Chapter 3

Waverly walked into the cafe to grab her morning coffee when she saw her. Major Nicole Haught. She was sitting by herself in the corner looking over some files slowly sipping on some hot tea. She looked different with her hair down. It wasn't long,
just at her shoulders but Waverly's breathe halted as the redhead mindlessly tucked it behind her ear while reviewing the documents in front of her. Her last encounter with the major left her feeling a little strange. Was it flirtatious? But her behavior
in the BBD office that same morning had been completely no nonsense.

"Come on baby-girl momma needs her coffee" Wynonna walked in the door of the cafe still wearing her sunglasses. She nearly ran into Waverly who now noticed she had pretty much stopped in her tracks. "Geez" Wynonna muttered and then followed Waverly's
gaze. "Uuuuggggghhhhh" Wynonna slid around Waverly and walked up to the counter and ordered their lattes.

"Why is she here?"

"I told you last night." Wynonna scoffed. They had sat and talked after the bar closed about who she was, what she was doing and how they were going to get rid of her. "No one is replacing Dolls." Wynonna stated. Waverly looked at her thinking she cared
more for the Marshall than just a working relationship.

"I meant the cafe." Waverly sighed moving up to the counter along side Wynonna.

"Who knows. Probably bugging the place so she can spy on everyone here." Wynonna scoffed grabbing her cup and paying.

Waverly's eyes never left the major and she was sure she saw a small smile on her face as Wynonna spoke. Wynonna turned and they both just stared at her, this Major Haught.

Without moving her head or giving any notice Haught blinked and looked up at the Warp girls standing there staring at her.

"Gogogogogo!" Wynonna said pushing Waverly out the door as they were caught. They both scurried out and into Waverly's Jeep and bolted towards the BBD office.

"I just don't get it Dolls!" Wynonna said feet propped up on the table taking another bite of her donut. "Why do we have to play nice?"

"Haught is a great asset to this team."

"Buh. A great ass maybe, but an asset?" Wynonna scoffed biting into her donut again. Waverly was sitting next to Wynonna and shot her a little look.

Dolls just sighed and walked into his office closing the door.

"Geez who stuck a bug up his ass." Wynonna exclaimed adjusting to sit at the table now.

"I believe that the Marshall is quite capable of handling the situation in question himself, Wynonna." Doc stated from across the room.

"I just don't get why he seems to be ok with her being here. She's obviously here to spy on him."

"Give the Marshall a little credit now, Wynonna. I'm sure that he can take care of himself." Doc didn't seem at all fazed by the situation. Perhaps that was because the two never really got along and he would be completely fine if the Marshall was replaced
with a new, female, counterpart.

Wynonna eyes him side ways. "You know something"

"Why, whatever do you mean?" Doc retorted reaching for a donut from the plate in the center of the table.

Wynonna looked at him sideways. "Spill" Wynonna said at the same time whipping out her switchblade and stabbing it through Doc's sleeve and into the table pinning his hand in its place.

Waverly jumped back "Geeezus!"

Doc simply squinted his eyes at the Earp. "It is not for me to tell." He answered cooly. Wynonna didn't flinch just sat there staring Doc down.

Waverly sat there for what felt like minutes waiting for one of the two to break. It was Doc.

"All right." He said dropping his head. Wynonna pulled the blade from the table and the shirt. "But you owe me a new shirt." Doc retorted sticking a finger through the new hole in his sleeve.

"Fine."

"The deputy Marshall and the major and in fact acquaintances." Doc said taking a seat and a bite of the donut.

"Yeah. Kandahar or whatever." Wynonna smirked.

"No." Doc replied chewing the donut his mustache doing a strange dance on his lip as he did so. "Mr. Dolls and Major Haught are something more along the line of friends."

"Friends?" Waverly questioned in disbelief.

Doc simply nodded still enjoying his powered donut, his mustache turning white with the sugar.

"After a bit of persuading, the Marshall finally revealed all late last night." Doc stated. Waverly could only imagine what 'bit of persuading' could mean coming from Doc. "They served together. Causing the two to become quite close."
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"Why would Dolls tell you this and not me?" Wynonna said hurt, not hiding it from her voice. Waverly was still unsure as to Wynonna's relationship with each man.

"Perhaps the Deputy Marshall felt I could handle the situation more gracefully." Doc replied. He was now wiping his mustache clear of the powder residue with a kerchief he pulled from his pocket. "And he asked me to keep an eye on the
Major as well." Doc finally confessed.

Wynonna just sighed and grabbed another donut. Waverly was thinking to herself how all of this was going to affect them all, change her little family, when the door to the BBD opened and in strolled the Major. She was not in uniform however
she was dressed in khaki tactical pants and a black plain t-shirt tucked in and accentuating all the right areas. Her arms were muscular, yet soft and were showing nicely in the short sleeves. Her hair was once again braided and off her shoulders,
a style Waverly found she actually liked as it showed the woman's face more fully.

Major Haught walked in and went straight for Dolls office, without knocking went in and closed the door.

"Rude." Was all Wynonna could get out.

The other members of Black Badge sit in the war room waiting for whatever was happening behind closed doors to finish. Finally after what seemed like hours the two emerged. Neither face showing any indication of what had occurred.
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"Wynonna," Dolls stated sliding his gun into his holster. "There's a spot outside of town I think we need to investigate." Wynonna sighed but grabbed her jacket and stood up to follow Dolls. "Waverly, you stay here and go over your research and
catch Major Haught up on all the revanents we've identified in the area." Before Waverly could make a noise Dolls was heading out the door. She shot a look to Wynonna who mouthed an "I'm sorry" back at her while following Dolls.
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"Well I do believe I have somewhere to be." Doc said tipping his hat, "ladies." Then he ever so smoothly turned and was out he door.

Waverly just stood there for a moment staring at the door not believing they all abandoned her. She stood there perhaps a minute too long until the Major cleared her throat causing Waverly to jump.

Waverly turned to look at her and the Major smiled and nodded, "should we get started?" Waverly just looked at her for a moment unable to think of a way out.

"Sure."

Waverly walked over the the map on the wall and began her long story into the history of the Ghost River Triangle.

Throughout her entire presentation Waverly noticed that the major rarely took her eyes off her, only on occasion to jot down a note or two. Her gaze was intense and Waverly found herself becoming more and more awkward.
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"We feel like mostly the revanents tend to keep their distance from Purgatory and stay in the," Waverly found herself distracted by the Major reaching a hand inside the neck of her shirt to rub on her collar bone. "The uh," she watched
the movement for a moment until it stopped and she was able to look up and notice the major looking at her quizzically. "The uh"

"What?" The major asked.

"What?" Waverly was off her game. She quickly shook her head. Trying to regain her focus, but she couldn't. "Why are you spying on Dolls?" Waverly asked before she even realized it.

"I'm sorry?" The major asked trying to make sure she understood the brunette correctly.

"It's just that you show up out of no where from Black Badge Headquarters. And all the secrecy. Are you trying to take his job? I mean why else would you come out to the middle of God-forsaken-no-where?" Waverly said without even
taking a breath.

The major sat quietly for a moment gathering her thoughts. "Is that what Dolls told you?" A slight trace of pain in her voice if Waverly hadn't known better.

"Dolls didn't tell me anything, but Wyn-" Waverly stopped herself. The major smiled and nodded her head a little. Waverly felt she shouldn't have brought Wynonna up in this. "WE are worried about Dolls." Waverly
took a seat at the head of the table. "We are like a family."

"And I'm an intruder." Haught laughed a little and nodded her head.

Waverly sighed. She could hear the pain in the Majors voice this time. It was strange, up until this point she had been so matter of fact.

"Listen Major-"

"Nicole."

"What?"

"My name is Nicole." She said as she adjusted in her seat slightly.

"Oh right. Um well, Nicole. We have been together for 6 months now. We are all close." Waverly made a face "some of us closer than others." Waverly smiled a little and regained her focus. "We look out for each other." Nicole nodded
and pointed back to the board.

"So they mostly hang around this Bobo Del Rey's trailer park?" She asked. It took Waverly a minute but she realized Nicole wanted to change the subject and was back into her all-business-no-nonsense mode. Waverly stood up
and went back the the board.

"Yes we think that most of them are." Waverly said then stopped. "Wait, I never mentioned Bobo..." She said slowly. Her mind was immediate drawn back the the coffee shop this morning where she saw the major sitting in the corner
with the BBD file. "You already know all do this?" She asked accusingly.

The Major at first only looked at Waverly and then Waverly saw a small smile creep into her lips. "Yes. I was briefed before I arrived here, and we have been watching this division for some time now." She said turning
her head down to her notebook.

"Then why did you let me go on like that? I've been talking for an hour!"

"It never hurts to hear it all again, especially from someone who has first hand knowledge versus one of Dolls boring reports." A bigger smile came across the Majors face and her eyes softened. And just like that she went from being Major
style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"Haught back to Nicole. "Plus I think I could listen to you talk all day."

Waverly blushed immediately and an embarrassed smile came on her face. Nicole just kept smiling at her and Waverly was drawn back into those beautiful brown eyes again. They stayed here looking at each other longer than Waverly felt was needed and she reached forward grabbing for her coffee. In her flustered state her hands weren't quite listening to her brain and she knocked the cup over straight into Nicole's lap.

"Shit!" Waverly quickly grabbed her jacket from the chair and started trying to wipe the coffee from Nichole's pants. "Shit oh my god I am so sorry!" She kept wiping at Nicole's legs and lap while kneeling in the floor in front of her. Nicole had leaned back as the coffee spilt and was sitting there watching the flustered brunette try frantically to dry her pants. She grabbed Waverly's hand to stop her. Waverly just stayed there kneeling in front of her and looked up to see her smiling down at her. Waverly blushed again. "Good thing your not some guy right or this would be REALLY, really awkward." She smiled and kept blushing.

Waverly noticed a slight pink come over Nicole's cheeks as well as she smiled and looked down and then back up at Waverly.

"Whoa!"

Waverly jumped up at the sound of his sisters voice. "I spilled my coffee!" She exclaimed. Haught also had jumped up as well and was looking down at her khakis which had an unfortunate stain on them now.

Wynonna laughed. Dolls shot her a sideways look.

Nicole looked at Wynonna and Dolls, "I'm going to go change." And walked past them both.

"What?" Wynonna shrugged looking at Dolls, "come on. That was hilarious!" Dolls simply shook his head and went into his office. Wynonna walked over to her little sister holding her donut filled hand for a high-five as she walked
away. "YeaP! You did great sis." Waverly stood there for a moment confused until she realized what Wynonna was implying.

"It was an accident!" She called after her sister who was already out the door.