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Nicole found herself wondering exactly how much caffeine a person could ingest before their heart exploded.
Her heart in particular.
She was currently on coffee refill number five, and she had successfully emptied the vending machine in the lounge of all energy drinks. She was a pretty healthy person, she figured her heart was in tip-top shape; she just worried that hour twenty-five without sleep was going to be her downfall. She had crashed for a few hours not long after Wynonna and Dolls had taken off, and before that she had been going for over thirty hours. Now that she fully understood the danger Waverly was in, she didn't feel comfortable taking a nap.
What kind of girlfriend would that make her?
Taking a nap while her girlfriend battled a demon?
Not exactly a knight shining white Stetson.
Her breath caught in her throat. Waverly was the only person who had ever called her that and now she might not ever call her that again.
No.
She couldn't think like that.
There was hope.
There was a plan, even.
She just had to pull it off.
She winced as she drained the last of her coffee mug, the bitter liquid having lost its scalding temperature long ago.
Heart exploding or not, she had to stay awake.
She felt about as prepared as she could get for her first time exorcism. She had found a Latin spell that claimed to call demons out of people; and Gus was on her way with what she hoped was a demon sensing cat, and a wax figure for the demon to inhabit once it came out of Waverly
There was a quiet knock on the door and Nicole rushed over as fast as she could with her bruised ribs. She opened it a slit to see Gus standing there with a cat carrier. Calamity Jane offered up a meow.
"Gus." The word came out breathless and shaky with nerves, and if she weren't so exhausted, she might have been embarrassed at how rattled she sounded. "You made it."
The older woman brushed past her and stepped into the black badge office, not even reacting to the sight of Waverly tied up in the chair in the corner.
"Nasty looking bruise you got there, officer."
She glanced down at the purple bruise that peeked above her tank top.
"Oh, yeah. Willa shot me."
"Wynonna told me what happened." Gus rummaged through the bag that she had set on the desk and pulled out a sandwich, handing it to Nicole. "And she told me what happened to Willa. Shame these girls have to go through the pain of losing their sister again."
Nicole stared dumbly down at the sandwich in her hands.
"A sandwich?"
Gus had pulled out a hair brush and moved over to kneel behind Waverly where she was currently working through thick tangles.
"Something tells me that you haven't eaten anything in a while, and if what you've told me about our situation in true, then you're gonna need your strength."
She bit into the ham and cheese, and as soon as she started chewing it hit her how hungry she was.
"Thank you." She managed between bites, fingers swiping at the mustard on her cheek.
"You also might wanna freshen up, before we leave. It wouldn't do for the whole town to see the Waverly getting drug out of the police station by her aunt and frazzled looking police officer. This town talks enough about Waverly enough as it is."
"Probably not a bad idea. I look like a cat that came out of a dryer."
Calamity Jane meowed again.
"Don't worry, I would never put you in a dryer."
She looked back to Gus who was pulling Waverly's hair through a tie.
"Will you be okay for a few minutes?"
"If I could handle Wynonna as a teenager, I'm sure I can handle a demon possessed Waverly."
It was sound logic, and she slipped into the hallway, ducking into the locker room to grab fresh shirts and pair of socks before making her way to the bathroom.
Once glance in the mirror told her that sleep deprived was not her best look.
She turned the water as hot as it would go, waiting until steam rose up and fogged her image in the mirror. She splashed her face until her cheeks were tingling and then switched the water to cold, the contrast breathing life into her exhausted body. Her fingers worked quickly to redo her braid, feeling more put together with each twist.
She took off her tank top next, wincing at both the effort and the sight of the bruise on her sternum.
That was going to last a while.
Sighing, she pulled a fresh tank top over her head and drew a newly starched uniform top up her arms. She buttoned all the buttons save the top two, and once again looked in the mirror.
Better.
She couldn't do much for the dark circles under her eyes, but at least she looked presentable.
"Nothing a good night's sleep won't fix."
She wrenched around at the sound of the foreign voice, looking for a source.
No one.
She was alone in the restroom, not a soul. Geez, maybe she did need some sleep. Or maybe she was going crazy. She braced herself on the sink, white porcelain gripped tightly with fingers that were almost just as white.
"Oh you're not crazy, Bug."
Her head jerked up when the voice spoke again, and she jumped as she saw a shadow of a figure in the mirror.
She spun around to check the room again, only this time she wasn't alone. There was a tall (taller than her even), woman behind her, red hair falling gracefully past her shoulders to dust her hips, white floor length dress seemingly untouched by the grime of the police bathroom. There was a crown of woven flowers perched on her head, the bright purple bulbs making the woman's white face seem even paler, and the luminescent quality about her made the air seemed to tingle with electricity around her. Her features were lighted with a smile, and her eyes had a hauntingly familiar quality.
"What the fuck?!"
The woman's brown eyes twinkled.
"Is that anyway to speak to your grandmother?"
As scared shitless as she was, a lifetime of good manners kicked.
"Ummm, no? Ma'am? But I don't-"
"Listen, Ladybug, I don't have a lot of time. It takes a lot of energy to appear like this, even in a place like Purgatory."
There was only one person who ever called her Ladybug - her Gram, but she had died not long after Nicole's fourteenth birthday. The woman sort of looked like her Gram, maybe, if she were about thirty or so; and the voice was familiar, lilting and sweet, as if it had sang a thousand lullabies.
"Gram?"
Those familiar eyes softened, and she felt her tired brain simultaneously accepting and rejecting what was happening in front of her.
"I know this is a lot to take in, and I wish - oh I wish - I had time to explain, but I'm running out of time, and so is your sweet girlfriend."
"I don't -"
"Listen, Ladybug. The most important thing is that when the time comes, you take off the ring."
Her fingers unconsciously twisted the green ring on her right hand.
"But you said to never take it off, not even-"
"I know what I said, Bug, but things are different now. This town is different. This girl is different."
Nicole nodded and blinked, and when she opened her eyes, she was once again staring at herself in the mirror, tired brown eyes gazing back at her.
"Wha-" She twisted all around to check, but the room was once again empty.
Caffeine may not have stopped her heart yet, but it had definitely fried her brain.
