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When Wynonna gets a call from the hospital, her heart jumps so hard she’s surprised it still works. When it’s Dolls’ voice on the other end, she has to hold onto the stairway railing, knuckles white with fear.
“Don’t freak out, everything’s fine,” he says, and it doesn’t keep her from freaking out at all.
“What’s wrong? What happened? Who do I have to shoot?” It should be just another one of her typical quips, but she’s dead serious. If someone hurt him, or Nicole, or oh God, Waverly, she swears she’ll—
“I’m with Waverly,” he says, and yup, she’s going to shoot someone.
“She’s fine,” Dolls says, and his tone is calm and most importantly, honest. She knows he would never lie to her, especially about the severity of something like this, but still, her heart doesn’t calm its battering against her ribs.
“What happened?” Wynonna asks, voice shaking but laced with venom- not at him but at the world. It’s not fair how often she has to worry about the safety of the few people in the world she actually really loves and really needs around. If she didn’t have motivation to break the curse in the beginning of all of this, every time someone even bumps into Waverly and doesn’t say sorry she’s filled with even more need to finish this. She’s always been a creature of spite, after all.
“Some revenant at the bar trying to get her to reveal information, but she held her own pretty damn well. She’s fine, just a couple bruises. I was the one who insisted she go to the hospital to get checked out just in case. She didn’t want to because she had a date with Nicole tonight.”
Wynonna would laugh, but she knows how anxious Nicole can get when Waverly’s in the slightest of trouble. She’s surprised they didn’t hit it off as friends right away, now that they’ve developed a closer bond, because Nicole is the exact kind of level-headed intelligence they need around.
“Speaking of which, Nicole’s on her way right now,” Dolls says. “They’re almost done checking Waverly over, they took a couple x-rays and everything seems fine, so we should be out of here soon anyways.”
“I’m coming too— and I know you didn’t call Nicole before me,” Wynonna warns.
Dolls chuckles slightly, crackling across the line, and it warms her, relaxes the lump in the throat. “Of course not, I called you and Waves called Nicole.”
“Okay, so I’m only going to have to beat Waverly’s ass. Good, cause I’m pretty tired today. Already unleashed enough savagery for one day. ”
It’s a dumb one-liner, lacking her typical quipiness because she’s still frazzled, but Wynonna can practically hear the smile on his face as he responds, “alright, see you soon, Earp.”
At the hospital, Waverly is standing, leaning against the doorframe, coat hung across her arm and a smile on her face, beaming at Dolls as he speaks.
Wynonna hates hospitals she remembers too well the smell of antiseptic, the sight of Nicole, pale as she’s ever been, quivering in pain in the gurney and the weight of Waverly’s sorrow in her arms. It’s another tragic memory, like so many others, that she doesn’t think will ever fade. So after she hugs Waverly— not too tight, but for a long time— she envelops Nicole in her arms, who’s a little taken aback but welcoming as always.
Wynonna just gives her a look she hopes she understands, patting her on the shoulder before slipping into Dolls’ side and lingering, closing her eyes when his lips brush against the top of her head.
“How’re you feeling?” Wynonna asks. “You look good.” It’s true, she does— besides some scrapes along her chin and a few bandages on her arms, she’s as bright and chipper as ever.
“I’m fine, just a little sore,” Waverly says. “It really wasn’t a big thing, but this guy— “she points at Dolls— “insisted I come get checked out anyways. Even though we know more than enough about patching up wounds.” She gives Nicole a pointed look, who nods professionally but smiles. “Feels like all we ever do.”
Wynonna looks up at Dolls, who tips his head to meet her eyes. He smiles, faint and loose and barely there, and she leans into him a little more, partly because she wants to and more so because she’s a little overwhelmed, but he’s there to lean on. He is, always has been, even when he struggled to communicate— more so than he does now, because they’ve both definitely improved. He’s saved her ass time and time again, and as much as that’s meant to her, him saving Waverly means even more. It’s not the first time, but Waverly’s looking at him— at them both— with a kind of gratefulness and sweetness that makes Wynonna’s heart hurt a little harder, aches of appreciativeness and sadness and “what-if’s” all clambering around in the chambers of her ribs. It’s a little too much for her, all new in the span of forty minutes or so.
“Well then this is gonna be a fat medical bill for nothing, thanks dude,” Wynonna comments because she needs to make light of the moment, doesn’t know how else to react— goddamn feelings — but she’s only kidding. Waverly opens her mouth, to apologize, surely, and Wynonna ruffles her hair and making her nose crinkle in the way it always does, the way it’s always done ever since she was an infant whenever she did that. “I’m just kidding, anything for you, baby girl.”
When they get to the car, Wynonna pulls Dolls aside. “Hey,” she says, reaching out for his forearm, suddenly needing to be a little closer. That lump is back at the bottom of her throat, and she blinks too many times, too fast.
“Thank you,” she says quickly before she loses the ability to speak. “For taking Waverly to the hospital. For being there, for not just writing it off as some little thing that doesn’t need to be checked out. Just...thank you.”
Dolls nods, and shifts so that her hand is in his. He squeezes it lightly, reassuring, and his eyes stay sure on hers. “Of course, always.”
He means it, and that may be the most jarring part of it all. She blinks again, and knows there’s no fighting the tears now. One slips out of her left eye and she moves to swipe it away, but he beats her to it. This simple motion does the exact opposite of stilling her tears.
“I just...she’s the most important person in my life, you know? Thank you for getting that. Thank you for caring.”
She presses against his chest, letting out a breath lodged in her throat as his arms encircle her, his scent is all around her, clean, and his body is warm and this is what safety feels like.
When the tears stop coming and her heart rate is back to normal— as normal as it’ll ever be— she rises up on her toes and presses a kiss to his cheek, pulling his hand along with her because she just wants, maybe needs, to be touching him, only letting go once she reaches the passenger side door of the car.
When they get home, it’s snowing and the power is out, of course. Wynonna grumbles something about life never being easy as she kicks of her shoes, and Nicole rushes to start the fire, stopping Waverly from doing it herself and encouraging her to lay on the couch.
“You don’t have a ton of food,” Dolls comments flatly, opening and closing cabinets in the kitchen.
“I’m aware,” Wynonna says, rubbing her arms, mildly defensive but more focused on the normalcy with which Dolls muses around her home. “I kind of have bigger things on my plate than finding the most gourmet food to serve.”
“Hey!” Waverly calls from the other room. “That was a pun! I heard it!”
Wynonna rolls her eyes before poking her head past the door frame and grinning. “I don’t even try.”
Waverly claims dinner can wait until the power comes back, all she wants for now is her vegan beet chips— ew, Wynonna thinks. Nicole says she’s fine with sharing, but Wynonna notices the distaste with which she reaches for one out of the bag, and she makes a mental note to chide her on it later.
Dolls sits at her side, close enough where she could reach out and touch his hand, but she doesn’t; instead, she curls her legs under her and rests her head flat against the arm of the couch.
She doesn’t know how long it takes until she falls asleep, but when she wakes the fire is dwindling down, her foot is asleep underneath her, and she can hear Waverly, Nicole, and Dolls talking in the other room.
When she walks in, Waverly's sitting on the counter, laughing— Wynonna thinks, for a brief moment that she shouldn't be up there since she's injured— but Nicole and Dolls are close at her side, obviously watching her, and a flush of appreciation runs through her at their care.
Wynonna yawns when she walks in, running a hand through her sleep-mussed hair and turning to the sink to grab a glass of water, grumbling when the water doesn’t turn on— she’d briefly forgotten about the power outage.
“We don’t have water, but we have grilled cheese!” Waverly says cheerfully when she turns around, extending a plate in her direction.
“I don’t know if I’m more surprised that you’re eating cheese or that you somehow managed to make food,” Wynonna quips before practically lunging towards the food. She takes an eager bite, suddenly starving, then frowns.
“I’m so dumb for thinking it would be real cheese,” she grouses. “Why did I expect anything less than this crap?”
“I actually don’t mind the vegan cheese,” Nicole remarks, and Waverly honest to God beams up at her. Wynonna looks to Dolls, who just shrugs and gives her a motion that’s half thumbs-up, half thumbs-down.
Wynonna takes another bite reluctantly; there’s no other hot food in the homestead and it could take days before the power comes back. It is Purgatory, after all.
“So, how the hell did you make this?” she asks. “Did you find Doc and make him light the stove the old fashioned way with his cigarillo or something.”
Nicole laughs. “Nope, all this guy.” She points to Dolls, who gives her a small, almost awkward, tight-lipped smile. He flushes and ducks his head, but Wynonna notices.
“Yup, he’s my hero in every possible way,” Waverly says, slinging her arm around his shoulder and leaning into him. Now he smiles, and Wynonna does too— a warmth rushes through her chest at the sight of her sister and her... Dolls bonding. She doesn’t know what to call him at the moment because he’s more than her boss and she’s more than his deputy, but she’s working on figuring that out, if she ever gets a moment to pause and think.
Muffled through a bite, Wynonna asks, “what kind of magic did you do?”
Dolls laughs, a hand on the back of his neck as he raises his eyebrows at Waverly. She peers up at him, fingers clasped, practically begging, as she grins.
“Can I tell her? It’s so cool!” Waverly practically squeals.
“How did I know you’d want to?” he says, and Wynonna figures they must have been up much longer before she was, with plenty of time to discuss the day’s events.
“Please, spare me the embarrassment,” he says, eyes cast downwards but his lips curl up ever so slightly, pleased but hiding it.
This time, Waverly does actually squeal. “So, remember how Dolls is kind of like a dragon?” she says, and Nicole bursts into laughter immediately after the words leave her mouth.
Waverly grins through her giggles, one hand light on Dolls’ arm, other hand intertwined with Nicole’s. Wynonna suddenly wishes she could take a picture without it being weird because they all look so happy, all at once, and after the day they’ve had that’s even more of a miracle than it normally would be.
“Wait, seriously?” she says when she realizes Waverly isn’t joking.
“He’s a man of many talents,” she replies, and Dolls gives her a look.
“All I did before was punch a guy in the face a couple times and handcuff him, that’s just standard operating procedure. The fire thing...still figuring out how that works.”
Wynonna comes to his side. “I’m still not a fan of this vegan cheese,” she says, eyes darting pointedly at Waverly, who gives her an innocent smile, “but that’s pretty damn cool.”
He nods coyly. “It has come in handy quite a few times. Besides, I know what you’re like when you wake up hungry.”
“See?” she says, putting a hand on his shoulder and reaching for another slice. “This is why we keep you around.”
Wynonna thinks there’s a lot of reasons why they do— why she does, in particular— but it’s too heavy for the conversation and the territory is so unfamiliar, even for herself, so she pushes the thought away. But when she hops up onto the counter beside Dolls, her hand slips to his and squeezes lightly, his eyes find hers and she thinks he might understand.