Amy doesn't know what to make of the expression on Flynn's face.

(At least, she thinks he's Flynn; the photo on Wyatt's phone hadn't been the best quality to begin with, and he'd been staring at her sister rather than the camera)

She's not sure why Wyatt didn't seem to be a fan of the man, in any case. His tone initially had a slight bite to it, but there was something warm underlying it all, his abrupt change in demeanour to kind and concerned the most obvious sign of this.

But now he's staring at her like he's seen a ghost, and she has no idea why.

"Hello?" she asks after an unbearable full minute of silence, and Flynn blinks quickly, snapping out of his daze.

"Sorry, but...did you say your name was Amy Preston?"

"My reputation precedes me, I guess?" she jokes, but he doesn't smile. Instead, he reaches out to feel her arm gently, as if he can't quite believe she's real. "Seriously, are you okay?"

He finally smiles, not seeming to hear her. "I'll be damned. That son of a bitch did it." It takes her a second to realize he's talking about Wyatt (not that it clears anything up for her in the least). He runs a hand through his damp hair, grinning, and gets to his feet so quickly she jumps. "Just...just wait here."

She watches him disappear down a nearby hallway and frowns, crossing her arms as she complies with his request. She takes the opportunity to examine the space around her. It does, in fact, appear to be a bunker, and judging by the variety of furnishings and dust covered objects that must be from the 1960s at least, she's guessing it's incredibly old. Amy pointedly avoids looking back over at the Lifeboat, as she still can't stomach seeing the streaks of fresh blood on the outside of the ship.

A few minutes later, she hears two sets of footsteps approaching, and turns to look over her shoulder at the hallway once more. But her eyes go right past Flynn, locking instead on the figure he's currently leading by the hand. A figure who freezes in place as she sees Amy, her eyes wide, and she quickly looks over at Flynn, who stopped when she did and is currently smiling back at her. Amy would find it interesting that their hands stayed clasped throughout this entire interaction, but it's currently the least compelling thing in the room.

She scrambles over the back of the couch, her battered head spinning as she does and very nearly making her trip, but she recovers her footing and ignores the vertigo because this can't be real, she must be dreaming or hallucinating and she just needs to touch her before she disappears, needs to know whether she's real or not, needs to tell her how much she missed her, how much she's needed her-

It's Lucy.

Amy crashes into her abruptly and grips her in a tight hug, unable to stop tears, and Lucy seems taken off guard for a moment herself before she hugs Amy in return, caught between relieved laughter and her own tears.

"I'm dreaming, I have to be," Lucy breathes, leaning back. She draws Amy's hair back and cups her face in her hands, looking her over. "Oh my god, kiddo, you look so much older."

She doesn't have the heart to tell her it's probably because she's had a hellish few years of barely getting by on her own. "Gee, thanks," Amy deadpans instead, unable to suppress a smile. "You look like shit too."

Lucy laughs and gives Amy's shoulder a gentle shove. "Hey! Language, Amelia Ruth Preston!"

"Oh shut up," Amy laughs. Her heart is beating in her chest so hard she fears she might pass out again. "I've never been so happy to see your face, Lucy. Hell, I don't think I've ever been this happy in my entire life." She pulls her into a hug once more, this time more gentle, and rests her head against her sister's shoulder, savoring the familiar scent of her coconut shampoo. "I've missed you so much. I thought you were dead, Lucy."

Lucy rubs a hand on Amy's back as she returns the hug, a familiar gesture of comfort from their childhood when their mother had to work late and Lucy was left playing nurse for her sick little sister. "How did you find me? How do you even know here exists? How did you come back?" Her questions are rapid fire, not allowing any time for a response. Not that Amy would have any useful ones. She pulls back and looks at her, confused.

"What do you mean? I didn't go anywhere, it's you who disappeared."

It's Lucy's turn to give Amy a look. "What? That...I don't understand what's going on."

"That makes two of us." Both turn toward the hall, intending to ask if Flynn knows anything more about what's going on than them, only to discover he's already disappeared, no doubt giving the two sisters privacy for their reunion. Oh well. "Listen," Amy says, turning back to Lucy, "I know we clearly have a lot to discuss, but I think for now I need an ibuprofen and a drink. Preferably alcoholic, if possible."

The Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute doesn't just smell of chemicals and sadness, it downright reeks of it. Jiya's never been able to stand hospitals in general, not since her abbi had wasted away in one, but this one is especially horrible. The smell, the sight, the sound...all of it. Of course, she knows objectively that it's just a typical hospital and truly not that bad, probably does a lot of good for the public, and she knows she has only her own hang ups around hospitals to blame for her sour opinion of this one, but that doesn't make her any less uncomfortable visiting, especially since she knows she could have easily ended up here with Stanley and just happened to get lucky (thus far, anyway, but never say never).

Connor handles speaking to the charge nurse about their visit while Jiya hovers a few feet behind him, perusing a wall of pamphlets in the waiting room that outline various psychiatric illnesses and suggestions for caregivers of sick loved ones. Her eyes hover briefly on the pamphlet for schizophrenia, and after a moment of hesitation she starts to reach for it, but her hand snaps back to her side quickly as she sees Connor turn to her.

"Jiya, they're ready for us," he says, not seeming to have noticed what she was up to, and Jiya nods and follows him as a nurse leads the way down the hall.

"He's been having a good day," the nurse tells Connor quietly, smiling. "He was able to wake up this morning and asked for a bit of food. We haven't seen him go back down yet, so fingers crossed his next spell isn't for a while."

Both Jiya and Connor return her smile, albeit not with the same optimism. They know exactly what is no doubt running through Stanley's mind while he's awake - namely, get me out of this godforsaken present and back into the past.

The nurse opens the door to his room and holds it open for them to enter first, then follows. "Hi Stanley! How was lunch?" They can all see the tray of bland hospital food that is laying mostly ignored on the side table, an empty Jello cup the only sign it's been touched.

He looks over at them as the nurse speaks, only just noticing the other two figures in the room. He's about to smile at Jiya until he notes Connor standing just behind her, and his expression darkens. The nurse raises his bed higher, ignoring his affronted look of protest. "It's a gorgeous day out, Stanley. Maybe your friends can take you outside for some fresh air?"

"He's not my friend," Stanley growls, eyes narrowed at Connor.

Connor smiles thinly. "Ah, maybe I'll go meet with the psychiatrist for an update, if he's available."

"A walk sounds great to me," Jiya says as she turns her attention back to Stanley. She can see the tension leave his shoulders as Connor exits. "How about it? Feel like some fresh air, Stanley?"

"If we must."

Everyone in the room is fully aware, of course, that Stanley hasn't stood up on his own for several years. They tried a few years of rehabilitative physical therapy in the moments he was awake, at least at the start, but when his comatose spells (or, as the doctors referred to it, "chronic epileptiform narcolepsy associated with severe schizophrenia") became more and more frequent and started to last longer each time - not to mention Stanley stubbornly fighting them every chance he got to avoid having to do it - the decision was made to give up on it in the hope that Stanley would eventually decide he wanted to walk again, wanted to get better, and they could tackle it at that time. Unfortunately, that day never came, and the resulting muscular atrophy decided it for him - Stanley would likely never walk out of that hospital on his own two legs, if he ever left it at all.

The nurse disappears for a moment, then reappears with a high-back wheelchair that she parks next to his bed. Another nurse joins her and Jiya watches patiently as they shift him from the bed to the wheelchair, fastening a wide lap belt around his waist to keep him upright. "His core muscles have weakened a bit," the nurse explains to Jiya as she works, "so supporting his weight while sitting fully upright has gotten a bit difficult." Jiya knows this is a gentle way of saying that his whole body is starting to atrophy. Ironically, the one who seems least bothered by this fact is Stanley himself.

Once he's comfortable and secured, his various monitors and saline drip now attached to the chair as well, the nurses smile once more at Jiya and step aside. "Probably no more than an hour or the battery on his IV will start to run out," one of the nurses tells Jiya as she leaves, and she pauses to pat Stanley's hand. "Enjoy the sun, Stanley."

He ignores her completely. Jiya knows he probably feels infantilized and patronized by all the hospital staff, especially since she knows his visions aren't schizophrenia at all (or maybe hopes that, anyway, for her own sake), but she can tell most of the fight has gone out of him at this point. She wheels him out of his room and down the hall toward the courtyard entrance, pausing at the locked doors so an orderly behind a plexiglass window can disengage the locks for them. The doors swing open automatically, and both Jiya and Stanley squint as they head out into the bright sun.

She has to admit, somewhat begrudgingly, that the courtyard is lovely - or as lovely as an enclosed hospital courtyard gets, anyway - and she looks around a moment before deciding to head over to a nearby man-made pond. She sits on the edge of the rock wall surrounding it and engages the brakes on Stanley's chair.

"So, how have you been?" she asks Stanley with a warm smile, then quickly adds, "Actually, maybe a better question is when have you been?"

The question has the intended effect of cheering him up, as Stanley's scowl immediately dissolves into a grin. "I forgot how wonderful it is talking to someone who also has the gift. Sometimes I start to wonder if I'm really as crazy as everyone thinks." He leans in excitedly, as much as he can within the constraints of his lap belt. "My most recent mental trip was to the French Revolution, or close to anyway. I have to say, Marie Antoinette is far more plain than I expected her to look. Threw a mean party, though."

Jiya smiles indulgently. She'd never truly understood whether Stanley was experiencing his visions as a sort of lucid dream where he would just observe his surroundings, or whether he was somehow actually able to alter things where he went, interact with people and objects as if he truly had travelled without the ship. Stanley may not have been totally insane - but the Stanley that returned from his final test trip in the Mothership clearly wasn't the same levelheaded, good natured man who left.

"But enough about my journeys," he says, reaching out to squeeze her hand in excitement. "Tell me, where have you gone since I saw you last?"

She sighs. "That's actually what I'm here about, Stanley. I need your help."

She spends the next several minutes describing to him in full detail the events that had transpired over the past few days (or, at least for her, the last few years as she fought to survive the San Francisco of the past). She struggles a bit as she describes her attempts in vain to discover a way to save Rufus via her visions, and very nearly breaks down as she describes his final moments, but rushes through it quickly and moves on to the visit from the alternate Lucy and Wyatt. Stanley's eyes widen as she recounts Lucy's description of her visions as a gift and explanation (according to alt-Lucy, anyway) of what they actually were. Stanley looks lost in thought as he listens, nodding absently as she speaks but clearly only hearing half of what she's saying.

"Does any of that sound familiar?" she asks once she's finished her story. "I don't understand any of it, honestly. I've tried to look for him anywhere I could and there's just...nothing. It's like he never existed. Of course, I've been figuring out how to control the visions on my own, so I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. What do you think?"

Stanley nods, and Jiya waits as he mulls it over, thankful to have caught him on a day where he's actually somewhat cognizant of reality (or their version of it).

"Absolutely fascinating," he finally says. "And it raises so many more questions. Tied to ourselves throughout the multiverses - so when we travel, are we traveling to another version of ourselves, outside our own reality or timeline? Is it a past self, a sort of reincarnation of people like us? Is it linear, or does it loop upon itself, each reality intersecting randomly but imperceptible to all but those few with the gift?"

She can tell he's getting a bit derailed from the actual heart of her question. "So you can't think of anything she might have meant when she said this was how I was going to find Rufus?" Yet again she silently curses alt-Lucy for dropping things on their lap and immediately departing with zero explanation.

"Right, right," Stanley says, seeming to catch on to her train of thought again. "I can only make guesses, you know."

"Guesses are better than nothing," she replies, shrugging. "Because without your help, that's all that I have."

"Well, the first thing she said was that you'd been 'taken out in most timelines', right?" Jiya nods. "I wonder if part of your problem with finding Rufus is that there aren't many versions of yourself left out there to tap into."

The thought makes her blood run cold. It was bad enough to have a visitor from some other version of reality show up and tell her there's a million timelines and therefore a million of her out there; learning there's only a handful of Jiyas left in time and space is a just an extra punch to the gut. Worse than that, it points towards someone - or something - trying to systematically wipe her out of existence, and though Jiya knows she isn't a saint in the least, she doesn't know of anyone who hates her enough to attempt to extinguish her very existence.

(Emma Whitmore, perhaps, but she doesn't put that much stock in the woman's ability to figure these things out on her own. She was a lone engineer slash pilot, not a one woman science team.)

"Then why did they bother telling me, if I'm the only one left-"

"Wait wait wait," he says quickly, holding up a hand to silence her, staring intently at the ground before them as if he's just thought of something and is trying to sort it out. She stays quiet, allowing him the time to think it through. "Is that was she said, word for word?" he finally asks, looking back at Jiya, who cocks her head to the side in confusion, and he gives her a look of exasperation that she isn't keeping up with his thought process. "You said she phrased it "you and other people like you", right?"

Jiya nods. "Something like that." She can feel the hint of an epiphany in the back of her mind, though she hasn't yet gotten a handle on what exactly that epiphany might be.

"We know we're not the only ones," Stanley says urgently, taking her hand once more and this time holding it in both of his. "If you can't tap into your own essence for answers, maybe you can tap into someone else's."

"Stanley, I wouldn't know where to begin with that," she sighs. "I barely understand how to tap into my own timeline, let alone how to reach other people on other timelines."

"What did the book say?"

"Book?"

Again he looks impatient. "The book she gave you, the journal, the one she said had all the answers."

Jiya blushes. "I, uh...didn't read it yet."

Stanley blinks at her and for a moment Jiya expects him to rake her over the coals for it - but instead he just laughs, which takes Jiya off guard.

"I always appreciate a visit from someone who shares the gift," he finally says after his laughter subsides. "But you're asking me about things I have no real knowledge about, while ignoring the resources you already have. That seems like a better jumping off point than asking me."

She smiles and nods, feeling somewhat like a gently admonished student. "Yeah, probably. I guess I just hoped you might have an easy answer for me. You've been at this a lot longer than me."

He smiles warmly in return. "Two heads are better than one, of course." A pause. "Actually, a million heads are better than one."

She sighs. There goes his moment of lucidity.

"Should we go back inside?" she asks, ready to get up, and Stanley waves a hand, making her take a seat once more.

"No, Jiya, you're missing my point. You may not be able to reach out to yourself, and you may not yet know how to reach out to others who have our gifts - but I can reach out to myself."

It dawns on her, and she mentally kicks herself for having doubted him. "You mean searching the various timelines that you still exist in?"

"Exactly."

"But Stanley, what good will that do if you're trapped in hospital?"

"Even if I can't find Rufus myself, combining knowledge from all the multiverses may give us an answer as to how you can. And if you go read that helpful book-" He pauses to give her a pointed look. "-then between the two of us, maybe we can figure this out. Maybe we can find him together."

For the first time in days (months, maybe - the progression of her own timeline was starting to confuse her), she feels a weight off her chest, feels a real, actual hope that she may finally be able to save Rufus. "Stanley, you're brilliant." This time she takes his hand, and looks at him with genuine appreciation. "Thank you."

Stanley is beaming, and she feels a stab of sympathy for the man - locked away from the world, considered insane, it must have been such a pleasant surprise when someone who believed him walked through that door. She makes a mental note to visit him again soon.

"Should we get started?" he says quickly, and it takes her a second to realize he's suggesting he lapse back into visions immediately, and not just suggesting it, but eager to do it.

"Why don't I take you back to your room, Stanley?" she says gently. "It'll be more comfortable if you travel while you're laying down."

He nods, smiling as she gets to her feet and wheels him back toward the doors to the ward. She glances down at him as they move and slows somewhat as she sees him looking thoughtfully at the treetops, at the birds perched there and singing brightly.

"Free as a bird," he murmurs quietly, seemingly more to himself than to Jiya, before turning to stare forward once more, the open sky forgotten.

"Is this truly necessary?"

Denise doesn't look at Lucy as she asks the question, her eyes fixed on the examiner as he straps Amy in to the various monitoring devices for the polygraph test. "After Jessica, we take no chances," she replies, her tone saying in no uncertain terms that it isn't up for discussion.

"It's fine, Lucy," Amy tells her gently, smiling. Lucy sighs and smiles back, her shoulders relaxing a fraction.

They'd only just been settling down on the couch with beers in hand when Denise had rushed in, the poor government employee who would be administering the test trailing after her, his arms full of equipment and an expression of mixed confusion, awe, and terror on his face. Denise hadn't even paused to introduce herself before insisting Amy be tested. They'd made the mistake once before of not doing their due diligence about newcomers to the bunker, and Denise Christopher does not make the same mistake twice.

Denise takes a seat across from her, the very picture of the stoic government agent that Lucy met that night two years ago. "I've heard a lot about you, Amy. I'm Agent Denise-"

"-Christopher, homeland security, yes, I know," Amy finishes for her. "We've met."

Denise's brow furrows and she glances over at Lucy briefly. "I'm sorry, you must be mistaken, I've never-"

"Don't ask me the how or why, because I still have no idea what's going on, but this morning I was unloading groceries from my car and talking with you on the phone for our weekly check in, and then I got in that ship and hit the button Wyatt told me to, and now I'm here."

Lucy looks up quickly at the mention of Wyatt. Denise seems unfazed by that particular detail, which doesn't really surprise her. Flynn had obviously called her at some point, probably given her all the details he knew. The fact that he hadn't thought to bring up Wyatt's name when he'd woken Lucy and dragged her eagerly toward the kitchen aggravates her slightly; the petty rivalry between the two men had been getting on her nerves more and more as of late, but this was an unexpected new low for Flynn, withholding information from her.

"You saw Wyatt?" Lucy asks.

Amy nods. "He told me he was going to take me to you. We were about to leave when we were attacked." Amy's voice falters. "He...made me leave without him. I...I don't know what happened to him after that."

"After what?"

Amy looks across the room, toward the Lifeboat, and Lucy notices for the first time the visible smears of blood on the outside of the ship. Her eyes snap back to Amy, who just nods, unable to meet her sister's gaze.

"Oh…" Lucy breathes, feeling suddenly disoriented. "He...that's his-..." Amy nods once more, slower, and Lucy moves from disoriented to full blown shock. "How?"

"Lucy," Denise says gently, "would I be able to speak with your sister, alone?" Lucy looks ready to protest and Denise raises a preemptive hand. "I'll be gentle with her, you have my word."

Lucy sighs and nods, still reeling as she slowly makes her way toward the hall.

"Lucy, wait," Amy calls after her. "Wyatt, he...said to tell you he'd left something in his room for you."

"Did he say what?"

"No. That's all he told me."

It's silent in the back hallway as Lucy makes her way toward Wyatt's room. The silence is even more deafening as she closes the door behind her, blocking out the distant echoes of voices from the kitchen. She glances around his room and sees nothing in plain sight, and so sets to work going through the remainder of his things for some clue as to what he may have left.

After a few minutes of searching, she finds a folded sheet of paper tucked into a pile of his clothes. Her name is scrawled on the outside, and she unfolds it only to see a tiny SD card taped inside.

She gently pries the SD card off the paper as she sits on the edge of the bed, pulling her phone from her back pocket as she does so. It contains only one file - a short video, taken the day before, according to the time stamp. She taps the screen and sees Wyatt fiddling with the camera before seating himself in the same spot she's currently inhabiting.

"Hey Luce." He gives a halfhearted wave. "I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye in person. I figured if you knew what I was up to there was no way you'd let me go alone. But we're already down one man, and I'm just not willing to risk everyone else's lives." He looks down at the floor, gathering his thoughts, then looks back up. "Lucy, I'm so, so sorry I hurt you. I'm not sure if you've noticed-" A sarcastic, self-effacing smile. "-but I'm a huge goddamn mess. I probably always have been, and it's made a mess of my life as long as I can remember, but it was usually just me caught in the crossfire. Jess for a while, too. But now I've let it bleed over onto you as well, who didn't deserve any of this. I've been a selfish ass for months now - shit, probably years, honestly - and I'm only just realizing that. Just now, when it's probably too late to have a hope in hell of making up for it."

"It's not," Lucy murmurs to the silence.

"There's nothing I can do to take back everything I did. All the poor choices I made. Ironic, really, seeing as we have a time machine. Or maybe I could take it back, go figure out a way to mess around with the past so everyone would forget my fuck-ups, but that's the coward's way out. I'm trying something new, it's called 'owning my shit'." He grins. "So rather than most likely fuck things up further, I decided it was time to make good on my promise from years ago. I'm going to find Amy for you, somewhere out there, and I'm going to bring her back."

Lucy swallows heavily, a tight feeling in her chest.

"I do love you, Lucy. I'm sorry for my awful timing in saying it. It wasn't fair. It was more for my own benefit than anything, and I can see that in hindsight. But I want you to know that no matter how things ended up between us, I will always love you. Because whether or not you're actually with me-" He pauses to look down at the floor again, and this time doesn't look back up. "-you're my family. All of you. And I need all of you in my life. I already fucked things up when I broke your heart, I know that, but I'm hoping one day I can make up for it enough that we can at least be friends again. Hell, even if I'm just the soldier watching your back, I'll take it - I'm a better man for having known you, Lucy Preston, and I will be forever grateful to you for that." He gives the camera one final smile before reaching forward, and the video abruptly cuts off.

For several minutes after Lucy simply sits there, holding her phone in her lap as she stares at the floor ahead of her.

Finally, her shoulders slump and she muffles a sob with her hand. He'd given her back the one thing she wanted most in the world, given her back the piece of her heart that was missing without her sister in her life. And he'd sacrificed himself to do it. Now she'd lost both him and Rufus. Now it was just her, Flynn, and Jiya. She can't handle any more loss. She's already long since reached her limit.

Wyatt Logan. Wyatt-goddamn-Logan. That idiot.

She's interrupted in her moment of grief by the sudden noise of the telltale alarm signalling a Mothership jump, and her head snaps up quickly. She rubs her eyes on the sleeve of her sweater to wipe the tears away, then rushes out to the hallway, jogging back toward the kitchen. She can see Flynn is already there, hunched over the various monitors at the main console, and Lucy rushes to join him, jaw clenched as she draws near, her aggravation with Flynn not yet forgotten.

"Where'd they jump?" Lucy asks quietly, not wanting to interrupt the polygraph proceedings just wrapping up a few meters away.

"January 28, 1848. Sacramento."

Lucy wracks her brain for any events of note. "It's...four days after gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, which instigated the gold rush. It...basically made California a state." Flynn turns back toward her and they meet eyes, both confused. "Why would Rittenhouse want to disrupt that? What do they gain?"

"Boost of political power, perhaps? California is a fairly liberal state." Flynn snorts softly. "Of course, just wanting the gold is also within the realm of possibility for them."

Lucy crosses her arms. "So they're either hoping to somehow disrupt the gold rush, in which case goodbye California, or they just want the money. But money just for money's sake has never been Rittenhouse's style."

"Rittenhouse has also never had Emma alone at the helm," Flynn points out, and Lucy shakes her head.

"Emma doesn't give a damn about the money," Lucy says, her voice low. "She's only ever wanted power. There's no way she'd waste resources on retrieving a few gold nuggets. This could very well be a trap."

Denise finally joins them by the console, her face grim. "What's the sitrep?"

"Sacramento. Or thereabouts. We won't know the actual situation until we get there."

Denise nods thoughtfully. "We should wait until I can get another man for the team."

"What? That will take way too long," Lucy protests, looking to Flynn for backup. "We always operated with one soldier in the past."

"Yes, and Sergeant Major Logan did his best to watch your backs, but having a second man was undeniably a huge help."

"What options do we have? Either we follow them and find out what they're planning, or we stay here and the state of California dissolves without us every knowing about it because we're busy waiting for you to track down another man you trust enough, then waiting for him to get appropriate security clearance, then waiting for him to get here-"

"More importantly," Flynn cuts in, "we need to stop reacting to whatever moves Rittenhouse makes and start being proactive Go on the offensive."

She sighs. "I would love to do that, Flynn, but we're down to one pilot, one historian, and one soldier. We don't have the resources left to just run after them without knowing what we're getting into. And I don't doubt your combat skills in the least, but we have no idea what Rittenhouse has waiting for us."

"Then give me a gun."

Denise looks at Lucy in surprise. "Lucy, you're a civilian, you know I can't do that."

"Either give me one now, or I try and find a weapon in the past, and we all saw how well that went last time." She and Flynn share a knowing look, recalling their less than smooth trip to Salem months previous.

Denise apparently remembers as well. "Fine. You can take my sidearm for now to save time - but the moment you get there, Flynn shows you how to use it properly."

"She knows," Flynn tells her, smiling at Lucy proudly. "She tagged Emma with a Colt 45 and then very nearly with my glock after that as well."

"I've learned a few things," Lucy says, shrugging. "Enough to get by as backup."

They're interrupted by the sound of the bunker entrance door closing loudly shortly before Jiya and Connor appear, jogging toward them. "I'm back," Jiya calls breathlessly. "Where are we off to?" She stops short in the kitchen as she spots their new addition still seated at one of the tables, the examiner just finishing unhooking the various recording instruments. "I've...missed something, clearly."

"Jiya, right?" Amy says, smiling as she gets to her feet. The vertigo has mostly gone away at that point and she extends a hand toward Jiya. "I'm Amy, Lucy's-"

"Sister," Jiya finishes, eyes wide. "How is this possible?" They're wondering how best to explain the situation to her when she finally spots the Lifeboat, her face falling as she sees the blood trail. She swallows, brow knit, and shakes her head. "No, don't...don't tell me." She looks helplessly toward Lucy, who nods, her eyes downcast, and Jiya has to look at the floor a moment to compose herself. She takes a few deep, even breaths, then looks up again, her face hard. She'd fallen back on her old coping tactics, the things that kept her alive while marooned in the past. Keep the walls high enough and no one will be able to breech them - and don't ever let them see you bleed.

She finally forces a smile and shakes Amy's hand. "It's good to meet you, Amy." Their introduction is short, as Jiya immediately heads toward the main console where the rest of the team is gathered, shooing them out of the way so she can seat herself in front of the keyboard. "Sacramento, huh? Do we have any idea what they're up to?"

"A few guesses," Denise answers, "but nothing concrete, which means we'll be going in blind."

"It wouldn't be the first time." Her fingers fly across the keys as she works to narrow down the Mothership's location more precisely. "So it'll be me, Lucy, and Flynn?" she asks, not pausing from her typing.

"We don't have much choice. It'll take way too long to secure another soldier-"

"Lucy, what's going on?"

Amy is standing a few feet away, trying to follow their conversation and obviously failing. Lucy looks toward her sister, wondering how to explain, and glances over at Denise briefly to gauge whether or not she has permission. Denise nods. "She passed the polygraph."

"Did...did Wyatt explain any of this to you?" Lucy asks her, descending the stairs. Amy meets her at the base of them. "The ships, what we're doing here, anything?"

"Not really. He told me about the other ship and the...the time travelling, but the rest he never got a chance to explain."

"Lucy," Denise interrupts, a hint of urgency in her tone. "We need to get moving. Can this wait until you're back?"

"She should come with us."

There's an ensuing pause of silence, and then Denise shakes her head. "Not a chance. Absolutely not. Flynn already has to keep an eye on two civilians, let alone three, and that's a great way to get her killed."

Lucy looks over at Denise, her jaw set. "She can take care of herself. So can Jiya. I can fire a gun. We're probably more prepared for a fight right now than we've ever been. But more important than that, I refuse to leave her behind again."

Denise understands. Lucy can see it in her eyes. "Lucy, I know what nightmare scenarios must be running through your head. But Amy has done exactly one jump. She has no combat experience-"

"Not strictly true," Amy mumbles under her breath, not wanting to interrupt the discussion but slightly affronted at the assumption Agent Christopher was making about her fighting abilities. She'd worked her ass off for that black belt, not to mention the lifetime she'd spent picking fights over her sister's honor.

"-and she has zero context as to what we're doing. The culture shock alone will slow you down. She'll be more of a liability than an asset."

Lucy shakes her head firmly. "Either she goes, or I stay. I'm not walking away from her, Denise. I just…" She looks at Amy, her expression pained. "I just can't. I can't lose her again."

"Lucy…" Denise sighs. She's backed into a corner - the only thing more dangerous than sending Amy along was Jiya and Flynn going without Lucy to navigate the historical context for them. "Fine. But no weapon, and I wash my hands of any responsibility for what might happen. Understood?"

Lucy nods gratefully and looks back at Amy. "C'mon, let's get you strapped in."

"I have no idea what is going on. Strapped in where?" It occurs to her then and she glances briefly at the Lifeboat. "In that again? I nearly had brain damage the last time I rode in it. Where are you even going?"

"Sacramento. 1848." Lucy smiles and takes her sister's hand gently. "You always did like westerns when you were little, right?"

Amy finally reluctantly allows Lucy to lead her toward the ship. "That doesn't necessarily translate to 'Hey, you know what might be fun, experiencing the old west first hand, I've always wondered what dysentery is like'."

If she's honest, though, she's feeling a rush of excited anticipation. It was enough of a thrill to finally find her sister after two years of searching and giving up hope. Everything feels so surreal, and she wonders for a moment if the redhead had in fact managed to kill her in that alleyway and all of this is just some elaborate death hallucination. But the hand gripping hers tightly feels very real, as does the cold metal of the stair railing that she rests her free hand on as she follows Lucy up and into the ship.