Just thinking about Salem made her exhausted. Lucy sighed and tried to concentrate on what Christopher was saying, chin in hand. Her gaze strayed back to Wyatt every few minutes in the darkened room. He had stalked back into the bunker two weeks ago, offering no explanation other than Flynn wasn't taking his spot. The two men had argued until Christopher had made them toss a coin, leaving Wyatt the smug victor.

She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he fiddled with his phone. They hadn't spoken in nearly two months. Yes they'd exchanged words but in group settings around dinner and always about impersonal things. They hadn't spoken alone since they'd agreed they had each other and she had no idea what that even meant now. Not since Jessica came back from the dead.

And of course she'd heard about it third-hand from Rufus who'd heard it from Jiya who'd been told by Christopher. He had been apologetic and awkward and Lucy had stopped him before he embarrassed them both rambling about Wyatt and his wife.

His wife.

She could barely wrap her head around that. One moment she'd been waking up beside him and the next...her eyes watered as she choked down the pain that had been living in the back of her throat for the past eight weeks.

She'd wanted to give him space, waited for him to come to her, to explain, to end things maybe. Now she doubted he ever would. He kept his distance, wouldn't look her in the eye. The casual comfort running between them had vanished and its absence left her hollow. She just wanted the silence between them to end, because even if she couldn't be with him she wanted their friendship back.

Christopher finished and Jiya stepped up with relevant information about the location. While the actual time period was interesting it wasn't exactly safe for women. That and the lack of indoor plumbing really put it at the bottom of her list for desirable destinations. And of course they had no period clothing. Mason's idea to buy Halloween costumes on Amazon had been a joke until they realized it was the only way they were going to blend in. Stealing clothes from Puritans was deemed too dangerous in terms of exposure.

Forty minutes later they were dressed and Rufus was griping about how dumb his hat looked. Lucy yawned as she shook off her exhaustion and climbed the stairs into her chair. She buckled in and closed her eyes. If she could get some shut eye while they went through the final flight checklist than bully for her.

She felt him climb into the Lifeboat, heard the quiet click of his buckle. Her eyes flicked open and for a moment their eyes met. He looked away and she willed him to say something, anything that would ease this agony that kept growing in her gut.

Shadows framed his eyes, his hair half-brushed and his costume looked like it was wearing him. Admittedly he looked as awful as she felt. She opened her mouth but guilt poured in, about Jessica, about the night they'd shared in '41, about how she wanted him all to herself.

In the beginning she'd been angry. He was the one who'd pulled away, who'd let go of her hand and broken what they'd had. But mostly she was angry with herself. She'd let him in, she'd fallen and given him her trust and her heart. But all that fire had burnt out of her in the waiting. It was surprising how much staring at door takes out of you. Now she was just tired and sad and trying not to care. They had a mission after all which fortunately gave her something else to focus on.

Rufus punched in the numbers and the ship shook with its normal shudder but Lucy could feel it in her bones. She clenched her hands against the sharp spur in her brain and waited as the g force shunt to the chest signaled their arrival. She took a deep breath of the stale Lifeboat air and waited for Wyatt to get the hatch.

When he didn't move she decided not to push the issue and moved past him to get out. She was met by green woods and blue sky. A cold breeze pulled at her cloak and she shivered, wishing for the heavy fabric of an authentic costume. Descending the stairs she dropped down into half an inch of mud.

Rufus and Wyatt quickly followed and they set off, looking for the nearest road. She only hoped they wouldn't encounter any trouble but knowing Rittenhouse and their luck she didn't put much stock in escaping unscathed.

Behind them the wind picked up and in the clearing a branch snapped off a snag and dropped to the ground.

.oOo.

When they returned it was dark and the night was full of fear, gunshots and running. Lucy was in tears, her arm useless at her side as she struggled to keep up, pushing aside the pain.

Far behind them the crack of a musket echoed through the woods, the ball tearing bark off a tree as the trio rushed past. Wyatt turned and fired into the darkness until his clip was empty, dashing after Rufus and Lucy who were only waiting for him to board. Before he could climb up the Lifeboat though, another shot rang out and whizzed past him into the hatch and straight into a part of the control panel. It sparked and smoked as Wyatt nearly fell ducking inside and pulled the door closed behind him.

Lucy fumbled with her seat-belt. Trying to buckle in one-handed was proving difficult and they didn't have time to spare. She'd hit her head pretty hard back there and didn't feel so good. The yelling didn't help much. Neither did the bullets.

"Are we ok?" Wyatt yelled as he strapped in, noticed Lucy struggling and without a word leaned over to help.

"I don't know."

Another musket ball pinged off the Lifeboat. Lucy held her breath as Wyatt's fingers brushed against her own.

"Are we gonna make it back?"

"I don't know."

"Rufus!"

"By all means keep asking questions I can't answer!" Rufus made a face and squeezed his eyes shut as he took off, willing them home safely.

The ship shook as usual but the motion increased to a hard judder and was so violent that Lucy thought her teeth were going to fall out. When the motion finally stopped it was abrupt and left them all reeling. Then the lights went out.

Lucy bit her lip hard to enough to draw blood as she fought to keep from throwing up. Her whole body hurt and she just sat for a moment because if she didn't move, it wasn't as bad.

"Well the good news is we're not dead. I think." Rufus' amorphous voice spoke as he checked the control panel and tried to boot up the computer. "Bad news is the Lifeboat might be dead."

"At least we're in one piece."

Wyatt unbuckled himself, unlocked the hatch, stepping outside. But there was no greeting from Jiya, no complaint from Mason and no whirr of fans. As Lucy fought to free herself from the chair and Rufus looked for signs of life, they heard Wyatt called back into the ship.

"Uh, guys?"

As the two climbed out, they saw Wyatt with his hands raised. Before him were twenty men in red uniforms, all pointing weapons at them. Gone was the bunker. Instead before them lay a large courtyard, the floor carved with glowing symbols.

"Please come out with your hands above your head."

Rufus exited, muttering under his breath. "This is officially the worst episode of Quantum Leap ever."