Extraordinary // Wayhaught

Officer Haught

Waverly wrapped the chains around the thick trunk of the ancient tree before cuffing herself to them. She was hoping to have some support, she did put flyers all over town, but nobody showed. It would just be her defending this tree that was older than Purgatory itself. They couldn't just cut down a part of history, and especially not a tree! She wouldn't let it happen.

This was her last resort; her petition only got 32 signatures and most of those were signed for the pure purpose to get the youngest Earp to stop bugging them. She sighed as a truck pulled up stacked with equipment and a few muscly men. She still had time, they couldn't start until the rest of the workers arrived; this tree was much too large for just three people to take it down.

Waverly watched them spark into anger when they spotted her. One of them began to yell at her.

"Go home, little girl! There are plenty more trees for you to hug in this town!"

She stood her ground in silence and glared at them. They waited until another two trucks pulled up, there was now a dozen or so of them and none were happy to see her. One of them, who seemed to be in charge, pulled out his phone and made a call. He smirked at the brunette as he hung up and then turned to face the others.

"Someone's on the way to sort that out."

A few minutes passed and they heard sirens as a police cruiser approached the site.

"Shit," Waverly mumbled. She hated to piss off Sheriff Nedley.

The car pulled up to the edge of the road and flicked off the lights and siren. But it wasn't old Sheriff Nedley who stepped out. It was a young female officer, tall with fiery red hair that was pulled bad into a French braid knotted at her neck. She glanced at Waverly and smiled, but walked over to the enraged group of men.

Waverly couldn't hear a thing they were saying but the officer seemed to be talking it out. Several minutes passed and all the men got back in their cars and drove off, looking just as pissed off if not more.

The tall cop walked over to the tree where Waverly was chained.

"Hi, Waverly Earp, right?" She had kind eyes and spoke with the smoothest voice. Waverly nodded. "Where are your keys for the cuffs? I'll unchain you but I'm gonna have to take you downtown."

"Downtown?! I'm just standing by a tree!" She pointed to her back pocket to indicate where the keys were. "If you're arresting me why uncuff me?"

The cop slipped her hand into the back pocket of Waverly's jeans and quickly back out once she'd grabbed hold of the keys. "Because these," she held up one of her wrists, "aren't regulation. Where did you get these anyway?"

"My sister, I'm just borrowing them, she has umm other uses for them."

The redhead laughed as she finished removing the handcuffs and started on the chains around the tree. "Besides, you're not a criminal, Earp." She leaned past Waverly to pull the chains away. The shiny badge on her chest caught the girl's attention.

"Haught? Your name is Haught?! And you look like that?!"

She put her lips as close as possible to Waverly's ear without touching. "That's Officer Haught to you." And with that she dragged the chains over and dumped them in the boot of the car. "C'mon, time to go."

"What about the tree?"

"I've told them that we've gotta reschedule. We're gonna look further into the history of it and re-evaluate the situation."

"Really? Thank you!... Do I have to sit in the back, Wynonna would never let me hear the end of it?"

"No, you can sit up front with me. I've heard plenty about you and there's nothing bad to be said. You're like the town's angel," officer Haught said and opened the driver side door.

They both got in and she started the engine and pulled out. "So, is there a personal reason you love that tree so much?"

Waverly looked down at her hands. "My mum used to take me there when I was little. We'd have picnics and she'd tell me this story about the tree. It's silly, really, but she left when I was like 5 so I don't have many other happy memories with her."

"That's sweet. I hope we don't have to let them chop it down. I'll do what I can for you."

"Thanks, officer Haught."

"Nicole," she said, "my name's Nicole."

"Nicole. That's a pretty name."

The last few minutes of the drive were silent but the tension was thick in the air. Nicole pulled the car around to the back carpark and came to a halt. "Here we are."

The two young women exited the car and the cop lead the way into the building of offices. They came to a stop by a desk, Waverly noticed a framed photo of a fuzzy ginger cat beside the computer monitor.

"That's Calamity Jane," Nicole had noticed she was staring. "Take a seat, we just have to do some paperwork."

"She's cute," Waverly stated as she sat across from Nicole.

"You too," Nicole's voice was so quiet that if it wasn't for her smirk Waverly would've thought she was imagining it. She cleared her throat, "okay so we need your details and then I'll organise with the tree choppers a meeting time and you can pitch your info about the tree and we'll convince them to leave it alone."

She pushed a piece of paper toward her to fill out. Waverly took a pencil from the cup and began to write. "I love your handwriting." She blushed. She pushed the paper back when she was done.

"Is that all?" Waverly asked, ready to leave.

"One more thing, here's my card if you need to contact me for any professional matters," Nicole said. She paused and flipped it over, scrawling something on the back, "or my mobile for personal matters." Their hands brushed as Waverly took the card.

"Okay, thanks, I'll see you around."

"Yeah, I hope so," Nicole winked as Waverly turned to leave the station.

When Waverly got outside she flipped the business card to read the handwriting on the back. It read:

Call me, cutie xx -Nicole

With her mobile printed neatly below.