All he really wanted was to be needed. To feel loved. Like most men on God's green earth, he needed a purpose. A reason to keep on living that fueled his fire for good rather than evil.
Sometimes, that fuel came in the form of one Wynona Earp. With a mane like a mare, a lithe figure that made his mouth water and enough sass to make your head spin, Wynonna was unlike any woman he had ever met and after 130 years stuck in a well; she was his ladder to salvation.
By no means was their relationship simple. On the contrary, it was a clusterfuck of emotions, heated glances, screaming matches and whisky. Throw in an accidental baby and things only grew more difficult, but damn, did he ever want her. Want her to be his, for him to be hers. To hear those words, "I love you. I need you." over and over until the aching hole in his chest hurt just a little bit less. Wynonna had yet to give this to him, and it killed him.
Some days, he could hide it, turn it off and ignore her all together.
"Where the hell have you been Doc? Shit's going down and I need you to nut up and show up."
"I have other pony's that need watering from time to time."
Other times he was open and raw.
"Isn't it time we stop being scared and start being honest with each other? Honestly Wynonna."
"Honestly, I don't know what to do with you."
"You could admit that you love me."
Then were days like this. Days where their demeanor was light, snappy. Playful quips, heated glances and thinly veiled innuendos that brought a mischievous grin to her face and a gleam in her eye. Days like this gave him hope. Well, that, and a boner.
"Dipshit Revhead coming through!" yelled Wynonna as her and Doc dragged a struggling Revenant into the police station. They shoved him into the nearest wheelie chair while Doc smacked him across the face with his pistol, ending the fight for the time being .
"Guys? Why bring him here?" questioned Nicole, Purgatory's deputy sheriff.
Wynonna was feeling damn good today and in fine form for jokes. Doing her best Doc Holliday impression she sauntered back to the red head deputy. "Well we are plum outta projectiles . We gonna sequester him here until we can rustle up some ammo and then...kapow!" went her tiny finger guns. She laughed at herself and gestured to Doc. "Kay, now you do me."
"Maybe once we're alone." he purred, winking with a click of his tongue. He took pleasure in seeing her face flush with desire.
"Well someone ate his wheaties this morning." Her brow cocked and she wet her lips slightly with her tongue.
"A good meal can truly make or break a man." She merely hummed in response, slowing closing the gap between them.
Nicole cleared her throat, loudly. "Uhhh guys? Bullets, remember?" Wynonna dropped her gaze and popped her lips, stepping away from the handsome cowboy.
"Right, right. Doc?"
He hid his smile behind the brim of his cowboy hat and turned once more to inspect the Black Badge safe he had opened during Wynonna's impression. "The thing has been picked cleaned. With Dolls no longer, the Black Badge well has run dry." The team sighed. Another downside to the loss of their beloved Xavier Dolls. "I will scour Shorty's for any sort of projectile to kill things with."
"Right behind yah." replied Wynonna, grabbing her coat.
"To be honest, I much prefer my ladies in front of me than behind." he joked, holding the door open for her. She responded with a saucy look over her shoulder, adding a little extra swing to those hips of hers.
The banter continued as they exited the truck and made their way to Shorty's saloon doors.
"There is no way you could beat me. You don't have the stamina old man."
"Need I remind you that for the last 130 or so years I have been ageless? This body is just as fit as the day Constance put we down that well."
"Uh, yah, but you're a Holliday, not an Earp. Drinking's in the blood."
"Darlin, when it comes to whisky, I can have you flat on your back before you can say neat."
She made sure to get close, so that the smell of her overwhelmed his senses. Her gaze fell to his lips as she bit hers. "Or you could have me that way without the whisky." His eyes darkened, following her smiling figure as it threw the saloon door wide and stepped across the thresh hold. So sure; so confident. A vision in leather.
Smoothing his mustache he made to follow when all of a sudden, a shot rang out over the prairie town. The sound was loud in his ears, the whistle and thud of a streaming bullet slicing through the air and hitting flesh. The stunned silence it left before his body went into shock and fell to the dusty earth.
"Doc? Doc?!" he heard her scream, rushing out of the door in search of the source of his pain.
"Holy shit!" came another voice, gruffer sounding. Revenant like. "I just killed Doc Holliday! Boss is going to love this!"
"Not if you don't live to tell him." The demon gunslinger pointed her beloved Peacemaker at the now retreating Revenant, sighting down the 7inch barrel. Another shot rang out, echoing loudly, this time followed by the sound of hell opening up and swallowing the demon whole.
Wynonna lowered her gun, the barrel still smoking, her breath coming out heavy. As the hellfire died down her senses came back to her. John Henry Holliday, Doc, laying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. Oh God.
She knelt down, pressing her palms into his shoulder, ignoring his hisses of pain and trying to stop the bleeding. "God Dammit, Holliday. Not now, not today. We just lost Dolls, I am not going to lose you too."
"Wynonna..."
"No! No. I need you Doc, please. Think of me. Think of Alice. We need you, you hear me?"
There it was. Those three words he had been dying to hear. Heard quite literally on his potential death bed. Oh the irony of it all. At least if this was his time to be toasted he could die a happy man. The thought was comforting really. Like a warm hug, calling to him, making his eyelids droop and soften.
She slapped him hard across the face, jolting him back into reality. "Don't you dare John Henry." she threatened, tears streaming down her cheeks. He struggled to follow orders, the warmth calling to him, but he managed long enough to hear the squeal of tires and the sound of EMS arriving on scene.
As his vision faded and his head clouded over with fog, his last memory was the feel of her hand in his and her words, echoing through this mind. "We need you. Please. We need you."
