Nicole had been calling and texting Waverly all morning with no reply. She had the day off and hoped they could spend some of it together. She was starting to get a little bit worried now though, Nedley had mentioned that Wynonna had taken one of the women from the cult home last night and Nicole's imagination was running wild.

"I'm just being silly aren't I?" She asked Thunderbolt as she sat on the sofa looking at her phone "Someone who's been in a cult for years couldn't be a threat….they all seemed very….mellow…. they wouldn't be brainwashed, would they?….or easily startled in the night… and lash out…." Thunderbolt just stared at her for a moment then turned back to looking out of the window.

Nicole had successfully freaked herself out at the thought and decided to give it one more shot before she went to the Earp homestead to check on her girlfriend. She picked up her phone and just as she was about to call that super cute picture of Waverly smiling popped up on the screen.

She answered it quickly "Hi Wave!"

"Hey, I saw all your calls and stuff…" She said in a distracted voice

"Yeah, sorry I was just checking you were alright…..you sound….are you okay?" Nicole asked concerned, Waverly was not sounding her normal bubbly self

"It's just been hectic here….but i'm….i'm fine…."

"Are you still up for the poker spectacular tonight?" Nicole asked hopefully trying to cheer Waverly up

"Oh yeah, sure…."

"Are you sure you're okay? I can come to the homestead if you'd like…."

"No, no that's fine, i'll come to you…..are you at work?"

"No, i'm off today, i'm just sitting here with Thunderbolt…"

"Okay, i'll pop round in an hour or so okay?" Waverly cut in and then hung up

—

Nicole looked up from what she was doing when Thunderbolt started meowing at her from her favourite spot at the window. She got up and saw Waverly jumping out of her jeep from the window. She smiled as she watched her girlfriend whip her scarf around her neck and shove her hands in her coat pockets to hide them from the cold.

"She's here" she said quietly smiling, Thunderbolt looked up at her and meowed again as Nicole tickled her head and quickly moved towards her front door. She waited there for the sound of Waverly's footsteps and opened it just as she reached the door.

Waverly stood in the open doorway with a confused look on her face and her hand raised ready to knock

"Hey" Nicole beamed

"Err, hey!" Waverly said in confusion

"I saw you coming.." Nicole gestured towards the window with her head

"Oh" Waverley said absently as she walked in.

Nicole watched her with concern as she took off her big coat and placed it onto the back of one of the dinning chairs. She had on a patterned skirt and gold sparkly top, the bottom of which barely touched the top of the skirt. It looked nice from the back and fantastic from the front, but her top didn't distract Nicole from Waverly's sad expression.

"Are you alright? you seemed distracted on the phone and.." Nicole stopped when Waverly walked straight up to her, buried her face in her chest and wrapped her arms around Nicole's waist. Nicole was surprised for a moment, it wasn't like they hadn't hugged before but this was different, Waverly held on to her like she needed the support or wanted Nicole to envelop her.

Nicole wrapped her arms around Waverly and placed her chin on top of her head and gave a small squeeze. They didn't say anything for what felt to Nicole like an age. She slowly brushed her hands up and down Waverly's back, but as Waverly squashed her face into Nicole more she had to say something.

"Wave, honey, please tell me what's wrong…" she said softly

Waverly moved her head to the side so she could speak, she sighed "I just needed…to see a friendly face…to see you"

"What's happened?" Nicole asked softly

After a moment Waverly pulled away, but didn't look up. She then shook her head and tried to smile convincingly "It's nothing"

Nicole reached up and moved the hair out of Waverly's face softly and cupped her cheek with her hand "Pretty sure that's a lie" she smiled

Waverly looked up at her, she couldn't help but be surprised by Nicole. There was no chance Champ would have persisted this much, he would have just made some puerile joke about sex and tried to distance himself from the whole conversation, but not Nicole, she wanted to help, needed to help. She smiled a little as Nicole started rubbing her cheek with her thumb.

She sighed "You know Wynonna let that girl Eve come home with her?….. Well it turns out that she isn't Eve…. she's Willa.."

"Willa? your sister?" Nicole asked

"Yup" Waverly said somewhat sadly and stepped away from Nicole

Nicole watched her walk away "Isn't… isn't that a good thing?"

"It should be…." Waverly started "..it is….but it's like having a stranger in the house, I was only six when she died, or when we thought she'd died, and now…..I don't know her" She shook her head "The girl I knew used to take my toys and … pull them apart or hide them, and her and Wynonna would always leave me out of things because I was younger…." She sighed

Nicole walked over to Waverly and hugged her again resting her cheek on her head, Waverly wrapped her arms round her again.

"You know you are always welcome here, if you ever need to get away or talk or just sit quietly or whatever, you can come here.." Nicole said and she could feel Waverly smile against her chest

"Thank you" she said into Nicole

"And if you don't want to go to the Poker Spectacular later we don't have to go, we could just go out for dinner or stay in…"

Waverly pulled away, but not enough for their arms to unwrap, and smiled up at her girlfriend "You really are an angel" She said and raised up on her tiptoes and kissed Nicole.

Nicole smiled "Half angel" she corrected with a wink

—

Later that evening they arrived at the local Italian restaurant that Nicole had wanted to try for a while. Waverly really hadn't felt like going to a big gathering of people, who would more than likely get drunk and rowdy and this place was nice and intimate. They were seated against a wall on a table for two.

"How are you feeling?" Nicole asked

"I'm okay….It's just so much to take in, you know? It's been just me and Wynonna for so long…well until she went away, but it was me and her, together, no dad, no mom….. and now suddenly Willa comes back from the dead…" She shook her head "I don't know…."

Nicole reached her hand across the table sympathetically towards Waverly, who looked up and smiled "Ergh, enough about my dysfunctional family…" Waverly said not really wanting to think or talk about the whole situation. She just wanted to enjoy a nice dinner with her girlfriend and not think about what waited for her at home "…I bet your family is no where near as crazy as mine huh?" Waverly smiled "although I don't think i've heard you talk about them"

"Heh!" Nicole laughed to herself and thought about her family. There was no way they were less dysfunctional than Waverly's. "No, I suppose I don't talk about them…" Where would she start?

They were silent for a moment until there food came. "Oh this looks nice" Nicole said as the plate of pasta was placed in front of her, hoping to change the subject.

Waverly looked at her dinner as well but said "You don't have to if you don't want…talk about your family I mean" she smiled

Nicole started to say something but stopped. She smiled at Waverly and sighed "I wouldn't know where to start…..I've never really spoken about them to anyone, not the truth anyway….."

"Well, do you have any brothers or sisters?" Waverly asked before taking a bite of her dinner

"I don't, no….. heh, I think one child was risky enough" she smiled

Waverely cocked her head in question, she still had her mouth full

Nicole looked around the restaurant to make sure there wasn't really anyone in earshot "My mother… well, she wasn't meant to even be here, on earth … and to have one child with a human… they….. they certainly didn't approve of that" Nicole said in hushed tones with a distant look in her eyes

"They?" Waverly asked

"Some of the other angels…. after I was born my parents moved around a lot, we didn't really stay anywhere for too long, I remember when I was about four, I think it was, my mother woke me in the middle of the night and made me grab my things and we jumped in the car and drove….for days as far as I can remember"

"The other angels were after your mom?" Waverly asked

Nicole nodded "For a long time I didn't know why it was we had to move around so much, I knew my mother was…special I suppose, she had an aura about her, not one you could see, but you could feel it and see it in other people when she was around them, I didn't understand it as a child though… my father explained it all to me after my mother…." Nicole looked up to see Waverly watching her.

Waverly hadn't seen Nicole this venerable before, she was always so strong. Waverly leaned forward and placed her hand over Nicole's on the table, she stroked her thumb over the top of Nicole's fingers brushing the ring on her finger "You don't have to tell me, if you don't want…"

"No, it's okay…" Nicole looked at their hands noticing the silver and green ring. "That was the last thing my mother gave me" Nicole said moving her hand and touching the ring with her thumb.

Waverly smiled "I wondered why you always wear it…I don't think i've seen you without it"

Nicole's face dropped a little "When I was about ten my mother took me out of school in the middle of the day, she didn't have to tell me why, we rushed back to the flat we were living in at the time, my father was already packing our things into the car, they told me to grab my things and get in the car, we drove until it was dark" Nicole didn't take her eyes off the ring "I could hear them talking in the front of the car, saying how it was too late, that this time they had been too careless…. She gave me her ring that night, put it around my neck on some ribbon and told me never to take it off, not long after that the car… something hit us, the car span out of control, flew off the road, hit a tree or something, the windows smashed and glass went everywhere… the next thing I remember was bright white lights outside the car, making it seem like daylight, I saw my father unconscious in the front and my mother was being dragged out of the car…. then the light vanished … that was the last time I saw her"

"Oh my god Nicole, I had no idea…"

Nicole smiled a little "No one does, my father told me never to tell anyone, he said that they might come for me next, the ring, my mother's ring…hides me from them…when I heal myself it… they can sense it somehow, but the ring counteracts that…"

"That's way you said it was dangerous…" Waverly said

"If I don't need to heal, I don't, it's not worth the risk" Nicole said. She looked at Waverly, she really hadn't told anyone that before, but she trusted Waverly, I mean she's been dealing with demon for a while so she couldn't really think any of this was too weird. "So, who's family is crazier now then?" she smiled and laughed a little

Waverly cocked her head to the side and smiled "I thought I was doing pretty well, but then you go and try to beat me" she laughed

—

"You don't have to walk me to my car y'know" Waverly said putting her arm through Nicole's as they walked out of the restaurant

"It's all part of the service ma'am" Nicole said with a smile squeezing Waverly's arm with her own

Waverly laughed and leaned into Nicole, she liked that they could spend a little bit more time together and she was glad that they now didn't have any secrets, or at least no big ones anyway. Now that they had shared so much, she felt closer to Nicole.

They walked a little further towards Waverly's car and Nicole's flat in comfortable silence, then Waverly said shyly "You could always just walk me back to your place"

Nicole turned to look at her, not entirely sure what that might mean. Waverly looked up at her and saw Nicole's reaction, realising how that sounded.

"Oh, I mean, I didn't mean…." she fumbled "I just meant I don't want the evening to end quite yet" She smiled blushing a little. She didn't really want to go home yet either.

"Me either" Nicole smiled back "I can walk you wherever you'd like to go, just name it"

"Your place."

"Yes, ma'am" Nicole smiled

As they walked slowly back to Nicole's flat Nicole looked up at the clear sky "I love the sky out here" she said distracted "You can't see the stars in the city, but here….It's just so beautiful… I've missed it"

Waverly looked up as well "You should see it from the homestead, it's even better"

—

"I'm sorry about this evening" Nicole said as they took off their coats and hung them up.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you came to see me to get away from family drama and then I spend most of the evening telling you all of mine"

"Don't be ridiculous" Waverly said placing her arm on Nicole's "I'm glad you told me, now we can compare how screwed up our families and childhoods were" she laughed

"Would you like a drink?" Nicole asked as she moved towards the kitchen

"I have to drive home so maybe just some lemonade, if you have any" Waverly answered sitting on the sofa

After a moment Nicole came and sat next to Waverly with two glasses of lemonade. She placed them on the coffee table and placed one leg under herself and turned so she was sitting facing Waverly.

Waverly turned towards her "Did you have to leave the city, is that why you came to Purgatory? Did they find you there?"

Nicole tilted her head "I didn't see anyone specifically, but I had a feeling, maybe I was being paranoid, I don't know, but when the job came up here I thought it might be nice to go somewhere new, somewhere smaller, and it's nice here, I like it" She smiled

"Like?" Waverly asked a little upset

"Yeah, I like it" Nicole smiled cheekily "…mostly…there are some things I like more than others…there is this really cute girl who works in a bar, I like her a lot more than others…" She winked at Waverly and Waverly's heart skipped a beat, she blushed a little and laughed.

Nicole studied Waverly's face as she smiled and looked down at the attention "You know in the whole of that big city I never once met anyone like you" Nicole said smiling

"Well, I can pull a pint better than anyone" Waverly laughed

"You shouldn't underestimate yourself, you are one of the smartest people I've met, you've done all of those courses and you're great at researching…" Nicole still studied Waverly "You are also the most beautiful person I have ever seen" she smiled "The first time I saw you.." she paused to find the right words

"You mean when I was sopping wet covered with beer?" Waverly laughed at the memory

Nicole smiled as well and laughed "Well, that was the first time I spoke to you, it wasn't the first time I saw you, the first time I saw you you were walking towards Shorty's, you looked like you were in a rush, but you looked happy in the sun, then you met someone coming towards you and your face just lite up with a smile that was so distracting I nearly missed a red light" Nicole smiled "The whole day I hoped that one day I could make you smile like that"

Waverly smiled cheekily "You thought about me all day?" she teased

Nicole blushed a little "I kept seeing you around town and could never get up the nerve to talk to you" she smiled "But then there was that disturbance at Shorty's and I had to investigate it, for some reason it didn't cross my mind that you would be in there, but when I got there and saw you at the bar…. you know I was actually meant to ask you questions about that disturbance" she laughed

"Couldn't manage it though, huh?" Waverly teased again

"You were quite the distraction…..you still are" She smiled and before she could prepare herself Waverly had reached out, held her cheek and kissed her.

As they kissed Waverly slowly pushed Nicole back so she was eventually laying with her head on the arm rest of the sofa with Waverly on top of her. Nicole moved the leg that she had been sitting on so it was resting up against the back sofa cushions and Waverly was between her legs with her full weight on her.

During the kiss Waverly caught Nicole's lip between her own and to both of there surprise Nicole let out a small moan. Nicole pulled away slightly breaking the kiss "Oh, sorry, I.."

Waverly laughed "Don't be" she said quietly before kissing Nicole again. She found it funny that she would apologise for that, funny and cute. She moved one of her hands to rest on Nicole's chest and the other on her cheek as they continued to kiss.

While Waverly's hands stayed pretty much where they were, Nicole's had started to roam a little. They had started on Waverly's back, but had slowly moved down and ended up where Waverly's gold top had barely touched the top of her skirt, when her hands had reached there she felt a thin sliver of skin. Nicole couldn't help but push her hands under the top to feel the warm skin underneath.

Nicole was so engrossed in the kiss and the feel of Waverly's skin she hadn't noticed Waverly stiffen a little, and as her breathing got quicker and the kiss intensified she moved one hand down Waverly's back, under the waist band of her skirt and underwear and found herself squeezing Waverly's bum.

She immediately knew she had gone too far when Waverly stiffen again and pulled away from the kiss quickly. Nicole moved her hands away quickly at the sight of Waverly's discomfort and distress.

"I'm sorry…" Waverly said looking away

"No no, i'm sorry, it's my fault.." Nicole said quickly putting her hands up and feeling awful that she had gone to far.

"No, I just.."

Nicole shook her head and quickly but awkwardly pulled herself up the sofa untangling her legs from Waverly's and standing "I shouldn't have… I mean I didn't mean to make you feel.." Nicole spluttered as she moved to lean against the kitchen counter

Waverly kneeled on the middle of the sofa and watched as Nicole tried to get her breath back. "I'm sorry"

"Waves.." Nicole said trying to slow her breathing "You have nothing to apologise for, this was my fault, I wasn't thinking straight, you know i'd never mean to make you feel uncomfortable and i'd never pressure you into something you weren't ready for" she shook her head apologetically.

They were both silent for a moment.

"Soon, Nicole" Waverly said quietly. Then after a moment "I should go" she said solemnly getting up off the sofa. Nicole just nodded

"I really didn't mean to ruin the whole of our day, what with the meal and …" Nicole said following Waverly to the door

Waverly turned around "Don't be silly, you didn't, we had a great evening" she said smiling and touching Nicole's cheek and leaning up and kissing her softly "It's alight. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay. Text me when you get home too" Nicole said leaning against the door frame and watching Waverly walk down the corridor

"I will" Waverly smiled back and waved