What's behind the door?
After the night of gleeful debauchery, or something like that, they must have left Shorty’s and found their way back to Nicole’s as Maggie had woken up in the correct bed in her temporary Canadian home. She grimaced when she rolled over as her brain had a delayed reaction to her movement and seemed to clunk around her skull. A glance at her phone revealed a legacy of misspelt messages of adoration to Alex and responses that that were just arriving with hangover cure suggestions. A flash of memory of the previous morning’s sickeningly sweet breakfast coffee was enough to spur her out of bed: nothing was more likely to bring the previous night hurling back up than Nicole’s sugar and creamer rich brew.
She stumbled into the kitchen, relieved that Nicole wasn’t up yet - assuming she’d made it back at all. As the coffee machine did its work, she stood with her forehead resting on the cool door of the refrigerator replaying the flashes of the previous night she could remember. She remembered a lot of shots and Wynonna smiling at her… maybe once… probably because she was the subject of one of her jokes… She was just trying to remember how many times she’d bought a round when she realised she was no longer alone in the kitchen.
“Good morning,” Waverly said, far too cheerfully, “Did you sleep well?”
“It was great until I woke up,” Maggie moaned and shaded her eyes from the kitchen light that Waverly had flipped on.
“Nights with Wynonna can have that effect on people,” Waverly said, “Thanks for putting the coffee on!”
“No problem.”
Waverly settled herself against the counter, still looking far more cheerful than the amount of alcohol consumed the previous night should allow, “Are you here because Dolls is on vacation?” she asked.
“Huh?” Maggie mumbled and peeled herself away from the fridge. Waverly was pouring the coffee and she hurriedly grabbed the mug before anything could be added to it. “Who are the dolls?”
“Dolls is just one person,” Waverly smiled. Nicole appeared, “Good morning,” Waverly murmured as she leaned into Nicole’s embrace. “Anyway,” she continued - remembering Maggie’s presence, “Dolls is from--”
“South of the border,” Nicole interrupted, “He was working with, uh, a cross-border task force. Like you, I guess. Gave him jurisdiction around here.”
“And I’ve got jurisdiction too?” Maggie asked hopefully.
“I’ll have to check,” Nicole said, sipping coffee and still holding hands with Waverly.
“Great,” Maggie said, rolling her eyes, “what time are we heading in?”
Nicole checked her watch, “Uh, about half an hour but Nedley’s pretty relaxed about punctuality.”
“That figures,” Maggie muttered to herself.
“But even so, we should probably get going soon,” Nicole said and glanced at the over sized t-shirt Maggie was still wearing.
“Can I still see you at lunch?” Waverly asked, staring eagerly up at Nicole.
“Of course!” Nicole grinned dopily back, “You can come in earlier than that if you like. We’ll probably need your help.”
Maggie stared in disbelief over the rim of her mug: her coming to work with Alex was one thing as their departments overlapped quite a lot but she wasn’t really sure why Nicole would need Waverly and her ‘research’ in the Sheriff’s department.
“I was hoping you’d say that!” Waverly exclaimed and reached up to kiss her.
As this went on, Maggie stared into her coffee before slowly backing out of the kitchen. It was clear that Waverly and Nicole had forgotten she was there and Maggie wished again that she had Alex there with her so she’d feel less of a third wheel. The days where she brought her girlfriend to work seemed all too distant.
***
Wynonna was waiting for them at the Sheriff’s office. Maggie was taken aback by how unperturbed Nicole was by the presence of her girlffriend’s sister in her place of work until she remembered the bickering about working with sister-in-laws from the previous afternoon. She was sat in Nicole’s chair methodically covering the entire monitor in post-its, “What’s up Haught stuff,” she called as they entered, “City chick,” she added with a nod to Maggie.
“Wynonna, are you ok?” Nicole asked, “I know we’re running late but it’s not like you to get here early.”
“Well, I didn’t quite make it to bed so I just came straight here,” she said as she triumphantly stuck the last post-it down.
“Makes sense,” Nicole said with a shrug. Maggie couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. These kind of antics would never pass muster at the NCPD but in Purgatory, it very much seemed to be the norm.
“Wait? You really work here?” Maggie asked as she settled herself carefully at her desk.
“Oh yes!” Wynonna said gleefully.
“Wynonna’s a deputy with…” Nicole began before looking at Wynonna for permission to continue.
“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours,” Wynonna said, “Who knows we might even end up telling the same thing,” she stared piercingly at Maggie.
“I think you should start,” Maggie said, challengingly holding Wynonna’s gaze. “Maybe you could start with what’s behind that door.” She gestured at the locked door which had become virtually the only thing she could think about. Nicole looked uncomfortably at Wynonna who just looked uncomfortably back at her.
“Well now I’m interested,” Maggie said, breaking the silence.
“You can’t go in there,” Wynonna said simply.
“The locked door was a pretty good indication of that,” Maggie said stepping towards Wynonna, “Look, the fact that I’ve been sent here is evidence enough that weird stuff is happening here and nobody is telling me anything and now, in a Sheriff’s department with zero security there’s a locked door and you’re all acting like you’ve kidnapped the president.”
“Technically we have a Prime Minister here,” Nicole said sheepishly.
“So you’re not with Black Badge?” Wynonna asked.
“What’s Black Badge?” Maggie asked, confused, “I’m with the NCPD.”
“I think we might have to tell her,” Wynonna said, talking to Nicole as if Maggie wasn’t there. This was starting to become the theme of her time in Purgatory so she sat back in her chair, wincing at the bright lights as the conversation happened around her.
“I think we’re gonna have to,” Nicole said.
“You don’t want her beating your solitaire record because there isn’t anything else for her to do.”
“Ok,” Nicole said, turning to Maggie at last, “I’m gonna start off by saying I had to figure all this stuff out myself so you’re very lucky that you’re being told this off the bat.”
“Alright,” Maggie said. She leaned forward in her chair, her curiosity piqued.
“What Nicole is trying to say is there’s a lot of weird shit happening and it’s all my family’s fault,” Wynonna said almost proudly.
“Wait!” Maggie exclaimed, her brain suddenly working the quickest it had done in a number of days, “You’re an alien?”
“What!” Wynonna and Nicole said simultaneously.
“You’re not an alien?” Maggie said slowly. “But is there an alien?” she offered instead.
“Sadly, no,” Wynonna said, frowning, “but why in the name of all that is alcoholic would you think that?”
“I’m from the science division of the NCPD,” Maggie said.
“Ah, see, I flunked out of freshman chemistry so you’re gonna need to give me a bit more of an explanation,” Wynonna said, still not moving from Nicole’s chair.
Maggie took a slow intake of breath, “I don’t know that I can,” she said carefully.
“Look Little Miss Einstein,” Wynonna said, her face darkening slightly, “Why don’t we just agree that we’ll show you ours if you show us yours?”
“What Wynonna means to say,” Nicole interjected, “is you can trust us. We’ve got some pretty weird… shit.. happening so whatever your weird shit is, we can probably match it.”
“OK. But this cannot go anywhere,” Maggie began, “The NCPD science division handles all cases involving aliens and other… things that go bump in the night,” It was a spiel that was well practised but she still got a thrill out of saying it.
“Things that go bump in the night we can definitely do but I’m gonna need to hear more about those aliens,” Nicole said.
Maggie looked surprised, “You mean you haven’t heard about them before?”
“Nope,” Nicole and Wynonna shook their heads.
“We’ve had a butt load of alien attacks. Hence the special division?” Maggie offered, “They’re all over the news. We work with a top secret government agency, which you wouldn’t have heard of because it’s, you know, top secret.” She tried again as Wynonna and Nicole were giving her nothing, “The alien amnesty act? Supergirl? Heard of her? We work with her sometimes.”
“You’re trying to tell us that Supergirl’s real?” Nicole said with a look of suspicion and barely concealed excitement, “Waverly loves her.”
“Yeah?” Maggie said flatly, “You really never watch the news?”
“Nope, not really,” Wynonna said, spinning on the chair, “We’ve been a bit busy but I’m sure we’ll get onto it once we’ve removed the comic book from your ass.”
“Ok. Fine. Google it,” Maggie said, holding her hands up in defeat, “tell me about your things that go bump in the night.”
“Before we start, you’re definitely NCPD?” Nicole said, finally pushing Wynonna out of her chair.
“Yes, I’ve got the badge and the jacket to prove it,” Maggie said and threw her wallet at Nicole.
Nicole picked It up and inspected it carefully, “Definitely not the BBD checking up on us as Dolls isn’t here right now?”
Maggie shook her head, “Is that the Black Badge thing? I still have no idea what that is.”
“Ok. We might get onto that later,” Wynonna said cryptically. She took Maggie’s badge off Nicole and smirked at the picture before throwing it back to Maggie, “Anyway. A bunch of time ago, my Great Great Grandfather Wyatt Earp - you might have heard of him,” Maggie shook her head, “Nope, ok? I guess we’re even. Anyhow. He killed a lot of people. The bad guys. But for whatever reason, the Earp line is cursed and whenever the heir turns 27 - that’s me - all the bad guys come back and it’s my job to hunt ‘em all down.”
Maggie blinked several times, “Well. That was not what I expected.”
“Pretty cool though?” Nicole said.
“I mean, I do work with an actual alien to fight actual aliens,” Maggie shrugged, “but I gotta admit, it’s certainly new.”
“Welcome to Purgatory,” Wynonna said, holding out her arms.
“So what do you need me for?” Maggie asked.
“That is actually the real mystery,” Nicole said, “We have no idea why you’re here. We’ve had dealings with… other agencies.”
“Dolls and his Black Badge?” Maggie asked.
Nicole nodded, “We just got a message through saying you were being seconded here. We just assumed you’d been sent to help with our, uh, situation but they didn’t actually give us any information.”
“So you told me all that without being sure? What if I was just here to check up on parking restrictions.”
“Haughty’s got that covered. She loves an excuse for the old hi-vis,” Wynonna grinned.
“And besides, you told us about aliens first,” Nicole added.
“Yeah but you just need to watch the news to find all that out,” Maggie replied.
“Well as we told you, we’ve been a bit busy with some revenant hunting,” Wynonna said.
“Ok, ok,” Nicole said, stepping between them, “Maggie, you’re here now. Sorry there aren’t any aliens but you may as well come along for the ride because we sure as hell don’t have anything else for you to do.”
“What’s the worst that can happen?” Maggie said. She wondered if maybe she should have told them about the tip-off but she wasn’t sure she was ready for the paranoia and infighting that revelations like that usually bring. Besides, it wouldn’t change anything anyway.