Waverly sat on the edge of her hospital bed as a nurse reapplied her bandages. As Purgatory was such a small town she knew the nurse, she had been in the same year of high school with Waverly.

"Try to keep these on, okay?" Debbie the nurse said

"Yeah, I will" Waverly said smiling absentmindedly as she looked over Debbie's shoulder to where Nicole was laying.

Debbie saw that she was distracted, so collected all her things and left.

"Thank you" Waverly said as she hopped off the bed and made her way over to Nicole. She stood next to her for a moment, then went to the padded hospital chair, pulled it next to the bed, perched on the edge and held Nicole's hand, or at least the hand shaped bandage.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been sitting there when Wynonna came rushing in.

"Okay" she said quickly "come on, the nurse said you can be discharged, so Doc's going to take you home, okay? me and Dolls have a thing we have to do…. so…" she motioned to Waverly to come on and moved towards the door

"No, i'm..i'm staying here, with Nicole" Waverly said not moving

"Baby girl….."

"I won't sit at home while she's here…alone…"

Wynonna turned back toward Waverly seeing that she was holding Nicole's hand. She paused for a second and knew Waverly had no intention of leaving "Okay, fine… I don't have time to argue with you right now…. but when I do…" she pointed at Waverly and squinted her eyes at her "… just you wait" she threatened jokingly.

She rushed over to Waverly grabbed her head with both hands and kissed her forehead "Call me if you need anything" she said rushing off, when she got to the door she realised that Waverly still didn't have any of her things. She turned around again, moved back towards Waverly and threw some keys at her.

Waverly quickly caught them and looked quizzical

"Your jeep's out the front and your bag's in there" she then turned and actually left.

—

"Oh, hello Waverly" came a gruff voice

Waverly looked up to see Sheriff Nedley standing at the corner of Nicole's bed

"How are you?" He asked

"I'm fine, thank you sheriff" she said solemnly looking towards Nicole

"And, er, how's our deputy doing?" He asked moving closer to the bed and placing his hands on his belt

Waverly shook her head "No change"

"Well…" He said moving his hand as if he was going to touch Nicole's arm, but thought better of it and placed it back on his belt "…you let me know if anything does change"

Waverly nodded "I will" she smiled

The sheriff took a last look at Nicole then turned to leave "Oh, Miss Earp?" He turned back towards Waverly "has anyone been to feed her cat?"

"Oooohh crap" Waverly said softly, Nicole would kill her "No" she cringed

He nodded and looked a little disappointed "oh, okay… well, I'll err…."

"No, that's okay sheriff, i'll go" Waverly interrupted "We both know she doesn't like men anyway" she smiled

Nedley put a hand over his arm "she really doesn't" he said quietly obviously thinking about the last time he's tried to feed the cat "well, good luck" he smiled as he left

Waverly really didn't want to leave Nicole's side, but knew that if she didn't and anything happened to Thunderbolt Nicole would be so annoyed and Waverly wouldn't be able to forgive herself. So she she stood, leaned over Nicole and whispered "I wont be long okay?" then kissed her forehead and made her way to her jeep.

—

She opened the door to Nicole's flat and Thunderbolt was sitting neatly in the small hall section of the flat, staring right at her with what Waverly could only think was utter disappointment. But she seemed to get over it quickly and was quickly weaving around her legs meowing loudly

"I know, it's only me, i'm sorry" She said as she leaned down to stroke the cat "Okay, okay, i'm going to feed you, calm down" she smiled

She walked around into the kitchen, but realised she had no idea where the cat food would be. As she started opening and closing cupboards Thunderbolt sat in front of a bottom cupboard and meowed. Waverly glanced in her direction but carried on opening cupboards, Thunderbolt meowed again, and again Waverly turned around. Was the cat trying to tell her where the food was?

Waverly squinted her eyes at the cat "I don't know if you're clever or just weird" she said smiling and opening the cupboard, to her surprise it was full of cat food.

It didn't take long for her to fill the cats bowls with food and water, and she was practically pushed out of the way by the hungry feline as it rushed to the food.

"You're welcome" she said stroking Thunderbolts back as she ate "I'm just going to get some of Nicole's stuff….for when she wakes up" after all there was every possibility she could wake up tomorrow, right? and it was better to have some clothes ready, than have to leave Nicole's side once she was awake.

She stood there for a moment wondering whether or not she should tell the cat what had happened. Thunderbolt looked up for a moment as if it knew what she was thinking, but then went back to her food. Waverly stood and watched for a moment more then rolled her eyes at herself

"Okay…so…" she cleared her throat feeling self conscious for doing this, but knew she would feel guilty if she didn't "Nicole is in the hospital…" the cat looked up again as if waiting for more information "but she's going to be fine…okay?…." It must have been because the cat carried on eating

She shook her head at herself and walked into Nicole's bedroom, it wasn't the first time she'd been in there, she had to walk through it to get to the bathroom last time she was there, but it was the first time she'd been in the flat alone. She felt a little wrong being there, she wanted to have a look around, but also knew that she shouldn't without Nicole there.

She had no idea where anything was in the room, but figured Nicole would have a bag in her wardrobe, that was where most people kept them. When she opened it she couldn't help but smile at how neat it was in there. All of Nicole's police uniforms were at one end neatly in order with all her shirts together, all her trousers together and all the coats together. The rest of the wardrobe was filled with her everyday clothes, some of which Waverly recognise, but most of which she didn't. She saw Nicole in her uniform a lot. There were some nice things in there that she thought she'd like to see Nicole in at some point.

On the floor of the wardrobe at one end, next to all of Nicole's neatly lined up shoes and boots, she found what she was looking for. She pulled the bag out and placed it on the bed. It was a medium sized bag and it looked like Nicole must have had it for a while, it was a little worn at the edges and on the handle, when Waverly looked at the outside of it she knew why. It had a logo on the side of it that Waverly recognised as a police academy shield. Nicole must have kept it all this time, which didn't really surprise her, Nicole was very proud of her career and how well she'd done in the academy.

She started to fill the bag with a few things from the bathroom; toothbrush, hair brush, then she went to the chest of drawers. She wasn't actually sure what to take. If Nicole's arms were burned or wounded up to her shoulders would she be able to put a bra on? or a t-shirt? maybe she should take a shirt from the wardrobe? she couldn't make up her mind so decided to take at least one of each, she also threw in some track suit bottoms and converse shoes, as they would be comfortable.

When she was done she took the bag and threw it by the front door. In the kitchen Thunderbolt was sitting on the kitchen counter looking at her.

"Hey, you all done? huh?" She said standing in front of her and giving her a tickle under her chin. Thunderbolt purred contently and moved her head closer to Waverly, "You are welcome" she said stroking her more. The cat closed it's eyes and purred then rubbed her face carefully against the bandages on Waverley's neck and meowed. Waverly moved away, the cat hadn't hurt her, but she was worried she might press to hard and Waverly wasn't sure yet how much pressure was too much "Hey now kitty! careful" she said stroking the cats head

"Now.." She said as she walked into the kitchen again "What food does she have that might go off…" she opened the fridge and looked inside "..we don't know how long she'll be… away" she finished sadly, turning to smile at Thunderbolt, but the cat wasn't on the counter any more.

"Okaaayy…" Waverly shrugged and started going though the food in the fridge. It didn't take her long to get rid of any food she thought might end up crawling out of the fridge in a few days.

"Okay…Thunderbolt? where are you?" she asked walking out of the kitchen "Thunderbolt? I'm going now…." she said into the room looking around, but she couldn't see the weird feline anywhere "Thunderbolt?….Okay well, I or someone else will be by tomorrow okay? whoever it is, you be nice okay?…. okay" she gave another quick look around, but couldn't see her so gave up and went to the door and picked up Nicole's bag, which seemed heavier than she remembered, and left.

When she got to her jeep she put the bag in the footwell of the passenger side and began her cold journey back to the hospital.

It didn't take long to get there, but as she waited to cross the traffic into the hospital car park she saw something out of the corner of her eye moving in the footwell. She quickly glanced down and thought she saw Nicole's bag move. She figured she must have been mistaken and went back to trying to get into the car park.

It didn't take long for her to get across the traffic, this was Purgatory after all there wasn't much traffic, and find a free space, as she turned the engine off something caught her attention again. This time she definitely saw something and to her utter amazement she saw Thunderbolt's little head peaking out of the top of Nicole's bag.

"What the..?" She knew she should have done the bag up properly. "Thunderbolt!" she said annoyed, then opened the bag to reveal the cat all huddled up, happily looking at her. She huffed at the situation. What was she meant to do now? she couldn't leave the cat in the car, sure it had windows and the top was up, but it wasn't the newest of cars and Thunderbolt could easily wriggle through a gap or something. "I am not going all the way back to Nicole's" she stated at the cat, that would be another twenty minutes or so there and back and she already felt awful being away from Nicole for so long. So the only thing she could do was leave the cat in the bag and take the bag into the hospital with her.

"Okay, listen you" she said pointing at the cat, who sat there looking like it knew exactly what it was doing "If I take you in there, you have to stay in the bag. Got it?" she asked as if it was going to reply "No sneaking out. You can NOT be in there and if you're seen… they might stop me seeing Nicole, understand? and if I can't see Nicole I am holding you entirely responsible and i'm the one who's going to be feeding you, capeesh? So best behaviour" she leaned down and did the bag back up a little, but leaving some room for air, then she lifted the bag carefully and made her way up to Nicole's room trying her best not to attract attention.

She was quite surprised when she got to Nicole's room without anyone saying anything, maybe she was getting better at this secret agent thing.

She placed the bag down between the chair and Nicole's bed, then leaned over her and soothed her forehead "Hey, baby" she whispered and looked at the machines surrounding her girlfriend like she knew what she was looking at. She nearly jumped out of her skin though when she turned back to Nicole and saw Thunderbolt standing on the edge of the bed.

"What the…" she said a bit too loudly "What the hell are you doing?" she said angrily through gritted teeth, but the cat ignored her and gingerly started to walk across Nicole, sure she was being careful, but Waverly started to panic.

"If someone comes in here…." she said as she reached for Thunderbolt, but before she could pick her up she heard a voice.

"Everything okay in here?"

Waverly's attention diverted to the curtain dividing the room. It was Debbie the nurse on the other side

Waverly quickly turned back to get Thunderbolt, but the cat was gone. With no idea what was going on she put on her best fake smile just as Debbie moved the curtain and looked in "Yeaahhhh, everything's fine, Deb, thanks"

"Good" she said walking in a bit further and having a quick look over the bed at the machines. As she was about to leave she smiled and said "Oh, I've been moved to the children's ward starting tomorrow, so probably wont see you for a while, but we should catch up some time"

"Yeah, yeah, that would be great" Waverly fake smiled, still not knowing where that damn cat was or what it might be doing.

"Great! Well, if you need anything Bessie will be taking over and should be at the nurses station"

"Bessie? she still works here?" Waverly asked of the woman that seemed to have been working there forever

"Oh yeah, I don't think she'll ever leave" Debbie laughed as she left

When the coast was clear Waverly turned around franticly looking around for Thunderbolt, only to see a white flash jump back onto the bed. "Seriously?" she said watching in amazement as the cat again started stepping on Nicole and working it's way up to her face.

"Hey, hey! be careful.." she whispered

She reached for it as it stood on Nicole's chest and started sniffing the wires and tubes on Nicole

"Didn't I tell you to stay in the bag, huh?" She said putting Thunderbolt on the floor and opening the bag to put her back in. But when she turned to pick her up and put her in, she was gone again.

She stood up and there she was on the bed again, this time sniffing Nicole's bandaged arm. Waverly threw up her arms in exasperation and put them on her hips. The cat ignored her as she positioned herself at Nicole's shoulder and laid down so that she was resting just on her. She placed her head carefully on Nicole and closed her eyes.

The cat looked so peaceful, and sort of sad, laying with Nicole like that that Waverly couldn't bring herself to move her again. She decided to leave Thunderbolt there for the time being, but knew she couldn't stay there forever.

She sat back down next to Nicole and rested her head on the backrest. As she watched Nicole laying there with her cat on her shoulder, she thought it might be safe to close her eyes, maybe just have a short nap, after all she'd been through a lot of stuff in the last few days.

The rhythmic sounds of the ventilator and the soft beeping of the machines were starting to act like a lullaby and as her eyelids started closing the sound of Thunderbolt purring was enough for her to fall asleep.