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Nicole tugged on her uniform shirt, straightening it despite leaving the top two buttons undone. It was her first proper day reassigned to this new, max-level clearance division, and she had every intention of making sure Director Nedley knew he made the right decision in promoting her.
He’d gained a lot of flak for the decision, she knew, whispers from fellow agents let her know just the kind of up-jumped, green rookie everyone thought she was. At the age of 24, she couldn’t really blame them, but one glance at her test scores and the higher-ups had allowed it.
She didn’t like the building so much - what kind of top-secret division operated from such an ostentatious highrise anyway? - but she really liked the apartment the job came with, and the pay-rise, and the chance to work with the freaking Avengers so really, Nicole would deal with the shiny surfaces.
At least, that’s what the rumours said this division specialised in. So far - on her brief tour of the building - she’d seen a lot of uptight people in shades and suits, not a single person in spandex, but she’s holding out hope.
Giving herself one last once over in the mirror, Nicole grabbed her sunglasses and service weapon and headed out, hurrying to catch the green light at the pedestrian crossing in front of her building. The apartment block was conveniently close to the office, and she had to wonder just how many of her new coworkers lived in the same block.
She had left early, half an hour early in fact, but she didn’t want to give them a reason to fire her before she even got a chance to sit at her desk. She was so focused on hurrying to the crossing that she didn’t even seen the shorter woman walking straight towards her, carrying a stack of books high in her arms.
They collided, books flying to the ground and the girl letting out a surprising oof as she stumbled backwards.
“ Shit I am so sorry,” Nicole scrambled to pick up the books for the girl, whose face was hidden by long, flowing light brown hair as she bent down to gather her books.
The girl looked up then, and Nicole forgot to breathe for a second because wow was this girl pretty.
She also lost the ability to speak for a moment, because she only awkwardly stared at her until the woman spoke, “It was kinda my fault, too many books…” She trailed off and flailed her hands vaguely, giving Nicole enough time to snap out of her trance and realise she still had the books piled in her arms.
She checked her watch briefly, deciding the woman can’t have been planning on walking far with that many books, and gathered all the confidence she used to have until approximately 2 minutes ago, “Hey, um…” She trailed off, realising she didn’t know this girl’s name.
“Waverly.” The woman supplied, looking amused for reasons Nicole couldn’t place.
The name tugged in the back of her mind, but she put it aside in favour of ploughing forward with the conversation, “Waverly,” the woman in question waited expectantly, shifted from one foot to another, “I feel like I should help you with these books, you know, as an apology.”
Waverly smiled up at her, “An apology, huh?”
Nicole grinned, pleased to see a blush spread across Waverly’s cheeks, “My mama always taught me to be polite. Now where am I taking these books?”
Waverly nodded across the road towards the very same building Nicole had been walking towards. She tried to hide her surprise with another smile, adjusting the books in her arms and nodding for Waverly to lead the way.
As they walked, Nicole took in the simple jeans and shirt the woman was wearing, not something people typically wore in this line of work. She assumed from the books that Waverly was in research, probably spoke a bunch of languages.
Nicole took the time to curse her poor French.
Waverly turned to her as they crossed the road, “So, where were you so eager to go?”
Nicole laughed, “Funny, actually, I was going to the same building you were. First day and all, wanted to be early.”
Waverly eyed the gun in its holster on her hip, “Mhmm, you know how to use that thing?” Nicole got the distinct feeling she was being teased, a feeling that grew stronger when she noticed the twinkle in Waverly’s eyes.
“I do okay,” An understatement, she did well , but she wasn’t in the habit of talking herself up to pretty girls.
That’s a lie, Nicole thought, she talked herself up to most pretty girls, but she found a lot of her bravado had tumbled to the sidewalk and never come back along with the books she knocked out of Waverly’s arms.
They arrived in the foyer of the building and Waverly made her way to the elevator, Nicole following behind and glancing at the clock, pleased to find she’d still be fifteen minutes early.
Waverly turned to her expectantly, holding her arms out for the rest of her books.
As Nicole handed them over, Waverly shot her a blinding smile that left Nicole feeling more than a little dazed, “Thank you, Agent…”
“Haught. Nicole Haught.”
Waverly bit her lip again in amusement, her eyes flitting up and down Nicole’s frame, “Of course, Agent Haught. And please,” she nodded towards the gun, “try not to shoot any of us any time soon.”
With that, she turned and the elevator doors closed, leaving Nicole frowning in confusion.
‘Us’?
It was a few days later and Nicole couldn’t help but notice that she hadn’t seen Waverly around the building at all recently. She’d visited the research floor a on more than one occasion, always on official business, obviously, and hadn’t seen a single glimpse of the woman.
It made sense, logically, she knew there had to be thousands of people working in the building, but the entire encounter had left her feeling so off-kilter that she couldn’t help feeling like it had all been some kind of pre-new job fever dream.
She was sat with Agent Nedley - Director’s daughter - when she elected to ask her about Waverly. It would just be a polite enquiry, of course, in case she needed help carrying more books or… whatever it was Waverly did apart from being frustratingly beautiful.
Anyway.
They had just finished a briefing on the security detail they would be doing later that day. She was assigned as backup for some of The Avengers as they moved to contain a dangerous criminal in the city.
She liked to think she was containing her excitement well.
“Chrissy?”
She looked up immediately, abandoning her paperwork on the table, “Nicole.”
She took a deep breath, “I was wondering, I mean, it’s just-” Nicole looked decidedly amused by her stuttering, “I met a woman the other day, helped her with some books, but I’ve not seen her since. I was wondering if you, uh, knew what she did around here.”
“Just wondering, huh?” Chrissy was smiling properly now.
“You know, if you’re gonna be a jerk-” Nicole huffed, not appreciating the teasing.
“I’m kidding , Nicole. Honestly, you tease me about my terrible taste in men all the time, let me tease you about a crush.”
Nicole rolled her pen between her fingers and relented, “Her name’s Waverly-”
“ What?” Chrissy’s exclamation was followed by a brief pause and then raucous laughter, far more than Nicole thought was warranted, honestly. She waited it out, narrowing her eyes at Chrissy across the table. “Oh wow, I’m sorry.”
“You’re not.”
“I’m not. And yes, Waverly works here.”
Chrissy looked like she was really enjoying herself with this, but Nicole pushed through, “In research, right?”
Chrissy frowned, “I mean-”
They were interrupted by Director Nedley reminding them that they had five minutes to gear up and get downstairs, and the subject was quickly dropped.
“But seriously,” Nicole hissed to Chrissy as they stood with the rest of the blockade in the street, waiting for the Avengers to arrive, “She works in research, right? All those books-”
Chrissy rolled her eyes, “No, Romeo, she doesn’t work in research.”
There was a boom and a flash of silver arrived in front of them. Nicole recognized her as Quicksilver, and she had the same smirk on her face as the one in the footage Nicole had seen.
“Hey, rookie, somethin’ real nasty this way comes so if you wanna get out your gun…” She finished with a wink, “I’m Wynonna, by the way, my sister said I should introduce myself.”
With that, she flashed off, back towards where Nicole could see glowing red light fade, and this was a lot to handle for a first week on the job.
Chrissy had snorted at the mention of the sister, and then started laughing harder when Nicole spotted Waverly sprinting towards her, books nowhere in sight.
Chrissy collected herself long enough to speak as she drew her weapon with a bewildered Nicole, “You wanted to know what Waverly Earp does here with her sister, Wynonna Earp?”
She nodded towards Waverly, who had come to a stop a few metres in front of Nicole, “She does that.”
Nicole looked forwards in time to see a gigantic… something, beast, raging down the street towards them, Captain America sprinting alongside it as Hawkeye plucked off arrow after arrow towards it. She also saw Waverly plant her feet and start waving her hands, bright red light swirling towards the creature.
Waverly glowed.
Nicole looked helplessly towards Chrissy, “She’s, uh, the Scarlett- wow, okay.”
Chrissy looked gleeful, “If we survive this, you need to tell me, in detail, how you flirted outrageously with a member of the Avengers on your first day.”
Nicole groaned.
She had almost run out of bullets.
One lizard-lion beast? Fine, she could deal with it, and they had. Cap had introduced himself shortly after they dispatched the first creature as Xavier Dolls, and Hawkeye had swung down from the rooftop long enough to introduce himself as Doc. Wynonna had zipped by to tease Waverly about not being in uniform and steal arrows from Doc - much to his frustration.
Dolls had the look of a man trying to corral a bunch of hyper children.
It was then that Wynonna decided to tell them that, yes, the beast had friends.
About twenty of them, in fact, along with seemingly hundreds of two-foot-long scorpion minions.
So.
Nicole had almost run out of bullets. Chrissy was busy bandaging another agent across the street, and Nicole had somehow found herself back to back with the freaking Scarlett Witch.
Despite fighting for about an hour at this point and being somewhat outnumbered by whatever hellbeasts these things were, Waverly was surprisingly chirpy.
Also surprisingly able to send the creatures flying up in the air and then smashing down onto the road.
Nicole decided she’d make time to find that hot later.
Wynonna flashed by, hair tangled, and tossed Nicole another clip just as she shot her last bullet, “Don’t worry, Rookie, Waverly’ll keep you safe. You carried her books, she’s fond .” Wynonna sang the last word and Waverly released a shriek of frustration, turning to glare and shoot a bolt of energy at her annoying and elusive sister as she once again sped off.
Nicole was surprised to find Waverly’s cheeks glowing with a blush underneath her hot-scary magic glow, and just had enough presence of mind to pull Waverly sideways as a scorpion shot a glob of acidic slime their way, shooting it twice and sending it twitching to the ground.
Waverly was up in an instant, handling the bigger creatures, pausing briefly to shoot her an impressed look, “So you do know how to use that thing.”
Nicole really loved her job.
“Ugh, fucking scorpions? What is this? Fucking Tomb Raider? Way less Angeline Jolie than I’d hoped, gonna be honest.” Wynonna slumped onto the shell of the car bonnet next to Waverly and Nicole.
Nicole snorted, “Agreed.”
Waverly rolled her eyes in between them, “Wyn, you’re straight.”
Wynonna had reclined on the bonnet, “Pfft, like that matters. If she asked…”
Waverly sighed and cast her gaze on the destruction that was the street they’d been fighting in. Acid burns along the sidewalk, broken windows, carcasses of otherworldly beasts, but not a single civilian casualty.
Nicole held out a bar of chocolate that she had stowed in her backpack, “You’re shaking.” She explained when Waverly looked at her in confusion.
A wide smile spread across Waverly’s face, “It’s, well, I did a bunch of research but I’m still not sure what it is. Chaos energy, is the term we settled on, but it doesn’t seem to fit quite right. Anyway, it takes a lot out of me, keeping it in control for that long.”
Nicole shrugged, “You were pretty amazing, either way.”
“Amazing enough that you’ll carry my pack back to the office for me? Or do you need to knock me over first?”
Nicole groaned and covered her eyes as Waverly giggled next to her, “Listen, how was I supposed to know you could levitate your books instead?”
Wynonna snorted, “Because her face is all over the news, like, all the time?”
Waverly stayed happily mute as she bit into the chocolate, eyeing Nicole as she leaned backwards to catch Wynonna’s eye, “Okay, Waverly looks really different when she’s all…”
She trailed off, searching for words that didn’t involve “scary” and “hot” when talking to Waverly’s sister.
“Scarlett Witchy?” Wynonna supplied.
“Sure.”
Waverly finished the chocolate and hopped off the car, looking at Nicole expectantly, “I have to go now, Dolls gets antsy if we don’t debrief like, right away.”
Nicole slid off the car and stood on aching legs, suddenly aware that she has several hopefully minor burns all over her body and cuts on basically every limb.
They looked at each other for a moment, smiling, just long enough for Wynonna to groan and trudge off, with a muttered “I’ll carry my own damn pack, then”.
Nicole cleared her throat, “I should, uh, probably get back. Nedley’ll skin me if I’m late for a debrief.”
Waverly looked briefly disappointed but smiled up at Nicole anyway, and Nicole was suddenly very aware of just how short Waverly seemed when she wasn’t glowing red and casting chaos magic.
“I’ve got to go as well, I’ll see you back at the building probably, Nedley wants to talk to us as well.” Waverly paused, then leaned up to press a kiss to Nicole’s cheek, “Don’t go bumping into anymore women on your way back, okay?”
Nicole nodded, stunned into silence as Waverly practically skipped away.
Chrissy limped over to her, slapping her painfully on the shoulder, “Just so you know, we’re going to talk about whatever that was, but later, when you can actually speak like a human and I’m wearing a shirt that isn’t half-burnt off by scorpion acid.”
Nicole heaved her pack over the shoulder that wasn’t aching as much and walked unsteadily towards the truck. She chanced a glance back to find Waverly already watching her, seemingly ignoring her sister laughing obnoxiously next to her and Dolls’ sly grin.
Waverly raised a hand in a brief wave, and Nicole smiled brightly at her before catching Chrissy’s exasperated stare and turning away, trudging across the street with a laughing Chrissy in tow.
The next few weeks involved fewer fights with lizard-lion creatures and an almost obscene amount of paperwork for Nicole. Though it did contain frequent run-ins with members of the Avengers.
More specifically, the Earp sisters.
Wynonna had taken great delight in rushing up and bumping into her, dropping her bag to the floor and asking Nicole if she was planning on carrying her stuff anytime soon. Nicole’s fondest memory in the past few days is when Wynonna had the misfortune of doing it when Waverly was around, and promptly found herself suspended in the air by her younger sister until she apologised.
She hadn’t stopped doing it, she was simply sure to check Waverly wasn’t in the immediate vicinity beforehand.
“Ugh, I know that smile.” Wynonna appeared in front of her desk, eating a donut that Nicole was almost entirely certain had been stolen from Director Nedley, “It’s the the one you get when you’re thinking about my sister. Gross, dude.”
Nicole glanced deliberately at the way she was stuffing the donut in her mouth, and Wynonna shrugged in concession, sitting on the desk and no doubt crinkling Nicole’s paperwork.
Wynonna sat there quietly for a few more moments until Nicole relented, “Sorry, did you want to talk to me?”
Wynonna somehow fit the rest of the donut in her mouth, holding a finger up to Nicole to ask her to wait while she chewed. Nicole gave up on her paperwork and sat back in her chair, having realised recently that while Wynonna may be super-human fast, she’s really slow most of the time.
Finally, Wynonna spoke, “Yeah, we’re headed to Canada, some super spooky demon guy needs sending back to wherever he came from.”
“Hell?”
“Nah, Texas, I think Nedley said. Anyway, they said we should bring a few agents and you were one of the chosen ones.”
Nicole was contemplating asking why they asked the veritable rookie when they had the pick of multiple decorated, battle hardened agents, but she wasn’t about to question them. Especially when it meant a few hours with Waverly Earp.
“That smile again, dude, please.” Nicole flicked her middle finger at Wynonna who simply grinned back, “Don’t forget your gun, Rookie, I gotta dash now, meet you upstairs in twenty.”
With that she sped off, leaving Nicole’s crumpled paperwork fluttering to the floor.
She grabbed her bag and service weapon from her locker before riding the elevator to the top floor. The last time she was there, it was for the debrief after the lizard-lion beast incident, and she’d been much too distracted by Waverly sitting opposite her to actually take in the room.
It was much like a high-tech penthouse suite, clearly designed for the dual-purpose of holding meetings and relaxation after missions. There was even a kitchen area in the corner, and Nicole was struck with the bizarre image of Doc using it.
“Agent Haught,” She turned to find Dolls walking towards her, already suited up, and while she was quite thoroughly gay, she could understand why so many of her friends had posters of him on their walls as teenagers, “Glad you agreed to come with us.”
Nicole liked Dolls, he was quiet, calm in most situations, and fiercely loyal to his friends. His stoic demeanor had somewhat intimidated her initially, but she quickly realised that he had a dry sense of humour, and most of his seriousness came from a deep desire to lead well.
“It’s my job to help you guys,” Nicole followed him back to the meeting room, “and, well, Wynonna didn’t give me much of a choice.”
He smiled fondly, “No, I imagine she didn’t.”
Director Nedley gave her a small, if proud smile as she entered the room, and she smiled back before looking to see who else was in attendance. Doc was lounging in the corner, an unlit cigar in his mouth, and Mattie was sat back in a chair, the ever present white glow of her magnetic generator shining through her shirt.
She didn’t know much about Mattie, only that she had a kickass, self-made battle-suit and that Doc took great joy in calling her a blacksmith, to which she always snarled. Mattie had been nothing but pleasant to Nicole however, and so she had no interest in touching that particular feud.
Nicole had just taken a seat when she heard the exasperated “Wynonna!” from outside the door. Wynonna shot in, cackling and moving to hide behind an unamused Dolls.
A furious Waverly Earp arrived at the door, energy crackling around her, and Nicole couldn’t help the smile that formed on her face.
She was just so cute when planning the murder of her sister.
Nicole elected to think through that statement later when she was less affected.
Dolls cleared his throat, “Waves? Do you mind filling us in?”
Waverly stepped forwards, “You know what? I would like to fill you in, do you know- Oh, hi Nicole.”
The transformation from fuming to cheery hurt Nicole’s head, but then, so did seeing Waverly smile at her under any circumstance.
Wynonna grumbled, realising her fun was over, and stepped out from behind Dolls to sit at the back of the room near Doc. Dolls looked between Waverly and Nicole bemusedly, but mercifully decided not to pry. Waverly moved to sit down next to Nicole, but not before shooting a small red bolt of energy directly at Wynonna.
From her howl of protest, it must have stung.
Waverly looked adorably pleased with herself as she settled back proudly in the chair, smiling at Nicole again before turning around to watch as Director Nedley fiddled with the screen remote in confusion.
Of all the women Nicole could have fallen for, she had to choose arguably the most powerful member of the Avengers.
She always did aim high.
The meeting wasn’t long, and from the sound of it, Wynonna had told her basically all they knew; evil guy, red eyes, tail, causing general pain and suffering to those in surrounding areas. Canada.
Nedley wrapped up the meeting and it was then that Nicole realised she’d get to ride in the jet, and had to work to contain her excitement. She had a sneaking feeling that she wasn’t successful when Wynonna snickered as she passed and even Dolls bit down on a small smile at her.
It was only when Waverly giggled under her breath at her that Nicole felt the need to explain herself, “Oh come on, it’s gonna be my first time-”
“And I’m sure Waverly will take real good care of you.” Wynonna butted in, staying long enough to receive a heated glare from her sister and a mortified look from Nicole before she shot off to catch up with Dolls.
She kept her blushing face down as she gathered her bag and shuffled out the room, ignoring Waverly’s muffled giggle as she almost tripped over her own feet.
This mission had become - in Nicole’s professional opinion - a complete clusterfuck.
She doesn’t use that word lightly; preferring to stay optimistic in the face of most perilous situations, but honestly? Strapped down to metal bed in an outdated operation room with questionable red stains on the walls doesn’t leave much room for optimism.
She’d be a little perkier due to Wynonna being in the same situation, the woman strapped to a bed just metres away, but Quicksilver doesn’t seem capable of much apart from complaining loudly and aggressively.
As Nicole said; a complete clusterfuck.
She took advantage of Wynonna falling silent briefly to whisper urgently, “Hey, you don’t think we should be, you know, trying to escape?”
Wynonna snorted, rolling her head sideways to fix Nicole with a grim smile, “My power is being really fucking fast. If I got out of these bounds I could escape easy. You though? Without weapons? Not so much.”
Nicole grimaced, knowing she was right but pushing on, “But if you escaped you could go get help, tell them where I am.”
“Believe me, they’re on their way. They made the mistake of kidnapping Waverly’s sister and girlfriend-” Nicole opened her mouth to protest the title but Wynonna shot her a look and she silenced, “I give it another thirty minutes max. until they get us out.”
Wynonna turned to stare at the ceiling some more, wincing as her head clanged painfully against the metal, “In the meantime I’d really appreciate it if they got us some fucking pillows!”
Unfortunately, it seemed they may not have thirty minutes before someone did some most likely painful things to them. As soon as Wynonna’s voice stopped echoing, the metal door to the operating room screeched open, and the demon they had been chasing for the past day stepped inside.
“Now now,” His voice grated like nails on a chalkboard and Nicole suppressed a shudder, “You’re going to want your voice for later. Helps with the screaming.”
Where Nicole just about prevented her nervous swallow, Wynonna rolled her eyes and somehow maneuvered her hand around to point her thumb at him, “ This guy, real charmer.”
Nicole struggled to muster a smile.
He wandered around the room, picking up various operating tools and toying with them, telling them what his plans for them were, which - Nicole noted when briefly in a calmer state - was something she didn’t think villains did outside of movies.
Regardless, the prospect of being sliced open while still conscious didn’t exactly lend itself to snark, and so she stayed silent. He appeared to be fascinated by superpowers, and Nicole couldn’t help but wonder what he would do when he realised she was entirely normal.
Nicole was bored.
Her first hostage situation had dragged on for longer than she thought, and considering Wynonna had broken through her restraining straps about ten minutes ago while the doctor - Jack, he introduced himself as - was monologuing, her fear had quickly melted away. In its wake it left a deep sense of boredom and a sore head where it was pressed to the unforgiving metal.
It was when he went to approach Wynonna, his nails glowing hot orange as they approached her skin, that the first of the explosions rang out. The force shook the room, pulling Jack away from the tables and towards the door.
That was his last mistake.
The door flew open and off its hinges, missing Nicole by a few inches at most before crashing into the wall opposite. Waverly stepped through, and Nicole couldn’t remember ever being scared of her before this moment.
Waverly glowed, energy swirling around her and charging the air in the room. She didn’t smile at her sister or at Nicole, instead Doc raced in behind her and went to free Wynonna and Nicole from the chairs.
Nicole sat up, rubbing her wrists and turning around just on time to see Waverly sending Jack flying back into the wall. He hit it with a dull thud and he slid to the floor, his neck at a sickening angle and his limbs sprawled around him.
Doc untied her ankles and she stood, stepping over to stand with Dolls where he had appeared at the doorway while the Earp sisters embraced.
“Nice to find you in one piece, Agent Haught,” He reattached his shield to his back, “Dr Jack isn’t known for his patient care.”
Nicole grimaced, “I’m aware. I was beginning to think you guys forgot about us.”
Doc scoffed and leaned against the perilously attached door-frame, “Waverly was about as angry as I’ve ever seen her. At one point I thought she was…”
He trailed off as his eyes landed on something over her shoulder. Moments later, Waverly crashed into Nicole, sending her stumbling sideways before Dolls reached out and steadied her.
Waverly clung tight and Doc and Dolls meandered over to Wynonna, leaving Nicole gripping onto Waverly in silence.
“You know, I’m always happy to see you, but today you really outdid yourself.” Nicole tried for a laugh but only managed a sigh.
Waverly separated from her ever so slightly and narrowed her eyes, “What were you thinking? Wandering off with Wynonna like that?”
“We wanted pancakes.”
“You wanted-” Waverly cut herself off with a sigh of frustration, “Just. Bring backup next time.”
Nicole was absently tracing her fingertips in circles on Waverly’s hips, “Like you?”
“Yeah, like me.”
“Did you just invite yourself to get pancakes with me and your sister?” She watched a blush rise on Waverly’s cheeks, “Because I don’t know if Wynonna wants anyone else intruding, we kind of bonded today.”
Waverly smacked her shoulder, “If you’re going to be difficult about it then I’ll just take that diner boy on a pancake date instead.”
“Oooh, a date?” Nicole pressed closer, “In that case I might just take you up on that, can’t have… Chump stealing you away.”
Wynonna, in true form, popped up next to Waverly to thoroughly ruin the moment, “You finally woman up then?” Waverly rolled her eyes and made to leave the room, Wynonna following close behind, “Seriously, it took you long enough. Even Dolls could tell the rookie wanted your magic touch-”
“Okay, gross, Wynonna.”
“Yeah it felt weird as I said it. Too far.”