N (WAYHAUGHT)

Chapter 12 - Say What

"Alright. Alright. Give us a ruddy moment," aunty snapped, feeling her age. "N, help me up my lovely, me back's playing up."

Nicole ignored her, her ears still affected by her long night out in the wilds. Her lungs and her knee too, if only she knew. Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup doing more to mask the pain in a body than cure it.

"N," aunty shouted. "Is your hearing bad again?"

"I needs me clothes."

Aunty used the table to get herself upright, groaning as she did so, turning to face N, holding her chin so she would look at her. "N, can you hear me?"

Nicole studied aunty's lips, seeing them move, realising she couldn't hear. She shook her head in an effort to clear them, the motion of doing so making her light-headed. Falling back on the bed once more to stop the world. Aunty was bending over stroking her face, saying something. A muffled sound. Her eyes closed, letting Mrs Winslow dance in her dreams.

Waverly had had another restless night. Sharing the only bed in the wagon, Wynonna had to wake her several times to stop her from falling out. The same dream. N against that tree, shaking her, her lifeless body in her arms, looking down at vacant eyes. The green emerald ribbon in her hand, her words swirling with the rain. "I'll wear it forever. N. I'll wear it forever."

She couldn't sleep. The wagon suffocating, her thoughts even more so. Slipping out of bed, she felt for her woollen coat.

Wynonna's voice made her jump. "Where are you going missy at this time of night?"

"I need to check on the horses. Caspian doesn't like to be on his own. He'll be scared."

"Get back into bed now. You have shows tomorrow. A horse can be lonely for one night."

"But..."

"Waverly Earp, if you do not get back into bed this instance I'll forbid you from seeing N."

As much as Wynonna was trying to help, it was the one statement she should not have said to her sister in that moment. She felt Waverly's quiet sobs, her hand searching for the matches on the shelf above to light the oil lantern, unable to find them she resigned herself to comforting her baby sister in the dark.

"Hush now. I'm sorry. I won't come between you and N. You need to rest. You can't do N's work and perform. You'll be exhausted. You're looking paler by the day. You're not eating. And, I've heard you throwing up outside the wagon. I know this is all new. I know you've had a scare with N. Things will settle down. I'm going to speak with Dolls in the morning. Ask him if we can stay longer."

Waverly sniffed loudly. "Thank you. I don't know if N will want me after all this."

"She wants you. Trust me. Her tongue hangs out watching you perform. Thought only boys looked like that at you."

"Wyn! That's rude. Does she? Does she really? Says she likes my legs."

"I did not want to hear that. Or, have that in my head. Bad thoughts. Bad thoughts. That girl is in love, I can tell."

The horses mucked out, fed, watered, Waverly made her way to aunty's wagon, a small tin of biscuits in her hand Wynonna had bought in town. She knocked on the door, waiting for it to open, smiling at seeing aunty. She hardly knew her, yet liked her already for who she was, no airs or graces, simply aunty who cared for their N.

"My sister asked me to give you these. She says thank you for the cake and could she have the recipe please."

"Oh my. Come in, come in. Have you had food? I'm making N hers."