A few hours later Wynonna, arrived back at the hospital to check on Waverly and Nicole. They both stood at the end of Nicole's bed discussing the monster in the woods, when nurse Bessie came in and stood next to Nicole.
Waverly quickly turned towards her "What are you doing?" she said panicked
"Her bandages need changing, dear"
Waverly shook her head "No, get away from her…" she said moving towards her
"Waverly, it's alright, she a nurse -"
"No she's not" Waverly said and turned towards Wynonna quickly reached for peacemaker and pointed it at Bessie, the nurse's eyes widened and she took a step away from Nicole.
"You know what this is?" Waverly asked menacingly
"WAVERLY!" Wynonna had no idea what was going on, but her sister had just pulled a gun on an elderly nurse
"I do" said the nurse calmly
"Then you know what it can do. Step away from her" Waverly threatened
"But you aren't the heir, dear" Bessie smiled apologetically
Wynonna still didn't know what was going on, but as always was on Waverly's side and if this nurse knew about peacemaker and what it could do in the hands of the Earp heir, she was not a regular nurse. She stood beside Waverly and took peacemaker out of her hand without taking it off of the nurse "No she's not, but I am, now do as she says"
The barrel of the gun started to glow as it normally did, but this time it didn't glow orange and red, but light blue. They all looked at it, Wynonna and Waverly with surprise and Bessie with what looked like fear.
"Waverly?" Wynonna questioned, she needed an explanation
"She's not a normal nurse" Waverly accused
"Oh, I am, I am qualified to treat-"
"Well then, you're not a normal person" Waverly interrupted from where she stood next to Wynonna
Bessie tilted her head to the side "One might say i'm not a person at all" she mused quietly
"Get away from her" Waverly stated yet again, still fearing what she might do to her girlfriend
Bessie sighed and stepped forward towards them slightly "Dear, I will not harm the officer…"
"How do I know that?" she was getting anxious "How do I know you aren't like that man…" Waverly pointed to the corridor "from earlier…"
"I'm not" Bessie stated "My calling is to help, whether it be those who are suffering or those who need comfort, I help ease their pain, and that may mean by changing bandages or helping them pass on to what comes after, but I do not hurt and I do not hunt"
"Hunt?" Waverly repeated worried
Bessie sighed again, she didn't like having to explain this to mortals even if she didn't do it often, but she still spoke softly "The gentleman who was here, if he was going to hurt Ms. Haught he would have done so, it is obviously not what he was here to do"
"Then why was he here?" Waverly asked
Bessie shrugged "I'm afraid I don't know, we rarely interfere with others work" She smiled "Now would you mind putting that down…" She pointed at peacemaker "This is my work and I do have other people to tend to today and these bandages wont change themselves" she smiled again
Waverly and Wynonna both stood for a moment. Wynonna looked at her sister and when she nodded her approval, she lowered peacemaker.
"Just so you know, nursie, if you hurt Nicole, I wont hesitate sending you back to hell" Wynonna threatened as Bessie leaned over Nicole and started carefully undoing the bandages around her closest arm
She looked up at Wynonna and smiled "Wrong way, dear"
Wynonna blinked her confusion, then thought she understood what Bessie had meant. She quickly turned to Waverly and mouthed "Heaven?"
Waverly nodded
Both of the Earp girls stood at the end of Nicole's bed and watched as the nurse carefully undid the bandages on one arm, reapplied fresh ones and then did the same to Nicole's other arm.
Waverly winced and took hold of Wynonna's hand when she saw Nicole's skin underneath the protection. Her hands looked badly burnt and blistered and extremely painful. But the further up her arm Waverly looked the less burned they seemed to be. But the wounds didn't seem like a normal burn though, they appeared to be lines of some sort, not the kind of burn you might see from a fire. But they were still burnt and looked immensely painful and worse than she had imagined. As she held Wynonna's hand her eyes started to fill with tear. The thought that Nicole's arms were so badly hurt because of her upset her more than she thought it could have.
When Bessie had finished her work she turned to them both "Are we done here, girls?"
Waverly nodded while looking at Nicole, the shock of seeing just how badly she was hurt was distracting her from anything else, even the fact that the nurse seemed to in fact be some sort of angel
"For now" Wynonna said staring at the nurse as she left.
When she had gone Wynonna turned to Waverly "Okay, what the hell was that?" She asked
Waverly walked down the side of Nicole's bed and stroked her forehead and cheek, then kissed it. She'd thought the wounds on her own neck were bad, but they were nothing compared to Nicole's
"Baby girl?…"
"I'm not sure" Waverly said distracted by Nicole still. As she said it Thunderbolt jumped back onto the bed, after hiding from the nurse, and stared at Waverly
"What did she mean about heaven…?"
Waverly turned her attention from Nicole back to her sister "I did some research this afternoon and it looks like she's been working here or at least in Purgatory since at least 1856…"
"1856?" Wynonna turned towards the door with surprise "She doesn't look a day over… sixty?"
Waverly smiled "It's also possible she is some sort of angel"
"Angel?" Wynonna said surprised and confused
Waverly nodded
Wynonna thought for a bit "So, what does that mean? Do I have to…?" She twirled peacemaker around her finger a bit
"I don't know" Waverly sighed and leaned against the bed
"I don't know if I want to shoot an angel…. how many years bad luck do you think that might be?" she mused
Waverly just looked at her sister and started to worry. If Wynonna's first thought was still that she had to shoot someone even though they were an angel, then what might happen when she found out about Nicole? She might have to try to avoid this whole situation until she could speak to Nicole about it.
"I think we should just keep an eye on the nurse, I don't trust her completely but she could have done anything to Nicole by now and she hasn't… but that other guy…"
"Why would an angel want to hurt Nicole anyway?" Wynonna asked "Why would an angel hurt anyone?"
Waverly just shrugged and sighed "I'm too tired for all this, I can't think" she said sitting next to Nicole's bed. She hadn't slept well since the whole possession thing and the stress of the last few days was really starting to take it's toll on her.
"Why don't you go back to the homestead and i'll stay with Nicole" Wynonna said standing next to Waverly and putting her hand on her shoulder
It sounded nice to Waverly, but she still couldn't bring herself to leave Nicole's side, she still felt responsible for her being in this situation "Thanks, but i'll stay…anyway Dolls and Doc might need you for something" Waverly smiled
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, i'll be fine, i'll be home later"
Wynonna moved to the end of the bed "Okay, call me if you need anything…" She pointed at Waverly for emphasis "I mean it …also are you sure that cat should be doing that…" she wiggled her finger at Thunderbolt, who was again laying on Nicole's arm purring "…seems unhygienic" she said making a grossed out face
Waverly looked at the cat "Well, actually…" she started in her best knowledgable voice "it is said that a cats purr can help with healing, as sounds that are the same frequency as a cats purr are proven to be medically therapeutic-"
"Yeah yeah, alright wiki Earp" Wynonna interrupted rolling her eyes "Geez…" She then turned and left shaking her head.
—
She's pretty sure she'd never been this scared in her life, not when she knew she was possessed by some sort of demon, not when revenants had tied a rope around her neck and stood her on a stool at the entrance to the homestead and not even when she rushed into Nedley's office and kissed Nicole for the first time.
But now no matter how hard she tried she couldn't see anything in the pitch black that surrounded her. and she couldn't remember how long she'd been here either, but it felt like days.
She slowly walked forward in the dark, testing the ground with her toes before she placed her foot down. The ground felt like rocks and gravel under her bare feet, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't see it. Whenever she put her hands out in front or to the side there was nothing there. She didn't even know where she was going, there was no horizon to aim for, no sun, no moon, no stars, she'd put her hand in front of her face and couldn't even see the outline. How long she'd been walking she didn't know, but she thought she'd be better off moving than staying in one spot.
After what seemed like hours of darkness and silence, she suddenly heard something to her right, some sort of scurrying. She quickly turned towards the sound
"Hello?"
There was no reply.
But then there was more noise to her left. Again she span towards the sound, which sounded closer than the last.
She heard another sound, this time from behind her, she turned and began to panic, whatever these sounds were they were surrounding her.
Then out of the corner of her eye something caught her attention. As soon as she saw what it was she wished she hadn't.
In front of her were two orange glowing lights about two foot off the ground. They began to move towards her and as she started to back away from them they appeared to blink. As soon as she saw that she knew they were eyes, but the eyes of what she didn't know.
She started to move away from the advancing eyes quickly and as she did more started to appear in front of her and around the one that was already there, she then felt something brushed against the back of her legs. In a panic she tried to turn away from them and fell backwards onto the ground.
But the eyes kept advancing and there were more noises around her
"Oh, god…" she pushed herself away along the ground, even though she could hear noises behind her.
Actually, wait, was that a voice?
"Help" she shouted into the blackness
"Please, help"
"…. Earp?" said a voice quietly
"HELP" she screamed
"Ms Earp?"
She woke with a start to find Bessie the nurse kneeling in front of her. It took her a couple of seconds to catch her breath and remember where she was.
Something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. Was it a white glow of some sort? whatever it was was gone now, but Bessie's hand remained on hers.
She looked back at Bessie "What.. what are you doing?" she said still waking up and confused
"You were having a nightmare, dear" She smiled "I was just trying to help…to wake you…"
Waverly quickly pulled her hand out from under Bessie's and gave her an unsure look. Bessie looked upset and pushed herself up to stand again. She looked at Nicole then back down at Waverly and sighed
"No matter what you may think, Ms Earp, I do not mean you or the officer any harm"
Waverly looked at her still trying to decide if she should trust this woman or not, but before she could say anything the nurse stepped back and sighed
"I'm afraid visiting hours are over Ms Earp, you will have to come back in the morning" She started to leave and then turned around again "I can change your dressings tomorrow as well if you'd like" she didn't wait for a reply before she left the room
—
As the days passed Waverly had started getting into a routine. She always arrived as visiting hours started at nine on the dot, she greeted Nicole and checked she was okay, then set herself up next to her bed. Every day Thunderbolt would tag along, she didn't always jump on Nicole's bed though, sometimes she sat in Waverly's lap and slept or purred while watching what she was doing. Not that Waverly minded, they'd become friends since all of this began, of course it could just be that Waverly was the one feeding her. But the cat would always know when a member of staff was coming and would disappear under the bed or chair until they had left.
With every passing day Waverly got more and more trusting of nurse Bessie, she hadn't given Waverly any reason not trust her really. She had changed both her and Nicole bandages a number of times and had always taken great care in doing so. She had explained to Waverly how to dress a wound properly and had actually let her help change some of Nicole's, she'd appreciated that, it helped her feel like she was useful and that she was helping Nicole in some way.
She was becoming quite used to the routine and in some ways looked forward to it, so when her jeep had refused to start on day six, she felt out of salts.
She banged the steering wheel with both hands "Seriously" She shouted at it
Thunderbolt popped her head out of Waverly's bag and looked up at her
"Don't look at me like that…. okay, sorry, I didn't mean to shout" She sat back and tried to calm herself down then tried the engine again.
Nothing
"Bollocks" she said whacking the wheel again.
She quickly grabbed her bag and went back into the house "Wynonna?" she shouted "Wynonna you have to take me to the hospital"
"Why? What's happened?" Wynonna said rushing out of the kitchen with a spoon half covered in what looked like yoghurt and looking worried
"The stupid jeep wont start"
Wynonna was confused for a second and then realised what Waverly meant "Baby girl, don't do that to me! I thought you meant you were hurt!"
"What? No! but I don't want to be late, it's nearly nine already"
Wynonna rolled her eyes "Dude, she's not gonna notice if you're late"
"Wynonna!" Waverly was slightly hurt by that
"Okay, sorry" Wynonna said putting her hands up as she made her way to the stairs "Give me a minute and i'll get dressed" she said putting the spoon in her mouth
Twenty minutes later and Waverly was standing at the door fidgeting with annoyance and anxiety "WYNONNA!" she shouted up the stairs
"I'm coming, i'm coming" Wynonna said slowly walking down the stairs putting her jacket on
"Finally"
"Hey missy, I don't have to take you, you know, I could just take Dolls' truck out for a ride and miss the hospital entirely" she said lifting an eyebrow at Waverly, who just looked like a lost puppy back at her "okay, okay, come on"
When they eventually arrived at the hospital at half past nine Wynonna decided she would come and see Nicole as well.
As they walked down the corridor to Nicole's room and passed the nurses station, Bessie looked up from her work and noticed the Earp sisters walk past.
"Oh, running a little late today, Miss Earp?" She asked smiling
Wynonna carried on walking and just smiled and vaguely laughed, but Waverly slowed and turned to the nurse "I know, my stupid Jeep wouldn't start" She rolled her eyes and leaned against the nurses desk "Had to wait for old slow coach here to give me a lift" She said jerking her thumb in Wynonna direction, even though she was already inside Nicole's room.
It looked as though Bessie was going to say something more, but was interrupted by another nurse rushing up to her. Waverly could tell it was important so she smiled and indicated that she would leave them to it, then she made her way to Nicole.
As she reached the door to the room fear stopped her in her tracks and her heart started to race with panic.
Standing at the end of Nicole's bed was Wynonna, her arm outstretched with peacemaker drawn and pointed at someone hidden behind the curtain that separated the room. From where she stood in the doorway Waverly couldn't see who it was, but she feared the worst.