Hi guys!

Look! I'm being better about updating more than once ever 4 months. I've got my groove back and I know where we're going. I hope you enjoy and drop me a comment if you have a mind to. I love hearing your thoughts!

Hope this weekend has been kind to you,

M

XXX

Chapter 5

Wynonna excused herself from the barn, saying there was something that needed to be attended to before Ruth had any more introductions. Waverly had jumped in, already tumbling over a thousand questions and making sure Ruth knew everyone's names. Trust Waverly to ease the tension when our demon cousin comes to visit, Wynonna thought, smiling as she slipped out the door.

Doc caught up to Wynonna as she got to the porch, "Wynonna, a word."

"What's up, Doc?" Her joke was lost on him but it pulled her a little closer to earth, back to "normal."

He huffed in the early morning air, breath puffing out in clouds, "I am not meaning to question your judgement. You know I trust you, however. Are you sure about this?"

"What? Teaming up with my half demon cousin who's been alive for just shy of 115 years? Trusting her not to go all dark side and rip us apart? Because no. I'm not sure. But if the last two years have taught me anything, it's that trusting my gut has never led me wrong. And my gut says she's one of us. She's been lost, alone and maybe motherhood has made me a squish but I kind of get how that feels. And if she's really family, I've got to try."

There was a glint in Doc's eyes and he took her arms gently, pulling her into his chest and pressing a light kiss against the side of her head, "Wyatt would be proud. He wasn't perfect, by any means, but the man had heart unlike anyone else. You and your sister are living proof of that."

Wynonna sighed, closing her eyes and sagging against him. She took a deep breath. Cigarettes and gunpowder. Whiskey and leather. No matter the emotions it stirred in her, it smelled safe.

"I trust your gut too, Henry," she whispered, nudging the crown of her head against his jaw, "And if you think she's dangerous-"

"There is no doubt in my mind that she is dangerous," Doc cut her off, holding on a little tighter, "But I think she's the kind of dangerous that will fit in nicely here."

Wynonna sighed again and squeezed one last time before letting him go, "Thank you."

Doc smiled gently, tipped his hat and moseyed back over to the barn, closing the door behind him. Wynonna sighed, scrubbing cold hands over her cheeks and wishing, for the thousandth time that morning, for alcohol before opening the front door. The baby's yells echoed from it seemed like every direction and Wynonna was oddly proud. She was doing her best to forgive Michelle, be a good example for Waverly, for once. But her mother was in obvious discomfort, bouncing Alice in her arms and circling around the coffee table as Wynonna entered the living room and she couldn't help the smirk that crossed her face. Michelle still deserved a little hell. The hurt in her from childhood hadn't disappeared by half and she wasn't above admitting that to herself. Calamity Jane was perched on the back of the couch, glaring daggers at the woman who was holding "her" baby. Anytime Michelle got too close or Alice screamed particularly loudly, the cat would let out a yowl of obvious anger.

"Are you pinching my baby?" Wynonna finally asked, not bothering to remove her coat. All three of the room's occupants turned to look around at her, Alice hiccupping herself into silence at the sound of her mother's voice.

"Where have you all been? Officer Haught just brought me in here, Waverly dropped a baby monitor in my hand and they were out the door with guns drawn. No one's told me a word about what's happening or what all the fuss is," Michelle shifted Alice in her arms and the baby let out an angry squawk, "Is this really the situation you want to be raising-" But Wynonna had plucked Alice from her arms and was walking away, cuddling the baby up against her cheek.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there when you woke up, little one. Dolls and Doc found the person we've been looking for. Remember the one Auntie Waverly and Auntie Nicole and Uncle Jeremy have been looking for?"

"You found them?" Michelle asked, eyes wide. Wynonna ignored her.

"But she's not a bad person. My gut says she's not and Doc's… Daddy- ew oh god no… Doc's gut says she's not and… I think we can trust her." Alice blinked up at her curiously. At birth, her eyes had been bright blue but they'd lightened some to a blue grey that mirrored Doc's. Her little fingers curled out of their blanket and reached up to brush Wynonna's cheek. Her heart melted.

"You're our last test though, okay? The whole family will be around and if you don't like her, she's gone."

"You're basing your choice to trust this half demon, on your gut, the gut of the man who betrayed Wyatt and a baby?" Michelle asked incredulously.

"Rest of the family seems to trust her," Wynonna responded, not looking up from Alice who was trying to pull at her bottom lip, "Alice is the one who matters most. If she doesn't scream, I'm going with it."

"What about me?" Michelle barked back, still horrified at her middle daughter's decision making choices, "She screams any time I hold her."

"Yeah," Wynonna threw over her shoulder, walking through the kitchen and out the back door, "Well, jury's still out on you." And she slammed the door behind her but it was too late. Michelle's words were stuck in her head. Sighing heavily and shifting the baby up against her shoulder, Wynonna poked just her head around the door of the barn. Ruth and Waverly seemed to have become fast friends, Ruth perfectly content to answer the all her questions coming at her in rapid succession. Nicole hung back a bit, watching Waverly with the mushiest heart eyes Wynonna had ever seen. Her hand rested on the butt of her gun though and Wynonna could still see the tension in her body. Jeremy was staring up at Doc and talking to him in the breathless way that seemed to be the norm between them. And Dolls… Dolls' eyes were on her the moment the door opened.

Wynonna tried not to notice and instead called, "Yo, Wave, Nicole, Dolls, I need a hand with something for a second."

Ruth took a few steps forward but Wynonna shook her head, "Just… give me a minute." Her cousin looked a little put out but nodded sinking back into the chair and watching the other three slip out of the barn. Dolls pulled the door shut behind him and sighed out a breath in the cold air.

"So?" Wynonna prompted, looking between all of them.

"I like her," Waverly piped up, already rubbing a corner of the baby's blanket between her fingers.

"Yeah, Waves, I know you like her but… Can we trust her?"

"To be fair," Dolls cut in, "None of us trusted each other in the beginning."

"Yeah," Wynonna said, exasperated, "But that's different. We're all humans. She's a… oh am I being racist?" She stopped herself, genuinely concerned.

"I think technically it'd be species-ist," Nicole provided.

"Well… shit, I'm an asshole, not a bigot," Wynonna grumbled.

"We can turn over the moral implications later, Earp. Right now, what do you need help with?" Dolls eyes were tired and it wasn't even noon.

"This!" Wynonna replied, "Trusting her, what do we think?"

"I trust her," Waverly said instantly, "And I'm an excellent judge of character."

"You befriended a revenant who slammed you head first into a pool table, tried to kill me in the middle of giving birth and also tried give your niece to the blood thirsty crowd outside," Wynonna reminded her, softening the blow with a gentle nudge against her head against Waverly.

Waverly huffed, her eyes a little shinier than they had been a moment before. Dammit. Wynonna hadn't meant to hurt her with that. It had been snippy though. The tension was getting to her. Carefully, she nudged her sister's arm and laid Alice in them, smiling when Alice blinked in the sun and immediately tangled her little fingers in Waverly's hair.

Wynonna wrapped an arm around her girls and then turned to Nicole, "Haught-pants, what do you think?"

Nicole didn't bat an eye at the name, "She's not like other revenants."

"She's not even technically a revhead."

"Well… Demon, spook, creepy bad guy whatever. She… seems like she has a heart. And her humanity."

"Dolls?"

"I'm with Nicole and you know we've got your back no matter what," His eyes glinted in the winter sun and Wynonna bit the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling up at him.

She took a deep breath, kissed Waverly's head and smiled down at the baby, "Alright. The Alice test it is."

Waverly moved to hand the baby back to Wynonna but Wynonna shook her head, "No," She patted the outside of her shoe where Peacemaker rested, "Ya know… just in case."

"You won't need it," Waverly promised, but she hitched Alice up in her arms and let Wynonna led them back into the barn, Nicole and Dolls flanking her from behind.

Ruth's head snapped up as they reentered, breaking from Jeremy instantly. Nicole took a cautious step closer to Waverly and Dolls shifted a little closer to Wynonna but Ruth didn't notice. Her eyes were on Alice.

"Oh is this her?" Her voice was soft, lighter than it had been earlier.

"Yeah," Wynonna responded, suddenly rethinking this choice. But it was too late. Alice's eyes were locked on Ruth, who had taken several steps forward.

"Oh," Ruth breathed, "it's been a bit since I've been around a baby," With a tentative finger she reached over and stroked the back of the Alice's hand, marveling, much like Wynonna had, at the size of them, "How can she have such tiny finger nails?"

Wynonna laughed quietly, heart still in her throat as Alice stared up at Ruth. Everyone held their breath as they took each other in. Waverly's hand was fisted in the blanket around Alice and Wynonna was doing everything she could not to hold Peacemaker at the ready.

But all their tension was for nothing. Ruth's fingers were gentle as she reached up and stroked Alice's rosy cheeks before skating back down to her tiny hands. Little fingers closed around Ruth's pointer and Alice seemed content to watch her in a bit of wonderment.

"Do you want to hold her?" Waverly asked, instantly to turn and see Wynonna's reaction, eyes wide. Ruth turned to look up at her too. Wynonna tense but nodded stiffly finally, not even hiding the hunch in her back as she reached for Peacemaker.

Ruth watched her with concerned eyes, "I don't have to, if you're not-"

"No, it's… fine," Wynonna wasn't a great liar but the fact that Ruth had offered not to even when she so clearly wanted to, had eased the nausea rolling in her stomach. No one moved.

"No, seriously. I'm okay with it," Wynonna almost believed herself.

Ruth straightened excitedly, holding out her arms gingerly. Slowly, Waverly passed Alice over, placing the baby's head in the crook of Ruth's left elbow. Ruth's eyes got even bigger, a smile splitting her face, as Alice stared up at her, little mouth open in an 'o'. The barn was quiet as they watched Ruth hold the baby and sway, babbling nonsense at her quietly. After a few moments, Alice chirped back and cooed, curling her hand around one of Ruth's fingers again. The whole barn sighed with relief, and Wynonna stood up straight again.

"Did I pass the Alice Test?" Ruth asked quietly, still making faces down at the baby.

Wynonna chuckled awkwardly, "I forget you've got such good hearing."

"Perks of being part demon?" Ruth shrugged.

"Come on, let's go inside. It's colder than Thor's ballsack out here."

Waverly led the them all back inside, Wynonna, Ruth and Alice bringing up the rear. Alice seemed fascinated by Ruth's hair which she'd taken from its ponytail. It curled more tightly than Wynonna's and the new shape captivated her.

"Sorry about… you know, earlier," Wynonna said awkwardly, sticking her hands in her back pockets.

"Makes sense," Ruth responded, "I would have done the same. Probably would have shot me first honestly."

Wynonna snorted, "Yeah, well… everyone keeps telling me motherhood has made me soft."

Michelle was still pacing the living room when they came back inside, Calamity Jane nowhere to be seen. She opened her mouth to speak to Waverly, first through the door, but her youngest took Nicole's hand and pulled her off into the corner of the living room. Nicole almost felt bad for Michelle but not enough to stop Waverly from leaning against her and dropping a kiss on top of her head.

"What do you think you're doing?" Michelle's voice was icy as she watched Ruth coo quietly to Alice.

"Momma, it's-"

"I can't believe how irresponsible you're being, Wynonna," There was fire in Michelle's eyes and the team finally knew where Waverly and Wynonna learned their rage, "Do you know how stupid this is? This demon is carrying my grandchild-"

"Whoa hey, take a quick step back and evaluate. Because she's sure has hell about fifty other things before she's your grandkid. Including the Earp heir until I break this fucking curse. I'll be damned before she's going to have to deal with this bullshit. If Ruth says we need her to kill Clootie-"

"She could be lying to save her own skin? To take your baby and disappear?" Michelle was red faced and there were tears in her eyes, "I lost Willa and you girls, I'm not-"

"You didn't lose us!" Wynonna bellowed. A spark ignited in Wynonna's chest and Michelle's words were like gasoline. Doc, Dolls and Jeremy seemed frozen at Wynonna's back, halfway between intervening and valuing their own lives too much to try.

"You fucking left! I thought we'd been over this a couple times but apparently memory problems run in the family. You. Left us," Wynonna was shaking and Waverly broke off from Nicole to hold Wynonna's hand, taking her place at her sister's side and glaring down their mother, a fire growing in her own chest, "Actually, ignoring that you left us with Daddy, a traumatized, low functioning alcoholic with tunnel vision and anger management issues like the Hulk, you didn't come looking when Willa got taken. You didn't try to come for Wave and I. You let us grieve and be ripped apart and you did nothing. Not a call, not a word. We were kids. The only reason I came to that stupid hospital is because even though you left us, I didn't want you to die." A tear of rage dripped off of Wynonna's eyelashes and Waverly squeezed even closer. Nicole had followed Waverly over and stood by, a third, intimidating addition to their unit. Her heart ached to hear Wynonna's voice so strained and cracked, to see how tightly Waverly clung to her sister, like if she loosened her grip, Wynonna would be plucked away from her again. Tears coursed down Waverly's cheeks, her jaw tight and her mouth set hard.

"Wynonna-" Michelle started, suddenly looking much older than she had since coming to the homestead, but Wynonna bowled through her. Spark to flame to wildfire, the Earp girls were blazing and scarier than any demon they'd faced.

"You don't get to tell me how to parent. I might be shit at it but at least I'm not abandoning my baby. At least I'm not letting her be alone and scared. At least I'm not letting her think she's crazy. At least I'm going to make damn sure she knows how loved she is. And she'll be strong and brave and good. And she's gonna do it without you. Just like we did."

The house rang with silence, even Alice was quiet from her perch in Ruth's arms. Michelle was shaking too. Wynonna leveled a glare at her mother but her voice was low, calm, steady despite the tears now streaking down her face.

"We're glad you came and gave us this information, but…You don't get to come back after all this time and expect us to be the little girls you left behind. Our job is to fight those evil shit-tickets and make sure they don't escape, for everyone and this curse is going to end with me. We've seen shit and done shit and been through shit that you can't even imagine but we're still here. And we have a family. So, if you don't trust me and you don't trust that I'm doing what I think is right, you know exactly where the door is. It hasn't moved in 17 years."

No one moved. Waverly shuddered next to Wynonna as slowly, their mother, never once breaking eye contact, picked her coat up off the couch and walked through the front hall. There was a slam and Michelle was gone.

Slowly, Wynonna reached up and wiped her cheeks, "Sorry Waves, I guess I still suck at setting good examples."

Waverly shook her head, wrapping her arms around Wynonna and leaned her head against her shoulder, "Think you're doing just fine."

Wynonna didn't look at her sister but pressed a kiss to her head, "Go catch Ruth up. See if she…"

"I got it, Wynonna," Waverly squeezed her hand one last time, "Just… go sit."

She nodded, gritting her back teeth and scrunching her eyes shut for a moment before turning to the rest, trying to pull up her usual unfazed expression, "Alright, show's over. Doc, you're on breakfast duty, Jeremy, make sure he doesn't burn the house down."

"It was one time! How was I to know that foil did not go into the microwave?" But Doc's retort held no real venom, just keeping up their banter for Wynonna's sake. Jeremy didn't notice though, just pat his shoulder and steered them toward the kitchen.

"Ruth, I'm gonna need my kid," Wynonna held out her arms and with a final, fond look down at the baby, Ruth passed her over, gently untangling her hair from Alice's grip.

"She is wonderful. Thank you for-"

"Yeah," Wynonna coughed, unable to look away from her daughter's face, "Well, just don't make me regret it."

Ruth nodded and then turned to Waverly expectantly.

"I need to grab a couple things from upstairs," Waverly said, reaching over to weave her fingers between Nicole's, "I'll bring it all down to the kitchen?"

Ruth nodded again, mismatched eyes flicking down to their linked hands and smiling a bit, "I'm excited to see what you've learned."

She wandered off in the same direction as Doc and Jeremy and Wynonna turned quickly and hurried toward the stairs, whispering to Alice. Dolls followed her a few steps but ended up leaning up against the wall in the hallway, staring after her with a look Waverly didn't quite recognize on his face. Nicole came up behind her and wrapped her arms around Waverly's waist.

"You okay?" The smell of her conditioner washed over Waverly and she tucked her head up under Nicole's chin.

"Do you need to go back to desk duty?" Waverly whispered. She didn't want to talk about her mother or the pressure that was mounting to put an end to all of this. Nicole could feel the tension across her torso and decided not to push for the moment.

"Yeah, I think so," Nicole sighed, pressing her face into Waverly's hair, "I'm the only one who has any idea how to correctly do paperwork."

Waverly pouted, turning to burrowing her head against Nicole's shoulder and curling against her, "Nooo."

Nicole huffed a laugh into the top of Waverly's head, "I know but someone's gotta work a real job around here."

"Hey," Waverly pulled back to look up into Nicole's face, arms still clasped around her waist, "Doc owns Shorty's now and I run it, that's a real job!"

Nicole laughed again, "I know baby, I'm just teasing."

Waverly sighed and pressed a kiss to Nicole's shoulder, "Fine. You'll come home after, right?"

"Of course. I need to grab a couple more clothes from my place but then I'll be home," And Waverly felt her stomach turn happily when Nicole referred to the homestead as home.

"Okay. Well. Get going then," She slapped Nicole's butt and grinned when her girlfriend gave her a mock gasp.

Waverly laughed, "I love you."

"I love you too."

Nicole had almost made it to her squad car when the door to the Homestead shut behind her and she heard Dolls calling from across the yard. She pulled up short, pushing her gloved hands further into the pockets of her coat and waiting for Dolls to jog out to her.

"We need to talk." Dolls had never been one to mince words and dawdle with pleasantries.

"The ring-" Nicole started.

"Yeah and the file."

The nausea that swept through her every time she thought about the secret she and Dolls were keeping from the Earp sisters came again. From the look on Dolls' face, he was just bothered by it as she was.

"Are you sure you're ready to get it all out there?" Dolls ducked his head, a tell for any time emotions came up.

Nicole shrugged, swallowing hard against her suddenly tight throat, "Not really. But… We've found her, Ruth. We don't really have much of a choice. The sooner we get this done with-"

"The sooner we're all safe, yeah."

"Assuming they don't hate us after," Nicole muttered.

"Hey," Dolls clapped a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, "You're Auntie Nicole. You're not going anywhere. Someone's gotta teach that kid how to be at least a little normal." His eyes looked almost fragile and Nicole caught his hand as he went to pull away and waiting for him to meet her eyes.

"And you're Dolls. Pretty much irreplaceable. Wynonna always…"

Dolls pulled his hand away and huffed, "Yeah well… Better get going. Gonna be a long one."

"She was a wreck when you were gone," Nicole called after Dolls' retreating back, "You matter, Dolls. To all of us."

The Deputy Marshal didn't look back as he ducked back into the homestead. Nicole sighed, blinking back tears again, dropping down into her squad car and starting toward Purgatory with the knot in her chest tighter than it had been all month.