I wake up to the sound of gruff voices. As my eyes slowly flicker open, the first thing I notice is that I cannot move my hands. A rope has been tied tightly around my wrists, keeping them locked in place behind my back. I lift my head in annoyance when the gruff voices start up again. I see two men ahead of me, standing over what seems to be a pile of clothes. One of the men, who has dark hair and a beard, is inspecting a bow in his hands. On closer inspection I recognize it as Nicole's bow.
Then it all comes back to me; Nicole being knocked out in front of me right before I too lost consciousness. Immediately my heart fills with dread, worried deeply for her. My eyes dart around frantically, searching anxiously. To my complete relief, I finally spot the familiar head of red hair propped up against a tree a few feet to the right of me.
Nicole's head is resting against her chest, she appears to be fast asleep still. A slight trickle of blood runs down her left temple. It makes my blood boil. They must have really hit her hard. Assholes. The dull pounding inside my own skull reminds me that we are both victims of unrevoked violence.
My eyes travel down Nicole's body in search of any other injuries, only to be met with pale marble skin. To my surprise I notice that Nicole is only wearing a vest and light cotton underwear. I blush deeply and avert my eyes respectfully, but not before they linger just a little. I appreciate the definition in her shoulders and arms, along with her soft feminine curves.
Finally pulling my gaze away, I focus once more on the two men and the pile of clothes. I spot Nicole's green tunic and leather pants, along with the familiar blue of my own tunic. Looking down, my suspicions are confirmed. I too was left in only my undergarments. Not quite the way I would have wanted Nicole and I to wind up naked together...My thought makes my blush deepen and I quickly shake it off. This was not the time.
"Well looks like that's all they got. Just the damn clothes on their backs. Pathetic." The second man says, his fair hair sticking wildly on his head as he shakes his head in clear irritation. The dark haired one puts his hand gently on his companion's shoulder. "Calm down, Levi. At least we got this nice bow, right?" He says lifting the bow. Nicole's beautiful craftsmanship holds the light as the man examines his prize proudly.
The fair-haired man, Levi, begrudgingly nods. "Yeah, I guess it is something, Fish. When's your mother gettin' here?"
The man holding Nicole's bow, Fish, lowers the weapon and turns to gaze into the underbrush. "She should be here soon. Probably still busy brewing some more of that knockout juice she makes with those berries."
Levi let's out a laugh then. "Hah! That juice sure works wonders. That dog will be out for at least a couple of hours."
I realize that they must be talking about Jack, and my ire towards the rises even more. "Hey assholes!" I shout at the two men angrily, unable to just sit there and listen to them talking about us like we were just another means to an end.
They turn to look at me in surprise. Levi's surprise wears of first, his facing contracting a sly smile as he walks towards me slowly. "Well would ya look at that. This one's awake." He crouches down in front of me, eyeing me curiously.
I try not to squirm under his gaze. I hate the feeling of being this exposed in front of a man, let alone some criminal. But I raise my head and meet his gaze fully. Be fearless, baby girl. Wynonna's words from that one self-defence lesson she gave me when we were kids comes back to me.
"Why did you take our clothes? Are you just some sick perverts who get a kick out of undressing unconscious women?" I hiss at them angrily.
Levi sneers at me, then starts to chuckle. He looks back at Fish. "Hear that, Fishy? She thinks we like undressin' women." He says, causing Levi to start laughing too. I do not see the humour in the situation, and their apparent enjoyment of it only angers me more.
"What is so damn funny, asshole?" I ask though my teeth, putting on my fiercest scowl. Levi finally stops laughing and looks back at me. "Sorry darling, but we have absolutely no interest in…" He waves his hand to indicate my body. "any of that." I frown, his words making no sense. Then I see Fish looking over at Levi with clear fondness in his gaze.
Oh.
I relax ever so slightly at the thought that these two men at least had no sexual interest in us. I take a breath. "What do you want with us then?" I say steadily.
Fish puts the bow on his back and walks towards me, stopping next to me. "We just want what everyone else wants in this cruel world. We want to survive."
"Yep. It's nothin' personal. We need money for food. You two were easy pickings. You didn't offer much, but the clothes and that bow will get us at least a week's worth of food." He says and almost appears apologetic. They were bandits then. Some of the people from the villages who had previously been farmers, but who were turned towards a life of crime due to the famine and lack of aid from nobility.
A woman enters the small clearing then, the sound of twigs breaking beneath her feet and the rustle of leaves around her round body pulls all of our attention towards her. She is short and stout, with a distinctly large mole on the side of her nose. She moves swiftly for her body size.
"Well boys, what have ya got for us?" She says, approaching us. Fish immediately turns around to face her. "Mother! We got these two when we were trailing that hog near the section of black oaks to the west of here." He says to his mother, looking proud.
His mother does not look impressed. She simply scans her eyes over Nicole and I, her gaze calculating. She scrutinizes us like we were livestock that she was not yet certain would be worth more to her alive or slaughtered.
Fish seems to pick up on his mother's thoughts and places his hand on her elbow, turning her toward the pile of loot. "Mother, they did not have much to offer. Some clothes and…" He removes the bow from his back, presenting it to her proudly.
Her eyes scan the bow, inspecting it with her hands. "Hmm. The bow could prove useful." Then she turns and looks back at us.
"Well then. If they have nothing else to offer…you know the rules. Make it quick, the sun is setting and we need to get to the market." She takes the bow from Fish and turns away, going back in the direction of the woods from where she had come.
Levi looks at Fish, uncertainty in his eyes. Then they both look at me. Fish's face seems to have drained a bit of its colour, giving him a paler complexion. I watch as Levi gets up and takes his hand gently. "I'll do it." He tells him softly, then he removes a knife from his hip.
Only then do I fully realize what the woman had instructed them to do. She told them to make it quick. To kill us quickly. I start to panic. "Wait…please…don't do this!" I plead frantically.
Levi has the sense to at least look somewhat guilty. "I truly am sorry." Then he starts moving toward me with the knife. My heart rate picks up, I start to sweat anxiously as he nears.
This was it then. I was about to die. Tears start flowing down my cheeks. I was about to leave this world without having seen Wynonna one last time. Without being able to kiss Nicole again and see what the future held for us. I was about to die without having been able to tell Nicole that I love her. I take a sorrowful breath, my shoulders shaking as I brace myself for the inevitable.
It never comes.
When I open my eyes after feeling no knife embed itself in my flesh, I am met with the vison of Nicole in front of me. She holds herself between me and Levi, her body shielding mine.
"Wait! Wait! Stop. I can offer you a trade!" She shouts desperately. On the other side of the clearing, I can see Fish's mother pause and turn to face us slowly. She looks at Nicole with that calculating gaze, raising her eyebrow.
"A trade? What could you possibly offer us? Another sock perhaps?" She mocks. Nicole quickly shakes her head. "No. Something much better. I have something you cannot refuse." I frown, very confused at what Nicole was playing at. She didn't really have anything to offer them that I was aware of.
Fish's mother starts walking towards Nicole slowly, her gaze never leaving the redhead's.
"Well spit it out then! What is it you are offering?" She says impatiently. Nicole looks back towards me for a moment before returning her gaze to our captors and answering. "Myself."
My heart rate quickens at that one word. No, she could not possibly mean to… ? My thoughts are interrupted when Fish's mother starts cackling. It sends an uncomfortable shiver down my spine. Even Fish and Levi look at her as if she had gone mad.
"You? You are no one. Stop wasting my time." Then she starts to turn back towards the clearing. "I am Nicole Haught. Long lost daughter of Countess Eleanor Haught." Nicole shouts after her, getting everyone's attention.
Fish's mother looks at her sceptically. Then she seems to finally really take Nicole in, observing her red hair and pale skin tone. Her eyes widen for a moment, the gears in her head visibly turning.
"The young countess did have red hair and skin as white as milk." She says finally, her hand rubbing her chin in thought. Then the scepticism is back on her face. "But there are many people who have claimed to be her. How am I supposed to believe you?"
I know what Nicole is about to say and an icy fear grips my heart. "Nicole, please don't do this." I plead at her back and watch as it stiffens and slumps. She does not look at me, only at the scheming woman in front of her.
"If you promise to let her go…" Nicole indicates in my direction "I promise that I will give you proof that I am the real Nicole Haught and I will come willingly with you to Monument."
Her words cause the other woman to scoff. "What makes you think we need you to come willingly?"
Nicole is unperturbed. "I am very fit and have a lot of stamina. I can put up quite the fight, maybe even injure one or two of you in the process. Even if you do manage to subdue me, I will be quite the weight to carry all the way to Monument. I take it you probably had to sell your only horse a while ago." Nicole says, her voice confident despite the situation. The look on the other woman's face makes it clear that Nicole was right.
Her words just cause my heart to fill with more dread. "Nicole stop it! You can't offer yourself like this! " I shout at her, trying to get her mind off this idiotic hero spiel she always seems to be doing.
She turns back to look at me briefly, her eyes full of gentleness and that other emotion that I am too scared to name. "I am sorry, Waves. But it's either this or they kill us and the world will no longer get to experience how wonderful you are."
Her words make me fall in love with her even more than I realize I already was. The feeling hits me square in the chest and the level of emotion causes the tears I have managed to keep at bay till that moment to finally spill over and run their course along my cheeks.
She looks like she is about to say more to me when Fish's mother grabs her by the shoulder roughly. "Stop with the sob story. I guess we can work with your deal. Levi, cut her lose, but don't let 'er go until I say." She says, inclining her head in my direction.
Levi quickly obeys, cutting the rope that binds my hands together. Then he quickly grips my wrists, his hands taking the place of the rope. Fish's mother looks at Nicole expectantly.
The redhead takes a breath before speaking. "Okay. Do you remember what happened about ten years ago, at the horse races held by Earl William Haught?" Fish's mother seems to think for a moment. "Yes, the young Countess fell of her pony and broke her right ankle. It was quite the story."
"Yes. I got twenty stitches in my ankle for that." Nicole says, lifting her left leg to point out a nasty, but faded scar clearly visible at the base of her leg. Fish's mother inspects it, then looks Nicole over once more. Her eyes widening with greed.
"Well, I'll be damned. We are gonna be rich!" She let's out a victorious cackle, looking towards Fish and Levi. They both grin at her.
Their joy sickens me. I am so angry and heartbroken at what Nicole has chosen to do. To leave me. To give herself up just like that to be taken to the one place she hates the most. To be taken back to her mother.
Nicole's voice breaks through my thoughts. "Before we go. Can I… can please I speak to Waverly one last time?" She asks Fish's mother, her voice small and pleading. It sounds a lot like she is requesting her final meal before she was to be executed. It sends shivers down my spine, the ache in my heart growing impossibly stronger.
Fish's mother gives her a look, but thankfully nods. "Sure. But no funny business." She turns towards Fish. "Aim that bow at her, shoot her if she tries anything." Fish nods and obediently readies the bow in my direction, clearly familiar with the weapon.
Then his mother nods towards Levi, signalling for him to let me go. I instinctively go to untie Nicole's hands, despite the danger of being impaled by and arrow. But Nicole quickly stops me.
"No, Waves. Don't." She warns. Then, more gently, she pleads. "They will surely kill you." The desperate look in her eyes finally overpower me, so I stop. I just stand there looking at her, my demeanour defeated and my heart broken.
"Waves, I need you to do something for me okay? I need you to go to Purgatory and speak to Duke Nedley. Explain everything that happened with my mother and Bobo, that we need his help to overthrow her and free the people of Monument." She asks.
The tears run freely down my cheeks now. My eyes focus on the ground, I am not able to look at her.
"Waves. Please look at me." Her gentle voice coaxes my gaze back to her beautiful brown eyes. Through a sniffle, I finally ask. "Why are you doing this?"
Her eyes soften at my words. "Because I would do anything for you." She says and I am so taken back by the sincerity in her words that I pause to look at her for a moment in awe. Overwhelmed by the love I feel for her, I rush forward and kiss her.
I kiss her like it was the last time I ever would. It all feels much too final. She returns my kiss, and it speaks louder than any words ever could. I feel the salt of tears on my cheeks and realize this time it was not just me crying.
"All right wrap it up. We don't have all day here. It's a long way to Monument." Fish's mother warns from behind us. Nicole, unaffected by her words, just places her forehead against mine gently. "Will you do what I asked? Please?" She asks softly.
I am powerless to deny her and just nod slowly. "I promise." She nods at me with a small smile.
"Thank you, Waves." Then she takes a step back from me, and the tiny gap might have been the distance between the two oceans for how far away she felt from me in that moment.
"Now go. I will be fine, I promise." She says. Everything in me tells me to fight for her, to rush forward and try to free her. But the trust and desperation in her eyes stop me.
I look at Nicole once more with hesitation. She looks at me a little harder this time. "Go, now!" She shouts at me. Then more gently she adds "Please." Her voice sounds so small, so defeated. Her eyes convey how much it breaks her heart to have me there. So, I finally fight my own will and start moving my legs. I run and run and run. Back to safety, my body moving despite my heart having been ripped out and left in the hands of bandits.