"Hey Nic, so finally ran into that so-called sheriff they've pushed in. Holt something or other. Total dick as per usual but hey, good news I managed to snag the last box of Twinkies while he was off breaking up another street fight." Rachel calls out as she kicks the front door closed behind her. "And a new bottle of the hard stuff so you're not as guilty for drinking all of Earp's." She adds but pauses when she picks up on the soft sounds of someone sobbing from the second floor.
"Nicole?"
No answer apart from a fresh round of not so muffled sobs from the floor above. Blended days, months really of bunking with the ginger cop and she was still getting used to just how thin the walls were in the ramshackle house that from the outside at least looked like it was one strong gust of wind away from folding like a house of cards.
All but the already mentioned bottle of prized liquor of the newly scrounged supplies were left abandoned on the floor at the bottom of the stairs as the teen takes the steps three at a time making her way quickly yet stealthily toward the bedroom at the end of the hall.
Waverly's room.
The door was left ajar as Rachel tiptoes closer half dreading the heartbreak she would find inside.
The last few months when she wasn't working herself ragged creating or setting various traps around the house and barn Nicole could be found in this room carefully sorting and packing every stitch of clothes belonging to her still missing angel of a lover. An impressive feat considering that Nicole's leg was still encased in a hard cast that wasn't due to be removed for another three weeks at least. The doctors insisting on the extended use due to the initial severity of the break to Nicole's leg. The smooth expanse of white plaster mocking the bord teen every time she sees it considering Rachel has bought a fresh pack of colored sharpies months ago to brighten it up but has been repeatedly forbidden by a drunken Nicole because of quote. "I promised Nonna she could have first dick and I meant it."
Once the clothes had been sorting out it seemed Nicole had moved to preserve all of Waverly's knickknacks. Checking for damage, whipping away any settled dust. Her newest cataloging finds a box not dedicated to housing sex-related items that Waverly had tucked away under the bed.
"She laminated it." Nicole sobs without lifter her head to formally look in the eavesdropping teenager's direction allowing more of her tears to fall freely as she cradles a shiny slip of paper between her hands. She was sitting with her back leaning against the side of the bed her legs stretched out in front of her the one clade in the cast at least elevated as she sorted a box of what looked to Rachel a bunch of already neatly cataloged collection of various sized papers.
"Huh?" Rachel questions lowering herself down onto the floor as well. close enough to grab the older woman if she needed more consoling but far enough away to avoid smothering her, it was a delicate dance the two had been playing since pulling up to the battered house after Nicole had been discharged from the hospital not counting the few months Rachel had needed her space, meaning she'd temporarily moved into Nicole's old place closer to town.
"She laminated it." Nicole repeats her tear-filled eyes finding Rachel's in the afternoon glow filtering past the window on the other side of the bed.
"Oh cool." Rachel grins trying to at least get a glimpse of whatever it was that had triggered this newest round of waterworks from the usually emotionally detached former sheriff. The least round being when Rachel had to give her the heartbreaking news that her mentor Nedley had been declared missing right before that weird crab blobby thing had started theorizing the homestead.
"A citation slip?"
Nicole lets out a shaky chuckle as she takes the newly opened bottle of liquor passing over the carefully preserved bit of paper. "the one that started it all really." The ginger nodes taking the first of many measured sips from the liquor bottle.
"I thought it was you leaving your card with her." Rachel argues having heard every bit of the beer-soaked beginnings of the "Wayhaught Romance" many times in the last months.
Nicole giggled licking her lips to catch a few stray drops of whiskey clinging to the bottle like the lifeline it had become. "Well, obviously I did leave that too." She nodes pulling out another laminated square from the box in her lap. "See. I'm nothing if not professional." Rachel bits her lip to keep from giggling at the rather cute doe-eyed look on the former cop's face as she caresses the preserved business card before carefully returning it to the box. "but this was the real start of my and Wave's relationship."
"Man, a citation for not clearing the walkway?" Rachel reads clicking her tongue as she meets Nicole's watery gaze with an amused grin on her lips "Shouldn't you save that for what the third date?"
"It was the start of the Purgatory cold season. I didn't want anyone to fall." Nicole jumps in but is already giggling at the rather Wynonna worthy comeback.
"Come on I know that story already you were already at her feet before she whipped her shirt off." Nicole blushes almost as red as her hair as she ducks her head with a bashful giggle as she takes another gulp of booze savoring the burn in her throat before she hands it back to Rachel's waiting hand.
Regardless of the salted wound in her chest that was her beating breaking heart Nicole knows she still needed to be sharp on her aim if she was going to keep protecting the place her Earp girls called home. To keep Rachel safe from whatever new threat was stalking the boundary of the Earp property line.
Three months she'd lasted so far. Waverly, Wynonna, and Doc are bound to be working on a way back to her by now.
"dang Haught and is that your cell number?" Rachel prods tapping the phone number scribbled in the bottom corner of the slip providing a welcomed distraction from Nicole's spiraling thoughts.
"Maybe." The ginger beside her concedes hiding her face against the fuzzy fur of a tanned colored teddy bear holding a heart with the ominous words 'I'm sorry' stitched into it. Rachel hadn't been granted that story just yet, but she guessed it was a dozy.
Both the citation slip and the bear had been lovingly replaced in the box when the shrill sound of a warning bell rang down below them ending the more emotional moment.
"Batman in the microwave." The pair say as one. Rachel already on her feet while Nicole takes just a little more prodding before her legs would support her weight.
"Go I'm right behind you." Nicole groans when instead of running down the stairs toward the threat Rachel pauses checking on her.
"They're gonna come back." Rachel promises holding out Nicole's crutches for her "All of them."
Nicole gives a weak node as the bell for trap seven rings out again.
Seems their uninvited guest was putting up more of a struggle today.
"Let's go kick some ass until they get back okay?"
Rachel nodes her eyes widening in glee when Nicole passes over one of the sleeker-looking shotguns. "This is going to be fun."