barmaid?"
"Because getting out of Purgatory is a lot harder than getting in." She answered. "It's in the name though, so truth in advertising at least."
"I'm sorry." Nicole offered as she took the first sip of her coffee. "I actually jumped at the first chance I could to be transferred here. I got caught up in too much shit with my family and needed to get away from anywhere, and Purgatory is about as far away from anywhere as you can go."
"It's alright, I'm working my way out. Passed college online, saving up money. It just… takes time."
Nicole nodded sympathetically.
"Trust me, I know how it feels. My parents didn't want me to be a cop, among other things. So I made it on my own. It took time, and once I made it things finally blew up, but hey!" She gave Waverly a wide smile. "It gave me a new start here. And a chance to meet you."
Waverly laughed.
"You barely know me, so I don't think that's much of an accomplishment yet."
Nicole finished her coffee, donned her hat, and began walking to the door.
"I have to get back to work. Thank you for the coffee Miss Earp."
Waverly almost panicked upon discovering that Nicole was leaving. She hadn't had the courage to broach the subject with Nicole of her possible flirting during their first encounter. In fact, all she had discovered was her own growing attachment to the redheaded cop.
"Would you like to get coffee sometime?" She blurted it out without even thinking. "Yeah, I mean, I could show you where to find good coffee, so we don't have to keep raiding Shorty's supply."
Nicole turned around and gave her another smile.
"I would love to."
Waverly and Nicole did go out for coffee the next day. And the next day. And the day after that. It became a part of both of their daily routines, as much as Nicole could have one with shift work changing her schedule every two weeks. But wherever she could, she found time and Waverly followed.
They talked about many things. At first it was mostly the town and their pasts. Waverly gave scant details about her relationship with Willa, but gladly told stories of her time with Wynonna. Nicole admitted that obviously she had already heard tales of the middle Earp's exploits from other officers, and that she was somewhat of a legend among local law enforcement. She loved hearing new stories, as well as familiar tales retold from the Earp side of the story.
Waverly's life was happy. So much so that she started to find herself able to ignore Willa's constant anger.
She was just heading out to her shift on the fifteenth day after first meeting Nicole when her sister commented on her new acquaintanceship for the first time. This time, rather than just calling out to her from another room, the older sibling met her by the door directly.
'"I noticed you've been hanging around the new town butch. You do realize she just wants to fuck you right? I know you don't want my advice Sis, but do please try not to screw things up too badly. You have a boy actually willing to date you. The townsfolk are finally mostly leaving us alone. They even accept you as long as you're pouring them beers. The last thing you need for your future if you really want to get out of here is getting caught being screwed by a dyke in the backseat of a cop car."
"She's my friend!" Waverly snapped with more venom than she had intended. She had wanted to avoid a fight as always, but Willa's persistent hatred of Nicole rubbed her the wrong way. "She's just a friend." She added in a more conciliatory way. "We're not dating."
"You really think that she wants you for more than a good shag? Whatever, you'll learn soon enough on your own." Her smirking sister walked out of the way and waved her out the door.
Waverly arrived at work still stewing over her encounter with Willa. Her sister's irrational hatred of Nicole was yet another thing to add to the list of outlets for Willa to show her contempt for her. Then again, she had always known her sister to be intensely homophobic.
About a third of the way through her shift, she took her lunch break and rushed off to see Nicole. She had already gotten permission from Shorty to shift her break or move her schedule slightly to allow her to synch with Nicole's schedule as long as it was within reason. On Nicole's current schedule that meant leaving a little early.
They met at the coffee shop, once again enjoyed a pleasant lunch, allowing Waverly to forget about her awkward encounter with Willa, and returned to the bar afterwards . As usual, Nicole walked her back. At first sight, Waverly didn't really think much of the motorcycle parked out front. It was far from unknown for the occasional biker to pass through, even if the bar did cater primarily to locals. Even still, she felt a faint familiarity in the back of her mind.
Moments after she stepped inside the dim, musty building Waverly understood why.
"Wynonna?!"
She saw her there, leaning back against the bar, clad in her leather riding jacket and carefree as ever; her older sister Wynonna Earp.
"Hey Baby Sis. I thought you'd just be leaving on break. Kinda blows my plan for catching up."
There she was…
"Wynonna?!" She incredulously shouted. "Wynonna!"
Waverly rushed forward, releasing Nicole's arm (when did they start walking back that way?), and nearly tackled her sister backwards into the bar, forcefully pulling her into a hug. The older girl laughed.
"Good to see you again too Waves. I told you I wouldn't forget to visit." Wynonna chuckled.
The younger girl kept her clutched tightly in the hug for a few more moments before slowly releasing her. Wynonna gave her a final, comforting pat on the back right before noticing the somewhat shocked and confused redhead standing behind her sister. It had not gone over her head how they had entered together.
"Looks like you've really grown up since I last visited. Got yourself a girlfriend? She looks like a real upgrade over that douche Champ Hardy. Good job Waves." She eyed Nicole up and down while congratulating her sister.
"She's my friend, not my girlfriend!" Waverly rolled her eyes and playfully swatted her sister. "Despite what everybody seems to think, I'm still not gay."
Wynonna paused for a moment. She carefully watched Nicole's reaction and saw both hurt and confusion.
"Yeah, sure Sis." She almost mumbled her acknowledgement before enthusiastically turning back to the bar. "I'm going to get order us some drinks, which means you get to pour us some drinks, and we're going to do some catching up."
"Hey, uhm. I'd better get back to work." Nicole started to lean in to give Waverly a quick kiss on the cheek, but switched to a slight hug at the last minute.
"Bye, stay safe." Waverly offered as she shook her head in amused exasperation at Wynonna. Catching up with family over drinks was a little bit less fun when you're the one making the drinks. As she pulled out Wynonna's preferred (cheap) whiskey, the older sibling started her inquiries.
"How is Willa?"
Waverly nearly dropped the bottle upon hearing her eldest sister's name.
"Horrible, same as always." She tersely responded.
Wynonna sighed. The middle Earp's relationship with her older sister was complicated. Willa never treated her terribly like she did Waverly, and, in fact, for most of their childhood she never knew about the (one-sided) rivalry between the two siblings. Although she didn't exactly forgive Willa for her mistreatment of Waverly, she still always offered some variant of the same excuse.
"Losing Mom and Dad left her really messed up." Wynonna sighed. "I just wish she'd leave this place and move on."
"Like you did?" The younger Earp wanly smiled.
"Hey, it doesn't have to be the same, but what works, you know?" She shrugged. "So how are you doing? Any closer to paying your way out of here? Or maybe you found something worth staying for?" She glanced over where Nicole had left as she spoke the final words.
"Nothing new really. Still earning up what I can. I still have no idea what I'm going to do or how I'm going to do it."
"Don't worry about." Wynonna reassured. "Don't stop planning, but don't worry. You'll find something in time, you're too damn smart not too."
They continued like that for the rest of the evening. Catching up on what happened over their time apart, and occasionally their hopes for the future. All between Waverly still having to serve the other customers. Fortunately though, Wynonna was enough of a local legend to leave most of the patrons content to quietly order a drink and leave them alone.
At the end of the night, Wynonna downed her final drink and unsteadily rose to her feet.
"I'd better head out. Staying at the Motel 6 off the highway, I should go while I'm still just drunk enough to make it there." She pulled Waverly into a final hug. "See you tomorrow. I'll drop by the homestead."
Waverly reluctantly released her from the hug and watched her walk to the door.
"Oh yeah," She turned around just as she opened the door leading out into the hazy night. "About that cute redhead you were with earlier. Have you thought maybe you should ask what she thinks you two are?"
She purposefully didn't give Waverly the opportunity to respond as she slipped out the door, letting it swing shut behind her.
Waverly stewed over Wynonna's words the entire night. What did she mean by that?
Well, of course she knew what her sister meant, but why did she mean it? Wynonna knew well enough that Waverly was straight. Really very straight actually, she was dating Champ Hardy for crying out loud! Strapping local jock! Being a self-centered fuckboy athlete's girlfriend was, unequivocally, the ultimate sign of straightness. Her attraction to Haught was only an objective appreciation of the redhead's beauty, paired with an ordinary friend-type enjoyment of her company.
"Oh my God, I'm gay for Nicole Haught."
Waverly came to that inescapable conclusion halfway through the workday. Wynonna had texted her that she would be showing up to dinner, and that she had already informed Willa.
That message was immediately followed by a second text:
"Invite Nicole 3"
Waverly spent the next few hours of her day stressing over the break she normally eagerly looked forward to. She knew it was time to have a talk with Nicole.
And it was not going to be a fun one.
Without regard for her worries though, the hour rolled around. And with it came Nicole, waiting outside of Shorty's to pick her up as always. Waverly could already tell however, on the short walk to the café that something was different. Nicole was quieter, and more aloof than usual. By the time they sat at the table, she knew it was time to broach the topic at hand.
"Nicole, are you… gay?" She hesitantly asked the woman sitting opposite her.
The redhead's face flashed through a series of emotions before her eyes: confusion, then shock, and finally amusement all showed themselves in turn. Finally she burst out laughing, quickly trying to cover her mouth to not attract too much attention from the other patrons.
"I don't know. Maybe you should ask my ex-wife I guess." She worked out between the laughs.
"What?" Waverly asked, confused now.
"Nothing. I'll fill you in more on that another time." She dismissed somewhat breathily as she finally stopped laughing. "Did you seriously not know Waves? I don't think I was subtle."
"I suspected!" She defended herself. "I mean, I thought you were probably flirting with me, but it's not as if I have some guide for telling if woman are being gay around me. Just Willa's shitty stereotypes. Now it seems I messed everything up by rejecting you when without even knowing it, and even my sister figured it out before I did." Her voice started to rise and the words spilled out at an increasingly frantic pace as she let her feelings spill.
"It's okay Waverly. I don't blame you for being confused, and I would never be angry at you for turning me down; that's your choice. I was angry because I thought you were hiding us from your sister." Nicole reassured Waverly.
The Earp, however, was confused.
'Wait, what? How could I have been hiding you, I introduced you to her?"
"Hiding us. I thought we were already dating Waverly." Nicole deadpanned.
Waverly just sat staring at her in shock for a moment.
"WHAT?!" She practically screamed. "How did you come to the conclusion we were dating. We never said anything about being together like, you know, that."
"What was I supposed to think?" Nicole threw up her hands. "I flirted with you, then we started going out together. It all worked out how it's supposed to. How was I supposed to know those weren't dates?"
"So you were dating me, and I was…" Waverly tried to comprehend her situation.
"Yep, pretty much." Nicole nodded.
Waverly wished, at that moment, that she was back at Shorty's and had something a lot stronger than tea to drink. Going from being straight, to finding out your best friend was dating you without you yourself even knowing about it is something that should be literally impossible. Waverly just shook her head at the ridiculous situation, half still in frustrated confusion, half in amusement.
"Let's just try to stay on the same page from now on, okay? I can't date you yet anyway, at least until I tell my boyfriend."
It was Nicole's turn to be confused.
"Wait, you have a boyfriend? How have you not told me this?"
"He's not exactly something I show off, and ever since you showed up I started feeling self-conscious about it. Seriously though, he is one reason the idea of me hiding you from Wynonna is crazy. Wynonna hates Champ, and she would actually love it if I dated you."
"Wait, his name is 'Champ'? You are not seriously dating the kind of guy who would go by that, right?" Nicole just had to say it.
"Right, 'Officer Haught', good catch." Waverly retorted.
"Okay, fair enough." The redhead blushed.
"Anyway, I have to get back. Wynonna told me to invite you to dinner tonight though, so it looks like you'll get to meet my sisters." Waverly sighed. "I'm sure she's going to try something embarrassing. She seemed convinced I was gay already. She once had the sheer… Wynonna-ness to tell me I would be, quote, 'awesome with the ladies'."
Nicole burst out laughing again.
"Yeah, I can already see her doing that." She offered.
Waverly just walked out with a grimace at the exasperating memory, wondering what Wynonna had planned tonight. And how Willa would react to the presence of the hated gay cop appearing on the same evening as her (at least somewhat) beloved sister.
Waverly was already skittish by the time her shift ended and it was time to go home for dinner. The thought of dealing with Willa with Nicole present was extremely unappealing to her, downright nerve wracking even. Also, how the heck could she explain bringing Nicole to a family dinner when she's not her girlfriend? Even though it's true? Wynonna could help explain, but honestly Wynonna worried her almost as much as Willa. Would her older sister actually be brazen enough try to play lesbian cupid in front of her homophobic sister?
Unfortunately, Waverly already knew the answer.
Still, she steeled herself and prepared for the worst as she unlocked the door to the homestead. Nicole was by her side, Waverly was enjoying a rare opportunity to see her friend out of uniform; presently in a blue blouse and black slacks. Waverly herself had gone for a semi-formal look, with her black lace belly shirt and black mini-skirt.
She had made certain to remind herself repeatedly that she was in no way, shape, or form dressing for a date. Just for a family dinner. Absolutely.
"Hey! Waves, Haughtstuff. Looking good. We've got dinner on the table." Wynonna immediately greeted her at the door with an approving nod at Nicole's outfit.
"Thank you for inviting me." Nicole made sure to be the proper guest.
"Yeah, come on. Get your asses to the table and eat." Wynonna ushered them into the dining room.
Waverly rounded the corner expecting to see a table full of food, and—in a way—she did. Only this food was scattered across the table in white cardboard cartons.
"You wanted some big family dinner, together, and you ordered Chinese takeout?!" Waverly asked, still staring at the table utterly incredulously.
"Dude, I wanted an Earp family dinner. Trust me, if I cooked Haught-y here wouldn't have survived the evening." Wynonna insisted like it was all obvious.
"She's right." Willa's calm voice cut across the room. Waverly was immediately tense again, hearing a reminder of the fact that this was not destined to be some fun evening with Wynonna. "Wynonna's cooking is nothing for devil nor man to eat."
It was strange how, coming from a woman who typically made even the simplest of pleasantries sound cruel, Willa's critique actually carried little bite, and, on some level even sounded like idle teasing. The difference, however, only served as a cold reminder of how much Waverly never fit in.
"Yeah? Which one are you?" Wynonna, shot back. Anyone, anyone, who knew Willa in even the slightest way would have expected—indeed, been absolutely certain—their life to come to an abrupt end then and there if they dared to say something like that to Willa Earp. Instead, she just faintly chuckled.
Waverly couldn't help but think this was more frightening.
"Touchè 'Nonna. Come on, let's eat." The eldest sister gestured across the food, signaling for the evening to begin.
"-and then they just left me there in that dusty shithole Gallup. Get this, saying that the I—Me!—have a flat ass and they're taking the truck stop girl instead."
"No way. That's just not possible! You're ass is top shelf. I mean, it is easily one of the best asses I have ever seen."
Waverly was dumbfounded. Wynonna and Nicole had thus far spent the entire dinner shamelessly flirting. Watching her (not) girlfriend and her sister flirt was perhaps the last thing she could possibly have wanted to see that evening, even as cute as it was after the first few beers seeing how easily an intoxicated Nicole fell in to clueless rambling.
She was fairly sure very few women had to deal with this phenomenon, what with demographics, probabilities, and cultural biases. And right now, she really, really wishes she was one of them.
Another uncomfortable aspect of it was watching Willa's quiet scowl. At the beginning of the evening, she had eagerly caught up with Wynonna on what had happened during their time apart. Over time however, Wynonna's attention shifted to the redhead (though she certainly had not neglected her sister), clearly greatly annoying the eldest Earp.
"Hey, do we have any more of the, uh, Ma Yi… Shang Shu?" Nicole had finished her carton and was looking around the table for another, she somewhat struggled, in her mildly drunken state, to figure out the correct dish.
When she saw Willa about to respond she expected some joke about funny Chinese food names, after all she was hardly the most sensitive individual.
"No, but we seem to have sum dum dyke at the table." Willa smoothly responded.
It took a few moments for what she had just said to set in to any of them.
"Excuse me, what did you just say?" Nicole managed to steady her voice, clearly with much effort, to demand an explanation with an even tone.
"I called you stupid." Willa responded simply. "Also queer, but I'm willing to concede that that may be because you were too simple-minded to even figure out what's supposed to go in the hole."
The table sat in silence again for a few moments.
"I think I had better leave." Nicole sounded neither timid nor angry. She simply declared her intent.
"No." Wynonna's voice was suddenly very commanding. "You stay here."
As Nicole tensely sat back down the middle Earp turned to face Willa.
"You can't keep doing this Sis. I don't care how much Dad's death affected you. This isn't okay." She firmly lectured the older sister.
"She is disgracing our family Wynonna. Our name." Willa earnestly insisted.
"Okay, one: Despite Haught's best efforts, they aren't even a thing yet. Two: Why do you take every little thing out on Waverly? I've done way worse than she ever could. No offense Baby Girl."
Waverly was still a little too taken back by this whole outburst to be offended. Mainly, she decided to let things just play out for now. It seemed like Wynonna was finally confronting Willa directly, and she didn't want to interfere with that.
"I know you are dealing with Dad's death in your own way 'Nonna. Yes, you have done some egregious things, but you are growing up and moving on in your own way. Waverly never had the same hardship, and is instead just finding new lows to stoop to."
"I've fucked four girls." Wynonna suddenly blurted out.
"What the-" Willa started, utterly taken aback.
Waverly was shocked, and even Nicole looked confused.
"Well, sort of five, but I was passed out the one time." She continued, interrupting her sister's response.
"I'm pretty sure that means you were raped." Waverly tentatively offered, even in the middle of this stressful moment able to be both horrified and amused by her sister's antics.
"Oh no." Wynonna explained. "I'm really good before passing out. I gave the unambiguous go ahead. Just still wasn't gonna keep from passing out for it."
"Anyhow." She continued. "The point is: I like sex. A lot. So I wanted to be sure I covered all my bases. Turns out it pretty much sucks, so I'm sticking to dudes, no offense Haughtstuff."
"Uh, none taken?"
"But you learn these things the hard way: By living. And too much scotch. Waverly is learning what she wants, and it took way too much Champ Hardy to find her happiness. You need to start acting like a real sister and support her Willa."
"I can forgive your… mistakes 'Nonna, but if you expect me to be 'happy' about her shacking up with some ginger butch cop, you are most certainly wrong."
"God Willa." Wynonna shouted. "I'm sorry about what happened, I know it hurts, but you can't just hate everything he hated! That's just wrong, and it doesn't do any good. And…" She hesitated. "I know you love him, and in my own way I still do too, but maybe it's time to admit Daddy hated a lot of things, and he wasn't a very good person Willa."
The eldest Earp was clearly taken aback for a moment, before her face twisted into a scowl.
"Don't you dare, Wynonna." She hissed. "Don't you DARE speak ill of him!" Her voice broke into a scream. "He was a good father. He took care of us. And now she is defiling his name."
"Why the fuck would you think it didn't hurt her?! He was her father too you know!" Wynonna shouted back, clearly annoyed by Willa's persistent dismissal of Waverly's possible feelings on the matter.
"No he wasn't!" She screamed. "And she isn't your sister either."
The entire room fell silent for the third time that night. Every one of them staring shocked at Willa. Waverly spoke up first.
"What are you talking about Willa?" She managed to keep her voice remarkably calm and even.
"You're not our sister, and you're not even an Earp. You were 'adopted' Waverly, if it can even be called that." She seethed.
"Go on." Waverly prompted.
"What more is there to say? One of the trash down in that trailer park on the edge of town died giving birth. Mom insisted on taking care of the baby, I don't know, I think it might have been loosely related to her or something. Wynonna was too young to even figure out what happened when they brought the baby home. They made me promise not to say, and somehow, I didn't." Willa explained somewhat more calmly.
"Don't you get it?" She continued, now facing Wynonna. "We weren't enough for them. They decided to pick up some trailer trash baby to add to the family."
Wynonna calmly assessed the situation, nodded, and proceeded to knock Willa to the ground with a single punch across the face.
"Do you think I care even if you are telling the truth? She's my sister Willa, I honestly don't give a single fuck if she's related by blood. You are too, and I love you, but you've just got too much shit to work out."
She turned to Waverly and Nicole. "You two okay?"
Waverly nodded.
"Yeah, I mean… I'll deal with it. I should probably find somewhere else to stay though."
Nicole gently grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face her.
"Waverly Earp, will you be my girlfriend?" She breathlessly asked.
The youngest Earp was left at a loss for words, yet again, before fully processing the request.
"Yes! I mean, now would seem like the worst time to ask, but yes!"
Nicole smiled.
"Good, because I didn't want to offer my apartment before asking and seem like I was blackmailing you."
Nicole pulled Waverly into a tight embrace and finally kissed her.
"Woohoo! Haughtstuff has got the Hot-stuff!"
-End