Once Virgil informed Allie about how Doc was escorting Bug to the theater tonight, Allie couldn't stop beaming. Right away she ushered Bug into the bath and was looking through her dresses. "Oh Bug, it's finally happening. Your first outing and with Doc Holliday no less." She gushes as she rifles through the trunk of very little dresses Bug owned.
"Yes, forgive me if I'm not shouting off the rooftops." Bug grumbles as she dries off.
Allie peers at her with a small smile. "Is it that you don't want to go with him, or is it that you're mad you didn't get a choice to say yes yourself." Bug sarcastically laughed at the older woman.
"I would not have said yes, I promise you that." Allie rolls her eyes in exasperation. "Dorothy Earp. I love you as my own, and it's time somebody just came out with it. You love that man, almost as much as he loves you." Bug hums and Allie turns to see her distracted brushing her hair and staring at herself in the vanity mirror.
She smiles at the young girl and sighs to herself. She'll realize it soon. "How about this one?" Bug turns to look at the dress she's holding and her eyes widen as she looks at the deep red dress Allie is holding, it's low cut and hugs her curves nicely, Louise had it mailed to her on her eighteenth birthday, she never wore it.
"Oh, I'm not sure.." Bug says but Allie ignores her and helps her put it on and gasps as she looks at how grown up and beautiful Bug looks. Bug turns and stares at herself in awe, the dress was form-fitting and showed off the top of her breasts and other curves nicely.
Allie began to do her hair in an elegant updo with some curls loose around her face. "Gorgeous Bug, all you Earp's are just too good-looking." Allie teases as she lays a kiss on her head. A knock on the door has Bug's heart racing with nerves. "Dorothy! Doc is here." Virgil called to her as she slid on the black gloves to wear over her hands and put on her shawl. She swept her hands down her dress to regain composure and stood tall.
Doc lit his cigar as he waited near the door, he almost expected her to be difficult and not come. He'd laugh it off out loud even if it'd hurt. An irritated voice cleared her throat and sassed, "Honestly John, I didn't get all dolled up to be ignored, especially by you." He smirked to himself and looked up to retort before his words failed him.
She looked like an angel...no, the devil, as she was tempting him to do unholy things. He knew she was beautiful and had filled out from the little girl he knew once in tattered trousers and holding a gun, all dirty from being outside for hours, but her in that red dress, he could've died then and there happily.
"Darling, you look enchanting." He breathed as she walked closer, "You got all dolled up just for my attention, Bugs?" He expected a red face and a tantrum but his breath got caught in his eye when she looked up at him coyly through her lashes.
"Mr. Holliday, you did say you were going to marry me, I just wanted to look good as you whoo me for the night..unless you were fibbing and I should be on the lookout for other eligible men of good standing." She spoke softly with a slightly breathless tone. He never saw his Bug like this, it left him with his mouth open in shock.
He quickly snapped out of it, grabbed her gloved hand a laid a kiss on it, she only smirked with no hint of embarrassment or anger like usual. "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged cupid painted blind." He quoted as he slowly let go of her hand, "Whoo you tonight, I shall, my dear." She hummed as she grabbed his offered arm. "A Midnight Summer Dream." She spoke softly and he almost didn't hear it, "Fitting, as it was the first play you ever read to me." She told him with a soft smile and that same coy look that he realized was going to slowly drive him insane.
Once they got to the theater, everyone was in shock at how beautiful Bug was looking, not that she wasn't always but they rarely saw her so dolled up as she had been lately. She was shown off proudly by Doc to anyone who would look and they never saw her so confident as she was that night in his presence.
"Finally admitting defeat, Bugsy?" Wyatt teased as she entered the box area they would be watching the show from. "Of course not, but he will be soon." She retorts primly as Doc takes off her cover for her. "If we are to be married as you all so hastily agree on, and begrudgingly I admit, I do as well then he will be having to kiss the ground I walk on until he asks." Doc is distracted by conversation and Wyatt raises a brow as Mattie laughs at her words.
"You must not know Doc as well as I thought you did, Bug, don't get your hopes up." He is surprised when Bug laughs and he sees Doc distracted as she does so, his gaze on her smile. "Oh Wy, it is you who doesn't know how utterly obsessed the man is with me, luckily for him, it is mutual." Wyatt looks at her face with intense thought, "What has you changing your mind so suddenly, Bug? I thought he was the most disgusting man you ever met?" He chuckles as she shrugs, "Allie had some insight and I sadly must agree with her, I don't think he is so much as disgusting as he is exhausting, but he is the only man to challenge me and that is more than I can ask for from a man."
She looks at Doc while he is speaking to Morgan with stars in her eyes, but also worries as he begins to cough heavily, "He just has to ask me to marry him before his body takes him away from me." She mutters right when Doc sits down, so close that they are touching.
"Honestly John Henry Holliday, you get any closer you're gonna jump into my skin." He smirks at her and leans in to whisper in her ear, "That's the plan, Darlin." She gasps in disapproval but also some delight admittedly, "You are a scoundrel and a pig, Doc." She hisses but he sees the blush and smirk on her face. "I can't wait to show you just how much so, my Dear." He answers back but grows quiet as the show starts.
She rolls her eyes as the cowboys begin shooting and yelling, honestly couldn't they have decency for at least a little bit? When the devil enters the stage, Doc leans in and whispers in her ear seductively, "Is your soul for sale, Dear." She turns to quip back but stops when she sees how badly he is sweating and her heart aches, she grabs her handkerchief and dabs at his face and he sighs with his eyes closed peacefully, "Have a drink, Doc. Ease your pain." She nods at his glass of whiskey and holds his hand in hers.
"But who is the devil?" Wyatt asks once they all bow on the stage, not a second later, the mask is lifted and she sees a woman, pretty, and looks at Wyatt who breathes in shock. "I'll be damned." Doc leans over and murmurs, "You will be if you're lucky." She elbows him in the side as Mattie gives him an angry look. "If you keep speaking nonsense like that, you certainly will not be." She hisses and he gives her a look of shock at her words. "Dorothy Earp, how lewd." He teases and she rolls her eyes as they all get up to leave.
Doc excuses himself for a second and she continues to walk with her siblings and their wives. She rolls her eyes softly as Morgan goes on again about God and spiritualism and Wyatt snarks at him, she can almost imagine them when they were younger and arguing at the house. She was born way later than them, a happy accident, mama called her but they never grew up from bickering.
"Coming to the Oriental, Bugsy?" She is snapped back to the present and hums her agreement. "Yes, Doc told me he'd be there shortly." She follows him and Morgan as they walk into the saloon. When she enters her face burns up angrily as she sees him with Kate, she walks up to him and sarcastically states, "Doc, I feel whoo'd enough I think for the night, positively bridling with the urge to marry you." He looks up in a daze and she sighs as she sees that he is drunk. "Bug! How lovely, Kate was just asking to join us."
He looks into her eyes and she holds back tears as she gives Kate a sweet smile. "No thank you, Doc, you can keep your whore, I see plenty of eligible bachelors." Kate gives her a look of shock as Bug usually is very silent in person, she didn't know she was such a spitfire like Doc did.
Said man's eyes tightened in anger and he grabbed her arm as she made to walk away. "I'm the only man that would want you, don't forget that, I don't see many lined up to ask you for your company." She looks at him in shock and hurt, this time a tear does fall and it seems to shake him out of his drunken state, he loosens his grip and moves to grab her cheek but she jerks away.
"I forgot how mean you could be when you drink John, I just didn't think it'd be pointed at me again." She murmured remembering all the mean things he'd say to her when she was in her men's attire after he drunk too much whisky, he stopped as soon as he realized his feelings for her but apparently, the drink was too much for him to handle tonight.
Morgan went to defend her but she shook her head and murmured how he wasn't worth it. They both walked to the table Wyatt would be working at, said brother turned to Doc and walked closer to him, "We are friends Doc, but you just made the biggest mistake of her life, she was admitting just earlier tonight that she had feelings for you and you do this stupid shit, you're lucky I don't shoot you." Doc clenches his teeth and nods.
"I wouldn't blame you, Wyatt." The man follows after his siblings and Kate turns to Doc. "I think, my love, that this companionship is coming to an end." She kisses his cheek softly and moves to mingle with other men. Doc doesn't care about that, his eyes are set on his Bug who looks very small and not like the woman he first saw tonight, his heart aches and he coughs wildly into his handkerchief sighing as he sees the blood, he follows after them.
He moves to stand next to her and softly grabs her hand but she tugs it away and refuses to make eye contact. "Bug.." She interrupts him, "Dorothy, I think should do just fine from now on." His heart stops beating it feels like and her brothers look at her in shock. Even at her maddest with Doc, she never asked him to stop with the nickname, not since she was 10 years old. She must be hurt, Morgan glared at the sick man.
"I apologize, Dorothy then, I am deeply sorry for the hurt I placed upon you with my words." She turns to glare at him in a way that he used to love but now makes him sick after having been graced with her desired look earlier in the night. "I'm not hurt I am angry, but I am also not surprised, you always choose to be harsh with me when you start realizing that you truly are in love with me, it is why I deny it so, but I cannot anymore even when you say such mean words to me."
She takes a deep breath and stares at him with a strength and confidence that he knows is hard for her at the moment, "Regardless, I refuse to be your punching bag every time you drink more than you should, I think it puts this in perspective for me." She clears her throat and looks at the table of cards again. Doc stares at her hoping she'll give him her attention again but she pointedly ignores him.
She smiles as Wyatt gives a man his autograph but scowls as she sees the Cowboys walking towards them. She looks at them with disgust but catches the eye of the man dressed in black, he's handsome but the look in his eyes is dangerous, it doesn't make her heart race in the way Doc does, even if she is cross with the man.
"You must be Doc Holliday." He states looking at the sick man. Though she is angry, she moves closer to him as his gaze lingers on her, he stands up taller and gives a cough, "That's the rumor." He smoothly replies. "You retired too?" The man questions. "Not me, I'm in my prime." Doc answers, he stops himself from touching Bug...Dorothy. He doesn't want her to realize her subconscious movement towards him and back away.
"Yeah, you look it." The man disrespects. Dorothy hackles raise and she smoothly wraps her arm around Doc's waist, though she is angry at him, she won't let this cowboy disrespect him. "I assure you, it is not his looks that let me know how in his prime he is." She retorts and she presses her body close to Doc.
The man gives a glare at the movement. "You must be Ringo." Doc taunts with a charming smile. "Look, darling." He wraps an arm around her shoulders and points at the man in front of him. "Johnny Ringo, Deadliest pistoleer since Wild Bill, they say." She hums in acknowledgment, "That's funny, I haven't heard of him." She quips and he chuckles.
Wyatt is looking at the group and sighs at his sister. Doc might still have a chance, he will be groveling after this act. "What do you think, Darlin'? Should I hate him?" She looks at Ringo and slyly states "You don't even know him." Doc gives a hum. "No, that's true, but..I don't know, there's just somethin' about him."
He tightens his hold on her. "Something around the eyes. I don't know, reminds me of...me." She turns to look up at Doc and he looks down at her as she dabs his sweaty forehead.
"No, you're much more handsome, I think." She teases as she coyly looks at Ringo who clenches his fist tight.
"No. I'm sure of it, I hate him." Doc states finally. Wyatt interrupts and says to Ringo, "He's drunk." To diffuse the situation, Dorothy huffs in agreement but doesn't speak.
"In Vino Veritas." Doc rumbles."Ago Quod Agis" Ringo replies and she looks at him in surprise to which Ringo smirks at. The two men go back and forth and Doc finally states "In Pace Requiescat" She sighs and closes her eyes. "Come on boys, we don't want trouble here, not in any language." The Marshall states and she opens her eyes as Doc tugs her closer to him.
"That's Latin, Darlin'. Evidently, Mr. Ringo's an educated man. Now I really hate him." Doc stares right at Ringo as he states that. Ringo pulls his gun out and points it at Doc, she tightens her hold and slyly so no one can notice grips his gun but doesn't pull it.
He notices and shifts to make it easier for her but remains relaxed. "Watch it, Johnny, I hear he's real fast." His friend tells him warily. "He is." She retorts her voice strong and her face stoic.
Johnny makes a show of swinging and twirling his pistol and she rolls her eyes as others cheer. Men, honestly. Doc just smirks and finishes his drink, she twitches her nose at that still mad at him, Doc mocks Ringo, twirling his cup around, and causes others to laugh at him.
The cowboys move to leave but Ringo stops and glances at her, "When you want a real man and not this Lunger, come find me." Her brothers stand up abruptly and Doc pulls her close and moves to speak but she cuts him off. "Ne cures, verus homo mihi satifactum habeo, tu facile odisse videtur." She tells him in a seductive voice and Doc looks down at her in shock.
"Non videtur mihi tam eruditus?" She continues coyly and Ringo hums and gives her a look of desire before walking away. "Hell Bug..er Dorothy, I didn't know you spoke Latin." Morgan cried in delight and laughter. "What did you tell him?" She shrugs and gently removes herself, "Nothing important, dear brother." She looks at Doc and sees the fire in his eyes, he wants her and she preens at the look.
The rest of the night goes smoothly and the fire builds as Doc and her continue to make eyes at each other. Though hurt, she simply couldn't just stop loving the man, she knew he'd beg soon. "Boys, as lovely as this has been, I'm beat, I think I'm going to head back to the house." It gets the reaction that she wants. "Allow me to escort you." Doc rumbles, standing up, and finishes his drink.
"It is the least you could do." She gives him an attitude and it lights him up in a way that would never get old. She ignores his offered arm and walks ahead. Doc turns to her brothers, they both had gotten over their anger as they realized their Bug, and they would continue to call her that, could handle herself perfectly fine. "Good luck, Pal, you're gonna need it." Wyatt laughs and Doc nods in approval. "I love that woman." He states as he swiftly moves to follow.
She continues ahead of him, her anger simmered but still there. She almost reaches the house but is pulled back into Doc's arms, any sense of decorum forgotten as the fire rages.
"Dorothy." That is all he says and she reaches up and grabs his sweaty face and kisses him, leaving him in shock at her action. She moves to pull back but his ringed hand grabs her chin aggressively and pulls her back kissing her in a way she never had been before.
It's rough and all tongue and she moans into his mouth as she clutches his jacket. "John." She coos in desire and he groans and moves his lips to her jaw and mouths at it and she gasps as he licks a strip down to her neck and bites it. She pulls him back to her mouth and kisses him more gently and he hums as he follows her actions, it turns more sensual and he pours his love into it.
"Dorothy." He breathes and she cuts him off, "Bug, I'm your Bug." She moans and kisses him again and he groans. "My lovely Bug, all mine, I'll beg for your forgiveness every day if I have to, for my despicable words." She sighs and kisses his jaw and he grunts at the nip she leaves.
"You won't talk to me like that ever again, John Henry, or I will leave you where you stand." She commands him and he nods swiftly and brings her closer. "Never." They lay their foreheads together but he has to pull away to cough and her heart clenches as she sees the blood he tries to hide on his napkin.
"So, I think it is safe to say, you're not the only man to look at me." She teases reminding him of Ringo and his harsh words. His eyes turn hard and he kisses her hard again. "They've always looked, I just was able to keep them away." He goes soft again and rubs her cheek with his ringed hand, the metal cool on her heated cheeks.
"I was a fool, to try to make you think you were undesirable, you are the most gorgeous woman I've ever laid eyes on." Her cheeks flush and she shushes him with another kiss.
"Latin?" He brings up, and he smiles as she blushes remembering the words she spoke. "I learned it from you when you used to read to me, I think that's when I realized I loved you." She states matter of factly and he tenses but she doesn't flinch or stumble. She meant what she said.
He kisses her hard and pulls her closer. "I love you, my lovely little Bug." She beams at him. They move closer to her door, and before she walks in he questions, "Would you have shot him?" She looks back at him, knowing he meant Ringo in the saloon.
"Without question, they say you're a fast shot, what they don't know is you taught me to be faster." With that she walks in the house, leaving him alone. He whistles as he walks away. "It's settled, imma marry that woman." He says to himself.