Hey all! So. I'm hella sorry it took me AGES to update. School and work are sucking the life and soul out of me and writing got hard! This one's a bit of a bridge chapter but there's some cute stuff sprinkled in I think you'll enjoy. Anyway please let me know if you have any suggestions, criticism (constructive please:) ) or you think something felt wonky, or if you really did like it, because that's cool too. I had a blast writing this chapter so! I hope you enjoy it too:)
Happy Wednesday3
M

Chapter 3

Nicole closed the computer as quietly as she could. Her eyes itched after spending a majority of her off time for the last two weeks, staring at the computer screen with Waverly, sorting the information, printing it off, giving Jeremy every lead they could find. They'd even made a board (complete with red string at Wynonna's insistence, much to Dolls' annoyance) with all the print outs, pictures of the Clooties, everything they'd been able to scavenge from Black Badge, even a list of the remaining Rev-heads. Still nothing of the EarpClootie hybrid.

Next to her, Waverly sighed in her sleep, head dropped onto her folded arms, hair cascading over her shoulder and brushing her thigh, just below her pajama shorts. Her nose scrunched in her sleep and it took everything in Nicole not to run a finger down it, smooth the creases.

They'd been running themselves ragged, especially Waverly, in search of their newest problem. Dolls and Doc took turns staking out the collapsed mine shaft where Clootie was still trapped (and occasionally screaming, it really was creepy just how far it could be heard), just in case the DemonKid showed up. But so far nothing. Michelle's research had been shoddy at best and poorly organized, a fact Waverly harped on for so long that even Alice seemed to be getting a little tired of it. Not that anyone blamed her. She wasn't wrong on any of the counts and Michelle was already such a touchy subject.

To everyone's surprise, Michelle had turned up again, on Wednesday like she had said, arms piled high with pizza and looking much less sure of herself than she had the week previously. Wynonna was as nice as Wynonna could be, Dolls polite as ever. Doc was his usual charming and cordial self and Jeremy had babbled the entire time. Michelle had even looked Nicole in the eye as she handed her a plate and almost smiled. Only Waverly had been, uncharacteristically tacit. She stuck with whoever wasn't talking to Michelle at any given moment and cuddled Alice, answering as succinctly as possible when her mother turned a conversation her way.

No one blamed her for that one either. To her credit, Michelle tried more than anyone else could hope to when faced with an angry Earp but eventually she'd drift away, leaving Waverly to herself and the baby. She kept trying though, every one of her five subsequent visits.

Alice wasn't a fan of her grandmother's either. On her third visit (the Sunday after the pizza dinner), Wynonna had awkwardly held out Alice to her mother. Nicole had been on duty for that exchange, but according to Waverly (and Dolls whose word she put a little more stock in where Mama Earp was concerned), Alice had lasted maybe a minute, studying her grandmother's face before breaking out into yet another ear-splitting shriek until Wynonna took her back. Alice had calmed almost immediately and Michelle had left quickly after.

Waverly mumbled something in her sleep, sighing and pulling Nicole back to the present. The clock on the stove read 2:12am. Shit. She had to be at the police station at 8 and Waverly was going to be keeping an eye on the bar while Doc rested after his watch tonight.

With a quiet groan, Nicole stood, stretching enough that her shirt rode up over her bellybutton, the chill in the kitchen from the drafty back door nipping at her stomach. With a shiver, she pulled the shirt back down and made sure all the doors were locked. Which of course they were because Wynonna had become something of a security freak, and with good reason. But it made Nicole feel better to check them all herself.

Jeremy shifted on the couch where he'd fallen asleep hours before, as she walked back through from checking the front door, mouth open and just the barest hint of stubble, patchy, over his chin. He'd kicked the blankets off his legs but now pulled them up closer to his body. Nicole adjusted his blanket back over his feet without thinking and then continued back to the kitchen, stifling a yawn.

She ran her fingers across Waverly's back, shifting her hair a little more. Waverly opened one eye blearily and looked up at Nicole with a soft smile. Nicole felt her heart melt at the look, her insides flipping because Waverly was looking at her like she was the sun and Nicole had never felt so in love with someone as she did at that moment.

"Hi baby," Waverly croaked, head dropping back against her arms. It took Nicole's breath away.

"God, I love you," Nicole whispered, unable to stop staring at Waverly.

"Mmm, love you too." Waverly's eye closed and Nicole giggled.

"We need bed."

Waverly whined, "So far though. Comfy here."

"Won't be in the morning."

Waverly groaned and buried her head further in her arms. Laughing, Nicole slid an arm under her knees and the other around her back and hoisted Waverly up into her arms. Waverly squeaked, eyes popping open and she threw her arms around Nicole's neck, but she relaxed almost immediately, tucking her head against Nicole's shoulder.

"Don't have to carry me," she hummed, eyes drooping closed, "Can walk."

Nicole smiled as she climbed the stairs, Waverly still securely held to her chest, "I know you could, but I like carrying you," Waverly's hair smelled like strawberries and a little bit of sweat and it was such a familiar scent now, that Nicole pushed her face closer, breathing deeply.

Waverly smiled and hummed in contentment, eyes closed and she pressed kisses against Nicole's neck, nipping lightly at her ear as she got higher. A shiver ran down her spine again. It felt like kisses from Waverly would never, ever lose their spark.

They reached the top of the stairs just as a topless Dolls was slipping out of Wynonna's room, Alice, wide awake and blinking in the light of the hallway, held against his chest. Nicole raised an eyebrow and she and Dolls studied each other's cargo.

"Everything okay?" They whispered at the same time and then smiled a little. Dolls might have been a hardass to start out with but he had really loosened up, especially since Black Badge's disappearance. He and Nicole had formed a strange, unspoken bond, both officers of the law, both working a bit out of their jurisdiction because they knew it was right.

Nicole nodded and mouthed, "Girlfriend perks," over Waverly's head.

Dolls nodded , smiling even wider and shifting Alice. She looked tiny against him, resting in the crook of one of his arms, little yellow sleepsack riding up over her miniscule socked feet.

"Wynonna's exhausted but someone's not ready to go back to bed. Figured she and I could set up camp across the hall, maybe go over the files again."

Nicole nodded and swooped close, clumsily kissing baby Alice's face, "Don't you two stay up too late."

"You either," Dolls mocked and Nicole rolled her eyes and he clapped a hand against her shoulder as he passed her toward the other end of the hall.

"Night Dolls," Waverly mumbled, "Give Alice kisses."

Dolls chuckled and nodded, "Always do. Night, Earp. Haught."

They heard him start humming as Nicole nudged the bedroom door shut behind her. As gently as possible, she laid Waverly down on the bed, rolled the shorts off her legs and chucked them on the chair in the corner. Waverly wiggled her way back toward the middle of the bed, eyes still shut. Nicole smiled and then tipped her head back, stretching up again, fingers bumping the low, slanted ceiling. There was a squeak of bed springs and then cool, slim fingers sliding over her stomach, followed closely by the soft press of lips along the line of her hip bone. Nicole gasped, eyes fluttering closed as the fingers skated slowly higher.

"Waves."

She got a hum of response that vibrated against her stomach and she couldn't fight the little moan that slipped past her lips. She felt Waverly smile against her skin as she succeeded in pushing the shirt up high enough that, with a grunt, Nicole tugged it off herself.

"Baby, it's almost 3 in the morning," It sounded feeble, even to her own ears. Even more, to her disappointment, Waverly pulled away and Nicole blinked her eyes open in time to see her peel her own sweater over her head. Then she was back, fingers tucked into the waistband of Nicole's sweatpants, quickly pressing them down and off her legs.

"So what?" Waverly whispered, looking up at Nicole from under her eyelashes.Nicole's mouth went dry at the sight of Waverly, mostly naked, moonlight shining against her skin and staring up at her with that look again. Damn her. The spark that had begun to ignite in her stomach, bloomed into a full blown fire and she pushed Waverly back on the bed.

"You know what," She growled, crawling over Waverly and swooping to kiss up her neck from her collarbones.

"Finally," Waverly groaned, knotting her fingers in Nicole's hair and tugging her mouth up to hers.

Nicole's tongue slid against Waverly's. In a sudden, incredibly smooth move, Waverly bridged, rolled and tugged Nicole down to the bed, straddling her waist, on top, and looking very smug about it. Nicole lost her breath, eyes trailing down from where Waverly's were sparkling, to watch her own hands slowly dip beneath the waistband of Waverly's underwear and curl around her hip.

What difference does an hour or two of sleep really make?

Dolls only woke up with he felt someone slide into bed next to him. Every muscle in his body clenched and he knotted a hand in the back of Alice's sleepsack where she was drooling on his chest. But then the smell of cinnamon and gun powder wafted over him and his body relaxed.

"Wynonna?"

"Shhh. Go back to sleep." But her voice sounded thick, raw, and as she slid a hand up Dolls' bicep to sweep over the baby's hair, he could feel her shaking.

"What's wrong?" He covered her hand with his and tried to make out her face in the pre-dawn light just barely filtering through the curtains.

But Wynonna kept her head ducked down into the shadows, "Nothing, Dolls. Bad dream. Go back to sleep." She scrunched closer into him, knees bumping his thighs and icy toes pressing into his calves.

Slowly Dolls shifted, moving Alice so she was still asleep, but laying between them on the bed now. Instantly Wynonna swooped in, pressing her face close to the baby's and sighing deeply, smoothing one finger along the palm of her dimpled hand. Dolls stayed on his side and reached an arm across, sliding his hand just under Wynonna's shirt to rest on her hip, trying not to think about the circumstances surrounding the last time the three of them were in this bed.

"We're all here. Nothing going to happen."

Wynonna knocked her forehead against his shoulder and then pressed a kiss against it, "I know. It's just…"

"I know," Dolls squeezed her hip and then let his hand hang limply over the small of her back, gently tracing patterns, "I know. Try to sleep though."

Dolls was gone when Wynonna woke up; He was supposed to relieve Doc of his watch at 7:30. She only barely remembered him rolling away from her, the space where his hand had been, cold as he pulled away, smacking a kiss on Alice's tiny cheek as he stood. She was pretty sure she'd pulled him back down and kissed him, half awake and still a little scared from her dream, as he left, which was so not something she wanted to think about right now, she realized. He'd lined up a couple pillows along Alice's other side, even though Wynonna was almost completely curled around her. She was still asleep, scowling a little bit with both little hands balled into fists.

Wynonna smiled gently at the baby before carefully scooping her up and slipping across the room to deposit her in the bassinet. She took one more deep breath of baby smell from her the top of her head before laying Alice down and snagging the baby monitor sitting on the bedside table.

Nicole's huge orange cat, Calamity Jane, sauntered through the door as Wynonna started to leave, sniffing around her feet before hopping up on the bed and giving her a quiet chirp. Wynonna smirked. In the week and a half that the cat had been at the homestead (it didn't look like anyone was leaving anytime soon, it just made sense. The cat didn't need to be alone all that time and once Nicole had gone to feed her, Wynonna just suggested she bring her back. For Nicole's sake, and the cat's obviously. She definitely wasn't happy that her house was full and domestic and warm for the first time in almost two decades. Nope.), it was rare to see her somewhere Alice wasn't; curled up on the back of the couch behind whoever was holding her, weaving around the legs at the table, following Wynonna when she went to nurse in private. Wynonna even let the cat sleep in bed with them when she wasn't wrapped up around Waverly and Nicole in their bed.

"You gonna watch her back?" Wynonna asked the cat.

Calamity Jane meowed quietly, leaning over the side of the bed to sniff the bassinet before curling up just as close to it as she could and starting to purr.

She really was Nicole's cat, "Good kitty." Wynonna shut the door behind her.

Waverly and Jeremy were both slumped over the kitchen table, clutching mugs of coffee and blearily going over evidence yet again. Waverly didn't even look up from her file, just held a third mug out to Wynonna.

"Tea?" Wynonna asked.

"Well, I don't want my niece's growth to be stunted," Waverly muttered, eyes glued to the page.

Wynonna whined but took the tea, "I'm taking the internet away from you. Research is making you annoying."

"Would you know Clootie's kid was a girl if I didn't have the internet?" Waverly shot back, smirking up at her sister.

"Wait, it's a girl?"

"As far as we've been able to tell," Jeremy mumbled, "Even with all the stuff your mom gave us, there's still not a lot to be found."

"But you're sure it's a-" Wynonna was cut off by the slamming of two doors outside the house and both Doc's and Dolls' voices shouting for someone "open the damn door!"

All three of them shot up like they'd been electrocuted. Wynonna threw open the kitchen door. Dolls' car was parked right outside and both men were fighting a small figure, dragging her out of the back even as she kicked and scratched. One more toss of her head as she snarled at Dolls and Waverly gasped, knotting her fingers on Wynonna's wrist. The girl was the spitting image of…

"Willa?" Wynonna choked out, fumbling for Waverly's arm too.

"Willa like. Your dead sister Willa?" Jeremy asked,

"Yeah, twice over." Wynonna breathed. Now that she was looking closer, there were very obvious differences. Her nose was less angular than Willa's, freckles dotted her cheeks heavily in a way Willa's smooth skin never had, and her hair was, in its high ponytail, much closer to her own shade than Willa's. She threw her head back, missing Dolls' face by millimeters and Wynonna saw her eyes for the first time. One was electric blue the other, deep brown and they were flowing between being obsidian black to looking like regular eyes.

"What the fuck?" Waverly breathed.

Dolls and Doc finally got her out of the car, screaming and still trying to get away from them.

"She was trying to get into Clootie's tomb. We caught her before she made it, clearly." Doc called, locking her flailing legs under his arms while Dolls picked up her front half and they hurried toward the house. Wynonna blocked the entrance.

"Um hello? No. In the barn."

"Really?" Doc asked, sweating even in the icy air.

"Yeah or did you forget who's upstairs?" She snapped.

His eyes went wide and his mustache twitched, "Right you are. To the barn."

Jeremy jumped out the door and hurried ahead of them to drag the door open and Wynonna turned to Waverly.

"I'm going to go help them, you stay in here with Alice and-"

"Wynonna-" Waverly started, looking indignant.

"No. Waves. Please. You're… both of you need to stay in here until we know what we're dealing with?"

"I'm pretty sure we're dealing with-"

"I know! I'm pretty sure too but. Please."

Waverly watched her big sister's eyes, dark with worry and stress, more lined than they had been and she couldn't bring herself to add to it. Silently, she nodded, took the baby monitor and walked toward the stairs, phone already out of her pocket.

"Nicole. Um. So shit's kind of hit the fan."

Wynonna sighed at her sister's retreating back and then swung her coat over her shoulders, tucked Peacemaker into her boots and headed for the barn.

"Time for a family reunion," she muttered to herself, slamming the door behind her, "Great."

An hour or two less sleep, it turned out, truly did make a difference. Nicole slumped over her desk, nursing her third cup of coffee and willing her eyes to stay open. Nedley had her on desk duty (he'd been trying to keep her out of the streets in case the Earps needed her. Not that he said it explicitly, but Nicole could tell), going over paperwork that Lonnie had botched. She'd spent the first 20 minutes of her day staring at the pile on her desk and alternating between annoyance at Lonnie and reliving the night before. Just the thought made her heart race.

Another swig of coffee and then a hunt for the white out; Lonnie had misspelled the world "assailant" no less than four times on this particular report. She was digging through the bottom drawer of her desk when the small bell at the front desk chimed.

"I'll be with you in just one second," She called, finally spotting the little green bottle in the back of the drawer and stretching to curl her fingers around it. She sat up with a sigh and left the bottle on her desk as she ran her fingers through her hair and turned for the front.

"How can I help-" It was Michelle Earp, "Oh."

Michelle shifted uncomfortably, tugging on the strap of her bag, "Hello, Nicole. Or, should I be calling you Officer?" It felt like a barb.

Nicole gritted her back teeth and answered as politely as she could manage, "Nicole is fine."

Michelle nodded and then refused to look at Nicole. Any progress that had been made on her visits to the homestead seemed to have regressed. For several minutes, there was silence, Nicole studying the older woman, and Michelle looking anywhere but at her.

"Well," she finally broke the silence, "I see this place hasn't changed since-"

"Mrs. Earp, what do you want?" Nicole interrupted, "because I'm working and I don't have time to chit chat while you try to experience Purgatory again. If there's something you need, please-"

"I need you to talk to Waverly."

Nicole's eyebrows shot up and she took a step back for a moment. Surely, surely Michelle was not coming to her for help with the Waverly situation.

Michelle continued, "She won't look at me, barely speaks to me."

"Gee, I wonder why?" Nicole muttered under her breath.

Michelle's eyes narrowed but she didn't respond to that, "I know I… left and. She's upset but."

Nicole had no sympathy. Seeing Waverly shrink into the arm chair, feeling her trembling, the short breaths and glassy eyes when Michelle had appeared on the homestead the first time. Her lion's heart flared and she crossed her arms.

"You don't get to decide how she responds to your reappearance. You left, like you said. She was four. Your husband was an alcoholic and your eldest daughter terrorized her. She was on her own for 17 years. You didn't even come back when their sister and father were killed by the demons you knew about. You let Wynonna get put in and out of foster homes and mental institutions for years, even though what she was telling everyone was true. Even if it meant taking those two away from each other for longer than they'd even been alive, you still didn't show up. Why the hell would anyone want you around after that?" Nicole's chest heaved, imagining littler Waverly and Wynonna yet again and wishing there was some way she could go back in time and save them from all the heartbreak.

Michelle's eyes turned to storm clouds and she opened her mouth to respond, but the chiming of Nicole's phone cut her off. Shooting one last, dirty look, Nicole picked up the phone.

"Hey, love," she murmured, watching with an odd amount of satisfaction as Michelle's face fell a bit.

"Nicole, um," Waverly's voice was pitched up and Nicole could hear her feet on stairs, "So, shit's kind of hit the fan?"

Nicole pressed the phone closer to her ear and her breath caught, "What do you mean?"

"Well… Doc and Dolls were trading shifts over at the mine, and-"

"She came?" Nicole breathed, feeling the color drain out of her cheeks.

There was the sound of a door closing and a meow Nicole recognized.

"Hi, Jane," Waverly hummed and for some reason that made Nicole's heart kick even more, "Dolls, Doc, Jeremy and Wynonna have her out in the barn. I'm upstairs with Alice," She could hear the bitter note in Waverly's voice, but relief filled her chest just for a moment.

"Okay, I'll be there soon."

"The more back-up the merrier honestly. Are you sure Nedley will-"

"Waves, I just have to say it's for you and he'd fly me to Nepal if he had to." She heard Waverly huff out a breath but could tell she was smiling. Nicole glanced up to see Michelle watching her like a hawk and her stomach knotted. She took a few steps back into the bull pen, toward Nedley's office.

"Another problem: Your mother is here."

Waverly's sigh crackled across the line, "At the precinct? Why?"

"She was… Never mind, I'll tell you later. Question is, do I bring her?"

Silence from Waverly as Nicole chewed her lip. It stretched for nearly a minute.

"I know, baby, but-"

"Bring her," Waverly grunted, "She can stay in here with Alice."

"You sure?"

"Not really but… I'll see you soon. Love you."

"Love you too," Nicole sighed and shoved the phone in her back pocket before turning to Michelle, "Come on.

She grabbed her keys from her desk and pushed out from behind the swinging double gates by the front desk. She was out the door and heading toward the front by the time Michelle caught up with her, taking two steps for every one of hers.

"Is everything alright?"

"We'll see," Nicole grunted, pulling her coat tight and shoving out the front door, "Looks like you're getting time with Alice, after all."

Getting the girl settled in the barn took considerably less effort when Wynonna had Peacemaker leveled at her chest. The old wooden chair from the rafters and a significant length of chain that Wynonna had no idea where they'd gotten, bound her quickly, both Dolls and Doc hanging on to the ends.

"Well, hello, cousin," the woman snarled, her two toned eyes focused on the end of Wynonna's gun, no longer shifting but still rather off putting.

"Never had a cousin before," Wynonna grunted, pulling back the hammer on Peacemaker, "Much less a half demon one. Give me one good reason I shouldn't keep that the same."

The girl rolled her mismatched eyes, shifting her gaze between the four of them before finally settling on Doc, "I thought I recognized you. John Henry, I presume?"

Doc's moustache twitched, "What would give you that impression?"

"My mother had a sentimental streak at the end of her life. Wyatt had many stories about you, pictures too, and Mother took some when she left Purgatory. The last days of her life were spent shuffling through those pictures like tarot cards and muttering fragments of stories Wyatt told her. There were whispers you lived still and here's the proof." The girl sneered, seemingly smug that she had caught them off guard.

Doc's hands curled into fists, thumb searching for the ring that was no longer there and Wynonna felt guilt swoop through her chest. Grinding her teeth, she shoved the gun closer.

"Well congrats, you know about Doc. Still doesn't explain why I shouldn't blow you back to hell."

"Never been there, so it wouldn't be back," the girl replied, but Wynonna could see the fear in her eyes as the gun neared her nose.

"Not making a great case for yourself," Dolls grunted from behind Wynonna, a napkin pressed to his bleeding lip, the one good shot she seemed to have gotten in.

There was a creak behind them as the barn door opened slowly. Nicole ducked through first, still in uniform and service weapon drawn, followed by Waverly, a shotgun steady against her shoulder.

"What the hell are you-" Wynonna started, staring at her sister.

"It's fine. She's taken care of." Waverly kept her gun trained on the girl in the chair but locked eyes with her sister. Wynonna's eyes flicked over to Nicole and back to Waverly. There's no way they would have left her kid in any kind of danger.

Slowly, she nodded and then turned back around, feeling Nicole and Waverly flank her on either side, "Alright, you've got one more chance. Tell me exactly why I shouldn't blow you away."

The girl looked up at her, eyes flooding slowly with inky blackness, "Because you can't kill my father without me."

Stunned silence filled the barn as her words registered with everyone.

"Damn, that is a really good reason," Jeremy whispered and then grunted as Dolls wrapped an arm around his shoulders and covered his mouth with his hand.

The girl smiled, genuine, at Jeremy response, "So, I'm betting you want to keep me around. My name is Ruth. And you need me more than you know."