That's not Waverly

Mission #21: Distant

Once they find the pickup and not Nicole, Waverly gets worried. She calls Nicole many times, but she doesn't pick up. She sends her various text.
WE: 'Baby please let me know that you are ok?'. Another text 'Baby, I'm sorry. I just wanted to protect you. The final text 'Please meet us at the Homestead.' Just in time, as they got home, Nicole arrives as well.

NH: "I'm sorry I left."
WE: "No. No, you had to. I wanted you to, of course. I didn't have a choice, right? He would have killed you.." You can see the look of disappointment in Nicole's eyes.
NH: "Or made it official. Signed me up too."
WE: "In your own blood?"
NH: "I better get back to the station. I've still got so much paperwork to do."
WE: "Yeah, I... I beat check in Wynonna." She tries kissing Nicole, but she moves her face so she kisses her cheek.

Nicole goes back to work. She sees a text from Waverly a few hours later. 'Wynonna saw Dolls.' She decided to ignore the text and keep on working. She wanted an apology from Waverly. She knows she's right, but Nicole finally felt a part of the team, like she was doing something worthy to fix the town and now she's back doing things like before. Knowing all that she does about Black Badge and the Earp Curse it's not easy to forget. Now she had to try because it seems no matter what she does she won't ever be good enough to be included in the team.

When she gets home, she takes a long shower and puts on some SpongeBob to help her feel better. Not even watching SpongeBob and Patrick bothering Squidward can make her smile right now. She gets a text from Waverly.
WE: "Hey"
NH: "Hey"
WE: "Everything okay?..."
NH: "It's fine. Wynonna okay?"
WE: "She's tough"
NH: "Okay. Night"
WE: "Night." She hates being this cold towards Waverly, but she can't think about her feelings right now, only her own. She falls asleep thinking about Waverly, but not in the usual manner. This time she has nightmares. Various nightmares of Waverly and Wynonna she wasn't worthy of knowing, that was just a rookie thinking she's going places when she's not, her demons taking over the dreams. She wakes up startled at four in the morning and decides to drink a cup of coffee. Her shift starts at 6 am anyways so she drinks her coffee and goes in early to get a workout at the gym.

The punching bad is already set up. She gives it a few rounds. Each punch carries anger, stress, disappointment, reminders of every bad thought that she's had, everything her parents said to her to make her feel worthless about being a cop, everything Wynonna said. She keeps replaying over and over again everything she heard when the team was with Black Badge. She thinks about how different things could have been for her. Maybe she was going to be signed up too, maybe she would have been killed like Eliza, who knows? That choice was taken away from her. It was taken away by the woman that she is in love with. When she saw Waverly's face in her mind and the punching bag, she punched it so hard she put a hole through it. She got the bag down before making a mess and told the maintenance guy to see if there was a replacement. She made a mental note to buy a new one for the office.

The first part of the shift went by quickly. Paperwork, rounds, few visitors here and there. She was into finishing her paperwork when Waverly arrived, her usual happy steps and pep coming in with her. Nicole is talking with one of the locals.
NH: "Mr. Kowalski, I walked the whole site myself, ok? There's no evidence of foul play."
MK: "What about the blood? The creepy noises? The shrieking?" Nicole notices Waverly waving at her and nods in her direction. "Jesus hasn't even come back to work."
NH: "Well, Ms. Gardner says he's unreliable. You're working under the table too?" Waverly sits closer to them and smiles watching Nicole.
MK: "Fuck yeah."
NH: "I'll file the report anonymously and keep an eye out."
MK: "Alright."
NH: "But unless there's a body or a missing person's report, that's really the best I can do. See or hear anything new, you give me a call ok?" They walk over to the exit and Mr. Kowalski leaves.