Costumes and Promises

Some promises last.

She wanted to show him her Halloween costume. That's what she had told him the day before. She wanted to make sure it was perfect. Her class was having a competition and she was going to win. She wasn't there yet, and he wondered if something had distracted her.

Bobo lingered by the treeline, lit cigarette between his fingers, as he waited for his little angel to show. He brought it to his lips and inhaled deeply, feeling it rush down his throats and into his lungs, the nicotine released into his system. He closed his eyes, doing his best to relax as he released it. Things had been hectic lately. Two of his boys had had a rather nasty run in with the Order, as they liked to call themselves. They typically stayed away from Revenants and focused on other demonic presences in the Triangle, but every now and again they got an itch and stepped in. Lately they seemed to be testing out a new theory to see if Peacemaker was truly the only thing that could put them down. One of the Revenants that they'd caught had gotten away mostly intact, but Bobo didn't envy him the experience. The Revenant leader grimaced a bit at the memory of his own run-in with a particularly ambitious and short-sighted generation of the Order.

"Those are bad for you."

He looked up at the sound of the young voice and he wasn't quite sure how she had managed to sneak up on him. Bobo took one last drag from his cigarette before standing from where he was crouched down, dropping it to the ground to crush it under his heavy boot. "They won't hurt me. Promise," he said with a wink that made her giggle.

"Daddy smokes too. When he thinks we're not watching."

But she was always watching. That much was evident by her getup. The youngest Earp sister was dressed in jeans that were tucked into her boots, a plaid shirt much like the ones her daddy wore when he wasn't on duty as sheriff. She wore a hat that must have belonged to one of her sisters. It was too big for her, too small for Ward.

She was grinning now as she realized he was looking over her outfit. "You like my Halloween costume? Look. It's Wyatt Earp's real badge." She thumbed at a metal badge Bobo knew well that was pinned to her shirt.

"You going as a sheriff?" he guessed.

"No, silly. I'm going as the Earp Heir!" Waverly looked very proud of herself as she stood with her arms crossed over her chest and grinning. "I guess it's hard to tell with just the badge. I wanted to borrow Peacemaker, but Daddy carries it. He'd have noticed, so I had to use a toy." She pulled the little plastic gun from its plastic holster. "It's not long enough though, so you gotta use your imagination. See?" She pointed it out at the field, motioning like she was shooting at something. "You wanna play? The Heir has to hunt down all the Revenants - those are like these demon things. Daddy says that their eyes glow red and they're all really, really bad - and send them back to hell! You gotta shoot 'em right between the eyes." She made shooting sounds at the field as if she were aiming at some unseen Revenant. "That ends the curse. I can't do it for real because Willa's gonna be the Heir after Daddy, but we can pretend. You can help me end the curse, Bobo! Please?" She turned, looking at him. "Bobo?"

He was staring, he realized, the reality of their situation become so much more real as he listened to her talk. It was easy to forget everything when he was out here with her. Demons and Heirs and the curse were pushed back, his angel capturing his focus. The idea that she wanted the wield Peacemaker and put every last Revenant down hurt more than he thought it could.

"Bobo?" she asked again and tugged on his arm. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he breathed out. He squatted down on his heels and looked up at that innocent little face. Angels and demons were on opposite sides. The truth of that hurt worse than a physical blow.

"Did the cigarette make you sick? Wynonna and Willa snuck one from Daddy one time and they were so sick. Are you sick?"

He did feel ill. His stomach was churning and his chest was tight. It was bizarre. "Maybe that's it," he managed, looking for anything other than the truth that there would be a day - maybe sooner rather than later - when they would be enemies. She might never forgive him for these innocent days. The monster that pretended to be her friend. What if that's how she saw it? What if she thought he was using her? She wouldn't know - Ward certainly wouldn't explain it to her - why he had chosen to spend afternoons with the youngest Earp. He was a Revenant. Everything action would be seen through that darkness someday.

Waverly dropped her toy gun and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm sorry," she said sweetly into the furs and he reached up, pulling her closer.

"Hey," he rasped, "I'm alright. Don't worry about me."

"You're my best friend. I don't want you to be sick or sad."

A rough chuckle left him. Sad. He was clever, wasn't she? There was no lying to her.

Waverly gave a little sigh as she settled in. "Bobo?"

"Yeah, Angel?"

"You think maybe I can end the curse and make everyone happy?"

He pulled in a deep breath, an image playing across his mind of Peacemaker pressed against his own forehead. If he were the last thing between her family and the end of the curse, he wondered if he still had it in himself to sacrifice like that. He had once, when he thought it would buy Wyatt's freedom, but even that hadn't worked out as planned. No, dying wasn't the answer. You couldn't influence the outcome at all if you were dead. There was always another way. He wouldn't stop looking.

"I think you're smart enough to figure anything you want out, Angel. Guns ain't the only weapon in the world."

"Yeah. I don't have to have Peacemaker to help," she agreed. "Bobo?"

"Hmm?"

"You feeling better?"

"Yeah," he lied and gave her a quick squeeze. He just needed to focus on the here and now. The future would be there soon enough with all of its troubles. All he knew for sure was the promise he'd made to protect his angel was the one that mattered more than anything else in the world.

It had been a long time since he had thought about that day, but as he lingered at the fence line waiting for the Heir to show Bobo found his mind wandering to it. She'd been all smiles and innocence in those days, and she hadn't had any idea what he really was. She had cared about him, his little angel. Now, just as he had thought might happen, she couldn't see past the demon. Not that he really should blame her after his bout with Bulshar. Even the thought of the demon's name sent chills up his spine and he focused on keeping the voice out of his head.

Well, it looked like Wynonna was going to take her sweet time. It wasn't like he could just walk up to the house to see what was keeping her, so here he was. Waiting. Bobo dug into his pocket and pulled a cigarette and lighter out.

"Those things are bad for you, you know."

He turned, finding a familiar face behind him. Waverly stood several feet back on the Earp side of the fence. She wasn't wearing her sister's cowgirl hat today or Wyatt's badge and, thankfully, she didn't seem to be there to hunt him down. Granted, she didn't look particularly happy either.

Bobo snapped the zippo lighter shut and tucked the single cigarette back away in its holder, tilting his head just a little. "I was expecting your sister."

"Wynonna's tied up just a little longer. I thought we could…. talk."

He quirked an eyebrow at that and watched as she moved over to the fenceline. She was wary, but not necessarily afraid. She certainly hadn't seemed afraid a handful of days earlier when she'd shoved the gun in his face after he'd bent over backwards to help them.

Several long moments passed with him watching her watching him and they were getting nowhere. "So, talk," he prompted.

Waverly huffed. "You were a lot nicer when I was a kid."

"You were a kid. Lots happened between then and now."

She shook her head, her hands resting on the top board of the fence. "I've remembered bits and pieces over the last couple of years. I convinced myself you were just a figment of a really active imagination." There was something in her eyes that was distant as she spoke. "I remember telling Gus about you once and…. I told her you'd just stopped coming. I had no idea why. My daddy was dead. So was my big sister, the other one was being toted off the the mental hospital… and you'd just stopped coming. I was all alone and I guess making myself believe that you weren't real at all was easier." She sniffed hard, turning to look at him. "And then I realized who you were and I got it. It was never about being nice. It was about manipulating me."

"Is that what you think?"

"Am I wrong?"

"Would you believe it if you were?"

Waverly blinked hard and Bobo held her gaze. He watched her clever mind work, weighing what had happened, what seemed to have happened, and every possible outcome she could comprehend. As smart as she was, he'd wager she couldn't come up with half of them. He'd been playing at this game and every angle that he could to stay on top longer than she'd been alive by multiple generations, though explaining that outright went against everything he'd become.

Finally she loosed a breath, stepping forward so that she could lean against the fence with her chin set in the crook of her folded arms. "I don't know if we can trust you. If I can trust you."

Bobo leaned back against the post, watching her from the corner of his eye. "You told me once you wanted me to help you end this curse. Ending it's all I've wanted for over a century."

"And killing Bulshar will do that?"

He shuddered a little at the name. "It better."

"Well," Waverly said, her voice a little lighter as she climbed up the fence and took a seat on the top of it so that he had to look up at her, "if you promise not to screw us over, I'll…. try to keep an open mind. How's that sound?"

He found a hand extended towards him, reminiscent of the promises they made when she was young. "Deal," he told her gruffly, accepting her hand. It was bigger than he remembered and the shake was firmer than it had once been, but her lips curled up at the corners and the smile reaching her eyes. She knew exactly what she was doing. This was a peace offering. One he knew he hadn't earned yet, but one she was offering him anyway. His angel might just forgive him yet, and for the first time in years he found himself hoping she would.

Notes: I almost left it at that first break, but it just left me too sad, especially with everything that happened in the S2 finale. I have a multi-chapter that I'm still working out in my head, but the second half of this little story would probably fit into it, regardless of the direction I end up going with it. I just really, really hope that Bobo and Waverly get some time next season to work together. It was so fantastic during the AU episode and to see them swing right back around to essentially being on opposite sides made my heart hurt. There was a little wink there right before he stole her gun that makes me think he was trying to tell her he wasn't going to hurt her, no matter what he was saying or how it looked. He knew from plenty of experience that those Widows were dangerous and he was playing the game.

Hope you guys liked it! As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts :D