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takadasaiko · 7 years ago

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Such Great Heights (a Wynonna Earp fanfic)

FFN II AO3

Summary: Everything looks perfect from far away, but the closer she looks the more cracks in that perfect façade Wynonna finds. Full cast. WynDoc. BoboXWilla. WayHaught.

Part Four

"It is actually dead, right?"

Wynonna looked up from the severed head on the examination table. This was not her forte. She wasn't half bad at the actual killing thing - something that had surprised her, even worried her for a little while - but seeing what made the creature tick was definitely more Jeremy's job description rather than hers. The problem was that Dolls had sent him off to go chat with Robert and the BBD-employed inventor had left everything… out. She didn't want to look at it any more than Nicole did. "I think so? I mean, as far as I know we haven't had one come back from a decapitation."

Nicole winced a little at that, her arms folded over her chest and staring at the vacant-eyed head. "Should we call Waves?"

"No," Wynonna answered immediately. "No, she has that thing today. What was it today?"

Nicole quirked an eyebrow at that, but the judgement might have been a little bit premature, because she paused, looking like she was trying to remember exactly where her girlfriend was that day. "She was meeting with her campaign adviser, I think."

"See, you can't keep up either."

"She's been everywhere lately."

Wynonna nodded. "So it's up to us." She risked leaning just a little closer to the head. "You think he's done with it or…"

"I would not touch that."

"Hadn't planned on it, thanks."

"What are you guys doing?"

Both women jumped at the voice suddenly behind them and turned, finding Jeremy standing at the HQ entrance and staring at them. Wynonna cleared her throat. "Dude, you can't just leave the severed heads lying around like that. What happens someday when one of them doesn't stay dead?"

"You said that hadn't happened," Nicole argued.

"Yeah, but expect the unexpected in this crazy ass job."

"Sorry, sorry. Dolls had me out at Robert and Willa's house first thing this morning," Jeremy explained as he moved past them and towards the table. He grabbed for his latex gloves before handling the head, looking at the eyes and mumbling something under his breath.

"How's he doing?" Nicole asked, leaning back against a table just a few steps further away from the one Jeremy was working at with the head.

"Better than this guy here," Jeremy answered. "It was really crazy though. The guy is a lot faster than he looks. Grace got ahold of this knife and I could have sworn he was still a step or two away when he got the thing. Like it came to him or something."

Wynonna's head snapped over to look at him. "Say what?"

"I think I just need some sleep," Jeremy laughed. "I mean… That's not possible."

"You okay?" Nicole asked and Wynonna's gaze shifted over to her, finding the redhead giving her a funny look.

She shook her head. "I don't know… You ever have those things that sort of pile up? They wouldn't be weird on their own, but when they pop up all together over just a few days they feel like more than a coincidence?"

"You've got good instincts, Earp. You should listen to them," Dolls said as strode through the door to the office and waved a file in the air. "I asked for the medical records from Robert's visit to the ER last night to make sure that we didn't need to bring him here for observation if the demon had gotten his claws in him or something."

"And?" Wynonna asked, uncertain where he was going with that.

"So, did your brother-in-law mention anything about getting burned by the thing?"

"Burned? No."

"It had already started to fade by the time that he got to the hospital, so they just barely made note of it-"

"That doesn't make sense," Jeremy chimed in. "If the demon somehow burned him it wouldn't have faded that quickly, and I haven't seen any indication that just, I don't know, touching him or something would have burned him."

"No, but a burn caused by being at the line might have."

Wynonna huffed an exasperated breath. "What exactly are you getting at Dolls? That Robert's some sort of-"

"I don't know. You've said yourself that you have a hard time getting a read on the man. Since the end of the Earp Curse we've seen a decreased number of demon attacks within the Triangle and then suddenly Doc and Robert get attacked, out of the blue. What else have you noticed?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said there were things that had piled up."

"Do you hear yourself right now, Dolls? Robert's weird. He's always been kind of the goofy nerd that I never expected my sister to fall for, but that doesn't mean that he's…." She stopped herself, pulling in a steadying breath. "I've known the man for years. I was in his and Willa's wedding. Hell, Doc was his best man and the two have known each other since their last year of high school."

"Has he ever been out of the Triangle?"

"Sure."

"When? Because from what I've heard both he and Doc went to college in the Big City. The campus is within the Ghost River Triangle."

"So what? Are you trying to accuse my husband of being a demon too now?"

"He went to dental school outside, so I think that clears him," Jeremy murmured and Wynonna turned a glare on him before swiveling it back around on Dolls.

"This is insane."

He caught her eyes. "I learned a long time ago that you have some killer instincts, Earp. If both of ours are telling us that something off about this whole situation, something probably is."

"My brother-in-law is not a demon."

"But something is going on."

Wynonna opened her mouth to argue, but found that she couldn't. She swallowed hard and shook her head, grabbing for her coat and starting for the door.

"Where're you going?"

"I need air," she yelled back and was gone before anyone could stop her.

She had checked on him half a dozen times already and it was only the earliest hours of the afternoon. He was fine. Grace was fine. Everyone was fine. Willa hated feeling helpless.

As a child she had been told she would be the Earp Heir. It had been terrifying as a little girl to think about looking down the barrel of a gun and killing something, Revenant or not. Growing up for her had meant that she would be expected to, and someday, when she found some poor sucker to marry her and get dragged into the curse with her, her children would face the same fate.

She'd been seven years old when Waverly had been born and there hadn't been any reason to think that anything would change with that, but when her daddy put Peacemaker in her hand it had felt… wrong. It jammed on her every time that she shot it and he had chalked it up to her being too young. Waverly had been five when she had gotten her hands on the gun and the entire room had gone silent as the little blonde girl had put a hole in the front door like it was nothing. Peacemaker had chosen someone different and, selfishly, Willa had felt the relief she'd never even hoped for sweep through her. She was free.

When she was older and she had met Robert, she had distanced herself even further from the Earp Curse. She loved her sisters, but the idea of having her family that she was building too close to that left her with the same sinking feeling that had hung over her childhood like a dark cloud. Waverly had understood and she made good on the promise that she would make sure that the next generation of Earps wouldn't have to worry about fighting for their lives. They wouldn't have to fear for their families.

But she did. Even with the curse broken she did. Robert could have gotten himself killed, and as much as Willa wanted to blame Doc for his antics, she knew he wasn't fully to blame. She might not be the Heir, but she was an Earp. They were drawn to them. All of the evil was drawn to them as long as they stayed in Purgatory. Robert would never want to go and Grace might never forgive her mama for taking her away from her cousin, but with a second child on the way Willa had to think about her family's safety. It seemed more important than every to convince Robert that they needed to leave this forsaken town.

"Got anything good on tap?"

Willa startled and turned from where she'd been leaned against the bar, her inventory list completely forgotten for the thoughts weighing on her, and found Wynonna grinning at her in that way that said something was bothering her and she was doing her damndest to ignore it. "We will when we open tonight. I'm in the middle of inventory."

"Looked like you were somewhere far away to me," Wynonna said and she turned to hop up on the bar.

Willa shot her a withering look. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all. What about something stronger?"

"Will you let me work?"

"Better chance of it."

A sigh escaped her and she rolled her eyes as she ducked down to grab for Wynonna's favourite whiskey and two glasses. She poured and slid both over to her sister. "If you're drinking, you're drinking for me too."

"Fair enough." Wynonna knocked the first one back in one swallow and Willa turned back to the forgotten sheet of paper and started working through what she had.

Silence stretched between them for a long moment and when she glanced back Wynonna hadn't even touched her second drink. She caught her older sister looking at her, though, and leaned back, her palms pressed against the edge of the bar to brace herself. "You want to know something weird?"

"What's that?"

"I can't remember what your husband looked like when he was young."

"You didn't know Robert when he was young. He graduated from high school my freshman year."

"I know, but I know I saw him when he came back to visit. I know that, but I can't remember what he looked like."

Willa shook her head. "He looked like Robert."

"I know. I get that, but-"

"Where's this coming from, Nona?"

She heard her sister sigh heavily, reach for the second glass of whiskey and knock it back just like the first one. It was early for her to be in one of these moods.

"Do you have pictures?"

"At home."

"I don't remember any."

"Well, you don't come over to our house very much. You always want us over at your place or out at the Homestead." She grabbed for a rag and started wiping down the bar, feeling an irrational irritation building in her. "Honestly, I can't remember the last time you actually came over."

"What's your first memory of him?"

Willa stopped, looking over fully now. "What is going on?" she tried again, but Wynonna just waved her off.

"Humour me."

She set the rag down and turned, leaning against the bar and closing her eyes, letting her mind wander back through more than six years of memories that included Robert Svane. Snowy days curled up with him on the couch with their books, waking up to him making her breakfast, and the laughter that filled their home with Grace and that furball of a cat she'd been so determined to adopt. She thought about the day Grace was born and how happy Robert had been to hold that little bundle in his arms, about how scared he'd been before he had that he wouldn't know what to do to be a good father. She thought about his afternoons grading papers and the prayers he said for her each night before bed. Willa's lips tipped at the corners when she thought of their wedding, of Doc giving him hell and of Wynonna giving her a wink when she'd taken the bouquet as the eldest Earp sister had turned to look at the only man she'd ever really loved. She could still feel his hand taking hers, the way his oath to love and cherish her until his dying breath had been so soft that only she could really hear him, and how that promise of forever was just as strong now as it had been then. The memories blurred together, swirling and folding around as she searched for the very first one, happiness flooding through her. Then she remembered light flooding into a room through thin curtains, books piled on a wooden table, and paper swans hanging from a tree growing up through the middle….

"Willa? You okay?"

Hazel eyes snapped open and suddenly she was back in the bar. "Yeah," she breathed, shaking her head. "I saw him in high school, but the first time I really met him was here. You'd just started dating Doc and he brought his friend Robert in. I remember teasing him like crazy because I thought it was cute how the tops of his ears went red when he was embarrassed."

Wynonna nodded slowly. "Yeah. I remember you asking him about the white patch in his beard. You thought he dyed it."

"I did!" Willa laughed. "I'd never seen patches of hair grow white like that before."

"You gave him hell and then told Waves and me you liked it like that. I think you called him quirky," Wynonna chuckled. "Wow… that seems like so long ago."

"It does." She caught her sister's gaze. "Wynonna, what's going on?"

Her sister sighed. "It's stupid…. Dolls is just being Dolls."

"Talk to me?"

Wynonna kicked her legs up and swiveled around so that she was facing the inside of the bar, still up on her perch. She leaned against her knees. "He was asking all these questions today. Apparently Robert had some sort of weird burn that showed up on his medical files in the ER-"

"Why did Dolls have Robert's medical files?" Willa cut in.

"It's fine. It was precautionary in case he felt like we needed to bring him in for observation. Anyway, there was this burn that apparently faded faster than any burn should have. I don't really even know. Trying to put it together now it feels…. Like nothing connects." Wynonna chuckled and shook her head, running her hands through her wild hair. "I think I'm losing my mind, sis. I keep feeling like I'm on the verge of something and then it's gone. Like a dream or something. Did he even have a burn when you guys got home?"

"No, he didn't," Willa said firmly. "What did Dolls think it was? Something the demon did to him? Should I-?"

"Dolls thought he got it from trying to cross the line."

Both Earp sisters stared at each other when the words tumbled out of Wynonna's mouth and Willa felt her temper spark. "Excuse me?"

"I told you, it's stupid."

"Yeah, to say the least. Where the hell does Dolls think he gets off making accusations like that? Out of nowhere. Robert is… the best man I've ever known. Even if he did have a burn that doesn't mean-"

"There were other things," Wynonna said, her tone dismissive. "Something about a knife Grace had in her hand and how Jeremy thought he saw Robert pull it - like, I don't know, with his mind or some shit? - rather than grab it away and-"

"When did my daughter have a knife in her hand?"

Wynonna stopped, her mouth snapping shut and an awkward sound emanating somewhere low in her throat. "Ahh…."

"I need to call my husband and you need to go."

"Willa…."

"Now."

"Listen-"

"Now, Wynonna," Willa growled dangerously and her sister swung back around and hopped off the bar. She squeezed her eyes shut and the question escaped before she gave it permission. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

Hazel eyes opened and Willa fixed her gaze on her sister. "You came in here asking me questions about how Robert and I met. Are you questioning him?"

Her silence said it all and Willa shook her head. "Go."

She waited until the door shut behind Wynonna before reaching for the phone and dialing the number. One ring, two, then a third, and finally it connected and she heard a familiar, albeit sleepy, "'lo?" from the other end.

"Hey, baby," she said softly. "Did I wake you?"

"Grace 'n I were just taking a nap. What's wrong?"

Willa leaned heavily against the bar, finding the room around her a little blurred and she blinked to try to clear the tears. "I just needed to hear your voice."

A rough chuckle sounded over the phone. "I'm fine, Willa. Promise."

"I know. I love you."

"You too."

She rubbed the heel of her hand against her eyes and sniffed. "Wynonna said something about Grace getting a knife?"

Her husband loosed a breath on the other end. "Yeah. Jeremy and I were talking about what happened last night and she decided she needed her donut in pieces. She's fine. Everyone's fine. I was gonna tell you when you got home."

A small smile played at her lips and she cradled the phone. "I'll be home soon. Almost done here."

He hummed a soft affirmative. "You alright?"

"Of course."

"Really?"

"Just worried about you. You want me to bring something from the kitchen home for dinner? Just take it easy tonight?"

"Sure. I'll see you when you get home. Love you."

"You too. Be home soon." She ended the call and set the phone down. The sooner she got home to her family the better.

He sat with books open all around him, a notepad perched on one knee, and a pen scratching furiously as ideas wove together from what he'd been reading on that evening. He had hit a dry spell in his writing for the last couple of weeks, leaving him ready and willing to focus on anything else than the job he was, in fact, very good at. It was funny how those things worked out. He'd come so close to missing the opportunity entirely.

Most people had called him John at dental school, not because he preferred it, but because his first semester had just about sucked the soul from his body and he hadn't cared enough to correct anyone about anything. He'd hated every second of it, but he'd plastered a smile to his face when he'd come back for his first visit. He was going to see it through, he told himself. He'd been working towards it his whole life and he'd be damned if he was going to give up so easy.

Robert had called him on his bullshit at the bar of Shorty's, that sly smile of his quirking his lips as he picked out every subtle tell to come to the conclusion that he was absolutely miserable there. They'd talked, and Doc had dared him to come up with a better option, and all Robert had asked was what made Hank happy. What did he enjoy doing if he had the time? The answer was easier than the choice to follow it.

He'd stuck with dental school for the first two years before finally taking a semester off to write and never went back. He'd gone back home to Purgatory and had dug into the roots of the town and found an editor that had eaten it up. Years later he did well with his writing and he had never finished dental school, though his wife's nickname for him had stuck hard and true.

His research had led him to the Earp family and the rest was history. Doc risked a glance over to where Alice was perched on the couch, fixated on a game that had kept her busy for the last few hours while her daddy worked. Her bright blue eyes followed whatever was dancing across the screen and his lips twitched upward under his thick mustache. He stood slowly, creeping over quietly enough that she didn't notice, and he grabbed ahold of her.

"Daddy! Daddy!" she squealed and he buried his face against her cheek, receiving a high pitched giggle for his efforts as he kissed her.

"Got you!"

"No no no!" she giggled and tried to squirm away, but he picked her up and she laughed as he tossed her over one shoulder and spun her around. He stopped a few turns in and received a hard pat to the back. "Again, Daddy, again!"

The sound of the front door slamming shut halted the festivities and Doc glanced at the clock. Damn. He'd let time get away from him.

He set Alice down and tousled her hair. "Go brush your teeth, darlin'."

"But-"

"You wanna get both of us in trouble? Go."

She nodded at that and scurried off towards her bathroom. He smirked and started towards his work space, marking books so that he wouldn't lose his place if they got knocked over. He glanced down at Plucky whose tail thumped as he looked up from under the table. "Smart boy," Doc murmured.

"Doc?"

"In here, love," he called back and heard Wynonna huff.

"Where's Alice?"

"Brushin' her teeth an' gettin' ready for bed. Rough day?"

"To say the least," she sighed, falling back onto the couch and nearly landing on Alice's tablet. She tossed the thing to the side and Doc could feel her watching him as he finished up what he was doing. "Doc, do you have that photo you talk about? The one from college with Robert and the mohawk?"

That peaked his interest. "Somewhere 'round here I've got a copy. Why?"

"No reason."

"Uh-huh."

He could see her roll her eyes out of the corner of his. "I realized today that I don't remember what he looked like when he was young."

Doc chuckled. "He looked like Robert."

His wife shot him a funny look. "Willa said the same thing."

"Well, he ain't changed a lot. Grew his beard out a bit more, got a few more lines in his face. I think we all did." He reached for her, tugging her up off the couch and looping his arms around her back. "'Cept you, darlin'. You're as pretty as the day I met you."

"I'm serious."

"So am I!" She didn't seem to give to the teasing and Doc frowned. "Why you so caught up on Robert young?"

"It's complicated."

"I'm a clever man. Try me."

"Daddy, the peppermint toothpaste is out," Alice said as she rounded back into the den, holding out the tube with a frown to show him.

"Took you that long to try it out?"

"I wanted the last drop," she told him and he chuckled a little.

"We've got more in the cabinet," Wynonna told their daughter and the nightly routine began in earnest. Wynonna set to getting Alice's teeth brushed and Doc took Plucky out for a quick walk. They moved around each other until it was time to put their little girl in bed. A story was requested, the one with the cowboy and the well, and she was out before it was finished, leaving Doc to slink out of her room and to his own.

Wynonna was in the process of stripping her shirt off as he walked in and he leaned against the door frame. "I take it back," he drawled. "I do think you've somehow gotten prettier."

"You think you're getting something from me tonight?" she asked suggestively and Doc grinned.

"Well who would I be to turn the lady down?"

"You're assuming the lady's offering."

He held his hands up in surrender and started towards the bathroom. He didn't quite make it before he felt Wynonna reach out and latch onto the back of his shirt, pulling him back and around. She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck, that look in her eye unmistakable as she pulled him down into a kiss. He sank in willingly, feeling the right kind of chill run up his spine as his fingers traveled down her sides and she hopped up into his arms, never breaking the kiss, and he carried her to their bed.

Wynonna didn't release him as she fell onto her back, but instead she pulled him closer, her arms around his neck and her legs around his middle. Doc felt her shift and suddenly he was being rolled onto the bed, hitting the mattress with a soft oof and she was on top, her long dark hair all around them. For a long moment they were all limbs, his hands tugging at her jeans and hers frantically working at the buttons down his shirt. "So," he managed between increasingly desperate kisses, "you thought about it?"

"What?" she barely asked and he had trouble answering her as her kisses traveled down his neck.

"Little… brother or sister for Alice," he clarified after a long moment.

She stopped and suddenly he was falling back to the mattress. "Seriously?"

"What just happened?"

"You killed the mood, asshole," she growled and shifted off of him, not bothering to avoid a foot in the ribs as she did.

Doc propped himself up. "It was an honest question, Wynonna!"

"Could you just… not, right now? Maybe?"

"We keep sayin' we're gonna talk about it-"

"And we will!"

"When?"

"I don't know. Not now!"

"Fine, fine," he grumbled and leaned over to kiss her again, finding a hand in his face and she shoved him off.

"Nope. Lost out on that one."

He stared at her for a long moment before finally catching that she was done. He loosed a long breath and sat up slowly, moving towards the bathroom.

One much-needed cold shower later he walked back into their bedroom to find only the lamp on his side of the bed still on. Wynonna was curled up and looked to be asleep already. He sighed and pulled back the comforter on his side, sliding under it. He'd just switched the lamp off and settled down when he felt her shift, wrapping an arm around his middle and laying her head against his chest. Well, at least she wasn't that angry with him then.

"Doc?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I ask you something and you just answer? Don't ask why, don't try to figure out what the angle is, just answer the question."

Well that didn't sound good. "Alright," he said after a long moment.

"Have you ever seen Robert cross the town line?"

Of all the things that he had expected could come out of her mouth right then, that hadn't made the list. Hell, that hadn't even made the secondary list. "Say what? Why are you so fixed on Robert tonight?"

"No questions, remember."

He pushed a long breath out through his nose. "Sure."

"When?"

"Wynonna-"

"Please."

He racked his brain, trying to remember a specific time that he and Robert had been over the line. A time when he'd come to visit him at school or when…. Doc closed his eyes and it finally hit him. "That teaching conference down in San Diego."

There was a pause and then he felt Wynonna nod. "Right," she breathed, almost in a sigh of relief.

"No chance you'll tell me what that was about?"

"Nope. G'night."

He chuckled, reaching a hand up to stroke her hair. "Goodnight."

Notes: There are some big things happening in the next chapter. I feel like I should go ahead and apologize ahead of time for the cliffhanger I have planned?

#Wearp fanfic #Wynonna Earp #Doc Holliday #Bobo Del REy #Willa Earp #Nicole Haught #Jeremy Chetri #Xavier Dolls #Such Great Heights

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