4. Secret Meeting
The next morning when they were done getting the ball rolling and Rittenhouse names started flowing out of that evidence like a river, they headed back to Mason Industries. Mason was uploading digital scans of every piece of evidence to Mason Industries servers so they could work remotely from there. Lucy was looking for something specific once they got back. He wasn't sure what it was. After two hours of scrolling through files he saw her transfer something to a flash drive and then head for the exit.
He beat her to it. "Where are you headed so suddenly?" He asked as he stood between her and the door. He was trying to act casual, but she was up to something.
She looked at him thoughtfully as if she were contemplating telling him a lie but then sighed and gave him a hesitant glance. "You aren't going to like it."
"That's always a good beginning to a conversation," Wyatt said as he arched an eyebrow at her.
"I made a deal with Flynn," she told him. "He'd help me with Ethan and get me back to the present in exchange for some information." she held up the flashdrive she had in her pocket and then placed it back in her coat pocket safely. "I'm taking it to him."
Yep, she was right. He didn't like it.
"Alone?" He asked loudly.
She gave him a look that begged him to be quiet and he sighed tiredly. He pinched the bridge of his nose and then leaned toward her to whisper.
"Please tell me you weren't going alone?" He asked again.
"Those were his terms, Wyatt. Just me and him," Lucy said with an exasperated sigh of her own. "He's not going to hurt me."
"Right, like he didn't snatch you right out from under me either?" Wyatt asked with a glare. "He's dangerous, Lucy."
"He's broken," she said as she fixed Wyat with a pointed gaze. "Just like us. You had a chance to save your wife, Wyatt. He deserves a chance too."
She had to throw that in his face, didn't she? She was right, but still it stung.
"He's a terrorist," Wyatt said in a warning tone.
"So were we just twenty four hours ago," Lucy reminded him.
"Do you have an answer for everything?" He asked her with frustrated shake of his head.
She didn't bother replying. She knew she was right. She was waiting for him to give in.
He stared at her for a long moment. He wanted to shake her and beg her not to go. It was too dangerous, anything could go wrong. But he knew that look. He'd seen it plenty of times before. She was going whether he liked it or not. Nothing he could say would convince her otherwise.
"I don't like you going alone," he admitted softly as he focused a worried gaze on her. "I don't like the idea of you being alone with him. He's manipulative and aggressive-"
"I know," she told him with a soft smile as she grabbed Wyatt's hand and squeezed it. "Don't worry, I know. I'm coming back, Wyatt. I'm just taking him the information he needs so he can get his wife and daughter back. That's all I'm doing."
"You promise?" He asked. She met his eyes and nodded steadily.
"I promise."
"You'll call me if there's trouble?" He asked as he kept her from removing her hand from his. "The minute anything feels off. I'm your first call. Promise me."
She nodded again. "I promise," she repeated.
He shook his head at himself. He could not believe the words that were about to come out of his mouth. "Then go. But be careful. I meant what I said in 1954. I lost you once and I cannot lose you again. Okay?"
"Okay," she said with an affectionate glance as she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him to her. She met his eyes with certainty as she pulled away. "I'll see when you I get back."
"You better," he answered with a nervous sigh and stern expression.
He watched her go and stayed rooted to his spot despite everything in him that screamed at him to follow her.
He saw her nearly forty minutes later, storming in behind Agent Christopher, looking flushed and furious.
"Lucy, I do not reward terrorists with second chances," Agent Christopher said sternly. "You're lucky I'm not arresting you too. That was a mistake. You should never have agreed to meet him."
Lucy shook her head at Denise and chuckled bitterly. "My only regret is that I didn't look for a tail on my way over there. I should have known."
She turned away from Denise and walked straight toward him. She had a suspicious look on her face as she stopped in front of him. "Did you send her after me?" She asked angrily. "You're the only person I told and if-"
Wyatt held up his hands in surrender. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't even know what happened. So, no, I didn't tell anyone anything. You asked me not to and I didn't. I didn't even follow you like I wanted to, just to make sure you had back up."
Her gaze softened on him before her shoulders slumped. "Turns out you didn't need to follow me. Agent Christopher did. They arrested Flynn. He trusted me, Wyatt, and now he's in handcuffs."
"He's in handcuffs because of his own actions. No one else's," Wyatt told her.
She shook her head at him just as she had Agent Christopher a moment ago. "He's not the only one that killed people on those jumps, you know."
His eyes flitted over to hers with sudden understanding. "Lucy, you killing Jesse James is not the same. Rufus killing that man in Houston is not the same. Flynn killed anyone who got in his way, no matter who they were. He didn't care. A man like that isn't lost or wounded. He was out of control and he crossed so many lines that none of us ever would. We did only what we had to do and we hated it every step of the way. That wasn't the case for Flynn. Not only that, but he had Al Capone shoot Rufus. He wanted him dead. He took you hostage and then paid a serial killer to capture myself and Rufus all as a means to manipulate you. He killed Abraham Lincoln. And he would have blown up your Grandfather without a second thought as to how that affected you."
She looked at him in surprise as if she hasn't expected him to make that connection.
He gave her a knowing look. "Yes, I was able to put together that should all of Rittenhouse explode your grandfather would have gone with them. I'm a soldier, not stupid, ma'am."
"I don't think you're stupid," Lucy told him with an eye roll. "Don't force a meaning behind my actions when it isn't there. You were so caught up in stopping Flynn that I wasn't sure you'd taken the time to think about it, that's all."
"No, I was thinking about it. I was thinking about it a lot," Wyatt admitted. "That was part of the reason I couldn't believe you almost laid down and let him do it. What if he'd done that and it had affected you? What if it changed the timeline and you were never born? Aside from the horrible carnage of the sheer number of casualties he was planning, that's part of the reason I was so determined to stop him. He can change history however the hell he wants, but he's not taking you. Not again." Her eyes softened as she listened to his words and he should have stopped there. But no, he was Wyatt Logan and he had to press his luck. "So, forgive me, but I just don't get why you're so determined to see any good in him."
Her eyes met his in surprise and a small flash of anger. "How can you not get it? He's you and me, Wyatt. Had things gone differently for both us, had we not been forced together, that could have been us. If we'd been broken and then hunted and no one believed us...we could be Garcia Flynn."
"No," Wyatt said with a shake of his head. "We all make our choices, Lucy. No one makes them for us. Flynn could have made different ones. You gave him every opportunity."
"He made the right one in the end!" She exclaimed. "Doesn't that matter at all?"
"It doesn't change what he did," Wyatt told her honestly. "It doesn't change how he tried to hurt all of us, the world. That was one choice out of hundred wrong ones."
"He said he would turn himself in as soon as he'd saved them," Lucy muttered with a sigh.
She was obviously upset but he could tell the discussion was getting through. She may not like it but she was understanding it. He stepped closer to her then, feeling as though she'd calmed down.
"After everything he put us through, do you really want to reward that with giving him exactly what he wanted, that started all of this in the first place?" Wyatt asked her as he stepped into her space.
"His wife and child were innocent in all of this. Keeping him from saving them feels like we're punishing them not him," she said as she shook her head. "That's not right."
He smiled warmly at her and placed his hands on her arms. "You've come a long way from 'it's just her day', Professor. I almost can't believe I heard you right just now."
"Yeah well," she said as she smiled weakly. "We've been through a lot since then and, honestly, after all we've seen and all we've done I'm not even sure I want to believe in fate anymore."
"That's funny," Wyatt said as he dared to let his hands slide down her arms to hold her hands in his. "Time travel had the opposite effect on me. I'm starting to think there's something to all that 'meant to be' business you used to talk about."
She met his eyes and let her gaze linger on his for a brief moment before she swallowed thickly and pulled her hands from his hold. He immediately missed the feel of her more delicate hands in his.
What was he even doing? He knew he didn't want to say goodbye but why was he suddenly wanting to touch her so often? Get a hold of yourself, Logan, he thought as Lucy took one step away from him. She was still close, but not as close as he wanted her to be.
She glanced at her phone and sighed. "I should go," she said. "Mason's got some new evidence upstairs he needs help with. It's some ledger full of dates and names and businesses."
He nodded. "I'm headed home now anyway. We have our last debrief tomorrow," he told her as she turned to walk away. "Don't forget."
"Couldn't if I tried," she said sadly. "As crazy as all this is, I think I might actually miss it." She met his eyes with a glance that seemed full of something and he wondered if she'd miss him as much he knew he'd miss her.
"Me too," he replied softly.
She waved and then headed for the stairs and once again it struck him how much he didn't want to leave her. It was still recent so he wasn't even really sure what it meant or what to call it. But it was there and he couldn't stop thinking about it.