Chapter Text
Nedley held up a second empty glass, silently asking if Waverly wanted a drink. She shook her head and watched the News Chief at Black Badge News pour himself a glass and took an appreciative sip. “We’re going try Perry out at 10 o’clock. Starting in a week to give everyone time to adjust.”
“With the right E.P., he’ll be great. But I was hoping that you would move him to 8.” Waverly replied as she took a seat.
“And replace Stephanie?” Nedley asked with a raised eyebrow.
“We’ve talked about replacing Stephanie.” Waverly hesitated. “And, besides, she drinks. It’s just a matter of time before it becomes public knowledge. Even Wynonna thinks she’s a drunk which is really saying something.”
“I drink before the show.”
“You aren’t on live TV. Or even TV for that matter.”
Waverly’s intuition told her Nedley was hiding something. He wasn’t one for small talk.
“Any more blowback from your tirade in the Post? About when alternative facts become a reality, the media isn’t doing its job.”
She grumbled. “Well, I’m an outcast of the news community. But that’s not anything new so I’ll live. Fox has terminated its agreement with the show and CNN is threatening the same.”
“There is a fine line between genius and insanity.” Nedley said with a shrug. “You just told them how to do their jobs and reminded them they were doing a poor one at the moment. Of course, they’re going to be a pissed off. Fake news or not – generally journalists don’t print that America isn’t the greatest country in the world. Tends to go down like a lead balloon.”
Waverly didn’t respond. They’d had this conversation before – when he’d sent her away on a ‘holiday’ to avoid the worst of the fallout.
“I hired a new anchor for you.”
And there is was.
Waverly spluttered, “You hired—what—this is why I didn’t want to go on holidays! You hired an anchor without me meeting him?”
“Her.”
“Her?” Waverly parroted, as she struggled to comprehend.
“And no, you’ve met her.”
A worrying thought formed in her mind as the look of Nedley’s face was far too innocent. She knew that they kept in touch. Knew that Nedley had a soft spot for her a mile wide. Waverly brought her hands to the coffee table and stood up sharply.
“Who?” her voice raised an octave, not bothered that Nedley was her boss and could technically fire her. “Who have you hired to front my show?”
“I have to save your sinking ship. Stephanie’s on her way to obscurity. You needed change. You needed someone who would challenge you.”
“That’s not your decision.” Waverly snapped.
“You said yourself that you wanted to replace her. Your show is too big an asset to mess around with and Lucado is making me aware of the plummeting ratings. Stephanie doesn’t connect with the audience.”
“Chief…”
“Stephanie isn’t the right fit.”
“And she is?” Waverly spat.
“She was in Iraq for six months, in Homs before that. She won a Peabody and is a ratings juggernaut. She’s been doing live crosses from the frontline. She’s been shot at and abducted. And what was the most recent? Oh, that’s right an IED attack.”
“I’m aware of all that. But you don’t have my approval.” She gave him a withering look. “And I do have authorisation over the anchor selection for my show.”
“You would think so, wouldn’t you?” His coolness alarmed Waverly. “Clearly your agent dropped the ball.” Nedley threw back his drink and stood to make another. He knew Waverly would fight tooth and nail against his decision.
She reared back now, physically separating herself from his decision. “I’m going to check my contract. I’ll renegotiate.”
“Waverly, this isn’t going to go your way. It’s a done deal. I had to right the ship.” And when she failed to respond, Nedley called again, “Earp. When was the last time you saw her?”
She turned and looked back briefly before continuing out. “Fuck you. And fuck her too.”
---
Xavier Dolls entered the bullpen and looked into the conference room that was currently occupied. Staffers were attentively watching a woman wildly scrawling on a whiteboard what appeared to be her attempt at a rundown. He dropped his backpack on the floor and took a seat.
When the meeting ended and staffers filed out, he rose to greet the woman he’d watched earlier.
“Xavier Dolls. Dolls is fine.”
He offered his hand, but since the woman’s were currently occupied by a powdered donut, he dropped it back to his side.
“Wynonna Earp.” She looked him up and down. “Sorry, I don’t recognise you. Did we have a meeting because I don’t really do them? Waverly handles the meetings.”
“Nicole brought me in as A.P.”
“Nicole? Who’s that?”
“Nicole Haught. The new anchor.”
Wynonna stared at him in shocked silence.
“For News Night” Dolls added.
“For News Night? But Stephanie… and Waves didn’t mention anything about…”
“Possibly because Ms Jones doesn’t know yet?” Dolls said, not wanting to get involved with office politics. Clearly Nicole had been lying when she had said everything was sorted. “You should probably keep this under wraps until it’s officially announced. And you have powdered sugar on your nose.”
“If the Chief hired Haught, we’d all know about it by now. Waves is going to flip her lid.” Wynonna said, more to herself than Dolls as she wiped her face clean.
Dolls looked slightly concerned by the statement. “Then, you’d better straighten this out if you don’t want to be caught in the crossfire when Haught gets here. And she will be here.”
“Fuck. I had better go.” Wynonna broke into a jog towards Waverly’s office. Finding it empty, she swore loudly and dug out her phone, frantically shot a text to Waverly to prevent her being blindsided.
Dolls watched with growing concern until, hearing an approach behind him, turned and saw Nicole exiting the elevator.
“Good. You’re here.” She dropped her own bag as she looked around, as if looking for something. Or someone. “Been waiting long?”
“Haught, there’s something I need to know.”
“Yeah?”
“Does Waverly Earp know that you’re her new anchor?”
“Well,” Nicole begun to answer sheepishly.
“You didn’t tell me you had a problem with Waverly Earp.”
“I don’t have a problem with Waverly.”
“Haught.”
“But she might have a problem with me.”
“You failed to mention that.”
“Because that’s personal.”
“Tell me what the problem between you and Earp is.” Dolls voice hardened.
“I can’t.”
“I’m going to be in the unemployment line shortly. I turned down CNN for this.”
“Dolls, we’re going to do the best news show on TV. Stop being so dramatic.”
“Do I have a job here?”
“Yes of course you do.”
“Are you sure?”
“Well…no.”
“You’re going to get fired.”
“No we’re not.” Nicole answered with little confidence.
Behind Nicole, Waverly’s entrance onto the floor stopped Dolls’ response. Instantly recognising who she was, Dolls backed away, whatever was going on felt like an unexploded bomb.
Nicole, sensed the presence behind her, turned around.
“Hey, Waves. It’s good to see you.” She flashed her most charming smile.
Waverly’s face hardened as her nickname fell easily from Nicole’s lips. Nicole looked much the same, but she was different, too. The time in the sun had turned her fiery red hair to a more golden colour and a smattering of freckles were just visible across her nose. The scar across her forehead, the souvenir of her close encounter with an IED drew Waverly’s eyes.
Nicole pressed on, undeterred by the awkward silence, or choosing to ignore it. “You look great. Read your article in the Post a few weeks back.” She shrugged and then her smile got a bit braver, a little bolder, a little more Haught. “The same old Waverly. Reclaiming journalism as an honourable profession. Declaring that America is not the greatest country on Earth. That we can be better.”
“My office.” It was given as a command not as a suggestion.
Waverly strode purposefully in that direction, and, after a short pause, Nicole followed. All eyes in the bullpen watched as the two disappeared into Waverly’s office.
“What’s the deal with them anyway?” Dolls asked as a man with an impressive moustache joined him.
“No Google in Afghanistan?”
“To busy dodging the bombs to care about my boss’s personal life.” Dolls deadpanned back.
“Probably should have done some research before latching onto Haught. She won’t last the week here.”
Dolls paled slightly. He’d moved here on the promise of a stable job. “What?”
“Nicole Haught is no gentlewoman and let’s leave it at that.”
Dolls wanted to question further but glanced down at the computer screen in front of him and saw that a yellow news alert had appeared. “You’ve got a news alert.”
Wynonna reappeared, looking concerned at the closed door on Waverly’s office. “It’s yellow.”
“It’s an explosion.” Dolls added.
“In the ocean so it’s not a big deal. It’s probably just an oil rig.”
Dolls just stared at her.
“Fine. Jeremy, get on the assignments desk and see if it leads to anything.”
Identifying who Jeremy was, Dolls headed in that direction. If he was only going to be here for a week, he may as well do something. Maybe if he proved his worth, he’d survive Haught’s execution.
---
“I tried to get in touch when you were on holidays. To tell you myself.” Nicole said as Waverly’s office door swung shut behind her.
Waverly sat down behind her desk, craving some semblance of control.
“Actually, I tried to get to get in contact a lot over the last two years. Did you get my emails?”
“Yes.” Waverly shifted in her seat, not quite avoiding looking at Nicole but not quite managing to maintain any eye contact either.
“What did you think?”
“I didn’t read them.”
“I understand. There’s no need to apologise.” Nicole bit her bottom lip to physically prevent herself for saying anything else moronic.
“Thanks.” Sarcasm heavy in Waverly’s voice.
The silence stretched between them.
“You look good after your vacation. Rested. How is St Lucia, I’ve never been. Is it great?”
“Yes.” Waverly continued to answer in the shortest way possible.
“Did you go down there with anyone?” Nicole realised the conversation had now got way off-track by bringing up Waverly’s dating life. “It's not my business. You can go anywhere with anyone.” She hastily added.
“Thanks again.” Waverly said, as she leaned back in her chair.
“Look this can work. It’s going to work great. It’s a three year contract. We can make the show what you’ve always dreamed of. The one we talked about.”
“It’s not a three year contract anymore.”
“I’m sorry?” And for the first time, Nicole was flustered.
“It’s not a three year contract. It's a 156-week contract with an amendment that gives me the opportunity to fire you at the end of each week. We’ll wait the obligatory time and then make your firing permanent. Hopefully by the end of this week.”
“How the hell did you get my contract changed?”
“I gave back a portion of my salary.”
“How much?”
“A million dollars a year.” Waverly saw that the figure had angered Nicole by the red shade that had developed on her neck.
“You gave back a million dollars so you would be able to fire me?” Nicole said with disbelief.
“Well three million to be precise. And not at any time, just at the end of the week.” Waverly said in a casual voice that belied her nerves as she glared at Nicole.
“For god’s sake, how much do you hate me?”
Before Waverly could answer, her office door swung open and her sister entered with the unknown man who’d been talking to Nicole trailing behind.
Wynonna eyes shot between the two women, sizing up the situation. Wynonna was quite willing to boot Nicole out of the office if Waverly gave the signal.
“Yes?” Waverly was glad for the interruption.
“An oil rig just exploded in the Gulf,” Wynonna started.
“Persian?” Nicole asked.
She shook her head, not sure if she is supposed to acknowledge Haught’s presence. “Gulf of Mexico. Coast Guard’s searching for 10 possibly 13 missing. I’ll fill you in at the rundown,” Wynonna declared, reading the look of her sister’s face that she no longer wants to be in her office with Nicole Haught.
“There’s more,” Dolls said, more to Nicole than Waverly.
“She don’t need to hear this right now.” Wynonna cuttingly said, meaning that Nicole didn’t need to hear it because she didn’t work for News Night.
“I’d like to hear it,” Nicole grinned. “You were saying Dolls?”
“Shit,” Wynonna said and Waverly thought.
“The story isn’t the fire,” Dolls continued. “They haven’t capped the well. It’s going to be an environmental disaster.”
Waverly sat straight in her chair. “Who is saying this?” she asked, warily, suspicious of this unknown person.
“Your guy, Jeremy.”
The four people in the room fell in silence, all sizing each other up.
“Jeremy!” Wynonna barked through the open door. “Tell us what you were telling him,” indicating Dolls with a nod.
Jeremy trotted into the room, looking like he wanted to be anywhere else.
“This well, Deep Water Horizon, turns out it has been accurately named. They’re drilling at 18,000 feet below sea level. The pressure at that depth is enormous. When the pin is yanked out, it’s hard to put back in.”
“Ok, but shouldn’t there be a pin that works?” Waverly leaned forward as she started to think Jeremy was onto something.
“After an explosion, the well should fail-safe via the underwater blowout preventer.”
“The what?” Wynonna asked what everyone else was thinking.
“It’s essentially a gigantic plug that caps the well and stops the release of oil. But with the size of the flames that are still present, that hasn’t happened. Oil is still being released.”
Dolls took over, flipping through his notes. “I have a source. They called me. The source tells me that if the blowout preventer didn’t close it’s probably mechanically failed and more than likely it cannot be fixed. A relief well is the next course of action but that will take months to fix. The owners are holding these meetings now. They don’t know what to do.”
“While the well continues to spill oil at the rate of 4.2 million gallons a day,” Jeremy finished.
“At that rate, it’ll have spilled as much oil as the Exxon Valdez. In four days.” Dolls gave a triumphant look to Wynonna. “It may be the biggest environmental disaster in history. And it’s definitely the biggest news story for the day.”
“Wow wee,” Nicole whistled under her breath.
Waverly dipped her head to look at her desk, and then looked at Dolls and then to Nicole. Today was not going as she had planned.
Her office had filled up with a number of people hovering in the doorway. Waiting for Waverly’s decision. Were they going to throw out the rundown?
“No wow wee. Who’s your source?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Hey, I don’t know you.” Waverly snapped. “I’m not going to air based on information from an unknown source from a guy I don’t trust.”
“Look, you don’t have to trust me. She trusts me. You just have to trust her.” Dolls said as he pointed at Nicole.
Waverly gave a mirthless chuckle. “Try another strategy.”
Nicole added “She can’t trust you unless you trust her.”
Another stalemate developed in the office. It was two sides of a battle that not everyone understood.
“All right, all unnecessary people out of my office and close the door.”
Once the office was less occupied, Waverly turned back to look at Dolls with an expectant look. Nicole gave a nod at Dolls to share.
“My source is my old college roommate.”
“Oh come on,” Wynonna muttered under her breath but was quietened by a sharp look from her sister.
“Does he have an axe to grind?”
“No, he knows I work in the media and was just passing on information. Everything he’s told me will eventually become common knowledge anyway. He’s just giving me, well us, the scoop.”
Quickly mulled over in her mind, Waverly knew that the man was onto something. Maybe she could keep Dolls when she fired Nicole?
Coolly, Waverly turned to Wynonna. “Where’s Stephanie?”
“Probably plastered.”
“At this time?”
Wynonna nodded, “I can pull her in if you want, but at this time of the morning, you can’t put her in front of the camera. No matter how much coffee you pour down her throat.”
“Lonnie?”
“Isn’t answering.”
“Perry?”
“His kid’s ballet recital.”
She made a face. “Do you think Doc is up to it?”
“Economic news only. Not sure if he is up to breaking news. And the Chief won’t go for it with her here.”
“Is there anyone else?” Waverly pleaded.
Wynonna shook her head. “It’s Haughtface, an empty desk or we pass it off to Washington.”
It took two more seconds for her concede defeat. “Call Wardrobe. See what they can find for someone abnormally tall with red hair.”
“I’ve got an outfit with me,” Nicole cut in helpfully.
Waverly grimaced slightly. Today was spinning out of control.
“Wynonna, can we be ready by the half hour?”
“I’m on it. I’ll steal Tim. We are shorthanded at the moment.”
“Dolls can help,” Nicole offered.
“Go, pull everything together. I’ll write up her notes and get them to you in five,” Waverly waved a hand to release everyone but Nicole. “This isn’t a commitment, Nicole. I want you to understand that. You’re gone by the end of the week.”
“Whatever you want Waverly.” She gave a slight sigh, she’d waited two years for Waverly to give her a glimmer of hope. A way back. But her being here wasn’t changing anything.
---
The broadcast was going about as well as it could considering the situation.
Nicole noted that some guy named Jerry handled most of the communication in her ear. Waverly only stepped in infrequently. On the floor, Wynonna strategically placed herself in Nicole’s sight and just glared.
During one of the commercial breaks, Nicole saw an opening, “Waverly, I just want to get a couple of things straight.”
“You’re on TV in 90 seconds, now is not the time.” Nicole couldn’t see Waverly’s face in the Control Room, but she recognised the tone. Nicole was on thin ice, but having nothing to lose, she pushed on.
“Now is an excellent time.”
“People can hear you.”
“Then take me off,” Nicole waited a couple more seconds before pushing on. “You’re the E.P. From 8 till 9, five days a week. You own me. And I know that’s for my own good. I didn’t come back for Jerry to be my E.P.”
Nicole was met with silence.
“Waverly.” Nicole said, as she stared into the camera.
Waverly remained silent.
“Say, ‘I understand’ Waverly. This isn’t going to work any other way.”
“This isn’t going to work. But I understand.” Waverly relented.
For the rest of the broadcast, Nicole only heard Waverly’s voice in her ear.
And that felt like coming home.
---
Nicole caught her at the elevator landing as she was leaving for the night. Waverly wondered if Nicole had been waiting for her to leave her office.
Seeing the redhead approach, Waverly pushed again, more urgently, at the call button, knowing full well it didn’t make a difference.
“Great show tonight. Leading with spill was the right call.”
Waverly stayed silent.
“Can I talk to you?”
“In a week, you’ll be gone. And the show is over for tonight.”
“The show’s when you talk to me, not the other way around.” She offered the patented winning Haught smile, the one that always made her melt on the inside. And Nicole knew it.
The elevator door slid open and Waverly stepped in gratefully, immediately pushing the button for ground level.
Nicole leaned against the door, preventing Waverly from escaping.
“Yes?” Waverly asked, bitterness leaking into her tone.
“Do you remember when I first met you? At the National Network Awards – the stupid one where all the networks pretend to like each other? You were being recognised for your stories on the influence of lobbying in Washington. I was—“
“You were there with your latest floozy.”
Nicole looked at her curiously, not sure what Waverly was getting at. “You were the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. It took me all night to work up the courage to talk to you and give you my card.”
“If only you hadn’t.”
Nicole ignored the comment and pushed on, “I ran that card so many times through my fingers that when I gave it to you, it was all creased and bent. I wondered if you could see my nerves as I was practically jumping out of my skin. And when I finally got to talk to you—you were perfect. I left my date…”
“A habit you should seek help for.”
Nicole ignored the remark. “And we had drinks in that bar, what was it called again?”
Shorty’s Waverly’s mind screamed but she stayed silent.
“Shorty’s” Nicole said with a click to her fingers. “We talked for hours. And after that night, I just couldn’t get you out of my mind.”
“Do you use that line with all the girls? That we were all unforgettable. So many girls to catch up with now that you are back. I’m surprised you haven’t collapsed with exhaustion.” Waverly scoffed as she lashed out in an attempt to force Nicole to leave.
“Waverly.” A hint of something flashed across Nicole’s face, but it was just as quickly hidden.
“Let me go,” she said impassively, gesturing at the hand holding open the elevator door.
Nicole’s hand tightened on the door like a question unasked. Just hanging there, waiting.
But Waverly refused go there – she had locked it all away years ago when Nicole disappeared from her life.
Nicole didn’t seem mad or frustrated at the brick wall Waverly had formed around herself. Waverly would have been pleased for any emotion other than Nicole’s normal sunny disposition that had irritated her all day.
Nicole just gave a small smile and removed her hand.