Twenty minutes later, Lucy was sitting in Rufus' office, staring at a whiteboard propped up in the middle of the room. There were three bullet points on the board.

· Emma

· Self-storage unit at Pendleton

· Lucy hostage?

"That's all he told you?" the historian queried, squinting at the board as if that would provide additional clarity.

"We didn't exactly have time to play twenty questions," Rufus huffed as he pushed his chair away from his computer, which was running some sort of program.

"And right after that, he turned his comm off?"

"Correct."

"Can you trace it?"

Rufus shot Lucy an unamused look then gestured back to his computer. "His last few pings were still in the Bay Area. I'm working on narrowing it down now."

"There are no plane tickets with Wyatt or Emma's name on them for any airport in a fifty mile radius, leaving in the next few hours," Jiya chimed in from a second bank of computers. Upon hearing Wyatt was in trouble, she had refused to be left behind and had stolen Lucy's keys until the historian agreed to bring her along. It was turning out to be for the best though since there were now two very computer-savvy people getting information Lucy would otherwise have no idea how to access. "There are a few private flights heading out though, no passengers listed."

"Wyatt didn't mention anything specific about flying," Lucy said. "I mean, they most likely are, but in case she wants to stay under the radar…"

Jiya sent Lucy a soft smile. "I'll check trains and rental cars," she said as she returned to her keyboard.

Lucy stared at the board again, her eyes focusing on the third item. She'd be lying if she said she didn't know what event Emma would probably try to change. However, to this day, it was still frightening to her. Before Wyatt, she hadn't spoken about it to anyone who wasn't her mother, Amy or the psychologist her mother had made her see when her grades had suffered that semester.

"Anything about the storage unit?" Lucy deflected before she could get caught in the downward spiral that was her accident. As she looked over at Rufus' station, she happened to see the Mason Industries' logo pass by more than once onscreen. "You're hacking into Mason's servers?"

"I won't tell if you don't," Rufus said without looking away from the computer.

"What are you trying to access?"

"Ideally, a list of people who have self-storage units at Pendleton. Realistically, probably nothing. It depends how much power Mason's systems really have outside the lab."

Lucy nodded, more to the first statement than the second. If they had such a list, they could run background checks and find out which unit Emma was most likely after.

There was something about that that seemed odd to Lucy though. With all her skills, Emma should have easily been able to perform the same hacks as Rufus and Jiya. Meaning if she needed Wyatt, the contents of the unit weren't something she could get online. But there also had to be a reason she couldn't get them herself.

An idea was percolating in the back of Lucy's brain, just formed enough to niggling but not enough to be helpful. She tried to think of other things, to let her Zeigarnik effect take hold, but her brain wouldn't let go of the idea. So, she employed the solution she'd learned from her mother at a young age: write it down. It stung a little, in the context of her mother's big revelation, but Lucy couldn't focus on that now. Wyatt needed them.

Lucy walked over to the whiteboard, wrote 'contents of the unit' on right and underlined it. "Why would Emma need Wyatt to get the storage unit for her?" Lucy asked.

She hadn't really expected an answer from anyone, as Rufus and Jiya were busy with their own work, but to her surprise, Jiya responded, "Because she can't get on base."

Lucy wrote it down for posterity and did her due diligence by considering it, even though that concept didn't sit right with her. "She's got all of Rittenhouse behind her though. I'm sure one of them could make her a badge that would get her through."

The typing in the room trailed down to a steady drone instead of a forceful barrage. "What if it's because she's not actually in the army?" Rufus offered. "She'd be a visitor?"

Lucy wrote down 'badge but visitor' and stared at it for a second. Then she pulled out her phone and looked up the Pendleton Self-Storage website. "According to this, access to the self-storage unit is done with a pin. So all the badge has to do is get her on base. I'm sure Rittenhouse could do at least that much."

"What else does that leave us with?" she asked, looking expectantly between Rufus and Jiya.

"Timing," Jiya said after a moment. She stood up with a wince, grabbed a green marker and scribbled down her suggestion. "If the rent isn't paid, the unit could be up for auction."

"But if that's true, what's to stop Emma from just buying the unit?" Rufus asked, on his feet as well.

In that second, Lucy's idea clicked. "Because whatever is in the storage unit is time-sensitive." She circled the header of the column twice for emphasis. "Emma needs Wyatt to get whatever is in the storage unit before it's released to the public."

There was another moment of silence in the room while its occupants digested that idea.

"Are we sure the unit is up for auction?" Rufus finally asked.

"No," Lucy said, "but if the owner was still alive, then Emma could just use the owner to get it…right?"

Rufus shrugged. "Makes sense to me."

Lucy stared at the right-side of the board for another minute, then quickly capped the marker as the harsh smell reached her nose.

She heard typing again and looked over her shoulder to see Jiya back at her temporary workstation. "Lucy's right. There's an online auction at Pendleton next week." She leaned forward and quickly scanned the page. "The site doesn't list the contents though. Only says they'll be shown an hour before bidding starts."

Lucy dropped back into the armchair and stared at the board again. Her revelation wasn't as monumental as it was a minute ago, as more questions had taken its place in her brain. "So what do we do?"

"Well we aren't going to beat Emma and Wyatt to San Diego to get the contents ourselves so…" Rufus trailed off with a full-body shrug.

"Whatever's in there must be pretty important if Emma's going through all this trouble to get it," Jiya said slowly. "If we can figure out what unit it is, maybe we can figure out what's in it. And if we can do that, then maybe Wyatt doesn't have to give it over to Emma."

"He will until he knows Lucy is safe," Rufus countered. He slid in his rolling chair and wrote 'figure out who owns the box and what's in it' on the board below Lucy's column. "So step two is figuring out what leverage Emma has on Lucy. Since she's here now and the future is unpredictable, I'd say it's something in her past she's trying to change—"

"Maybe how her parents met? Keep her from being born?" Jiya suggested, then winced again. "Sorry Lucy."

But the historian wasn't really listening, lost in the events of the accident and the blur that was the next week.

Suddenly there was a hand on her shoulder, startling her out of her daze. "Lucy?" Jiya asked kindly, though her eyes were wide with concern.

Lucy's stomach clenched painfully but, before she could spiral again, she forced the words out of her mouth: "I think I know what it is, what Emma wants to change."

All background noise in the room ceased and she looked away from the board to find the techs staring at her expectantly.

Before she lost her courage, Lucy quickly recited the story of how she almost drowned. "I never caught his name, what he looked like really. I must have seen him but I don't remember much of that day. He waited until the ambulance got here, the paramedics said, then took off."

"Who else knows about your accident?" Rufus asked.

"My mom…Amy…anyone who was there that day. Wyatt too, since Germany, but I'm not sure that's helpful."

"Well we can't exactly call up your mom," Rufus deadpanned as he returned to his computer. "Did they open a report of some kind?"

Lucy shrugged. "I'm not sure. I really don't remember much from that day."

Jiya tightened her grip on Lucy's shoulder in a reassuring gesture, then rolled back over to her monitor and began hurriedly typing again. "We're on it, Lucy. Don't worry."

Suddenly a hand was tapping the back of hers. "We'll figure this out, Lucy," Rufus said as he too returned to his station. "I promise."

"I know," Lucy said, slowly letting out her exhale through clenched teeth. "I just…I can't compete with all this." She motioned to the screens in front of her, trying to emphasize the tech and her inability to contribute to the case on that front.

Suddenly Jiya was standing and pointing at one of her many monitors. "I can move that to the next terminal if you want. You can track the pings and figure out where Wyatt is."

"Or you try to get a hold of your file," Rufus suggested, "see if there were any details about who brought you in."

The second option sounded much more Lucy's speed. "Jiya, thanks, but I think I'll be of more help with the accident report."

"No problem," the female tech said as she sat back down and continued working.

"Here," Rufus pulled out an extra keyboard, hooked it into a blank monitor, and turned on a previously abandoned CPU. "Fire away," he said, gesturing to the free computer chair with a flourish.

Lucy smiled gratefully then sat down and got to work.

To keep Emma from getting suspicious, Wyatt had turned off the comm after hearing Lucy was safe. Once he realized where they were heading though, he propped his head against his hand, his elbow against the window, and moved his jaw in order to turn the ear bud back on.

He only heard the clacking of keyboards on the other end of the comms, no dialogue.

"So, you have a private plane?" he asked with obviously feigned interest.

"He's back!" Rufus exclaimed. "And he confirmed our private plane theory."

Well crap. That was a waste of a question to Emma.

"No. I do not," Emma replied, without taking her eyes off her tablet.

But now Wyatt was sold into asking about the plane, so he continued his line of questioning, for no other reason than to prove nothing was awry. "Then whose is it? Friend, boyfriend, boss?" Wyatt paused briefly then added, "All three?"

Emma's expression remained stoic. "No more talking."

"C'mon Wyatt, you have to do better than that. What does Emma have on Lucy? What does she want with the storage unit?"

Wyatt shrugged for Emma's benefit then fell silent, as if obeying her instruction. In reality, he was now trying to figure out how to work one of Rufus' questions into a conversation that felt natural, and wouldn't get anyone killed. Himself included.

After a few moments, he had it.

"So how's this gonna work? I give you the contents of the locker, you go back in time and do what exactly? Tell Henry not to main Charles Spitzer?"

"Charles Spitzer," Rufus said. "On it."

Then Lucy muttered something about "Could be."

Good, so they were on the same page about Emma wanting to make Lucy's accident fatal; one less question he had to try to work into conversation with Emma.

"That's none of your business," the female pilot replied. Then she turned around in her seat so she could look directly at Wyatt, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. "You're awfully chatty all of the sudden."

Wyatt held up his hands in mock surrender. "Just trying to make sure everyone is going to be okay when this is all said and done."

Wyatt thought he saw her fingers twitch toward the signal detector which was currently residing in the open glovebox but instead Emma turned to stare at him. Wyatt met her gaze evenly but didn't challenge it and, after a long few moments, Emma was the first to look away.

"You get me the contents of the storage locker and Lucy Preston lives," she said. "Don't speak again."

Wyatt nodded then settled back in his seat, despite every fiber in his body being tensed for action. He knew of eight different ways to forcefully stop the car, to keep them from reaching the airfield, but he couldn't do any of them, not until he could keep Emma from hurting Spitzer.

So he sat there, in silence, while the SUV continued down the highway, using the time to glean any helpful information from Henry, Emma or the suited man, who still hadn't said anything after their less than stellar introduction.

It wasn't much but the recon was comforting—it gave him some semblance of control over the situation where he clearly had none—so he sat back and observed, all the way to the airstrip.