The place looked relatively the same as she pulls up. Same battered house that did look a tad singed. Same ramshackle barn that looked one strong wind gust away from collapsing in on itself. If it hadn't been for the glossy wedding invitation tucked into the car's visor or the considerable number of nasty and a few even stinky smalling traps scattered around the open space between the drive and the house Michelle Gibson wouldn't have guessed any real-time had passed since she'd last pulled away from the place.
She was late.
Alright she'd missed the wedding inertly and she hated herself for it on every mile she drives toward the family she'd abandoned not just once but twice now.
Michelle takes a steadying breath as she rechecks her more formal 'cowgirling' attire before feeling confident enough to get out of the car. She just had to remind herself that whatever happened this was only a side trip before she went back to her main goal of finding the love of her life.
"Well. Well."
Michelle immediately tenses up at the accusing tone despite the fact it wasn't the one she would have expected to hear first as the car door swings closed. "I was invited."
Gus's glare didn't waver even when her younger sister holds up her niece's wedding invitation as if it were some kind of shield, she could hide behind, but that didn't stop her from helpfully pointing out the best pathways up to the bullet-ridden house. "You at least bring—" Michelle holds up the carefully wrapped box tucked under her other arm "I'm not completely ill-mannered when it comes to weddings."
"Debatable but you can at least watch them cut the cake." Her older sister sighs over the crunch of dried leaves under her hiking boots. The mild clash her switched out footwear with the formalwear of her dress was small considering the older woman was on the rotating list of those on 'Alice watch' and that little spitfire was one heck of a runner when she wanted to be.
"It that Island's in the Stream?"
Gus seems to tense up a little but she nodes her head all the same. "Sounds like it." She agrees noticing the videoed guitar chords coming from the reception tent set up in the Homestead backyard. How they'd managed to find a trap free space big enough for the task was still a considerable surprise but the thought of the rest of the trap-filled land around the thing was lost in the sun rivaling warmth of her niece's smile as she and her new wife twirled around the little dance floor.
It Seemed Jeremy had started pulling up the 'in memory files' he'd asked Waves and Nicole (the couple then including Wynonna for obvious reasons when a few particular 'memories' came back around) if it would be alright to show.
"That was mine and Julian's song." The returned mother remembers listening to the man and who she guessed was a surprisingly sobered Wynonna harmonize into the repeated lines.
"Was it now." Gus wonders as if she'd forgotten the song her youngest sister and her angel of a lover insisted on singing every time, they would come to karaoke night at Shorty's her eyes casting sadly toward the garden and the twin crosses it now held.
One for her beloved Curtis while the other-
"Wait." Michelle gasped as she listened even harder to the song or more importantly to the male voice.
"Oh my God." She gasped tears already stinging her eyes as she runs.
Julian.
She finally found him.
"Shell-" Gus calls out after her barely managing to catch the falling gift her sister had brought along as the woman herself hurries off, "Shell wait." but Michelle wasn't about to stop. Not now.
Her angel of a soulmate was so close.
"I would not." Doc stalls no doubt picking up on the sister's approach and stepping out to slow the hurrying mother down.
"Out of the way Holiday." Michelle growls now surer than ever she was once again hearing her angel of a soulmate. How her girls had managed to find him was a question for a much, much later time.
Right now, she just wanted to see him.
She tries to catch sight of him from her poor vantage point, but Doc keeps his hand against her shoulder holding her away. "I do not think it would be wise." The gunslinger repeats.
"Everything alright here?" a dark-haired tan skinned teenager wonders coming over to them while Michelle contemplates the odds of just how much damage she would do to her hand if she punched the vampiric gunslinger in his mustached face if he didn't drop his hand soon.
"Everything is fine Rachele," Gus assures as she catches up with them seeming to be only a little winded by the effort. "Why don't you go back to the party sweetie. I'm sure that young man of yours is just itching for another dance."
"Who are you?" the teenager called Rachel wonders taking a sip from a champagne glass that going by the scent was filled with apple juice possibly to hide the fact she was blushing a darkening shade of pink.
"I'm the mother of one of the brides."
"Again. Again. Again." a child's voice chants from somewhere over Doc's shoulder.
"Alice sweetie." Wynonna laughed "I'm sure aunty Waves-"
"Mama Again." the child -Alice- interrupts making Michelle chuckle under her breathe. Oh yeah. She hadn't even officially met the little girl yet and already she knew without a doubt that she was definitely her granddaughter. "Peas." The little girl adds so softly the trio by the opening to the tent barely caught the word.
"Well, you heard the little lady." Waverly this time the mirth in her voice warming her mother's heart to hear.
"Waves are you-"
"Jeremy." Waverly says her arms locked around the tall red-haired cop who Michelle had to admit cleaned up nicely even in her more formal cop wear. The new addition of the neck tattoo was a surprise. "Please." Her little angel asks her voice just shy of breaking completely as she nuzzled against her cop's side. "I'll be alright."
"That wasn't what she had on during but since Waves digs the uniform so much Nic changed for the reception." Rachel chuckles following Michelle's gaze toward the dancefloor.
"No Mama horsy song." Alice says her tone even more upset than before.
It was Doc's turn to look flustered while behind him Wynonna gives a full belly kind of laugh as she spins her little girl around in her arms before calling out a laughed "Oh, so yes, please. Jer bear que it up."
"Now wait just a—" the gunslinger guard dog breaks off his focus not turned back away from the anxious woman he had been trying to keep out. With Doc distracted Michelle makes her move dodging around not only John Henry Holiday but her sister, the teenager her girls have seemed to have taken in called Rachel and some tall gangly looking boy she didn't know to finally enter the tent properly.
"Julian?" she calls out hopefully just as the compressed opening notes of 'Beer for my Horses' filled the tent then abruptly cut off as if a record had scratched on a player.
Her daughter's let out a rather harmonized disbelieving gasp of "Michelle?" while between them Nicole let out an equally surprised "You came." Of her own as Michelle finished her first initial scanning of the gathering noting the rest of her daughter's wedding guests.
Gus drops a jacket around a shell-shocked Waverly and Rachel hardly coxes Alice out of her mother's grip while a fiery-eyed Wynonna round of the scared-looking redhead with an accusing "You knew about this?"
"I invited her." Nicole confessed
Everyone within earshot that wasn't Nicole, Wynonna, Alice, or Michelle seemed to let out the same surprised gasping breath.
"Julian?" Michelle called out again.
Where was he?
Kate, Mercedes, Randy, Rosita, a few women wearing nun attire, two men one of whom she knew to be the BBD nerd Jeremy the other Michelle guesses was his boyfriend given how cuddly the two seemed to be, even a tuxedoed kitten that looked nothing like the fluffy orange cat Michelle had spotted a few times in pictures of her youngest daughter and her newly named wife of a cop who was glaring at her from under the table holding the dish covered food.
"You did?"
Nicole's eyes shifted to Waverly's at the whispered question as she nodded "I wanted her to at least know about—well." she trails off unconsciously lifting her left hand with a bashful giddy grin that her wife mirrors as she leans even more against her aunt's comforting embrace.
"Do you not remember that she left us?" Wynonna growled reminding the red-haired cop of the hostile situation she'd landed herself in.
"I do." Nicole nodes remembering many a nights nursing not only a heartbroken Waverly but a drunken Wynonna back to something resembling normalcy after the least departure of their Mother.
"Run froggy Hughty run." Wynonna says her voice cold as her hand moves toward a gun belt, she wasn't wearing.
"You're not shooting my wife." Waverly barks while Nicole wisely does as suggested, putting some much-needed serpentine patterned gained space between them while the angry heir rounds on her younger sister. "You're not hurting her, Nonna" the half-angel says again.
Michelle's loud whistle stalls her daughter's glaring stand-off a little longer.
"God Dam Mama what?" Wynonna asks despite her best efforts to call the woman who'd abandoned her by her actual name.
"Where is-"
The more somber expressions came back out before Michelle had finished asking.
Wynonna and Waverly had one of their quiet talks on traded looks alone while Nicole presses one more reassuring kiss against her wife's forehead having found more courage than most to return within arm's reach of a fuming Wynonna to pass a glass of punch to Waverly's eager hands then slips back as she waited out the oncoming storm to come to a head as Michelle and the Earp sisters faced off.
"Annie Nic." Alice smiles reaching for her from Rachel's arms.
"Hey sweet girl." Nicole coos nodding for Rachel and Gus to follow as she carried the younger girl away from the brewing storm taking over the dance floor.
"Want horsy song." The toddler mumbles nuzzling her cheek against Nicole's shoulder.
"I know sweetie." Nicole soothes rubbing a hand against Alice's back her eyes flickering back toward Waverly and Wynonna.
"They can handle this." Gus promises following the taller woman's gaze.
"and you know they'd want us out of punching range." Rachel agrees knowing full well how much Nicole hates being left out of the big things.
"Yucky." Alice says eyeing the baby carrots Nicole unthinkingly added to the little plate she had asked the toddler to hold for her.
"But yummy." The red-haired bride chuckles reaching for a few of the younger girl's favored treats.
"Wanna get in on the bet?" the teenager Nicole holds a strong motherly kind of bond with whispers.
"The bet?" Nicole chuckles taking a bite of one of the carrots as she balances Alice's against her knee.
Rachel nodes while Gus rolls her eyes as the teenager explains. "Robin, Ned, Billy okay really everyone still here to be honest." Nicole gives a disbelieving gasp, but Gus shrugs her shoulder. "Randy and I aren't getting any younger honey" Waverly's aunt reminds "But I do want Nonna or heck Waves even get in just one good punch before we toss her out."
Nicole lets out a slow breathtaking a calming sip of her drink as her gaze returns to her wife.
"You. What?"
The yell pulls everyone's eyes back toward the trio yet to move from the middle of the deserted dance floor.
"Neither of us knew in the beginning." Wynonna was defending
"Come on angel wings. Let's see some angel wings." Rachel goads under her breath as she like Nicole notices the steady trembling of Waverly's fisted hands.
"I don't care who punches who just as long as they don't hurt my arrangements," Freddy grumbles tossing back another glass of red-colored punch.
"You and your flowers wolf boy." Mercedes huffs rolling her eyes tipping back her own glass. This one filled with actual blood rather than a glass of wedding punch.
"Shut up fanger." Jeremy's new maybe-boyfriend fires back with a playful wink in the vampire's direction "You know how many good sunflowers I lost in that dammed shoot out earlier?"
"Baby, watch out for the cake," Nicole calls out given how angry her angel was. Already she could see hints of the ashen tent of 'Dark Waves' returning around Waverly's eyes the longer the trio talked. "What that was the last not butter creamed cake in town on such short notice." Nicole reminds once again struggling to stay in her seat while her wife and sister-in-law continue their low talk with their mother. Not for the first time was she regretting having invited Michelle at all.
"And who was the one that forgot to grab the other one and just left it out to get buckshot?" Rosita tases slipping into an empty seat on Freddy's other side.
"Hey, chicken kicker front and center."
Nicole groaned at the sound of the nickname Wynonna refused to stop using regardless of Nicole coming to terms with it weeks ago.
It took a few seconds of surprised blinking to realize her wife wasn't the one waiting for her with her hand outstretched once Nicole had tripped her way back toward the dance floor.
"Waves took her to say goodbye." Wynonna says jerking her chin out toward the tomato patch the same time she finishes wrapping her arms tighter than needed around Nicole's shoulders when it looked like Nicole was going to follow mother and daughter. "but you Mrs. Top shelf owe me a dance."
"Only until I get my wife back." Nicole sighs leaning her head against Wynonna's shoulder. "Sides I'm already getting the side-eye from Doc."
Wynonna gives a soft sigh of a laugh as they start to sway back and forth. "Huh you really do smell like vanilla donuts." The Earp heir murmurs as Nicole letting out a little gasp at the feel of her sister in laws fingers brushing against the branded mark at the back of her neck.
"I'm also taken." Nicole smiles glancing in the direction of Julian's grave were Waverly and Michelle were still standing together.
"Same." Wynonna nodes meeting Doc's eyes with a playful wink. "That doesn't mean I can appreciate my sister's taste in nicely scented shields."
"Sorry I didn't tell you about-"
"Shut up and sway Haught." Wynonna cuts in hugging onto the taller woman tighter.
"Eve's gone." Nicole whispers still in awe of the subject. "It's over. It's really over."
"It's never really over Nic, not when it comes to the GRT so how about we just enjoy the moment okay?" Wynonna suggests with a low huff.
"Mommy we dace now." Alice cuts in batting her mother on the shoulder from the cradle of her father's arms.
"If you don't mind." Doc adds with a shy half-smile.
"I need to go check on Waves." Nicole nodes pressing a light kiss against her sister-in-law's temple. As if she'd heard her from across the yard Waverly's eyes find Nicole's with a sad half-smile.
"Again, with the googly heart eyes. Please can you two save something for the honeymoon." Wynonna pretends to gage as she, Doc, and Alice all sway in time with the still playing music at the same time coupling of Rachel and Billy, Rosita and Emma, Jeremy and Freddy and Gus and Nedley joined the mini family out on the dance floor.
Waverly rather than Nicole flips her sister off with a sly grin behind Michelle's back before beckoning her wife toward them.
"Hey just don't even think about skipping out before we get cake." Wynonna called as Nicole walked away only to pause to scoop up the tux kitten that had been a wedding gift from Nedley giving the purring thing an affection scratch behind the ears before starting off once more toward Waverly. "I mean it Haugh pants. We just survived another world-ending shoot out I deserve some dammed multicolored wedding cake."