It was supposed to be like any other mission. Get in, fly back to another bygone era, stop some pretty bad people from changing history and the world and life as they knew it, and get back home. It had gone that way. Exactly that way.

Or so they thought.

The machine heaved to a stop as the trio lurched forward in their seats. Rufus did as usual and glanced over his shoulder, offering a simple, "Everyone okay?" and, in return, receiving a grunt from Wyatt and a small affirmative from Lucy.

The trip back had been somewhat harrowing. Lucy wasn't thrilled about dealing with a worldwide epidemic, especially one like the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed millions across the globe. It was the first trip back that they'd taken supplies and medicine, just in case one of them contracted the deadly virus. Luckily, they hadn't needed any of it.

Rufus opened the door to the Lifeboat. He was already unbuckled and out of his seat before his two teammates. They both knew how much he missed and worried about Jiya while they were on missions, especially since she'd been in the hospital. He always ran straight to her when he jumped out of the machine.

Wyatt unbuckled and stood, moving to the door, but turning and offering his hand to Lucy as she maneuvered out of her seat. They stepped onto the platform, Wyatt's back to the room as he held Lucy's hand, helping her each step of the way, which is why he never saw them.

Lucy gasped when she took in the sight before them. Wyatt turned, ready to draw his gun, if needed. Agent Christopher and Mason were already on the platform, moving quickly towards Lucy and Wyatt. Every agent in the room had their gun drawn and pointed at Wyatt and Lucy. Rufus, who was already at Jiya's side, spoke up first.

"Hey! What's going on? What happened?!" He turned to Jiya. "Jiya, what is this? Did something happen while we were gone?"

Jiya was motionless, mouth agape, as she looked from Rufus to the other two team members. "Rufus, what did you do?"

He scrunched his face up. "What? What do you mean? What did we do?"

At that same moment, Agent Christopher and Mason confronted Wyatt and Lucy.

"Master Sergeant, I hope you have a good explanation for this."

Wyatt's face contorted as much as Rufus's. "Ma'am? With all due respect, what are you talking about?"

Agent Christopher sighed and motioned to Lucy. "This, Master Sergeant. I'm talking about this."

Lucy's eyebrows shot up. "What? What do you mean?" She turned to Wyatt, squeezing his hand and automatically pulling him closer. The panic beginning to rise. What had they done? What had they changed? "Wyatt?"

Agent Christopher turned to Lucy. "You. Who are you?"

Lucy's heart stopped. Wyatt pulled her closer, wrapping his arm around her. She could feel the room beginning to spin and was thankful Wyatt was holding her or else she'd probably hit the floor.

Wyatt looked from Lucy to Agent Christopher. "You don't know Lucy?"

"Should I?"

Wyatt scoffed. "Well, yeah, you hired her." But even that didn't help. Agent Christopher had no idea who Lucy was. The worst part was that no one else did either. Christopher signaled for the agents to lower their weapons.

Rufus made his way back down the platform to where the group stood. "Guys, what happened? What… what did we change?"

Wyatt was just as confused. He ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "Lucy. Lucy Preston. She's our historian. She's…I mean…She's…" He sighed and looked around the room. "No one here knows her besides me and Rufus?!"

But no one had answers. And Lucy couldn't breathe. Her world was collapsing around her. She looked at Agent Christopher and Mason, her words barely audible. "You don't know me? At all?"

Christopher shook her head as Mason replied, "Honey, I've never seen you before in my life."

Lucy pushed away from Wyatt. She knew this feeling all too well. She was back in the car, slowing sinking into oblivion. Hyperventilating. Terrified. Dying. No. Not dying. How can you die if you don't exist? She was moving slowly at first, backing away from everyone else on the platform, including Wyatt. He deliberately stepped closer to her. Always the protector. "So, what you're all saying is…I don't exist? I'm not…I don't…I mean." Her eyes closed as she huffed out a breath, intent on getting the right words out. "I've come back to a timeline where I don't exist?"

Wyatt stepped around the group and grabbed Lucy's arms, an attempt to ground and calm her. "Lucy, you exist. You're here. You. Are. Here." He cupped her cheek and forced her to look at him, his voice barely a whisper. "And I'm right here with you. I'm not going anywhere. Okay?" She gave a slight nod and leaned into him. He automatically wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer as he turned to the others. "So, what happened? What does this mean? We erased someone from Lucy's family? Her parents didn't meet? I mean…what?"

Mason stepped forward. "It means…we don't know. But we'll figure it out."

Agent Christopher agreed. "We'll sort this all out. But in the meantime, go get cleaned up and get some rest. We'll need you all alert and ready for, what I expect will be, a long debrief first thing in the morning."

The room began to stir as agents and techs returned to their work. Rufus took Lucy's hand as Jiya walked to stand beside him. "Lucy, I promise we'll figure this out."

Jiya reached out to Lucy and lightly touched her arm, a kind and sympathetic gesture that didn't go unnoticed. "We will. I'm assuming I know you in your timeline…?"

Lucy smiled, fondly remembering so many of their conversations, especially the more recent ones regarding their guys. "Yeah, pretty well." Her bottom lip quivered as she held back the tears.

"Then, we'll figure it out. Rufus and I are pretty good at things like this. We'll find out what got changed."

"Thank you." Lucy reached out and pulled Jiya into a hug, then quickly realized what she was doing and released her. "Oh - I'm…I'm sorry. You're not - I mean… We usually hug. I hope that's okay?"

Jiya laughed and pulled Lucy to her. "It's always okay."

Wyatt reached for Lucy. "Come on. Let's go get changed out of these clothes."

She took a longer shower than necessary. He said he'd wait for her outside the locker room, but as long as she was in there, he'd probably given up. Jiya had offered to loan her some clothes. Since she didn't exist, that meant her locker didn't either. Her purse, wallet, ID, keys. You name it. All gone. Not to mention her clothes or car or home. Not that she really had a home anyway. She'd left her mom's a while ago and moved into a hotel. While it wasn't what some in their group wanted, namely Wyatt, Agent Christopher had been adamant that it was the safest way to keep around the clock eyes on Lucy. But none of that mattered now. Because she'd never existed here.

It all hit her the moment she sat on the bench to tie her shoes. Not only was Amy gone, but now she was, too. Erased from memories, history, existence. The tears slowly fell, staining her pants as she held her knees to her chest, slowly rocking back and forth. She dropped her head and let the sobs take over. She never heard him enter or call her name.

"Lucy?" He quickly rushed to her side, sitting as he wrapped his arms around her. "Shhh. It's okay. It's going to all be okay."

She unfolded herself, sniffing back the tears as she wiped at her eyes with her sleeve. "How do you know, Wyatt? I mean…we don't know what we did! And somehow, I got erased from existence! You and I both know that we've tried to fix that before. It can't be done."

Wyatt ran his fingers through her hair and smiled. "There's a difference between those times and this one." She scrunched her brow. "You're still here. You may not exist in this timeline, but you were still able to come to it. Which means you do exist." He reached for her locket and opened it, revealing the picture of Amy. "Just like your sister's photo existed after our original timeline. She's still out there, just like you're here."

She grasped the locket and glanced at him, giving a small smile. He was right. She knew he was right. But that didn't make any of it easier. She leaned closer to him, letting her head fall softly on his shoulder. "Thank you."

He smiled and held her tighter. "Anytime…ma'am." She smirked and ducked her face against his chest. "So, what do you say we go home and get some rest? We can start fresh tomorrow."

She sat up quickly. "Home? I don't.. have one of those." Her shoulders slumped. "I literally have no where to go."

He nudged her with his knee. "Sure you do." He stood, walking to the doorway, and motioned for her to follow. "I talked to Christopher. We agreed the safest thing to do right now is to keep you under constant surveillance."

She raised her eyebrows as she stood. "Oh, so we're going to the hotel?"

He gave a half-smile. "Nope. My place."

Was her face as red as she thought it was?

"Oh, um… Okay."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean, there's really no where else. And…" She trailed off, not sure how much she really wanted to say. After all, it'd been a very long day. "I don't really want to be alone. I'm already feeling pretty…isolated."

He stood in the locker room doorway, holding out a jacket to her that she assumed was another item on loan from Jiya.

"Well, come on, baby doll. Let's go home."