The shock was incalculable. And somehow that was still an understatement.

She just couldn't stop staring at them. At herself. At the other her?

All Lucy could think about was how disorienting it was to be simultaneously experiencing déja vu and self-disassociation all at once. Like all the perks of an out of body experience without actually leaving her body. If you could call them perks. It was all she could do not to pass out on the spot, but even startled as she was she would rather die before succumbing to a dramatic bout of fainting in front of the team. Damsel in distress stereotypes be damned, especially in the face of this battle-worn, soldier-like, take no prisoners version of herself.

Wyatt looked just as shell shocked as she did, and she figured he must have been experiencing the same sense of alienation she was given the way his mouth was hanging open, words utterly escaping him.

Standing there, glancing down at them with what could either be apprehension or contempt based on their grim faces, were a future Lucy and Wyatt. Two pairs of the same people, facing off. The moment seemed to stretch into infinity.

Finally, Future-Wyatt spoke, bearded scruff and all. "Well, what're you waitin' on?"

Then, with the timbre of her voice just as hollow as her eyes, Future-Lucy added, "You guys wanna get Rufus back or what?"

Lucy's voice quavered as she peered up at herself. "That's-"

"Us." Wyatt finished, sounding just as stunned as she was. As if maybe saying it out loud would somehow make sense of the inconceivable.

For one interminable moment, nobody spoke.

And then all hell broke loose.

"How is this possible?" Agent Christopher asked as the future duo unceremoniously slid down from the lifeboat hatch, landing more or less gracefully before being converged on by the team.

"Where are you from?" Wyatt inquired disbelievingly.

"When are you from?" Lucy added, looking like she wanted to reach out and touch her future self, but was also worried that it might cause a major schism in the fabric of reality. Not that she ever really pretended to understand the rules of time travel to begin with.

"Who piloted the lifeboat here?" Connor questioned.

"And where is everybody else?" Flynn jumped in too.

"Jesus, one question at a time." Future-Wyatt protested.

"We're from 2023." Future-Lucy stated, answering herself before the questions could continue to pile up. "Wyatt piloted the lifeboat, and everyone else is…back in our bunker." She finished, a slight air of hesitancy to her final words that did nothing to ease all of their nerves. But no one was sure they really wanted to know who was still alive and who wasn't down the timeline. Future-Lucy looked relieved that she wasn't asked to elaborate.

"How are you even here? In your own timelines, there's side effects " Connor started rambling.

"We're not immune to the effects." She admitted.

"We don't have much time." Future-Wyatt told her.

"I know." Future-Lucy replied shortly. The dynamic between them seemed…tense, to put it lightly. Or maybe even more than that, they seemed disconnected, like their relationship was a radio station that had been muted for who knows how long. There was the distant crackling of static, but nothing more, and Lucy couldn't help but wonder not only what had happened to their two reflections, but what had happened between them, especially given what Wyatt had just admitted to her not five minutes earlier.

Connor couldn't help but continue to look utterly incredulous. "Why would you endanger yourselves like this?"

"We didn't have much of a choice." Future-Wyatt said.

"We can't stop Rittenhouse without Rufus." Future Lucy asserted, Rufus' name reverberating off the walls like the distant echo of a ghost.

"Rittenhouse still exists?" Denise asked, sounding vaguely horrified.

"In 2023?" Flynn added, just as aghast as she was.

"Wait. You said we can get Rufus back?" Jiya's ragged voice rang out above all others and the commotion ceased almost as quickly as it began. Eyes red rimmed and brimming with fresh tears, she seemed to sense that everybody was eyeing her with poorly concealed trepidation and pity but couldn't bring herself to care. They could bear witness to her grief all they wanted if it meant they were one step closer to saving Rufus. They'd all seen each other at their worst anyway, what was one more moment of raw vulnerability?

Future Lucy's eyes softened a fraction as they turned on her, briefly igniting the spark in her brown eyes which seemed nearly extinguished in this hardened version of herself. She slowly approached Jiya before gently taking her hand and pulling her into a quick but comforting embrace, and Jiya was unexpectedly finding herself glad that after all this war had and would apparently do to Lucy in the future, she still gave the best hugs. Although, Jiya had a feeling that Future-Lucy needed this kind of support just as much as she did.

"Our plan isn't 100% foolproof." Future-Lucy warned, pulling away. "But the short answer is yes, Jiya. We think we can save him."

Jiya suddenly had that look on her face. The one where she so desperately wanted to allow herself to believe but didn't know if she could withstand the pain of false hope.

Evidently, she must have decided it was worth the risk. She took a deep steadying breath, as if preparing for the coming storm.

"How?" Jiya asked plaintively, giving herself over to hope with reckless abandon that she hoped would not be the death of her if they failed. Belatedly, she wondered if this is what Flynn had felt like every time he had come close to saving his family. She winced at the thought, sneaking a glance at him from the other side of the room. As always, his losses weighed heavy, but right now he looked completely transfixed by Future-Lucy, and she couldn't help but wonder what exactly was going on there.

"The plan itself is pretty straightforward." Future-Lucy explained. "To put it simply, we're here to give you a Chinatown do over."

Jiya's mouth gaped open, along with everyone else's. "You can do that?"

"To give credit where credit is due, you can do that." Future-Wyatt clarified, nodding at her appreciatively. "This is all your plan Jiya."

Jiya, understandably, looked caught between total shock and acceptance of the fact that her future self-had literally figured out how to bend space time in order to bring Rufus back from the dead. But her surprise was fleeting. Because if there was anything she was sure of by now, it was that she loved Rufus with her whole and entire being. She would and had done everything she could to keep him safe. To keep him alive, even if it meant her life would continue on without him in it. This was no exception.

"Not to toot my own horn, but I sound like a badass." She declared casually.

Future-Lucy snorted, and then for a brief moment looked genuinely surprised, as if she had forgotten what her own laugh sounded like. And though her face quickly settled back into an implacable mask, it wasn't a reaction that went unnoticed.

"So, what exactly would a Chinatown do-over entail?" Denise inquired, strategical as ever. She had seemed to get over the sheer impossibility of their situation quite a bit faster than everyone else, but maybe that's what Homeland Security training was for; assess the situation and move on. Her turnaround time was truly something to marvel at, even for them.

"There's two main elements of the plan." Future Wyatt said, his inner Delta Force emerging as he laid out the course of action. "The first order of business is obviously to save Rufus. We do that by making sure that he never goes to the Bison Horn Saloon in the first place."

"And how do we do that?" Wyatt asked. His future-self looked at him irritably.

"Honestly, was I always this dense?" Future-Wyatt asked his Lucy. She just shrugged, but a small smile quirked at the corner of her mouth, and Wyatt promptly shut his mouth. Apparently even his future self wasn't too happy with him. His self-loathing had literally reached its ultimate capacity.

Future-Wyatt barreled on. "Someone will have to intercept Rufus between the time that he leaves Lucy at the photo studio and arrives to find Jiya."

"How do we know that he'll go with us?" Lucy wondered.

"Because I'll be there to drag him back to the lifeboat myself." Jiya assured, a little coarser than she intended. "He'll see me, and he'll know that I'm okay. That should be enough proof for him."

"It will be." Future-Lucy agreed.

"Then what?" Flynn questioned, looking like this all might be too good to be true. Lucy couldn't help but feel inclined to agree.

"This is the harder part." Future-Wyatt sighed.

"Right, because nothing about time travel can ever be easy." His present counterpart muttered, crossing his arms.

"Harder, how?" Jiya implored, already feeling her confidence starting to dim as she prepared herself for whatever insurmountable challenge she'd have to overcome this time.

"The hardest part," Future Lucy explained. "Is going to be convincing our alternate selves to leave."

Everyone looked vaguely confused. Wyatt was the first to ask, "That's the big, hopeless snag in your plan? That we won't want to go home?"

To the future couple's surprise, it was Connor who piped up on their behalf, a look of comprehension settling into his features. "Think about it. If Jiya's past self doesn't see Rufus with the team when they come to rescue her and nobody knows where he is, do you really think she would be willing to leave without him?"

"It was already hard enough to convince you to go when he was with us." Flynn grumbled, which garnered him some dirty looks, but he didn't seem to mind. Not that he ever did.

"He's not wrong." Connor said after a short pause, trying to be delicate. "And if your past selves refuse to leave, then there's a chance that they could be cornered by Emma and, I don't know, killed?"

The seriousness of that possibility seemed to settle over them as they mulled over what it would mean for their alternate selves to die on that saloon porch just like Rufus had. Alone, neglected, and forgotten.

"If we get this wrong, then this, us, our reality could all disappear." Lucy said quietly.

But by now Jiya was determined. The promise of a plan, even a flawed one, was too tempting to turn away from. "So, we have to send one of us back to the alternate team before they reach me at the saloon and convince them to leave without Rufus."

"Exactly. If they decide to stick around and look for him, there's no telling what could happen, or who we could lose instead." Future-Wyatt concluded.

"Something tells me there's more to it than that, though." Connor said faintly. Being on a similar train of thought herself, Lucy could feel the beginnings of dread starting to pool in the pit of her stomach. It all sounded so simple. So tantalizingly and truthfully easy. But if there was anything these last two years had taught her, it was that something always came with a price.

She fixed her future self with a knowing look. "So, what's the catch?"

Future-Lucy's face was slightly pained, but not in the least surprised. "You're always looking for one, aren't you?"

Lucy didn't waver, taking a small step closer to herself. "After what we've been through? Yes."

Something about looking at a physical, living, breathing copy of herself managed to throw her off balance in a way she never could have anticipated, seeing all that raw pain written all over her face was a picture unlike anything she'd ever seen in any mirror. She almost found herself asking, do I really look so broken?

But she supposed she'd have to wait five years to find out just how much more broken she could be. What a thing to look forward to.

Lucy cleared her throat. "So?" She prompted again. "What are you holding back?"

Words weren't typically something that failed her in any given situation, but for once her future-self looked like she was at a loss. That was comforting.

Sensing her unease, Future-Wyatt took over. "The catch," He began, his voice heavy and resigned, "Is that someone will inevitably have to cross their own timeline twice."

Silence. Fraught with tension, confusion, and, most poignantly from all of them, the ache of grief.

Denise didn't follow, the overly-complex and frankly frustrating rules of physics and space-time continuum crap always going over her head. "What do you mean?"

But Lucy seemed to have already caught on. "He means that either me, Wyatt, or Flynn has to go back and warn our alternate self, and run the risk of enduring the crazy, time-travel related consequences."

"What are the risks?" Flynn asked uncertainly. Even he seemed spooked for once, and that was a high bar to meet.

"More like what risks aren't there." Connor snapped.

"We don't know" Future-Lucy answered honestly, rejoining the conversation. "There's really no way to know for sure. We took a risk in coming here at all. We can't predict how much those dangers would increase if the action was repeated."

"The point is-" Future-Wyatt started to speak when suddenly Future-Lucy clutched the side of her head and doubled over, wincing in pain and gasping for air.

Lucy's eyes went wide. "What's wrong? What's happening? Is she okay? Am I okay?" The words tumbled out in a rush, but that didn't diminish the peculiarity intrinsic to asking herself how she was doing.

Man, we live weird lives, her own words echoed strangely in her mind.

"Side effects." Future-Wyatt grunted before slipping his arm around his Lucy's shoulders and holding her steady. She nearly jumped out of her skin the moment that Future-Wyatt's fingers brushed across Future-Lucy's arms, almost as if she could distantly feel the memory of that sensation herself. A memory she hadn't yet lived. It was jarring to say the least and she couldn't help but shiver, especially since the two of them hardly ever touched anymore in their present reality. The thought of it suddenly made her sad.

"You can feel it can't you." Future Lucy asked, voice somewhat labored and ragged as she took a few deep breaths to regain her composure before straightening out of Future-Wyatt's hold, who let her go gently but reluctantly. "You can feel what I feel."

Not trusting herself to speak, Lucy solemnly nodded.

"Just…don't get too close to us, I guess." Future-Wyatt instructed, taking a small step back from the Lucy and Wyatt staring back at him. Neither of the younger versions was inclined to disagree.

"The theory is as long as you don't touch the alternate version of yourself, you should be relatively safe." Future-Lucy explained tiredly.

"Relatively?" Lucy asked faintly.

"I guess we can add explosive migraines and linked sensory input to the Wed MD file under time travel related side effects for future doppelgangers." Jiya said dryly, stubbornly suppressing the urge to chuckle. She knew it sounded like something Rufus would say but couldn't bring herself to laugh if he wasn't there with her. At least not yet.

"So, in other words, there will be three of me running around, and that may or may not make the universe, or us, implode. Peachy." Wyatt scowled.

Future-Wyatt's eyes hardened as he gave himself a look that clearly said check your sass, but didn't deign to say anything out loud.

Present-Lucy, along with both soldiers, looked a shade or two paler at the implication, but they didn't shy away either. Like before they knew the risks and accepted them willingly, without hesitation.

"This is like folding a piece of paper twice, slicing a hole through it, and then trying to put it back together again the same way." Connor griped. "No big deal."

"Well why can't Connor or Denise go?" Jiya asked impatiently.

Connor looked somewhat uncomfortable at that suggestion, as he hadn't travelled since his brief interlope in 1930's Texas where he became the latest member of the team to take another person's life, a memory that continued to haunt him even if it had been a sweet-faced trigger-happy Rittenhouse sleeper. But even with that and his inherent cowardice towards time travelling in general, he also looked like he wouldn't back down if it was asked of him to go. He would do anything to get Rufus back, anything. It was his thoughtless, reckless inventions that started all this in the first place, so he figured it only fair that he help them make it right.

Meanwhile, Denise didn't even flinch. She wasn't offended by the proposal. Quite the opposite in fact; she had secretly always wanted an excuse to time travel.

"They can't." Future Lucy shook her head, and Denise fought the urge to sigh at being duped out of her first trip yet again. Meanwhile Connor looked ashamed at his own relief. "Neither of them were there the first time around, so they wouldn't know where to go. Plus, we need two soldiers on this mission. One to protect Jiya and one to warn the team."

"I lived in the 1880's for three years, alone. I can protect myself." Jiya spat, nearly startled by the unintentionally venomous quality of her own voice, but the future pair only looked at her with understanding.

"We know you can take care of yourself, Jiya." Future-Lucy said gently. "But you're our only pilot, and if something happens to you then Rittenhouse wins, and it's all over."

To that, Jiya had nothing to say. She couldn't decide if she was angrier at the fact that she was being coddled because she was an asset, or the fact that Future-Lucy was right. This was bigger than Jiya's newly developed tough girl, go it alone persona who had learned not to need anyone else in her life. This was about taking down Rittenhouse, as it always had been and should be, and she was an integral part of it.

But more than that, it was about saving Rufus. Protecting their family, and they couldn't continue to do that without her, or without him. Even after three years, she was still no likely match for a highly trained Rittenhouse operative in the field. It wasn't worth the unnecessary risk.

"You're right." She managed, eyes downcast. "And putting up a fight about it won't help get Rufus back."

But even with that neatly resolved, a loose thread still hung in the air. Or, to be more accurate, the unaddressed elephant in the room let out a mighty roar in the following quiet as the last order of business came to the forefront.

"So, how do we decide who goes with me?" Jiya was the one to finally ask the question on all their minds, her voice small and tentative, closer to the Jiya she had once been.

The three of them looked at each other, Flynn, Lucy, and Wyatt, eyes locked and faces taut as that single question relentlessly bounced between them like an incessant pin ball. It was not lost on any of them how ironic it was that the end all be all should come down to them three, to the awkward and silently acknowledged triangle that had formed between the three of them with Lucy at its center. Whatever connections lie there between her and the two men, however broken, damaged, or not fully realized, they were still there all the same. They all knew they were all willing to go and would all argue for why it should be them. It was just a matter of who made their case first.

And as it happened, Wyatt beat both Lucy and Flynn to the punch, but seemed to have no intention on hearing a rebuttal from either of them.

"There is no decision. Not for anybody else, anyway. I'm going. We are both going." Wyatt stated firmly, gesturing to his bearded counterpart. His future self's expression was unreadable, but he made no move to object.

"Like hell you are." Lucy had to keep herself from shouting as she marched over to Wyatt, wanting to knock a shred of sense into him.

"Wouldn't both versions of you going just increase the risk of some irreparable rip in the fabric of reality?" Flynn asked lazily. Even with his indifferent tone, Wyatt was shocked to hear any challenge from the other man at all, considering strained didn't even begin to sum up their tense relationship. But then, looking at the abject fear in Lucy's eyes, he could see that Flynn was only concerned because of what his death might do to Lucy, and he didn't know whether to feel touched or pained.

In the end, Wyatt settled on being grateful that there was someone looking out for her, and someone who had been looking out for her since the day Wyatt brought a Rittenhouse sleeper into the bunker.

"What if something happens to the two of you, and we just end up trading you for Rufus?" Lucy's voice trembled. After all he had done, to her and to the team, she still had the impossible capacity to care about him unconditionally, and he knew then and there that he had never deserved this woman. That the whole world would probably never deserve nor know all of the pure compassion and love stored in the damaged but ever beating heart of Lucy Preston.

"I'm willing to take that risk." Wyatt replied, steadfast and uncompromising. He had to hurt her to heal her, the most unforgivable irony of all.

"But I'm not." Lucy nearly sobbed, her throat tightening with unshed tears. "I can't lose anyone else."

He wanted so badly to reach out and take her into his arms, to pull her close and tell her that everything would be fine, but he knew that it wasn't a guarantee he could realistically make. More than that, he knew that he had forfeited the privilege to touch her that way long ago. Jessica's absence (or betrayal, to be more precise), didn't mean that the two of them could suddenly return to the same place they had been that night in Hollywood, 1941. After everything, he wasn't sure they would ever be able to recapture that moment. But he was sure that initiating intimate physical contact less than 48 hours after his wife defected to Rittenhouse was not the first step toward rebuilding their fragile relationship. So, he settled on taking her hand, and pretended not to notice when Flynn's eyes politely drifted away.

Wyatt's voice was soft. "Lucy, let me do this. Let me give Rufus back to Jiya, and to you, and I promise I'll do my best to bring myself back safely too."

She wavered uncertainly, but still wasn't convinced. "But why do you have to go alone?"

She nearly corrected herself and had the hysteric impulse to chuckle when she realized she'd implied that the two of him going together would be going alone, but laughter would not come to her lips. Not when his life was on the line.

"Why can't I go with you? Or Flynn or…her." Lucy indicated her future self with a slight nod of her head. But much like Wyatt's future counterpart, Future-Lucy made no move to interfere. It seemed their mission had been to deliver the message and offer their help but play no role in deciding how things would play out or who would sacrifice who. Maybe they had learned enough from doing that in the past already, and decided they wanted no part in the responsibility of choosing who would take the ultimate risk this time around. Lucy could hardly blame them.

"Because this is my fault Lucy!" He shouted angrily but regretted it when her hand flinched in his grasp. He struggled to carefully contain the inner rage which was all directed at himself. "None of this would have ever happened if I hadn't brought Jessica into the bunker. Nobody else should have to go back and clean up that mess but me. Flynn is injured, you're not combat-trained, and she…"

Wyatt raised his head to meet the eyes of Future Lucy, who's brown gaze looked stormy and forlorn, but intrigued all the same, and maybe even hopeful. And it was the cautious hope in her eyes, a tentative faith in him, that made Wyatt resolute in his choice.

"She's been through enough." He determined, eyes flicking between both Lucys. The fragile and the hardened, the present and the future, but both just as broken. "She's been through enough, and so have you."

His words stunned Lucy into silence, along with everyone else. But it was very telling when no one offered any further protest. She simply grabbed onto his hand that much tighter, and in her periphery she thought she could see their future counterparts doing the same. She was glad that if nothing else, Wyatt finally understood her. Understood that after all she had been subjected to, his loss was the final blow that nearly threatened to nearly push her over the edge, just like Rittenhouse had intended. It had forced her to put back what was left of her shattered heart together alone. Well, almost alone anyway, she thought casting a quick glance across the room at Flynn. He was pointedly not looking in her general direction, but she could see the pinched look on his face, the grieving ache in his green eyes. It was one of the few times that she could recall seeing his heart so completely exposed on his sleeve, all because he thought no one was paying attention to see it, but he was wrong. He looked as if he was resigning himself to the inevitability of Wyatt and Lucy, and like he had been a fool for ever thinking there was room for him in her life.

And she was struck with the sudden urge to tell him otherwise, but what exactly she would tell him she had no idea. Ironically, she needed more time. And for someone in her line of work, she always seemed to be running out of it.

Turning her attention back to Wyatt, she saw the knowing look in his eyes, and was struck by the idea that he seemed to know more about what was going on in her head than she did. He was reading her like a book and she couldn't even bring herself to mind. God, she would always love this man in her heart of hearts. This reckless, impossible, well-intentioned, noble man who had filled her heart and then broken it all in one fell swoop. But something between them had changed. Where there had been romance and magnetism there now remained compassion, affection, and maybe even the shaky foundations of a long-lost trust coming back to her. Things were far from mended between them to be sure, but this selfless gesture felt like the first step in something new, and it took her breath away.

"Let me do this for you." He repeated tenderly. "For everyone. Please."

She stared at him for a long moment, as if trying to memorize the lines of his face, the feeling of his fingers entwined with hers. It could have been seconds or minutes, Wyatt couldn't have cared to know the difference as her soft brown eyes bored into his own, but eventually a small watery smile tugged at her lips, and he knew what her answer was.

"Okay." She relented, before fiercely adding. "Just bring yourself back safely."

She realized her mistake as she saw the smirk spread across his face. "Yes ma'am."

But she could hardly call it a mistake since it was the first thing that day that had managed to bring a smile, even a small one, to her face. The world suddenly seemed a little brighter if the two of them were able to fall back into old patterns like that, even if things between them were no longer exactly the same.

"Why do I feel like we've been left out of some massive private joke." Denise asked suddenly, looking utterly lost.

"It's their thing." Jiya clarified.

Wyatt and Lucy heads snapped up in unison, playfully glaring at her. Well, Lucy's wide-eyed blush was definitely more playful than Wyatt's outright glowering, anyway.

She just shrugged in response. "Rufus told me."

And just like that, the lighthearted moment was gone, Rufus' absence a constant reminder of the task at hand. The mission was set, the soldiers had volunteered, and they had a pilot to save.

Clearing his throat as he began to move away from Future-Lucy, Future-Wyatt refocused the conversation. "There isn't any time to lose. Go change back into your Chinatown garb." He instructed his past self. "The less time we have to waste stealing clothes the better. You too Jiya."

The programmer briefly looked like she might be sick at the idea of dawning the dress that she knew was still stained with Rufus' blood, but offered no protest as she turned and marched out of the silo to her room.

All too soon the unlikely trio of Jiya, Wyatt, and Future-Wyatt were clambering into the upgraded lifeboat one by one, each taking a last fateful glance over their shoulder as they weren't entirely certain what they would be coming back to, or who would be making it back at all. The remaining members of the team, Future-Lucy included, stood at the perimeter of the hanger and solemnly waved them off as the metal rings began to grind and spin before the machine disappeared with a flash and a gust of wind.

Lucy realized that it was the very first instance that she had ever actually watched the lifeboat take off, and felt an odd sense of estrangement from the machine that had carried her through time for the past two years, like she was seeing it for the first time. She also knew that this was one of the few jumps where she wouldn't be along for the ride, but unlike Wyatt's joyride to the 1980's, this time they would be coming back to a different reality. Lucy's memories of the events of Chinatown would be altered, and she didn't know whether to be apprehensive or relieved. Would she feel the change as her memories shifted? Would she be aware of it at all, or would her recollections instantaneously reset the moment the lifeboat popped back into the bunker? It happened to Denise and Connor every time the team had jumped in the past, so clearly it couldn't be all that bad, but she just couldn't seem to wrap her head around it without letting her anxiety get the better of her. Some things, like Carol and Rufus' death, she would rather forget. But others, like her emotional breakdown in the alleyway with Flynn, she wasn't sure she was willing to surrender…

Later, long after the upgraded lifeboat had departed with Jiya and both Wyatts in tow, Lucy found herself sitting alone in the kitchen waiting for the moment that history would change, feeling far too restless and constrained to stay cooped up in one of the bedrooms. Her head was about to explode from the unsolvable, circular questions she kept asking herself, and she was about to go seek out a certain ex-terrorist's company when none other than Future-Lucy took a seat at the table across from herself.

"Um, hi." Lucy said, characteristically awkward as ever. "What's up?"

Future-Lucy smirked good naturedly. "Two PhD's and that's the best you've got? Gosh, I forgot how truly eloquent we are sometimes."

Lucy snorted indignantly. "Well it's not like anyone can really prepare you for meeting some future Tomb Raider version of yourself."

Future-Lucy rolled her eyes. "Rufus was right, you really do watch too much bad TV."

"That one's from a movie, actually." Lucy corrected soberly, Rufus' infectious smile flashing in her mind. "I miss him."

The older Lucy's face darkened with heartache. "Believe me, I've lived five years without him." She whispered despondently. "I know."

Looking at this woman, at all the anguish and cyclical grief she was apparently destined to endure, Lucy had never been more terrified for her future in her life. Not even the prospect of a future with Rittenhouse had scared her this much, because she knew she could and would fight back. But this, this just seemed like the inevitable. After all, how could there be a way out if her future was already literally staring her in the face?

Predictably, Future-Lucy seemed to know exactly what her past self was thinking. She also knew exactly what she needed to say.

Her future reflection waited a beat before asking, "Where is everybody?"

Lucy hastily wiped away tears she hadn't realized were forming in her eyes. "Denise needed to handle some business with Homeland Security, Connor took a bottle of rum to his room, and Flynn is…somewhere around here. Why do you ask?" She finished, glancing around nervously before she remembered who she was talking to. There were no facades that needed to be erected here. Everything she felt the other had already experienced, and the constant reminder of that was enough to make Lucy's head spin.

"I wanted to talk to you alone." Future Lucy explained, as she reached around her waist and fumbled through the pack hanging on the back of her belt. "There's something I need to give you."

"What is it?" Lucy asked anxiously as an endless stream of possibilities flitted through her mind. Although in retrospect, she should have been expecting this hand off all along.

Before she could let her imagination get the best of her Future-Lucy finally grasped what she was looking for, withdrew it from her pouch and carefully placed it on the table top before sliding it over to Lucy.

There it was, all ruffled and dog-eared pages, loopy handwriting, black leather binding, and her initials outlined in conspicuous gold lettering on the bottom righthand corner. It looked exactly like she remembered, even if she hadn't yet written it.

After all this time, future-Lucy had just given her the journal.