A/N: This is not the Wyatt!whump fic I promised but I couldn't leave the Baumgardner situation unresolved, especially since we might not get a second season. :( I haven't forgotten about the other idea though and am working on it as fast as I can! (I am currently in the middle of a Captain America fic that has to be done by March 10th but I promise the other Wyatt story will see the light of day sometime soon.)
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Please don't sue.
Some point in the future…
"You ready for this?" Wyatt asked as he climbed into the Lifeboat and slid into his usual seat. Jiya was sitting in the pilot's chair, immersed in the final safety checks. Rufus stood beside her, hand on her upper back, nodding proudly as she left out not a single thing.
"She sure is," he then responded for his girlfriend, bending down and kissing her. She grinned in his embrace then gently pushed him away.
"I am," she stated, swiveling in her seat to face Wyatt, her expression confident yet excited.
He nodded then set about buckling himself in. When he was finished, he looked up to see Rufus still standing protectively over Jiya, oblivious to the fact that they were minutes away from taking off.
"That means you have to go, Rufus," the soldier stated, jerking his thumb toward the door where Lucy and the rest of the support team were waiting.
"Right." Rufus straightened up, his expression flashing to embarrassment for a brief moment before settling back on a shade of pride. "You can do this," he told Jiya as he squeezed her shoulder.
"I know," she beamed at him. Then she reached out with both hands and shoved him toward the doorway, this time with more force. Taking the hint, Rufus shot her a quick thumbs-up then carefully maneuvered his way to the door.
"You sure this is exactly how it went down?" Wyatt asked as Rufus passed, holding up the sheet of paper where he and Lucy had detailed Baumgardner's death.
Rufus nodded.
"Alright then." Wyatt folded the paper, slid it into his pocket then tilted his head back against the plush rest and closed his eyes.
He heard Rufus climb down the portable stairs and call, "Good luck," seconds before the door slid closed.
By this point, Jiya had turned back in her chair and began the launch sequence.
"You were trained for this. You can do this," she muttered under her breath as she grabbed the steering joystick. "They wouldn't have sent you if you weren't ready."
"I was expecting more 'I am one with the Force and the Force is with me'," Wyatt deadpanned, popping open one eye to stare expectantly at the tech.
Jiya spared a split second to make a face at Wyatt over her shoulder. "Careful Logan. Your inner nerd is showing."
Before he got a chance to respond, she had righted herself and flipped the final switch, sending the Lifeboat into an ugly but effective take-off.
"But where's your modern gun… like whatever Wyatt uses?"
"I was told not to bring anything back from 2017."
From his perch not far from where Baumgardner would make his last stand, Wyatt groaned. "Never rely on someone else's weapon," he muttered under his breath. "You know better than that, Bam-Bam."
"Go! Run!" With that, Baumgardner peeled away from his cover, standing in the middle. of. the. alley. as he fired at Karl.
Wyatt cursed under his breath then dove out from behind his own cover and fired twice, hitting Karl once in the leg and a second time in his shoulder.
"Wyatt?" he heard both Rufus and Lucy ask in confusion but didn't look back, his eyes never leaving Karl's unmoving body.
"Get back," he hissed as he sprang to his feet and slowly made his way toward the other end of the alley. He heard light footsteps behind him and knew Baumgardner was backing him up.
"What are you doing here?" Dave asked, after a split second.
"Saving you from death by idiocy."
Wyatt kicked Karl's gun away then bent down to take his pulse. "He's still alive."
He quickly patted the man down and, when he found no additional weapons, manhandled Karl out of his jacket, sliced it in half with his very modern pocketknife, then tied the thick fabric against Flynn's man's wounds.
With that out of the way, he turned back to Baumgardner and demanded, in a very calm, very level voice, "What the hell were you thinking?"
"They told me not to take—"
"Not that!" Then Wyatt paused to reconsider. "Well that too. But mostly you shooting from the middle of the alley, with no cover in sight."
"Past weapons are rarely accurate. I would have been fine."
"Flynn's men don't play by those rules," Wyatt stated, standing up so his face was inches from Baumgardner's. He then pointed at the very modern weapon resting on the ground out of Karl's reach. "That Glock is extremely accurate. And it was supposed to kill you."
To his credit, Baumgardner barely reacted outside of a quick double blink. "Oh," he finally said.
"'Oh' is right." Wyatt smacked the back of his hand against Baumgardner's chest. "You have to be more careful, man! Did you learn nothing from me about taking in your surroundings? Staying behind cover? Shooting with your opposite hand?"
"I'm sorry," Dave replied, looking genuinely contrite.
Wyatt just looked at his friend and nodded gravely.
A beat of silence passed before Lucy poked her head around the pile of boxes she and Rufus were hiding behind and asked, "Can we come out now?"
Wyatt took another quick look at Karl before responding, "Yeah, it's safe."
Two seconds later, Wyatt staggered backwards with the full force of a Lucy hug. "What the hell are you doing here?" she asked, her words leaving in one large, barely understandable rush. "How did you escape? How did you get here?"
As she paused to breathe, Wyatt gently pulled free of her embrace. "One question at a time." He waited for her to nod in agreement before ticking points off on his right hand. "I came to save Baumgardner. Christopher helped me and Jiya flew me."
"Jiya?" Rufus asked, his face contorting with great concern.
"It's a long story. Think Back to the Future II." Before he could elaborate, church bells chimed in the distance and Wyatt was forced to refocus on the task at hand. "Bam-Bam and I need to go," he stated.
"But—"
"You both do just fine without him. Just tell Agent Neville Baumgardner died protecting you."
"But—"
Wyatt reached out and grabbed Lucy's hand. "You'll be fine. I promise."
She looked at him for a long moment, as if reading the truth in his expression. Finally, she smiled uneasily. "Okay." She ran her thumb along the back of Wyatt's hand then pulled away. "So what do we do now?"
One corner of Wyatt's mouth lifted ever-so-slightly as he looked her straight in the eye. "I think you know the answer to that."
It took her a moment but she eventually nodded.
"Be careful," Wyatt implored, taking the time to look at both of them in turn, to impress the importance of his words.
"When will we see you again?" Rufus asked.
"Very soon," the soldier replied with a wide grin, unable to resist the chance to be cryptic.
As Rufus and Lucy walked off toward The Dingo Bar, Wyatt turned back to Baumgardner.
"Ready to go home?"
Dave just nodded, still slightly paler than usual.
"Good, because there's about twenty different drills I'm going to run your dumb ass through when we get there." With that, Wyatt holstered his gun and walked away, muttering about how Baumgardner thought standing in the middle of an alley with no cover was a good idea.
As memories of Basic flashed through his mind, Baumgardner gulped then hurried after his friend, unwilling to miss his ride home despite his currently very unpleasant future.
