The only thing she could hear was the screaming of the townsmen, yelling obscenities, calling for her to be burned as she was led to the gallows. Their fiery torches were the only things she could see. But to be honest they were the last things on her mind.
Who knew if Rufus or Flynn were going to be there in time to help her out of this? Who even knew where they were? The last she had seen them they were running off to chase a Rittenhouse lead one direction while she continued to search for answers among the women of Salem. And all it took was one slip up in her question for her to be thrown in a dirty old cell with other women, accused of witchcraft.
And now here she was.
But at this point death didn't seem like the worst path to take. She truly had lost everything. Her mother was still rampaging through time. Amy was still gone. History was being decimated. And now she could add Wyatt to the list.
She couldn't deny it. She loved him. She had loved him for longer than she realized, but that was lost now. It's hard for her to imagine that less than a week ago they had been wrapped around each other in the beautiful hotel in 1940s Hollywood blissfully unaware of the storm that was going to hit as soon as they got back to 2018.
"Wyatt, Jessica's been calling. You might want to get back to her." Jiya had said so nonchalantly, but it didn't take her long to notice the look of shock across the faces of the time team. Before she had a chance to ask what was wrong, Wyatt was gone, leaving Lucy feeling like some had reached into her body and stolen any oxygen she had. Rufus attempted to reach out to her, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to hold it together if he tried to comfort her. So she quickly evacuated the main operation center of the Silo, finding the darkest, most isolated corner she could find, and cried.
She had no doubt in her mind how the events of the next few hours would go. Wyatt, after verifying that his wife was indeed alive again, would come in search of her, probably in some hopes to make a clean break of something that had barely begun anyway. He would try to console her, but she wasn't an idiot. Far from it in fact. Nor was she some romantic soul who believed that Wyatt would actually abandon his wife for her. No, because she had already witnessed him risk everything to get Jessica back. Risk his freedom. Risk his job. Risk her. So after she finished her moment of weakness, she would put on a brave face, smile like everything was normal, and continue her job. Because that was the only thing she had to hold onto now.
Her predictions proved accurate. Wyatt did come in search of her and try to explain himself, but she held up a hand and told him there was nothing to explain. All they had was one fun night, right? What did he owe her? And when he had tried to protest, she pushed her way past him, saying she should probably find a new barrack to sleep in though. He grabbed her arm as she tried to walk away only for a second before releasing her and just muttering a biting "fine." She knew she was probably being unfair; he must be having a hard time with all of this too, but she couldn't bring herself to talk with him about it anymore. It would be easier for both of them this way. She cast one last fleeting glance his way before walking away, and that was the last time she saw him. The next day when they were preparing the plan for the next jump to 1692, Christopher said he was going to be taking leave from the next couple jumps to get filled in on the last few years of memories Jessica had, but he didn't, so Flynn would be taking his position on missions.
That had surprised her and worried her. She had been partially responsible for getting him locked up in the first place. Could she trust him to protect her and Rufus over eliminating Rittenhouse? She had the answer now.
"Alright, Witch, you first," the man holding arm too tightly growled in her ear and began pushing her up the creaky wooden steps to the noose.
It would be so easy to just let it happen. Then all this hell would be over. Maybe where she went she would see Amy and her dad. Two of the only people she knew truly loved her. Yeah that would be easy.
But if there was one thing Lucy Preston knew how to see clearly, it was the larger picture. It had been what she fought for when she watched her hero, Lincoln, shot in front of her, when she pulled Wyatt out of near suicide at the Alamo, when she pulled the trigger on an unarmed Jesse James, and stopped Flynn from destroying all of Rittenhouse in 1954. This was bigger than her, bigger than her current pain. She had a job to do. Rufus and Flynn needed her. Mason and Jiya and Christopher needed her. Her mother needed her. History needed her. Wyatt had once told her to figure out what she was fighting for, and it was clearer now more than ever.
So she wasn't' going to give up. She breathed deeply as they reached the top of the platform and thought one single thought. Escape. Houdini's words remained with her even now at the edge of death like it had in the box in HH Holmes' basement. As the man released her arm to prepare the knot around her neck, she reached her hand into the concealed back pocket of her skirt where a knife had been hiding. All the near death experiences we find ourselves in, you should probably have at least some kind of weapon on you, Wyatt had laughed as they were getting dressed to go to 1955. So now here he was, saving her again, even though he wasn't actually there.
"Lucy!" she heard a voice shout from the crowd. Rufus! His shout had offered enough distraction for her to cut through the ropes on her wrists, push the executioner from the platform, slip the rope from around her neck, and make a mad dash to where she finally saw Rufus and Flynn in the rabid mob.
"We got the Rittenhouse operative," Rufus told her as they all began their run back to the Lifeboat. "Let's get out of here." As she took her seat in the Lifeboat, she breathed a sigh of relief. There was no denying the ache in her heart that Wyatt wasn't there to offer some dumb, but funny one-liner and buckle her seat belt (even though she had known how to buckle it herself since maybe their third time in the machine), but she knew now that she could do this. Save history. Even if it meant she had to do it without Wyatt by her side.
A/N: Don't be fooled. I will ship Lyatt til the day I die, but I like to believe that even after Jessica comes back, Lucy will continue to kick butt even if she believes the man she loves is gone from her. Because Lucy is too much of a boss to give up because of Wyatt.
