Author Note: So, I have little idea where this story is going but I am hoping that you'll enjoy the ride as we find out.
Chapter One
Waverly watched as the pink Cadillac drove off, kicking up a light powder of snow from under its wheels. Doc was gone and she couldn't decide if it was more her fault for recommending he learn to drive, or if it was Wynonna's for sleeping with him and not seeing his hidden feelings. This was not how things were suppose to go now that Constance was neutralized; Doc was like her, an unofficial part of the Black Badge Division and part of Wynonna's team to send all seventy-seven Revenants on a one-way trip back to hell.
She wrapped her arms around her middle, warding off the cold chill, as the car faded further down the highway. Behind her, Waverly heard the faint click of the patrol door shutting; a moment later, a hand settled on the small of her back as a thermos was held out for her.
"You okay?" Nicole asked, concern etched in her voice.
With a quick glance to the redhead next to her, Waverly took the thermos from her hands and brought it to her lips. Nicole's taste in coffee was vastly improving the Purgatory Police Department station, once she'd introduced Nedley to something that wasn't cheap off brand crap that tasted like sugar-flavored sludge. Thankfully, Nicole had refilled the thermos before they'd left the station to answer the 'erratic driver' that was Doc Holliday. She took a long drink of the deliciously warm liquid before handing the mug back to Nicole.
"He's running away."
Nicole looked up into the direction he'd driven as if she could still see the back of the vehicle he'd been driving. "Running from what?"
"Wynonna." Waverly said, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world.
"Ah," Nicole smiled, raising the thermos to her lips. "Running away from a girl; sounds familiar."
The brunette mirrored the soft smile as she turned, playfully smacking the arm without the mug of coffee. "I wasn't running, I was…"
Nicole lifted a single brow as she waited for an answer that seemed to hang in the air between them. Another smile graced her lips as she looked at their surroundings.
"What?" Waverly said gazing toward the tree line, instantly alert thanks in large part to the curse her family was held under.
"No Wynonna." Nicole smiled. "No Doc, No Dolls, No Nedley. No one to interrupt us."
Waverly blushed, a playful smile erupting on her face as she turned back to the redhead. "Don't you have to get back to the station? What would the sheriff say?"
Nicole grinned right back at her, "That I have great taste in women?"
Waverly's mega-watt smile erupted on her face as she untucked her arms from around her chest and circled them around the officer's neck. Her flirtatious statement was rewarded with a kiss that had been denied them the day before when Wynonna nearly caught them sneaking into Nedley's office.
All too soon, Waverly dropped from her tiptoes and lowered her hand to the lapels of Nicole's jacket. "As much as I would really love to continue this, you're still on duty and it's freezing. Can we go back now?"
"One condition."
"What?" Waverly asked, her eyes filled with confusion.
"Thursday. I'm off and I thought, maybe, we could drive into the city. Dinner? Maybe get that coffee you owe me?"
Waverly's eyes narrowed, "Are you asking me on a date? Like, officially?"
Nicole smiled, her confidence held firmly in place now that she'd gotten the question out. "I'd be crazy not to."
The younger Earp smiled, hoisted herself back on her tiptoes to kiss Nicole before taking the thermos and walking back toward the police cruiser. "I'll check my calendar."
The redhead smiled at the playful smirk etched on Waverly's face. She stuck her hands into her pockets as she walked back toward her car. "Hey, Miss Planner, I gave two or three days notice."
"So," Waverly said a few miles down the road as Nicole drove back toward town. "I told Doc."
"You told Doc what?" Nicole asked, glancing toward her.
"About… you know, me and-and you."
Nicole was silent for a moment. They hadn't really spoken about their moment in Nedley's office but the redhead had heard her when she said she wasn't read to 'get into it.' It just seemed like they had mutually agreed not to say anything to anyone about their budding relationship. "Hey," She reached across the console and laid her hand on Waverly's knee. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I mean," Waverly smiled gently as she looked into Nicole's brown eyes. "We must not be as stealthy as we thought cause he wasn't surprised at all."
Nicole hummed softly, retracting her hand back to the steering wheel. "I think your Agent Dolls knows too."
"What?"
"He hasn't actually said anything." Nicole clarified. "But there've been times that… I don't know; it's just a feeling."
Waverly looked down at her own hands. She was still getting accustomed to the fact that she'd taken Gus's advice and gone after what she wanted: one Nicole Haught. Despite her growing attraction to the other woman, living in such a small town where everyone knew her, she was terrified of people knowing her true self. Especially Wynonna.
"Is it bad?" Her voice came out small, quiet as she glanced to Nicole quickly. "When people, you know, know."
"In Purgatory?" Nicole sighed. "Honestly, I haven't really encountered much. It's not really a question people just blurt out in conversation." Waverly's gaze ricocheted around the cruiser before she settled on looking out the window. "My mom always told me that it's nobody else's business and that if I want someone to know, that's my decision to tell them."
The petite brunette began to turn her head as she sucked in a breath to speak before stopping abruptly and leaning closer to the dash. Nicole glanced toward her, when she failed to speak, in time to see her whip her head backwards as they drove. "Nicole, stop!"
Hearing something in Waverly's voice, the officer stepped on the brake without a second thought. It was only when the petite brunette opened the passenger door and darted toward the back of the cruiser that she also unbuckled her belt. "Hey, Wave!"
Nicole came to the back of her cruiser to join Waverly who was looking further behind the car. "What is that?"
The officer looked in the direction of the younger girl's gaze and immediately saw what the Earp was talking about. Near the treeline, just above the ditch, was a crumpled heap. As she walked slowly forward, her hand on her gun, the heap began to register in her mind.
"Is that an arm?" Waverly voice asked quietly behind her. "That's an arm."
"Wave, stay here." Nicole said as she stepped closer to the limb that Waverly had noticed as they drove. She knelt down into the snow and moved the brunette hair from the face. "Hello? Ma'am?" She found the person's ear and moved two fingers down slightly, locating the pulse point in the side of the neck.
"Is she…?" Waverly asked, her voice trembling slightly.
Nicole suddenly pulled her hand back and looked up. "She's alive but her pulse is really faint. She's freezing cold. Wave, come help me get her to the car."
Waverly made her way closer as Nicole turned the woman over, allowing her hair to fall completely away from her face. Her brunette hair was straight, even while wet from the snow, her eyes were closed but tinted purple and, "Her lips are blue."
Nicole looked at the woman and almost felt her heart stop. "No, no." She started mumbling as she grabbed the woman under her arms and began to drag her in the snow toward the cruiser. Waverly kept trying to help but was only able to capture one of the woman's legs because of the pace Nicole was going.
The young officer stopped at the back door of her car and lowered the woman down to the ground. "Wave, get her coat off. Now."
The smaller woman looked up in confusion at the same time that Nicole began to take her own jacket off, tossed it into the floorboard, and began to unbutton her shirt. She was transfixed for a moment as Nicole began to remove her belt before she called out again. "Now, Waverly! Get her jacket and shirt off."
Waverly finally tore her eyes away from Nicole and pushed the woman's jacket over her shoulders, pushing it further into the snow and coaxed her arms out from the sleeves. "Don't move her off the jacket yet, but get her shirt off. We've got to warm her up." Nicole instructed as she ignored her tank top for a moment and made quick work of her boots and uniform pants.
It took another few agonizingly long minutes before Nicole pulled her tank top from her head and threw it into her vehicle as well and then crawling into the seat. "Ok, can you help me lift her? I'll pull her the rest of the way in and you get her shoes and jeans off. And give me your coat." Waverly bent to hoist the girl's upper body up where Nicole could drag her into the slight warmth of the cruiser. Along the woman's left side, just under her bra, was a deep purple bruise. "Bastard," Nicole spoke softly.
Wave finally got the girl's jeans from her legs and threw them into the floorboard of the cruiser along-side the rest of Nicole's uniform before pulling her long coat from her arms and handing it to Nicole. She instantly pulled the woman against her heated flesh and pulled the coat over both of their bodies.
"Wave, you gotta drive us to the hospital. Quickly," Nicole said as she felt the chill of the woman's body starting to make her cold. "Turn the siren, yeah, that top button. Get on the radio and tell Carlyne that we're headed to the hospital with a possible hypothermia victim."
The young Earp closed the door, climbed into Nicole's seat and quickly pulled the seat closer before shifting into drive and flooring the gas petal. She reached for the heater control button and was quickly stopped. "No, just leave it alone." Waverly looked into the rearview mirror and could only see Nicole's brown eyes looking over the top of the other girl's brown hair. "Radio, Waverly."
"Oh," She reached for the radio, pressing the button before talking. "Uh, hello? This is Waverly Earp calling for Officer Haught."
The radio crackled before a voice answered in return, filled with a thick country twang. "Did you say Earp? Another Earp in trouble with the Sheriff department, huh? Surprise, surprise."
Waverly groaned. Carlyne had held animosity toward her from the moment Champ Hardy had thrown his arm over her shoulder and started calling her his girlfriend during the bonfire after the first week of junior year. "Uh, we're headed toward the hospital with a woman who has hypothermia."
A moment passed before her monotone voice came back over the radio. "ETA?"
Waverly looked up into the mirror again with confusion filling her eye. Nicole nodded her head. From the front seat she held down the button and held it up to her shoulder so Nicole could be heard. "Ten minutes!"
By the time Waverly pulled up in front of the Purgatory Emergency Department, four people were waiting outside next to a stretcher. She'd barely stopped when the door was opened and the coat was pulled from the two practically naked women. Two men pulled the woman free from Nicole's arms and laid her on the stretcher, covered her with a blanket another woman had ran outside with. Nicole climbed out, pulling Waverly's coat back on as she quickly followed the five people back inside.
"Nicole," Waverly called after her, following the group through the door.
She couldn't make out much of the technical jargon the doctors were spouting until one question pierced her eardrums, "ID?"
"Mattie," Nicole said as the nurse stopped her at the end of the hallway. "Her name is Mattie."
Waverly walked up behind Nicole. Her feet were bare and the coat hung open, showing off her toned stomach along with her state of undress. "Nicole? How did you know that?"
The redhead lowered her head before turning. Waverly instantly felt her chest constrict as she noticed the moist streaks that ran from her red eyes. "She's my sister."
