In Sickness and in Health
A weekend of bliss was over too soon, and Nicole was stood hugging Waverly goodbye, but Waverly was a little more than reluctant to let her go, begging Nicole to stay.
Nicole, however, was having none of it. As much as she wanted to stay – and boy did she want to stay – she knew she couldn’t, and they had actually made a deal Nicole would leave come Sunday night. “Wave, come one, baby. You know that if I stay I won’t get enough rest because I’ll spend too much time looking at your beautiful face,” she cupped Waverly’s face and squished her cheeks then for emphasis.
Waverly didn’t say anything, she just pouted and Nicole was sure she’d change her mind right then unless she got rid of that pout right now. “Hey, stop that, you know I can’t stand that face.”
Shaking her head and keeping her pout exactly as it was, Waverly buried her face in the crook of Nicole’s neck and breathed in deep. She had to admit she was having a tougher time than she would’ve though letting Nicole go again after three so amazing days. She’d gotten used to having Nicole around and she loved it, so naturally she didn’t want the girl to leave.
“It’s just a little less than twenty-four hours until I see you again, we can do less than twenty-four hours apart, right?” Nicole kissed the top of Waverly head and tried to back out of the hug only to have Waverly tighten her hold on her.
“Nope, not letting you go. It looks like you will just have to stay right here!”
Nicole let out a laugh then, and lifted Waverly’s head enough to be able to give her a sweet kiss. “I know, I don’t want to leave either-“
“Then don’t! I don’t mind…” Waverly interrupted.
Sighing, Nicole responded, “I don’t want to leave, but! We agreed I would. You were even the one who said it, Wave, and I’ve got work in the morning…”
“I take it back, I didn’t actually mean it, I don’t think you should leave.”
Nicole didn’t really know what to say anymore, so she just sighed. It was breaking her heart to have to leave Waverly like this, but she knew it was for the best. She really did need to get a good night’s sleep before work the next day and she knew for sure that wouldn’t happen with Waverly asleep and beautiful looking in her arms. She was already feeling pretty tired, and she was close to giving in. If Waverly kept this up she was sure to get her way in a matter of minutes.
Pulling back a little, Waverly looked up at her with unshed tears in her eyes. She looped her arms around Nicole’s neck to bring her down for a kiss.
Nicole pulled back smiling, and Waverly couldn’t keep it up anymore, a small smile broke out on her lips as well. “Will you call me when you get home?” Nicole just nodded, “can I come by the station tomorrow like usual?” Nicole’s smile grew wider and again, she nodded. Waverly’s smile broke into a grin, “will you kiss me now?” Nicole took a hold of Waverly’s face with both hands and brought her face to her in a crushing kiss. She deepened it when Waverly gasped into her mouth, and trailed her hands back to run through dark waves. When Nicole finally pulled away, Waverly was stood panting. “Woah.”
Nicole winked at her, “I know.”
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The following morning, Waverly woke up quite possibly feeling worse than when she went to bed the night before. She was, however, determined not to let that ruin her day. Knowing she would be seeing Nicole soon enough, she quickly got out of bed and started her day, and sooner than she knew it she was headed over to the coffee shop downtown.
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As Waverly walked into the station she threw out her regular “hello’s” and “how are you’s”, making her way to the front desk where her smile faltered for only a second when she reached it but didn’t see Nicole anywhere. In Nicole’s usual seat was a replacement, some guy who seemed to think he was too good for the job as he seemed to be doing anything but actual work. Just as Waverly was about to walk up to him and ask if he knew where she could find Nicole, the phone ringed, and he held up a finger as he answered the call.
She waited for about fifteen minutes before growing impatient, and having to be at Shorty’s in a relatively short time from now, she began digging through her purse in search for some paper and a pen. She quickly realised she’d never find it in the mess that was her purse, so she sighed and just rounded the desk to grab some. She wrote a short message for Nicole and told the guy on the phone to hand it to her when he saw her.
Hey!
You weren’t here when I was :( I’ve got to get to Shorty’s, but come find me after work?
Love, Waverly
P.S.
I hope the coffee is still warm, sorry!
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The day had gone by quickly. It was now nearing midnight, and she had yet to hear anything from Nicole. As she made her way upstairs to her room she considered calling Nicole, there was still a chance she’d be awake after all. Plus, her phone would be on silent if she was sleeping, right? So she wouldn’t bother her either way, not really.
With that in mind she decided to go for it and quickly pulled up Nicole’s number and called her. The call was, however, eventually forwarded to voicemail, so she just hung up. She figured Nicole had probably just had a stressful day and was asleep by now – she couldn’t blame her honestly. Can’t possibly be too easy being a police officer every day.
Shrugging at no one in particular, Waverly went on to get ready for bed herself, thinking tomorrow would be better.
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The following day went about as good as the day before – Nicole was nowhere to be found at the station and the same jerk as before had taken over Nicole’s usual spot, once again spending his time talking with God knows who on the phone.
Waverly had, once again, written a note and left the station to head over to Shorty’s for her shift, and she had again been a little bit disappointed when Nicole hadn’t showed up to see her.
She tried calling her again that night, but there was still no answer, and honestly she was getting a little bit anxious now. She’d not heard from her in two days, had she done something? Was Nicole avoiding her, or what? Was she hurt? Oh my God what if she’s hurt?! After slightly panicking over the thought for a second, she pushed it right out of her mind, because Nicole was okay, and she would be at the station tomorrow. She had to be okay…
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Wednesday rolled around, and Waverly woke up feeling more determined than the past two days – she would talk to Nicole today. She’d spend half the night thinking about what she could’ve possibly done to make this happen, to make Nicole ignore her, but she’d been coming up empty. Eventually she’d concluded with the fact that she would just have to actually talk to Nicole before she could figure out what more to do.
Making her way through the station, she was alert and ready. If that same lazy guy would be sitting there this morning, he was in for a surprise and the wrath of Waverly Earp. On the way over she’d thought out exactly what she wanted to say to him, and suffice to say they were not exactly nice things.
Rounding the corner to the front desk, however, she was met with the pleasant sight of a kind looking woman sitting behind Nicole’s usual desk. Although disappointed it wasn’t Nicole herself, and slightly taken aback it wasn’t the jerk from the days before, she was beyond relieved when the woman spoke up and actually initiated contact.
“Hello! How can I help you today?” She said.
“Hi! Uhm, I’m looking for Nicole?” Waverly hesitantly answered.
The woman looked at her for a minute in question before speaking up, a smile playing on her lips, “are you asking me if you’re looking for Nicole, or are you telling me that’s what you’re doing?”
Waverly let out a small laugh, “Telling you. I’m looking for Nicole, you wouldn’t happen to know where I could find her?”
“Nicole…?”
“Oh! Sorry, officer Haught! I’m looking for officer Haught.”
The woman seemed to be wracking her brain trying to find the image of this officer Haught Waverly was speaking off, and not really having time for this right now because she was growing increasingly frustrated with the whole situation, Wavelry spoke up again, “actually, could I just speak with the Sherriff for a moment? Thanks.”
Waverly waited patiently as the woman started explaining how she would, unfortunately, have to come back at a later time because the Sherriff was very busy right now… Well, she was patient for about thirty seconds before she simply rounded the front desk and waltzed right on into Nedley’s office.
Waverly halted quite abruptly when she was through the door and was looking down at a Nedley eating his lunch. “Busy my butt…” She mumbled under her breath before speaking up louder, “have you seen Nicole?”
Nedley was a little bit taken aback himself, and it therefore took him a minute to respond, “Nicole?”
Waverly was growing increasingly frustrated now, was it really that hard to just answer the question? “Yes, Nicole. You know, officer Haught? She works for you, and I haven’t seen her in what would now be closing in on three days, so where is she? She won’t respond to any of my texts or calls, she’s never here when I am – which is the same time every day, so if she wanted to see me she would have been here. Which also means if she wanted to avoid me she would know how to. But if she actually is avoiding me I really can’t for the life of me figure out why? I mean I didn’t do anything, did I? I don’t think I did… Well anyway, I really need to talk to her, so I was hoping you could maybe tell me where she is so that could happen? Or do you even know where she is, I’m sorry, I shouldn-“
“Waverly,” Nedley started, “calm down, will you? I haven’t seen Nicole all week, I-“
Interrupting him before he finished speaking, Waverly suddenly got very worried – he hadn’t seen her all week? What did that even mean? “What do you mean you haven’t seen her all week?! Did something happen, is she okay – oh my God, she’s okay, right?”
“I’m sure she’s okay, she’s ju-“
“I have to go,” Waverly announced, once again interrupting Nedley before he finished speaking, and storming out of his office.
“Just sick. She’s sick is what I was going to say if that girl would just calm down for a second, Jesus…” Nedley mumbled to himself after Waverly had left his office, before going back to eating his lunch – hopefully in peace.
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Pulling into a parking space outside Nicole’s building she could see Nicole’s car parked there, which made her feel a little bit better because that meant she would most likely be here.
She climbed out of her car and was met with Lincoln bumping into her feet, snuggling up to her, “hey buddy!” She exclaimed as she bent down to pet him, “how are you today, Lincoln, you good?” The cat purred happily in response, so Waverly kept petting him for a moment, figuring it wouldn’t matter spending a couple minutes with Lincoln, “you’re such a handsome little fellow, aren’t you? How’s your mommy doing, is she home? Let’s go see if she’ll talk to me, shall we?” And with that, she stood back up and started walking, Lincoln following closely behind.
Standing outside of Nicole’s door, she was growing more nervous by the minute. This was her girlfriend, she shouldn’t be this nervous, should she? Well, maybe a little bit was okay because she hadn’t talked to her in almost three days and she had no idea why, that was a good reason to be a little bit nervous, she thought. She knocked on the door just as Lincoln made his way inside the cat door, and leaned against the door to hear for any sounds at all.
Eventually she heard Nicole on the other side of the door, talking with Lincoln – or so she assumed. She decided to knock again, “Nicole, it’s me! Come on, I know you’re there…”
She waited another minute before yelling through the door again, “I’m not going to go away, you know.”
After a few seconds she heard a muffled “its open,” and she was flooded with relief. They were talking, this was good, this was major improvement.
She confidently turned the handle and stepped inside, “if this is because of anything I did…”
Waverly stopped mid-sentence as soon as she had stepped inside. The curtains were drawn, and although it was the afternoon the entire apartment was practically pitch black. She felt Lincoln cup up to her again, bumping into her legs, and even with her eyes adjusting to the dark she was having a really hard time seeing anything or anyone else.
“Nicole?” Waverly called out hesitantly. Her attention was drawn towards the couch at the sound of sniffles and coughing.
“Morning, sunshine,” Nicole responded from her spot on the couch, voice raspy and groggy. She was wrapped up in a blanket she had pulled up under her chin as she was laid on her side. The coffee table was littered with used tissues and empty mugs previously filled with tea and hot chocolate. Honestly, for someone always seeming so put together – she was a wreck.
“It’s the afternoon,” Waverly chuckled as she made her way over to the couch where she knelt down by Nicole’s head.
“Wonderful,” Nicole responded sarcastically, pulling the blanket over her head.
Waverly reached out to pull it back down, and placed a cold hand on Nicole’s burning forehead. Nicole leaned into the touch, closed her eyes, and sighed happily at the contact.
“So this is why you haven’t been at the station or Shorty’s?” Waverly asked, “because you’ve been sick?”
Nicole opened her eyes again, “oh shoot. I’m sorry, Wave, I never meant to bail.” She sniffled a few times and lifted her head from Waverly’s hand as she reached behind her for some paper so she could blow her nose.
Waverly ran her fingers through red hair as Nicole sighed and laid her head back down on the pillow and said, “no its fine, I just thought…” You realised you were sick of me and were avoiding me.
“Thought what?” Nicole asked as she slowly pushed herself to sit up with her back against the armrest of the couch, coughing and feeling as if her head was about to explode in the process.
Shaking her head, Waverly answered, “nothing, it doesn’t matter. I was just worried about you.” She frowned as she took a closer look at Nicole now that her eyes had finally adjusted completely to the dark, her eyes were puffy, her nose was red, her hair was a mess and she looked down right miserable. “Jesus, Nicole, you look horrible.”
Nicole just looked at Waverly for a second, “wow, okay… Thank you, Waverly, for your always oh-so-heart-warming compliments.”
Laughing, Waverly apologised, “I’m sorry. Why are you in here and not in bed?”
“It’s too far away,” she mumbled and wrapped the blanket tighter around herself.
Waverly shook her head and smiled before walking over to the window to draw the curtains open, which she did in one swift motion. She turned back when she heard Nicole groan at the light and saw her lie back down and turn her back to the windows to avoid major exposure to it. Waverly walked back over to the couch and took a seat at her feet, “when was the last time you showered?”
Nicole turned her head slightly to look at Waverly then, “what exactly are you trying to tell me?”
Waverly just laughed and walked off then. Nicole closed her eyes again, happy when the darkness seemed to lull the pounding in her head just a little bit. Waverly was back, however, in less than five minutes and she showed no mercy as she pulled the blanket off the red head who turned to glare at her for a minute before turning away and curling herself up in a ball on the couch again – she did not have the energy to fight anything that was happening right now.
“Come on, officer, up an at ‘em! The bath is ready; all you have to do is climb in.” She didn’t receive any kind of response at first so she tried again. “It’ll make you feel better,” she said, tossing the blanket to the end of the couch and taking a hold of Nicole’s wrist pulling her up and over her bedroom that was connected to a bathroom.
Nicole glared at her for a second before sighing and grabbing the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her head as she walked towards the bath Waverly had gotten ready for her.
Walking away, Waverly only turned her head to call out over her shoulder “while you get cleaned up, I’ll get started on a chicken noodle soup like no other. You’ll love it!”
Nicole smiled and shook her head to herself. She had to admit though, even just being in the now very steamed bathroom was already feeling great, and as she climbed in she sighed at the feeling of the warm water starting to warm her through. She leaned her head back and tried to fully relax while trying to get warmed up a bit.
When the water was getting cold, Nicole opened her eyes again, taking a minute to adjust to the bright lights, before pulling the plug and getting out of the bath. She took a deep breath and she had to admit, Waverly might have been right, she did feel a lot better already. She could even breathe normally without coughing – if only for a minute – which she definitely appreciated being able to do. She wrapped a towel around herself and walked out to the bedroom to find a glass of water and some painkillers sitting on her nightstand, and she smiled as she walked over and swallowed the pills along with the glass of water. She pulled on some sweats and a t-shirt before walking out to the kitchen where something was smelling insanely good.
It was only when her stomach rumbled that Waverly noticed her standing in the doorway. She smiled and walked over to her, kissing a cheek she asked, “feeling better?”
“Much.” She went to the living room to pick up the mugs and paper she was sure she’d strewn about, only find it was all cleaned up.
Walking back into the kitchen, she stepped up behind Waverly and wrapped her arms around her waist, “and thank you for cleaning up my mess.”
“Of course!” Waverly said, turning around in her arms smiling as wide as ever. “Now come on, there’s soup and tea!”
“Okay, so this is without a doubt the best chicken noodle soup I have ever eaten. And I’ve eaten a lot of soup,” Nicole said as she had another taste and closed her eyes, smiling and wanting to savour the moment.
Waverly grinned then, very happy they were still very okay and she hadn’t messed up yet, “I’m glad you like it.”
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The two had moved to Nicole’s bed after they’d eaten, figuring that’s where Nicole should be, not the couch.
“What are we even watching?” Nicole asked as she laid her head down on Waverly’s shoulder, closing her eyes trying to relax, “it seems terrible.”
“I thought you weren’t even paying attention, I thought you were half asleep to be honest…”
“Well,” Nicole started, “wasn’t paying attention, and I was trying to sleep, however with this feeling that my head could explode any second, I don’t think that’s an option anymore.”
Waverly paused her show then, shut the laptop and sat it on the table next to her, and patted her lap, “alright, head please?”
“Uhm… What?” Nicole asked with a sceptic look on her face.
Rolling her eyes, Waverly patted her lap again, “come on, don’t over think it and make it weird, trust me.”
When Nicole still didn’t seem convinced, Waverly continued, “honestly, I was right about the bath and the soup helped, didn’t it?” She got a nod in response, “okay, so lie down please.”
Nicole sighed, but did as she was told. She shifted slightly and turned her back to Waverly before lowering herself down so her head landed in Waverly’s lap. “Now what?”
Waverly laughed, “patience.” She said as she placed her hands on either side of Nicole’s head, pressing the tips of her fingers against her temples and rotating them in circles.
Nicole let out a satisfied sight and closed her eyes, feeling more relaxed by the second. Waverly definitely wasn’t wrong about this one, she thought to herself as she finally felt she could relax fully.
Smiling at the reaction, Waverly let her fingers glide back and through red hair, scratching her scalp lightly.
“This is amazing,” Nicole whispered after a while.
“Yeah, it’s one of the few things I remember dad used to do when I was sick or when I had trouble sleeping.”
Nicole opened her eyes when she felt Waverly’s hands still, looking up at her and looking for the right words to say. “Do you want to tell me about him? And your sister too…”
A little taken aback, it took Waverly a minute to form any words and the one she did form was, “what?”
Nicole shrugged, “just if you want to.” She closed her eyes again, “I mean as long as you keep doing that head thing.”
When Waverly didn’t move to continue, Nicole opened an eye and looked up at her before she reached behind her head to grab her hands and place them at her temples again.
Waverly chuckled, but continued running her fingers through still damp hair again, “honestly I don’t remember much about either of them… Just things like this with dad, and him taking my side when Willa and Wynonna would gang up on me and not let me play with them.” She smiled absentmindedly at the memories, and Nicole opened an eye to get a look at her. “And Willa, the only thing I really remember is this really horrible thing she did… When I was four, she caught be going through my dad’s drawer, and she promised she wouldn’t tell. She wouldn’t tell, IF I walked across this one beam in the barn. And I didn’t want her to tell, so obviously I did it, but looking back on it now, that was so, so, stupid… I could’ve broken my neck, and she was old enough to know that.”
Nicole looked up at Waverly then, not really sure what she could say – if anything at all. She ended up not saying anything at all, turning to lie on her side and burying her face in Waverly’s stomach.
Laughing, she asked, “what are you doing?”
“I’m cuddling with your stomach, isn’t it obvious?” Nicole answered.
Waverly could only laugh at what was going on, until she happened to glance at the clock and seeing what time it was. “Oh, it’s getting pretty late, I should probably let you sleep.”
She went to get out of bed, but quickly felt a hand grab her wrist, “or you could stay?”
Nicole wasn’t flirting or putting on a suggestive tone, she was simply asking if Waverly would stay with her even though she was sick – perhaps because she was sick. Either way, Waverly slowly nodded and lifted her legs back onto the bed, scooting back up towards the headboard.
Nicole lifted the covers, sliding her legs underneath, with Waverly following quickly after. They both sank down into the bed, Nicole curling up and latching onto Waverly, who brought her arms around Nicole – holding her close.
Waverly turned off the lights, and they both let out a content sigh. Looking down on Nicole as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she could see her eyes were closed but her eyebrows were still furrowed. Waverly brought a hand up then, continuing her miracle head rub thing, smiling as Nicole’s face seemed to turn from a frown to being completely relaxed.
Eventually Waverly closed her own eyes, feeling herself grow more tired by the minute. In no time she fell asleep to the sound of Nicole’s steady breathing, the hint of a smile present on her face as she finally felt fully relaxed and at ease after a couple more stressful nights.