A/N: Written for Timeless Fanfic Prompts. Prompt 1: It's Lucy's first Christmas without her sister (erased from existence) and her mom (Rittenhouse member) at her side. Seeing her sad, Wyatt and/or Rufus decide to cheer her up.
This was the time of year that she was supposed to be celebrating. But they just had a hectic few days chasing after Emma and her team in the mid-1800s, and Lucy nearly forgot about Christmas until they arrived back in the present.
They were gone longer than normal, and to keep up some sense of normalcy, Denise had arranged an office Christmas party, in addition to a week off after the team briefed them on the mission. Of course, they needed to be on standby in case the Mothership went out. But other than that, they were on strict orders for rest and relaxation.
Between the briefing and the office party, Lucy's mind was elsewhere, and she nearly forgot about her sister.
That is, until someone mentioned Amy's favorite Christmas movie- The Holiday. She didn't even catch who said it, but it immediately struck a chord with Lucy and her breath caught in her throat.
Amy appreciated any and every rom-com, but she always made Lucy watch The Holiday with her. Every year. Even when Lucy complained last year that they watched it for the better part of the last decade. What she wouldn't give to have Amy with her now, insisting on watching that movie.
That is how Lucy found herself locked in the bathroom at work, holding back tears. And failing miserably. She used the back of her hand to wipe away stray tears when she heard a few knocks at the door.
"Luce," Wyatt spoke through the door. "Are you alright?"
"No," she said with a hiccup.
"Can I come in?"
She let out another hiccup. "I guess."
She shoved off the wall and crossed the small space, flipping the lock on the door.
He rushed in and embraced her in a tight hug. "I've got you, Luce."
She broke from those four words, crying tears she desperately tried to hold back. He rubbed her back and just held her tighter.
She didn't know how long they stayed like that, but he held her until her tears subsided.
He pulled back slightly, wiping the last remnants of the tears on her cheek with his thumb.
"What do you say we go home? I can pick up your favorite ice cream and we can just cuddle up and watch a movie. Or I can get wine, if you'd prefer," he suggested with the tilt of his eyebrow.
The corners of Lucy's lips perked up slightly, considering his offer.
"Definitely wine." Her eyebrows furrowed, and she opened her mouth, but then promptly closed it.
Wyatt lightly grazed her cheek with his thumb, watching her eyelids flutter closed. "What is it?"
She smiled and her eyes brightened just the smallest amount. "Can we get both? And maybe Chinese food?"
He laughed and pulled her in for a hug. "Anything you want, Luce," he spoke into her hair. "Anything you want."
A little while later, and a few pit stops, they arrived at Lucy's apartment, which had unofficially become their home. Not that they made moving in together official, but Wyatt spent every night there and eventually ended up with a pile of his clothes in one of her drawers and his toothbrush in her cup holder, next to hers.
Wyatt unloaded the small amount of groceries, poured wine for the two of them, and got plates to split the Chinese food.
Lucy didn't have the mental energy to do much of anything, after her breakdown about Amy. She simply sank into the couch and waited for Wyatt.
Wyatt very carefully balanced the wine glasses in one hand and plates and the bag of food in the other. He set everything on the coffee table and placed a kiss to her cheek, feeling her smile underneath his lips.
"So, what movie should I grab?" He asked.
"Can we watch The Holiday?"
He narrowed his eyes at her. "I thought that made you upset? When you heard Eliza mention it at the party?"
"It did," she admitted with a sigh. "But I want to remember her, and this is my way of carrying on our tradition. Even if she's not here."
Wyatt selected it in her movie collection and popped the disc into the blu ray player.
He joined her on the couch and they watched the movie together, with a few breaks for more wine and then bathroom breaks (because of the wine).
The movie credits were rolling before he spoke. "Do you feel a little better?"
She rested her head on his shoulders. "A little bit, yeah. Thank you for tonight."
It was then that Wyatt decided to tell her their plan. Agent Christopher gave him permission to share the plan with Lucy earlier that evening.
He pulled her in a little tighter. "Hey Luce, I think we've found a way for you to get Amy back."
She turned quickly to face him, and her eyes went wide. "What? We already tried that, and it didn't work." They went back three separate times over the course of the year that Lucy's mother and Amy's father met- or were supposed to meet.
They failed each time, because Emma and her team interfered.
"We're going to try something different. Agent Christopher approached me about a top-secret mission a few weeks ago. I've been spearheading the project since then." He traced patterns on her skin that was exposed from her sweater falling off her shoulder, relishing in her company while it lasted.
He took a deep breath and continued. "I'm assembly another team with Jiya as the pilot. They're going to go back to the Hindenburg and stop Flynn before he changed the events there. We can't go back, but with our knowledge of events, another team can go back and take him out before he helps with the landing crew."
She tilted her head and was trying to process what he said. "So, we will have gone back to the Hindenburg, but they'll have already stopped Flynn and his team when we arrive in 1937. Thereby keeping history intact. And I'll have my sister back." She smiled and exhaled a sigh of relief.
Her happiness was short lived, once she realized the implications that would have on their present-day lives. "That means that we won't be working together, and we likely wouldn't even know each other after that," she said with a shaky breath.
Wyatt pulled her into a hug. "But you'll have your sister back. Everything will go back to normal."
"But you might not be part of that life." Lucy thought she was all cried out for the evening, but fresh tears threatened to fall.
Wyatt's voice choked, "It's the only way to make things right. And who knows, maybe we'll cross paths again."
"You can't know that," she sobbed.
"I can hope." He rubbed her back, trying to calm her down.
Eventually she extracted herself from his grasp. She brought her hands up to frame his face and placed a gentle kiss to his lips. "I might have an idea." She let her head fall back on the couch and ran her hands over her forehead. "Holy shit, this just might work," she announced.
Wyatt placed his hand on her knee and used his other to tilt her chin to face him. His eyes searched her own. "Luce, babe, what are you talking about?"
Her eyes lit up and she placed her hands over his. "What if, instead of going back to the Hindenburg, they go back to the night my parents - my mom and Amy's dad - met? It will have the least impact on us," she said motioning between the two of them.
They had started dating somewhere after Emma stole the Mothership, but before they went back in time to attempt to reintroduce her parents. They would joke with the team that they've been dating for eighty years. Lucy couldn't give that up, not even for her sister. Not when there was another way.
"And we'll have already brought down most of Rittenhouse by then," she added.
Wyatt was startled by her revelation. He didn't know why he didn't think of it before. "Lucy you're a genius!" He pulled her flush against his chest and peppered kisses to her hair. "It might actually work."
"See, I told you."
A few months later, they would have no recollection of their Christmas without Amy. Jiya finally made enough consecutive and successful test jumps before they cleared her for fieldwork; it had taken nearly a year to complete the training.
Lucy's plan worked, and their secondary team went back to ensure that their parents met by preventing Emma and her team from interfering. They tried to prevent her mother from getting sick, but that part didn't go according to plan.
Lucy went into that decision that she might lose her mother, by getting her sister back. But with what incriminating evidence they uncovered, Lucy had no regrets about that decision.
One day Lucy woke up, tucked into Wyatt's side and her legs tangled with his. Her sister was back, and her mother had passed away a few months prior.
She didn't know any other reality.
The only reason she found out was because they got called into Mason Industries. Agent Christopher had sent the secondary team with a flash drive that detailed all their missions (as backups in case they affected additional missions), as well as individual messages that they recorded to themselves.
Lucy watched the video of herself, going over all the details of her relationship with Wyatt and how he was truly there for her, every step of the way. She already loved him, but that made her appreciate him so much more.
The next Christmas, Lucy celebrated with her sister and her new fiancée Wyatt.
They still had a long way to go with Rittenhouse, but at least she had her family.
