Chapter 5
Nicole pulled up to the house as the sky glowed with the beginning of sunrise, storm clouds visible in the distance. Waverly was waiting, leaning against the beat up blue ford, two cups of coffee in her hands. Nicole couldn’t suppress the smile that came over her face knowing that that cup of coffee was for her. Despite the chill outside, Nicole could feel warmth inside of her.
“Good morning, my favorite cowgirl,” Waverly stood up and handed Nicole a cup of coffee.
“Good morning to you too,” Nicole took the cup of coffee.
“You said you knew how to put up spit rail with only two people right?” Waverly asked.
“Yeah, we just need some rope, why?” Nicole asked.
“I broke up with Champ. So it’s a two women crew today,” Waverly looked down.
Nicole tried to squash the bit of joy that rose up inside of her, “Oh Waves, I’m so sorry,”
Waverly felt the corners of her mouth turn up at the new nickname, “It’s ah, its ok, long overdue really. Let’s go work on that fence,”
“The fence, right, lets go,” Nicole nodded.
They worked quietly, and Nicole couldn’t help but eye the clouds rolling towards the mountain ridge. Waverly caught herself looking up at Nicole, catching Nicole looking at the ridgeline more than once.
“Like I said, the mountains tend to screw up the weather patterns here,” Waverly leaned against a fence post.
“That one looks like it might get across,” Nicole said skeptically.
“I guess we better get moving then,” Waverly said.
They worked as quickly as possible. But Nicole felt a bit of vindication when the first raindrop slipped down her neck. She pushed her hat down on her head. They worked as the first big raindrops splashed against the packed dirt.
Soon, a clap of thunder accompanied the raindrops. The rain began to come down hard. The postholes filled in with mud as fast as they could dig it out. Nicole turned the collar of her shirt up to try and defend against cold raindrops.
“Nicole, I think we need to go inside,” Waverly said.
Nicole looked at her. She was a sorry sight, rain dripping down her face, “I agree, we won’t be able to keep this up. Lets go,”
As they drove back the skies opened up. Even on the fastest wiper speed, Waverly couldn’t see farther than a couple feet in front of the hood of the truck. It took them twice as long as usual to get back to the house.
They were chased into the house by another clap of thunder.
“It’s really coming down out there, we are done for the day,” Nicole sighed.
“I guess we should have lunch?” Waverly offered.
“I would hate to be an inconvenience,” Nicole tried to protest.
“You are not going out in that, you wont make it half way back home,” Waverly said, “I insist you stay here until it lets up. Now lets get some dry clothes,”
Nicole followed Waverly up the stairs. Waverly flipped on a light and started rummaging through an old beat up dresser, “Wynonna should have something that will fit you in here,”
Waverly pulled out a baggy sweatshirt and some pajama pants. She handed them to Nicole, “I’ll be across the hall,”
Waverly gave her a look over her shoulder as she walked out of the room. Nicole quickly shrugged off the wet cloths and pulled on the sweatpants and the sweatshirt. She used her fingers to comb through the wet tendrils of hair.
“Ah, Nicole,” Waverly’s voice came from across the hall.
“Yeah?” she walked out into the hallway. The room across the hall’s door was ajar.
“I ah, I need a little help,” Waverly said.
Nicole pushed the door open to find Waverly with her shirt stuck around her head.
“I’ve got you,” Nicole swiftly pulled the shirt over Waverly’s head.
“Thank you,” Waverly said once she was free. Both women were suddenly aware of how close they were to each other.
Nicole ripped her eyes from Waverly’s and found Waverly’s dry shirt draped on the back of a desk chair. She picked it up and handed it to her, “It’s no problem,”
Nicole walked out of the room, pausing to look back at Waverly one last time, “I’ll be down stairs,”
Waverly smiled, clutching the shirt to her torso as she watched Nicole walk away. She shook her head and pulled the shirt overhead.
When she finally mad it downstairs she found Nicole staring out the window at the tree in the front yard whipping in the wind of the storm.
“It can get bad out here,” Waverly jumped at the sound of thunder, “I haven’t been out here for a bad storm since I was a little kid,”
“Good thing you aren’t alone,” Nicole turned to her.
Just then the lights flickered, and with a soft thunk, went out.
“Fuck,” Waverly said softly.
“Well isn’t that our luck?” Nicole tried to chuckle it off.
“What do we do?” Waverly sounded slightly worried.
“Well, first we need and flashlight and then we should try the breaker box,”
“Right,” Waverly disappeared into a hall closet, returning with a flashlight, “The breaker box is in the basement,”
Nicole followed Waverly down the rickety old stairs into the dirt floor basement.
“Why are all old farm houses equipped with a scary basement?” Nicole asked.
“I think its over here,” Waverly lead Nicole to the back wall of the damp basement.
Nicole took the flashlight from Waverly and opened the dusty breaker box. She flipped the main breaker back and forth, nothing.
“Well, the power is definitely out,” Nicole sighed.
“I guess we light some candles?” Waverly offered as they headed back upstairs.
“Sounds like a plan, its pretty dark in here,”
Waverly left Nicole alone to retrieve some candles. Nicole could hear the wind outside howling and the rattle of the panes of glass in the old windows. She now understood why Wynonna might think this place was haunted.
Waverly brought in hands full of teal lights, “These are all the candles we have. Its about to look like a cult worshiping in here,” Waverly laughed as she began lighting the small candles.
Once they were all lit the two women sat down on the couch.
“Today took a turn,” Nicole stated as she tucked her feet under here.
“Thank you for being here,” Waverly rested her hand on the redhead’s knee.
“I mean… you do pay me to be here,” Nicole gave Waverly a wink.
“I truly am thankful you are here. I don’t just mean for the storm, I mean in my life too,” Waverly gave Nicole’s knee a squeeze.
“I’m glad I met you too,” Nicole said.
“I’ve been thinking about the other night, when we were drinking,” Waverly started.
Nicole cut her off, “I’m sorry about getting nosey about Wynonna. It was out of line,”
“No that’s not what I-“ Waverly was halted by all the candles going out at once.
“What was that?” Nicole sat up straight, her voice portraying her nerve.
Waverly tried her best to remain optimistic, “It’s an old drafty house,”
Both of their eyes slowly rose to the ceiling and the sound of footsteps directly above them.
“The house is just settling,”
“Wave’s,” Nicole said as she stood up, “That did not sound like settling,”
Waverly didn’t even get a chance to soak up the new nickname. The distinctive footstep sounded again.
“There is someone in the house,” Nicole whispered. She reached for her sopping wet jeans and pulled out her pocketknife. With a flick and a satisfying click the blade locked into place.
Waverly snapped to. She pulled the old hunting rifle off the mantle and fished a magazine fro it out of a side table, clicking it into place and racking a round into the chamber.
“You ever use one of these?”
Nicole nodded, holstering the knife for the familiar weight of the 22. Waverly grabbed an old sawed off shotgun from the corner by the door and loaded it. Nicole made a mental note to ask her why they were so strapped if they survived this.
Nicole headed for the stairs, but Waverly stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, “I’ll go first,”
Nicole tried to protest, but Waverly cut her off, “I’ve got the better gun for this and I know the house, I’m going first,”
Wordlessly, Nicole followed the brunette up the stairs. Waverly deftly avoided the squeaky floorboards and Nicole was careful to follow her every move. Waverly pushed open the first door on the right, scanning the room, Nicole covered her back. They went through each room in this fashion, reconvening on the landing, confused.
“What the fuck?” Nicole clicked the rifle’s safety on.
A loud crash down stairs prompted Nicole to rush down the stairs.
Nicole sighed as she looked out the window.
“The barn door is just blowing in the wind,” Nicole said over her shoulder to Waverly.
“Ahhh, why is the light on in the barn?” Waverly asked.
Nicole looked back out the window, “A better question is how is the light on,”
She slipped on her boots and ran into the pouring rain.
She quietly and quickly walked out into the yard. She raised the old hunting riffle, clicking the safety off. Her hands were steady, but her heard was racing. It distinctly reminded her of the first time she went deer hunting with her dad.
She jumped slightly as the old barn door banged loudly in the wind again.
She walked up to the barn door, scanning the large, empty open space. Keeping an eye on the room she reached for the light switch, flipping it on and off.
No change, the lights persisted.
“Strange…” Nicole felt uneasy. She cautiously entered deeper into the barn, checking the stalls and the tack room on the first floor. She took a deep breath before climbing the stairs up into the hayloft.
It was dark, no lights up here to be ominously on. The only light in the room emanated from the cracks in the floor. The air was still, stagnant and smelled of moldy hay. Nicole cursed herself for not bringing a flashlight. The room was vast, and save some old rusty farm equipment and loose rotten straw on the floor, the room was empty.
Just to be sure, Nicole walked the perimeter of the room, taking it slow to watch out for possibly rotten boards despite everything in her body screaming for her to run.
She jumped at another loud slam down stairs. She hurried towards the stairs and started descending them quickly, her brain pleading her to move faster. Halfway down the steps the lights cut out and Nicole felt a shove from behind.
She stumbled down the remaining steps, only barely able to keep her balance, a searing pain on her back.
She swung around, aiming the riffle at who ever pushed her. She was greeted by nothing but oppressive darkness.
She hurried to the sliver of light coming from the crack in the barn door, closing it behind her before running back into the deluge towards the house.
Waverly saw Nicole come running through the sheets of rain. Her face was pale and she looked unnerved.
Waverly opened the door before Nicole reached it, ushering her inside, “What happened, are you ok?”
“We have to leave,” Nicole said, “I don’t know what’s going on here, but we gotta go,”
“Wait, what happened?” Waverly repeated her question.
“The barn lights, Waverly, they were on and I couldn’t turn them off. There was on one in there, but someone pushed me down the stairs and shut the lights off, we have to leave,”
Instinctively Waverly pulled Nicole into a hug. She felt the sticky hotness of blood on Nicole’s back, “Oh my God, Nicole you are bleeding!”
She spun the taller women around and saw slash marks in the fabric of the soaking wet sweatshirt and the red stain of blood seeping through.
“We are going to my place,” Nicole said, grabbing her keys and hat. They ran out into the rain hopping into Nicole’s truck. She prayed it would be able to get them home as she threw the truck into four-wheel drive. The whole drive to Nicole’s house was tense; she had an iron grip on the steering wheel.
Nicole could feel herself relax slightly as her property came into view in the near distance.
They hurried into the small farmhouse.
“Welcome to my house,” Nicole said as she locked the door behind them. It felt weird to say that after what they had both experienced.
Waverly followed her down a short hallway into the living area. The outside of the house said older farmhouse, but the inside had been recently updated.
To the left was an eating area, the kitchen in the back corner. To the right was the living room.
“Let me take a better look at your back,” Waverly said softly.
Nicole turned around, suddenly aware of how much it actually hurt now that the adrenaline was leaving her system.
Waverly gently lifted the tattered fabric. Three large, angry scratches covered Nicole’s back, spanning from her right shoulder down to her left hip. If Waverly didn’t know any better she would think a bear had taken a swipe at the girl.
“You have 3 long scratches on your back,” Waverly let the sweatshirt fall, “Do you have a first aid kit? I can try and get you patched up for now,”
“Yeah, follow me,” Nicole led her upstairs. They entered the first room on the left, “This is my room,”
She disappeared into the bathroom, coming back out with a small Rubbermaid tote full of first aid supplies. Waverly jumped when something moved on the bed next to her, she sighed in relief when she realized it was a cat jumping on to the bed.
“That’s Janey,” Nicole introduced the cat as she searched in her dresser for a replacement for the now destroyed sweatshirt she had on.
They headed back down stairs. Waverly set up shop on Nicole’s kitchen table, laying out the supplies she would need.
“One upside to having dated a bull rider is I got pretty good at first aid. Now, step into my office,” She motioned for Nicole to sit down in front of her.
Nicole straddled the chair, facing the back and away from Waverly. Waverly helped her gingerly remove the wet garment, revealing the full extent of the injuries.
Waverly inspected the wounds more closely. She wasn’t sure what could have caused it. They were deep and angry. She gently touched the surrounding area, soliciting a hiss from Nicole.
“Did you fall against anything?”
“No, I don’t think so, I think whatever pushed me did it,”
The words hung in the air as Waverly worked to clean and bandage the wounds. Every groan and stifled swear from Nicole made Waverly’s heart feel heavy.
Once she was satisfied with her repair job, she helped Nicole slide on the oversized t-shirt she had grabbed.
“I am so sorry,” Waverly said to her.
Nicole hugged the shorter women, “there is no need to be sorry,”
“If you hadn’t been there today, this wouldn’t have happened to you,”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Nicole repeated. She let go of Waverly despite everything in her body begging her to never let go, “If it hadn’t been me than it could have been you. I would rather it be me. Come on, I’ll make tea,”
Nicole filled a kettle and got it started. They waited, sitting at the kitchen island.
“So, ah, crazy day at work, am I right?” Waverly gave her a slight nudge.
“Super crazy, thankfully my boss is kinda cool,”
“Oh shit, I’ve got to call Wynonna and tell her. I don’t want her going back to that place alone,”
Waverly called her sister and tried her best to explain what had happened on speaker phone so Nicole could add her commentary while she fixed them each a cup of tea.
“Well, I’m waiting,” Wynonna’s voice said.
“Waiting for what?” Nicole asked.
“For Waverly to admit I was right. That place is haunted, I was right. Admit it,”
“Is this really the time?”
“It’s always the time to prove I’m right, baby girl,” Wynonna said jokingly. Her voice turned serious, “Thank you Nicole for helping my sister. We are going to have to find a way to figure out what’s going on on our land,”
“Well, I don’t think there’s really anything we can do about it tonight,” Nicole said, “But if you want to start figuring out where we even start, be my guest,”
“Oh, I know where to start. I’ve been looking into this ever since we moved back into that house,” Wynonna said, “You two relax, recoup. I’ll start making some calls,”
“Love you, Wynonna,” Waverly said.
“Love you too baby girl,” Wynonna said back, “Sorry Nicole, its too soon in our relationship to say I love you, but thank you,”
“It was no problem,” Nicole said. Waverly hung up the phone and they headed into the living room with their tea. Waverly curled up into the oversized armchair and Nicole stretched her legs out on the couch. Both women were feeling the effects of the adrenaline crash. Nicole took some ibuprofen to help with her back.
Waverly was grasping for anything to talk about other than the events of the day, anything to fill the silence so she didn’t have to listen to the storm outside anymore.
“When do you compete next?” Waverly asked.
“Dolls and I are going to be in that invitational next week here in town, then we are going to somewhere in Montana for a rodeo in a couple weeks,” Nicole sipped her tea, “We ah, we got a sponsor,”
Waverly sat up a bit, interested, “Who?”
“Your friend, Doc. He is letting us use his set up, his roping horses, all just for wearing shirts with his farms logo on it. It still sounds, and feels, fishy to me. How well do you guys know him?”
“I mean, he was the new guy in town, but now that’s you. His family has owned that farm for generations, but he lived somewhere else, never around here. He came back recently, taking it over from his cousin on circumstances that were very unclear. But he’s been nothing but nice to us. Wynonna took to him like a fish to water. She doesn’t think I know, but they have been sleeping together for a bit now. She thinks she’s sneaky,”
“Do you think we should trust him?” Nicole asked.
“I think, so far, he hasn’t given me a reason to not trust him,”
Nicole decided to accept that answer for now, “I guess we will have to see,”
Eventually the events of the day began to catch up with them, exhaustion setting in. Waverly was nodding off in the chair, her now empty mug dangling dangerously from her hand. Nicole stood up, collecting the mug from Waverly’s hand, and going to set them in the sink.
“Sorry, I almost fell asleep on you there,” Waverly stood up, stretching.
“It’s still early, but I was thinking we might hit they hay,” Nicole suggested, “I don’t currently have a bed in the spare room, its really just used as storage. So you can either sleep in my room and I sleep down here, or we can share my bed,”
“I’m not going to make you sleep on the couch in your own house,” Waverly said as though it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard, “And I’m not sure I could sleep alone tonight if I wanted to,”
Nicole nodded, wordlessly sharing her sentiment, “Alright, if you want to share, we can share. Lets get ready for bed,”
Nicole led her back upstairs. She searched through the small closet in the master bathroom for a spare toothbrush.
“Here you go,” Nicole handed Waverly the brand new toothbrush. They brushed their teeth side by side, it felt incredibly domestic, almost too intimate for their level of friendship.
“Do you need a change of clothes or are you good with what you have on?” Nicole asked.
“I’m fine in this,” Waverly shoved her hands in the pajama pants she had on.
Nicole turned down the comforter, “Are you sure you don’t mind sharing a bed?” Nicole asked.
“I think it will be nice to know I’m not alone if I’m being completely honest,”
“Ok, I just, I want you to be comfortable,” Nicole wrung her hands nervously. The prospect of Waverly sleeping next to her was almost scarier than everything they has experienced that day.
“Nicole, I get it, you’re gay, not a werewolf. I’m not afraid of sharing bed with you,” Waverly kissed her cheek, “Now, do you have a side?”
“Ah what?”
“A side, of the bed. Do you like to sleep on one side or the other?” Waverly smiled at how flustered Nicole looked.
“Oh, right. I don’t, you can pick,”
Waverly crawled into the bed getting under the coves. Nicole sat down on the edge of the bed, reaching for the retainer case on the side of the bed, then opting to not put it in, remembering how much she didn’t like how it made her sleep with her mouth open. She switched off the bedside light before swinging her legs up onto the bed and getting under the covers. Nicole kept her distance, but she couldn’t resist turning to face Waverly.
Both of their breathing slowed, coming into sync, but neither of them found sleep. Waverly was lying on her back, a bit more stiff than one might expect from someone sleeping.
Waverly was trying to will herself to sleep, but as hard as she tried, she couldn’t shake the images of Nicole sprinting in the rain, or the feeling that had run down here spine at the sound of footsteps.
“Nicole, are you still awake?” She whispered.
Nicole opened her eyes, looking at the shadow of the women next to her in the moonlight filtering through the window.
It took her a beat to answer, “yeah,”
“I can’t sleep,” Waverly turned to look at Nicole. Her voice was small, almost like a child.
“What can I do to help?” Nicole asked softly.
Waverly was quiet for a second. She took a deep breath before gently taking Nicole’s hand in hers. She rolled over onto her side facing away from Nicole, guiding her arm around her.
“Is this ok?” Waverly asked, the waver in her voice giving away that she was unsure of herself.
“Ye-yah,” Nicole stammered. She scooted a bit closer to Waverly. A million thoughts raced through her mind and once. She prayed that Waverly couldn’t feel how fast her heart was beating.
She’s straight; don’t let yourself fall for her. Nicole repeated to herself.
“Thank you,” Waverly’s voice came out as a barely audible whisper, “What you did today, it was brave,”
“Running into a storm to chase an unknown intruder, or a ghost or whatever is hardly brave. More stupidity, really,” Nicole said.
Waverly let out a half laugh that was more a huff than a laugh, “Fine, thank you for being stupid today. It made me feel a lot better,”
“Can I ask you a question?” Nicole squeezed Waverly’s hand slightly.
“Of course,” Waverly said, voice low.
“Why do you guys have so many guns and so much ammo…. Just laying around in your house?”
“The simple answer is that we have a coyote problem,” Waverly said.
“What is the not-simple answer?”
“A story for a different time,” Waverly said.
Nicole pulled her in a fraction of an inch closer, “ok,”
“I think I’m going to try to sleep now,” Waverly said.
“Goodnight Waves,”
“Goodnight,” Waverly said in a sleepy voice.
It didn’t take to long for Waverly to fall asleep. Nicole smiled at the soft sound of her snore. It was small and dainty just like her.
Against all the odds, Nicole soon fell asleep as well, content with the smaller women in her arms.