"You two decent? I have a visitor who wants to see you." the newly reinstated mother asks after what for her was a relatively soft knock on her sister and Nicole's door.
"Come on in Wynonna." Nicole called out unlike Waverly's sniffed "go away. Cuddling now." That has her sister chuckling under her breath as the door swings open.
Its only Alice's weight in her arms and her breath against her neck that proves the entering dark-haired mother hadn't somehow gone back in time just by opening the bedroom door.
It was Purgatory so it wasn't completely out of the question for something like that to happen.
Just like they had been when she'd first found them that day only a year ago today cuddled up on top of the bedsheets with Waverly was clinging onto a wet haired Nicole for dear life with her head resting over Nicole's chest listening to her heartbeat just as she was right at this moment.
Nicole's eyes widened at the sight of mother and daughter framed in the doorway.
"Oh, jeez now both my troublemakers are together and under one roof?" The red-haired woman says with an over-exaggerated groan "However will I keep the town safe now?" If the eagle-eyed sheriff noticed how Wynonna's eyes seemed to be wet as well as she watched the scene a little longer, she didn't comment as her best friend carried her daughter into the room.
"Annie Cole."
"Hey, cutie." Nicole greets resting her chin against the top of Waverly's head as she gives the toddler a wave. "How's my daisy doing huh?" true it had only been a few short hours since Gus had stopped by the station with the little girl in tow during the lull on an already lazy afternoon so they could meet properly face to face but she'd already grown so attached to the youngest Earp that even that was enough to cause heartache. She knew it was dangerous even when she'd filed the number those first few times but those short phone calls she'd shared with Gus during that year and a half really were a great source of pinpointed light in the drowning darkness of her waiting for the others to come back after their trip into the Garden.
Alice's shy giggling laugher finally seems to break Waverly out of her quiet death gripped crying session into Nicole's shoulder. "What? Aunty Cole?" the younger Earp's sister asks not noticing the pair standing at the foot of the bed.
"That's your cue sweetie. Go get her." Wynonna encourages setting her daughter down right between the cuddling couple.
Waverly blinked in shock letting a chuckling Nicole go enough that her niece could slip in to give her smiling wife a proper greeting hug the way only a three-year-old can manage. "I miss you." Alice mumbles one little hand fisting in Nicole's hair the other in Waverly shirt.
"I missed you too." Nicole agreed rubbing Alice's back.
"Ally sweetheart, I meant for you to say hi to your aunty Waverly, not your aunty Nicole." Wynonna corrects already filming everything on her phone.
"But want an Annie Cole hug." Alice argued her voice muffled because she didn't pull back from said hug when she spoke. "Her hugs are good."
Waverly's mouth once again hags open at just how intelligent the supposed to be three-year-old was as she snuggled up in Nicole's arms.
"I know right." Wynonna chuckles from the foot of the bed. "Remind you of anyone Waves."
The genius-level intellect was at an even greater loss for words as soon as Alice rolls over to face her properly giving Waverly the full effect of a much smaller, yet no less noticeable heart-shaped face and strong jawline framed by the dark locks she knows so well. It's really only her youth, the shape of her nose, and the color of her eyes that tell her and her mother apart.
"Waverly Earp meet your niece. Alice Michelle Holiday- Earp."
The shell-shocked half-angel sees a flash of Doc's heart-melting smile before a grip so like Wynonna's only in a much smaller concentration lock around her neck. "Hi. Annie Wavy." Her niece whispered against her ear as the face nuzzled in against the curve of her throat.
The room's low lighting didn't hide the shake in Waverly's hands as her arms wrapped around the child's middle. "Hi, Alice."
"No, go away again, kay?" The three-year-old accused "Annie Cole was really sad when you went away."
"Ally." Nicole sighed sending her wife a guilty look behind the three-year-old's back, but Waverly didn't seem to catch her focus only on her niece while her fingers trace over the healing branded mark on the back of Nicole's neck.
"Don't worry Alice, where your Aunty Cole goes, I go. I'm not leaving her behind ever again."
"Okay." Alice smiled burrowing against Waverly's front as her eyes start to close. "I love you Aunty Waves."