Hi guys, thanks for waiting for this update. We've reached the part of the series now (1x04) where Nicole was unforgivably absent so it's time to fill in some of those blanks. Please r/r!

It wasn't that Purgatory had more murders than the city, it was that the number of Purgatory murders seemed disproportionate to its size. Honestly, it was a miracle they hadn't run out of townsfolk by now.

In the city, murder was an unfortunately frequent enough occurrence that there were dedicated homicide detectives ready, poised to investigate. The closest Nicole had ever really gotten to a murder scene was standing outside keeping the morbidly curious spectators at bay. She wasn't part of any crime-scene response unit, so there had been no cause for her to do anything other than help string up the yellow tape, direct traffic the other way and give people judging looks when they asked who died with a little too excited a look on their face. The judging looks part was a perk at least.

The perk of being a cop in Purgatory was that the dedicated homicide team was also the crime scene unit, the traffic control unit and the unit that helped the usual inebriates get home after a few too many at Shorty's. It was one of the main reasons Nicole had taken the job here. It was a stunning place to live and the pay wasn't bad, but it offered her the chance to get hands on with every part of police work going spare. A career as a small-town Sheriff's Deputy offered better opportunities for experience and progression than the fruitless battle for experience that came with participating in the big city rat race. Here in Purgatory, Nicole wouldn't have to be banished to the street outside the crime scene, cordoning off the sidewalk and ushering people behind the barriers. She was becoming Nedley's right hand man - ahem, woman - a position that guaranteed her a spot right next to the action.

It was this knowledge that fuelled her more or less dumbfounded expression at being instructed by Nedley to 'keep the rubberneckers at bay'.

"But… sir I want to stick with you, I want to help," she insisted, confused as to why she was suddenly being benched.

Nedley generally didn't telegraph his thoughts or his plans, but Nicole had been starting to get the impression that he'd pegged her as the Deputy he could turn to. They'd developed a good rapport with him as first in command and her as his second. Sometimes this rapport would take the form of an extra stack of reports on her desk to complete, or the graveyard shift that nobody else ever seemed to get lumbered with. To start with, Nicole had felt like it was a sort of hazing ritual for her being new. Next, she'd thought it was because Nedley was testing her, expecting her to prove herself. More recently she'd started to feel as if was because he knew he could rely on her to get the job done, and done well.

This... being physically halted in her tracks as she made to walk up the steps to the crime scene, being handed the roll of yellow tape… this felt like a punishment. For what, she couldn't begin to say. As confused as she was, she wasn't remotely prepared for the statement that followed.

"Well, your wish is my command Haught," Nedley huffed grumpily. "I'll be patrolling out front here as well."

Nicole blinked and stared. For a moment she almost forgot herself and hissed a disbelieving "What?" at her boss. Thankfully she regained her composure and simply pursed her lips, grinding her teeth together to distract herself. Nedley huffed again, scowling at the line of neighbourhood people that were trying to catch a glimpse as the coroner headed inside the building. Nicole watched him irritably amble over and tell them "there's nothing to see here folks."

Nicole tried to catch a glimpse inside the building herself while her boss was occupied. Her efforts were cut short by the sound of a familiar voice approaching. She rolled her eyes.

"Officer Haught. I already spoke to Nedley. We'll take it from here."

Nicole worked hard to force a neutral expression onto her face and turned to greet Dolls as he approached, Wynonna tailing behind, coffee in hand.

"Deputy Marshal," Nice gave the most minute of nods by way of a hello, her lips pursed and eyes steely.

Dolls stormed on ahead without paying the redhead any further attention. Wynonna, sidled up to Nicole and gave her an exaggerated wink.

"I think he secretly likes you," she declared unconvincingly, before following him up the steps and into the house. Nicole might have laughed if she hadn't had to grind her molars to keep from growling in frustration.

Wynonna Earp, who had been deputised all of a few weeks ago, was attending the murder scene of a town local while she, Officer Haught, Sheriff's Deputy, was reduced to waiting outside on crowd control. And if her nose was as on point like she thought, she was pretty sure it hadn't been coffee in that cup.

Nicole dutifully began cordoning off the area of pavement outside the residence, insisting along with Nedley that there was "nothing to see here" and that the neighbours should just go on home.

I'm so glad I spent all that time and effort training to be a cop, she thought bitterly. She huffed a hefty sigh that Nedley himself would have been proud of and tucked her thumbs in her belt while she let her mind drift a little.

She tried to remind herself that, in terms of her career, she was still something of a rookie. Compared with her coworkers, she'd been there all of five minutes. Frustrating as it was to be sidelined by BBD yet again, her main beef was with Nedley and the fact that he had apparently conceded defeat to Dolls. The Sheriff wasn't stupid. Sure he was a tad old fashioned, very stuck in his ways and more than a little grumpy at times, but he always insisted he knew how the town worked and knew what was best to do with it. Nicole had lapped it up when she'd first arrived but the 'knowing looks' he shot her when she pushed too hard for answers were starting to wear thin.

She glanced over at him. The Sheriff was deep in conversation with the owner of the auto shop a block over, and he wasn't looking her way. She chewed her lip, deliberating for a moment.

Eyes fixed to the back of Nedley's head, she took a casual step closer to the building's front door. And then another. And another. And then one more. She was now at the foot of the steps leading up into the house. She risked a glance inside the open front door and caught a glimpse of her coworker, Phelps. He was crouched, taking photos of something on the ground with his iPad.

Oh sure, Phelps is allowed in, she thought bitterly.

Nicole generally liked to think of herself as a nice person and she tried her best not to judge people or be unnecessarily unkind. She'd been determined to keep an open mind when she'd first been introduced to Officer Phelps, but he'd made it difficult when she'd shaken his hand and his first words to her had been, "Haught, like as in 'hot-dog'?" She was used to the jokes about her name but he had said it so earnestly and waited so patiently for a sincere response that she had no choice but to conclude that he was serious. "Uh… no," had been her reply. Since then he had demonstrated similar 'moments' including asking if anyone had seen the hat that was perched on his head at the time, and not grasping why his fellow officers had laughed at him the day he brought a baked potato with a side of fries for lunch.

So yeah, Nicole tried not to be unkind but Phelps… Well Phelps was simply dumber than a bag of hammers. Heart of gold, but brain of dishwater all the same.

And there he was, on the inside of the crime scene, taking photos and hopefully not contaminating too much evidence, while the Sheriff and every other officer with a clue stood outside entertaining the punters. Normally the roles would be totally reversed - Phelps was Nedley's go-to man for keeping the locals back as he was at least a very friendly guy. A red flag started to wave in Nicole's mind. Something about that stood out as particularly odd. She logged it away in her mind to come back to later.

Nicole let her eyes wander back to the street and started casually making pretend notes in her pad, tilting her ear towards the open door.

"...I haven't seen this much blood since Kandahar." She heard Dolls' voice from within the room beyond.

Bingo.

"What were you doing in Iraq?" There was Wynonna's voice. Nicole rolled her eyes, appalled at the Earp's grasp of geography. Wasn't she the one who had travelled?

"Afghanistan, and I'm gonna get you a map. And I'm not at liberty to discuss."

I guess everybody in Purgatory is on a need-to-know-basis, Nicole thought. What an ass. He was the one who brought it up after all.

"You brought it up," Wynonna scoffed a moment later. Nicole smirked. "God damn. Megan Halshford."

"Friend of yours?"

"Hell, no. Couldn't stand her."

"Well, whoever did this made quick work of it. Clean slice through the carotid and jugular. She would have been dead within a minute or so."

"Nasty."

"Hm. Interesting."

"I feel like I should be surprised that that's the word you went for. And yet…"

"No, this is interesting. Her hands, see?"

"You're right. She has two of them - stop the presses!"

"They're unusually clean. Not much blood on them. Doesn't look like she tried to stop the bleeding at all."

"Maybe she was busy trying to stop whoever was trying to dice her up. That'd be my go-to priority."

"If that was the case she'd have been moving around a lot more, and we'd see evidence of another person being here. Blood droplets, prints, particulates…"

"Okay, you're just saying random words now."

Lost in the act of eavesdropping, Nicole had forgotten to even slightly keep up the pretense of doing the job she'd been given. She started when she realised Nedley had walked up in front of her, arms folded. He waited patiently for the explanation he knew she was hurriedly making up on the spot.

"Uh, sir I uh… I was making note of the uh…" She paused and cringed.

Nedley glanced from side to side, to check they were alone, and then leant in with hushed tones. "If you hear anything you think we ought to be in the loop on, let me know. Just you make sure you're doing your job in the meantime."

Nicole nods, unsure of whether she'd just been told off or let in on something. She decided to just accept the apparently lucky escape as Nedley turned his attention back to the crowd. She was in the process of leaning back around to the doorway when someone barged past her, shoving her heavily in the shoulder.

"Woops. Sorry there pardner," Wynonna drawled, not stopping as she went and not looking sorry at all.

Dolls glided down the steps after her looking as stone-faced as usual. Nicole called after him.

"Hey, Deputy Marshal." Dolls stopped and turned, very deliberately. His brow rose in question. "You need any support from us, you just let us know." Nicole offered. Dolls gave a non committal nod and stalked away after Wynonna, pushing through the small crowd of locals.

Nicole ground her teeth. Piqued as she was by having to offer 'support' to the BBD for what was supposed to be a police matter, she was anxious not to undo the progress she'd made in communicating with Dolls. Well, maybe 'communicating' was a strong word, but a silent nod was still better than threatening arrest for treason. And anyway, if she'd heard what she thought she'd heard then perhaps this wasn't just a police matter after all.

Nicole flipped open her notebook to the back, where there were pages filled with notes titled 'BBD'. She started to scribble away urgently.

- Megan Halshford - NOT Wynonna's friend.

- Throat cut - carotid and jugular = dead in a minute.

- Hands clean, didn't try to stop the bleeding. Didn't seem to fight off attacker.

- No evidence of another person at the scene.

- Dolls doesn't tell Wynonna everything.

- Dolls was in Kandahar - involved lots of blood.

She flipped the notepad closed, looking cautiously around to make sure nobody had been watching her.

It was definitely too early to start drawing any conclusions yet about why the BBD was in Purgatory or why this murder fell into their jurisdiction, but Nicole felt like the information she had was starting to build the bare bones of a picture. All she needed to do was keep her ear to the ground and her eyes open. Eventually there would be enough to join the dots.

Nicole knocked back the last of her tepid coffee and shuddered as it made it's way down. OK, maybe 'tepid' had been generous. Still, it was coffee and she certainly needed the boost. She'd ended up stuck with a double shift as the call about Megan Halshford's murder had come in while she was on call early that morning. By the time the scene was cleared she'd seen no point it going back home for the hour and a half until she was due on shift again, and she wouldn't be done until midnight. She'd been processing speeding tickets until two am the night before and by this point she was hitting her first energy wall.

She leant back in her chair with a yawn and blinked the tired out of her eyes.

Nope. She'd definitely need a fresh coffee if she stood a chance of making it to her next break.

She grabbed her mug and got to her feet, checking if Stevens or Tate on the other side of the bullpen wanted a her coworkers' mugs balanced in her hands she made her way to the break room, praying that someone had actually put the cream back in the fridge this time instead of leaving it on the counter top to turn to cheese.

She nudged open the break room door with her foot and careful laid the mugs out beside the coffee machine. She sighed as she started making the drinks, for a moment missing the big city where she never had to make any herself because there was a coffee cart on every corner. She closed her eyes and let herself remember the smell of quality coffee beans. She opened them and looked back down at the sad old coffee maker on the counter top. It was stained with dribbly coffee lines and the lid had loosened over the years of use enough that it rattled like a bubbling pot on a stove whenever the thing was turned on.

It's got character, she told herself in some attempt at loyalty.

Her bonding moment with the coffee maker was then disrupted by the sound of stomping footsteps and an angry voice in the hallway outside.

"... you think that I'm not gonna go introduce his ass to the sidewalk? C'mon Baby Girl you know me better than that." Nicole rolled her eyes as she recognised Wynonna dulcet tones.

She went to pop her head around the door to make sure everything was OK when she heard Waverly chime in and felt her heartbeat speed up a little.

"I know he's a grade-A jackass but think about it, if he'd really wanted to hit me he would have… " Nicole couldn't contain the gasp as she clawed her way around the doorframe in time to see the older Earp storm out of the station entrance, as Waverly called after her. "Wynonna!"

Waverly groaned irritability as she watched her sister go.

"Hey is everything OK?" Nicole said softly, still leaning on the doorframe.

Waverly whirled around, startled. She seemed to be startled all over again when she registered that it was Nicole standing in front of her.

"No, I mean yes. It's nothing, don't worry about it." She waved her hand dismissively and smiled. "It's just Wynonna bein' all… Wynonna. You've met her right?"

"Well not properly but, she seems… Interesting." Nicole let go of the doorframe and took a step closer to the woman in front of her, chewing the inside of her lip. "Listen, I'm real sorry, I wasn't trying to eavesdrop but… Did somebody try to hit you?"

Waverly suddenly went rigid and the smile disappeared from her eyes.

"No… no, no it's uh… it's just a silly… blackjack!"

Nicole blinked. "Blackjack?"

"Yeah, you know like when you draw a card, sometimes you say it like 'hit me!'... And it's just this friend of ours, he gets a little too into the game…" the smile was back on Waverly's face again and Nicole mirrored it back without even realising it.

"Right," she nodded vaguely with no attempt to disguise how unconvinced she was by the blackjack story. "Well, just so long as your friends are behaving themselves." She grit her teeth a little as Champ briefly flickered through her mind. She dismissed it. He was a doofus but there was no evidence he was violent and it wasn't fair to make that assumption just because she thought he was cretin.

Silence fell between them for a moment. Waverly's eyes had dropped down and she was fiddling with the hem of her own shirt. Nicole took a breath and swallowed as the silence started to make her pulse race again.

"I've been meaning to drop by actually and see how you've been doing since… Shorty." Waverly looked up at the mention of Shorty's name. "How're you holding up?"

The brunette smiled very slightly and gave a meek little shrug. "Alright I guess. Gus, my aunt, has been running the bar since. Things have been quieter. Still getting used to him not being around."

Waverly cast her eyes down again, her shoulders hunched in a little, picking at her hem again. Nicole instinctively reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder before she'd lost her nerve.

"Well, if you ever need anything," she started to say. And then Waverly looked up expectantly and Nicole's confidence evaporated. What was she about to offer? A shoulder to cry on? Some company? It suddenly felt far too forward to suggest anything so presumptuous. She finished with, "you know you can call us."

Us. The police. Not Nicole specifically. Good save. She let her hand drop back to her side.

Waverly smiled and nodded again, her eyes never leaving Nicole's. They stood there, pupils locked on each other's, for what felt like ages though it probably wasn't, until-

"Haught! What's the hold up, my two-year-old can make coffee faster than this!" Officer Tate's voice echoed down the hallway and Nicole huffed a sigh, looking away and breaking the connection with Waverly. The brunette smiled jovially and looked away too, seemingly embarrassed.

"Well, uh… Duty calls," Nicole said, pointing her thumb casually over her shoulder at the breakroom.

"Yeah, I'm... totally. Me too," Waverly started to ramble again, wringing her hands and leaning towards the door. "I uh, gotta get to work. Those beers won't pour themselves!" she laughed and Nicole couldn't help but laugh too as she backed up towards the break room.

"OK, sure. Well, don't be a stranger."

Waverly nodded as she headed out the door, averting her eyes quickly away from the red-headed officer as she went. Nicole let out a long, slow breath and returned to the coffee maker.

It was happy hour so, naturally, Nedley was already over at Shorty's. He'd taken Nicole over there once when she'd first started in town, insisting that it was legitimate police work. Under the guise of socialising, he'd made it clear that this was his way of keeping an eye on what the Purgatory regulars were up to. After a few rounds folks are never as quiet as they think they are, and there's a lot you can… overhear.

It was all lost on Nicole of course as she didn't know anyone and it seemed like the subtle nuances of people's suspicious behaviour was reliant on knowing what their 'normal' was first. She wasn't worried though, as she knew she'd probably pick it up in time. There was no rush for her to yet though as Nedley always had that avenue covered.

When her phone started to ring and Nedley's number popped up, Nicole rolled her eyes. She was undoubtedly about to get roped into providing another courtesy ride for one of the locals who had drank too much. She picked up the phone.

"Afternoon sir, what can I do you for?" She chirped cheerfully.

The seriousness of Nedley's voice took all the chirp out of Nicole's cheer. "Haught, I need you to head over here stat. There's been an incident. We're gonna have to hand it over to Dolls again, but I just spoke with him and they're miles across town so I need some backup right now to… contain things."

"Sir?" Nicole loaded all the questions she could into the single syllable.

"I'll fill you in a little more when you get here but, it's most likely connected to the incident this morning. For everyone's sake we need to keep this low-key for now."

Nicole's hand absent mindedly clenched into a victorious fist. BBD weren't going to be on scene for at least the time being, and if this was another case that was going to get swept away behind closed doors then Nicole wanted to get as much information as she could before it disappeared.

"I'm on my way sir." She put the phone down, grabbed her hat, keys and jacket and was out the door in a flash.

She didn't turn on her blue lights for the ride over there - no need to draw attention to herself and the streets of Purgatory were never busy to begin with. She arrived at Shorty's and pushed open the door, scanning the room for the Sheriff. She spotted him over by the door to the bathroom. He was in a heated conversation with one of the regulars, Greg Hitchley, that Nicole had driven home a couple of times because he was blind drunk.

"C'mon Randy where the hell else am I gonna take a piss? You're only gonna' arrest me if I do it outside."

"That's Sheriff Nedley, Greg and yeah of course I'm gonna arrest you if you take a leak in the street. Now, there's some broken glass in there and we just need to get it all cleaned up so no one gets hurt. Why don't you go on over the road and use the restroom at the diner. Tell 'em I said it's ok and I'll buy an extra round of coffees to make it up to them."

Greg swayed his way irritably across the room towards the door, only just missing crashing into Nicole as she passed him. As she approached Nedley, she spotted Waverly sat at the closest table, her arms hugged around her middle, her eyes gazing vacantly ahead. Nicole forced her attention back to her boss, fighting the urge to go check that the brunette was ok.

"Sir," she said quietly as she approached. "What's the situation?"

Nedley glanced over her shoulder briefly, to check nobody was watching, and then nodded for her to follow him into the bathroom. "Brace yourself."

Nicole wasn't remotely braced for what was in the room beyond.

Blood. Lots of it. A middle-aged man lay in the main pool of it, his throat cut. Nicoles eyes darted around the room, taking it all in. Someone had smeared the blood across the bathroom mirror, spelling out the words 'Repent Sinners'. Handcuffed to the plumbing in the corner was a man that looked like he'd walked straight out of every western movie Nicole had ever seen, moustache and all. He tipped his hat to her as she looked at him.

"Ma'am," he said politely.

She whirled around to Nedley. "Did he-"

"He's swearing blind he just found him this way," Nedley replied before Nicole had even gotten the question out. "Could be he's telling the truth, but he was found in here holding a knife over the body. No doubt Dolls'll have his own questions for him."

Nicole lowered her voice. "Two murders in one day? You don't think this is-"

"-Nobody's talking about a serial killer." Nedley muttered as quietly as he could. "At this point we don't know anything for sure. What I need you to do for now is take photos of the scene and note everything as detailed as you can."

Nicole nodded and Nedley made his way over to the cowboy in the corner, uncuffing him from the pipes and restraining his hands behind his back instead. He walked him out of the bathroom.

"C'mon then Mr…"

"Henry," the cowboy drawled with a sigh. "John Henry."

And then Nicole was alone. She took a deep breath and set to work.

She was quick and methodical, taking photos of every angle and scribbling notes down in her book about the stall door off its hinges, the size and shape of the cut on the man's throat… She tried to spot any obvious fingerprints in the bloodied message on the mirror and photographed closeups where she found any. She didn't think about the horror of the situation - that a man had been brutally murdered and that she was cataloguing the information like she was doing inventory. That was what being a cop meant. It meant she had to stow away her feelings and just do the work. She wasn't sure if she felt proud or disgusted that she was managing to do so with relative ease.

As she worked, she could just about hear the hushed conversation taking place right outside the door between Nedley and John Henry.

"So you just met the guy and you were drinking his booze?"

"That is the honest truth Sheriff. Since the delightful woman running this establishment declined my request to purchase my own whiskey I was required to improvise. The unfortunate fellow was kind enough to oblige."

"When he went to the bathroom did you see anyone else go in or out?"

"Truthfully Sheriff I was somewhat preoccupied, but no. I do not recall seeing another person."

"So you're telling me nobody else went in or out and yet you just happened to walk in there and find him?"

"Indeed."

Nicole stood up straight and surveyed the rest of the room. She wasn't sure if there was much else for her note down so she stowed her notepad away and left the scene. Nedley had Henry sat in a chair beside the bathroom door as he questioned him. Waverly was staring at the cowboy intently, her eyes focused and accusatory. Nicole gripped her belt buckle tightly. Had Waverly been the one to find Henry in there with the knife? Had Waverly seen the bloody horror show?

Nicole shot a nod at Nedley as she emerged from the bathroom and she went over to crouch down next to Waverly. The young Earp's eyes stayed fixed on Henry.

"Waverly," Nicole said gently, trying to get her attention.

"I'm fine," Waverly replied shortly, her voice firm and calm, her eyes not budging.

"You were the one that found him?"

Waverly nodded.

"Did you see… the moment itself?"

Waverly shook her head. "I walked in and… there was no one else in there."

"Waverly," Nicole repeated, tentatively laying a hand on the other woman's shoulder like she had done earlier. Waverly finally looked around. "Are you ok? Do you need me to call anyone or do you need to talk to somebody?"

Waverly paused for a moment and it was clear to Nicole at least that she was spooked. "No," she said briskly. "No, no I'm fine I'm just… I'm all good. Wynonna's on her way and my aunt is here, so…" she gestured over to the bar where an older woman with short, grey hair was watching them apprehensively.

Nicole gave her a little wave and she nodded back, her expression impossible to read. She looked back to Waverly, opening her mouth to speak. She didn't get that far though as the door to the bar opened heavily and the BBD dream team walked in.

Nicole made a mental note that it was Wynonna, not Dolls, leading the way across the bar towards the crime scene. She gave Waverly's arm gentle squeeze and shot her a small smile then retreated to Nedley's side as Wynonna approached. She deliberately didn't look to see if Waverly had smiled back. Wynonna took up Nicole's spot crouched in front of Waverly and put a hand to the side of the younger Earp's face, as if checking her over. Waverly gave her sister a nod of reassurance.

Dolls approached Nedley.

"Sheriff," he nodded.

"You'll be thrilled to know we've kept it on the down-low," Nedley said grudgingly. "Going with the story of broken glass to keep folks out. Might have to be a bit more creative mind you to explain why we take a body bag outta there. No doubt you'll be all over this one."

"No doubt," Dolls repeated robotically. "Anything else I should be aware of?" He looked expectantly from Nedley to Nicole and she felt pleased at least that he was including her in this conversation.

Nedley darted his eyes down at Henry and back up again. "This one was in there with a knife. John Henry. Says he just found the guy like that."

Dolls fixed his eyes on Henry and stared so intently that Nicole honestly wondered for a moment if he really was a robot, analyzing a subject. He looked back at Nedley.

"Got it. We'll take it from here Sheriff. You can escort Mr Henry here back to holding." Dolls then wordlessly turned and walked into the bathroom.

Nicole turned to her boss. "He's a charmer," she said, deadpan.

Nedley scowled and huffed his usually irritated sigh. "I'll stay here and keep an eye on things. You take this one back to the station."

Nicole nodded and took Henry's arm, pulling him to his feet. She began walking him towards to door and chanced one last look back at Waverly as she went. She saw the young Earp following Wynonna into the bathroom. Why on earth was Waverly going into the crime scene? Exactly what was her role with the BBD?

She looked forwards again as she passed by the bar and gave Gus a polite nod as she realised she was being watched.

"Officer," Gus nodded back. Her expression had changed, but was still somewhat unreadable. Nicole frowned as she thought she caught the hint of a grin.