Chapter Text
The hospital was buzzing, but not with your average doctors, nurses, or patients; the shabby and neglected building resided poor and unafraid young adults as property guardians, keeping the building safe in exchange for cheaper rent. Everyone lived in close quarters, sharing the occasional bed or cigarette. Despite the situation, the group of ‘adults’ didn’t know each other too well. Sure, they knew everyone’s eating habits, strange addictions, and bathroom schedule, but there was an unspoken agreement about not invading one’s intellectual and emotional space (even though everyone invaded physical spaces quite often). They called their building ‘Purgatory’ as a joke, but something was unsettling and freaky about living in an old abandoned hospital.
Not every day was sunny and friendly and rainbows, sadly. Fights occurred frequently, usually ending up with someone losing their voice from a screaming match or someone storming out. But even so, much like a family, it didn’t take long for everyone to forget about the argument and hang out again, ready to fight about something else just as unimportant.
Any time that Nicole Haught had company over, she reiterated over and over again that she wasn’t in a commune (her parents jumped from cult to cult and she didn’t want anyone to think that she lived like that). Her best friend, Wynonna Earp, would probably interrupt and say that they were definitely in a commune and that they ended every night with an orgy. While Nicole lived in Purgatory, she lost a lot of her friends. Not that she minded, really. Most of her friends didn’t understand her ‘lifestyle’ choices. They didn’t care about her being lesbian, they judged her reasoning for becoming a Private Investigator since most of her friends were cops that she used to work with. She was on track for becoming the youngest detective at her precinct but then quit. And no one knew why.
“It’s not for the money,” the redhead argued as she rubbed her temples, staring at her best friend with frustration as she knitted a pride hat for winter.
Wynonna understood that. She just liked messing with the woman. And, since Nicole never actually told her why she quit, she wanted to see if pushing her would give up the truth. Nicole Haught was stubborn, though. And kept things to herself, even if she trusted the brunette wholeheartedly.
“I know that, Haught-sauce. I know you do it for all the pictures of people having affairs. Into voyeurism, Jessica Jones?” Wynonna asked her, wiggling her eyebrows up and down suggestively.
Nicole glared at her and argued, “If anyone is a perv between you and me, it’s you, Earp. I still don’t know how you don’t have any diseases.”
“I’m horny but smart, Haught-tomato. And at least I get some.”
“Not everyone needs sex all the time. As I have told you numerous times, usually when you offer sex, I need more than that. An actual relationship.”
Wynonna smirked and commented, “I almost forgot, the last time you had a romantic rendezvous with a stranger, you ended up marrying her.”
The redhead leaned forward from her uncomfortable chair to punch her shoulder and said with a pout, “I regret telling you that.”
“You were drunk. Who can blame you? Besides, you told me as a personal anecdote to convince me why you didn’t want to fuck me for fun. Trust me, it worked. Marrying you, Haught. Sounds like a nightmare.”
From the doorway to the ‘living area’, someone else said, “You two already sound like an old married couple.”
The friends turned to see Xavier Dolls just standing there, brooding as he leaned on the doorframe, acting all mysterious. He was the kind of guy who’d come back at odd hours of the night but could wake up earlier than everyone without complaint. Many theorized he was a spy but no one could understand why a spy would stay in Purgatory.
“Ha,” Wynonna deadpanned and then sighed, “Are you just going to continue standing there like a weirdo or will you sit down with us?”
He chuckled and shook his head, but slowly moved his way to the two women. When he first moved in, he barely spoke to them. Now, he sometimes had conversations with them. Reluctantly. He didn’t want to reveal any personal information by accident, even though he had to admit that their company was not awful.
“I have a job for you, Earp,” He announced as he sat down next to her on the musty, foul-smelling couch across from the lawn chair Nicole was sitting in.
Wynonna raised an eyebrow, listening intently. Legally, on record, she was a bounty hunter, paid to find criminals who usually skipped out during bail. Not on the record, she was known for completing odd jobs, somehow being talented in just knowing the right people. Nicole used her all the time and now Dolls learned how useful she was.
“Can you find someone who can hack into a University network?”
Nicole immediately put her fingers in her ears and said, “I’m going to pretend like I didn’t just hear that.”
Ignoring her best friend, Wynonna answered, “You mean other than our resident genius, Jeremy Chetri? Though, he probably wouldn’t do it. Too afraid of breaking the law. Of course, I can, Dolls. Should I ask for a meeting?”
He nodded and asked, “You don’t even want to know why?”
“You wouldn’t fucking tell me if I asked, so no. You’re a dick for the sake of being a dick. I have you figured out.”
She was lying, but their banter felt light and easy. Even Nicole joined in, goofing around with the two of them. The three of them worked from home a lot of the time (sans the time they were all investigating different things) and learned how to be around each other most of the day. When they first met, none of them got along. Now, Wynonna’s feet were on Xavier’s lap as they both listened to Nicole ranting about a client who thought she hadn’t done as well of a job as he wanted.
“He’s a dumb fuck, Haughtstuff,” Wynonna told her with a shrug. “You’re doing him a favor. Not the other way around.”
“Who’s a dumb f…” Jeremy began as he entered the room and stopped talking abruptly, not wanting to say that word. He blushed and sat down on the ground next to Nicole, looking at the ground with embarrassment.
“My client,” Nicole answered with a sigh. “He’s not paying me even though I did my damn job. How was your day, Jeremy?”
The youngest boy groaned and laid down, looking defeated. Even though he was a vet, he was drowning in college debt. Besides, after spending time in Purgatory, where he had friends who seemed to genuinely appreciate him, he didn’t feel the need to move out of the gross hospital.
“Not good. A lady yelled at me because her cat got sicker, even though I wasn’t the vet that helped her originally. I almost started crying.”
“Don’t let the assholes get you down, Chetri, or take advantage of you,” Wynonna told him wisely and then changed the subject. “ Are you cooking dinner tonight?”
The vet sat up and kindly asked her what she wanted to eat. As tired as he was after a day’s work, he was Purgatory’s cook, and he enjoyed being appreciated by his friends. None of them could afford to dine out every night, anyway. It was the one thing that brought the whole group together, without fail. Even Bobo Del Rey, sometimes, when he wasn’t locked in his room.
The odd man was older than the rest of them, but they didn’t know how much older. None of them knew Bobo’s real age, not that he would ever tell any of them. Most of the time, the man with the multi-colored beard and hair remained locked up in his room, blasting jazz and painting strange things. He once told Jeremy that he could move objects with his mind. The younger boy flinched away when the conversation ended with Bobo biting at the air.
“Is Robin coming over to fix the toilet?” Dolls asked the younger boy as the four of them got up to head toward the cramped kitchen.
Jeremy immediately blushed and stuttered, “Wh-Why would I know if Robin was coming over?”
Robin Jett was the building’s handyman, but he spent a lot of time in Purgatory to just hang out. Everyone knew he stuck around for Jeremy, the closeted gay that everyone knew was gay, though the poor boy would never admit it.
“He’s not coming over to see us,” Wynonna muttered under her breath and shared an exasperated look with the redhead. The two of them tried to push the boys together, but neither of them made any moves, much to their chagrin.
Trying to shake away any thoughts of the boy in his head, Jeremy started making spaghetti as he listened to the three other adults argue about true crime cases that they were all heavily invested in. Though the three never joined in with helping and took up most of the room in the cramped kitchen, Jeremy liked their company nonetheless.
“Dearie me, something smells delicious in here,” Doc Holliday called out as he entered the kitchen, looking at the group of people with mischief in his eyes. Despite his late hours and job bartending, he was always home for dinner. He never grew up with home-cooked meals at home when he was younger, so he took advantage of what his friends had to offer.
“Doc, thank god you’re here,” Jeremy told him with relief. “Can you set the table? These idiots are too lazy to.”
The man who looked to be cosplaying cowboy characters tipped his hat at the nerd and grabbed plates and silverware for the cheap card table that they had in a room next to the makeshift kitchen. He was just happy to be in a different room than Wynonna. The two of them had an on and off friends with benefits type relationship, and he accidentally told the brunette that he wanted more from her during their last sexual encounter. After she told him that wasn’t what she wanted and left him alone in his room, naked and sad, he had avoided her as much as possible. Doc seemed to have the worst luck with the ladies (and the occasional male, too).
Jeremy put the spaghetti into a huge bowl and brought it to the table so that they could all get the amount they wanted. He learned early on that serving people from the stove wasn’t such a good idea. A lot of the group skipped other meals, so they tended to be violent and monstrous as they grabbed food.
The second they all sat down to eat, they heard the door open, and they expected Robin to walk into the room like any other day. Jeremy even had a plate there for him on the table if he was going to come and join. He sat up straighter, hoping that the man would eat with them.
“Wynonna?”
The voice made the brunette jump up in surprise. She hadn’t heard that voice in years. Her friends looked around at each other in confusion. They didn’t recognize the voice and couldn’t understand why the girl was so startled by such an innocent sound.
The person who matched the voice entered the dining room and gaped at her older sister, who looked like she was about to faint. The two of them hadn’t seen each other in years, despite them being close when they were kids.
“Wh-What are you doing here?” Wynonna questioned breathlessly, still stunned and unsure if she was imagining her baby sister standing there.
“You send me a birthday gift every year,” Waverly Earp said with a flustered laugh. “It has the return address on it. I wasn’t expecting this… though.” She looked around at the old hospital wondering why anyone would choose to live in such a way.
Wynonna didn’t like that answer. “Fine, but why are you here? Now?”
“Because I… I miss my sister. I haven’t seen you in… I don’t know how long. I missed you at my graduation.”
The older sister frowned, feeling guilty that she hadn’t shown up to her sister’s college graduation when she hinted that she would. Fear got the best of her, though. In the end, as it always would.
“Gus and Curtis wouldn’t have wanted me there,” Wynonna mentioned as an excuse, ignoring her friends’ quizzical and confused faces. “I’m sorry, baby girl. I should have called. We should have met up at some point. But why here ? Why right now?”
“I’m moving here. To Boston. I thought… I dunno. That you might want some company…” She looked around at all the people that were staring at her. “But it seems like you have plenty of company. Darn it. I should have called and warned you I was coming. I thought… surprising you would be a good idea.”
Wynonna didn’t disagree with her. “Well, you did surprise me. That mission was accomplished. Super accomplished. Listen uh… sit down. You can stay with me tonight and tomorrow we can start looking for places for you to stay, alright?”
“We’re not allowed overnight guests--”
“What Lucado doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” Wynonna interrupted Jeremy with a sigh. Lucado owned the building and made sure they followed idiotic rules that didn’t help anybody. “Sit, Waves. Eat.”
Waverly nodded, a little bummed, and sat down next to her sister. She was expecting to be welcomed with a hug and cheering and maybe even champagne involved. Perhaps, she thought she was expecting too much, but she was still hurt that her sister didn’t seem more excited to see her. She could remember a time where her older sister didn’t want to ever leave her behind.
“Everyone, this is my sister, Waverly,” Wynonna introduced to her friends. “Waverly, these are my housemates. We’re guardians to this place. We call it Purgatory. It’s not ideal, but it’s cheap. That’s Xavier Dolls, he’s as elusive as a cryptid. Sitting next to him is Doc Holliday, cowboy and bartender. Rule stickler over there is Jeremy Chetri, chef and resident nerd. And next to me, here, is Nicole Haught. She’s super lesbian and really needs some sex. Not that you have to worry about that, baby girl.”
Waverly waved at all the adults awkwardly and finished as she looked at the redhead and blushed. Truthfully, Waverly needed company in that department, too. She was happy that she broke up with her college boyfriend, Champ Hardy, but she did miss the sex.
Nicole tried hard not to look too closely at the younger brunette. As much as she hated to admit that Wynonna was right, it had been a long time since she was in a relationship. And Waverly was undeniably beautiful. But she was also Wynonna’s sister and the last thing she wanted to do was make things more complicated.
“You’re a lot older than I expected,” Dolls commented as he started to dig into the food again. “When Earp talked about you, I always thought you were much younger.”
“That’s because when Wynonna left, I was twelve,” Waverly told him honestly, not trying to sound accusatory. “It’s been what, ten years? Since we actually saw each other.”
She was technically being honest before. She was here to spend time with Wynonna. But she was also here for answers. One day Wynonna was there when she was younger and the next day she was gone, without explanation. Her aunt and uncle refused to talk about it, even as the years progressed and Wynonna remained far away from them.
Wynonna gulped and nodded, taking a sip of whiskey that Doc brought home that he illegally stole. They wouldn’t tell Nicole that, though. She wouldn’t drink it if she knew the truth. All Wynonna knew was that she needed a lot more alcohol to get through the night.