Waverly smiled when she saw Nicole further down the street. The officer was leaning into the window of a car parked so far away from the curb you'd have thought it was actually just stopped in traffic.

"….. I know Mrs Peterson, but you're too far into the road" Waverly overhear Nicole say as she got closer.

"Oh, hello Waverly dear" Mrs Peterson said as she caught sight of her approaching.

Nicole quickly straightened up and turned towards Waverly "Hi" she smiled widely adjusting her hat slightly, she always liked it when she saw Waverly unexpectedly

"Hi" Waverly replied a little shyly. She couldn't help but stare at Nicole's smile, she found it quite mesmerizing. They stood in silence looking at each other smiling for maybe a little too long when they were both bought out of it by Mrs Peterson

"So, Am I in trouble dear?" She asked Officer Haught

Nicole did a double take at the older lady in the car, she'd nearly forgotten she was there "Oh, no of course not, just please park closer to the pavement next time Mrs Peterson, okay?"

"Okay dear" the old lady smiled

As she drove away Nicole turned her attention back to her girlfriend. They both smiled at each other shyly.

"I wouldn't bother with Mrs Peterson, she's had so many tickets for bad parking she could wallpaper her house with them" Waverly laughed

"Oh, Is that right?" Nicole said raising her eyebrows in surprise, she seemed like such a nice old lady.

As they both slowly started walking down the road together, Nicole looked over at Waverly. She had on her long furry winter coat, a long scarf and those adorable mittens that always made Nicole smile.

"So…." Waverly looked quickly at Nicole and then to the floor "Wynonna and Dolls went off….. well, doing what they do and I was just thinking… about you" she smiled a cheeky smile at Nicole, who smiled back "and I thought maybe I could buy you that coffee I promised you?"

"Coffee?" Nicole asked

Waverly panicked a little, did she not remember? "Y'know from when you introduced yourself… at Shorty's… and I.." She lifted her arms mimicking getting stuck in her shirt "and you helped …and then you did the thing with your hat…" her smile slowly slipped "Don't you remember?"

Nicole laughed "Oh believe me I remember that day perfectly" It was etched into her memory as one of the best things to have happened to her since she got to Purgatory, well at the time anyway, making out with Waverly the other day in Nedley's office had bumped it off of the top spot. "I also remember you saying you're a planner, isn't this a little spontaneous?"

"It is" Waverly answered honestly "But, I'm growing as a person and I just wanted to see you and thought if you're free…." She smiled brightly but shyly and tried not to let on to the fact that she was finding this spontaneity a little uncomfortable, but like she said, she wanted to see Nicole so she was willing to put up with it.

"Luckily for you I am free and could do with a coffee, lead the way"

—

They took off their coats and sat opposite each other in a booth at the diner just down the road from where they had met up. They both ordered coffee and it didn't take long for the waitress to bring it to them. Nicole picked up her mug and wrapped her hands around it to warm them up. Waverly blew on hers and took a sip.

They'd started talking, but Waverly kept getting distracted by a guy she could see over Nicole's shoulder. He was sitting at the furthest end of the counter and had started swaying backward and forward slightly and shaking his head.

Nicole noticed Waverly being distracted "What is it?" she asked as she turned around to see what Waverly was looking at

"Oh It's nothing" Waverly smiled and shook her head "That guys just… oh it's nothing"

Nicole eyed up the man, he was wearing dark biker clothes and a baseball cap pulled down, you could barely see his face. She knew the town was having a bit of trouble with people like him, but she didn't really want to worry about that now, she wanted to focus on the beautiful woman sitting opposite her.

She turned back to Waverly and shuffled forward on her chair and leaned towards her "So, I was thinking if you were free on Thursday night…"

"FUCKING Earp" the man suddenly shouted

Everyone in the diner stopped, fell silent and looked at the man. Waverly looked shocked and a little scared, Nicole grabbed the side of the table and turned towards the man.

He slowly stood up and kicked his stool out of his way, his head was shaking manically. "Fucking Earps" he said again with suck anger you could see the veins in his neck. He slowly made his way towards the women "If I can't kill the heir I might as well kill the spare!" He laughed

As the other people in the diner started to leave quickly, Waverly shot out of her seat ready to run or fight, Nicole did the same but stood between Waverly and the approaching man, her hand hovering over her gun.

"Okay, just stay…" Nicole started but stopped when the man pulled out a gun.

She pulled out her gun quickly in response and pointed it at the man, "Put down the weapon" She said

She started stepping backwards and put her other hand behind her and slowly pushed Waverly back as well. As a good police officer she spotted all the possible exits when they had come in and sat down. She knew that behind the diners counter and through the kitchen was the safest way for Waverly to get out.

"If I kill an Earp, I'll be a LEGEND!" He shouted

"Put. the gun. down" Nicole said calmly, still walking backwards with Waverly grabbing onto her shirt.

"I don't think so pig, I'm gonna kill an Earp and be a fucking legend" he shouted banging his fist against his chest and laughing again.

As the women made it to the end of the counter the man raised his gun and started shooting. Bullets hit the floor in front of them and the counter next to them and as Nicole was about to fire back two more shots rang out and she suddenly hunched over. The two women fell backwards behind the end of the counter out of sight of the man.

"Oh my god, Nicole! Are you okay?" Waverly said from behind the police officer, desperately scrambling to get a look at the front of Nicole, but she couldn't see what had happened as Nicole was bent over and had her back to her "Nicole!"

"I'm… I'm fine, Waves" She said in a slightly pained voice. She turned her head to Waverly "GO" she pointed to the kitchen door with her head "Go through the kitchen, to the alley…"

"No, I'm not going anywhere without you" she said gripping the officers shirt again as bullets hit the top of the counter.

"Go Waverly, I'm fine, go" Nicole said as she got on her knees and quickly look around the end of the counter at the man, who was still coming towards them. She turned back to Waverly quickly and again pointed with her head towards the kitchen, she didn't want Waverly to see the blood on her hands.

When she saw her crawling towards the kitchen Nicole turned back to the man and shot at him from behind the counter. He stopped moving as the shots fired, but as soon as Nicole had hidden back behind the counter he moved towards her again. Nicole was done with warning shots. She'd always been a pretty good shot and as she stood quickly and shot at the man again the bullets hit their target. she felt a little swell of pride as the man fell to the floor, she hadn't really expected to have to use her gun in a small town like Purgatory, but she was glad she hadn't lost her marksmanship skills.

She made sure from her position that the man didn't get up from where he fell and then sat back against the counter. Still holding her gun just in case the man did start moving again she put her empty hand on her abdomen where the shots had hit, when she pulled it away it was covered in even more blood. She leaned her head back against the counter, she'd forgotten just how much this hurt. She quickly looked around towards the kitchen to make sure Waverly wasn't there, then leaned back, closed her eyes and concentrated. It had been a long time since she'd done this and she really had to make sure she remembered how, this was far worse than the last time and she was loosing blood quickly.

—

Waverly hadn't made it to the alley, she was too worried about Nicole, but she had been hiding in the kitchen. When she hadn't heard anything for a while she looked up towards the serving window from where she was crouching and listened for any movement or more shots, as she looked a strange white light caught her eye. The light was so bright, like the purest white she had ever seen, but faded just as quickly as it had appeared.

What with the strange light and the lack of any more gunshots, Waverly started crawling back to where her and Nicole had fallen behind the counter.

"Nicole?" she whispered as she approached the end of the counter, but there was no reply and no sign of Nicole. She got to the end of the counter and stuck her head out to see what might have happened. When she saw Nicole crouched next to the man a few feet away she stood up

"Nicole?" she asked softly

Nicole turned and stood slowly, placing her hand on the floor to help herself up "Waverly, are you alright?" she said moving closer to her girlfriend and looking down at her to make sure she wasn't hurt.

"I'm fine, but you, are you…?" Waverly said looking down at Nicole's shirt, reaching out and making only slight contact with it before they were both distracted by Nedley, Dolls and Wynonna rushing into the dinner, guns pulled.

Waverly watched as a seemingly unhurt Nicole moved away from her to tell the others what had happened.

Was she mistaken about what had happened? She was sure Nicole had been shot, but there she was talking to the others like nothing had happened.

It didn't take long before Wynonna rushed over, grabbed her and did a quick once over to make sure she wasn't hurt and then hugged her tight. "You okay, lil sis?"

"Yeah.. Yeah, i'm fine" Waverly answered still watching Nicole and wondering what had happened

"You think he's a revenant?"

"Who's a revenant?" Waverly asked panicked. She hadn't heard all of what Wynonna had said and had a horrible thought about Nicole.

"The dead dude" Wynonna said pointing with Peacemaker

"Oh, Yeah, I think so. He was pretty adamant about killing an Earp"

"Oh great! Well, I can't really send him back to hell with the whole town watching…"

Waverly zoned out again. She watched Nicole as she oversaw the revenant being put onto a stretcher and taken to an ambulance. Nedley stopped her, looked concerned and pointed to the waist. Nicole looked down then looked up worried, she took a second but then with a nervous smile she shook her head and pointed to the man on the stretcher. Had Nedley seen something? They talked for a minute more, Nicole shook her head some more, but then with a frown and a bit of a pout, she walked away from Nedley and towards Waverly.

As she got closer Waverly looked for what Nedley might have seen and spotted it too; blood on Nicole's trousers.

Nicole looked down to what Waverly was looking at, she looked nervous.

"Oh! Erm… don't you worry about that, it's er….it's not mine, It's the man's, Waves, don't worry" She smiled nervously but now wouldn't look at Waverly properly "Nedley wants me to file a report on what happened" She says as she moved to the booth where they had been sitting only minutes earlier and grabbed her uniform jacket and hat. "Will you be okay….. with Wynonna?"

Waverly's mind was racing. She knew that blood wasn't the revenant's, they didn't bleed red and how would she have got it on the top of her trousers? She couldn't get a good view of Nicole's shirt as she put her uniform jacket back on, with great ease for someone who Waverly was sure had been shot. If she could see the shirt she might be able to see if there was more blood, but it was too dark. How could Nicole have been shot and be perfectly fine? It isn't possible. She couldn't be a revenant, could she? Not after all this time. She couldn't be could she?

When Waverly didn't answer the question Wynonna did "She'll be fine, I'll get Doc to take her back to the homestead"

Nicole nodded "Call me later?" She asked. Waverly nodded back

Nicole took a last look at Waverly, smiled and left.