She gawked at the man for a couple of moments til she realized there were really only two options for how he could come to that conclusion. She really needed to stop being surprised about anything the Seeds did anymore. "The Voice tell you I was gonna pay a visit?" she asked.

Joseph looked up at the painted Peggie cross near the ceiling. "Yes. And you are nothing if not tenacious," Joseph replied. "It was bound to happen sometime."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

"It was meant as such," he replied, still not looking at her. "You are still welcome here after everything you've done, after all."

She scoffed. "Yeah, well, excuse me for being a little doubtful on that front, considering the last time I was here I got shot at."

"It was to drive you away from my people. You've done enough harm."

"I've done-" she repeated again, then full on laughed. "You're insane. No. More insane than I thought."

He finally looked at her. "And yet here you are, expecting and receiving a civil conversation," he countered. He clasped his hands together after a few moments of silence. "You have questions. I will answer them." He glanced at the spot next to him; a silent invitation- or an order.

She crossed her arms over her chest and made a point of not taking him up on it. "Alright, brand new first question: what gives you the right to kill my people? Hm? What does the Voice tell you that justifies all those murders?"

"That's not an answer you seek," Joseph pointed out.

"Fuck yes, it is."

"I am protecting them. That's all that matters. It's a means to an end."

"They are human lives. They're people, not fucking cattle for your fucking god complex-"

"And I tried to lead them to their salvation."

She scoffed. "You know what, forget it I'm not arguing the rub with a madman."

"Very well. Get on with what you wanted to ask."

She clenched her jaw. The fact that this was the dumbest thing she could've done came back into her brain. He was going to be cryptic and vague intentionally. He was the "lead my horses to water but can't make them drink" type- even if his particular style ended with "unless it benefits me." She just wished she wasn't so curious and left in the dark about everything. "How does… it happen?"

Joseph looked at her again, then rose to his feet. When she stepped back out of instinct, he offered his usual barely-there smile.

She tried to keep the eye contact going. He knew. Just like that, he fucking knew that she was on a new level with the whole situation- if the Voice didn't tell him she was already. She realized she hadn't actively tried to look nonplussed, and that was going to bite her in the ass.

Joseph advanced towards the steps and looked towards the window. "I've seen the Collapse several times. All different methods- war, disease, famine… all the details are different every time." He tilted his head. "Except for you. You are always there- and at the helm of the destruction most of the time. It always starts like this. You and I at odds. You never seeing the light. You reaping the hate you've sewn."

"I didn't ask for this," she countered. She immediately flinched when she realized her mistake. His words thrown back at him. He was going to enjoy that.

Of course, he had caught it. His eyes seemed to brighten, evident even behind the sunglasses. He smirked, and she finally saw the resemblance between all three brothers. "You were chosen. Same as me-"

She surged forward so her head was a mere few inches from his. "Not the same. Not remotely. I'm not hearing voices- singular or otherwise. I'm not killing people to prove a selfish point."

Joseph was hardly affected by the lack of distance between them. He continued to look her in the eye. "You cut through my people like they were nothing and have the nerve to judge me for doing the same."

She wanted to come back with 'you started it', but knew it wouldn't go as well as it did with John. Joseph would label her immature, not just go along with it. She snarled and backed up.

He wandered over to the pulpit and put his hands on the edges, and she wondered if she was going to hear a full on sermon like she had the first time. "You will learn. The dreams came first. You've had them- I see it in your face, even as you don't ask the questions you came here to ask."

She tried to keep the nonplussed act up, despite the fact that particular statement had started panic up deep in her chest.

Joseph looked away, and again, that slight smile crossed his lips. "I expected John to be the first to see . It's… poetic that the bringer of the Collapse is the one who shares the gift."

She flinched. Well, if he knew, or assumed that hard, there was no sense in hiding it. "It's no gift, pal." She knew she gave away too much, but at this rate, there was nothing left to lose.

"But the ability to see and adapt and try to save everyone is," he protested.

"You and I have two different definitions of 'save," she argued.

Joseph shrugged, an action that she found too casual for him. "In method, perhaps. It's a means to an end. As long as their lives are spared, what does the way they get saved matter?" he countered. "You saved John after everything, did you not?"

"I was sick of the killing you forced me to do, so yes, I saved his life- you know, kept him alive. Which is a lot better than I can say for you, apparently. Killing isn't saving."

Something changed in his eyes. Any trace of a smile or a smirk was gone. He just had that dangerous neutral look. "Make no mistake, I love my brother."

"Because nothing says 'I love you' more than having your people shoot to kill at him," she answered.

"Did any bullet hit its mark?" Joseph countered. He closed the distance between them and gripped her shoulders. He held strong when she tried to yank herself free. "I am not the monster you think I am, Nicolette."

She scoffed. "Neither am I. And what is it with you two and using my name when you're trying to make a point you know won't stick?" she flinched again. That was another thing she had just thrown out there haphazardly that he could use against her. She had just heavily implied that she and John had at least one heavy, potentially civil conversation, and that they were on good enough terms to do so. Fuck, Joseph was like some sort of predator that hypnotized their prey before killing it. He gave people that same look for long enough and they'd just give away wasn't he the inquisitor?

Joseph looked away. "I'm pleased you two found common ground. He needed someone."

She opened her mouth, at a loss for that particular derailment. It was a trap, she knew, but to her surprise something that felt an awful lot like overprotectiveness for John curled in her gut- another first that she would've never expected a couple of months ago. He had been through so much shit, he didn't deserve to be abandoned by one of the last people who gave a shit- who she hadn't killed. "He had you."

Joseph was silent for a while. "My company was starting to cause more harm than good," he admitted.

"So you just broke the most important promise you ever made to him?" she asked. "Do you know what that could do to a person? He only had you left."

"Everything happens for a reason. Even that."

The guarded tone he adopted for his answer unnerved her until she recalled it was probably all just some game to him. He wanted to unnerve her- make her question everything now that she was just questioning some of it. He could lie, feed her all she thought she needed to hear and watch her try to process it and come up with the wrong conclusions. It took her a minute to remember the voicemail he had left at the ranch. He had signed off insisting that he loved John. But whether or not John got shot, it was risky to shoot at loved ones if you wanted them to survive. Joseph was an expert liar, after all. She remembered back a while when Sharky had thought John was dead, he had gone on a tangent about how Joseph might've wanted John dead to further his plans. The entire thing was a clusterfuck of hypotheticals, and having the king of liars insisting on one theory did nothing to solve that problem. With Joseph, anything was possible. John was his baby brother. Why the Hell was he so cavalier about betraying him? After everything, how could he give him up like that? "You let him stay with Wrath? The sin that was going to slay him?" she asked, sarcasm dripping from the last question. "You know his wrath is targeted at you, don't you? How's that gonna work out for you?"

"I let him go with Pride," he corrected. He dug his fingers into her shoulders a bit, but didn't elaborate.

Fucking game player. She finally managed to break eye contact."This was a mistake. I'm done. I'll be back to put a fucking bullet between your eyes, apocalypse or not," She turned and prepared to yank herself free of his grip, and he dug into her arms again- painfully this time. She turned back and set her jaw. "What?"

He looked her up and down for a moment, then his eyes flicked back to hers.

She desperately wanted to look away out of spite, but just like every time he tried to look her in the eye, her eyes were firmly locked in place. He was most definitely a special sort of fucking predator. Hell, she didn't even believe in the shit and she was starting to wonder if he was some sort of demon, there to destroy the world and let her take the fall.

"Does John know you carry his son inside you?"

She was so lost in the predator angle that she almost missed what he had said- but that was one Hell of a thing to miss. Her heart skipped a beat, and she even went slack under his hands.

What. The. Fuck. She voiced the sentiment before she could stop herself.

He looked away. "I've seen a child. Your eyes, John's smile. You may start the Collapse, but he will help bring the world back. He will be a guide to all those who are lost."

When his hands finally slipped from her shoulders, she stumbled back. "You're insane," she repeated, even as she tried to do the math in her head.No, this is a fucking con, just like everything out of his mouth was. God, don't look at him-

"Have I been wrong yet?" Joseph countered.

"First time for everything," she answered. She turned away when there was the distant sound of people talking- most likely a Peggie patrol. She glanced back at him- whatever emotion had been there moments ago was gone. She backed up and headed for the door.

"Take care of him, Nicolette. Whatever happens to the world, however long you have."

She looked over her shoulder at him. "Fuck you, Joseph." She made it to the entrance of the church, took one final step back and bolted. The patrol had been apparently close enough to see her leave and shouted for backup.

For the third time she found herself getting chased from the compound, but at least they weren't shooting this time.

She was finally starting to appreciate the little things.

Of course, now there was an entirely new 'little thing ' that was on the board as a possibility. Joseph had a point. She didn't want to admit it, but Joseph had a point about being right so far. But how had he even known? What if he was right? How the fuck was she going to manage that and try to save the county?

The whole thing just kept on getting weirder and weirder. Still, there were two ways to fact check. It was just going to be a nuisance.

There was going to be a day where she didn't utter "fuck" at least twenty times. That day clearly wasn't one of them.

The plan when she got back to Fall's End was supposed to be simple. Get to the Spread Eagle, back into the apartment, then bolt back to the guest room as quickly and quietly as possible. In hindsight, she really should've remembered that only about one in ten of her places succeeded without a hitch.

Earl, Mary May, Jerome and John were all in the middle of the town, arguing away, if the raised voices were any indication.

"-had something to do with it when I was locked into the building across the street and it took you minutes to free me to accuse me in the first place?! You two were in the same apartment!" John was the loudest of the bunch, unsurprisingly.

"I didn't say that, you son of a bitch, I asked if you saw anything!"

She had clearly missed the brunt of it. Mary May looked frantic, and Jerome looked ready to jump in between the other two if come need be.

"Well why don't we stop arguing about it and get out there and look for her!" John continued, hands waving wildly as he rolled the 'L.'

Earl opened his mouth to shout again, and then the fact that the pair of them were suddenly on the same page seemed to occur to him. "Well alright!"

"Fine!" John nodded.

The pair turned to their rights, accidentally bumping shoulders in the process. They stopped to shoot each other warning looks before they looked back down the road- and coincidentally right at her.

She waved weakly. "Hi."

"Where the Hell were you?!" Earl demanded.

"Out?" she suggested.

"Don't you dare give me that teenage bullshit -" Earl began, then stopped short when John scoffed. "Problem, Seed?"

John clenched his jaw. "You went to see Joseph. For the answers I couldn't give," he realized.

Earl blinked at him, then turned back to her. "You what?"

She was about to object that he believed John so quickly until she remembered he of all people would know that it was just her kind of impulsive behavior to do so.

"I didn't keep my mouth shut to make your life more complicated, Deputy. I kept my mouth shut because I don't know, I don't understand, and I don't intend to. And neither should you," John pointed out.

Earl looked between the pair of them for a few moments, then stepped between them. "The Hell are you two talking about?"

John opened his mouth, and she put her hand out to stop him.

She immediately let it drop when Earl stared at her hand an extra moment too long. "Do you remember those Bliss dreams?" she asked after a moment. "The ones where she took you and I through that field?" she looked at John. That had been the first time she had truly embraced Wrath. She had seen Faith pull Earl into the field, and a hot rage had gripped her tightly and not let go, and John's insistent "your sin is Wrath' and his request to become Wrath had come to mind, and she had. More so than when she was escaping. It was why she had gone after Faith full force. John had been so, so right.

Earl nodded. "Wish I could forget them."

She offered a sympathetic nod. "There were… more for me. Joseph showed me a lot- showed me the Collapse. I thought I was drugged out to all Hell, but… I keep having the dreams, and they're just so real, and… I'm starting to wonder if he's not as crazy as we thought."

"They were dreams, kid. Hallucinations," Earl pointed out.

"They got to Burke's head enough," she said quietly. She blinked rapidly to try and rid her vision of the ghost of the memory of Burke shooting Virgil and then himself. "It's… not that much of a stretch."

Earl turned back to John. "The Hell kind of ideas are you putting in her head?!"

John scoffed. "Her seeing things Joseph's way isn't on the top of my priorities list anymore, Sheriff. That tends to happen when the one preaching it tries to kill you."

Earl looked him up and down again. When John broke eye contact first and seemed to find a crack in the pavement under him more interesting than anything going on, he turned his attention back to Nicolette. "... How much did I miss when I was gone?"

" A lot. "

"Did Joseph give you your answers?" John asked bitterly after a moment.

Nicolette paused. There was no sense in making things worse. Too many answers. "No. He wasn't there. Made it there too late. Thought he was the kind of guy who would stick around waiting for anybody in his flock to come by at oh-dark-thirty." There. It wasn't an outright lie. He had given her two or three- more like two and a half, and she was fairly sure they weren't actually the answers she had wanted. She still wasn't sure. That was the effect Joseph had. And there was the whole John's son inside her thing that he had used to derail her. She knew she probably looked miles away at that particular thought, so she snapped back to attention.

John stared at her, then scoffed. "I'm going back to sleep," he announced. "Try not to find anything else to blame on me, hm?" he looked at Jerome. "No need for the bookcase again, Jerome. I'll stay put. You looked like you were struggling with it, anyway." He turned on his heel and walked back towards the general store.

Jerome grumbled under his breath and raised his gun a bit.

Nicolette pushed it down. "Easy. Your flock's recovering. You can remember what the Bible said about killing now."

"Killing, yes. But it is fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps."

Mary May finally laughed- the only sound she had made since the whole ordeal. She hit Jerome's shoulder lightly. When Jerome walked to the general store to ensure John was true to her word, she turned to the other two. "Come on. Time for a nightcap. And for me to order new locks for my windows so we can prevent everyone's favorite deputy from going rogue on us."

"I'll split the bill with you," Earl agreed.

"Fuck you guys."

The next morning, Mary May and Earl had decidedly not delivered on their threat. They did, however, help follow through with making Jerome's trap from the previous day a reality. They had carted John off bright and early to help repair the church. It left her with free reign of the town for a while. Which, of course, led her to the damned pharmacy section of the general store. There was something morbidly hilarious that the place had been abandoned and ransacked, but the couple of rows of pregnancy tests went just about untouched.

She still couldn't believe she was doing this- humoring the bastard liar, but it wasn't like she had been regular with all of the Seed-induced stress, and now there was- well, that was another Seed joke she wasn't going to finish. Point was it had been over a month now since they had jumped each other's bones; she wouldn't have been sure about the possibility of this outcome and would've gotten worried before long, with or without Joseph's suggestion. And she had puked a lot when she was trying to get the conditioning undone and she usually had a strong stomach. "Fuck you, Joseph," she repeated to herself all the same before she picked one up, shoved it in her jacket, and left. A cop shoplifting- well, looting, she supposed. Still, she had done far too much for the fucking town to not at least be entitled a bit.

Christ, she was hitting every rung as she fell down the morality ladder.

She ducked out and turned the corner, headed for one of the other abandoned houses a couple of hundred feet down the road. There was no way she was doing this near any of her friends.

Another few minutes later she was practically pacing a hole in the bathroom floor. It hadn't been the first time she had a pregnancy scare, but it sure as Hell was a lot more relevant than the Bobby Maynard fiasco back in her sophomore year of college. Bobby was a fucking idiot. He wasn't a cult leader's brother. He wasn't the relative of a self-proclaimed Prophet who talked about the end of the world- that she was going to bring. She and Bobby wouldn't have had a fucking Apocalypse baby . Would that have made the kid the Anti-Christ? No, she was the Anti-Christ in this scenario- or she was pretty sure she was. She shook her head. She needed to stop overthinking this entire goddamn thing. Joseph was a liar. He was probably just trying to throw her off when he said that. It was easy payback for all she had done to him. He had probably sensed something had happened, just like everybody else in the fucking county.

She poked her head out to check the clock on the wall. It was time. She paced another couple of minutes for good measure and went back into the bathroom. She held her breath, leaned over, and-

One very clear, very solid plus sign was there to meet her.

She let out a weak cough and promptly sat down. If Kim's doctor was still around she was definitely going to double check, but the evidence was already there, staring her in the face. She was wrong. Joseph was right. She was pregnant. With John Seed's kid. And the entire situation got a whole new level of complicated. And dangerous. And her friends were going to kill her. Probably literally. The universe really did hate her.

"... Fuck."

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