WHO: Wynonna Earp, Doc Holliday WHEN: Today! WHERE: Morningside Manor WHAT: Wynonna arrives, Doc finds her. TRIGGERS: Talk of deaths and disappearances. And alcoholism.
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Doc was on his way out. He’d left the journal in his room because he didn’t really feel like carrying it around. It was pointless. He didn’t need to stay in contact with people that much. Part of him knew what Waverly or Wynonna would say about getting in touch, but neither of them were actually there and he didn’t have time to mess with the tellaphoneys. He did have Miss Julia assisting him with all things technology, but he wasn’t sure if it’d stick or if he was all that worried about it sticking in the long run. There were some odd jobs to be done out on the farms and he’d intended to go out and get some work done. There were goblins about attacking things and that made for a lot more work than there probably was before. Not that he was really complaining. It meant money and that meant more drink, which he so desperately needed. Not as desperately as he would, however.
Just as he made it to the lobby, feeling somewhat uncomfortable using the elevator, but too lazy to go around using the stairs after the first time that he’d used them - now that was a long trek that he did not care to repeat - he stopped, staring for a moment at the woman that just walked through the door.
“I believe the turn of phrase is look what the cat dragged in,” he said after he’d gathered his wits about him. He was happy to finally see someone that he knew, but he wasn’t sure what to expect from her either. Last he knew, she’d been found locking lips with none other than Deputy Dolls...and despite the fact that they had moved somewhat past that little hiccup and done the right thing, which was getting Dolls out of his imprisonment, it didn’t mean he understood where he stood with Wynonna. He’d worry about that later. Right now, he needed to figure out what she last recalled.
“Ms. Earp.” He tilted his hat. “I do believe your being here means you’ve gotten the run down.”
Wynonna wasn't nearly as confused as she ought to have been. She'd just watched her baby sister dragged into "Eden" by several enormous vines, Doc dropped his guns and took off to save her, and the entire town of Purgatory had vanished, save for Nedley. Taking a hop to another dimension sounded like a damn vacation.
Except, she had the option of going back home at the end of the vacation. No one knew when this ended, and that was not going to help Wynonna's anxiety when it came to Waverly's fate. Goddamnit, she wasn't going to leave the only person who truly trusted her to whatever was in that dimension.
Frowning, she didn't even notice the gentleman with the familiar hat until the drawl which snapped something in her head. Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth flopped open. "Why aren't you in Eden? Did you leave Waverly in Eden? You were supposed to save her!"
Doc had no exact reply to that and he couldn’t help but stare for even longer. “Eden - Eden?” He found that it didn’t quite shock him as much as it should have, but he didn’t remember anything about Eden. “Wynonna, I believe that you have found me at a loss. I have no recollection of an Eden outside of the scripture.” But her concern about Waverly was what made him concerned. If someone had hurt the youngest Earp sister, Doc would certainly have gone after her, after them. Waverly was the only one that had any faith in him after all this time. He didn’t quite understand what he had done to deserve it, but he rather thought he still had some grovelling to do.
“The last I recall, we had just gotten finished our jailbreak and been forced into a group of individuals that make you sign your soul away in blood.”
"What are you talking about? That was a long ass time ago." While Harley had explained things to her, it didn't quite sink in that there could literally be time discrepancies. It wasn't something that happened on the regular, even in Purgatory, and there was some pretty weird shit going on there.
Wynonna closed in and grabbed his face. "Open your mouth. I want to see your teeth."
Doc had thought, for the briefest of moments, that she meant to kiss him. It was momentarily disorienting, but then she mentioned his teeth. Doc arched an eyebrow but obliged. He didn’t know what foolishness happened. “I have been flossing, but I’m not sure what exactly it is you are looking for.”
"Your FANGS, Doc. I want to see your fangs."
“My eye teeth are much the same as they always were as you can see, so I am not sure what it is about them that you want to see.” At this point, he was very confused. He focused his eyes on Wynonna’s face as well as he could when she was so close. “Might you explain what exactly you think my teeth have to do with anything in this moment?”
Wynonna frowned, clenching her jaw and working it while she thought. "What is this? Why is that the last thing you remember and the last thing I remember if you going into Eden to save Waverly? How are you not a goddamn vampire anymore?"
If she just focused on what Harley had told her, how she'd explained it, maybe she could get a legitimate handle on what was going on. Panic, anxiety, and a ruthless determination to save Purgatory and all the people in it who hated her had sent her spiralling. Especially seeing Doc so soon after his disappearance.
"Calm down, Wynonna," she told herself. She forced herself to back off from Doc's personal space. "Different time periods. Right? Different parts in the timeline?"
“I cannot speak to the reasons why I remember differently than you do. I can only say that I do.” But the vampire part was a bit confusing. “I am sorry, but I am a what? What would I need to be a vampire for?” He was already immortal. And the concept of feeding on blood was not appealing.
“That does seem the most sound thing.” He studied Wynonna again for a moment. “It will be okay, Wynonna. Whatever has happened is not here. Though, I understand that that will hardly comfort you. I am sure Waverly will be...I am sure that you will figure it out and that I will do whatever is in my power to do.” He could not promise that things would be okay because he wasn’t sure they would be. “I cannot make promises, but I am sorry that you are upset.”
Wynonna stared at him. It didn't seem sound at all to her. Nothing about this place seemed right, and she was stuck here. Without Waverly. Waverly was the only person who loved her unconditionally, and she'd always counted on that. Unfairly, at times. A lot of times, actually, but she always told herself that at least she'd go to the ends of the Earth for Waverly.
With flared nostrils and overbright eyes, Wynnona just nodded. He was from a time and place that seemed so long ago. He didn't know about Alice. He didn't know about Dolls's death. Or Waverly's father. He didn't know about Mama or Kate coming back.
"It won't be okay. Nothing's ever okay." Her whole life had been one giant fuck-up. The last word was wobbly with emotion. Wynonna was a fighter, but suddenly getting stuck in a whole other world with people who shouldn't be real… She was tired after days of fighting, after being poisoned by Bulshar, after everything with Peacemaker and Charlie or Julian or whatever the hell his damn name was this time.
Doc was a lot of things, but none of those things was immune to the tears of women when he wasn’t already righteously angry or certain he wouldn’t see them again. He frowned for a moment. “No, nothing’s ever okay, but we make things work.” They had broken into Black Badge and freed Deputy Dolls after all. They had killed the Seven together. They had gotten through hell and back and they would have more hell to go through now.
“We are nothing if we are not stubborn in the face of impossible odds.” He did not wish to impose on Wynonna’s space, but he stayed close. “And so we shall continue.” A pause. “If you should like, I can accompany you to your room and see that you get there without incident. I can also accompany you to get a free drink at a bar here, unless you would prefer to drink alone at this time.”
Too much time to think here. Too much time to think about all the shit she fucked up that led to Waverly getting taken. She didn't want to think, and drinking was as good a way as any to put her on that track. With the palms of her hands, she smeared the snot and tears from her face before Doc got any bright ideas. "Free drink. Yeah. Let's get hammered."
Doc nodded. “Come on, then, Ms. Earp. I will buy your drinks after your free drink and make sure that you return to your room at the end of the evening.” A pause. “Do you recall your assigned room?”
"Six-oh-seven? There better be a damn elevator or I'm gonna go sleep out on the streets. No way am I climbing 6 floors." Wynonna was good at keeping it together when she didn't want people to see her break, and this Doc didn't even know that they'd had a kid together. Or that Wynonna had sent her off until she could break the curse. That she'd named her after his mom, and her mom. He had no idea that he'd lost his immortality and regained it by letting a damn vampire turn him. And not just any vampire. "So… elevator?"
“Six-oh-seven. A curious number.” As far as Doc was concerned this probably meant he needed to go back to sleeping in the woods again, but he didn’t say as much. “Well, then we are lucky that there are elevators. I should be able to get you back to your room.” He was quiet for a moment. “I will be sure that you get there safely.” And then he was going to try to decide whether or not to mention he also lived there or pack all his things and camp out in the woods. “But that is not where the alcohol is, so follow me.”
That being said, he started toward the door. He would just curb his drinking until later after he’d figured out what he was doing. He led her through the waypoints until they got to Nyx’s bar. Galahd was nothing fancy, but it was no cowboy bar either. Walking in, he made his way to the bar and ordered a beer, letting Wynonna order whatever she wanted. First one was free anyway.