Summary: Wynonna sends Doc and Bobo on recon together in hopes they might hash out some of their trust issues. Taken from the writing prompt #48: "I made a mistake."

Trust

Wynonna was delusional. That was the only excuse as to why she thought sending them out to follow up on the potential lead together would do any good. Recon or not, Bobo Del Rey and Doc Holliday hated each other, and putting them together without a buffer between them was dangerous.

Holliday had been grumbling the whole way, a snide comment here and there dropped as they walked out towards an old mill where they were set to meet one of the Revenants that claimed to still be loyal to Bobo. Carl had said he had information on a stronghold Bulshar was putting together. Someone had slipped near him and he'd gone right to Bobo, he swore. He was one of the ones that Bobo was more hesitant to trust, but fear kept many of those in line. The threats he gave wouldn't hold nearly as much weight if the other Revenants thought that those that followed the Heir were at odds with him though. It was that alliance that gave them enough hope to choose him over Clootie, and if Holliday kept at it even when they reached the mill, they were going to have trouble. Maybe not immediately, but it would sow seeds of doubt. None of them could afford that at this point.

A sharp, irritable breath left the Revenant leader as he turned, eyes flashing red briefly before regaining a little more control as he focused in on the gunslinger. "You have something you want to accuse me of, Holliday, spit it out. Otherwise shut your damn mouth and keep walking."

John Henry came to a halt so he wouldn't run directly into him and narrowed his eyes. "I did not think I was mincin' words. I do not trust you, Bobo Del Rey. Wynonna thinks there's somethin' left in you that hasn't been thoroughly and completely tainted, but I know better. If there was anything left once, it's been burned right out of you. You betrayed Wyatt, you were ready to sell Waverly to the demon you say you're willin' to fight, and hell if you didn't even ruin the woman you profess to love to the point that she met her own end. You say you want to help us win this war, help Wynonna? You are incapable of helping the Earps. You've proven that much."

There was a long pause as the late Wyatt Earp's two friends stared at each other. Bobo's jaw set as he watched the other man down, his teeth clicking lightly together, and he struggled to keep control. He didn't give a damn that Holliday couldn't follow a long game without mistaking it for betrayal and he was well aware the damage he'd done to his angel's trust in what happened with Bulshar while he'd been under the demon's influence, but Willa…. That was low, even for Doc Holliday. He would have done anything, would have given anything to save her, and the understanding that he'd failed her in that ate at him in a way even hell's own fires couldn't.

"I'm sure you can see why I'm a little hesitant to have you bein' the one to watch my back on this," the former dentist continued, "but it is what it is, and we're already here so I will just say that if you betray me on this, Bobo -"

"What, Hank?" the Revenant cut him off, his voice low and dangers. "You'll kill me?"

"I think you and I both know there are things worse than that. Your boy's here."

The feud would have to wait. Bobo forced himself under control, shoving down the impulse the reach forward and snap the gunslinger's neck. He leaned forward, though, voice low so that there'd be no way the approaching Revenant could hear. "You have no right to mention her name to me. Ever." He straightened, not giving John Henry any time to respond as he turned. "Carl."

The scruffy looking Revenant looked more nervous than usual, his eyes darting around like he was waiting for someone to jump out of the bushes at him. "It's just up ahead, Boss. Just like I said. I just came from it and the whole thing's abandoned, but they've started storing stuff there."

"And why wouldn't a stronghold be guarded?" Bobo asked, watching the younger Revenant's expression tighten.

"He don't think anybody knows about it, I guess. All I know is what they told me and there ain't nobody there right now."

"Then let's go have a look, shall we?" He waited until he received a nervous nod of confirmation before he stepped forward. "Now," he drawled, clasping one hand down on Carl's shoulder, "I don't have to tell you what happens if you screw us on this."

"No, boss. 'Course not."

"Mm." He tightened his grip. "I will personally track you down and haul your worthless ass over the line myself. How many days did Levi scream before he chewed his own foot off? You remember, Doc?" He glanced back to see the sharpshooter watching him with a stony expression that he must have meant to hide the discomfort over the subject. "No? Well, it was over a week. I hear you couldn't even recognize him by the time the Heir found him and put him down. You betray us, and you won't get that mercy, Carl. She won't save you from me."

Carl swallowed hard. "The info's good, boss. I wouldn'ta brought it to you if it weren't. Like I said, it's just up at the old mill. Checked it myself before coming down to meet you."

Bobo waited a long moment before finally releasing him. "Of course it is. Holliday?"

"After you," John Henry answered, his hands already hovering close to his guns. Well, he might have been enough of an asshole to bring Willa into their squabble, but at least he wasn't a complete idiot. Something about this didn't set right, and it was something at least to know he wasn't alone in sensing it.

Bobo watched their surroundings as they started towards the mill in question. It was old, abandoned, as so many things were in the space surrounding the town of Purgatory. Even as things changed, though, they never really did. People may have tried to leave them behind, but the cursed grounds of the Ghost River Triangle remained stubbornly the same and the old mill looked to be in decent enough shape for not having been used in so long.

There were signs of people traipsing through the main building that had been used for the mill. Footprints were left in the dust and equipment had been moved to make way. Bobo saw Holliday take a detour through a doorway to the right of the one they'd entered through. Let him search. Maybe if Bobo were lucky John Henry would get himself killed here. The thought immediately soured with the understanding that he'd likely be blamed for it and he focused on his surroundings. He'd used enough abandoned sites before to know what to look for in them, but nothing about this was adding up. People having been there didn't equate them using it. Maybe Carl had… Where was Carl?

A low growl escaped him and Bobo looked around the room. The shifty little Revenant had slipped away. They needed to get out of there. Nothing good was going to come of this.

His boots sounded softly against the old wood floors as he followed after Holliday, finding the man crouched over a collection of crates, the one directly in front of him open. He moved like he'd heard Bobo approaching and the Revenant could see how he was watching him out of the corner of his eye now. "I do not profess to know a great deal about modern explosives, but this does look like it'd do a fair amount of damage. Ol' Carl might have been onto somethin' after all."

Bobo stepped closer, peering into the crate. Inside were explosives, wired and blinking at them. He didn't know much about about them either, but he knew lights blinking weren't good. That coupled with Carl suddenly missing really could on mean one thing. "We just walked into a trap."

Doc stood slowly, but as he did the lights began to blink faster. "Well damn."

There was no way to tell how long they had, but Bobo moved back towards the front door to find it barred from the outside. He reached out with his powers, checking for any sign of metal in it that might be useful and finding none. The wood made it impossible for him to budge it with anything other than brute force, and even that seemed far fetched with the time they might or might not have.

"Back exit," Holliday snapped from behind and he was already going for it across the stretch of the long building. Bobo took off after him, but he could already feel the shift in the air around them give the only warning they had.

Everything seemed to slow, yet it all happened at once, making it difficult to follow the actual order of events that took only seconds to unfold. There was a flash, a roar of an explosion as it ripped through the building. There was nothing he could do to shield himself from that and he felt shrapnel and pieces of wood from the flooring slicing through flesh as he was picked up and thrown forward, bouncing and rolling before he slammed into something solid that stopped him. Bobo struggled to hold onto consciousness. The initial blast wasn't the only danger.

He fought through the ringing in his ears and the way shadows were already dancing across his vision, threatening to pull him under, and he could feel the dangerous shift in the building that was crumbling around them. Holliday was laid out just ahead of him, the pressure from the explosion knocking him for a loop and a beam above him gave way to come crashing down.

The mill was steel and concrete and wood. Bobo couldn't do anything about the wood, but the metal he could control. He focused, feeling the burn of the brand on his back with the effort he was having to put into it to try to keep the entire roof above from caving in on them. He could slow it, even if he couldn't stop it entirely. There was too much, even just focusing on the space between he and Wyatt's best friend, and a sharp cry escaped him as it came crashing down.

Bobo wasn't sure how much time had passed between the room coming down around them and his vision finally clearing a little. He coughed against the dust that was visible in the rays of late afternoon sun that were streaming into the half-destroyed mill. He shifted, debris all around him, but it looked like he'd managed to keep most of it from crushing him. He sat up slowly, a pained snarl leaving him as he did and he reached around for what might have been the source. It was difficult to say when his entire body hurt. His hand came back with dark brown blood on in and he shook his head, trying to clear it. He'd heal. He always healed, but the idiot he'd been stuck with for this failed attempt of an afternoon might not have been so lucky. Not anymore.

"Holliday? You alive?" Bobo called, his voice rough and he coughed as some of the dust worked its way down his throat along with the air he was trying to pull into his lungs.

There was a beat of silence that followed and the Revenant squinted, trying to get a better view without having to move again just yet. It was going to hurt like hell when he did and he much preferred getting his bearings first.

Finally, after a long moment, he heard a struggling cough and a curse. A slab of wood moved and he saw it shuffled off of John Henry Holliday as the gunslinger sat up, another string of frustrated profanities leaving his lips. Bobo waited, watching in silence as the newly-mortal man checked himself over, a look of pain and irritation clearly written across his features, and then examined their surroundings. Just to Doc's left was a metal beam that had skewered the floor. "I'll be damned," he mumbled, blue eyes sweeping the area directly surrounding him. He'd been buried under some of the wooden structure, but nothing metal touched him. Those same blue eyes turned on Bobo. "Did you…?"

Bobo snorted, determination driving him to his feet even against the pain that threatened to take him back down. He didn't even want to take inventory right then. He just wanted to get out of this situation as quickly as possible. "They'll come back to see if anyone survived, and I ain't carrying you out of here."

Doc seemed to catch the hint and grit his teeth as he stood, favouriting his left leg but managing to put enough weight on it to walk a few steps towards the door. He paused and Bobo hated to think he was going to have to help him in their escape too. He had reached and surpassed his limit of helping Doc Holliday that day. He opened his mouth to hurry him along, but John Henry loosed a long breath in the form of a sigh. "I may have made a mistake."

The Revenant stared for a long moment. "Come again."

"I ain't sayin' it twice," Holliday grumbled.

"Care to expand?"

"Nope."

"Just going to leave it open then?"

Doc shot him a glare and Bobo's lips quirked upward despite himself. It was far too easy to rile that man. How did Wyatt ever get anything done with him?

"You could have shielded just yourself. I'm not fool enough to trust you entirely, but… I'm man enough to admit when I was wrong." There was a pause as Bobo stared at him and finally Hank shook his head, his voice just a little lighter as he spoke and he dusted off his hat before motioning at him with it. "But if you repeat it to a soul, I'll deny it to my dyin' day."

"Well, that would require me to admit I saved your sorry ass," Bobo said as he snatched the hat away from him on impulse, revelling in the reaction it brought.

"Wouldn't want to ruin your long-earned reputation," Doc growled back, reaching for it and missing.

Bobo tossed it back at him as he started by, his movements slow but steady as he moved towards the hole blown open in the side of the building. It hadn't been an apology for bringing Willa into the conversation, but the words had been an acknowledgement that might just let them move forward without trying to kill each other. They were never going to be friends - even Wyatt must have known that when he'd sent Robert to the drunken gunslinger to enlist his help - but they could be allies. They needed to be if they were going to defeat Bulshar, and they would defeat him. They'd all come too far not to.

Notes: Wow. This one was... difficult to write. Do you know how hard it is to get either of them to be nice to each other? It was like pulling teeth to get Bobo to save Doc and Doc to come even close to apologizing.

Them snarking back and forth, grumbling at each other, and occasionally coming to blows is something I'm looking forward to in S3.