92. Chapter 92

“Nicole Haught! You enjoyed that far too much!” Waverly laughed at the smug expression of joy on her Alpha’s face as the old cracked and rotten window crashed into the skip waiting below with a cacophony of sound.

Making her way through the room, Waverly ran her eyes over the bigger items that still needed to be moved out. There was still so much to do before they could start decorating and making it into a nursery but just being able to get to the window and clear out what they had been able to between shifts had made so much of a difference already.

Handing her love a bottle of water, Waverly contented herself with what was proving to be a new obsession… running her fingers through the soft strands of Nicole’s shorter hair. “Think we’ll get this cleaned out today?”

“Should do,” looping her arm around Waverly, Nicole pulled her closer to her side. “It all depends on two things though.”

“Oh?” Waverly looked around the room, wondering which things Nicole had tagged as potential problems.

“The first thing is no emergencies from the station… though Wynonna said she would cover anything that came up… which worries me in itself. I’ve told her the files aren’t at the station but I think she’s going over every inch of that place so she can burn all her old records.”

“And the second thing?”

“You,” she purred. “If you keep playing with my hair like that I might never get this place finished,” Nicole smiled at Waverly’s playful laugh as she nuzzled her nose against her neck.

“I can’t help it if you look gorgeous.”

“So I didn’t look gorgeous before?”

Waverly poked her in the side. “You always look gorgeous. I miss the pretty French braid… I miss those hip-hugging khakis,” Nicole earned another poke for a snort. “And the way you could never do your shirt buttons up. And I also love your hair short, and how well your new uniform fits… especially that zip,” she purred. “Très sexy! And speaking of sexy… this sexy lumberjack look,” she purred again and gave an appreciative growl for good measure.

“Lumberjack?” Nicole looked down at herself. “Waves, it’s a flannel shirt. Waves…” Nicole tried to back up and had to adjust her position as she felt the breeze through the opening where the window had been. The look in her hazel eyes was pure mischief and burgeoning desire. “Waves,” she chuckled as her own desire for her mate flared up higher in response, “as much as I would love nothing more right now than to take you back to bed and spend the whole day lost in you… if I don’t get this room cleared it will delay them putting in the new window.”

“Fine,” Waverly pouted cheekily as she latched her fingers into the soft fabric of the well-worn flannel shirt Nicole was wearing and pulled her closer. Sliding her hands up, she worked her way up across the tempting swell of breasts she had left tender and painted with teeth marks and shoulders that had met a similar fate by teeth and nails just as the rest of her body had. A part of her wondered if she shouldn’t feel a little bad about all the bites and scratches she had left but… Nicole had begged for more and with her strength as an Alpha, Waverly knew that the only thing stopping them from healing straight away was Nicole herself.

The only mark left upon her pale flesh that Nicole had no say on healing was the one Waverly’s fingers linger on the most. With Nicole’s shorter hair teasing the back of her hand, she traced the pattern of her teeth, stirring up the warmth of their scent higher until the room felt alive with it. Leaning into the strength of Nicole’s hand mirrored upon her neck, Waverly lost herself in her Alpha’s soft, loving gaze, drowning in dimples and the soft brown of her eyes as Nicole leaned closer for a searching kiss.

“Waverly Earp… you are terrible for my productivity,” Nicole mumbled against the soft pillow of Waverly’s mouth. “Go on, get out of here and let me work,” turning her around, Nicole steered her towards the door.

“You sure I can’t help? I’m sure Wynonna wouldn’t mind.”

“And leave her to research on her own? I’ve got this, Babe.”

“How about… if I just watch… for a while?” Waverly bit her lip and asked hopefully, and a little breathlessly, as Nicole’s graceful body stretched and muscled flexed and strained against her clothing as she shouldered a long length of rolled up carpet.

Nicole manoeuvred the floppy length of carpeting over to the window and listened to it thud into the skip before slowly turning and giving her attention to Waverly. Knowing exactly the kind of things going through her mate's mind, Nicole did a few exaggerated, and completely unnecessary stretches. Just enough to elicit a soft needy whimper. “So, you want to just stand around while I get all hot and sweaty, huh?”

“Hanging from afar while my lady works? That’s my jam!”

Laughing at Waverly’s tongue clicking and excessive use of finger guns, Nicole tossed a work glove at her head and caught it as it flew back her way. “Go on, get! You promised Wynonna you would help with research!” That the research was taking place at Shorty’s over a bottle of whiskey was, according to Wynonna, just a convenience so that Waverly wouldn’t be late for her shift. “They promised they would be here by four to put the window is. Shouldn’t take them long and once they’re done I’ll come pick you if you like?”

“Paint shopping after?”

“Yep. Still got your heart set on that pastel rainbow?”

“You know it! Oh, sounds like trouble just rolled up,” cocking her head, Waverly listened as Wynonna’s truck skidded to a halt with the sound of gravel spraying and music blaring. Even though she knew that Wynonna wasn’t blessed with a great deal of patience, Waverly found it hard to motivate her feet to get moving now that the time had come.

Stepping closer, Nicole gently cupped Waverly’s face and kissed away the frown between her eyes. “I know, Babe,” Nicole smiled gently, letting her know with words and actions that she felt the same way. “You go do the research thing with your sister while I get this all cleaned up for our baby. Better hurry though, you know she’ll just get impatient and… do that,” she sighed and rolled her eyes as Wynonna leant on the horn with seemingly no intention of letting up until Waverly showed up.

“That’s it, I’m killing her!” Nicole’s laugh followed Waverly as she left the nursery to be and made her way downstairs. She glowered at Wynonna as she made her way towards the blue truck but being an unrepentant ass, Wynonna only took her hand off the horn when she climbed in and had the door shut. “’Nonna! Really?”

“What? I know you two… you’d still be all over each other bangin’ or some shit without some motivation.”

“I’ll have you know we’re working on the spare bedroom,” Waverly huffed and try to pretend her sister wasn’t right. “Not sure who lived there before but that room looked like it had twenty years or more of junk stored in it.”

“Really?” Wynonna looked at the house in bemusement. “I would have thought that Nedley would have had the place cleaned out, especially as Haught is family. Guess he was just in too much of a hurry to get her in and forgot or something.”

Waverly thought it a little strange but the sight of Nicole waving from the window as Wynonna threw the truck into drive and sped down the road like she was afraid Shorty’s was going to run out of booze, distracted her. “Oh, hey, how’s everything been at Black Badge?”

“Well Jeremy is managing to become more obnoxious,” Wynonna snorted.

“Really, I thought he was calming down?”

“That was until our Haughtgirl there…”

“Our?” Waverly grinned.

“…Invited him to play with that dead body and now he’s all… Haught this, Haught that, ohhh, Officer Haught! Swear to god, you and Nicole just need to adopt him already!”

“And are you jealous because he isn’t giving you any attention or because you’re worried that Nicole might like him more than you?” Waverly grinned even harder as Wynonna spluttered and stuttered away in denial. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you and Nic will always be BFF’s,” she said it teasingly but it was only half-hearted at best as she knew that Wynonna found it difficult to make friends. Maybe if she dropped the sarcastic defence it would be easier but Nicole had accepted her despite that.

“What is this research you want help with anyway?”

“Research? Oh, right… research.”

“Wynonna?” Waverly glared at her sister. “So help me, if you made me leave Nicole to do all that heavy lifting alone!” All that heavy lifting that would have her sweat plastering her clothes so those straining muscles.

“Really, there is research… Waves, are you paying attention?”

“Yeah,” Waverly cleared her throat. “Research?”

“It was something Nicole said about Black Badge tracking Bulshar. I had Xavier look into it and they haven’t, as such, but they track everything. I might have kinda persuaded Jeremy to download everything they’ve got so we can go through it.”

“Persuaded? Wynonna, did you threaten him?”

Wynonna snorted and put her best innocent face on. “Of course not! I just told him he could bring it over to Shorty’s and give it a look over with us and that maybe Perry could turn up and they could have a long lunch together?”

“Yeah, you threatened him.”

“Maybe a little,” she grinned. “I did call Perry to let him know he would be there though.”

Nicole watched until the truck had vanished out of sight down the road before turning back to the chaos of the room. There was so much to get out of the way still but… it was doable.

“Well hey there, C.J.!” Crossing the room, Nicole picked the fluffy ginger monster up from where she was sitting in the doorway watching her and smiled as she endured the usual round out purring and scent marking. “Trying to get some of Mama Waves off me huh? Well,” she huffed out a mouthful of floof as C.J. somehow managed to swat her in the mouth with her tail. “You can’t be in here girl. Don’t want anything falling on you and I can’t leave the door open so…” Putting the cat down, Nicole shooed her out of the way and shut the door in her thoroughly indignant face and meow of displeasure.

Nicole worked fast, ignoring the almost continuous protest yowls from Calamity as she cleared the room. She broke down items where needed to get them through the gap left by the window and kept a steady stream of falling down to fill the skip below until the last item was finally gone.

Feeling like she was covered in twenty years, worth of dust and grime, Nicole checked the time and grabbed a quick shower before scooping up a still loudly protesting Calamity and taking her down to the kitchen. Nicole grabbed a portion of pasta salad for herself and tried to tempt C.J. out of her bad mood with some of her favourite gourmet food but she flew out of the kitchen and ran back upstairs in a streak of ginger.

“Calamity?” Nicole made to follow her and find out just what the hell was bothering their guardian but she froze, one foot hovering over the first step as she heard a van slowing down and turning down the road to her house. Smelling the same scent of glass and cleaners that she had before, she opened the door and greeted the window fitters. “Hey, Stevie, Chris.”

“Officer Haught. Everything good to go or do you need some help before we get this fitted for you?”

“Just Nicole right now guys, I’m off duty. It’s all clear upstairs.” She led Stevie on up to the bedroom while Chris got the window out of the van and set everything up outside.

“Well, hello there kitty.”

“C.J.!” Nicole went to grab the cat as she hissed and the man but she darted between his legs and through the bedroom door and escaped her reach. “Sorry about that, Stevie. She can be a bit temperamental sometimes.”

“That’s okay, Officer… Nicole,” he corrected himself. “She’ll be okay, some cats just aren’t too keen on strangers, that’s all,” he smiled reassuringly. “Now, let’s take a look at this, make sure everything’s good to go.”

As she followed him into the room, Nicole kept an eye on Calamity to make sure she didn’t cause any trouble. Apparently, now she’d gotten where she wanted to, she was perfectly content to sit against the wall and watch everything going on around her.

Nicole tried not to be too obvious about it but, even when she made drinks for them all, she kept all her senses attuned to everything that went on. Especially when it came to Calamity. The only times she had done anything strange or aggressive it had been for a good reason… the cursed file, the key.

After Stevie and Chris had left, Nicole returned to the bedroom and crouched down in front of Calamity. “So, C.J. What’s going on this time? Going to let me look?” She held out her hand, waiting to see if C.J. was going to be welcoming or attempt to claw her to death.

A purr and a head-butt greeted her fingers.

“Not clawed to death then, that’s good.” Picking C.J. up, Nicole studied the wall intently, running her fingers across the dusty paintwork. Paintwork that was ever so slightly a different colour than the rest of the wall. Feeling the slightest of edges, Nicole ran her thumbnail along it, scoring a mark in the paintwork that crumbled to reveal a perfect square about a foot across.

Nicole looked down as Calamity grew restless, a warning hiss coming from her body as she glowered at the wall.

“Oh, C.J. I’ve got a bad, bad feeling about this.” Taking a breath, Nicole looked at the wall and slammed the edge of her clenched fist against the middle of the square. The plaster shattered and crumbled away, revealing a metal door.

Nicole ran a finger over the lock. “Well… this is some bullshit right here, C.J.”

It would have been easy enough to just put her fist straight through the door. Even being metal it wouldn’t stand a chance against her strength. But looking at the lock she just had to know.

She rose to her feet, suddenly feeling like she had aged twenty years in a matter of minutes with the implication as to what lay beyond the locked door. After being led on a dance by the whole Blacksmith and Wife clues, Nicole found that she didn’t want to get her hopes up too soon… after all, it really could be that it just led to another clue.

Nicole prised the floorboard back up in the closet and retrieved the key from beneath it. She stared at it, weighing it in the palm of her hand before closing her fist around it and heading back upstairs. Nicole wasn’t too sure if she would be too thrilled if the ring did turn out to be in there. Not that Nedley could have known, but that room was supposed to be their babies nursery and for all they knew it was sending up a ‘come get me’ signal that was leading Bulshar straight towards it.

She looked at Calamity as she slotted the key into the lock. The ginger cat was pacing in agitation, her gaze fixed upon a point beyond the door. “Yeah, I know C.J. I’m not too happy either. Well, here goes!” Taking a breath, she held it and turned the key.

CLICK

The small door was stiff from being sealed over with plaster but opened without too much trouble to revel… another metal box.

“I swear to god, C.J. If this needs another key…”

Nicole reached in and picked up the box. Steel… or maybe iron, she wasn’t too sure. It was small though, not much bigger than the size of her hand. There were no locks, just a small clasp holding it closed. It was covered in symbols or some form of ancient language that Waverly could have probably deciphered in seconds but they just left Nicole feeling uneasy as she turned the box around in her hands.

Using a fingernail, Nicole undid the clasp holding the box closed. Jaw clenched, she opened it slowly and screamed!