A/N: Many thanks to those of you who followed/favorited/reviewed 'Homecoming'! In preparing to write the much-requested sequel, I got to thinking that it would be fun (and maybe a bit helpful) to write a prequel first, in order to answer some of the many questions that y'all had about the backstory. So here's the start of that, for what it's worth, with much more to come. FYI, this is a LYATT story, with canon divergence starting after S1x9. ALSO, here be romance, yes, as well as humor, but also LOTS of ANGST in order to properly set the stage for 'Homecoming'.

The second that the Lifeboat door slid open, Lucy scrambled out through the hatch. Not even bothering to wait for the retractable stairs to be shoved into place (let alone a helping hand from one of her teammates), she leapt to the floor, and sprinted from the hangar.

"Lucy, wait! Lucy!" Wyatt hollered after her as he, too, clambered from the time machine. But she either hadn't heard or was purposely choosing to ignore him. Wyatt strongly suspected the latter. "Damn it!" he swore under his breath, clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides in frustration.

"Somebody want to tell me what all that was about?" Agent Christopher asked, glancing between the obviously irritated soldier and the rather chagrined-looking pilot who was now making his own more reasonably-paced descent from the Lifeboat. "Did something happen to Lucy on the mission?"

"No, but it's her birthday today, so you might want to watch what you say to her," Rufus grumbled. "Apparently turning 35 means certain subjects are no longer funny."

"Certain subjects?" Agent Christopher frowned in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"I think what Rufus meant to say is that he's a total dumbass, and should really learn to keep his big mouth shut about things that are none of his damn business!" Wyatt snarled, glaring intensely at his teammate.

"It was just a joke, dude!" Rufus argued in self-defense. "How was I supposed to know she was so sensitive about that?"

"Sensitive about what? Rufus, what exactly did you say to Lucy?" Agent Christopher demanded, narrowing her eyes at him.

"I may have, uh, suggested that she and Wy…." He glanced over at Wyatt, and quickly reconsidered his words, not wanting to test the earnestness of the threat clearly written in the other man's eyes. "Umm…that the alarm on her biological clock was about to go off, and that she might want to, uh, do something about that soon?"

Judging by her loud gasp, and the death stare she was currently leveling at him, Rufus figured that his boss hadn't found his attempt at mid-life birthday humor any more amusing than Lucy or Wyatt had. Damn – tough crowd! Jiya would have laughed, he thought. Probably. Depending on the day, and her mood, and….

"OK, so maybe it wasn't my best joke," Rufus grudgingly conceded. "But you've got to admit that Lucy's been acting pretty damn weird lately, and I just thought teasing her a little might break her out of whatever funk she's been in."

Neither Agent Christopher nor Wyatt responded. The matching scowls on their faces certainly spoke volumes, however.

Rufus took that as his cue to exit the proverbial stage, before his disgruntled audience starting throwing tomatoes (or, in Wyatt's case, punches). "Yeah, I'm just gonna…see ya!" He dashed off, having no particular destination in mind other than 'away from here'.

Watching Rufus go with a long-suffering sigh and a slightly disgusted shake of her head, Agent Christopher turned to Wyatt. "Sometimes I seriously wonder if his mother dropped him on his head as a child. How Jiya puts up with that mouth of his all the time is completely beyond me."

Wyatt remained silent, mulling over Rufus' words. His friend was right, of course – Lucy had been acting strange lately. Granted, Rufus' 'joke' had been terrible (and terribly intrusive). But being so upset by it that she'd raced off before Rufus could even try to apologize? That just wasn't like Lucy. At least it didn't used to be. Recently, however, it seemed more the norm than the exception for her.

Reflecting on the past two days, Wyatt mentally enumerated all of the odd behaviors that he'd observed in Lucy just on this last mission. Her frequent disappearances – without warning or subsequent explanation – had kept him on edge the entire trip, and (naturally) had led to more than their usual share of arguments. After all, how could he possibly protect her if he didn't know where the hell she was at any given time? Then there was the whole food thing. Lucy had never been picky before about what they ate on these trips, as long as they ate something. But damn if she hadn't rejected every last bit of what was on offer, including the bread. Who the hell didn't eat bread, for god's sake? Throw in her flat-out refusal to share a hotel room with him and Rufus, and her total freak-out when he'd tried to hug her that morning, and well, Wyatt was feeling more than a little concerned.

Clearly something was up with Lucy, but Wyatt had yet to figure it out. Whatever it was, though, she apparently had no desire to discuss it with him. He'd tried – several times now – to get her to open up to him, but to no avail. Which was odd in and of itself, considering that she typically shared everything with him. Well, maybe not everything, but pretty damn close.

If he were a braver man, Wyatt would have already locked Lucy in a room, and refused to let her out until she started talking. But given the current ambiguity of their relationship status (thanks to Flynn, things had been stop-and-go between them the past few months – a circumstance that frustrated Wyatt to no end), he'd been too afraid of screwing things up with her to do so. Unfortunately, it wasn't doing either of them any good to keep ignoring the elephant in the room.

Whatever the consequences, Wyatt needed to find out what was going on with Lucy, and try to help her through it. That's what they'd always done for each other, wasn't it? And now that they were…. What were they, exactly? Boyfriend and girlfriend? Friends-with-that-one-time-after-Arkansas-benefits and a sincere desire (on his part, at least) to be more? Well, whatever they were, he was sure that talking about things like this came with the territory. Only maybe not today – it was Lucy's birthday, and she deserved to have what remained of it go better than it had so far.

"Master Sergeant?" Agent Christopher waved a hand repeatedly in front of his face, startling him out of his reverie.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, what did you say?" he answered, slightly disturbed at only just having realized that she'd been speaking to him the entire time.

"Lucy – is she alright? Should I be concerned about her for any reason?" his boss reiterated.

"No need to be concerned, ma'am. There's nothing wrong with Lucy that a little downtime won't fix," Wyatt reassured her. And perhaps, he thought, that wasn't even a lie. Maybe Lucy simply needed a nice long break from the insanity that had become their daily lives. Wyatt desperately wished that he could give her that for her birthday. But for now, a fun evening out with their friends (assuming that Flynn didn't decide to jump again so soon) would have to suffice.

Her traitorous stomach finally empty, Lucy stumbled to the bathroom sink. Twisting on the cold water, she quickly rinsed her mouth, and splashed the sweat from her brow before drying her damp hands on the billowing skirt of her dress.

That had been a close one, hadn't it? Far too close, in fact. Thankfully, few of her coworkers were likely to question her mad dash from the Lifeboat hangar, it being absolutely no business of theirs. Unfortunately, the one person who was likely to question her rapid exit was also the one person she really wished hadn't been paying attention.

Hopefully Wyatt would simply chalk it up to Rufus' horribly insensitive (though well-timed, as far as she was concerned) 'joke'. But what about next time, or the time after that? How much longer could she hope to keep this up before Wyatt finally figured it out – before everyone figured it out? Dang it, she was totally screwed, wasn't she?

Snorting at her particularly apt mental choice of words, Lucy buried her face in her trembling hands and willed herself not to start crying again. She'd done too much of that lately as it was, and dissolving into a blubbering mess right now certainly wouldn't do her any good, would it? Not when her friends were awaiting her return so that they could move on to the supposedly fun portion of the evening that they had planned. Nope, the next round of her pity party would just have to wait until after her birthday party was over.

"Hey, birthday girl! You OK in there?" Jiya's concerned voice sounded through the bathroom door.

Forcing a smile to her face in spite of her inner tumult, Lucy unlocked the door and yanked it open. "Oh yeah!" she assured her in the cheeriest voice she could muster. "Just, you know, taking advantage of the modern plumbing to freshen up a bit."

"Yeah, I imagine the 1850s were rather lacking in that respect, weren't they? Not to mention a dozen other ways that would make it complicated to be a woman," Jiya sympathized.

"You have no idea, and trust me – you don't want to!" Lucy laughed halfheartedly, thinking back over the many ways she'd been forced to improvise over the past couple days in order to tend her personal needs. Between her bulky, overly restrictive clothing, the total lack of privacy that came from traveling with two men, and – yes – the absence of anything even remotely resembling modern amenities and facilities, it had definitely been 'complicated', to say the very least.

"Speaking of which, let's get you out of that archaic dress." Jiya started off towards the wardrobe bay. "Somehow I can't see it going over well in the club scene."

"The club scene?" Lucy asked in confusion, trailing obediently behind her friend.

"Yeah. Rufus, Wyatt, and I thought it would be fun to take you club hopping tonight, since you mentioned a few weeks ago that you'd never really done that before."

"Oh. That sounds, uh, interesting," Lucy fibbed. In truth, it sounded to her like a recipe for disaster, given her current physical condition. Alcohol…hours-long restroom lines…loud, thumping music…the high probability that Wyatt would want to dance with her. Shoot, what was she going to do?

"You know, when you said you were planning a birthday party for me, I thought it would be something a bit quieter, like maybe pizza and a board game at your place," Lucy ventured, hoping her friend would take the hint.

"That's your idea of a birthday party?" Jiya asked sardonically, quirking an eyebrow at Lucy.

"Well, and cake and ice cream, too, of course. Maybe some, uh, balloons and party hats and blowers…." Lucy replied. Even as the words were tumbling from her mouth, she recognized how lame they probably sounded to the younger, inarguably hipper woman.

"Should we get you a piñata, too? What are you, like, six years old?" Jiya scoffed. "Seriously, Lucy, we can eat pizza and play board games any old night. It's your birthday, woman – live a little! Besides, we already have our route all planned out, and we rented a limo so none of us has to play designated driver."

"A limo?" Lucy squeaked. She knew that those weren't cheap to rent – not on a Saturday night in the city at least. Dang it, she couldn't let her friends (who were just as grossly underpaid as she was) be out that kind of money for no good reason. Well, no good reason that they were currently aware of anyway. She'd simply have to hope that her body cooperated for a few hours, and maybe come up with a few creative excuses for not participating in certain activities. Not that that was anything new lately. "Alright," she reluctantly agreed, "I'm in."

"Yes!" Jiya pumped her fist in the air exuberantly, steering Lucy into an empty changing room, and following her inside. "Wait until you see the dress that I picked out for you," she gushed. "It's formfitting in all the right places. I promise, Wyatt won't be able to take his eyes off of you all night. Happy Birthday to you, right?"

Great, Lucy thought sarcastically as Jiya began to unbutton her antiquated dress. This night just kept getting better and better, didn't it? A formfitting dress guaranteed to attract the exact sort of attention from Wyatt that she didn't want right now? Oh yeah – happy birthday to her indeed!

Half an hour later, Lucy found herself groaning in extreme discomfort as Jiya attempted, for the third time, to zip up the slinky, modern dress that she'd chosen for Lucy to wear for their evening out. "It's no use, Jiya – it doesn't fit," she moaned somewhat forlornly.

"I don't get it. The tag says it's a size 2," Jiya insisted, continuing to yank at the zipper.

"Yeah, well, I'm not exactly a size 2 anymore, am I?" Lucy snapped. "Don't tell me you didn't notice when you were tying my corset the other day that you had to leave it a lot looser than usual."

"OK, yeah, I noticed," Jiya admitted reluctantly. "But hey – who am I to judge? I mean, with your hectic schedule, you practically live on fast food these days, right? And goodness knows you never get enough sleep. So it's only natural that you've put on a little weight. Don't worry, though – as soon as we catch Flynn, I'm sure it will all fall right back off."

If only it were that simple. Though grateful for her friend's sweet attempt at making her feel better about her expanding waistline, Lucy couldn't allow Jiya to labor under the gross misconception that she'd simply 'put on a little weight'. It had nothing whatsoever to do with vanity, but rather with practicality.

Considering how unsuccessful the 'time team' had been at apprehending Garcia Flynn so far, it wasn't likely that the missions would be ending any time soon. And that meant that, for the foreseeable future at least, Jiya would be helping Lucy on and off with her often complicated, period-appropriate costumes. Though the woman hadn't made the connection yet, Lucy knew that it was only a matter of time before she did.

"Um, about that…." Lucy paused and nibbled at her lower lip anxiously, suddenly realizing that it might be bad form to share her news with Jiya when she hadn't even discussed the situation with Wyatt yet. On the other hand, it would be nice to have someone in her corner – someone she could actually talk to about her complicated predicament. Plus, if Jiya was in on her secret, Lucy might actually stand a chance of getting through the evening ahead without inadvertently spilling it.

"Yes?" Jiya asked somewhat distractedly. She was determined to beat that zipper into submission, if for no other reason than that her friend deserved to feel beautiful on her birthday.

Reaching back to pull Jiya's hands away from the hopelessly too-tight contraption, Lucy whirled around to face her. "Look at me, Jiya. I mean, really look." She inhaled a deep breath for courage, and then stepped out of the overly snug dress.

At first puzzled by what exactly Lucy wanted her to see, Jiya's eyes quickly zeroed in on Lucy's stomach, and the unmistakable swelling there that her friend had just revealed. "Is that…are you…Oh my god, Lucy!" she stammered, her eyes growing round in astonishment.

"Yeah." Lucy winced at her friend's reaction. That pretty much summed it up, didn't it? And Jiya didn't even know the half of it.

"How far?" Unthinkingly, Jiya reached out, stopping just short of the small but obvious baby bump that Lucy was sporting.

"18 weeks." Though feeling incredibly vulnerable, Lucy also couldn't help but smile at the expression of total disbelief on her friend's face, or her obvious desire to touch the source of her bafflement. Sympathizing with the shell-shocked woman (Lucy was still expecting – hoping even – to wake up one morning and find out that this had just been one long, incredibly stressful dream), Lucy reached for Jiya's hands, and settled them gently over her belly.

"How? I mean, I know how, but…. Geez, woman, why the heck didn't you tell me?" Jiya squealed.

Permission granted, Jiya smoothed her hands over her friend's distended abdomen. 18 weeks? Seriously? It must have taken all kinds of crazy effort on Lucy and Wyatt's parts to keep this a secret for so long, especially from Rufus. "Wait, does Rufus know?" Jiya blurted. "If so, I might just have to kill him for not telling me!"

"Um, no, you're the first person I've told, actually," Lucy quietly confided.

"Well, the first person after Wyatt, right?" Marveling at the fact that her friend was growing a whole new person inside her body, Jiya could barely contain her excitement. "Come on, Lucy, I need details, like now!" she screeched in delight. "How did you tell Wyatt? Did you do it in some totally adorable way, or was he, like, there when you took the test? How did he react? I bet he fainted, right? Please tell me he fainted! Oh my gosh, I'd have totally paid money to see that! Wait – does this mean I get to be an auntie? It does, doesn't it? And Rufus gets to be an uncle! Oh my gosh, Lucy, I'm so happy for you guys!"

Lucy didn't think that she'd ever seen a bigger grin on anyone's face than the one Jiya was currently wearing. Consequently, it nearly broke her heart to have to burst her friend's bubble of elation. But it simply couldn't be helped. Gripping both of Jiya's hands in hers, she gently removed them from her body, and turned away from her friend. "I, um…." Lowering her eyes to the floor, she swallowed hard against the golfball-sized lump of sadness and regret forming in her throat. "Actually, Wyatt doesn't even…."

"You know what?" Jiya interrupted. "Hold that thought for a minute, OK? I just realized that the guys are probably waiting for us, and you're not even dressed yet. So let me just go swap this…." She held the ill-fitting dress aloft. "...Out for something even more beautiful, and then you can tell me all about it, alright? I'll be right back, I promise."

Before Lucy could even think to respond, Jiya pushed the changing room door open, and scurried from the room, determined to find something that would show off Lucy's darling little baby bump to advantage.

Humming to herself as she searched through the costume racks, Jiya couldn't stop thinking about how thrilled she was for Lucy and Wyatt. While some might consider choosing to have a child together a pretty reckless move for two people who'd only recently realized that they were in love, Jiya knew better. Lucy and Wyatt were as close to 'meant to be' as anything she'd ever seen in her life, and as far as she was concerned, this baby was a natural extension of that. Besides, if there was anything that she'd learned in the last year, it was that time was precious. Good for Lucy and Wyatt for not wanting to waste a second of it!

Soon happily ensconced in her daydreams of having a niece or nephew to spoil, Jiya almost didn't notice when Rufus stepped up behind her. Luckily, her boyfriend wasn't quite as stealthy as he believed himself to be.

"Hey, you and Lucy about ready to go?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist, and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "The limo's already here, and Wyatt's pretty anxious to get going. He says to tell you that if you girls aren't out there in the next five minutes, you're going to have to hoof it."

"Right. Well, you just tell Master Sergeant Studly that his baby mama needs a few more minutes to make herself beautiful for him, OK?" Jiya turned and pressed a quick kiss to her boyfriend's lips. "We'll be out just as soon as I find Lucy a dress that fits. Which, come to think of it, might take more than a few minutes. I mean, it's not like Mason planned on Lucy getting pregnant when he ordered these outfits, right?"

"Um…." Rufus stared down at her, blinking repeatedly. "Did you…." He shook his head as if to dislodge an errant thought. "I must be more tired than I thought, because there's no way you said what I think you just said."

"Oops!" Jiya giggled. "I forgot that Lucy said she hadn't told you yet. Well, I guess the cat's out of the bag now, right? Surprise! You're going to be an uncle! Isn't that awesome?"

Watching as Rufus' face rapidly contorted through a series of expressions, none of which seemed to reflect excitement, Jiya began to feel concerned. "Are you OK?" she finally asked.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, no." He alternately nodded and shook his head. "Yeah. Not really, no."

"What's wrong? You don't like the idea of being an uncle?" she teased him. "I mean, I know you probably think that makes you, like, really old or something, but come on. This is exciting, Rufus! Lucy and Wyatt are going to have a baby!"

"Um, about that," Rufus finally replied after a long pause, his tone far more serious than Jiya would have expected. "Did Lucy also happen to mention that she hasn't told Wyatt yet?"

"What are you talking about?" Certain that he must be joking, Jiya smacked Rufus' arm. "Of course Wyatt knows! I mean, she's 18 weeks along, for goodness sake. How could he not know by now?"

"Yeah, well, as unlikely as it seems, the fact is that I spend pretty much 24-7 with those two," he retorted. "So trust me when I tell you that Wyatt definitely does not know that Lucy's pregnant."

"Lucy's what?"

Jiya and Rufus cringed simultaneously at the sound of the strident, unmistakably pissed-off query from the man whose father-to-be status they'd just been discussing.

"Well, crap," Rufus muttered. "Apparently he does now."