The first three chapters will cover Episode 1x01 - I've drawn out this episode longer than I will the others just to establish the characters, dynamics, and basic premise etc. After that, I will focus mainly on the Lyatt interactions for the rest of the episodes, though I welcome any feedback :) hope you enjoy!

It had been just an ordinary evening. Professor Lucy Preston had come back home from work at Stanford University, left a Snickers bar at the bedside of her terminally ill mother, attempted to cook dinner while debating her future teaching career with her sister Amy…and then the man had arrived at the door.

She had not been in the best of moods to start with – what with the head of department denying her tenure project earlier that evening, not to mention the fact that her mother had been lying practically unconscious in her bed for the past week – so when the doorbell rang, it came as an unpleasant surprise to see a suited man waiting for her on the doorstep with a stern expression on his face.

'Lucy Preston? I'm Agent Kondo with Homeland Security.'

Lucy sighed irritably, and she began to shut the door. 'Look, whatever you're selling, I'm not buying-'

'Really. Agent Kondo, Homeland Security,' the man repeated calmly, and it took a moment for Lucy to process the official identification badge he was holding up for her approval. 'Miss Preston, you need to come with me.'

The way he said 'need' was urgent, and the look on his face stunned Lucy. For once, she was lost for words. Surreal as it was, she could tell from his badge and his manner that this was not a prank. He was being serious.

'What'd she do?' Amy asked him, panicked, as she opened the door wider to get a look at Agent Kondo for herself.

But Agent Kondo ignored her. 'We need your help,' he said, almost desperately, to Lucy, and he stepped back to gesture a posh black car waiting for them, parked on the side of the road. 'Now, please.'

He gave Lucy a few minutes to gather her things. Amy protested the whole time while she followed her around the house but Lucy would have none of it.

'Some creepy-ass guy comes here to kidnap you and you're just gonna go without knowing what the hell is going on or where he's taking you?' Amy demanded as Lucy grabbed a stash of money from her purse in her bedroom.

'He's not kidnapping me, he's a federal government official,' Lucy said, rolling her eyes.

'He could be a fake.'

'He's not, I can tell.'

'Why are you going ahead with this?' Amy protested, clearly infuriated, as she followed her sister back downstairs. 'Just say no!'

'It's Homeland Security! I can't say no,' Lucy insisted, grabbing her coat from the hook in the hallway. 'Whatever this is, it…it must be important.'

'Why would Homeland Security need a history professor from Stanford?' Amy asked sceptically. 'They're not exactly gonna want a lecture on the suffrage movement, are they?'

Lucy had no answer for this. She didn't know why she was going to go with this man, but she felt like she had no choice.

As she stepped out of the house to follow an agitated Agent Konda over to his waiting car, Lucy paused for a second and turned back to Amy. She knew she would always remember the look of terror on Amy's face as she watched helplessly from the doorway. Poor Amy.

Once they got inside the car, Agent Kondo told Lucy to ask no further questions, only to wait until she received further instructions once they had reached their unknown location. So, as hard as it was for her, Lucy remained silent while the car drove off from her mother's house. They arrived at their destination within fifteen minutes; an immense building stood tall over them as Lucy got out of the car nervously. There were flashing red and blue lights and police sirens everywhere. Guards and soldiers with guns were marching the grounds. Clearly they had arrived at some very important facility…and something terrible had happened here.

Agent Kondo escorted her into the building, though he walked so fast that Lucy barely had time to peer through the interior windows or get a proper look at where she was. Down a corridor they went, then up some stairs, then round a left corner, then up another corridor, then another set of stairs, until finally Agent Kondo came to a halt next to a plain grey door. He opened it and gestured her to follow.

The room was empty aside from one man when Lucy was led inside.

'Wait here, please,' Agent Kondo said, gesturing his hand to the four black armchairs in the centre of the room, and he turned to leave.

Lucy looked around, still bewildered. 'Okay…you know what, I just need to call-' But she broke off when the agent shut the door in her face, a little shaken by his rudeness. 'Cool.'

Looking down and fidgeting anxiously with her necklace, she turned away from the door to face the man already sat at the other end of the waiting room, his legs stretched out and resting on the glass coffee table, as if he had already made himself at home in this mysterious place. Dark-haired and around his early-to-mid thirties, his eyes were closed, almost as if in deep meditation, and his arms were folded. Clearly, he wasn't the social kind who would appreciate someone like Lucy to bother him with her endless list of questions. Trying to match his deep, quiet breathing, Lucy slowly (and rather awkwardly) walked over to the nearest armchair and sat down. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest. Had she done something wrong? Where was she? What was this all about?

Lucy glanced shiftily at the unsocial, albeit rather handsome, man, opening her mouth to speak then chickening out and deciding against it. Eventually her anxiety to find out what was going on got the better of her.

'Are you asleep?' she whispered to him.

'No, ma'am,' the man replied at once in a deep, quiet voice, his eyes still closed.

'Oh. Okay, good,' Lucy said faintly, leaning back.

Somewhat relieved, she took a first proper look at the room. The interior of the walls were patterned in some sort of grey, striped modern design, and lit up in the centre of the front wall was a large black sign with a familiar logo that read: 'MASON INDUSTRIES'. Lucy raised her eyebrows in surprise.

'This is Connor Mason's company?' Lucy realised, perplexed, and when there was no response, she turned back curiously to the man. 'Do you know why we're here?'

'No idea, ma'am,' the man replied wearily, still refusing to open his eyes. He sounded tired, and annoyed that this persistent woman seemed unable to keep quiet.

Lucy considered him for a moment, stunned by how everyone she had come across since being taken from her home was acting so abruptly towards her, and nodded slowly as she leant back on her armchair, slightly disheartened by this stranger's attitude.

She swallowed. 'You know, we're pretty much the same age, so…you can just stop calling me "ma'am",' she said coolly, unimpressed.

There was a short pause, and then the man slowly opened his eyes. They were blue, piercingly blue, even in this dull lighting. He looked at her for a second, taking in her arched eyebrows, her rosy pink lips, her brown eyes lined with long lashes, her shoulder-length wavy black hair. She was wearing casual, nondescript clothes, just as he was. This woman sat before him was certainly not what he had expected to see. She was attractive, there was no doubt about it, but it was her stony, defiant expression that made Wyatt Logan's lips curve up at one end to form a sly smirk.

His smile making her somewhat nervous, Lucy looked him up and down – it had been a while since she had encountered a good-looking man – but before either of them had time to say anything further, they were distracted by the sound of the door opening, and Lucy jerked her head round at once.

'Lucy Preston?' the woman entering said; she was Latina, middle-aged, and wearing a smart blazer and skirt over a blouse, with a long black bob. 'Agent Denise Christopher, Homeland Security.'

Taken aback by the rushed introduction, Lucy took the woman's hand and shook it nervously. Another agent from Homeland Security? What was happening?

'Oh-' Lucy began, raising unsurely from her chair, but Agent Christopher cut over her.

'You've got a hell of a reputation,' Agent Christopher said, impressed, and her insistent nodding and warm smile stunned Lucy into a rare silence. 'History, Anthropology…you're world-class.'

'I'm…just a teacher, my mother is world-class,' Lucy corrected her humbly.

'I've read all of her books. I'm sorry to hear she's sick,' Agent Christopher said softly, and she turned promptly over to the man before Lucy even had a chance to frown or question how, let alone why, Homeland Security knew about her mother's illness. 'And Master Sergeant Wyatt Logan. Delta Force?'

'Yes, ma'am.'

Lucy had sat back down but rose up again in surprise at Agent Christopher's words as she watched the agent and soldier shake hands. This man, in a senior commanding position in the Delta Force? His appearance and less-than-friendly attitude had seemed unremarkable to her, but judging from the almost awestruck look on Agent Christopher's face, this Wyatt Logan was clearly more of an important figure than looks would suggest. It made Lucy all the more anxious as to why she was needed by the government and this company, when she had never done anything remotely special in her life.

'Boy. Speaking of reputations,' Agent Christopher said in admiration, letting go of his hand and failing to see the slight frown that appeared on Wyatt's face at her comment, and she then turned to address them both. 'Well we are on the clock, so follow me, but…hold onto your asses.'

And with that she briskly strode out of the waiting room. Wyatt followed her without hesitation, and without even glancing at Lucy. Lucy stayed stood there for a moment, completely baffled.

'Uh…uh, okay, okay-' she muttered, before gathering her handbag and hurrying off after the pair.

As the three of them headed off down the corridor, Lucy caught up anxiously with Agent Christopher.

'Sorry, I'm still a little bit confused about why I'm here-'

'All will become clear,' Agent Christopher interrupted her brusquely as she led the two of them on down another corridor on the right. 'I will give you the details of the assignment once we have everyone assembled in our headquarters.'

Lucy fell back a few paces. Assignment? What on earth had she gotten herself into? She almost felt like turning around and running to the nearest exit when Wyatt slowed down his walking and inclined his head towards her.

'So, you're a history teacher?' he asked.

Lucy was surprised that he had listened, or that he was even interested. 'Yeah, I'm…I'm at professor at Stanford University,' she replied, continuing to walk alongside him.

'That's conveniently close to here,' Wyatt noted, sounding almost suspicious.

'I guess so. And what about you, Sergeant Logan? Since when did Delta Force have contacts with Mason Industries?' Lucy asked, frowning. 'I don't see the connection.'

Wyatt raised his eyebrows. 'I know no more than you do.'

'I'm afraid we have very little time for pleasantries. Let's get straight to it,' Agent Christopher said firmly, and she pushed open a set of double doors to reveal a large high-ceilinged room that made Lucy's mouth pop open. 'Welcome to the main science laboratory. This particular area is known as the 'control room'.

The lab looked almost like a basement of a factory or testing centre or maybe even an airport hangar, and there were many tiers of desks, equipment, computers and various other machines overlooking a large empty space in the middle. Police and soldiers guarded each level of the working stations, and staff were either sat working agitatedly at the computers or hurrying around in a panic, looking deeply traumatised. Tapes reading 'CAUTION' and 'EMERGENCY' and 'DO NOT ENTER' had been put up everywhere.

Wyatt frowned at the scared looks on everyone's faces and voiced aloud was Lucy was thinking. 'What the hell happened here?'

Agent Christopher chose not to answer, and instead led him and Lucy up another set of steps into what looked like an office with walls of glass at the top of the room that seemed to overlook this whole operation.

'Please come in,' she said, beckoning them inside. 'We're using this room as our headquarters for the time being while we try and sort this mess out.'

'What mess?' Lucy asked warily, drifting over to the glass walls to watch the chaos ensuing in the open offices below them.

With a click of a remote-control button, a TV screen hung on the wall to the office lit up to life. It displayed what looked like a file of a man, with his details and photograph underneath the heading 'FUGITIVE OPERATIVE' written in bold red.

'Garcia Flynn, ex-NSA asset in Eastern Europe,' Agent Christopher announced, staring grimly at the person's file on the screen.

'Ex since when?' Wyatt asked, perched on one of the armchairs.

'Since he killed his wife and child and went off the grid. That was a year ago,' Agent Christopher replied, and Lucy turned around and stared from Agent Christopher to the screen in horror, unable to believe it. 'We thought he was holed up in Chechnya, but apparently not.'

Agent Christopher then clicked another button on the screen and what looked like a CCTV clip started playing. The video was fuzzy and black-and-white, but the man holding the gun and staring ominously at the CCTV camera was definitely the same man from the file Agent Christopher had just shown them. He was stood in the doorway of some sort of weird circular machine, big enough to hold Lucy's bedroom in. With one last look at the camera, Garcia Flynn entered the machine, and what looked like a capsule door slid shut.

'Why's he taking the Star Tours ride?' Wyatt muttered.

But then there came a whirring noise of an engine through the screen speakers as elements of the machine's outer design began to glow and reverberate. After a great deal of rumbling, there was a sonic popping sort of sound, the rays from the light bulbs expanded, and then there was nothing, for the machine had completely disappeared. The clip now only showed an empty room – the empty space in the science lab just outside, in fact – as if that circular vessel-like machine had never been there at all. Wyatt's smile had faded instantly as he stared at the screen in disbelief.

'Wh-hat the hell was that?' Lucy asked sharply, her widened eyes fixated on the screen.

'Some sort of special effect?' Wyatt said to Agent Christopher hopefully.

As if on cue, a smartly-dressed black man then entered the office. 'Ever heard of a closed time-like curve?' the man asked in a British accent, joining the three of them.

Wyatt raised from his seat and stared at the man, awestruck. 'You're Connor Mason,' he said, and he smiled in amazement. 'My buddy has one of your cars.'

'I- excuse me, a closed time-like what?' Lucy asked Mason, completely perplexed.

'Right,' Connor Mason said patiently, and he grabbed a sheet of spare paper from one of the shelves by the wall. 'Say, this, is the fabric of space-time. Now, if you get a powerful enough gravitational field, you could actually bend it back on itself, creating a kind of loop that would allow you to cross over to an earlier point.'

He had demonstrated his very brief explanation by gesturing with the sheet of paper, but Lucy and Wyatt seemed lost at what he was basically trying to tell them.

'An-an earlier point…in time, you mean?' Lucy asked sceptically, struggling to believe that this wasn't a dream.

Agent Christopher sighed. 'What he means is, Mr Mason invented a time machine,' she said bluntly, and Wyatt began to grin, 'and chose not to tell the government about it until it was stolen by terrorists.'

'Right, 'cause the federal government never screws up anything and can always keep a secret,' Mason muttered sarcastically.

Agent Christopher raised her eyebrows at him. 'You're asking for our help now.'

'Uh wait, hold on,' Wyatt said, eyeing them both cynically. 'This is a joke, right? I mean, some-some psych test the government came up with?'

He turned to Lucy for support and she spoke up at once, feeling extremely panicked now. 'I mean this-this can't be possible, right?' she said desperately.

'Well, that's what they said about the moon shot,' Mason pointed out, 'until someone with enough imagination…made it very possible.'

Within the next ten minutes, Lucy and Wyatt had been given clearance to enter the main science lab, and they watched, half in disbelief, half in awe, as a vessel similar to the one Garcia Flynn had stolen was lowered into the hangar. Lucy found herself smiling, dazed, as Mason explained to them that this was the prototype time machine – or time ship – that they called 'The Lifeboat'. It looked rusty, like an old design of some kind of unusual NASA rocket, but nevertheless there was something futuristic about it, something different and new and incredible and terrifying. Its CPU was apparently linked to inform the operations staff back in the lab exactly when the other time machine, 'The Mothership', had been taken to. Lucy stared at the screen on the nearest computer: 3.30pm, 6 May, 1937. She knew that date. That was the day of the Hindenburg disaster, precisely four hours before it had crashed.

'You're actually telling me this guy went back in time, for real, to the Hindenburg?' Lucy was saying in horror, as they all tried to process the information.

'Lucy, if Flynn kills people in '37 who aren't supposed to die, they don't have the kids they're supposed to have, do the things they're supposed to do. History changes,' Mason said ominously. 'Reality changes.'

'So why would you be stupid enough to invent something so dangerous?' Lucy asked him, furious, and Wyatt's lips twitched, impressed.

Mason looked down awkwardly. 'I didn't count on this happening.'

'Why would Flynn do it?' Lucy demanded.

'We don't know,' Agent Christopher replied helplessly. 'But there's room in there for three passengers.'

'Wait, to-to do what?' Lucy asked, bewildered, then the terror sank in when she read the look on everyone's faces. 'Go after him?'

Agent Christopher tilted her head at her, frowning. 'Why else would we bring you here?'

It took Lucy a good twenty minutes to be persuaded to go ahead with the proposed mission. At first, she told them all to forget it and stormed out in fury and disbelief, trying not to admit that the main reason she wanted to leave was because she was scared out of her mind. It was only when Agent Christopher came after her and convinced her that someone who loved history as much as Lucy did would want to save it, that Lucy reluctantly turned away from the car and followed Agent Christopher back inside.

Connor Mason gave Lucy a quick briefing and some official documents for her to sign, and then had a member of his staff, Jiya, escort her to a room where Lucy could change into clothes more appropriate for the time she and Wyatt would apparently be travelling to. On her way to the dressing room, Lucy passed Wyatt, all smart in a crisp 1930s suit and carrying a matching hat. He was smiling, apparently more intrigued than fearful to see whether this really was going to turn out to be a hoax or not.

'Hey. You changed your mind,' Wyatt greeted Lucy, his tone teasing.

Lucy stopped him from walking ahead. 'Just so we're clear, I'm not qualified in any way for dealing with terrorists. I am a historian,' she said to him firmly, her hands shaking slightly. 'I'm only here to give you the knowledge of the time and place, and what happened with the Hindenburg. My job is to keep us inconspicuous and undercover but you're the soldier, you are the one in charge of dealing with this Flynn guy. I want nothing to do with him.'

Wyatt nodded after her little speech. 'Understood, ma'am.'

There was a short pause, in which Lucy glared irritably at him.

'My name is Lucy,' she reminded him slowly, her nostrils flaring. 'Or if you can't handle that, then Miss Preston will do.'

Wyatt smirked then moved on to let her get changed. He was secretly rather relieved this clever history nerd had decided to come along on this expedition with him after all; despite all appearances, Wyatt was slightly apprehensive about what was going to happen once they got into that Lifeboat. When it was time to leave, he returned to the main lab room in time to see Lucy emerge uneasily down the stairs in her new attire; a white blouse and long red skirt. She was rattling on about how her clothing wasn't appropriate.

'This is all wrong. This skirt is from the '40s. And this blouse? They didn't have this kind of fabric back then,' Lucy was saying worriedly. 'Or underwire bras.'

Wyatt rolled his eyes. 'Who is gonna see your bra?' he pointed out as he strolled past casually, and Lucy frowned at him.

'Best we could do on short notice,' Agent Christopher said apologetically as she handed Lucy various items. 'Take this please.'

'I have to call my sister,' Lucy protested urgently.

'You can do it when you get back,' Agent Christopher promised.

Lucy frowned. 'What?'

But Agent Christopher ignored her. 'Here's the address for the tavern.'

'And some money,' Agent Kondo added.

'Huh?' Lucy was startled, overwhelmed with all the things she was being given, but Agent Christopher was already urging her to move – they needed to find Flynn, and fast.

'Let's go.'

Control systems were being verified, computers were beeping, alarms were going off to tell staff to keep out of the way. Lucy took a deep breath; this was really happening. She looked back anxiously at Agent Christopher and Connor Mason as she walked beside Wyatt towards the Lifeboat, waiting for them intimidatingly.

'Don't be noticed. Don't change anything,' Agent Christopher was saying firmly, an almost warning tone to her voice. 'Understand?'

Wyatt looked over his shoulder to frown at her patronising tone, before proceeding to help Lucy up onto the Lifeboat. Getting up through the entrance was a little awkward, and Lucy nearly tumbled off multiple times until she finally accepted the offered help from Wyatt. When they finally managed to scramble through the open door – or rather, hole – into the Lifeboat, a Mason Industries member of staff was already inside waiting for them, sat in the front seat beside all the controls and two computer screens.

Around a similar age to Lucy and Wyatt, the man was black, with a sharp buzz haircut, a scraggly beard, and a roundish, innocent sort of face that looked tired yet also alert from the stress of the past few hours here at his workplace. He was already buckled into his seat with harnesses and whatnot, and was quickly going over all the controls and switches laid out before him, while checking some digits and plans on the screens as well. Lucy looked around the capsule in awe; the controls seemed to go all the way up to the ceiling, there were so many. She felt her heart begin to quicken; she had spent the whole past hour wondering what it would be like to travel back in time to the past and see 1937 for real with her own eyes, but she had never given much thought to the technicalities of actually how they would manage to get there safely, not to mention the undoubtedly life-threatening risks involved with a newly-invented time machine that she still wasn't sure she believed was actually real or indeed going to work at all.

Two seats were fastened to the floor just behind the staff members' pilot seat, and they were faced opposite each other. It was a bit of a squeeze for Lucy and Wyatt to fit in, and there was an uncomfortable moment as they became close enough for their faces to touch while manoeuvring themselves into their seats, their bodies bumping awkwardly into each other. Wyatt groaned as he indicated for her to sit down.

'Uh…it's okay…just start…' she mumbled incoherently, wanting to get this over with, as she sat down in her allocated seat.

Wyatt raised his eyebrows at her, checking that she was all right, then nodded as he sat down opposite her.

'Okay…' Lucy murmured nervously, sighing, and her eyes turned to the staff member so she could introduce herself. 'Lucy.'

The man inclined his head towards her. 'Rufus,' he greeted, pressing a few switches that came whirring to life, and Lucy cringed at the sound. 'I'm a pilot. Kind of.'

Lucy raised her eyebrows in alarm as she tried fastening the harness over her shoulders. '"Kind of"?' she repeated, while endless beeps filled the room.

'Wyatt,' Wyatt introduced himself to the pilot, buckling himself in, and when he was finished he watched, a slight smile on his face, as Lucy struggled with the many different harnesses and belts on her seat.

'Are all these seatbelts…really necessary?' Lucy asked Rufus, and Wyatt's eyebrow twitched in amusement.

'Oooh yeah,' Rufus replied darkly, as he stared up at one of his control screens. 'You'll see.'

Lucy looked up from her seatbelts, the terror evident in her eyes.

Wyatt smiled at her. 'You okay?'

'I'm…I'm claustrophobic,' Lucy admitted anxiously, and her voice broke. 'And apparently about to travel through time, so…' But she trailed off as Wyatt exhaled deeply, and she caught a whiff of his breath; she frowned. 'Have you been drinking?'

'Didn't know I was gonna be working tonight, ma'am,' Wyatt replied simply, an apologetic smirk on his face.

'Stop – calling me – "ma'am",' Lucy said through gritted teeth, furious, and deeply wishing those wouldn't be her last words.

And then suddenly the machinery within the Lifeboat began to whirr, and they could hear indistinct announcements both from inside and outside the reverberating ship. Lucy watched in despair as the capsule door slid shut, locking them in. Too late to turn back now.

'Might want to hold on,' Rufus the pilot advised, his hands pressing numerous switches as if he were playing a church organ.

Lucy felt butterflies in her stomach as the ship powered up, wishing she could block out the deafening sound of the metal clanking and blaring alarms. She couldn't seem to open her mouth to speak; neither, it seemed, did the other two. The nerves in all three of them were tangible in the air. The rumbling was making Lucy shake with fear, the capsule was whirring, the rumbling was getting louder, the whirring intensifying –

As they launched off into nothingness, the whole world seeming to shake and throw them around violently, Lucy's eyes fell inexplicably to Wyatt, who was watching her. He was scared out of his wits too, but he gave her a warm smile, and for some reason, this somewhat reassured Lucy. As infuriating as this man was…at least she wasn't diving into the middle of nowhere on her own.