Archive of Our Own ^beta

Coverartist:    reena_jenkins 

Warnings: oral not!fic, Conversations, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, pre-canon divergence, Alternate Season/Series 01, History Professor Doc Holliday, YA Author Wynonna Earp, College Student Waverly Earp, Doc has Tenure - that's how you know it's fiction, a brief discussion of Canadian draft policy in World War Two, Doc Holliday's Deep Devotion To Revenge And Also The Earps, Doc and Wynonna are Bad at Talking About Their Feelings, inspired by Tim Rozon's headshot, Podfic Collaboration, Multi-voice podfic 

Length: 01:23:40

Download Link: You can download this podfic as an mp3 right over here (thanks for hosting us, paraka)

---A SYNOPSIS, NOTFIC STYLE---

This is: an AU based on Tim Rozon's headshot

The AU begins when doc holliday gets out of the well early, approximately 1930s.

Wyatt is dead. Doc is driven by vengeance against the stone witch, but he gets sidetracked by possibly being drafted to serve in World War Two. By the time doc gets back, the stone witch has moved on, so he becomes a professor to use college library/academic resources to find her. Doc Holiday staring at microfiche for hours...wearing glasses.

Doc is good at history because he lived it. Also he wakes up with a grudge and is pissed off that Wyatt never looked for him, so doc deliberately de-sanitizes wyatt earp's legacy in his lectures. The Truth About Wyatt Earp: He Was Kind Of A Dick.

He's Waverly Earp's professor at online college in Alberta - specialty in old west/canadian folktales & mythologies. Also talks about how wyatt earp is cursed, because that makes the story more painful, but lectures like he doesn’t believe in it.

Waverly's college email is [email protected]

Doc thinks she's a descendant of one of wyatt's siblings, not wyatt himself.

But it still throws doc for a loop - "all my sins come back to haunt me"

Doc keeps his distance because doesn’t want to make another connection with the wrong earp. However, waverly is Good At School and wants to pursue doc's specialty (myths & legends of the old west) as a minor. Plus Waverly is researching wyatt earp's legacy/how many people did he kill, specifically in the ghost river triangle of canada? Doc ends up becoming her academic advisor, and Makes A Connection. It's painful because this is what he missed out on.

Fake name: Johns. My name is. Henry... Johns. I have a doctorate so you can call me Doc. (He goes by Hank in the show, we know he's bad at aliases)

Eventually the online class ends, waverly stops emailing, doc comes to Advise in person....and winds up in Purgatory. He thinks her research is really good, and wants to help her exceed as a student....but also, maybe her research will help him find the stone witch. (Does family history count as a primary source?) Doc's vengeance is a driving force.

Also, because waverly is phrasing her research as academic, and doc's lecture is that 'curses aren’t real', neither one of them can TELL THE OTHER WHO THEY REALLY ARE. Mistaken identity on multiple levels!

Waverly stops answering doc's emails for a while, after the class ends (wynonna's back in town, the first of the Seven have been put down, shit's happening). That's when doc realizes thsa he's made a connection after 50 years, and that the earps have sucked him back in. Tied up with doc's guilt at letting wyatt down, he needs to assist the next generation to make up for it.

Doc decides to 'take a sabbatical' and go to Purgatory. He & Waverly have their first in-person advisor-advisee meeting at the Wyatt Earp Ate Here booth in shorty's.

Doc & Wynonna have the same first meeting - she thinks he's a history groupie, he thinks she's hot, they flirt about the gun and make elevator eyes at each other.

Waverly is like, "You Can't Sleep With My PROFESSOR?!"

Possibly wynonna and doc had Foreign Affairs while she was in...Spain? Or Greece? And doc was on a ...research trip?

Side note: doc (professor johns) has a terrible photo on the university website, complete with mustache. If anyone says he looks like doc holliday, he answers, "that’s what i was going for". With changing facial hair, he looks like a Distinguished Professor Of History

It all comes to a head when doc runs into fish at shorty's. Fish blows his cover, and Doc tries to fumble but BADLY.

Wynonna is sleeping with the Sexy Professor, and Waverly is Appalled. And Dolls misses his past professional coworkers. They were so professional, and not sleeping with anybody.

Doc has Feelings about Wynonna and is sad because he used to bang wyatt

Pause: Black Badge eventually caught wind of the curse, reached out to Doc as a Historical Resource to verify (not knowing he's THE doc holliday). Doc shoots them down because Black Badge is Big Government, and he's basically an anarchist.

Doc uses Dolls for black badge resources to find the stone witch.... And black badge is like, we're using you too

Doc sets up camp in shorty's for academic advisor stuff, while waverly's on shift.

At some point doc 'finds out' about the supernatural because bobo kidnaps him (since he's *important* to the earps). Doc has to pretend he's NOT the fastest gunslinger in the west, or blow his cover. All the while, his revenant kidnapper is talking shit & praising Billy the kid. This IRKS Doc.

Waverly & Wynonna rescue him. When wynonna sends the revenant back to hell, doc has to pretend this is a Great Revelation.

Then he gets pulled in to Team Earp and assists with ending the curse

Doc keeps talking about how he's Not Really Involved, and eventually he's going to go back to campus.

Eventually, as he keeps saying this.... It coincides with a break in the search for the stone witch. Wynonna thinks shit got too hot & doc bailed.....actually, he goes after the stone witch & she Does Something to him

Waverly & wynonna don’t go after him because they think he ran off

And wynonna is distracted by the Seven

And when they finally reach out to campus, doc isn’t there

And doc's waiting at the bottom of the well where the stone witch imprisoned him (AGIAN), hoping that THIS TIME an earp will save him

It comes out that Dolls/Black Badge was spying on doc (that's how wynonna is eventually able to find him) and DOC has been lying about why he's getting close to them (to find the stone witch) and waverly's been dating nicole in secret (and that comes out) and ultimately wynonna's like "why am i the one who's been lying THE LEAST? I should not have the moral high ground"

So eventually team earp locates doc in the well (the stone witch is vindictive, and she knows it worked once before) - but this time, an earp is there to pull him out.

And then they bury her in the salt flats, because Vengeance

And then it comes out that....doc has been missing for several weeks with no food and no water. He looks Artfully Disheveled. How are you okay???

....that's how it comes out that he's the immortal doc holliday.

After the rescue, doc & co have to sort shit out. There were a lot of secrets that came to light and feelings got hurt. Now that his rage and vengeance are sated, is doc's connection to the earp sisters enough to make him stick around?

Narrator voice: he cared A Lot.

Waverly & doc having a family bond (because ward was a dick)

Wynonna makes a lot of Dirty Professor jokes to torment Waverly - they both have a good relationship with the other's partner, it's just that the sisters communicate best by giving each other shit. Waverly & doc will talk about history, wynonna & nicole will get drunk and shit-talk about the townsfolk

And then there's Dolls, who's just so confused by the high success rate of these completely bonkers people. And then they kill all the demons. It's good.

In this universe: willa & bobo are season 2 plot, for extra foreboding & drawn-out realizations that Something Is Wrong

Alternate season 2 title - BOBO'S REVENGE: RETURN OF THE BOBO

Similar plot to OG season 1, but with a disinformation campaign (because Willa doesn't know Doc is Doc Holliday; she thinks it's an in-joke that she missed context for)

What's more hurtful - if Willa walks across the line voluntarily? Or if she forces Wynonna to do it?

When the guns stop working for Wynonna, Willa starts taking missions....but they keep going WRONG. Willa will walk away, but the rescuee keeps winding up dead. Possibly Waverly is a target. Dolls' lizard eyes become a bigger plot point (and Doc's like, "I KNEW that big government was shady!")

At the end of Season One, they have to deal with emotions and interpersonal connections.

WHAT IF black badge finds the stone witch? You can learn a lot by studying the space around the questions Doc's asking...and even if he's 'just an academic', if he's so interested, Black Badge wants to know WHY. And of course, they go poking where they shouldn't, and let the stone with out. So now Team Earp has to kill her.... and they have to transfer Doc's life/immortality to something else, to keep him alive. Maybe Peacemaker?

Or maybe Wynonna (in a when-she-dies-he-dies, Doc-gets-her-injures kinda way - it's a lot of room for whump, but it means she'll have to fight safer).

But if he's connected PEACEMAKER, then Peacemaker working for Willa leads to all sorts of interesting painful stuff. Maybe his connection to life is malfunctioning. Something happens, where Doc has to help Wynonna so she can override Willa's hold on Peacemaker and reclaim her birthright. (While that drama happens, Waverly's got her shotgon and having a blast)

They do a night of zombie movies! Because on a technicality, Doc's a zombie! Doc is Disgruntled.

Nicole starts to figure out there's Something Weird about Doc Holliday that no-one's saying.

if they tie doc to peacemaker, and wynonna dies without breaking the curse....then he's stuck. forever.

he's still tied to the goddam earp line.

Wynonna-lite episode: B plot is Monster of the Week, but A plot is Doc Holliday in an academic flame war with someone trying to steal his funding. Someone has a Wrong Opinion, and Doc needs to let them know they are Wrong.

Later on, doc asks wynonna to be his date to an academic function/fundraising event. She spends the entire event making up more and more tall tales about the Earp Legacy, and enjoying the open bar. And since it's on campus, eventually they go back to his classroom and they fuck on his desk. It is exactly everything that would make Waverly cry.

Hot Professor Doc Holliday: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Handwave into the future - they manage to kill all the demons, the stone witch is dead, the curse is broken, what do we do now?

Wynonna's like, "I....guess I could go on a roadtrip with dolls to kill more monsters? I guess?"

Doc has always talked about the academic thing as a means to an end, a way to pass time....except everyone can see he's good at it, and actually invested. Doc's like, "In my experience, when one has a lot of life experince, one should write a book."

AND SO WYNONNA ENDS UP WRITING A YOUNG ADULT FANTASY SERIES BASED ON HER LIFE

ABOUT A GIRL AND HER FAMILY WHO KILL DEMONS

 - as opposed to her terrible, terrible, actual high school years
 - she gives herself a family that helps her to kill the bad guys and stands by her and supports her
 - she writes Willa a better ending
 - ALSO SHE WRITES IN THE LOVE TRIANGLE
 - and doc and dolls are both like, "....are you kidding me"
 - she has FANS. there are SHIP WARS
 - she writes in a THREESOME
 - doc gets a little bit annoyed, because she's basically doing what wyatt earp did
 - (but at least WYNONNA is calling it "fiction". she's not calling it a BIOGRAPHY)
 - doc has been around long enough to have witnessed the birth of the internet  in this 'verse
 - he FOLLOWS THE FANDOMS
 - he TELLS THE INTERNET HIS FEELINGS
 - wynonna thanks doc in the dedication: "To Professor Henry Johns, My Doc Holliday" 
 
 Waverly gets to go college, and live on a campus, because the curse isn't holding them to the triangle anymore, and she graduates, and she gets to walk across the stage while wynonna cheers.
 
Dolls goes on Wynonna's book tour with her, and they go from town to town shooting demons and monsters along the way. Her fans just think she's really dedicated to The Aesthetic - her fans will compare stories after meeting her, "at my book signing she said she fought a rougarou" "yeah? at mine it was a vampire"

her book tour ends up going through tombstone, arizona, because wynonna’s publisher is like, “THIS IS PERFECT”. and doc is there, so of course it's super traumatic and awkward and deeply emotional. there's probably a plaque where big nose kate's brothel was located. doc and wynonna have to have a conversation about his ex wife. "It's personal growth! And emotional development." "We're growing as a couple. Now what can I shoot."

As they're walking through Tombstone, Doc's whole ~everything fits right in.

Waverly does wynonna's first-pass editing. Wynonna scoffs ("Commas? They don't teach you about commas in juvie.") but she's thankful that Waves supports her.

Waverly also makes the call when wynonna starts to get Too Real in the books, and protects Wynonna emotionally

YA NOVEL BREAKDOWN
 - everyone is in high school (so, 17ish)
 - dolls is the son of some sort of military government agent guy, looking into what his shady parents are doing 
 - the book's tagline is "she thought she only had to worry about the SATs"
 - it gets SO MANY comparisons to Buffy
 - doc holliday is a descendant of An Important Lawman who's family has History with wynonna's character's family
 - book 4 of the series: after wynonna & doc have built a tentative friendship/relationship between her demonslaying & doc's being adjacent and nosy & dolls bringing the gadgets and the firepower, they have to figure out if HISTORY IS REPEATING ITSELF as the two families are split asunder
 - the books become very popular, it is very compelling shit
 - there is a solid and developed sisterly relationship
 - there's the estranged older sister who ran away from their fate (but wynonna gives willa a better ending this time around)
 - one of the books in the middle of the series is praised for handling the waverly/nicole relationship
 - it shows up on everyone's "List of Lesbians Who Don't Die At The End" reading lists
 - and then wynonna writes in the doc/dolls/wynonna threesome BECAUSE SHE CAN
 - her editior's like, "this is a YA novel..." and wynonna's like, "i'm not finishing the series unless it happens"
 - and dolls is like, "really? really, wynonna?" (but he's a little entertained)
 - and wynonna's like "bisexual erasure is not a joke, dolls. let doc have his representation. Let me piss off the moms of middle america"
 - meanwhile, doc is still writing for obscure historical journals and teaching canadian mythology ("Now with tentacle monsters!")
 - his students give his Rate My Professor page ALL the chili peppers
 - wynonna drops by his lecture hall and does the "love me" eyelids during class (except they say “fuck me”, because WYNONNA)
 - doc's coworkers give him shit - "You know, she's perpetuating the overinflated mythology of wyatt earp..." and doc's just like, "....somehow, I can live with it"
 
AND THEY ALL LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER, THE END