77. Is It Too Late To Say Sorry

When Jeremy pulled into the handicap parking spot in front of the police station doors, Nicole narrowed her eyes at him.

“You don’t have a permit to park here.”

“Um, you got stabbed. I’m pretty sure this counts as an exception.”

“Cut. Not stabbed.” She winced as she took off her seatbelt, which she had been holding at a weird angle the entire car ride so that it didn’t rub against her stitches.

“It’s still bad. And I still think you should tell your wife what happened. Seriously, I think you’re making a mistake.”

“Sorry Jeremy, but I’m standing my ground on this one.” She pushed herself up out of the seat and slowly got out of the car. “Thanks for the ride though. I owe you one.” She smiled in appreciation.

He swatted the air, indicating that it wasn’t a big deal. “No problem. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Her smile deepened and she gave him a short head nod. “Now get out of this parking spot before I give you a ticket.”

With a breathy laugh, he put his car in reverse and pulled out of the space.

When Nicole got inside the station, she was met with three pairs of worried eyes. Two belonged to her employees, and the other belonged to Dolls.

“Thank god you’re okay,” Parker said in relief.

“Yeah, we were really worried about you and you weren’t answering your phone.” Lucas quickly grabbed a rolling chair for her to sit down in, and she thanked him as she carefully lowered herself into the seat.

“I turned the ringer off while I was at the hospital and forgot to turn it back on. But see, I told you it wasn’t a big deal.” She looked up at Dolls, who was patiently waiting for everyone else to get their words out before saying what he wanted to. When silence took over, she looked at him expectantly.

“Right, you’re probably wondering why I’m here.”

“I think I have a pretty good idea, but go ahead.” She nodded.

“Turns out your speeder had been involved in a robbery not too long before he made it over here. A couple of officers from metro already came to get him and booked him. They’ll be adding assault on a police officer to his charges.”

Nicole nodded, thankful that she wouldn’t have as much paperwork as she had previously thought. She was also relieved that she wouldn’t have to babysit the guy.

Dolls took a step closer to her and leaned in as he gave her a look of concern. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She waved him off. “It could have been way worse.”

“Yeah, it really could have.” He looked at her with raised eyebrows, curious as to how she was always getting out of these situations alive, not that he was complaining about it at all. He didn’t understand it, but he was grateful for it. “Well, I need to get back. Try and take it easy.”

“Do you know me?” She laughed, and when she felt a sharp pain in her stomach she quickly grimaced, earning herself a knowing look from Dolls.

“I do. But if not for yourself, at least do it for me. Please.” He smiled at her as he gave her a single pat on the shoulder before leaving the station.

Nicole pushed herself up out of the chair and took in a sharp breath as soon as she was on her feet. “I’ll be in my office if either of you need me.” She paused for a moment, sighing at how much she sounded like Nedley. Not that it was a bad thing, but it just made her feel a little old. And the fact that she was younger than most sheriffs usually were didn’t help. When she sat down at her desk, she looked up at the clock. Three hours to figure out what I’m going to say to a pissed-off Waverly, she thought to herself before quickly finding a distraction in some paperwork.

---

It was nearly 7:30 when Nicole had pulled into the driveway. She didn’t get out of the car right away, but instead just sat there staring at the front door. “Hey, so uh, don’t be mad…” she started, but shook her head. “No, that’ll definitely make her mad.” She looked up in thought, pondering a better way to break the news to Waverly that would make her the least amount of angry. “So, let me start by saying I’m completely fine…but I got a little cut.” She sighed and dropped her forehead down against the steering wheel. Everything sounded bad, and the outcome felt the same no matter how she explained the situation — a huge argument. Especially with how much more emotional Waverly had been lately. “Maybe I should just bake her some I’m sorry cupcakes and call it a day,” she mumbled to herself as she lifted her head up from the steering wheel and took her seatbelt off.

She trudged up the stairs, taking every step slowly in order to put off the inevitable for as long as possible. As soon as she started to search for the house key on her key ring, the door swung wide open, revealing Waverly looking at her with seductive eyes. All of her weight was on her right foot that was firmly planted on the floor while her left leg was propped behind it, and her right arm was stretched up with her hand on the door frame, holding her lean. It was clearly meant to be sexy, and it was.

Nicole gulped, as she knew exactly what was on Waverly’s mind, and she suddenly started to worry considering any of those activities we not good for her stitches. At least not the way they’d been doing it lately. “Hi baby. How are—” She wasn’t even able to get out the rest of her sentence before Waverly had grabbed her by the tie and yanked her inside before slamming the door shut behind her.

“I’m horny. That’s how I’m doing.” She pushed Nicole up against the door, causing the redhead to wince a little. Not so much from her wound, but from the back of her head hitting the wood so hard. Waverly pressed her lips firmly against hers, and Nicole instinctually kissed her back, opening her mouth a little more when Waverly had forced her tongue inside.

“I can’t wait for you to fuck me,” Waverly rasped between kisses. “I’m ready for some rough, dirty, passionate sex with my hot wife. The kind that leaves you sore in the morning and unable to walk.” The top part of Nicole’s shirt was bunched up in Waverly’s fists as the brunette roughly rocked her hips into Nicole, clearly desperate for any sort of contact between her legs. “Or maybe I’ll fuck you this time.” She smirked as she reached for the bottom of Nicole’s shirt and started to untuck it so that she could feel the soft skin underneath, but as soon as she grabbed the fabric Nicole quickly yet gently pushed her back and swiftly moved past Waverly to get away from her. 

“Uh, I’m actually kind of hungry. What do you want for dinner?” She started walking towards the kitchen with Waverly following closely behind.

“You,” Waverly replied with a devilish grin on her face. “I want to eat you out all night long while I scratch my nails all over your stomach.” She spun Nicole around and pushed her up against the counter as she reached for her shirt again to finish the task she had started. As soon as she had pulled it out from Nicole’s uniform pants, Nicole pushed Waverly’s hands off of her as a reflex, and Waverly drew her eyebrows together in concern.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Nicole quickly shook her head and followed it with a shrug. “I’m just not in the mood right now.” It was moments like these that she wished she still got periods so that she could use that as an excuse, but even then Waverly would know that she was lying anyways.

Waverly raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Why not? Don’t you still want me? Or am I just not attractive anymore now that I’m pregnant?”

“No!” Nicole quickly replied as she pushed herself away from the counter and closer to Waverly. “Absolutely not! It has nothing to do with you at all. It’s just…” She paused and inhaled through her nose as she took a moment to figure out what she was going to say.

Waverly folded her arms across her chest as her facial expression shifted into something more serious, and slightly angry. “It’s just that you got stabbed with a knife on the job today and so now you’ve got six stitches that you don’t want getting ripped out?” She dropped her eyes to Nicole’s stomach for a brief moment before slowly raising them back up to meet the redhead’s shocked eyes.

“I—” Nicole started, but her mouth just stayed open for a few seconds as she allowed herself to process the way this was going down. “Actually, I got cut…” She spoke in a quiet tone, but that only caused Waverly’s glare to become even more intense. Any fire and passion that was between them a few short moments ago was now gone, and Nicole quickly realized that it was never even real to begin with. “So, the whole being horny thing was just you trying to get me to admit that I was hurt.” Nicole lowered her head and sighed.

“Dolls called me earlier to ask how I was handling the news after everything we went through with the shooting.” 

Nicole slowly rolled her lips into her teeth. She wanted to be mad at him for telling Waverly, but he didn’t know that Nicole hadn’t already told her, and this was all her fault anyways. “Oh.”

“You lied to me,” Waverly said sharply. The pain in her voice was apparent. 

“I’m sorry.” Her voice was soft and apologetic, but it would take more than that to get Waverly to be less mad at her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Waverly was much louder now.

“Because I didn’t want you to worry. After the shooting, I thought that telling you I got hurt would put the worst case scenario in your mind.”

Waverly looked at her completely dumbfounded. “The shooting is the whole reason why you should have told me! What if something had happened to you?! What if you had died and I wasn’t even there?!”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t have died.”

“No.” Waverly pointed her index finger sternly at her. “Don’t try to make me feel stupid for thinking that would happen. Because you died twice. And then you didn’t wake up for a week.” She blinked a few times trying to push back the tears. “I almost lost you forever. We’re about to have a baby together, and I can’t do this by myself. So I need you to do a better job of not leaving me.” 

“I don’t think you’re stupid. And I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” Nicole’s voice was calm yet resolute. “But that was never going to happen. It wasn’t anything like what happened at Shorty’s. It wasn’t even that bad of a cut.”

“You don’t know that though! You always play things down like nothing bad is going to happen, but look around! Bad things are always happening to us!”

“Well that’s a little pessimistic, don’t you think?”

“No, I think it’s honest. Something you should have been from the very beginning, as soon as it happened.”

Nicole sighed loudly in frustration and shook her head, forcing herself to stay calm and not raise her voice as she didn’t want things to escalate.

“I think you should quit your job,” Waverly said nonchalantly, as if it was the obvious solution.

A short, loud laugh escaped the back of Nicole’s throat. “You’re joking.”

“It’s just too dangerous. I can ask Gus to give you a job at Shorty’s,” Waverly suggested.

Nicole lowered her eyelids a little. “Waverly, I’m not quitting my job. This town needs me. And plus, I love being Sheriff. It’s what I was meant to do.”

“Fine,” Waverly sighed, even though she knew Nicole would never accept her offer as it was a bit of a stretch.  

“Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I really just didn’t want you to worry, especially with the baby and all. It's not good for you to have that kind of stress on your hands. I was going to tell you, just after you saw that I was okay. And I'm all better now, see?” She lifted her shirt and showed Waverly the stitches. “The worst part is that it’s going to leave a scar.”

Waverly was clenching her jaw so tightly that the muscle was starting to burn. “Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean that I’m fragile, Nicole. And it’s really frustrating that you’re predetermining what my feelings will be. Of course I would have been worried about you, but not to the point where I would have harmed our baby.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Well that’s how you made it sound. Like I have to be treated like glass and everyone needs to be walking on eggshells around me in order for me not to completely mess up this pregnancy. Like I have no control over my emotions and I’m going to ruin it. Just like I ruined the other one.”

Nicole stood there for a moment, completely caught off guard by where the conversation went. “Waves,” she finally said in a soft voice of sympathy as she wrapped her arms around Waverly and pulled her into a hug, and Waverly let the sobs ring out as she collapsed into her arms. “Hey, it’s okay.” She soothingly rubbed her hands up and down her back over her shirt as she held onto her tightly. 

It had been barely over a year since they’d had a miscarriage. They had only been trying for about four months at the time before getting pregnant, and Waverly was only eight weeks along when it happened, but it still broke their hearts nonetheless. It took them a little bit of time to feel ready to start trying again, especially since they had to break the news to everyone that they weren’t pregnant anymore. That was one of the hardest parts, and one of the reasons why they decided not to tell anyone until after the first trimester. Even though there was still a chance of having a miscarriage, there was much less of a chance after twelve weeks. Nobody even knew that they were trying again, which was exactly how they wanted it to be.

“It’s not your fault. That sort of thing, it just happens, no matter how much you’re doing everything right.” Nicole continued to glide her hand up and down as Waverly continued to cry into her shirt. “You could never ruin any of it,” she added in a much softer tone, and Waverly pulled back to look at her with red, watery eyes. “I’m really sorry I didn’t tell you about going to the hospital. I know you’re not fragile, you’re the strongest person I know. I just didn’t want to make anything harder on you than it needed to be, but next time I’ll tell you. No matter how big or small I think it might be. I’ll tell you.” She smiled as she continued to look into Waverly’s eyes.

“Okay,” Waverly nodded. “Thank you.” She sniffled a few times before wiping her face with the palms of her hands. A smile broke out, followed by a light chuckle.

“What?” Nicole questioned in slight amusement.

“I’m actually kind of horny now.”

“Oh, you mean now that all the rage has died down?” Nicole teased, and Waverly laughed while giving a small shrug.

“It’s not my fault that you’re such a good kisser.”

“A good kisser, eh? Like this?” Nicole wrapped her hands around Waverly’s back and pulled her into a slow, sensual kiss for a few seconds before releasing the brunette’s lips. She smirked and bounced her eyebrows a couple of times, which earned her a small smack in the shoulder from Waverly.

“Sometimes you’re too cocky for your own good,” Waverly said with a shake of her head, not even bothering to hide her grin.

“Does that mean that you don’t want me to fuck you? I don’t know how rough I can make it with the doctor’s orders, but I can definitely make it worth your while.” She moved one of her hands from Waverly’s back around to the front of her abdomen and glided the backs of her fingertips along the top of her jeans, causing Waverly’s breathing to become heavier as she fought to keep her eyes open.

“I’ll think I’ll take you up on that offer.”