31. Luck of the Irish

       “WAVERLY!!” The brunette’s eyes shot open, scanning over Gus' face. “It was just a nightmare, Dear, it’s ok,” she soothed, wiping the tears off her face.

       “Wh- Is Nic ok?”

       Gus furrowed her brow. “Nicole is fine as far as I know,” she said as she moved off from on top of her.

       “She got shot,” Waverly breathed out, sitting up and clutching her hoodie to her chest as she leaned into her aunt.

       “Shh. She’s ok, though, remember? It was just through her vest.”

       Waverly looked up at her with confusement on her face. “She . . .” All the events from the night before came back to her clearly now. “Nightmare,” she said quietly to herself. “Just a nightmare.” She rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

       “Was it not about him this time?” Gus asked softly, trying to clear up her own confusion.

       Waverly shook her head. “Willa shot her. A bunch. A- And I couldn’t do anything,” Waverly mumbled. She suddenly grabbed the older woman’s arm. “Willa.”

       Gus clenched her jaw. “. . . Wynonna had to,” she reminded softly. “She knew if she was over that line for much longer bad things would happen.”

       Waverly remembered watching the scene unfold in front of her. Both of them wrestling over the gun across the line of the triangle. When Wynonna got it from her, she saw her point it at her. The barrel of Peacemaker went blue. And she shot her. She shot their sister to save the world. “Is Wy doing ok?” She asked with a sniffle.

       “She's still asleep, but she said she was last night. I know deep down she’s not. You can’t be ok after that. We’ll just have to see what transpires.” Gus pulled in a heavy breath. “I’m just glad you girls made it home safe,” she sighed, pulling Waverly closer to her chest.

       “Me, too.” They sat like that for a minute or two until Waverly had pretty much calmed down completely. “. . . What time is it?” She asked as she sat up.

       “Almost 8,” Gus responded.

       Waverly scooted to the edge of the bed, stretching her arms out with a yawn. “Nic’s gotta be there at 10,” she mumbled, more to herself than to Gus. She let out a groan with a roll of her eyes, flopping backwards onto the bed. “Shae.”

       “Shae?” Gus questioned with a furrowed brow.

       Waverly looked to her from her laying down position. “Her ex-wife's her surgeon.”

       Gus’ eyes went wide. “Ex-wife . . . that’s . . . unfortunate.”

       “Tell me about it.” She stood up. “She’s a bitch.”        

       Gus nodded, standing up and walking towards the door. “I can only imagine . . . I’ll make a fresh pot of coffee for you, Hun.” Waverly gave her a smile as a thank you as she walked out of her room. 

       She came down the stairs several minutes later, dressed in comfy sweatpants and a t-shirt. She had everything she was going to be taking with her. Purse, phone, charger, earbuds, Nicole’s hoodie (that she was exchanging because it didn't smell like her enough anymore), and a book. She got herself a travel mug full of coffee and grabbed her keys from the dish on the counter. “You keep me updated on how it goes, alright?” Gus said from the couch.

       “I will. I’m about 99% sure she’ll be staying the night there, so I'm gonna stay with her.” Gus nodded and Waverly gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Tell Nonna to text me when she gets up, ok?”

       “Make sure she doesn't give those doctors too much trouble,” she winked.

       Waverly smiled with a laugh. “Bye, Gus, Love you.”

       “Love you, too, Honey.”

       She gave her a wave and headed out to her Jeep, pulling away and heading towards her girlfriend's.

       Waverly climbed out of the car in front of Nicole’s house and knocked on her door, hoodie in hand, and very tired Nicole opened it with a small smile. “Morning.”

       “Morning," she said, walking in when she moved to the side. "How're you feelin'?"

       “Pain.” The redhead walked slowly to the living room and eased herself onto the couch.

       Waverly clenched her jaw, sitting down next to her. “Baby . . . can I see?”

       “Yea, just be gentle.” Waverly gave her a nod that said obviously. She lifted her shirt up just below her chest, seeing the deep reddish-purple bruise that spread about 4 inches around a dark purple circle where the impact of the bullet hit. She looked up at her girlfriend with sad eyes. “Could be worse,” Nicole said with a small smile. Waverly sighed, looking back down at it. “Could have gone through me.” Waverly jerked her head up, wide-eyed. The redhead’s face softened. “Wave, I was kidding,” she said quietly, placing a hand on her arm.

       “I thought it did go through you, Nicole,” she snapped, voice cracking. She stood up and grabbed the hoodie, walking quickly to her room.

       Nicole followed her. “Wave . . .” She walked up beside her as she sorted through her closet. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”

       The brunette pulled a worn-looking blue hoodie off a hanger and slipped it on over her head, feeling how soft it was from being washed so many times. “It’s fine, sorry for yelling at you like that. I just . . ." She let out a breath. "I thought she killed you, Nic.” She looked up at the redhead, a tear slowly rolling down her face.

       Nicole swallowed the angry ball that tried to work it’s way up her throat and pulled the smaller girl into a gentle hug. “I know . . . I’m not going anywhere, Baby." She ran her fingers gently through her hair. Waverly turned her head, resting her ear against her chest, her body calming down at the sound of her heartbeat. The brunette pulled back after a few more seconds, and Nicole grabbed her hand, slowly rubbing her thumb along her knuckles. “You ok?”

       Waverly nodded. “Now I am, thank you.”

       Nicole smiled sweetly, giving her a feather-light kiss. She walked towards her bag that CJ had decided to lay on top of on her bed. “Can you grab me a jacket out of there? One of the zip-up ones?” Waverly sorted through her closet again, picking out a red FC Barcelona one. She helped Nicole put it on and grabbed her bag.

       They headed out back to the living room. “You ready to go?” Waverly asked.

       “I think so.”

       “Who's going to feed Calamity tonight?”

       Nicole pursed her lips, looking down at the feline rubbing herself against her leg for a second until an idea popped into her head. “Let’s see if Nedley will,” she mumbled with a smirk. She pulled her phone out of her sweatpants pocket and dialed his number.

       He picked up after a few rings. “Haught, you better have a damn good reason for calling me on my day off.”

       “Well, hello to you, too."

       “What do you need?” He asked with a sigh.

       “Can you come and feed my cat tonight? Waves and I’ll both be staying the night at the hospital and I don’t trust Wynonna to . . .” Waverly nodded her head in agreement.

       He was silent for a few seconds before she heard a loud exhale. “You should be really glad you’re my favorite deputy.”

       She smiled wide. “Thank you, Sir.”  

       “Tell me how it goes today, ok?”

       She could hear the concern in his voice. “I will.”

       “Alright . . . Bye, Nicole, good luck. No more almost dying on me, ya hear?”

       “Bye, Nedley,” she laughed. “I’ll try my best, but I’m not making any promises.” She heard him mumble something along the lines of “I hope you like paperwork” before he hung up. Waverly smiled at her as she walked into the kitchen, digging around in her freezer. “What are you doing?” Nicole asked slowly. Waverly turned around with a plastic baggie that she had filled with ice, tossing it up lightly and catching it. “Nooo,” she whined.

       “You are swollen,” she grumbled, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around the bag. Nicole groaned and headed for the door. Waverly picked up her overnight bag again and they both headed out towards her Jeep. She opened Nicole’s door for her, giving her a smile.

      “That’s a first,” she joked.

       “Get in,” Waverly laughed with a roll of her eyes. She sat down and Waverly put her seat back a little bit, gently laying the bag of ice on her chest and setting her sling on top of it to hold it in place. Nicole cringed as her body got used to the new pressure and temperature. “Ok?”

       “Yep,” she said, voice an octave lower than usual.

       Waverly opened the back and put her things in Nicole’s bag, walking around and climbing in the front. “Did you take anything for the pain today?”

       “I can’t. I looked it up last night and it said you aren’t supposed to take anything 24 hours before surgery or something like that.”

       Waverly gave her a pained look as she pulled away from the house, running her fingers along the hem of her sleeve. “Ugh, Willa is an ass . . . or was an ass, I guess.” Nicole gave her a comforting smile, cupping her hand over the smaller girl’s.

.  .  .

       The ride to the hospital was pretty peaceful. Nicole had fallen asleep about 15 minutes in, and Waverly was pretty happy because she figured she hadn’t slept a lot the night before. They got caught in rush hour, so Waverly was happy that they left 30 minutes earlier than they needed to because they were stuck there for 20. Nicole had somehow stayed asleep through all of the car horns and madness. Waverly found a parking spot at the hospital and gathered all of their things before opening the redhead’s door. She placed her hand on her cheek, rubbing her thumb along her cheekbone. “Wake up, Sweetie,” she said softly.

       Her eyes slowly blinked open, meeting the smiling face looking down at her. “Where we at?” She asked groggily, brain obviously not at 100% yet. This was proven more so when she went to sit up, totally forgetting the condition of her chest. She yelped in pain, dropping back down and squeezing her eyes closed.

       “Be careful, Love,” Waverly warned, slowly sitting her seat up and unbuckling her seatbelt for her, tossing the now water pack onto the floor.

       “'M okay,” she mumbled, turning her body and stepping out. She rolled her neck and shoulders, feeling the stiffness from sleeping in the car. Waverly took a sip of her coffee, smiling as she watched the redhead shake the sleep off.

       When she finally gathered her bearings, they headed inside and a nurse took them to a room. “You’ll be staying here until you get taken to surgery. Your Surgeon and the Anesthesiologist will be in soon to discuss further information with you,” she informed with a smile. They thanked her and she left.

       Nicole got onto the bed and Waverly sat in the chair next to her, setting the bag on the chair across the room. “Are you nervous?” Waverly asked.

       Nicole shrugged. “Only about Shae digging around in my body,” she said with a smirk. Waverly laughed.

       There was a knock at the door 10 minutes later, and Shae peeked her head in the room. “Guess who?” She asked with a grin. Nicole shot her a look. “You look like a happy camper.”

       “Sure am,” she mumbled, sitting up a bit.

       “The Anesthesiologist’ll be here any minute now,” she informed, looking down at her tablet. She sat and pulled the table out on her chair, setting some papers down on it. She looked up, narrowing her eyes at Nicole’s uncasted hand that was fixing her sling. She stood, taking it and bringing it to her face. “Nic, what the hell?” She huffed with a little anger, running her thumb along the bruising.

       Nicole took her hand back with a tut. “I’m fine."

       “What are you punching?” She asked. “Or- who are you punching?” She caught a look that quickly passed over Waverly’s face in the corner of her eye.

       “It’s none of your business,” the redhead reminded.

       Shae looked towards the brunette. “Can I talk to you for a sec? Outside.” She threw her thumb over her shoulder.

       Waverly cocked an eyebrow. “Ok?” She stood and followed the taller woman out of the room, looking back to her girlfriend, who mouthed a good luck.

       Shae closed the door and leaned against the wall. Waverly crossed her arms in front of her chest with a raise of her brows. “I know it’s none of my business, but I just have to make sure . . .”

       “Make sure of what?” Waverly asked, shrugging her shoulders.

       “She’s not . . . she’s not hurting you is she?”

       Waverly’s eyebrows shot up in shock. “What?! No! Why the hell would you think that?!”

       Shae pursed her lips. “I don’t know. You just looked uncomfortable when I brought it up in there.”

       Waverly sucked one side of her cheek in and let out a laugh in anger. “Mmm. You wanna know why I was uncomfortable? . . . The jackass she punched was groping me at the club the other night. And how her hand was already injured before she broke it? She knocked my ex-boyfriend out. The ex that she had previously stopped from raping me.” Shae’s eyes went wide. “Do you feel better now? Now that you've dug into our personal lives?”

       “I- I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.”

       “Damn right you didn’t know! But you know what you do know?” She raised her voice to a growl. “You know that there is not an evil bone in that woman’s body, so the fact that you had the audacity to accuse her of something like that?!” She shook her head, letting out a breath. “You two were married, Shae. You know she would never do something like that. Ever.” Waverly turned and went back in the room, pulling a chair up on the other side of Nicole. The redhead was staring at her with a very concerned look on her face. Waverly shook her head. “Later.” Nicole sighed, watching the now agitated Dr. Pressman make her way back to her seat.

       A minute of silence later, the door opened and a man in blue scrubs popped in the room. “Sorry I’m late- oh no.”

       Nicole’s jaw clenched forcefully with a snarl and Waverly moved up to her bed, placing a hand on her shoulder to keep her from getting up like she was trying to. “Oh, fuck no, that son of a bitch is not touching me,” she growled, shaking her head at Shae.

       “Why?” Shae asked slowly.

       “He’s the reason I have to get this goddamn surgery in the first place!”

       The doctor put her pen down. “He’s the one that said all that bullshit to you two?!”

       “Ya,” Waverly huffed.

       Shae shot up, walking over to the man. “Harbison, what the hell?!”

       He put his hands up with a shake of his head. “My loyalty to God stands before everything. I’m sorry if they were offended by what I said, but I was only preaching his words!”

       Nicole let out a breath. “Dude, I’ve read that book, like, three times! I can assure you that none of the shit that came out of your mouth was in there!”

       He scoffed. “He may not have called your kind of people~”

       Waverly straddled Nicole’s legs quickly and clapped her hands over her ears, tilting her head to look at her and only her. “Nope, nope, nope, nope~” She started repeating it loud enough so she couldn’t hear the horrible things he was saying.

       “You’re not on my surgical team anymore, Harbison!” Shae snapped after he finished his rant.

       His jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious! How can you agree with that kind of lifestyle!?”

       She got in his face, gripping the front of his scrubs. “I’m gay, you bigot! Now, get the fuck out of my pre-op room!” He quickly moved away from her like she was poisonous and stormed out of the room.

       Waverly moved her hands from Nicole’s ears, sliding them down to her cheeks. “Thank you,” she smiled sheepishly, wrapping her fingers around her wrist.

       “Anytime.” She gave her a kiss and rolled off her lap, squeezing beside her and throwing her legs over the taller girl’s. Shae hung up her phone and walked back to her seat, clearing her throat as she sat down. “Thank you, Shae. Really,” Waverly said with a sincere smile.

       “Pshh, no problem. I’m not working with someone like that,” she sighed, sorting through a stack of papers. “I just called in a new Anesthesiologist. She just finished another surgery, so she should be here in a little bit.” They both nodded. “So, first, you need to sign this. Shows that you are agreeing to allow people to cut into your body.” The redhead took the clipboard and pen, slipping her hand out of the sling to sign it. “And, Waverly, fill out the next page for her, I don’t want to read her chicken scratch.” She smiled, taking the papers and flipping to the next page. It was information about her medical insurance and medical history.

       She rubbed Nicole’s thigh. “I need your wallet, Baby,” she said as she wrote some stuff down. She dug around in her left pocket, handing it to her. Waverly sorted through it, finding her medical card. She continued filling in information.

       “Uhhm, are you on any medications?” Shae asked cautiously, aware of what was talked about during their fight last time.

       “Yes,” she answered with a look.

       “Did you bring the bottle?” Nicole moved her left arm down to the bed, pushing herself up.

       “Yep, let me get it,” she said, voice filled with pain. Waverly set the clipboard on her lap, gently pushing her back against the bed.

       “I’ll get it. You need to stop moving.” She looked up to Shae. “Tell me if this looks normal to you?” She lifted Nicole’s shirt up before she could react.

       “Did you get shot?!” Shae gasped, moving towards the side of the bed. Nicole groaned.

       “Where’d you put it, Nic?” Waverly asked from her bag.

       “Left pockETHOLYSHIT!!” Shae had decided to feel around on her ribs. Waverly handed her the bottle and leaned down to examine it herself again. “I really hate both of you,” Nicole grumbled through a groan.

       “The ice brought some swelling down,” Waverly pointed out. Shae went to pull Nicole’s shirt up a bit more, but she smacked her hand away.

       “Haught, let me pull your damn shirt up, I’ve seen your tits before.”

       “Exactly,” she retorted.

       Shae gave her a glare. “I have a girlfriend, don’t think I’m too excited,” she said.

       Waverly snorted. “She does have pretty nice tits,” she admitted, watching Nicole’s face turn red.

       “That’s fair,” Shae agreed.

       Waverly pulled her shirt up a little more, holding it in place. “That’s all the underboob you get,” Waverly winked.

       Nicole rolled her eyes. “Can I go bash my head against the wall yet?”

       “I’d say go for it but I think your girlfriend would get mad at me.” She let Waverly pull her shirt back down and inclined the bed back up. “None of your ribs are broken, so you’ve just got deep tissue bruising. Should stop hurting in a week or so and will take about 8 weeks to go away.”

       “Joy,” Nicole deadpanned. Shae sat back down and Waverly went back to her papers. She continued going over a few more things about the surgery and asked her a few more questions.

       A woman in the same scrubs as Harbison came into the room. “Hi, I’m Dr. Alvarez,” she greeted, taking a seat next to Shae. She gave her the go-ahead to ask her own questions. “Are you naturally a redhead?”

       Nicole cocked an eyebrow. “Yes?” She said with a bit of a laugh.

       “You gingers tend to eat up the anesthesia quickly so we usually have to give you about 20% more than non-leprechauns,” she clarified.

       Waverly pinched her cheek. “Luck of the Irish,” she chortled with a heavy accent.

       They got everything worked out in about 20 minutes and Dr. Alvarez left, Shae leaving for a few minutes to go fetch someone to take her cast off. It happened to get the same lady that had put it on. “Hi, Cherry!” Waverly greeted when they both walked back into the room.

       “Hi!” She smiled, wheeling a little machine up next to the bed. Waverly helped Nicole out of her sling. Cherry put a cover over her lap to catch the dust and grabbed the saw off of the machine.

       “Um.” Nicole was looking at the circular blade.

       Cherry smiled, flicking the machine on and touching the blade to her own hand. “It's not gonna saw your arm in half, don’t worry.” Nicole relaxed a little and she began to cut, flipping her hand over to get the other side. She cut the cotton and pulled the cast off, wrapping it up in the cover she put on her lap. “Don’t move it yet.” She threw the cast away and came back over with a wet rag, wiping her arm down. Her hand was slowly curling into a fist and she was trying to prevent it from doing so. “Alright, Doctor, she’s all yours!” Cherry walked out of the room with a wave. Shae walked over and started examining her hand.

       “Alright, so. We are planning to make two incisions. One down your first finger and knuckle and one down your second. We’ll stick a pin to align your bones in your first finger and we’re gonna piece back this knuckle, sticking pins need be. The whole surgery should take 2-3 hours.”

       “Sounds like you’ve got some work to do!” The Deputy smirked.

       “Sounds like you’ve got another x-ray to get to! C’mon.” Nicole rolled her eyes, throwing her legs over the edge of the bed and slipping her slides back on.

.  .  .

       “You look cute in a hospital gown,” Waverly smiled. A nurse was hooking Nicole up to a couple of different machines.

       “Like I said, I look good in everything.”

       Waverly rolled her eyes. “Nurse, can they put her under soon?” She looked up at her with a laugh.

       The Officer’s mouth dropped open in offense. “Hey!”

       “I’m sorry to tell ya, but we actually are moving to the operating room right now,” the nurse smirked. Waverly stuck her bottom lip out at her sarcastically.

       She pulled the locks up on the bed and they started to roll down the hallway, meeting Shae halfway there. She had changed to scrubs at some point. “You ready for me to cut into your body?” She asked with a wide smile.

       “As long as you don’t sew an extra finger on me or something,” she grumbled.

       “Keep up with that attitude and I just might.” The nurse stopped them at a door. “Ok, you two be gross, Waverly can’t come in any further.”

       Nicole looked up and saw her girlfriend chewing on the side of her lip, something she knew she did when she was nervous. She reached over and placed her hand on top of the one she had resting on the bed. “Hey,” she soothed. “I’ll be ok. I hate to give her compliments but I know she’s a good Doctor.” Shae rolled her eyes.

       Waverly swallowed. “Ok,” she breathed. She leaned down and gave her a tender kiss, pulling away after a few seconds with a smile. “I love you.”

       “I love you more,” she winked.

       “Yea, ook.” Nicole laughed, pulling her in for one last kiss. Waverly stood up straight with a sigh. She looked to Shae. “You hurt her, I hurt you. Got it?” She nodded with a nervous grin. The redhead gave her hand an assuring squeeze.

       “We ready?” The nurse asked.

       Nicole looked to Waverly, who nodded. “Yep,” she confirmed. Waverly gave her a small smile as the nurse pushed her through the double doors. The brunette sighed, hugging her arms to her chest and walking back to the room they had been in to clear it out and head to the waiting room. She set the bag on a chair next to her pulled out her earbuds and the book she brought. She stuck them in her ears and pulled her hood up, resting her elbow on the arm of the chair and holding her head up with her hand, pulling her feet up onto the chair and opening up her book.

.  .  .

       About 2 and a half hours later, Waverly looked up at the Doctor that was walking down the hallway, quickly realizing it was Shae. She fumbled her music off, pulling her earbuds out and walking towards her. She noticed the way her eyebrows were bunched together and how her top lip was pulled into her mouth. “Shae?” She asked nervously.

       “Hi.”

       Waverly blinked at her. “What’s wrong? Your face is telling me something is wrong.”

       She pursed her lips. “Let’s sit down,” she sighed, placing her hand on her shoulder and walking her to where she was sitting.

       “Shae, what the fuck? Is she ok?” Her breathing got heavier.

       “Yea, she’s fine, I promise. You just have a decision to make.”