"FLYNN!" Lucy yelled up the steps, leaning against the bannister. "Flynn. Come on. You have got to get a move on!"

"I told you you should have let me adjust the clock" Amy sighed from the couch, her bag next to her as she stared at her phone.

"FLYNN!"

"I'm coming Mom! Just hold on. He's not even here yet!" Lucy rolled her eyes as her daughter yelled from upstairs. She stuck her face out of her room, glaring at her down the steps.

"I don't even want to go, Mom!"

"Flynn, we have talked about this. It's your dad's week and he's got this trip planned so you need…" Her daughter sighed and slammed her bedroom door.

"I'm going to take that damn thing off it's hinges, I swear" Lucy said under her breath, moving into the kitchen.

This whole divorced parenting thing was hard, but add preteen, hormonal girls to the mix and some days Lucy thought she should take up heavy drinking. She loved her girls more than life itself, but she was kind of looking forward to the break. No classes to teach, no 12 year old girls yelling at each other across the small townhouse. Just a week of peace and quiet. Just what she needed to finish grading these finals and catching up on her Netflix queue.

She rested her head in her hands. They had been separated for almost two years, divorced for almost one. The fraction had started after that last trip in the Lifeboat. She got back and grieved like she should have all those years prior, but never did because there was too much to focus on – stopping Rittenhouse and then the burgeoning relationship with Wyatt then the actual wedding then her immediately getting pregnant with the girls. There was no time till that last trip to Sao Paulo. She spent two days in bed, remembering the feel of her lips on his face. That handsome, sad, angry face. Wyatt tried. He tried so hard at the beginning. He did anything and everything to bring her out of it. But in the end, he realized that it was a losing battle. There was no anger. No animosity. They cared about each other very much and a part of her would always love him. But she couldn't get past the part of her, the larger part it seemed, that loved a man that would always be a memory. Wyatt was her best friend, her partner, the father of her girls. He lived just two streets over, making it easy to parent the girls and to be there when they needed each other. She was genuinely happy for him when he met Madelyn almost 10 months ago. She was sweet and kind to the girls. Amy was glad that her dad found someone. Flynn, on the other hand…

"Why are you making me go with her?"

Lucy pulled her head up. "Flynn, stop. Mady is lovely. You should really give her a chance." If Lucy didn't know better, she would swear this child had inherited some biological traits of her namesake. The look of utter disdain followed by a sigh and a dramatic turn on her heel – she would have sworn that he had somehow blessed her with some of his flair for the dramatic.

"Dad's here" Amy yelled from the living room.

"Please tell me he's alone." Flynn replied, putting her duffle on her shoulder.

"Shut up, Flynn."

"She's buying your love, Amy. Don't be a fool."

"I'm sorry some of us enjoy the girly things in life and like going shopping for clothes and make-up."

Lucy opened the door. "They are all yours" she said, smiling at Wyatt. He laughed and walked in. Regardless of the bickering, they both loved their father to the moon and back. Both girls gave him a hug. "You two have everything?"

"You know I do" Amy said, leaning her head toward her sister.

"Shut up Amy!"

"Do you have your phone charger because you aren't using mine if you don't." They all watched Flynn quickly check her bag then run back upstairs. Amy shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"Please be nice"Lucy said, giving her daughter a hug and kiss on the cheek.

"I will do my best but sometimes Flynn makes it too easy" she said, waving goodbye and heading out to the car. Flynn ran back down, shoving her charger in her bag, trying to run out the door. Lucy grabbed her other daughter, pulling her in for a hug. "Flynn, behave."

Flynn sighed, wrapping one arm around her mom. "I wish you were coming with us" she said.

"There's plenty of room, if you want to join us, Lucy" Wyatt said from behind them. Lucy gave her daughter a kiss and shook her head. "No. Really. A nice, quiet break is exactly what I need."

"But you will be alone for Christmas!" Flynn said.

"No. I told you. I'm going to go have dinner with Jiya, Rufus and the kids. I'm going to finish up these papers and get some much needed sleep and maybe clean that pit you call a room."

"That sounds like the lamest Christmas ever" Flynn replied.

"Being able to watch whatever I want on the TV down here? That sounds like heaven." Flynn rolled her eyes, heading out toward the car, immediately yelling at her sister about being in the front seat.

Wyatt looked at her. "Lucy, really. You know Mady won't mind. Her family is great."

Lucy nodded. "I know. She called me yesterday and texted me about it all week. Wyatt, I swear, I'm good. Make them get off their phones. Make them go ski or hike or something, ok?"

"I will. Only if you make me a promise."

She leaned against the door. "What's that?"

"Please don't wallow the whole break. Go get a massage or a pedicure or something. Don't sit and this house and brood the whole break. Please. Flynn is really worried about you being alone over Christmas."

The tears stung her eyes. This time of year was the worst. If she closed her eyes, she could picture every detail of that last time, that moment in that bar in São Paulo. "I will do my best" she choked out.

Wyatt sighed, giving her a hug and a kiss on her temple. "If you change your mind at any point, there's an extra bedroom in our cabin and you can be there in less than 4 hours. I don't care. You call me and we will get there, even if it's Christmas Eve."

She pushed him out the door. "I know, I know. You better go before there is bloodshed in your car" she said, motioning toward the arguing girls in the black Jeep. He waved and ran to the car. Lucy heard a few choice words from Flynn as he got in the car. Yet another thing she would swear came from him – that temper and ability to verbally berate someone till they cried or left. She shut the front door, taking a moment to relish in the silence, knowing she only had a second before the demons started creeping in.


The perks of a remodeled attic that was now her home office, the girls hated it up here. So she never worried about them coming up here and messing with her work. The drawbacks – no matter the time of year, it was hot. She did most of her work with the windows open and in shorts and a tank top. Tonight was no different. Even on December 21st, she sat here with all the windows open, a cold wind pushing through as she graded her papers and ate her veggie pizza, loving that she didn't have to listen to anyone complain about all the vegetables. Tomorrow, she planned to cook fish without having to hear about how gross the house smelled.

She also loved how quiet the neighborhood got at night this time of year. During the summer, it was a hub of family and activity and grill outs. But this time of year, it was all inside celebrations, which made her having her windows open peaceful. It also helped the house backed up to a large line of trees. When her and Wyatt had split, their main concern was keeping the girls at their schools at all times, regardless of who had them and being able to live near each other. This neighborhood, with a large array of activity and privacy, it was the best of both worlds.

She sighed, leaning back in her chair, rubbing her neck. The papers were starting to blur together as she was reading them. She needed a break. She argued with herself in her head. She had promised Wyatt she wouldn't brood during the break. But sometimes, when the voice at the back of her head was telling her she was forgetting him – she dug into the bottom drawer of her desk, pulling out a lone picture.

Once. Denise had taken a group shot of them once. Wyatt procured it for her, thinking it would help seeing his face, to help her move on. It did help. It made her realize that the loss she felt when she saw him was insurmountable, it seemed. She had told him she had gotten rid of the picture. And she tried to. She really did. But she couldn't. She stared at his face, standing behind her. Lucy couldn't remember the why of the picture anymore. She knew it had taken some begging and pleading from them to Denise to even take it. And her wide smile was because of a joke he had made. She couldn't remember the details anymore, but she knew that smile was because of him.

She felt the tears coming as she ran her fingers over his face in the picture. She tried not to do this often. Doing this made it hard to move forward, but being alone for the next few stretch of days, she thought it might be ok.

Her eyes shot up when she heard a sound from outside. A sound she couldn't place but was familiar down in her core. It took her a moment to place it, that familiar whoosh for lack of a better term. But it did click in her brain after a moment.

"No way" she whispered to herself, running down the steps from her office, quickly grabbing shoes and a jacket before running out the back door. She paused in the yard, looking around, thinking maybe for a moment she made it up, was hearing it in her head. But then she noticed some strange lights coming from the trees behind the house. So, she ran. Hard.

Her chest hurt when she hit a clearing she never knew was there before tonight. And what she saw took her breath away.

A mothership. Or a Lifeboat. Or whatever it was being called. It was there, in front of her. It wasn't the actual Mothership – she had seen that being taken apart. It wasn't their Lifeboat – it looked just different enough for her know it wasn't theirs.

The door opened and she couldn't breath. Couldn't move. Couldn't even think. One person emerged. A young woman. Late teens or early 20s. Dark hair. She looked around and her eyes landed on Lucy and she smiled.

"Oh, thank God! I was worried – this is the first time I've attempted something like this. All my other trips have been successful, but coming to someplace well-developed, where people lived… but here you are" she said as jumped out of the ship, walking toward her.

Lucy knew the look on her face must be priceless, but she couldn't help it.

"Lucy Preston. I'm a big fan" she said, holding her hand out for Lucy to shake. Lucy did it, still not being able to really understand what was happening.

"Lucy?"

Lucy shook her head. "What… I just… what… how… WHAT?" The younger woman laughed. "Cool. I thought this might be your reaction."

"Ok. Ok. Ok." Lucy started pacing in front of this woman, trying to make sense of what was happening. "Ok. Ok. I just… ok. Ok. Let's start with who are you?"

"Paulina."

Lucy pointed behind her, as the ship. "And that's…"

Paulina looked over her shoulder. "That's mine."

"And it…"

"Works? Yeah. It works. Perfectly."

"Why are you here? Why did you come here?" Paulina turned back to Lucy, cocking her head to the side. "Lucy, I'm here to help. To fix this. I'm here to help you get Flynn back."