Author's Note: This picks up from the "why blink when I can speak" moment in S04E06. Please don't question the physics of Waverly getting from the Clanton's to Shorty's – artistic license! Enjoy.
Waverly is so happy, so relieved, positively giddy when she hears Nicole's voice, sees her sitting up and breathing.
Then all too quickly, her heart drops to her stomach as Nicole slides back into the tub, under the ice water again.
She's running forward before she can think, fearing seeing Nicole, dead under the water once again.
Before she can get there, Jeremy and Nedley have hoisted her love out of the tub and are lowering to the hard wood floor.
Crashing to her knees next to Nicole she's pushing red locks from her face - her eyes are closed but she's coughing, trying to spit out the water in her lungs.
Waverly rolls her on to her side and rubs her back. Her blue tank top was soaked, freezing cold.
Nicole is breathing raggedly but she is breathing. She can hear her teeth chattering. They need to warm her up quickly before she's hypothermic.
Waverly looks up at Jeremy who is resting on his heels behind Nicole. "Where's the stuff to get her warm?"
Jeremy looks confused, then scared. "I -uh - we may have neglected to get supplies to warm her after."
Waverly stared at him like he was an idiot child she was about to smack. He swiftly shrank back.
"You group of idiots." She huffed then put her anger aside. "Get me the blankets and space heaters from the cellar. NOW!"
Jeremy and Nedley scurried out of her sight quickly. She sees a towel over the chair and grabs it. One towel. Jesus Christ.
"Nicole, baby?" When Nicole moaned a response Waverly continued gently. "I need to get you dry, we need to get your wet clothes off, ok? Do you understand?"
Nicole was coiled so tightly on the floor, shivering, teeth chattering, eyes pinned shut.
"Mm hmm"
Waverly released the breath she was holding. "Ok."
She took the towel and began to rub Nicole dry. She wanted to be gentle, to treat Nicole's poor body with the love it deserved but getting her dry and warm had to come first. She vigorously rubbed her exposed skin to try and stimulate some heat.
Jeremy had dropped some blankets by her side and moved to plug in two heaters.
"Babygirl?"
Waverly looked up to see Wynonna frozen in the doorway of Shorty's. She was looking between Nicole, the bath, and the heaters.
"What the frog happened?" Wynonna stepped closer, terror clear on her face as she took in Nicole, unmoving on the floor. "Nicole?"
Waverly was back to rubbing her girlfriend. "Dead. For an hour in that tub of ice. And these IDIOTS didn't plan for heating her up again. She's going to be hypothermic. If she dies after being a frog and coming back, I will kill her."
Wynonna stood with her mouth gaping like a goldfish before realising she had to help. Questions could wait.
Kneeling down next to Nicole she asked, "what can I do?"
"'Nonna."
Wynonna had to lean closer to peer at her best friend's face. "Hey, Haughtstuff. What did you do this time, huh?"
"Waves is mad." Nicole chattered out quietly.
Wynonna laid a hand on Nicole's arm and squeezed. She was freezing to the touch.
"I'll have to kick your ass for making her mad you know."
Nicole chuckled before Waverly caught her attention again.
"I need to take her clothes off."
"Good job you've had a lot of practice." Wynonna jibbed.
Waverly shock her head, clearly trying to think of how to say what she needed to.
"The best way to raise her body temperature is skin to skin contact. We don't have a hospital, not since the BBD border. We don't have any way to get heat into her, so we need to surround her as best as possible. And that means she needs these wet clothes off and I need to... Also take my clothes off. And it would be even better if you could also..."
Wynonna's first reaction was to crack a joke and flat out refuse to strip to her underwear with her sister and her sister's girlfriend. But this wasn't a joke. This was her best friend, lying on the floor of a bar, needing her.
"Ok." Before Waverly could make a peep Wynonna looked to Jeremy and Nedley who were still loitering by the bar, like a couple of kids awaiting punishment for misbehaving. "You two, go to the homestead and start getting the place warm. Firewood is by the barn. And clean up a bit while you're at it."
Both men nodded then scurried out of the bar.
"Wynonna, thank you." Waverly looked about ready to break and Wynonna knew that she had no part in whatever had gone on here.
"Let's get Haughtstuff heated up." Wynonna started shrugging out of her leather jacket when she paused. "I'm keeping my underwear on. And we will never speak of this again."
Before Waverly could answer they heard a muttered "deal" from Nicole.
Waverly quickly stripped down to her underwear and grabbed the blankets before ridding Nicole of her damp shirt and shorts. That was a little harder as Nicole wasn't much help and those long limbs never seemed longer to Waverly.
Once stripped down, Waverly lay down on her side facing Nicole and slipped her arm under Nicole's head to provide some padding from the floor. Then she lined herself as flush against Nicole's front as she could.
Nicole couldn't stop a small, contented moan as Waverly pulled her close, the heat, the feel of her skin, it was heaven.
"Talk to me baby." Waverly whispered in Nicole's ear.
"I'm sorry." Nicole stuttered out. Her head was foggy but she couldn't help feeling like a total failure for everything with the Clanton's, the fire, the drowning. Waverly deserved better.
Wynonna lifted the blanket from Nicole for a second to slip in behind her - a truly strange turn of events, spooning her sister's girlfriend and her sister. Would this curse ever give her a normal day?!
"None of that, Haught. No making up while I'm being your big spoon, keep the topics light for my sake."
Waverly silently thanked Wynonna. The three of them were now secure under a pile of blankets, Waverly holding Nicole close - face to face while Wynonna had now curled behind Nicole and threw her hand around both the women in front of her, she gave Waverly's elbow a squeeze in response.
"Baby, tell me about the new recipes you tried out for Rachael?" Waverly said.
Nicole was silent so Waverly leaned back to see all of Nicole's face.
"Baby? Can you hear me?"
Nicole didn't respond, but did, for the first time Waverly can think of since she was dragged from the tub, open her eyes.
Waverly puffed out the breath she had been holding. "There you are." She stroked Nicole's cheek and moved some of her straggly hair from her face.
"How do you feel?" She asked. The blue tinge to her lips was fading. Her skin was still pale though.
"Cold." She answered then realised she had to try and give more than that. "Tired. But better than earlier."
"You are the filling in an Earp sandwich, this is like every Christmas and Halloween come at once for you, naughty Haughty."
Nicole couldn't help the snort that escaped her.
This seemed to ease Waverly who rolled her eyes.
"I'm just the cheese." Nicole laughed. Ok, so her brain wasn't quite at full speed and that probably sounded funnier in her head.
Wynonna cackled. "Just the cheese in an Earp sandwich. You'll never live this down."
Nicole huffed, "at least I'll live."
All three women went tense. Shit. Nicole had just put her stupid big foot in it once again.
Waverly looked like she'd just told her the property brothers had been cancelled. She felt Wynonna's arm circle her a little bit tighter.
The air in the room changed. She could feel it weighing down on her. Waverly and Wynonna had gotten impossibly closer. She felt like she couldn't take a breath.
She'd lived. Once again, she survived. But that wasn't... When she made the deal, she knew what it meant. She was never going to survive a deal with the Clanton's. Not when surviving meant sacrificing Doc. She shook that woman's hand and knew that she had signed her own life away as bargain. She wouldn't survive but Waverly would be home, safe with Wynonna and Doc by her side to protect her.
Instead, she was still here. Waverly wrapped around her. Wynonna was burrowed into her back. Jeremy and Nedley were home making the place cosy. Rachael had some new strain of kombucha ready for her to try. Her family were all home - all safe.
This realisation made her stomach twist and her heart clench.
They were safe. They were all alive.
"Just breathe with me, baby. It's ok, I've got you." Waverly voice was tender as it cut through her swirling mind.
Waverly felt Nicole's breathes starting to heave. She'd been expecting this - hoping for it? Nicole had been so tightly coiled since she came home. Those 18 months had taken a toll, many tolls, and so far, it seemed like she had let Waverly in to very little of what she was actually thinking and feeling.
A big crying meltdown was a step in the right direction. She'd prefer it to not be while on the cusp of hypothermia on the floor of Shorty's with all three of them in the underwear but a girl can't get everything her own way.
Nicole was still heaving breaths, so Waverly readjusted her grip on her girlfriend. "Just breathe with me baby. It's ok, I've got you."
Wynonna rested her chin on Nicole's shoulder, "we're here, bestie. We've got you."
Waverly almost broke then and there. Never had she heard Wynonna be so gentle and so sincere with another human.
Nicole's erratic breathing had finally given way to tears. Her crying was silent at first but now seemed to be a cacophony of grief. The sobs that ripped out of her were so haunting that Waverly thought they would follow her to every nightmare she would ever have again.
Aching to comfort her girlfriend, she began whispering anything she could think of. "I love you. We're here. We won't ever be apart again. Let it out. Let it go."
She wasn't sure how much time had passed but the sun seemed to be less bright. Nicole's sobs had dissipated and given way to the tiniest of snores. Waverly had decided she should sleep, that the chance of hypothermia was gone. Her body temperature felt more within the realm of normal. And sleep was a healing tool as well.
Wynonna had been silent and stalwart throughout. She held her best friend tightly and tried not to break. Waverly knew how difficult this would have been for her to witness so closely.
"Can you go and bring the truck to the door? We should get her back to the homestead."
"Yeah." But she didn't move. Waverly expected her to run out of the bar given the opportunity. "She's going to be ok."
Waverly wasn't sure if that was a question or a promise. She felt the lump in her throat fizz.
"She will. We'll be here."
At that, Wynonna looked her in the eye and nodded. It was a promise she understood now.
"Ok" Wynonna breathed as she untangled herself from the redhead and carefully removed herself from the blanket while trying to keep as much heat in as possible, tucking the blanket under Nicole as she went.
"Back in 5." She whispered as she finished dressing.
Waverly nodded then turned her full attention back to her sleeping girlfriend. She stroked her damp hair as she laid a kiss on her forehead.
She found herself humming, the silence a little bit too much for her.
Nicole shifted slightly in her arms and let out a small peep. Waverly took this as good a time as any to try and rouse her.
"Baby?" A muffled moan was her response.
"You ready to get off this barroom floor and go home?"
"God yes." Came the clearer reply.