Wynonna, Dolls and Waverly began to set up their arsenal for the ambush. It was past midnight but as Dolls pointed out the full moon would provide good visibility. They would be able to see anyone approaching. They were using an abandoned farm just outside town for the ambush. As Waverly looked around she wryly observed it would have been an ideal setting for a horror movie. She tried to shake off the deep sense of uneasiness she was experiencing but it was impossible. She knew there was so many ways this could go wrong no matter what Dolls or Wynonna might say. She would never forgive herself if Nicole got caught in the crosshairs of a Revenant attack.
"Okay, does everyone know what they're doing?" Dolls looked to Wynonna and then to Waverly for confirmation.
"Yeeessss," Wynonna rolled her eyes. "We've gone over this plan a million times".
Waverly had to agree with her sister. Dolls had literally drilled the plan into their heads.
"You're staking out the east side of the property, I'm taking the west and Waverly takes the south. Nicole comes, Revenants follow, Bang Bang and a highway to hell for some Revenant scumbags".
Dolls face went from exasperation to reluctant amusement as Wynonna explained the plan.
"Okay, weapons then". Dolls started doling out the weapons. The arsenal they had at their disposal was impressive. There were rifles, smoke gas, bulletproof vests, and hand grenades. They could take on a small army with this stuff Waverly observed. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that. She picked up her trusty shotgun. She might not be able to send a Revenant to hell but she sure as hell could fill them up with a lot of holes.
Wynonna walked round to her truck to take out some stuff from the back; Waverly followed her and noticed a tarp covering a large crate in the back.
'What's that?' Waverly asked.
Wynonna looked over to see if Dolls was within earshot before answering.
'A little toy I brought just incase' Wynonna whispered conspiratorially to her sister.
From the way her sister was acting Waverly guessed it was not Dolls preapproved. She wasn't sure if this should scare her even more or be a small comfort that they had something else up their sleeves for if things went bad. Waverly reminded herself that things always went bad.
Dolls walked over to them as he strapped on his bulletproof vest.
"Everyone ready?" he asked.
The Earp sisters nodded. He handed each of them a walkie-talkie. "Radio silence unless you see something" he instructed.
"If everyone does their part this will work," Dolls stressed the last part. "Let's do this".
That was as rousing a speech as they could expect from Dolls.
"I think he means Yay team and don't fuck up!" Wynonna fake cheered.
Dolls gave her a glib smile in reply. He then went to his car and on a borrowed police scanner he sent out an A.P.B on the farmhouse to Nicole. Dolls thought that the radio was how the Revenants had known where the police were always going to be. They must have been listening in on the police scanners. If he was right then they'd follow Nicole to the farm.
"Let's get into position" Dolls instructed.
All three of them headed to their positions so they would be able to see if anyone approached from any direction. The night was so eerily quiet that even from miles away Waverly could hear Nicole in her police car before she ever saw it. The red and blue light show that Nicole was putting on would be impossible for any Revenant watching to miss. Waverly's eyes never left that car.
Nicole as planned pulled into the drive way of the farmhouse. She parked right outside the front door. There were a few silent seconds that passed where nothing happened. Then Waverly heard two beeps on her radio, it was a signal from Dolls to Nicole for her to get out of her car and head to the house. Waverly's breath caught as she saw the flash of Nicole's red hair as she got out of the car and made her way to the door. Waverly looked all around her to see if anyone was approaching but she couldn't see anything. She turned back to look at Nicole entering the house and heading into the front room. The light in the front room turned on and in the break in the net curtains Waverly could clearly see Nicole's outline. Now all they had to do was wait. Waverly was constantly searching the landscape for anything and then anxiously looking back at the front window of the house. Every sound of an owl or rustling of a branch made her skittish. But no one ever appeared. After two solid hours of waiting the three of them were getting restless.
Waverly's radio buzzed. "Do any of you see anything?" came Dolls voice.
"There's nothing" came Wynonna's reply.
"Nothing here either" Waverly answered on her radio.
There were several minutes of radio silence. Waverly guessed Dolls was trying to figure out their next move.
"We'll give it another hour and then if there's no sign we'll regroup at the office" Dolls instructed.
Waverly was feeling extremely happy that nothing had happened. She felt a little guilty that she was so happy their plan had failed. But if Nicole was safe at the end of the day she didn't really care. Nicole had been extremely insistent in playing her part Waverly considered. It was something she really admired about her. Maybe after this they could-
Bang! came a sound in the distance, on the far side of the farmhouse from where Waverly stood.
What the hell was that? Waverly listened.
"There's something coming from this side I think!" Wynonna's voice came over the radio. It sounded breathless as if she was running.
"I'm coming" was Dolls reply.
Waverly could see two figures streaking to something in the distance. Waverly craned her eyes to see if there was a third figure but in the dark she couldn't see anything clearly.
"What is it?" Waverly asked anxiously over the radio.
"It….was….just...a… dog" Wynonna replied in between deep breaths.
Waverly heart had gone into overdrive for a second. She took a breath of relief and instinctively looked back at the house. It had changed. There was no light on and no Nicole that she could see.
"Dolls!" Waverly immediately went on her radio. "The lights are out in the house!". Waverly was scared. She hadn't felt this scared since she was six years old.
"Waverly stay where you are, me and Wynonna will-"
Whatever Dolls was saying Waverly was completely deaf to it. She started running towards the house.
"Waverly!" She could hear them warning her but she was closer to the house then either of them. She went through the front door and straight into the front room. It was pitch black. It took several seconds for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. She was frantically looking through the room for any sign of Nicole. Any caution about running into a Revenant was forgotten. The room was cluttered with broken furniture. There was no sign of anyone standing. Behind a dirty overturned sofa Waverly spotted a pair of familiar black boots.
'Nicole!' Waverly went over to the body. Nicole's eyes were closed. Waverly's breath started coming fast. Please be okay. Please be okay. She chanted in her head. She noticed there was no blood. That must be a good sign Waverly reasoned frantically with herself. A six week course she had taken in first aid kicked into action. She got on her knees beside Nicole and put her ear close to her mouth and waited to feel or hear a breath. It took her a few seconds to hear it over her own pumping blood, but it definitely was a breath. She was only slightly relieved, she couldn't be completely sure of any damage done. Wynonna and Dolls arrived with their guns drawn.
"Clear the rooms, I'll look at Nicole" Dolls instructed Wynonna. She nodded and went to the back of the house.
"Here Waverly…" Dolls spoke very gently. "I need to check her". They looked at each other in complete understanding. He knew what Nicole meant to her.
Waverly weakly nodded. She was holding back tears as she held Nicole's hand. Dolls got on his knees to examine Nicole; he took out a small flashlight and checked her pupil response. Waverly waited anxiously for his assessment.
He looked at Waverly with a kind smile. "She's going to be fine, she's just been knocked out" he assured her. He looked around the room for the source of the blow.
Waverly looked at Nicole's face and thanked god. She couldn't help the tears rolling down her face in relief. She squeezed Nicole's hand and hoped she knew that she was with her.
"There's nobody here" Wynonna said when she returned.
That didn't mean much when it came to Revenants Waverly thought. They could be hiding inside the walls, under the floor boards, or they could even be invisible.
"We need to get her out of here" Waverly urgently addressed this to Dolls. Waverly knew Nicole needed to go to hospital even with Dolls okay.
He nodded in agreement but suddenly there was a bang as the front door slammed shut.
"What the…" Wynonna looked at the door.
Suddenly the door was in flames, then the windows and the walls. In less than ten seconds they were in the middle of an inferno.
"Shit, we need to get that door down!" Dolls shouted over the flames. He ran across the room to the door. The smoke was starting to blind Waverly. She coughed as the room filled with fumes. She desperately held onto Nicole who was still completely unresponsive. They needed to leave now she desperately thought. She tried to pull Nicole up.
"Waverly!" Wynonna shouted in panic. She ran over to them on the floor covering her mouth and nose with her sleeve.
Dolls tried again and again to kick down the door. He was already sweating profusely. The room felt like ten thousand degrees. Waverly normally would have been frightened for her own life but all her fear was directed towards Nicole. There was a thud as the door crashed open from Dolls kick. Between Wynonna and Waverly they tried to drag Nicole towards the entrance. Dolls ran over to them.
"Get out, I'll take her!" Dolls picked her limp body up in a fireman's lift. Wynonna and Waverly followed behind him. As they got out the front door they ran far away from the burning building. Waverly collapsed onto her knees; in the fresh night air she took a deep breath and coughed up what felt like her lungs. Dolls took Nicole and laid her down carefully on the ground.
"Dolls your leg!" Wynonna shouted in concern as she noticed his trousers had caught fire. He dropped and rolled on the grass to try and extinguish it. Waverly half crawled half stumbled her way over to where Nicole lay.
She looked over Nicole, she was black from smoke. She carefully pushed the hair away from her face which had been slightly singed at the ends. Nicole opened her eyes at Waverly's touch and weakly spluttered.
"Waverly….?" Nicole asked weakly. Waverly tearfully smiled. Nicole started coughing violently and Waverly helped her upper body up to make it easier for her to get everything out of her system. All four of them sat breathlessly on the grass and watched the house they had just escaped collapse.
"Are you okay?" Wynonna asked her sister in concern.
"Yeh" Waverly smiled. Wynonna pulled her into a deep hug. After about five minutes she finally released her.
"You take care of Nicole, I'll help Dolls" Wynonna gave her sister a knowing wink. Waverly might have blushed under normal circumstances but feeling self conscious about what her sister might think about her just seemed irrelevant now. Wynonna went over to Dolls to help him with his leg; it had surprisingly escaped from being badly burnt. Waverly took care of Nicole. They both wiped the soot off each other's smiling faces.
"They knew we were here" Dolls said as he hobbled over to them. They all knew they had fallen into a trap.
"What happened in there?" Waverly gently asked Nicole.
Nicole took Waverly's hand and ran it over a large bump that had grown on the top of her head. "I was…" she coughed violently. "hit over the head with something".
"Did you see who did it?" Wynonna asked.
"Yeh, it was…him" Nicole's eyes widened in shock as she pointed into the night.
"Nice night for a bonfire" came a drawling voice from the darkness. A man appeared from nowhere, as if the night had just birthed him from the darkness. He was wearing an old suit, a hat and an old timey pocket watch. He had a pipe in his mouth and his smile made his moustache curl. He looked at the four of them lying on the ground. Nicole pulled Waverly back protectively.
"Now let's see here... the law and the Earps," his smile became even wider. "We really are spoiled for choice, brother". He seemed to be addressing the very blackness of the night.