A/N: With Timeless being cancelled, and not saved by anyone I'm rather down at the moment. I started this a while ago but haven't been able to finish it until now. My inspiration kinda always seems to disappear with the shows, when they stop or gets cancelled. But it's really been kind of a whirlwind romance I've had with writing for Timeless, totally unlike any I've ever written for, so we'll see.
Spoilers: Up to 2x05 I guess, it deviates from around there.
Disclaimer: Even if everything was as it should be I still would not own the rights to Timeless.
After the alarm had blared, taking over the silence of the Bunker, alerting them to that fact that the Mothership had once again jumped the others had decided they needed to go on the mission despite the fact that Lucy couldn't come. She had developed a very high fever after being cut in the arm during the mission to Salem and the witch trials or revolts as it was now known. Even after being pumped full of the best antibiotics that Agent Christopher could get her hands on in short notice, she still hadn't come fully around. They were all a bit worried, but they couldn't let that stop them from stopping Rittenhouse. Wyatt especially had seemed like going on a mission without her was unthinkable, like she was irreplaceable or something. After being married for so many years he didn't fool Jessica though, not with all the worried glances he'd kept throwing at the door behind which Lucy lay without daring to actually go in and check on her, probably out of respect for her, his wife. He was an honorable man, but his heart betrayed him. She already knew then that she'd lost his love.
Her mission was to observe and collect data on the team that kept obstructing Rittenhouse's goals. That was it; no interfering, and absolutely no killing, especially not Lucy, even though she denied her Rittenhouse heritage. But this scenario was just too perfect, too tempting... with Agent Christopher gone, and the three men on mission, it was only Mason and Jiya that was left in the Bunker with her. And they didn't seem like much of a threat and could easily be eliminated if it came to that, along with Lucy. Besides she wasn't blind, she had seen the way her and Wyatt was looking at each other, when they got back from the mission, and it made her more than a little jealous.
And so that was why she found herself in Lucy and Jiya's room. Looking down at the semi-unconscious form in the makeshift bed. If only she had done what she had set out to do right then and there, and not lingered over her. Contemplating what exactly it was that Wyatt saw in her. They were nothing at all alike, had probably nothing in common except this whole time travel thing. So, what was it? What could have made them fall in love? What did Lucy have that she didn't? And what did someone like Lucy see in her Wyatt? It didn't make any sense to her.
Even now that she was "back" - from Wyatt's point of view anyway - she still couldn't seem to measure up to this woman. She was pretty sure Wyatt hadn't looked at her that way since they had first fallen in love. And even then, it was a different look. But maybe that was all this was; a new crush, something exciting only because it was new. It would get old eventually; die down, like what had happened to them. She had been fully convinced that what they had had been true love, now she was not so sure, and that tore her apart, enough to wanting to go against her orders, and kill the woman that stole her man.
Love wasn't always logical she knew that much, at least hers and Wyatt's had made some kind of sense. But it was as it was and thinking about it didn't make it go away. Now if something were to happen to Lucy due to complications with her infection they couldn't rightly blame her for it, now could they. She could smother her and it would look like she had just died peacefully in her sleep. Nothing to it, and it was a lot easier than stabbing her or shooting her and explaining the wounds afterwards. Both to this team and to Rittenhouse. None would be the smarter; she would have achieved her goal and would have outwitted them all in the process.
She sat down on the edge of the bed, with the strange impulse of wanting to touch the soon to be dead woman. She ran her fingers over Lucy's cheek; it was soft but radiated an unnatural heat. 'Princess Lucy', was fitting. Jessica liked the mocking way Emma spewed the ironic nickname around to flaunt her annoyance with the woman, and she fully understood the frustration. Even lying here sick with fever Lucy reminded her of a princess; sleeping beauty, with pale ivory skin, framed by ebony hair. She briefly wondered if she might awaken by being kissed by her husband. That would make him the prince, but then what would that make her; the dragon? The witch? Evil fairy godmother? She shook her head no, that was a stupid analogy.
She got up, took the pillow from the opposite cot, and felt the rush of anticipation run through her veins as she slowly approached her target; like a tigress that had been stalking out her prey for weeks and was now finally ready to attack. She was about to lower the fabric over Lucy's head, already looking forward to feeling her resistance, weak as it might be in her current state, the body would always fight to survive, and she would just keep on applying pressure until there was no more fight left in her. There was no greater satisfaction than squeezing the life out of someone, seeing their light slowly go out and extinguish. Being the one to decide in that moment if someone should live or die, that power, it was unlike anything else. It was intoxicating and fulfilling, and this one would be even more so. Personal grudges always seemed to sweeten the deal. There was a lot Wyatt didn't know about her anymore; her thirst for blood, for revenge and power had never been as great as after she'd joined Rittenhouse, after they'd shown her what she could be, her potential, that she wasn't just going to have to remain a dumb waitress for the rest of her life, she could be so much more, have so much more. And she wanted that, she wanted all she could get.
But before she even had as much as curled a hair on Lucy's head the door opened. The heaviness of it, and the fact that it was as loud as church bells in a sinner's ear, gave her the time to remove the pillow to a more inconspicuous place, namely at her side and not hovering above Lucy's head. It was great-timing-Jiya; Jessica thought about just killing her too for a moment, but then reconsidered, that wouldn't be easy to explain away. No, she just needed to get her out of the room again, long enough for her to finish what she came in here for.
Jiya, it seemed, was surprised to find her in there as well, as she stopped in her tracks.
"Jessica!" She said, "You startled me." And after a beat and a quick, and maybe skeptical - Jessica thought - glance at her and Lucy, she asked. "What are you doing in here?"
Jessica thought for a second about what she might say without looking too suspicious, which resulted in her stumbling a bit over her sentence. "I... I was just, ehm, I was just trying to be helpful. I feel a little useless down here, so..." She gestured to the pillow in her hands. "I thought I could make her a little more comfortable. Help you out a bit."
Jiya's face brightened at once, and that poor credulous fool said: "That's so nice of you." But then something seemed to occur to her, and she added: "But I can manage, not much to it, and she's getting better."
Jessica looked down at Lucy and quirked up an eyebrow as she looked up at Jiya again. "Are you sure about that? She seems to have been out awfully long for someone who only got cut by a knife."
Worry flashed behind Jiya's eyes but she ignored it. Instead she said: "Here let me take that." And grabbed out after the pillow Jessica was still holding. She surrendered it willingly.
A bit deflated she was about to walk out of the room, when what felt like a mini storm swept through the Bunker. "The guys are back." Jiya said sounding almost relieved. Jessica wasn't quite sure if she should be offended by that. What reason had she given this woman not to trust her?
Jiya fussed a bit around Lucy and then they both walked out to meet the returnees. And sure enough, the Lifeboat was back in its place, in present time. Jessica was never going to get used to that; time travel, it was such an abstract concept. And now, she realized her opportunity had passed.
xXx
Jessica greeted Wyatt, hugging him overly enthusiastic, and felt rather than saw him look in vain over her shoulder in search for someone who wasn't there to greet him; that special someone was still bedridden. It turned out that they'd brought back an extra passenger, none other than President John F. Kennedy himself, or rather a very young, and completely knocked out JFK, a child really, from before he was even on track to become president. It seemed that everything had gone wrong on that mission. Wyatt and the others kept blabbering about how bad it went without Lucy. As if she had some sort of superpower to keep everything in line, Jessica thought bitterly. They were going to return him as soon as the Lifeboat was recharged and Flynn, who they'd left behind, was going to take out the Rittenhouse agents in the meantime. Jessica could see that Wyatt wasn't too eager to go back for Flynn, but it had to be done, JFK had to go back to his own time. They were such sticklers for keeping history intact here. She knew very little of what lay behind the animosity between the two men, but she suspected it also had something to do with Lucy. Maybe she'd get another change to execute her brilliant plan once they had gone again.
A few hours went by, everybody was doing their thing. Jiya, Rufus and Connor were tinkering with the Lifeboat, while it charged. Occasionally a laugh was heard from their direction, as some engineering thing or other apparently was hilarious. JFK was still out last she heard and locked in a room for his own safety. Agent Christopher had disappeared once again, and Jessica had lost track of where Wyatt had gone, while she was surveying the Bunker, taking stock of every little detail like she was supposed to. Nothing really changed that much down here, so inspecting everything again and again was slowly getting old, she wanted to get the hell out of dodge and away from this rotten Rittenhouse assignment.
She ended up wandering into Lucy's room yet again, and if there was ever a doubt in her mind about her husband's loyalties here she had the proof. The door wasn't fully closed and so she stayed by the doorframe observing, which was great for her because he didn't notice her right away. Wyatt was sitting by the bed with a damp cloth in his hands; ever so often he would wipe it over her forehead. As he lay the cloth back in the bowl of water he carefully removed a stray strand of hair from her face and tucked it gently behind her ear. Then he took her hand, and for a second it looked to Jessica like he was praying, her husband, who didn't believe in a higher power or fate or anything like that, was saying a silent prayer for this woman's life. She almost burst in right then and there, but she held back, contained herself; her anger, and her betrayal. He kept a hold of Lucy's hand for what felt like hours to Jessica. Stroking the back of it with his thumb continuously, as if reassuring her that he was there for her without ever saying a word. If it was any other couple, and she weren't so damn jealous, she might have thought it sweet. But this, this was as far from sweet as it could get, another reason for it being a crappy assignment; her having to watch her husband be in love with another woman.
Not that she cared that much for her drunk, good for nothing husband, that was never home anyway, but this person, this Wyatt was like a completely different person, almost unrecognizable, a changed man. He reminded her of the boy she fell in love with, the man that she married; a person she hadn't seen for years. She liked that person, and so she wanted him for herself. He was rightfully hers anyway. He hadn't signed the divorce papers and he wanted to give it another try. He had practically been begging, yet here he was chasing after yet another skirt, just like her husband always did. Some things never changed. How long before he got tired of Lucy and chased the next best thing, when that happened then she would be the one left behind and heartbroken, oh Jessica would laugh at Lucy then. Wyatt was incapable of being faithful. Yet somehow this felt different, even to Jessica. Wyatt had always had a reckless streak, even when he was young and good. This Wyatt seemed calmer, more mature, like Lucy was the good influence that had brought these qualities out in him. Had tamed his wild soul, but not into submission, into some sort of mutual respect.
She had had enough of this spectacle and was about to leave when Wyatt leaned over and kissed Lucy's cheek, it looked quite innocently, yet when he got up and turned around, Jessica couldn't help but gloat over the absolutely horrified look he had on his face seeing her there.
"Jess?!" He faltered momentarily but composed himself quickly enough. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough." She retorted bitterly.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, I was looking for you, but I guess I could ask you the same." She gestured towards the bed with a nod of her head.
"I was just checking to see how she was doing, that's all." He crossed his arms over his chest, taking a defensive stance.
It irritated her and snuck a fiery edge into her voice as she spewed her accusations. "Sure, and that requires you holding her hand, brushing her hair and kissing her cheek?"
"It didn't mean anything." He tried, then glanced at Lucy and out the still open door. "And would you keep it down a little?"
"Why?" She followed his gaze to the door. "What don't you want people to hear?"
"Nothing. It's just..." He didn't know how to finish the sentence, he wasn't embarrassed of his actions, but he didn't want to flaunt his dirty laundry.
She managed to interrupt him before he thought of anything anyway. "If this is about disturbing her, I thought you wanted her to wake up."
"I do, of course I do. But not like this."
"Like what then? You want her to wake up in your arms. Is that it?"
"No." He said, taken aback by her allegation.
"Then what, Wyatt? Because you were the one that begged me to stay, to give you another chance. This does not look like a second chance to me or that you even give a shit at all." Her anger turned into frustration.
"I do, Jess you have to understand." He tried.
"What do I have to understand? That you don't love me? I've known that for years. This is a farce, it's not a marriage." She was about to dramatically storm out the door, when he grabbed her arm.
"I'm just worried, okay. That's all. She got hurt when I wasn't there to protect her. This is on me, it's my fault. I should have been there. Instead..." He began but faltered and stopped himself, because it probably wouldn't help his argument if he said that he was with her when he should have been with Lucy... protecting her, that was.
Jessica took in his sad demeanor, and it softened her up a bit. Another thing Wyatt was good at, she thought; blaming himself. "Wyatt none of this is your fault. I'm sure Lucy would be the first one to agree with me on that." She said the last part through gritted teeth, though she expected it to be the truth. Lucy didn't seem like the person to hold a grudge, especially not towards Wyatt.
"I'm just not sure I could ever forgive myself if something happened to her because of me."
He sounded pitiful, but she didn't pity him not one bit, it just made her want to poke him even harder, right where it hurt the most. "So, you do love her more than me."
"No, I never said that."
Well technically he was right. It was just so tragic, he was so far gone, that he couldn't even see it himself. "You didn't have to; your actions speak a lot louder than words." She told him.
"What? What actions? Jessica..." He was so confused.
But she wouldn't hear it, she couldn't, not anymore. "No Wyatt, if you can't even see it yourself, I'm not going to tell you." And then she really stormed out, having finally had enough.
"Jessica, wait." But she was already out the door. After a quick glance at Lucy he followed her.
"Jessica, Jessica." He called after her. But she was halfway down the hall, headed towards their room. When did she get so fast? He wondered.
He found her in their shared room, packing up her sparse belongings. "Jessica, don't be like that, we can talk this through." He couldn't do anything but watch as piece after piece of clothing disappeared into her bag. "Please, don't leave." He begged in one last desperate attempt to make her stay with him.
In a weak moment, brought on by their shared history, she empathized with him. "Wyatt, if you're being honest with yourself, like really honest, you know this is not what you want. Not anymore. Everybody can see it. And deep down you know it too. You should just admit."
All he managed to say before she continued was: "Je..."
"Look Wyatt, if I stay here, I'm going to end up killing Lucy, maybe take a few of the others out too."
That shocked him to total silence, maybe because he could see in her face that she wasn't kidding. She meant it. There was a coldness in her eyes, that he hadn't noticed until now, and had never seen before.
She read his face. "Yeah, yeah I know. Surprise." She really didn't care anymore and might as well just spill the beans. "Oh, and there's something else... I actually work for Rittenhouse, so how do you like me now?" She was angry and hurt, and probably wouldn't have said any of all that otherwise. She was just so tired of it all. And figured she might as well go out with a bang.
Wyatt didn't know what to say.
She took his silence to mean that she should leave. "Right, okay then. I'll be going now. Don't try to stop me."
He shook off his stupor. "Jessica, whatever they have on you, we can fight them, we can figure this out, together. Please."
"Wyatt don't you get it. They don't have anything on me. I enjoy working for them. And I'm doing it out of my own free will."
He shook his head in disbelief. "No, that can't be true."
"I'm giving you an out here, Wyatt. I guess I owe you that much at least. So, you better take it. If you don't want to come with me, to join Rittenhouse, then let me leave right now and I won't try anything, no one will get hurt. You have my word."
"What? No! Join Rittenhouse I would never. And how can I trust you right now? How can I trust anything you say, after everything you've done? You lied to me, to everybody. I can't let you leave like this." If she really was Rittenhouse he couldn't let her get away, she knew practically everything about what went on in the Bunker. They couldn't let Rittenhouse get their hands on that kind of information. That was more than enough ammunition to destroy them ten times over.
"I'm warning you. This won't end well."
"Jessica, please don't make me do this." He took out his gun and pointed it at her. "You need to come with me quietly. We need to find agent Christopher and figure this out."
"Are you going to let them lock me away? Let me rot up in a jailcell? Do I mean nothing to you? Rittenhouse is doing great work you know; can't you see that? You're the ones that are messing everything up."
Wyatt still couldn't believe it and had a hard time adjusting to this being real. "If any of this is true."
"You can't be this naive Wyatt." She took a nearby object and hit him over the head. He went down before he even knew what was happening. "I warned you." She said as she stepped over him. "You should have just signed the divorce papers, honey. That would have been so much easier." And then she left.
Sometime later Wyatt woke up on the floor, with a tremendous headache. He looked but Jessica was nowhere to be found. First place he cleared was Lucy and Jiya's room. His heart beating a mile a minute as he feared what he might find in there. Luckily no one was hurt, only his pride. It turned out the others had stopped Jessica as she was leaving. Their loud fighting and the you-can't-leave-the-perimeter alarm had clued them in. She was going to go prison, along with all the other Rittenhouse members that they had already locked up. It was also extremely lucky they'd caught her, because otherwise if she had actually escaped and run right back to Rittenhouse with her intel, Agent Christopher would have been busy searching for another safehouse on short notice, and that wasn't very easy. Wyatt was relieved but embarrassed. He was just going to have to live with the fact that his wife, or this version of his wife anyway, was Rittenhouse.
xXx
One day later
The world was foggy as it came into existence once again. She didn't know how long she'd been out or what had happened. All she knew was that she was groggy and really thirsty. "Hey, you're awake." She heard a voice, that her brain identified as Jiya's, say. Her vision was still swimming a bit, trying to clear up, but she could at least see the contours of the other woman's face. She wanted to reply but the only word that seemed to want to come out of her parched mouth was: "Wyatt." She thought she saw a hint of smile on Jiya's face before it disappeared from her field of vision.
Then another voice tickled her eardrums: "Welcome back." It said. It was the voice she had been longing to hear, Wyatt's, and so she made an extra effort to will the world to stop spinning and take a more concrete form. She moved her head towards the sound and looked straight into his stunning blue eyes, his face lit up by a bright smile, but his eyes watered. She became instantly worried. "Is something wrong?" She croaked out.
His reaction to that question took her by surprise. He laughed heartily, then explained himself. "Only you would come out of multiple days of fever and ask me if I was okay." He shook his head at her searching worried look. "I'm fine." He reassured her. "Everything is exactly as it should be now."
A/N: This thing got away from me; it had a mind of its own. Okay so I know that this wasn't quite how it went on the show, I've taken some writers liberties here; please excuse them for the sake of the story.
I got this idea on my way home from work one day. And I just really wanted to write evil Jessica. Yet she didn't turn out that mean in the end anyway; didn't kill anyone at least, even if she wanted to. Sorry to those of you that actually like Jessica, I'm sure you exist somewhere.
Did it get too mushy? I know it turned kinda stupid in the end, but I just couldn't figure out how to get rid of Jessica, she's like a bad penny. At least I got rid of her before the whole baby thing, talk about pouring salt in a wound. Also, it's been ages since I wrote something with actual dialogue in it.
All in all, I just would have loved to see a scene where Wyatt blames himself for Lucy being hurt, or him being a little bit more worried about her would have been nice too. I'm mean like that I know, I feed on hurt and pain.
Thank you for reading and please excuse all the end of story babbling.