27. Do You Like Him?

The sounds of Waverly stirring under the blankets and a splitting headache was what Nicole woke up to the next morning. The redhead groaned as she pressed her palms into her eyes.

“How ya feeling?” Waverly asked with a gentle smile as she stroked her fingers through red hair. She already knew the answer based on the grimace on Nicole’s face, but figured she’d ask anyways.

“Like I had too much fun last night.” Nicole replied without moving her hands from her eyelids.

“Aww baby. Want some coffee?”

Nicole nodded. “And water…and some Aspirin.”

Waverly placed a delicate kiss to Nicole’s temple before pushing the covers off of her warm body and throwing on her clothes from the night before. Once she was fully dressed, she quietly left the room – not wanting to bother her girlfriend’s headache or wake up Dolls and Wynonna down the hall – before padding down the stairs and into the kitchen.

As Waverly watched the coffee brew, she heard loud footsteps of someone trudging down the stairs. “Baby, you should stay in bed for a bit. I’ll bring everything up to you.” When she looked up and saw that it wasn’t her girlfriend but instead her sister, she chuckled to herself. “Oh, sorry. I thought you were Nicole.”

“No problem, baby.” Wynonna teased as she walked over to Waverly and leaned against the counter next to her. She was too caffeine deprived to question why Waverly was in Doll’s house. “Is there enough in there for me too?”

Waverly eyed her warily. “I can make you some tea.” She searched the cupboards for tea bags, ignoring the groan coming from her older sister.

“Come on Waves, one cup won’t hurt me. I went through an entire party without alcohol, the least I deserve is a little bit of caffeine the morning after.”

The smaller girl rolled her eyes at the pout the woman was giving her, but eventually gave in. “Okay, fine. But only one cup.”

“Yes.” Wynonna fist pumped.

“You say ‘entire party’ as if you didn’t spend most of it upstairs…” She gave Wynonna a knowing look.

“How do you know I didn’t just spend the night because I was too tired to drive back?” She challenged as she watched Waverly pour a little bit of coffee into a mug she got from the cabinet above.

“Because Nicole and I saw you in bed together last night. We were looking for Dolls and checked his room. Needless to say, we found him…and you.”

“Oh god. Please tell me I was covered.”

“You were, but Dolls wasn’t, unfortunately.” She grimaced a bit at the vivid memory that she’ll never be able to get out of her mind.

“What do you mean unfortunately?! That man is beautiful.” She took a sip of the coffee and smiled as she moaned at the taste, not even caring that it was scorching hot and had burned her tongue.

“Yeah, but Nicole and I didn’t want to see that much of him!” Waverly exclaimed before pouring another mug of coffee and glass of water for Nicole.

Wynonna laughed at the realization that the two had gotten an eyeful of every part of Dolls. “Man, I really wish I would’ve seen the look on Haught’s face at that.”

“She wasn’t too thrilled.” Waverly confirmed. “Was he good to you last night? I mean, with the baby and all. Was he being careful and safe?”

She already knew that Xavier Dolls was a good man. Nicole spoke very highly of him, and Nicole only spoke very highly of the people she knew were good – which was few. She only asked as a sisterly formality.

“Yes, he was good. In more ways than one.” Wynonna punctuated her statement with a smirk, making sure there was no mistake in the meaning behind her words.

“Gross.” Waverly replied as she took a sip of the coffee she had poured for Nicole, hiding her smile behind the solid black mug.

“Is that why you guys stayed the night? Because you were worried about me?”

“Well that, and because we wanted to help clean up but I was too tired and Nicole was too drunk. So we just figured we’d stay and help this morning.”

“Ugh, you guys are such goody two shoes.” Wynonna groaned, but Waverly knew she was only saying it to mess with her.

“Well some people have to be in order to balance out the bad apples of the world,” Waverly quipped back, earning and eye roll and a ‘whatever’ from her older sister. She took a bottle of Aspirin from one of the cabinets and collected the coffee mug and glass of water in her hands. “I’m going to run these up to Nicole and then I’ll be right back.”

Wynonna nodded as she watched Waverly ascend the stairs with a jog before pouring some extra coffee into her cup.

“Hey baby, sorry it took me so long. Wynonna came downstairs and I was talking to her.” Waverly looked at her girlfriend with pity, who had mumbled something incoherent in response as she laid in the exact same spot she was in when Waverly had left her – on her back with her palms pressing into her eyes.

Waverly gave Nicole the pills and helped her drink some water after setting the coffee down on the bedside table next to her.

“I’m going to talk with Wynonna some more and let you rest. Call me if you need anything, okay?”

Nicole nodded and gave a weak smile as Waverly kissed her forehead and left the redhead to sleep in peace.

“So, how exactly did you end up in bed with Officer Dolls?” Waverly asked with a quirked eyebrow as soon as she had reached the kitchen. She poured a mug of coffee for herself and noticed that there was a significantly less amount in the pot than when she had left, but decided not to comment on it. She already knew Wynonna had taken more.

“You really want to know?”

Waverly nodded at her sister as she brought the mug up to her face to take a sip, but paused as soon as the ceramic touched her lips to add, “But spare me the gory details.”

“Fair enough.” Wynonna shrugged. “Let’s see, I guess I’ll just start with where you left me in the bathroom…”

“Wait!” Waverly quickly cut her off before she even began her flashback story.

“What?” Wynonna’s face was painted with worry.

“Skip to the part after you finished in the bathroom.”

“Yeah, that’s what I meant numbnuts.”

“Oh. Then proceed.” She waved a hand at Wynonna before wrapping it back around the warm mug, mirroring the other one.

Wynonna rolled her eyes at her sister. “Okay, so I’ll start with where you left me after I used the bathroom…”

Wynonna descended the stairs as she scanned her eyes over the lower floor, taking in the sight of the sheer amount of people drinking and dancing and overall having a good time.

“You know, seven weeks ago I would have been the drunkest one here,” she began as she gently rubbed her stomach over her slightly baggy sweater. “But I wouldn’t trade you for anything.” She smiled at the bump before taking the last few steps and ending up in a sea of familiar faces – along with a lot of unfamiliar ones.

“Hey Wynonna! Wanna play ‘Fuck the Dealer’ with us?” Pete York asked from the couch where he was surrounded by his brother Kyle, Bryce Cooper, and a few other guys from her high school days that weren’t really worth mentioning…not that the first three were really worth mentioning, but she needed to set the scene.

Wynonna groaned in disgust and rolled her eyes. “Depends. Who’s the dealer?”

“Well, that’d be me.” Pete leaned back from the coffee table in front of him and into the back of the couch as he held his arms out, as if he were some sort of king.

Wynonna snorted. “I’ve fucked the dealer before. I’d rather fuck Nedley.” She gave a shit-eating grin before casually waltzing away with her middle finger raised high in the air, smiling to herself as she heard Pete’s brother Kyle break out into laughter followed by the sound of someone punching him – most likely Pete.

Wynonna looked around the house and quickly realized that these parties weren’t as much fun sober as they were drunk. She noticed Nicole and Dolls playing beer pong before looking over at Waverly, who looked entranced by the redhead. Wynonna began to move towards her sister, but quickly decided against it. She wasn’t the most observant person, but she knew that she was always interrupting her and Nicole. It’s not like she meant to, it just sort of happened more frequently than it should. She chalked it down to her bad luck that had been following her around her entire life. Even though Waverly technically wasn’t with Nicole at the moment, she seemed pretty into whatever daydream she was currently having about the red-haired police officer, and Wynonna didn’t want to interrupt that. She sighed as she made her way towards the balcony.

“Well, looks like it’s just you and me kid.” She gently patted her belly before sliding open the glass door and taking a step outside, smiling and closing her eyes as she felt the cool summer night breeze hit her skin.

She stood at the railing for a moment, taking in the sight of the city before sitting down in one of the patio chairs, where she sat for about ten minutes before getting too bored and deciding to go back inside. Before she even made it to the door, an arm on her shoulder stopped her.

“Hey Wynonna!” Chrissy Nedley called out. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Chrissy, you ordered a drink at Shorty’s yesterday. I saw you then…”

Wynonna had mixed feelings about the girl. On one hand, she was the daughter of the guy who had arrested her several times as a teenager and who was the biggest pain in her ass. But on the other hand, she was a close friend of her baby sister, if not a best friend. She often saw her as the latter, but sometimes the ‘Nedley’ part of the girl would sneak in and steal away Wynonna’s attention to how she’s always treated Waverly with kindness and respect.

“I know, but I mean I feel like we haven’t talked to each other outside of work in a while.”

“Um, when have we ever talked outside of work?”

Chrissy furrowed her eyebrows and folded her arms. “Well I thought we were getting along pretty well that one night several weeks ago when you were crying to me about Doc being an asshole.”

“I was drunk, and we were at Shorty’s, so that still counts as work. Even though it was right after my shift had ended.”

The younger girl rolled her eyes. “Come on Wynonna, we’re adults now. You can’t possibly still see me as the kid in grade 6 who would come over to your house all the time to hang out with your little sister, can you? I thought we were becoming friends.”

The older Earp pursed her lips. It was difficult for her to see Chrissy Nedley as an adult now, but she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t taken more of a liking to the girl since coming back to Purgatory. And sure, she was drunk when she had that break down and leaned on the girl when Waverly couldn’t be there because she was out with Champ, but she had felt comfortable talking to the girl and actually felt a lot better afterwards. In fact, Chrissy reminded her a lot of Waverly. But more than anything, she was actually a little surprised that Chrissy Nedley, the Sheriff’s daughter, wanted to become friends with her, the town pariah.

“You really want to be friends with me?”

Chrissy nodded. “Honestly, I don’t have a whole lot of friends here anymore since high school. And you’re actually pretty cool.”

“I guess I could use some more friends too, Nedley.” Wynonna gave her a crooked smile.

Chrissy cringed. “Yeah, as long as you don’t call me that though. Reminds me of my dad.”

“How about Baby Nedley?”

The younger girl rolled her eyes.

“Baby Nedley with boobs?” She waited for Chrissy to laugh with her, but only got a glare in response. “Okay okay, fine. Chrissy.”

“Thank you.” She nodded and gave a slight smile to show that she wasn’t actually mad. “So, is Waverly here? I’ve been meaning to catch up with her for a while now, but our schedules just haven’t been matching up lately. I was hoping she’d be here tonight.”

“Yeah, she’s inside drooling over her girlfriend playing beer pong with Dolls.” She scoffed as she shook her head, but quickly looked up at Chrissy as panic began to rise. She knew Waverly was technically out and she and Nicole were all everyone had been talking about since that night in Shorty’s, but she didn’t know if Chrissy knew or not. She knew it wasn’t her place to out her sister, but the words had just slipped. She studied Chrissy’s face for any signs of discomfort and hoped that she hadn’t messed anything up in their friendship. When she saw a smile creep onto Chrissy’s face, she relaxed.

“Drooling huh? I don’t think she ever once drooled over Champ.” She laughed. “Sounds like she’s finally found someone she really likes.”

Wynonna chuckled. “Yeah well, Champ was a dickhead.” They both laughed and shook their heads at the boy-man. “Even I would pick ginger spice over that jagoff, and I’m not even into the ladies. I don’t know how she ever convinced herself that she liked him for so long. She never even looked at him the way she looks at Nicole.”

“And how does she look at Nicole?”

“Like she’s the greatest thing in the world. Like she’s a redheaded goddess who has Waverly under some sort of spell. Like she wants to rip Nicole’s clothes off…but honestly that last one is probably mostly because they’re still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship.”

Chrissy let out a breathy laugh. “Well, she’s never looked at any guy like that if we’re being honest.” She chuckled and waited for Wynonna to join her, but the older Earp never did. Instead, the smile on Wynonna’s face dropped and a look of something similar to guilt washed over her.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure,” Chrissy replied, slightly concerned.

“Did you see this coming? I mean, you two were best friends all throughout middle school and high school. Did you ever think that she was…you know, that she played for the other team?”

The younger woman nodded and gave a weak smile as comprehension of why Wynonna was asking her this question dawned on her. It wasn’t that Wynonna cared so much if Chrissy knew, but rather wanted to know if she had missed the signs like Wynonna had. She was looking for confirmation that she wasn’t a shitty sister for not paying enough attention to Waverly, who was always forgotten and left out by their family growing up.

“I noticed some things, yeah. I questioned it, but never asked. I figured she would tell me if she wanted to, so I guess I wasn’t all that surprised when I heard the news about her and Nicole. Although, I do wish that I had heard it from Waverly instead of Evan Martinez, who then proceeded to ask me what I thought they did in bed together.” She rolled her eyes at the immaturity of her former schoolmate.

“I had no clue. I didn’t pick up on any of the signs. Sure, I left when she was only twelve, but shouldn’t I have noticed something? What if she was struggling with this back then and I couldn’t see it? What if she was waiting for me to notice? Or what if she needed me when she was a teenager and I wasn’t there and so she stuffed it deep down inside and that’s why she ended up with that asshat Champ Hardy? What if I ruined her life?” She began to panic as all of the worst-case scenarios began to fill her mind.

Chrissy shook her head and reassuringly placed her hand on Wynonna’s arm. “I don’t think she even realized it until recently, until Nicole. Did she tell you about Nicole herself?”

“Well, yeah…”

“And were you supportive?”

“Of course I was.”

“Then you were there for her when she needed you. She told you when she wanted you to know, and you supported her and made her feel loved, which was all she needed from you. Don’t beat yourself up over the past and focus on the present. She’s happy now, and that’s a good thing.”

“Yeah,” Wynonna sighed in relief. “Yeah, okay. You’re right. I’m just overreacting.” She chuckled to herself as she placed a hand over her lower abdomen. “Sorry, it must be the–” She stopped herself, realizing that she didn’t actually want Chrissy – or anybody else who didn’t already know – to know about her pregnancy. She quickly pulled her hand away. “Uh, must be the alcohol getting to me.”

Chrissy nodded and gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m going to find Waverly. You coming with me?”

“Nah, I’m just going to sit out here for a bit and enjoy the view.”

“Okay. I’ll catch up to you later then.” She smiled as she walked back inside the house.

Wynonna looked out at the city one more time for a few minutes, trying her best not to overthink things too much before finally making her way back inside the house.

She didn’t get very far before she was stopped by the host of the party.

“Hey Wynonna!” Dolls said, sporting a huge grin on his face.

“Hey, if it isn’t the man of the hour. Why are you so happy? Did you win at beer pong?”

“Nope. I lost all four times.” He giggled. He quickly cleared his throat when he received only a quirked eyebrow in response. He continued with a significantly lower voice, “Sorry, I get the giggles when I drink a lot.”

“A big burly man like you? I never would’ve guessed.” She playfully punched him in the arm and stared in shock as she rubbed the hand that had just hit what felt like solid rock. “Jesus, do you have any body fat under there?”

“Barely.” He smirked before lifting his shirt up to his chest with one hand, revealing a toned six pack that was slightly leaning towards being an eight pack.

“Nice!” Wynonna gawked as she rubbed a hand over his abdominals, taking in the firmness of the flexed muscles mixed with the silkiness of his dark skin. When she looked up at him and saw his eyes filled with lust, she quickly pulled her hand away and averted her eyes to the floor, a slight blush creeping onto her face.

“Wynonna, I have to be honest with you.” He said in a voice so serious it almost cut through the exuberant atmosphere of the room as he slowly lowered the hem of his shirt back down.

“Uh, okay.” The brunette chuckled lightly before gulping.

“I’ve kind of had a crush on you for a while. But you had a boyfriend and so I didn’t want to impose. But then I heard you two broke up. Is that right?”

“Uh, I uh…” Her mouth went dry as she stared into his dark brown eyes. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t extremely turned on right about now, and she had no idea if this was the pregnancy hormones or just plain old sex-loving Wynonna. She quickly shook her head, bringing herself out of the temporary daze she was in. “Yeah. Yeah, we broke up.”

“Was it because of the baby?” He asked with sympathetic eyes.

Wynonna clenched her jaw as she looked around the room to see if anyone was listening. When she realized they were in the clear, she grabbed his hand and yanked him up the stairs to somewhere more private. She pushed him through the opened door of his bedroom before quickly shutting it behind her.

“Who told you? Was it Haught?” She folded her arms across her chest.

He opened his mouth to answer, but quickly closed it not wanting to rat out his friend, but his silence was an answer in itself.

“I’m gonna kill her.” Wynonna seethed through gritted teeth.

“Hey.” He walked over to Wynonna and wrapped his strong hands gently around her forearms in an attempt to relax her. “She didn’t mean to, it just sort of slipped out. But I won’t say anything. I’m a police officer, I’m trained to be able to keep secrets.” He gave her a reassuring smile.

“Yeah, well so is Nicole but she still told you.”

“Yeah, turns out we’re not that great at keeping secrets from our partners,” he chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Wynonna looked down at his hands on her arms, which were now rubbing them up and down and causing chills to form all over her body. When Dolls noticed Wynonna looking at his hands, he quickly pulled them away, not even realizing that he had begun rubbing her arms.

“Sorry,” he mumbled in embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.”

She scanned her eyes up his muscular body, pausing for a moment on his half smile, before landing on his eyes. She hastily pulled him into a searing kiss, much to his surprise. It took him a second to realize what was happening before reciprocating the kiss. She pulled back and smiled at him.

“You didn’t make me uncomfortable.” She gave him another kiss before pulling away again, this time they were both panting. “I’m going to be completely honest with you. I’m really horny right now, and it’s been far too long since I’ve last had sex. Do you wanna…?” She trailed off as she glanced over at his neatly made bed before looking back into his eyes.

“But…you’re, pregnant,” he replied as he lowered his eyes to her abdomen. He couldn’t decide if this was a dream or not.

“I can still safely have sex you know. I mean, as long as we use protection.” She looked at him with raised eyebrows, as if asking him a question.

He furrowed his brows for a moment before realizing what she was asking. “Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’ve got some. But, are you sure you want to? I mean, you just had a thing with Doc.”

“If you think a break up is going to stop me from having sex, then you really don’t know me that well.” She chuckled. “But, as long as you want to. I mean, I wouldn’t want to take advantage of a guy who’s drunk.” She waved her hand up and down at him.

Dolls fervently shook his head. “No, no. You wouldn’t be.”

“Okay, good.”

“Yeah…good.” He bit back a grin as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, looking up and down Wynonna’s body, unsure of how to initiate this after talking. In hindsight, he should’ve just said ‘yes’ when Wynonna asked if he wanted to, and then pulled her back into a kiss. That’s what the normal Xavier Dolls would’ve done. But this wasn’t the normal Xavier Dolls. This was a man who had been reduced to a nervous, rambling idiot at the sight of a beautiful woman, and he had no idea how to get out of it.

When Wynonna realized that he wasn’t going to make a move, she rolled her eyes and grabbed him by the collar of his polo shirt, pulling him down on top of her onto the bed and into a heated kiss.

“And then, well…you can probably guess the rest.” Wynonna said to Waverly as she nursed her coffee. She had skipped over telling Waverly about the Chrissy part and only replayed that memory in her head, not wanting her sister to know that they were talking about her.

Waverly slowly nodded with wide eyes and pursed lips. “So, you and Dolls… I have to say, I never saw that one coming.”

“Neither did I, but he’s pretty hot. And he is great in the sack.” She waggled her eyebrows behind her coffee mug.

“Okay yeah, I got it, thank you.” Waverly raised her hand at her sister before bringing it back down to her own mug. “What are you going to tell Doc?”

“Uh, I’m not going to tell him shit, because I’m never speaking to that son of a bitch ever again.” She said as if it were obvious as she pulled out her phone to look at the time. “Shit, it’s already eleven.”

“Are you working at Shorty’s today?”

“Yeah, my shift starts at noon.” Wynonna downed the rest of her warm coffee and set her mug on the island as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Later sis. Tell Haught-stuff I said hey.”

“Wait!” She called after her older sister, who was already by the front door. She continued when Wynonna had turned around to look at her. “So, are you two like dating now?”

“Me dating a cop? Yeah right.” She chuckled. “I think that’s more of your thing.”

“Well, I mean, do you like him? You know, like him like him?” Waverly stifled a grin.

Wynonna rolled her eyes and groaned. “It was just sex Waverly. God.” She turned around and opened the door.

“That’s not a no,” Waverly called out right before she watched the door shut behind her older sister.

---

Dolls trudged down the stairs with his eyes closed and a hand on his head as he groaned at the sound of the Spice Girls coming from the stereo. He made his way toward the sound and sighed in relief as soon as he turned it off.

“Hey!” Waverly complained as she threw an empty beer bottle into the half-full trash bag she was holding.

“It’s too early for the Spice Girls.” He croaked.

“It’s almost one o’clock.” Nicole pointed out with a furrowed brow.

“Exactly.”

Waverly rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I’ll let it slide just because you look like skunk heinie.”

“Thank you.” He mumbled as he slumped down onto the couch. “Did you two get too drunk to drive home last night?”

“Waverly was sober. We just wanted to stay so that we could help you clean up today.” Nicole explained as she stacked a couple of red cups in the collection she was holding.

“You guys didn’t have to do that.”

“We wanted to help.” Waverly smiled. “We weren’t going to let you clean up by yourself.”

“No, I mean I could’ve just hired someone to come and clean.”

“Oh.” Waverly looked down at the trash bag in her hand. “Dammit.”

Both Dolls and Nicole laughed at her reaction.

“It’s okay. We’re happy to help anyways.” Nicole said.

“Yeah. And plus, if we hadn’t slept over, I wouldn’t have gotten to talk to my sister this morning.” Waverly gave Dolls a knowing look as she folded her arms across her chest.

Dolls chuckled nervously from his spot on the couch. “Yeah, um, about that…I can explain.”

“No need. She already told me everything.” Waverly looked over at Nicole, who jerked her head towards the stairs as she silently asked her to give them some privacy before turning back to Dolls. “Anyways, I’ve spilled two half-empty bottles of beer on me this morning and I smell like a frat boy. Is it okay if I use your shower?”

Dolls nodded. “Towels are in the hall closet.”

Waverly nodded her ‘thanks’ before making her way up the stairs.

He looked at Nicole, who was giving him the same knowing look Waverly was before and sighed. “Look, I already know what you’re going to say, but she wanted to. She was the one who instigated it.”

“I’m not saying anything,” Nicole replied with her hands up in defense.

“You don’t have to. I can see your judgmental stare from here.”

She sat down on the couch next to him. “I just worry for you. I mean, you had to have been just as drunk as I was last night.”

“Drunk or not, I’m an adult man who can make his own decisions.” He snapped.

“That’s not what I meant. I’m just saying, you’ve been crushing on Wynonna for a long time, and the first time she really pays any attention to you is to have sex while you’re drunk off your ass with dozens of random people downstairs. Is that really how you want this to play out?”

“Not all of us can have a fairytale romance, Haught.” He rolled his eyes.

Nicole’s cheeks slightly flushed. She really hadn’t been meaning to rub her romantic relationship in his face. “I know, I just don’t want you to get hurt. She just broke up with her boyfriend, who is the father of the child she’s carrying, and then turns to you for sex. I just don’t want you to be her rebound. You deserve so much more than that.” She placed a hand on his arm but he quickly yanked it away.

He stood up from the couch and looked down at her. “Look, I appreciate you looking out for me, but I don’t need you to. I can look out for myself, and whatever happens between Wynonna and me is our own business.”

Nicole held her hands up in defense. “Okay, my bad.”

“I’m going back to bed to sleep off this hangover. I’ll call someone to clean up the rest of this mess. You two can leave when Waverly finishes her shower.”

She sighed and shook her head as she watched him stomp up the stairs. She knew that Dolls wasn’t a touchy-feely kind of guy, but he never reacted that poorly to her attempting to console him, which only meant one thing; he had it bad for Wynonna Earp.