A/N: So a couple of lovely reviewers on AO3 and FFNet suggested they'd like to read a tag scene or sequel to In The Foxhole where Wyatt finally tells Lucy what Flynn was really up to in Greenside Penitentiary in 1963.
This is it.
Hope this doesn't spoil the original story, as it kind of has a very different tone and dynamic (and was written very quickly!)
IN THE FOXHOLE – TAG SCENE
February 20th, 1954
"Lucy, I need to tell you something."
It had just stopped snowing outside.
The car Wyatt had boosted was cold and the windows were fogging up a little and he was kinda concerned how long they were going to be sitting in this parking lot in case the car's owner unexpectedly showed up. But there was still no sign of Ethan Cahill coming back to his car and Lucy was convinced following him was the best way to find the location of the big Rittenhouse summit.
He could see her breath coming out in little puffs in front of her lips and had to resist the impulse to put his arm around her. Shared body heat and everything. No other reason.
She glanced sideways at him. "I'm not entirely sure we've got time for a heart to heart right now, Wyatt," she said, a little dismissively.
My point exactly…
They were short on time. Which was kind of hilarious. But it also made this easier.
"You know when I went undercover at that prison in Alabama?" he said slowly.
There was a guy walking across the parking lot in the direction of the spot reserved for Mr. Ethan Cahill, and Lucy only spared Wyatt the briefest of glances, her eyes fixed on the guy who may or may not be her grandfather.
"When you were pretending to be a prostitute?" she said shortly.
Wyatt sighed. "Yes," he said. "When I was pretending to be a prostitute. And thank you so much for reminding me."
The guy walking across the parking lot carried right on walking straight past the car parked in Ethan Cahill's spot, and Lucy huffed in annoyance. "Dammit."
"So... When I was in that prison…" Wyatt tried again. "You said you thought there was something I wasn't telling you and I promised I'd tell you what it was eventually?"
Lucy's attention snapped to a young couple suddenly only a few feet away from the car to her right. She grabbed Wyatt's arm for a second and he wasn't sure whether she was urging him to get down or to...do something else that might provide a guy and a girl a reason to be hanging out in a parked car together.
He didn't move, and the couple continued past and Lucy blew out a breath. "Thought we were going to have to start necking for a second there," she said absently, as if reading his mind, before blinking as if she suddenly realized she'd spoken aloud. And then she was looking at him properly for the first time since they got in the car. "Huh?" she said, sounding utterly confused.
He held her gaze steadily. "Prison," he said. "Something I promised to tell you?"
She blinked at him again.
Wyatt swallowed and took a breath. "When you said I didn't really achieve anything?" he began slowly. "Other than…"
"Nearly getting raped," Lucy finished for him.
Wyatt rolled his eyes. "Besides that," he said, trying to maintain his calm or he wasn't going to be able to do this. "Because I wound up killing the prisoner Flynn was trying to help escape?"
Lucy nodded slightly, but her attention had wandered back to her grandfather's parking spot.
Wyatt took another breath. "His name was Robert Reed," he told her. "The guy I killed?"
Lucy ducked slightly as another guy passed them.
"He was in jail for trying to—trying to kill your grandfather," Wyatt finished at last. "Ethan Cahill."
And suddenly he had all of Lucy's attention. "What?"
"I didn't know he was your grandfather," Wyatt added. "Flynn just said he was a big name in Rittenhouse."
Lucy inclined her head slightly, her expression completely unreadable.
"He said he wanted to help Reed escape so he could—so he could finish the job."
It was Lucy's turn to take a breath. "Flynn wanted to kill my grandfather?"
Wyatt shook his head slightly. "Not so much him," he said slowly. "Reed wanted to kill his whole family. Including your—including your father. It was your father Flynn was after. He said he was the one responsible for ordering the murder of his family; threatening Rufus' family. He said if he died, it would save you a lot of heartache…" He trailed off. "He told me if I helped him, I'd be helping you."
Lucy blinked owlishly at him. "But my father would have been—he would have been a child then."
Wyatt nodded. "One of the reasons I couldn't let Flynn do it. Because I knew what you'd say."
Lucy averted her gaze and was suddenly looking at her gloved hands.
"And then I found out he was your father."
Lucy's attention snapped back up to him. "Flynn knew? And he told you?" she burst out. "And you didn't tell me?"
Wyatt licked his lips, his mouth suddenly very dry. "I knew you knew your dad's name by then," he tried to explain. "But you hadn't told me what it was, so…so it was only when I started to piece together some of the things Flynn let slip—"
"What things?" Lucy demanded, and Wyatt couldn't tell whether she was angry or just disappointed in him for not sharing this with her sooner.
But before he could answer, she suddenly stopped herself. Blinked. Bit her lip. And then she was looking at him again and her whole expression had altered completely.
"You stopped him erasing me from history," she said. And it was as if the penny just dropped.
He didn't answer immediately, couldn't seem to find the words.
"When we talked about it after," Lucy continued, "when I was trying to make you feel better and I said you'd saved the Rittenhouse man's descendants… You never said. You never said you'd saved me."
And then her hand was on his cheek and he didn't know where to look or what to say.
"Wyatt?"
"I couldn't be the one to tell you," he said quietly. "That your father was Rittenhouse. I just…couldn't. I told Agent Christopher everything, but she already knew. She just didn't know Benjamin Cahill was your father. She—she said she'd tell you when the time was right."
Lucy nodded. "She did," she confirmed. "She told me. While you were…while you were off trying to save Jessica…" and her hand fell away from his cheek as her words fell away from her mouth.
She turned to face forward again, away from him, hands knotted in her lap.
God, he'd been such an idiot.
"Why did Flynn want to erase me?" Lucy asked quietly, still not looking at him. "I thought he believed we'd end up working together?"
Wyatt sucked in another breath. "Because of something you did," he said carefully. "Something you'll do."
And she was looking at him again.
"I think you gave him your journal, Lucy," Wyatt said. "I think you're the one that started all this."
Lucy frowned at him. "How could I give him the journal?" she asked. "My mother just gave it to me. I haven't even started to write in it yet…" And she trailed off, as if the implications of what she just said had suddenly started to sink in.
"I know they tell us we can't travel to any point in time where we already exist," Wyatt said. "But I think you did. Somehow. Future you. Flynn said you gave him the journal. That you were an elderly lady when he first met you."
Lucy didn't immediately respond to that.
"He said he had to erase you because he realized he can't change anything," Wyatt continued. "Anything that matters, anyway."
"Like saving his wife and daughter?"
Wyatt nodded. "Lucy, he told me weeks before I stole the Lifeboat that I wouldn't be able to save Jessica. Even if I killed her killer. Even if…" he averted his eyes. "Even if I killed her parents."
"That's what was freaking you out," Lucy said. "When you came back. He'd told you you couldn't save Jessica. That's what you were scared of."
Wyatt shook his head a little. "Yes," he said slowly, "and no."
Lucy glanced up at him.
"I was scared of losing you, Lucy," he finally admitted. "I was scared he might try again. Or someone else might try again. He wanted to undo it all, everything he'd done, because he realized the futility of it. That he couldn't change any of it, not the things he really wanted to change. And the only way he could do that was to make sure you never gave him your journal, never told him about time travel. Never set him on this path."
Lucy swallowed.
"I made him promise," Wyatt continued. "Not to try and erase you again. I made him promise and I believed him."
Lucy turned away from him, eyes back on the parking lot, back on her grandfather's car.
Anywhere but on Wyatt.
"This is all my fault," she said quietly.
"No," Wyatt said firmly, catching hold of her chin and angling her face toward him. "No. None of this is your fault, Lucy. You can't take the blame for something you did—something you might do—in the future. We don't know what happens between then and now. We don't know the full story. Maybe we shouldn't know the full story. Flynn is the one who took the journal, who stole the Mothership, who travelled through time and killed people and erased people and tried to change things he could and couldn't change. None of that is on you. He made his own decisions. You're blameless in this. You can't help who your father is. None of us get to choose our family."
Lucy caught hold of his hand. "Maybe we do," she said softly. "Maybe we should."
Jessica had been the only family Wyatt had left. Until he met Lucy and Rufus.
He nodded. "Maybe we should," he agreed, squeezing her fingers.
There was a noise outside, footsteps crunching on snow and a car door opening.
"That's him," Lucy said, abruptly letting go of Wyatt's hand as a man climbed into the car parked in Ethan Cahill's spot, and Wyatt turned his attention to yanking wires out of the dashboard and trying to hotwire the car.
Lucy briefly glanced sideways at him, a wistful look on her face, before she suddenly said, "Rufus is a lot faster at that, by the way."
He frowned at her as the wires sparked and the engine roared into life.
And then she smiled.
It wasn't much, barely there, but Wyatt saw it. Wyatt saw it and in that instant he knew.
Maybe we do get to choose our family after all.
The End (again)