A/N Oh my gosh you guys, thank you so much for welcoming me to the FF community with all your kind reviews and follows on this story! I'm really rusty at creative writing (it's been *many* years), but am so in love with this show and these characters. Thanks for sharing in that love, and helping me hold on to them a little longer.
Also, a couple quick notes about this chapter, lest anyone get confused: Due to the timeline shift, Wyatt and Rufus have a slightly different view of things right now than Lucy and Jiya do. Also, Rufus' 'Marty' references are from Back to the Future, for anyone who hasn't seen the film. :-)
Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own Timeless, but if I ever win the lottery...
Lucy snickered as she disconnected the call.
"What? Did Rufus say something funny?" Jiya smiled over at her friend, thankful for whatever had brought on that laugh. Between Wyatt haring off after Flynn last night, and Lucy going into labor while he was away, the last few hours had been increasingly stressful for Lucy (and for Jiya as well).
"No. I'm pretty sure that Wyatt went into shock when I told him that my water broke. The guy doesn't even flinch when Rufus digs a bullet out of his side – without any anesthetic, mind you – but freaks out at the thought of a little amniotic fluid? Can you imagine how he's going to react when it's time for him to cut the baby's umbilical cord?"
Lucy burst into giggles at the thought of the big, tough soldier face-planting on the delivery room floor. OK, maybe it was wrong of her to laugh at the idea of Wyatt getting hurt. But honestly, a good knock upside the head was the least that the man deserved for running out on her just when she needed him most.
Seriously — what had Wyatt been thinking? Sure, Flynn had jumped, which was always a threat to their reality, but that's exactly why they had the back-up team now, wasn't it? Heck, it had been Wyatt's idea to bring on that second team, to fill in after the doctors had grounded Lucy from time travel. He'd been stubbornly adamant about not risking a possible timeline shift by traveling without her. So why had he changed his mind now?
Something about last night's 'mission' just didn't add up, and Lucy was afraid that she knew exactly what that something was. Feeling the start of another contraction, she tried to focus on her breathing, and not on the blonde-haired, brown-eyed ghost who haunted her marriage.
"Another one already, huh?" Jiya reached across the seat, offering her hand for Lucy to squeeze if she needed it. "Don't worry, we're almost there, and the guys aren't far behind."
Lucy groaned and nodded, squeezing Jiya's hand for all she was worth, and breathing away the pain in her belly and back. Now if only she could dispel the ache in her heart so easily.
"Hey." Accurately sensing the shift in Lucy's mood, and the likely direction of her thoughts, Jiya attempted to reassure her friend. "You do know how much Wyatt loves you, don't you? He might be a dumbass sometimes, and yeah, the guy's still wrestling with some pretty serious demons. But he'd never do anything to hurt you if he could possibly help it."
Lucy shrugged, fighting back tears. She was so tired of crying, and if she started again now, she might never stop. Besides, she needed to conserve her rapidly waning energy for what was still to come. "That's the problem, Jiya. I don't think Wyatt can help it. I mean, yeah, he loves me, in a way. But not like he loved her – not like he still loves her."
"He loved you enough to marry you, Lucy," Jiya reminded her softly. Whether Lucy recognized it or not, Jiya knew that that was no small thing — not for Wyatt. The tragic death of his first wife had wreaked such tremendous havoc on that poor guy's mind and heart that, for years, he hadn't allowed himself to risk even caring about anyone again. So for him to have taken the much riskier step of marrying Lucy? Well, that would never have happened in a million years if Wyatt didn't love Lucy one heck of a lot.
"Yeah, sure," Lucy snorted, "After he knocked me up. You know as well as I do what a gentleman Wyatt is. What else could he do? But the thing is, if he could go back and undo it, Jiya, I'm pretty sure that he would."
Seeing the obvious disagreement on her friend's face, Lucy felt something snap inside her. And there went the waterworks again, damn it. "Did you know that he still dreams about Jessica nearly every night — still calls out for her in his sleep?" she sobbed. "Or how about the fact that half the time, when we're making love, he calls me by her name, without even realizing it?"
"Oh my gosh, Lucy." Jiya winced at her friend's revelation. That was just...horrible, and so not the kind of thing that she would ever have expected Wyatt, of all people, to do. Never mind the fact that he loved Lucy to distraction — he truly was a gentleman through and through. But if Lucy said that's what he'd been doing, well, then Jiya had no choice but to believe her, did she? Jiya couldn't begin to imagine how she'd feel if Rufus ever did something like that to her even once, let alone repeatedly. How had Lucy managed, keeping this to herself all this time?
"Yeah." Lucy sniffled, trying to regain some control. "That's how much he 'loves' me, Jiya. I'm just...I'm so fucking tired of competing with a ghost. And you know what? If I find out that that's what last night's 'mission' was really about…." She moaned, squeezing Jiya's hand hard as another painful contraction set in.
Though Lucy never finished her sentence, she didn't have to. Jiya understood perfectly now what was at stake. Something was seriously amiss with Wyatt if he was treating Lucy that way, and while Jiya wasn't normally one to meddle in other people's relationships, she couldn't, in good conscience, just sit back and watch the train wreck happen. She had a thing or two to say to Wyatt Logan, and if the man knew what was good for him, he'd sit down, shut up, and listen like the good little soldier that he was.
Wyatt shook his head, trying but failing to make sense of what had just happened. "What? No. That's not…." Not what? Possible? Probable? (Everything he could ever hope for, but didn't dare allow himself to dream?) "I just…misdialed," he rationalized.
'Love of My Life'…'Lucy'…two 'L' names that were undoubtedly right next to each other in his phone contacts, but that couldn't possibly be synonymous. He must have just accidentally (subsconsciously?) pressed the wrong one. He scrolled back through the list of names, desperate now to hear Jessica's voice, to ground himself in reality.
"You didn't misdial." Rufus wrenched Wyatt's phone from his hand, blocking him from attempting a second call. "Look, something we did in 1983 changed the timeline. And not in the 'Marty got a shiny new truck' kind of way. No, this is definitely more a 'Marty's parents didn't get together, and his sister got erased from the family photo' kind of thing. Except apparently you and Lucy did get together, and added a kid to the photo."
"Lucy and I…we…it was just playing a role, Rufus. I didn't even take my pants off!" Wyatt stammered, heat blossoming in his cheeks (and other sensitive areas) at the unbidden memory of laying in that narrow bed next to Lucy back in 1934 Arkansas. Her bare arm brushing restlessly against his, the taste of her lips still on his, whispered words of 'possibilities' (inevitabilities?) hanging in the air between them. Possibilities that he'd been too terrified at the time (and every other time the feel of her mouth moving against his had crept into his thoughts) to allow himself to consider.
Rufus quirked an eyebrow at his obviously flustered friend. "Um…you and Lucy 'roleplaying'? Definitely not what I was talking about. But just for future reference, it usually works better without pants, buddy. Something 'other you' seems to have figured out, at least, because, yeah, baby onboard and all that."
"Baby?" The word startled Wyatt from his (can't-go-there-Jessica's-alive-again) thoughts. "What the hell are you talking about, Rufus? Jessica and I never had any kids. You know that."
"Dude! Have you been listening at all?" Rufus sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face in frustration. "We. Changed. The. Timeline. I don't know how it happened. Maybe the universe was just as sick of waiting for you to get your head out of your ass and see what was right in front of you as the rest of us were. But whatever, it happened, Wyatt. You're married to Lucy now. Not Jessica. And she — Lucy, your wife — is on her way to the hospital as we speak to give birth to your kid."
"Whoa, whoa — time out. You're saying that we didn't bring Jessica back?" Wyatt frowned at Rufus for a moment in confusion, before his eyes suddenly grew wide in alarm, the rest of what Rufus had just said finally beginning to register. "And that I'm married to Lucy now, and she's...she's having a baby? My baby?"
Rufus could practically see Wyatt's brain reboot, all systems apparently back online. About damn time. "Hallelujah, give the man a cigar! Although really, it should be you passing out the cigars today. Speaking of which, we seriously need to hit the road before…."
Wyatt raced from the locker room before Rufus could even finish his sentence. OK, maybe not quite all systems back online, Rufus amended his original observation. Counting off the seconds in his head, he stood next to Wyatt's locker, and waited for the man to return. 6…7…8….
"I, uh, forgot the car keys," Wyatt sheepishly admitted as he ran back into the room.
Rufus chuckled, gesturing between his friend's outmoded clothing, and the locker that was still hanging open. "Is that all you forgot?"
Wyatt looked down at his acid-washed jeans and cringed. "I'll just uh…yeah. Give me five minutes." He snatched the tidy pile of belongings from his locker, and dashed towards the shower.
"Better make that two minutes," Rufus called after him as he read the incoming text from Jiya on Wyatt's phone. Because, shit - that thing he'd said to Wyatt earlier about 'getting away with it'? Apparently not.