88. Raising Hell

       Jessie held a finger up to her lips as she pushed the door open, and they both quietly walked in. They were both immediately hit with the stomach-churning smell of probably every bodily fluid you could think of. Waverly covered her nose for a second just as the other one did, but they both turned their heads towards the middle of the room at the sound of his voice. 

       “Father? Who the hell’s out there?!” Champ asked, trying to jerk around in the chair to look in their direction. 

       They both stayed quiet, looking back towards one another and taking a few minutes to gather themselves. Jessie pointed to herself and then pointed to him. Waverly nodded, pointing to herself then to the ground, signaling that she was going to hang back for a few seconds. The brunette nodded, flicking the blade in her hand out as she walked over to him. 

       “Father . . .?” Champ said again as she walked up behind him. 

       “Not even close.” 

       The boy-man began to jerk around again, his swollen eyes widening at her as she circled to the front of him. She took in the sight. He was covered in dried blood from basically head to toe. His face barely made him recognizable, and she figured that the majority of the people that had been in and out had spent most of their time there. But there were also bruises all down his torso, proving he had been punched and kicked there multiple times as well. She almost laughed for his sake at the scabbed Haught written on him, but the Rapist that was carved above his heart, undoubtedly by Wynonna Earp, made her more than grateful for them. There were a couple of other slash marks from knives scattering his whole body, not to mention the hole in his hand. 

       “No, no, no, Jessie, no! Why are you here?!” 

       “I wanted a turn,” she said with a little shrug before pulling her fist back and nailing his jaw. He let out a sharp cry of pain. “It’s only fair, right?” She leaned in towards him and ran the tip of the blade down his neck. “You ruined our lives. Now we get to ruin yours.” 

       He sputtered a few sounds, wincing in pain as she pushed it forward when she reached the area below his collarbones, drawing a line down his chest before pushing her finger into it. “OW! NO, STOP!” He whined. “What do you mean we ?!” 

       Waverly yanked his head backwards by the hair after successfully sneaking up behind him, pushing the gun to his forehead as his eyes popped out. “Who else would it be?” Champ stayed at a loss for words for a few seconds as she let go of him and walked around to the front, taking her own look at his injuries. “What’s wrong?” She shot her hand out to grip around his neck, letting the true fire show in her eyes. “It sucks when someone has control over you, now doesn’t it?” He let out a strangled noise, face reddening as she squeezed harder, and that only spurred her on more. “It sucks when you’re the weaker one! It sucks when people take advantage of you! It sucks when no one can hear your cries for help!” She pushed the gun into the back of her pants and dropped her hand, kicking the chair backward before dropping back on him and putting all of her weight behind her fist as she let it fly. 

       He groaned after it struck his cheek, “ Wave -” 

       “Shut up!” She and Jessie barked at the same time, and the nurse drilled her foot into his side. 

       “I’m s-sorry,” he whimpered. “I really am, ok? I shouldn’t have gone back to you when I got o-” 

       She nailed the other side of his face, watching as a couple of the gashes opened up, letting blood slowly trail down his face. “No! You shouldn’t have done anything to either of us, Champ!” 

       “I know ! I know I shouldn’t have!”

       “You obviously fucking don’t!” She shouted, ripping the gun out of her waistband and smacking him across the jaw with the butt before pointing it at his head again. “How do you expect me to believe that, huh?! Not only did you try to rape her , but you turned around and did the same exact thing to me. And then? You came back! Who knows what you were gonna do! You could have tried to do it again, for all I know!” 

       “I was drunk, Waverly!” He shouted in his own defense. “Both times! I didn’t know what I was doing! Why doesn’t anyone understand that!?”

       The brunette let out a guttural scream, her vision going hazy as she dropped the gun and began to take out all of the anger from the trauma he had caused her out on his face. “You disgusting, egotistical, worthless, womanizing, selfish, manipulative, irrational, childish piece of absolute fucking garbage!”

       It took her a moment to realize that a pair of arms had snaked around her middle and that she was now being dragged off of him. 

       “-rly, stop! Jesus fucking Christ , Waverly!”

       Still unbeknownst to her, Nicole had bolted out of the station’s parking lot after she had gotten the call and made it there in record time, just under 8 minutes. And when she had rushed in and saw her treating his face like a punching bag, she had immediately ripped her off to make sure she didn’t literally kill him. 

       The girl was still flailing around, screaming her head off, and the Sheriff looked up to see that Jessie had now pounced on Champ for her own turn. “ Julian !” He immediately rushed over and drug her off, trying to calm her down as Nicole did the same with her wife. 

       Nicole dropped her face-down onto the couch and jumped onto her back before she could get up like she was trying to. She pinned her legs down with her feet and grabbed her wrists and tugged them behind her back, wrestling a pair of cuffs on her for Waverly’s own safety and herself, for it seemed she wasn’t all there right now. “ Baby, Baby, Baby , hey.” She leaned forward, using her free hand to push the hair that was sticking to the tears rolling down her face away. “Shh, you’re ok. Stop squirming, it’s ok, Wave. Open your eyes, look. Look at me, Baby.” 

       The brunette let out another sob as she unscrewed her eyes, seeing Nicole’s face leaning down in front of her’s. “. . . Nic?” 

       The redhead slowly pushed off of her, dropping her knees to the floor to kneel in front of her, pushing her hand through her hair. “Yea, Honey.” She turned her head after hearing the door, seeing Topher rushing into the garage and taking Jessie from Julian’s arms, immediately sliding down the wall and hugging her to his chest. She looked back down at her wife. “Are you ok?” She asked gently, helping her sit up. 

       Waverly nodded with a sniffle, “Get these off.” She turned her body, wiggling her hands at her. Nicole pursed her lips, grabbing the keys for the handcuffs and unlatching one of them, letting her bring her arms around the front of her body before quickly reattaching it. The smaller girl’s head shot up. “Nicole!” 

       The redhead swallowed, “Love, I . . . I don’t trust you in here right now. I’m sorry.” She pushed her hands on her knees to stand herself up as Waverly looked up at her with fear storming her eyes. 

       “Cole . . .” Another tear rolled down her cheeks. 

       “Let’s go outside. I’ll take them off out there.” She gently took her elbow and helped her stand, wrapping that arm around her waist as she let her out the front door. She did a quick look around before leaving, seeing that Topher was still trying to calm Jessie down and Julian was sitting Champ’s chair upright.

       The redhead led the brunette to her cruiser that was right outside the doors and opened the back, letting her sit down. She pulled the keys back out and took the cuffs all the way off her wrist, getting her to scoot over. The brunette slid all the way to the other side of the seat as Nicole sat when she previously had been, pulling the door almost closed behind her so they didn’t get locked back there. Her face saddened as Waverly curled into herself, hugging her legs to her chest and facing the door. “Wave, Baby . . . Come here.” She mumbled a negative response into her arms. The Sheriff slid a little closer to her, reaching out and touching her arm. “Hey . . .” Her brow furrowed as she pulled away from her touch. “Waves?” She looked so tiny and the Sheriff hated it.

       The brunette lifted her head a little to look at her, and Nicole’s heart shattered into even more pieces watching her lip wobble as tears slowly rolled down her cheeks. “You don’t trust me?” She questioned in a broken whisper. 

       “Oh, Sweetheart, yes, I do ,” Nicole sighed as she scooted all the way over to her and pulled her onto her lap. “I was just worried you’d make a run to get back over to him, Love. I’m sorry.” 

       Waverly tugged her arm to her chest as her other wrapped around her, holding her tightly. “I wasn’t,” she mumbled, her body shaking as the tears kept at it. 

       “Ok . . . It’s ok.” She used the hand that she was clutching to her chest to pull her hands out to look over her knuckles, seeing that they were just red and a little swollen, so there was nothing to worry about. She ran her thumb gently over them until she calmed down all the way. 

       “I’m so sorry,” Waverly finally breathed out, sitting up a little to look her in the eye. “It . . . It was my idea, but it was stupid. And dangerous. And . . .” She shook her head at herself. 

       Nicole’s brows raised at that. She thought she had already established that she knew Jessie had coaxed her into this, but this was really news to her. “ Your idea? I thought . . .”

       “I lied , Cole. To you. I lied so you wouldn’t know I wanted to see him cause I knew you wouldn’t let me. But- But I know why you didn’t.” She wiped her face as a stray tear tried to fall. “Cause I can’t control myself. And you know that. But I’m stubborn and thought I’d be able to. And I’m sorry.” 

       The redhead had felt her jaw clench, but for some reason that she couldn’t figure out, she wasn’t mad. At all. She felt like she should be. But she wasn’t. 

       She brought her hands up and tucked her hair behind her ears, cupping her cheeks as she leaned into a soft kiss, letting their foreheads rest against each other when she pulled away. “I’m just glad you’re alright. That’s all I worry about and that’s all I’m going to continue to worry about. Deal?” 

       She nodded with a swallow, pushing another kiss to her lips, letting her fingers grip around her collar for a second. “Deal.” 

       Nicole met her eyes with a little smile, giving her hip a squeeze when she wrapped her arm back around her. “. . . Our court date’s in a little under two weeks. I got the call today.”

       “Already?” The brunette questioned. 

       They weren’t charging Champ. They weren’t trying to sue him either. No. It had nothing to do with him at all. They were suing his attorney and lawyer. Patrick Owens and Dominick Reinhardt . Nicole had done her own digging and found out that they had purposely withheld the information from their case staff about Champ’s release, hence why nobody hadn’t known about it. 

       And, oh , she was raising Hell.

       “Being a Sheriff gets you what you want sometimes,” she sighed, deciding to not go into what strings she had pulled. 

       “You really wanna go to jail, don’t you?” Waverly said with a shake of her head. 

       “Anything for you, Babe.” She shot her some dimples and the smaller one rolled her eyes, dropping her head to rest on her shoulder as she twisted the end of her tie around her finger. 

       “What did Mr. Barnes say?” She asked, for she knew Nicole had been handling everything with their lawyer because she was just the best. 

       “He says we’ve got it. That there’s no way they’re getting away with it.”

       “Yea?” 

       “Yep. His people got a warrant to search their phones and found texts of them talking about it. Owens was the one to suggest it and Reinhardt agreed to g-”

       “ TOPHER, DON’T! ” 

       Both of their heads shot up at Jessie’s scream, and it was followed by an immediate gunshot and no doubt a howl of pain from Champ. 

       “ Fuck ,” Nicole breathed with wide eyes as she rolled Waverly off of her and slid out of the car, running for the door. She pushed it open, watching as Julian was trying to wrestle the gun that Waverly had left on the ground out of Topher’s hand, keeping it aimed at the ceiling. She sprinted towards him, tackling him to the concrete and pressing his wrist to the ground. 

       “Let me fucking kill him,” he growled as she tried to pry the weapon from his grip. 

       “Topher, let go !” She snapped, finally tearing it from his hand. She slid it away towards the bar before looking down at him with wide eyes. “Dude!” She smacked him across the face to try and get him to stop jerking around underneath her. “What the fuck ?!” She turned her head, seeing that Jessie, Waverly, and Julian were staring wide-eyed at the bullet hole that was now in Champ’s shoulder. “There’re towels under the cabinets in the bathroom upstairs. Go!” All three looked towards her, but the Priest was the only to move, rushing up the steps.

       “He shot me! He fucking shot me, Oh my God!” Champ cried as he looked down at it.

       Nicole looked back down at Topher. “What in the shit is wrong with you?! Do you want all of us to go to jail?!” 

       It seemed that he had snapped out of whatever had taken over him for a few minutes because he now looked as scared as she did. “I- I don’t know what happened, Haught. I didn’t mean to!” 

       She let out a few curses as she pushed off of him. “ Don’t touch anything.” She rushed over to the boy-man, tipping him forward. “God dammit .” 

       “What?! What’s wrong?!” Champ asked, his face now drenched in sweat as shock took over his body. 

       “Stay still, you jackass! The bullet didn’t go through. Who knows what it hit.” 

       “Oh my God, I’M GOING TO DIE!” 

       “Shut up !” She barked, taking a towel that Julian handed her and pressing it against his shoulder to try and slow the bleeding. 

       “Nic, what are we gonna do?” Waverly asked, running her hands down her cheeks. 

       The Priest took over holding the rag and she pushed a hand through her hair. “I . . . I don’t-” 

       Her wife watched a light bulb go off in her head. “What?” 

       Nicole smacked her pockets, pulling her phone out of one. “Ok.” She looked towards Julian. “You and Waves untie him and get some pants on him or something, and I swear , if he says or does anything to you, just knock him out. He’s probably going to pass out soon anyway.” She tossed the brunette her switchblade to cut the duct tape with and looked to Jessie. “You.” She handed her a pile of towels. “Go line the back of my cruiser with these.” 

       “Gotcha.” She took them and headed out. 

       Nicole looked to Topher. “And you? You’re gonna clean all this shit up after we leave while your wife supervises, including his bathroom bucket.” She pointed towards the orange 3-gallon bucket that was sitting in the corner of the room that had been being used for just that. A grimace took over his face, but he knew that was fair punishment for what he had done. 

       The Sheriff looked towards the two, seeing that they were moving at a good pace. She let out a breath, walking towards the bar and picking up the gun off the floor, taking it over and dropping it onto the tarp. “I want anything that could have his DNA on it scrubbed raw , understood?” She raised her brows at the now navy blue-headed man.

       “Understood,” he mumbled as he pushed himself up off the floor. 

       “We’re ready,” Waverly called to her, and she turned, seeing that they had stood him up and put his jeans back on him. 

       “Alright. Let’s go. I’ll call you later, Toph.” She took Waverly’s spot holding him up, letting her go and hold the door open for them. They bid Jessie farewell as they all piled into Nicole’s cruiser, Julian with Champ in the back to pack his wound and the couple in the front. The redhead did a u-turn, pulling out of the driveway and flicking her lights on as she put her phone to her ear. 

       “Hello?” The other end answered. 

       “I need a favor. A huge, right now, I’m on my way favor.” 

       “Wh- Nic, what’s wrong? I swear to God, if you hurt yourse-” 

       “Shae!” She let out a huffed groan as she pulled out onto the main road. “No, it’s not me . Where are you?” 

       “I’m at home. What’s going on?!”

       “Can you pull a bullet out of someone at your house?” She looked towards Waverly, wincing a little at the look she shot her. 

       “What the fuck ?! No! Why?!” She gawked. 

       “Ok, then get to the hospital or something where you can-”

       “No. You need to tell me what the hell is going on before I agree on anything , Nicole.” Her tone was sharp and the redhead knew that meant she wasn’t playing any games. 

       “Ok, look. I kinda kidnapped someone last week and-” 

       “YOU FUCKING WHAT ?!?”

       “SHAE! LISTEN TO ME!” She waited for the cursing on the other end of the line to stop before continuing. “It’s Waverly’s ex-shithead.”

       “The one who-” 

       “Uh-huh. He got released, found her again, long story .” 

       “Oh my God,” she mumbled. 

       “Anyway, more long story, and he just got shot through the shoulder, and I need you to fix him under the radar. Can you do that?” She held her breath as she waited for the answer, driving around the line of cars that pulled over for her. 

       “God fucking dammit, Nicole,” she muttered under her breath, and she could tell that she was pacing by the sound coming through the phone. “I . . . Fuck, ok. Fine. There’s a . . . place I work at sometimes in downtown downtown Calgary. It’s for . . . ya know, people that live in downtown Calgary. The homeless and druggies that either can’t get to a doctor or don’t want to go to a regular doctor. They call me in when people need surgery, and everything's confidential. I’ll send you the address. Meet me there.”

       “ Oh my God , I love you. Thank you,” Nicole breathed out, not missing yet another look she got from Waverly. She pushed her shoulder up to hold her phone, using that hand to grab the wheel as she brought the other over to lace their fingers together with a squeeze. 

       “You owe me, Haught. Big time .” 

       “I know . . . How about that hot tub you’ve wanted forever?” 

       “Sounds good,” she said, and Nicole heard the smirk in her voice clear as day. They said their goodbyes and she pulled the phone away from her ear, dropping it in the cupholder with a raspberry, flicking her sirens on as she took a ramp to get off onto the highway and rubbing her thumb across the brunette’s hand when she curled around her arm. “Did he pass out? It’s awfully quiet back there,” she said as she looked up at Julian through the rearview mirror. 

       “Oh yea. We weren’t even out of the driveway yet and he was out.” 

       She let out a sigh. “I’m sorry, Julian, I really am. You shouldn’t have gotten roped into this mess to begin with.” 

       “Yea," Waverly mumbled. "It's my fault. This wouldn't be happening if we wouldn't have showed up a-" 

       "No, it's my fault, Hun. I shouldn't've let you go in." 

       "Ok, well, we pretty much forced you, so n-" 

       "No, you did not, Waverly," he tried to reason, but she wasn't having it. 

       "Dad, quit . Yes we did !" 

       Nicole looked towards her with widened eyes, but let them settle when they continued to argue back and forth as if she hadn't just called him that. "Ok!" She said with a groan, getting them to shut up. "It's neither of your faults. You didn't pull the trigger, did you?" 

       "No," they both mumbled. 

       "I didn't think so."  

.  .  .

       "Get out," the redhead ordered the boy-man sitting in the passenger seat. It was the day after Shae had taken the bullet out of him. He was completely fine, for it hadn't hit anything concerning. She climbed out of the other side of her cruiser and walked around, pushing him back against the door he was standing next to. "Look at me. Right now." His eyes snapped towards her face and she smacked an envelope against his chest. "There's $3,000 in here. You're gonna take it and you're gonna get on that bus. It's gonna take you to Vancouver, and that's where you will be for three months- Enough time for all this to heal. I don't care how you manage it, but you're gonna stay there, maybe learn how to make money last, I dunno. And I'd suggest that you stay there, not only because I put a tracker on your phone, but also because you never know when I've sent someone to watch you." She watched as he swallowed a lump in his throat. "Do I make myself clear?" 

       Champ quickly nodded, "Got it." 

       "And if anyone asks, you met a girl on your vacation and you're moving in with her." 

       "I would nev-"

       She shot her hand up to grip around his neck, baring her teeth, "Do I make myself clear?" 

       "Ok- Yea- I understand," he corrected, tipping his head up to try and get some air in his lungs. 

       "Good." She let him go, watching the bus roll up to the bus stop. "Go." She stepped back, allowing him to leave with nothing but his ID, phone, the cash, and a backpack with some clothes. She watched as he quickly made his way towards the bus. He looked back once more right as he climbed on, and she locked her jaw as she hooked her thumbs on her belt. 

       The Sheriff waited until the bus slowly rolled away before pushing herself up from leaning back leaning against her cruiser. She let out a raspberry as she rounded the front and climbed in, heading home.

       She pulled the door open, kicking her boots off by the door before making her way to their bedroom. She smiled a little, seeing Waverly buried under a million blankets as she slept the day away with a pile of papers that she seemed to have been grading lying right next to her. Nicole quietly changed out of her uniform into some loose sweatpants and a t-shirt. She moved all of her school stuff over and laid down next to her, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her to her front with a sigh, “He won’t hurt you again, Baby, I’m sure of it.” 

       The redhead knew she was speaking to a wall considering that the smaller one was deep in sleep, but it made her feel better to be able to say it aloud and know it was true. She pushed a long kiss to her head before rolling to her back and plugging some earbuds in her ears, grabbing the stack of papers next to her, along with a pen and the answer key. 

       Waverly had been through enough shit over the past week or so, and the last thing she could do was take a little bit of weight off her shoulders.