1. Reminder that this takes place after S1.
2. To be absolutely clear, I do not own anything related to Timeless - I'm sure you all assumed I did when I forgot to add a disclaimer in Chapter 1 ;)
3. Hopefully I've caught any typos. I renamed Rufus Russel at one point, but I blame that on a cold and cold medicine.
Traffic is light this late at night. A blessing and a curse; his mind is too distracted for busy traffic but he reaches the silence of his place too soon.
Wyatt remains on the doormat when he's closed the frontdoor, suddenly unable to move.
The numbness of the shock has worn off and the pain hits him full force. The always present ache he's lived with for years is different from this acute sharp pain that takes his breath away. New and yet so familiar. Will this pain too dull with time?
He does everything right. He gets out of bed in the mornings. He doesn't ignore phone calls. He schools his face into an almost smile when he assures people at Mason's he's okay. (And they all seem to buy it.)
Because that's what you do. You let the dishes pile up in the sink and watch the TV shopping channels until you can recite the special offers by heart while the row of empty bottles grows. Or you scrub your apartment from top to bottom and go for a run and keep running until your body is so exhausted you nearly collapse. But either way your mind won't shut up.
Wyatt wonders where sadness ends and wallowing begins. When his life became something that would even be too unrealistic to fit in fiction. Grieving widower loses secret love. (So secret he hadn't even told her yet, how's that for irony?) It sounds like a Lifetime movie.
It turns out not everyone has bought his assurances that he's okay.
Wyatt looks behind Jiya, expecting to see Rufus at his frontdoor too.
"It's just me. Can I come in?"
He steps aside and holds the door open wider.
"Can I get you anything? Coffee, tea?" Wyatt asks when he takes Jiya's jacket in an attempt to stretch out the moment until he finds out exactly why she is here. He is not stupid, he can guess why, and he'd much rather get back to the TV and hear more about that supreme quality set of steak knives with the amazing bonus cutting board than have his heart turned inside out.
"How are you?" Jiya asks when they are waiting for the coffeemaker.
Wyatt turns away from her to reach for mugs on a shelf. "I'm okay."
"No you're not. I may not have known Lucy, but Rufus has told me about her, about your team. About you and her."
He freezes with the mugs half way between the cabinet and the counter before he sets them down with elaborate care to avoid slamming them down. Let it slide, it's easier that way, he tells himself a split second before he blurts out "Don't talk about her as if she's dead!"
He can hear Jiya draw breath behind him.
"God, I'm sorry Wyatt. I didn't mean it like that. I didn't..."
"She's disappeared. Or she's in another timeline. And we are stuck here, in the wrong one. We're not supposed to be here. There's no reason for us to be here without Lucy. I'm not supposed to be here."
"I know." Jiya's hand is almost as light as a feather between his shoulderblades.
"Maybe it was something we did or didn't do in the 1860s. Maybe if I had been shot Lucy would have been there when Rufus opened the hatch."
"No, Wyatt, no."
"Then what did I do wrong?"
"It might not have anything to do with you, what you did or didn't do."
"No?"
"No."
His next words are barely above a whisper. "Then what?"
"I'm not sure."
"You're supposed to be one of the smart ones."
"Time travel is new. We're still working on it. Figuring things out."
"Figuring things out!" Wyatt spits. "It would be great if you could step it up. You do realize it's not just about the physics, that actual human beings are affected?"
"I know."
Jiya can feel the muscles in his back shift under her palm as Wyatt relaxes his grip on the counter. With a sigh he turns around to look at her. It could be the light but Jiya is willing to bet it's not the kitchen lights that make his eyes glisten.
"At least you you're being honest. Why don't you go sit down in the living room and I'll bring the coffee out."
"Can I help?"
"No. Just give me a minute."
Wyatt doesn't ask Jiya about cream or sugar. The Jiya in the right timeline, the one with Lucy, takes her coffee black and unsweetened.
"I used to look forward to the days we didn't have to jump back in time," he tells her when he is seated opposite Jiya in the living room. "No travel sickness, no weird, scratchy old costumes, no team mates performing amateur surgery on you when things go south."
Jiya pulls a face. Wyatt chooses to believe it is because in this timeline Jiya takes sugar in her coffee. Proof that this is the "wrong" timeline.
"Now I actually look forward to when we have to get into that damn tin can eyeball and chase after Emma. Or, I mean I look forward to when we return and Rufus opens the hatch. Look forward to it and dread it. I can't wait for all this to be over. Then I'll refuse to go anywhere in time without her again."
Jiya smiles.
"What are you smiling at?"
"You're talking about when, not if. So tell me about your Lucy,"
"We're not... you know. She's not my Lucy."
"Yeah, I know. But..."
"But what?"
"Before Rufus told me about the other timeline I just assumed she was your Lucy."
Suddenly Wyatt finds his coffee very interesting. Jiya waits patiently while he stares into his mug.
"Why?" he finally asks.
"Wyatt, you kept saying 'I need her' when you were asking for Lucy. Anyone can see you're not just missing a member of your team."
"Do you want to see what she looks like?"
"Sure, but how?"
Wyatt reaches into his pocket and holds out Lucy's locket to Jiya.
"That's Lucy, on left, the woman on her right and in the other photo is Lucy's sister, Amy. She's missing too."
"How?"
"When we got back from a time jump, our first one, Amy wasn't there. But Lucy still had her photo in the locket."
"Hm, that's..."
Wyatt reaches out and snatches back the locket from Jiya and his face hardens. "Mason used the word incredible. And now you tell me he and you and the rest of the brains behind the whole time travel thing can't really tell why Lucy has disappeared. You need to work this out. We need to work this out."
"I know."
"I'll go back to 1863 and take my chances with that Confederate soldier again, or hell I'll hitchhike with Emma to the Russian Revolution, if that's what it will take to get Lucy back. Or I'll continue to hold my breath and hope every time we land back in present time if that's the right thing to do."
Wyatt sighs. "Sorry, I didn't mean to take it all out on you."
"I am one of the brains, as you call us."
"Yeah, but unlike Mason you know what it's like to have someone you care about travel back in time and hope they'll return."
Wyatt gets up from his chair. "It's getting late, I'll walk you to your car."
"It's okay. I'm parked just outside."
"You'll save me from ordering a set of steak knives or a collection of porcelain dolls from the shopping channel."
"Did you pick up information about a future sugar shortage?" Rufus asks dropping into the chair opposite Wyatt in the breakroom at Mason Industries.
"Are you taking turns with Jiya checking up on me?"
"No."
"Yes you are"
"Okay, you got us. But tonight's our date night so Agent Christopher will come over and play Minecraft with you."
"If you're trying to make me feel better you might wanna try a joke that's actually funny. That wouldn't even work on a good day."
"So what's with all the sugar?" Rufus gestures at the sugar packets spread out on the table.
"That's you," Wyatt says and points to a Sweet'n Low.
"Riiight. Okay. That totally makes things clear."
"I've been thinking."
"Go on."
"I'm sure Jiya told you about our talk yesterday."
"She did, but go on because I'm not sure what a table full of sugar packets has got to do with it unless you're going to bake her a cake to apologize. Again. Pal, she gets that you're sorry. She's great that way. So moving on to your master plan slash weird new diet."
"One possibility is that we landed in the wrong timeline, one without Lucy, when we got back from the Civil War. For some reason we keep coming back to it after our time jumps. Or we did something, we screwed up, like we did with the Hindenburg. And because of whatever we did in 1863 Lucy is not here and we need to go back to 1863 and fix it. That's what the sugar packets are for, I'm trying to make sense of what happened on that time jump, I'm retracing our steps."
"No problem. You just work out where the sugar packets, the low calorie option and the organic stuff should be and we'll go back to 1863 and cross our fingers that the maniac shooting at us won't hit us this time either."
Wyatt gives Rufus a "duh"-look.
"Sorry, I forgot that's the kind of thing you used to do in the army for fun before breakfast, before you moved on to the real dangerous stuff. Us IT and engineer people are a bit more cautious."
"You don't say."
"I'm not the one that pushed my team mate out of the way and ended up with a bullet hole less than an inch from my brain."
"That's what I'm here for, to protect you. But there's a third possibility."
Wyatt scoops up the sugar packets and leans back in his chair to look at Rufus.
"Which is?"
"That Lucy is here. But because of what happened in 1863 she didn't end up with Mason Industries. With m.. us."
Rufus feels as if he's walking on egg shells. "Okay, what should we do?"
"I've checked online directories."
"Yeah?"
"Nothing. I should probably check universities, the history departments. Even if she's not with us, that's probably where she'd be if she's here. Right? I just haven't had the time."
"No?"
No, that's not true. I haven't... I haven't..."
"No need. That's what we IT and engineer people are for. If Lucy's here, Jiya and I will find her."
"You will? Then what?"
"What is it you say? We make it up as we go." Rufus stands up and gathers his jacket and bag.
"Ow, what are you doing?"
"I'm hugging you. Showing support and all that. It's what you and Lucy do."
"Don't. Just don't. You're not Lucy. Not the same thing."
"Okay."
"Rufus."
"Yeah?" Rufus stops at the breakroom door.
"Thanks."
"No problem. Anytime."
"And Rufus, Agent Christopher better not turn up on my doorstep tonight."
"Don't worry, she's probably even more clueless than you when it comes to Minecraft. Connor Mason is picking you up at seven, you're going bowling."
"Still not funny."
"Did you ask him?"
"Yes, he said no."
Jiya roles her eyes at Rufus. "Okay, I'll try," she says and pulls back her chair.
Rufus looks up when Jiya returns to her desk. "So?"
"He said yes."
"How did you make him do that?"
"I twisted his arm and threatened to hurt him."
"You what now?"
Jiya roles her eyes at Rufus again. "I promised him the one thing he can't say no to."
"Yeah, what's that?"
"What do you think?"
"Ah. You are clever."
"I also said you'd make your famous homemade lasagna. Your specialty."
"But I don't make a special lasagna?"
"You do now," Jiya smiles.
Wyatt hands over a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine. "I didn't know which would go best with your lasagna."
"Thank you. You shouldn't have and all that, but the red will go great with it." Rufus reaches for a corkscrew.
"Didn't know if it was vegetarian, seeing as I've never heard of your famous lasagna before. Funny that," Wyatt says, and holds Rufus gaze.
"Yeah, about that. Kind of a funny story actually."
"Hi Wyatt, glad you could make it," Jiya says stepping into the kitchen. "It's not every day Rufus makes his..."
"You can stop, we've been busted," Rufus interrupts her. "So how long did it take you?"
"Honestly, five minutes after you've invited me over to play video games Jiya invites me to dinner because you're making your specialty that I've never heard of."
"Could have been a coincidence."
"Sure it could. I know you like chocolate crocodiles and we've shared a bed, but somehow I've never heard of your lasagna."
"It's chocodiles and there was only one room left at the inn in the middle of a snowstorm almost 300 years ago. Lucy will back me up on that."
The kitchen goes quiet.
"Sorry, dude. I... forgot. I mean it just came out. I wasn't thinking."
"That's funny too, because I think about it all the time." Wyatt pauses. "Look, I appreciate all you're doing, but I'm not very good company tonight so I should probably just go."
"No, here," Jiya cuts in as she grabs one of the beers and hands it to Wyatt. Why don't we leave Rufus to continue his googling and calling his mother or we'll never eat. I promised I'd show you what we've dug up so far."
"How is he?" Rufus asks when Jiya returns to help set the table. "Is he stilled pissed?"
"Wyatt's not angry, he's sad."
"He is?"
"Psychology 101."
"Right."
"I explained how we've widened the search and are looking for people with her name and degrees in history and anthropology. He understands that not finding things is progress too, that ruling things out narrows the field."
"But?"
"But he figured it out pretty quickly, that she may have another surname if she's here."
"Okay. But he's staying for dinner?"
"Yes. I guilted him into it. At your expense, sorry. I said that as you've actually never made lasagna before it could turn out to be the worst one ever so he'd better help eat it."
"And he's too much of a gentleman to say no. You're very clever. And devious."
"I know, that's why you love me."
This evening Wyatt doesn't freeze on his doormat.
He goes through the motions. He's good at that that. He's had a lot of practice.
His phone is charging, the leftover lasagna is in the fridge and he's in bed before he realizes.
That his heart has healed enough for it to break all over again.
The irony of it. Hey Lucy, guess what, those possibilities we talked about before your life imploded and Emma stole the time machine, I'm ready. All it took was for you to be lost in time.
TBC
The next chapter will be the last one of this fic. Rufus will make pumpkin filled ravioli. No, only joking :) I think it is time Lucy joined the story...
