44. Chapter 44

A couple of days later Waverly woke to Nicole leaning over in their bed and planting a sweet tender kiss to her lips. “Morning Sweetie.” Nicole says as she beams back at Waverly the largest smile, that shows off Nicole’s dimples.

“Morning beautiful.” Waverly replies as she caresses Nicole’s cheek. As always, the brunette struggles to resist the lure of her wife’s dimples and leans in to capture Nicole’s lips in a heated kiss. It doesn’t take them long before hands start to roam under clothing, but before anything could happen, Nicole places a finger on Waverly’s lips. “Baby, we had better stop or we’ll be late. Besides there will be plenty of time for this later tonight.” Nicole peppers small kisses down Waverly’s neck and along her shoulder.

Waverly pouts as she looks at Nicole, who replies with, “Stop doing that, you know that our babies are going to wake soon, and it will be more frustrating to stop then than it is now.” Nicole gives Waverly one last kiss before climbing out of the bed. Waverly flings herself back onto the mattress and groans as she throws the bedcovers off. She then grabs her dressing gown and heads after Nicole to go and get their babies up for the day.

After finishing with breakfast and making sure that all their pups were dressed and wearing clean diapers. Nicole throws on her Police jacket and picks up the keys to Waverly’s family car, which Nicolas watches and asks, “Mummy, why you have Ma’s keys?”

“We’re all going to the station in Ma’s car today.” Nicole says as she kneels in front of her son.

“Mummy, can we get hot choco?” Nicolas asks as he sits down so that Nicole can tie his shoelaces.

“Yes, and if your really lucky, Ma might let us have marshmallows with our Hot Chocolates.” Nicole says with a grin as she notices Waverly standing with her hands on her hips behind Nicolas. Nicole takes Nicolas’s hand and leads him out to the car, where she lifts him up and places him into his car seat. Once Nicolas was strapped in, Nicole returned inside the house and picks up Bach in his capsule and takes him out to the car and makes sure the capsule is secure, before heading back for Winona. Waverly comes out with Walden and Alberto and places them in the car. Nicole makes sure that Nicolas and Alberto’s seat belts were secure, before double checking that all the capsules are also secure. Waverly places the baby bags into the back of the car, while Nicole places the stroller and pram along with the extra blankets and pillows alongside the baby bags.

The journey into the station is uneventful, except for the detour to the Coffee shop to collect two coffees and two baby hot chocolates with pink marshmallows, which the twins shove straight into their mouths, before Waverly could tell them to wait. Nicole smirked as she noticed the annoyed look on Waverly’s face, as both Nicolas and Alberto show off their now pink teeth grins.

Waverly spent her morning listening to the different surveillance tapes from Pussy Willows, while her children played with their cousins and Jeremy and Dolls daughter. Nicole worked in her office and answered several residents’ questions. Around 10 that morning, Nicole headed out to the coffee shop to collect the usual order of coffees and doughnuts for her and all her staff and Black Badge. The cashier at the coffee shop always threw in a couple of Vegan cinnamon doughnuts for the Sheriff’s pups. The coffee shop always made sure that they helped Nicole carry all the supplies back to the station, as they wanted to make sure that Waverly’s favourite Vegan doughnuts made their way to their rightful owner. Nicole at first didn’t like the taste, but during Waverly’s last pregnancy, Nicole started to develop a liking for them, so every now and then Waverly would find one or two missing.

Nicole delivers the coffees and doughnuts to her staff before heading into the offices of Black Badge, where she found her twin sons chasing after Alice around the large worktable. Meanwhile her triplets were playing with their toys on the rug, along with Henry. Before Nicole could say anything, Wynonna grabbed hold of the box of doughnuts and picked one out and started to eat it as she moved to sit down in her chair.

“Hey, Wynonna they aren’t all for you. There are others would like to have some too.” Nicole growled at the older Earp sister. As soon as the Earp-Haught pups heard their Mummy’s voice, they stopped playing and looked with earnest in their eyes at their Mummy. Nicole turned around and placed the coffees onto the table and then the bag of vegan doughnuts.

“Waves, Nicolas and Alberto, come over and get your doughnuts before Wynonna eats them.” Nicole says as she opens the bag and takes out two cinnamon doughnuts and breaks them in half. She then walks over to the triplets and Henry and hands them each a half to eat or play with.

“Thank you, sweetie.” Waverly says as she pats Nicole’s bottom.

“Ew, keep it for home.” Wynonna says as Alice runs over and climbs up onto her mother’s lap and gladly takes the pink sprinkled doughnut in her tiny hands and begins to eat away happily.

“Any news?” Nicole asks Dolls who takes a sip from his coffee.

“These been nothing from the Pussy Willows, but my bubby who works at the jail, Bobo is at, rang and told me that Destiny had visited. Bobo has since been seen pacing in his cell. My buddy told me that Bobo has been acting strange, like he is scared and continually looking over his shoulder. My bubby is keeping an eye on him for us and will keep in touch.” Dolls says as he walks over to the crime wall that had an image of Kiersten and a picture of Pussy Willows and other photos. Dolls was so engrossed in trying to work out as to why Bobo was so scared that he didn’t hear Nicole’s next question.

“How long ago did Destiny visit? Surely she should be back working at the Pussy?” Nicole asks but receives no answer only silence. Waverly was sipping her coffee, while Wynonna and Alice sat eating most of the doughnuts in the box. Nicole sat down and started to drink her coffee and every now and again, she would take a bite of her own vegan doughnut. After about half an hour later, Nicole looked around the room and noticed that Walden, Winona and Henry were huddled up next to each other on the rug. Nicolas, Alberto and Alice had laid down around the younger pups and pulled over them some of the blankets. The only pup that was not sleepy, was Bach, who was restless and wanting the attention of his Mummy.

Nicole lifted Bach and held him close to her chest and gently patted his back, while saying soothing words to her young pup. “Shh, it’s alright. Mummy has you.” Nicole continued to rub small circles on his back, while holding Bach tight against her. Bach grabbed hold of Nicole’s uniform shirt collar tightly with his little hands. Nicole rested her chin on top of Bach’s head and gently rocked her little son to sleep. Once Bach had gone limp in Nicole’s arms, that was when Nicole found that she was unable to lower Bach onto the rug, because he was still gripping her shirt. Nicole knew that she had to go back to work, so she called out to Waverly.

“Waverly, Bach won’t let go. Can you help me with putting him into the baby carrier vest?” Nicole quietly asks.

“Cause any thing for my best baby. I can’t blame him, it’s my favourite place to rest my head.” Waverly says as she starts to strap the baby carrier vest around Nicole and between the two of them, were able to secure Bach without waking him. After checking that everything was secure, Waverly placed a kiss to the side of Bach’s head and then a chaste kiss to Nicole’s lips.

Nicole and Bach headed back to the Sheriff’s office, Nicole worked through her caseload, while her son sleep against her chest and all along, he did not release his grip on her shirt collar. There was a knock at Nicole’s door. “Um, Sheriff there is a woman here that wants to talk with you.” One of the Deputies said as they stood in the doorway.

Checking to make sure that Bach was still asleep, Nicole left her office and walked over to the front desk, where an older woman stood. The woman was wearing clothes that would have been worn by someone who worked on a farm. “Sheriff Earp-Haught, I want to report something strange that occurred on my property. We have cattle on our land and when me and my husband went to put out their feed this morning, we found three of our best cattle dead, it looked as though their heads had been ripped off.” The woman said as she began to reach into her handbag.

“Madam, where about is your farm?” Nicole asked as she pulled out from under the counter, a map of the Ghost River Triangle.

“Our farm is out near the Pine Barrens. I asked my husband to wait for the Police to come out, but he wouldn’t, so I took some photos (the woman hands over to Nicole a set of photos’). My husband decided to cut the cattle up and was in the process of burning them when I left.” The woman stood and looked at the photos and then at Nicole.

Nicole looks at the photos and realises that the wounds on the necks of the cattle, resembled the same wounds that were on Kiersten’s body.

“Madam, did you or your husband notice anything different around your property? Such as another Alpha scent near the cattle?” Nicole asks, secretly hoping that the two cases were not linked.

“Yes, my husband was sure that he could make out the smell of another Alpha on the cattle. He said that was why he wanted to burn the bodies. He was going to call our sons to come over and they were going to check the boundary for any signs. Why do you ask?” The woman asks with a hint of fear in her voice.

“Madam, there’s nothing for you to be worried about, it’s just that these marks look like (Nicole points to the marks on the neck of the cattle in the photos) they have been made by an Alpha animal, that is all. I will send som …” Nicole says just before the woman interrupts her.

“There’s no need for you to send any of your officers out to our farm. I just wanted to let you know in case there had been any other attacks. And is this one of your new Deputies?” The woman says as she points to a sleeping Bach.

“There have not been any other incidents, but we will keep an ear out. This little one is Bach, one of my and Waverly’s triplets.” Nicole says with a smile as she was filled with pride. The woman reaches out and runs her hand through Bach’s hair.

After seeing off the woman, Nicole heads into the Black Badge office, with the photos that the woman left behind. “Dolls, I think that the Alpha Werewolf has struck again, but this time it attacked and decapitated three cattle on a local cattle farm.” Nicole says as she hands over to Dolls the photos.

“Where did this happen?” Dolls asks as he takes the photos and looks at them sternly.

“The cattle owner said that they found them this morning, all had their heads bitten off. Her husband decided that he would depose of the bodies by burning them. So, we don’t have any physical evidence to link the Werewolf to the cattle attack. The only thing we have are these photos. The cattle farm is out near the Pine Barrens.” Nicole says as she stands next to Dolls, both look at the different pieces of information on the crime wall.

Waverly comes up behind Nicole and starts to undo the baby carrier vest, so that she could take the now awake Bach. Nicole holds onto Bach firmly as Waverly removes the vest and then reaches out to Bach into her arms, which she then walked over and collected one of the baby bags. Knowing that her son would need a diaper change before having his bottle, Waverly set about seeing to Bach. Nicole smiles as she watches Waverly talk to their son while his Ma attended to his diaper, before placing him in the pram.

The sound of Dolls phone ringing interrupted everyone’s thoughts, as they all waited to find out if the caller was his buddy, reporting back on Bobo. “Hey, do you have any news?” Dolls asks as he begins to pace around the room. Dolls continues his conversation before hanging up the phone. He then turned around and said, “That was my buddy, who’s a guard that works at the jail where Bobo is. My buddy said that Bobo asked to use his phone privileges this morning, which he hasn’t used since being inside. My buddy got suspicious, so he decided to tape the conversation. He’s going to send me a copy of the recording.” Dolls looks at his phone, waiting for the message to come through.

Waverly rushed over to Nicole, grabbing hold of her wife’s uniform shirt and then looking at Nicole with fear in her eyes. “It’s ok baby, no one is going to hurt our pups. Bobo can’t harm them; he’s locked up in jail.” Nicole says as she wraps her arms around Waverly and holds her tight, while rubbing her hands up and down her wife’s back.

“It’s just that I’m scared.” Waverly whimpers into Nicole’s chest.

“I’m here and I’m not going to let anyone hurt our babies or their sexy Ma.” Nicole says as she leans back, just enough so that she could directly into Waverly’s eyes. Placing a finger under her wife’s chin, Nicole pulls Waverly into a tender kiss.

Dolls phone chimes, indicating that he had received a message, which he opens. Dolls places his phone down on the table before tapping on the glass and playing the recorded message. Nicole sits down in a chair before placing her hands-on Waverly’s waist, pulling her so that the brunette can sit on her lap. Wynonna grabs hold of a pen and paper, so that she can jot down any key points from the conversation.

Phone recording.B “Hello Whiskey Jim.”WJ “Hello Bobo.”B “Now tell me again, that all the girls got delivered to Pussy Willows?”WJ “Yes, just as instructed, Bobo. Why are you asking?”B “It seems that they have run out of ‘fresh meat’. I remember that the number of girls I asked you to send, would have lasted them for more months to come. Can you tell me why I got a request asking for more?”WJ “Bobo I sent….”B “Don’t lie to me Whiskey Jim, you know what happens to people, when they lie to me.” (Bobo raises his voice).SilenceWJ “Bobo, I didn’t know how to tell you. On the day of transporting the girls, there was an attack on the truck. Standing in the middle of the road were ten girls wearing his clothes and they bore his mark ….. they surrounded the van and outnumbered us. Bobo they took all the girls we had captured and dragged them off into the woods. We sent all the girls we could get, so that we meet the deadline.”SilenceWJ “Bobo, are you still there?”B “It can’t be. He knows better than not to come into my territory.”WJ “It was like, one minute there was no one in the middle of the road, and then there was ten girls, wearing his mark on their faces. It’s like Lou ….”B “Don’t ever mention that name.” (Bobo yells).End of recording

Wynonna looks at Dolls and says, “Who’s Whiskey Jim?” Dolls picks up some files off Jeremy’s desk and begins to flick through them, till he finds the page he was looking for.

“Here he is, Whiskey Jim owns and runs an Alcohol delivery business, which services Purgatory. It looks as thou his organisation delivers more that just alcohol.” Dolls hands over to Wynonna the page from the file.

By this stage Waverly is beyond calm, she has pulled her legs up under chin and is shaking, causing Nicole to tighten her hold around her wife’s frame. “Shhh, it’s alright Waverly. Our pups are safe and sound.” Nicole peeps over the top of Waverly’s head and looks at their pups lying in a puppy pile on the floor, minus Bach who was sitting and playing in his pram.

“Nicole ….” Waverly whimpers before burying her head deeper into Nicole’s chest.

Wynonna walks over to the chair that Nicole and Waverly are located and crouches down to wrap her arms around the pair. “Baby girl, we are not going to let anything happen to your babies or you and Haught mess here. Dolls and I are going to hunt this Whiskey Jim down and make him tell us all about this Lou guy.”

Dolls realises that by simply hearing Bobo’s voice, it has caused Waverly some distress, so he says, “Nicole, I think we have this, why don’t you take Waverly and your family home. I’ll let you know what we plan to do next. I’ll make a stop out at the cattle farm and check to see if there are any other signs, which we can use to link the attack to our Werewolf.”

Nicole gently nudges Waverly and says, “Waves, let’s get these little one’s home for the day. I’ll get Walden, Bach and Winona settled in their capsules and then we can get going. It’s going to be alright.” Nicole coos the last part, as she wanted to reassure Waverly that she was not going to let anything happen to her or their pups. Waverly gingerly climbs off her wife’s lap and makes her way over to the pile of pups and gently runs her hand through Nicolas and Alberto’s thick red hair. The boys wake with a whimper but when they spot their Ma, their cries cease and are replaced with a cheeky grin.

Nicole quickly tidies up her office, before placing Walden, Bach and Winona into their capsules. Once the whole family is seated and buckled up in the car, Nicole starts up the engine and drives them home, stopping along the way to collect some groceries. The next couple of hours back at the homestead, Nicole and Waverly spend time with their pups, looking over the construction of the Museum and feeding Doc’s horses. By the time the family returned to their house, all the pups were rubbing their eyes and yawning. Nicole ducked off into the nursery and returns a short time later. Waverly looked at Nicole with a puzzled express on her face.

“I moved the triplet’s cots into Nicolas and Alberto’s room. That way Max can watch all of them in the one room as they sleep. We then can have a nap at the same time.” Nicole says as she lifts a sleepy Walden into her arms and heads off towards the twin’s room with Waverly following behind. Once all the babies are tucked into their cots, Nicole and Waverly place tender kisses onto their heads before leaving the room.

Nicole takes hold of Waverly’s hand and leads her into their room and pulls back the covers on the bed. She then indicated for Waverly to sit on the edge of the bed, so she could take off her wife’s shoes. “Let’s get you more comfortable and you can tell me how your feeling. You had me scared back there at Black Badge. I’ll just go and make you that tea you love so much and then I’ll be back to give you a cuddle and listen while you talk.” Nicole leans up and kisses Waverly’s lips, then helps her wife to climb into bed and pulls the covers over the brunette.

Nicole returns with two hot cups of tea and hands one to Waverly. Waverly is shaking like she is cold, which was not the case, as Nicole had pulled up over her wife, three doonas. “Waverly, what’s wrong? Talk to me pretty girl.” Nicole anxiously says as she climbs in behind her wife under the covers.

Waverly finds that she is unable to speak, the brunette buries her head into Nicole’s chest and clings tightly to Nicole’s uniform shirt. “Shh, it’s alright. I have you. Your safe. Talk to me baby.” Nicole places a hand to the back of Waverly’s head, while she rubs circles to Waverly’s back. Nicole always lets Waverly take all the time she needs, when it came to share her feelings, and this time was no different.

“Nicole, it’s just that when I heard (sobs) Bobo’s voice, it took me back to when he (sobs) took our baby boys from us. I worried that he might have more people out there (sobs) who he can ask to take our pups away from us. We can’t let him get our babies.” Waverly cries into Nicole’s chest as Nicole held her tight and planted a kiss to the top of her brunette wife’s head.

“Waverly, I will not let him anywhere near our pups. I promised you that I would keep you safe on our wedding day and that includes our pups. I love our family so much, and if it means I must shoot anyone to protect you and the pups, then I will shoot anyone for you. Why don’t we have a family sleep fest tonight, with all our pups in our bed. It’s been a while since I’ve had all the loves of my life in the one bed.” Nicole says with a wink. The red head pulls Waverly close to her body and encourages them to lay and rest, while their little ones slept. It didn’t take long for Waverly’s breathing to calm and the little snoring noises indicated to Nicole that her wife had drifted off to sleep in her arms.

Nicole lay holding Waverly in her arms until the sound of babies crying woke the smaller woman from her sleep. Waverly rolled over and looked at Nicole, who was smiling back at her, “How long was I asleep?” Waverly asked.

“About an hour, we had better go and get them up, or they will scream the house down. Then I’ll get started on dinner, how does some vegan nachos and wine sound?” Nicole askes Waverly.

“Yes, I think that sounds great. Nicolas and Alberto love your nachos.” Waverly responds as she grabs a jacket to wrap around her shoulders, before going and attending to her pups.

Nicole stands at the kitchen bench as Nicolas and Alberto run out of their room. “Mummy we help.” Nicole smiles as she grabs hold of the bag of vegan corn chips from the cupboard. “Sure, Nicolas you want to pour the chips into the bowl and Alberto you want to help me grate the cheese?”

Nicolas climbs up onto his little chair, which Nicole has pulled over to the bench, so he can pour the chips into the four bowls. Alberto sits on the bench and holds the cheese, that Nicole has handed him. Nicole holds the grater while Alberto moves the cheese against the steel grater. There end up more cheese on the kitchen bench, than on the plate, but Nicole didn’t care, as her sons were having fun. Waverly by this time has placed the last of the triplets into their bouncers and heads towards the fridge to collect their bottles. Nicole cooks the vegan meat for the nachos before serving it into a bowl, which is placed on the table. Nicolas and Alberto are helped by Nicole in making their Nachos, which they love.

After dinner had been eaten and the triplets had been feed and given their bottles. Nicole indicates to Waverly that they should huddle on the couch and watch ‘The Wiggles’, which Nicolas and Alberto love to dance and sing to. By the time they had reached the end of the episode, all the pups were becoming tired and restless, so Nicole takes them and baths them before dressing them in their pyjama’s. As promised Nicole and Waverly organised their pups into their bed, so that the triplets were in the middle and then Nicolas was tucked in next to Waverly and Alberto was next to Nicole.