"Ouch!"

Nicole spun around at the exclamation so fast she almost fell. Waverly was bent over on her kitchen counter, holding her tummy, and obviously in pain. That had been happening a lot. Her new friend was very accident prone, she was always taking her to the office for ice or bandaids and kissing bruises. She hurried to cross the small room.

"What's wrong Waves?" She stood on her tip toes to look over the edge of the counter and tired to see where the pain was coming from. But all she could see was her friend's scrunched up face push past the hurt and attempt to hide it, move on to something of a mask, Waverly always pretended she wasn't hurt and Nicole didn't know why. Waverly shook her head slightly and sat down on the cool tile.

"I'm fine. Just a cramp," Waverly waved off with a half smile. Her eyes weren't smiling though, not even a little bit. She looked kind of scared if Nicole was being honest. As if she was going to be in trouble.

There was a weird feeling in Nicole's chest, it happened every time her friend said those words and she didn't know why. Like that feeling of drinking hot chocolate after playing in the snow all day, how the heat travels through all sorts of passages and you can feel every single one on their way to your tummy, but in the worst way. It was the same feeling she'd get when her mom cried or when a bird would fly into the window and get hurt. Helpless. She hated that feeling, especially when it came to Waverly Earp.

"Do you need ice? I can get you ice." She didn't wait for an answer and picked up her step stool Waverly had used to get on the counter. She shuffled over to the fridge and slammed the stool down, pushing it right up against fridge. She clambered up and swung the freezer door open. Reaching as far as she could, tip toes and everything, she grabbed the ice tray. A baggy. She forgot a baggy.

"Nicole, you don't need to. I'm fine," Waverly insisted.

Nicole ducked her head and closed the freezer, placing the ice cube tray between her feet so she had her hands free to help balance herself on her climb down. "You might not want to tell me, but you are hurt. I can see."

She opened the third drawer down next to the stove and found the box of sandwich baggies. Before continuing with the ice she turned to her friend. Waverly was still holding her tummy, frowning at her. She tried to give her a comforting smile back, her mom's smile always helped her when she wasn't okay. Waverly seemed to soften, her frown didn't match her eyes anymore. She quickly threw the baggy onto the stool with the ice and pushed all supplies in front of the smaller girl.

"Nicole."

She stopped breaking the ice and looked to the small voice. She had to tilt her head back to see her friend so high up, it was weird because it was usually the opposite, Waverly only came up to her shoulder when they stood next to each other. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

She furrows her brows in confusion. Sorry? Sorry for what? Waverly hadn't done anything. But it was down thing else her friend tended to do too, apologize for no reason.

"For what," she questioned.

Waverly shrug. She looked so tiny sitting there, feet barely reaching the middle of the cupboard.

"You don't need to be sorry for having a ouchy, Wave, everybody gets them. Well maybe not as many as you," she teased and poked the girls leg. Waverly gave a shy smile and pushed the toe of her shoe towards the redhead, but Nicole was faster and dodged the attack.

"Too slow," she stuck her tongue out.

"Only because I have a ouchy," Waverly defended herself.

Nicole stopped for a second and nodded. "You do," she turned back to the stool and continued dropping ice cubes into the sandwich bag. "And we need to make it all better so you have no excuses when I kick your butt."

Waverly's mouth dropped open in faux shock. Nicole only smiled sweetly in turn and passed her the ice.

She pulled herself onto the counter next to her friend and wrapped an arm around her, resting her head against the blondes.

"Willa touched my side with the fire poker and told me not to tell," Waverly's quiet confession broke the growing silence.

Nicole tummy sank the way it did when the roller coster climbed the really big hill. She couldn't believe what she just heard her best friend say. She didn't know how hot it could get but everyone was always talking about it, warning her and all the other kids, so she knew it was bad. And she'd seen what a burn looked like, her dad had gotten one not long ago and he was saying all sorts of bad words because of it. How had Waverly not been crying?

"But you told your daddy right," she asked incredulously.

Waverly shook her head vehemently. "No, and you can't tell anyone either. You can't. You have to pinky promise me," she rushed out in a panic. Waverly held out her pinky, waiting, begging.

Nicole didn't like it, not one bit, everything was telling her it wasn't right and she should tell someone -an adult, but Waverly was just about her only friend and she really didn't want to change that. So she begrudgingly held out her pinky and linked it with the blondes. They each kissed their thumbs and then pressed them together, sealing the promise just the way Wynonna taught Waverly to.

They sat there in stiff silence, only the buzz of the old fridge and distanced chirps of birds to listen to. Suddenly the front door screeched open but didn't close.

"Nicole do you guys want to go on a bike ride into town for some freezies," her brother yelled much too loud into the small farm house.

She tilted her head to the blonde and raised an eye brow. Waverly nodded.

"Yeah just one minute," she called back.

"Here," Waverly handed her the cold bag of ice and began shimmying to the edge of the counter. But Nicole stopped her.

"Wait, I haven't kissed it better yet."

She jumped off the counter with ease and held out a hand to her friend. Waverly took it and with the help she stood on the stool.

"Where is it," Nicole asked in her best doctor voice, not breaking eye contact. Waverly looked happier, a smile easily grew on her lips, her pretty eyes back to their usual shine. Her friends smile always made her happy.

Waverly pointed to a spot on her ribs. She nodded once and leaned in for the kiss, staying there extra long in hopes that the longer the kiss the better magic it would do, and Waverly could use all the magic a unicorn had -if only she had one to give. When she pulled away she whispered an 'all better'.

"Thank you Nicole." Waverly bent down the heads height difference and wrapped her arms around her best friend. Nicole returned the hug, picking up the smaller girl and starting for the door -knowing her brother he'd be getting impatient.