Wynonna's POV
The old brown clock ticks away mockingly on the wall across from us. It has been 15 minutes since we took our place in line to see Detective Sergeant Joey Mason, head of the narcotics division at Purgatory Police station, and Nicholas Haught's old partner.
Beside me, a leg bounces up and down in a nervous manner. The appendage had been doing its little dance for the last ten minutes, slowly driving me nuts.
I look over at the owner of said leg's face and notice taught lines etched onto her features like strained sails on a ship trying to avoid an impending wave of doom.
Nicole Haught is worried about my little sister, carrying a burden I always believed was only mine to bear. If I am being really honest, it is quite comforting to not have the full weight of Waverly's security on my shoulders anymore.
Ironically, I was never one to share. Especially not when it came to Waverly. I was my sister's self-proclaimed protector and trusted no one else besides Gus and Curtis with this task, especially not someone I knew nothing about.
Nicole Haught fell into this category perfectly. Hell, we only acknowledged each other's existence through a brief greeting less than three hours ago.
But I also deem myself an excellent judge of character and body language, having needed to have these skills to know when my father was about to go into a fit of rage and thus posed a risk to Waverly.
This means that it was easy for me to tell what it meant when my sister's body fully relaxed as soon as Nicole Haught entered the barn, what it meant when Nicole herself stood up straighter and her eyes shone with gag-worthy happiness when her gaze found my little sister's.
I knew what it meant when their bodies seemed to thrum with an invisible pull teetering them towards each other as soon as they were in the same space.
Yes, I knew exactly what this meant. It meant they were in love.
This, along with the nervous wreck symptoms currently exuded by my companion for the sake of my sister, was enough for me to know that Nicole Haught was my ally. Most likely the most important one I could ever have.
I bump my shoulder against hers in an attempt to shove away her nervousness. It works, her leg stops moving momentarily as she looks at me with a questioning gaze.
Her brown, inquisitive eyes seem to ask, "What the hell was that for?" and I can't help but smirk at being the cause of her annoyance for a change.
"Would ya stop with the stress fest already? They will be fine. My sister knows how to handle herself." I tell her and it almost helps take the edge off my own worry. Almost.
Nicole's eyes soften, the strained lines on her face relaxing briefly as she nods.
I experience a full 60 seconds of peace before Nicole's leg starts to dance again.
"Oh for fuck's sake." I say under my breath, reaching for the flask of whisky I kept inside my leather jacket.
As I unscrew the cap, Nicole pauses her stress routine to shoot me a disapproving look. I am about to retaliate with something snarky when a voice draws both our attention.
"Nicole Haught, is that you?" A graying man with an impressive mustache and kind eyes says in the doorway of the office to our left.
Nicole gets up next to me and walks over. "Hi Joey. Long time no see." She says, reaching out her hand towards him in greeting.
I notice the slight hint of awkwardness to Nicole's posture as she faces the newcomer, a tinge of guilt to her voice.
Detective Sergeant Joey Mason merely smiles, his eyes becoming ever kinder as they take in Nicole Haught's lanky figure.
"You have grown up quite a bit since you last set foot in here. We sure missed the younger version of Nick with her feet up on the desk like she owned the damn building and all her incessant questions. Heck, we still have your golden girl's coffee cup in the canteen." Joey says with a chuckle.
I watch Nicole look down guiltily, her hand rubbing her neck awkwardly.
"I know it's been a while. I really wanted to visit you guys, but after everything happened…" She starts, but the detective is quick to dismiss her explanation.
"There is no need to explain, kid. What happened with your dad was a hard blow, especially for the age you were at. This place was most likely a reminder of a lot of that pain to you. I get it. So no hard feelings." Joey says in a gentle voice, placing his hand onto Nicole's shoulder in a gesture aiming to comfort.
The redhead looks back up at him, smiling gratefully at her father's old partner.
"Thanks, Joey." She tells him, the air of awkward guilt leaving the room along with her words.
"Well then. Now that this has been settled, why don't you and your friend join me in my office so you can tell me what brings you back in here after so long." Joey instructs, moving into his office. Nicole indicates for me to follow them as she enters after Joey.
I check that my whiskey flask is securely in place in my pocket before getting up and walking over to the office to join them.
XxxxxxxxxxxxX
Waverly's POV
Good Luck by Broken Bells serenades Rachel and I as we make our way across the dirt road leading to the old mill.
I stop the truck at the end of the road, right where it connects to a rickety old bridge leading to the mill house.
For a moment I marvel at the historical building, its ancient architecture tickling my deep passion for history.
I wonder how many feet had crossed the bridge towards the mill, how many hands had worked the machinery that made it do what it was meant to.
The mill had likely once been a place where many a man made a living, mulling with endless activity like a beehive. But now it stood completely empty, merely an abandoned skeleton in the late afternoon sun.
"This place gives me the creeps." Rachel says from the passenger seat, effectively breaking the spell.
With my rose-coloured glasses now shattered, the romanticism of the building before me is lost.
In this new light, the abandoned mill house seems to take on a more sinister persona. I am struck with a sudden sense of unease, reminded of the locations where bodies were typically found in the many serial killer documentaries I had been into recently.
A gust of wind rustling through the leaves of an old oak to the east of the building is the only noise breaking the eerily quiet atmosphere around us. Something felt very off and it compels me to address the girl beside me.
"Are you sure about this, Rach? Something doesn't feel right."
Her youthful features tighten with determination in response.
"I have to, Waverly. For my mom. Besides, it is just another run of the mill — pun intended — drug drop." She says, checking her watch.
I do the same, noticing that it was now 17h55 pm.
"Rachel…" I try again to protest but the younger girl was already out of the truck.
She closes the truck door and turns back to me. "I'll be careful, promise." She says firmly before she fixes me with a softer look. "Thanks for caring so much." I am taken aback and deeply touched by the honest gratefulness in her voice.
I think back at the animosity that existed between us that first week after Rachel tried to break into Joy Farm. Now she was part of our ragtag little family, now she was my sister.
"No problem. We misfits gotta stick together, right?" I tell her with a grin.
Rachel can barely contain the happy smirk that stretches across her cheeks at hearing the very same mocking words she used to rile me up not so long ago thrown back at her in endearment.
"Alright then, go do what you need to do. Just please be safe. I am right here with a shotgun in the back if you need me." I tell her, the mood becoming serious once more.
She nods, affirming that she would be cautious, before making her way across the bridge.
I watch Rachel reach the other side and then disappear behind the building.
To stem my unease, I take out my phone and shoot Nicole a quick text telling her we arrived safely and that Rachel was about to make the drop.
My eye catches the MatchMe app's icon. Hit with a sudden sense of nostalgia and longing for Nicole, I start scrolling through all my texts with Haught(givemea)shot.
While I wait for Rachel's return, a constant smile is etched onto my face as I go through every conversation reminding me why I fell in love with Nicole Haught in the first place.
XxxxxxxxxxX
Nicole's POV
"You believe that Bobo Del Rey is Robert Svane?" Joey says, waving around the origami swan from our research box.
"Yes sir." I confirm.
"And you believe that he is once again behind the recent increase in drug related crimes in Purgatory?"
I nod in the affirmative again.
Joey runs his thumb and forefinger across his mustache thoughtfully as he looks over the newspaper clippings that we had drawn our conclusions from.
Having seen his fill, he puts everything back into the box with a sigh.
"I have to agree, your theory seems plausible. But you are not the first one to come in here with confident ideas that led to us wasting valuable resources on a wild goose chase. You know how it is kid… without hard evidence, a theory is all it will remain." He says looking apologetic as he pushes my research box back to me.
Wynonna gets out of her chair so fast it causes a scraping sound to echo through the office. She places her hands firmly on the desk and fixes Joey with a look that could turn even the toughest of metals to ice.
"Listen here, Detective. I know for a fact that what my friend here is telling you is worth looking into. You were her father's partner, were you not?" Joey frowns and nods tentatively.
"Yes, I was. But what…" He starts, but Wynonna cuts him off.
"And you were the one who found him after he had been shot by Del Rey when he busted his original drug lab right?
Joey nods again, confusion clear as day on his face.
I too feel baffled as to what Wynonna was getting at, but everything in her posture exuded a seriousness I did not know she was capable of. So instead of interrupting, I remain quiet and simply observe the spectacle.
"Then you know the lengths that a Haught would go to when they believe in something. They don't just run with a theory if they aren't certain there is some grain of truth to be found. So will you please do her the courtesy of looking into this?" Wynonna says.
Her words nearly knock me out of my chair from the sheer surprise of hearing her back me up with such sincerity. She barely even knew me and yet here she was, standing up for me. Earps, it seemed, would never cease to amaze me.
Joey looks at the Earp for a few seconds before a small smile spreads across his face.
"Wynonna Earp, you have quite the spirit. The Haught's are lucky to have you in their corner." He says, his eyes then flickering to me as he asks "Do tell me though, how are you affiliated?"
"We actually met only a couple of hours ago. She is an agent for Black Badge who has been investigating Bobo Del Rey for my dad." I explain as Wynonna removes her SPI badge and presents it proudly to him.
Joey looks it over with raised eyebrows. "BBD huh? Impressive." He says before handing her back the badge.
"Now that the chit chat is over, will you give Nicole here a chance?" Wynonna asks with an eyebrow raised in challenge.
"I guess I can give it a go. For her father's sake." He says, flooding me with hopeful relief. He looks back at the research box, scratching the back of his head. "Do you have anything else for me to go on?"
"There is." Wynonna says confidently before turning to me. "Tell him about the flower shop."
I have a little internal debate with myself as to how much regarding Rachel I must share, fearing that saying too much could put her at risk of being arrested. I decide to keep the information I share on a strictly need to know basis.
"It's a long story, but we know someone who has been blackmailed to deliver drugs for the people behind everything."
As I feared, Joey instantly goes into law abiding citizen mode. "You know of someone involved in this and you did not come to us about it? Nicole, withholding information that could help in a criminal case is a felony!" He says disapprovingly.
I knew I had to get through to the heart behind the cop if I wanted this to work. So I soften my voice to a pleading whisper.
"I know that sir, and it was my first instinct to come to the police about it. But… this is a very sensitive case. The person being blackmailed is just a kid, they have her mother. They blackmail her by threatening her mother's life if she does not do as they ask or if she dared to reach out to the police."
My heart hammers in my chest. This needed to work, we did not have any other hope. With my eyes I plead desperately with Joey to understand and help us.
"Please don't ask me to go into any more details about it, sir. The person is just a scared kid. It's why I am here in the first place, to get her out of all this with your help."
To my relief, the detective's eyes soften with a look of understanding. "All right." He says with a sigh. "What else you got that can help?"
I shoot him a grateful smile and reach over to the research box. I remove the rolled-up map, unfurl it and point towards the demarcated areas.
"The girl informed us of each of the previous drug delivery points she was given. We marked them out on the map like this to find three primary businesses in the center. We ruled out two of them as potential places for hiding a drug manufacturing laboratory, which left the new flower shop."
"Swan flowers?" Joey asks.
"Yes." I say enthusiastically, pointing towards the origami swan. "Swan, which could be related to Svane."
Joey looks between the map and the origami skeptically. "That could just be pure coincidence."
Fully ready for that response, I sit up straighter in my chair.
"I thought so too at first. But then I saw something when I came out of the hospital yesterday that had me thinking that my theory might have some beef to it. I saw a nurse sneaking flowers from the hospital and hand them over to Champ Hardy in an alleyway. The exchange was very dodgy and clearly meant to be discreet. Champ placed the flowers into a company van he parked on the other side of the alley. Guess what the name of the company displayed on the van was?"
"Swan flowers?" Joey asks, frowning at me.
I nod with a triumphant smile, but his frown merely deepens.
"I don't understand. Sounds to me like they were just returning some faulty flowers."
"Okay, but who returns flowers from a hospital? For weddings or other special events, it would make sense. But from a hospital? I don't get it. And what's with all the cloak and dagger if it is just some flowers?" I argue.
"Red is onto something here, Serge. They very well might be transporting some good ol' hospital drugs using flowers as a cover." Wynonna says. Then she does yet another thing I did not expect. She removes a piece of paper from the inside of her leather jacket, placing it in front of Joey.
"And before your skeptical cop brain can argue again, I have it on good authority that your lab rats have consistently found traces of floral matter in drugs confiscated from Purgatory's streets." She says confidently, pushing the document across the desk.
I notice that it is an evidence report showcasing a list of components which includes traces of flowers amongst others.
"How did you get this?" The detective asks the question that was on my own lips.
"I am BBD, remember. We have access to a lot of resources. Having a retired Purgatory cop as my client also helps." Wynonna says conspiratorially, winking at me.
The hope and happiness I feel in that moment overwhelms me. This could be it, the straw that could finally break old Bobo del Ray's back for good!
My mind races with possibilities. "Swan flowers produces strictly exotic flowers, species that do not grow here in Purgatory. If the traces of flowers found in the confiscated drugs match with species sold by the shop, would that not be enough for a search warrant?"
"It certainly would." Joey says, clearly very impressed. He looks at Wynonna and I with a new found respect in his eyes. "You know, the two of you would make fine cops."
Something about it starts an itch in my chest. Me, a cop? I allow myself to fantasize about it, seeing myself in a uniform.
Nah, I conclude with a scoff. I already found my passion and purpose.
"Thanks, sir. But I love farming way too much." I say, causing the detective to merely smile at me in understanding.
Joey then picks up the paper Wynonna had placed in front of him and waves it at us. "All right ladies, I am gonna get my best team on this asap. I think you may just have what we need to end this nonsense once and for all."
With a giddy smile, I get up from my chair to shake Joey's hand. "Thanks so much, sir."
Wynonna follows suit, and then the two of us exit his office.
As I reach for the handle to the door leading outside the police station, two cops burst through the entrance. Between them they carry a handcuffed disheveled woman in a white lab coat.
"Do you not know who I am?" She asks them in a frantic voice as she struggles against her bindings.
Recognizing her instantly, I breathe out in shock "Gloria Valdez."
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Waverly's POV
It has now been another ten minutes and I have read through all my texts with Nicole on MatchMe. Which means I no longer had a distraction from my worry. I look over at the mill house, seeing no sign of life.
Making a final decision to go and check on Rachel, I get out of the truck.
Just as I close the truck door, a gut-wrenching shout of my name turns my blood to ice. Rachel.
As I turn to face the direction the shout came from, my eye catches movement in the side mirror. Before I can turn around to see what it was, I feel a tiny prick to the side of my neck.
The last thing I remember is the feeling of gloved hands picking me up and the sound of my name being called desperately before darkness consumes my vision.
