Lucy woke on the small cot, early. She listened to Wyatt's breathing, then moved over to lie beside him again. Their shared early mornings were balm to her uneasy soul, these days. His eyes fluttered and he woke when she put her arm on him. "Is everything okay?"

Lucy nodded to Wyatt. "It's fine, it's early. You should rest." He was quiet and she thought he fell back to sleep. Then he said, "Have you talked with Amy?"

Lucy looked at him surprised, "No, I'm not sure what to tell her. I can't say anything about anything."

Wyatt put his hand on Lucy's arm. "So? She'll want to hear your voice. And I know you want to hear hers." Lucy rested her head on his shoulder. "Yes."

He said, "Lucy, how are we doing?"

She smiled. "You know how I feel." His hand tightened on her. She went on, "And we'll always disagree. It's how it is."

He turned his head to look at her. "Things like working with Flynn are not like disagreeing over what color to paint the living room."

Lucy said, "It's a matter of scale. We have arguments over things that can wipe people out of existence or bring them back. We're going to have to be resilient about this stuff or we won't survive." Wyatt nodded and said. "We've made it this far." They settled in to cuddle and waited for the day's call to action.

The Team worked with other staff to relay the equipment down to the base. There was a smattering of pieces from each era. Lucy took some time in the morning to give her sister a call, while the others were assembled to make a plan for the day. Agent Christopher broke her news about the deal she'd cut with Flynn while Lucy was gone. There was general disagreement and disgust.

"Wait, wait until you see the details." Agent Christopher brought out the packet of papers now with Garcia Flynn's signature.

Rufus threw up his hands. Jiya picked up the packet and skimmed through it.

Wyatt said: "It's going to be very difficult for us to accept him as part of our team. You're sacrificing team cohesion for this possible resource."

Jiya held up her hand and said,"He's not free. He's going to serve sentences he was convicted for, this just reduces the terms, and.." She glanced at Agent Christopher, "...and may dismiss the sentence for his murder of his family if evidence is uncovered that shows him to be innocent."

They were all silent.

Rufus asked, "So how would this work? If he's still a prisoner?"

Agent Christopher: "He'll act as a consultant."

Rufus said, "So like Hannibal Lecter and shit?"

They laughed. Agent Christopher said, "Yup, I guess so."

Lucy walked back over. "What's so funny?" Wyatt took her hand. "Flynn is going to help us. You had to be there."

Lucy stayed away from Flynn. Jiya found herself curious, and ferried some of the pieces and papers to the room where he sat under guard. He looked at her quizzically. "I don't know you."

Jiya smiled. "Gonna keep it that way, Mister. What do these tell you?"

Flynn peered at them. "Code of course," he said dismissively.

Jiya rolled her eyes. "We're making your life easier for this?"

Flynn looked narrowly at her. "You're part of the team, aren't you." He grinned and tried to clap his hands, hampered by manacles. "Of course!"

Jiya skipped right past feeling uncomfortable straight to getting hazily afraid. "You don't know who I am."

Flynn shook his head. "I didn't meet you but I believe I know a certain pilot who was very concerned for your safety." Flynn looked away with a contained smile and examined the pieces.

Jiya excused herself and made a point to ask the guard at the door to "watch him carefully." She met Rufus coming up the hall.

Rufus looked at Jiya's expression, "What's wrong?"

She nodded towards the interogation room. "You were not kidding about him."

"Did he hurt you? Or threaten you?"

Jiya shook her head. "Worse, he just neatly put me in a box without seeing me before in his life."

Rufus put his arm around her. She went on, "I can understand now why Wyatt flipped out. Is everybody in the NSA like that?"

Jiya went to walk away from the room, but Rufus moved closer, going to the observation glass again and she followed him. He gestured to the objects with Flynn.

Rufus said, "What is he doing with those things? Couldn't he kill someone with a paperclip?"

Agent Christopher walked up. Jiya pointed to her:"She said it was OK."

Denise nodded, "Flynn understands his position here. And if he doesn't, it's better to learn sooner rather than later."

Rufus & Jiya exchanged a worried glance.

Lucy and Wyatt took a break for his daily exercises. He was quite sore from the exertions of the trip out to the archive. Forty-five minutes walk on level surface found them winding throughout the complex. "My money's on this place being off the books," said Wyatt.

They were surprised when activity started around them. The hangar doors opened and a truck entered bearing the Lifeboat.

One of the techs approached them, "ID's please?" Lucy and Wyatt about laughed. They showed their passes. The tech's attitude changed.

"Please watch out as we bring in the equipment, Master Sergeant, Miss Preston." He shepherded them looking a bit hang-dog. They found a safe place to sit and watch them unload and dock the ship.

Lucy said,"He must be new here."

"They all are. Most of these folks are military. I've not seen any of Mason's folks."

"Speaking of Connor, do you know if he's involved?"

Lucy noticed that Wyatt hesitated a moment. He said, "Yes, I think Denise said that he'd be joining us soon."

Wyatt went on, "Mason would be coming because of the Lifeboat."

"Must be..." Lucy's shoulders went down, her expression went cold. "That means we'll have to jump again soon." She turned to Wyatt. "Amy..." He took her hand.

The doors rumbled open again. A second, larger truck entered. They saw the gleaming white of the Mothership against the dark green of the truck's tarpaulin.

Lucy said,"How many of us are they sending?"

Wyatt rubbed his healing leg. "Guess that depends on where we need to go."

After several days with the artifacts, Wyatt was feeling like he'd be happy never to see another piece of code as long as he lived. It didn't help that the others took to the endless, baffling process like ducks to water. He'd certainly done his share of decoding and encrypting in training for missions but this was different. The scale, the variety, the dust..

"Give me a bomb to defuse, any day of the week." Lucy looked alarmed as she brought him another stack of paper scan. "Don't joke!"

"It'd be preferable to this..." He gestured to the scanner. "Is this really all I'm good for now?"

Lucy could not resist. She leaned in and gave him a kiss that took his mind completely off his troubles. She murmured, "Wait until we get out of this godforsaken base.."

He whispered back cheekily, "Promises, promises.. " but took his sweet time letting go of her and getting back to work.

Rufus and Jiya had set up databases to sort and analyse the analog data Wyatt was entering, as well as the more contemporary files. They were having a confab with Agent Christopher when Lucy came in.

Rufus gestured to her and said:"You spoke with the Doc the most. She told you Rittenhouse kept oral records didn't she?"

Lucy nodded. "Yes, that's right. She'd been trained, like me, same school even..." She trailed off, disturbed.

Lucy shook her head and snapped out of it. "At least for part of our schooling. Do you think she could help?"

Jiya said "We're wondering why she thought that hers were the only records, when this massive repository was up here?"

Agent Christopher shrugged and said, "They do like keeping people in the dark. Maybe this was intended as a redundant system, just in case they lost historians?"

Rufus said, "Turns out they were right to do so. They seem to have lost two even that we know of."

Jiya said, "Two?"

Rufus looked at her, "Well, the Doc, and.." He nodded at Lucy.

Lucy grimaced. She couldn't disagree but did not like it. She changed the subject. "Can someone relieve Wyatt? He's getting punchy down there."

Jiya said, "I'll go, I could use some mindless data entry while I sort thru these algorithms in my mind." She gave Rufus a kiss and dashed away.

Lucy looked towards the interrogation room. "How's he coming along?"

Rufus nodded. "He's been kind of scarily helpful, like you'd expect."

Agent Christopher said, "He hasn't given us any actionable leads yet."

Rufus chipped in reluctantly but honestly, "But he's helped Jiya and me circumvent some dead ends in our investgations. He's a murderous, caustic dickhead, but at least he's a valuable murderous, caustic dickhead."

Lucy steeled herself. "I should talk with him."

Agent Christopher raised an eyebrow. "You're welcome to, but I'd insist on you not doing it alone." They saw Wyatt come towards them. "Perfect timing," she said.

Wyatt took it better than Lucy had feared. He just nodded, asked Agent Christopher a few questions about the security precautions that were in place.

Lucy thought back to her conversation with her sister that morning while the others talked...

Amy answered the phone, "Lucy! I'm so glad to hear from you."

In her heart, Lucy blessed Wyatt for telling her to call Amy. She almost couldn't speak from the tears that threatened when she heard her sister's voice.

"Lucy, this is you, right?" Some uncertainty crept into Amy's voice. Lucy cleared her throat, trying to talk before the tone became fear.

"It's me, Amy. How are you?"

"How am I?! How are you?"

"Fine, fine. It's..." Lucy shook her head. "There is so much I want to tell you."

Amy said, "Let me guess, you can't tell me where you are, what you're doing, who you're doing it with or why?" Lucy gave a chagrined laugh. "Yup."

Amy laughed as well. "Well, there's one person I do know, at least I hope, is there with you. How are things with your fave handsome soldier?"

Lucy wiped the remnants of tears from her eyes. "He's good. So much better. It was terrifying..." She trailed off.

Amy nodded uselessly. "I know, 'you can't tell me why'. It's okay, I get it. You were a mess when you left. His life was in danger, right?"

Lucy whispered. "Yes." Silence sat between them for a moment. "But he's alive. He's healing. I'm sorry it took me so long to contact you."

"Darn right! I've been waiting on tenterhooks (whatever those are) to hear from you. I figured your boss would call me if anything serious happened. Though apparently they haven't been so good at letting you call me."

Lucy felt ashamed, "I'm so sorry. It was my fault this time. I'll keep in better touch now. Actually, Wyatt made me call you."

Amy laughed again, "So I have him to thank? Remind me to add that to the list."

Lucy said,"What list?"

Amy responded a breath later. "Well, from the stories you've told me, he's saved your bacon more times than you could count."

Lucy said, "And I've saved him, too! But, yeah. There's no doubt there."

"Really? That's now how it was when you left me..."

Lucy was mystified, "What?"

"Doubt. You were all doubt until you got the call. Have things changed?"

Lucy blushed. "Yeah, a little."

"A little, huh?

"Maybe a lot."

Amy said, "Good. I never had any doubt about you two. And you know, someday you've got to tell me what on earth 'tenterhooks' are." Lucy laughed.

Coming back to the present, Lucy shrugged off her memories of lecturing her sister on fabric making in the 17th century, as Wyatt and Agent Christopher turned to her.

Wyatt took her hand. "You know you don't have to do this if you don't want?" Lucy shook her head. "No. I know. But Wyatt, can we talk first."

They stepped away from the others. Lucy said, "You seem okay with this, are you?"

Wyatt looked away. "Honestly?" She nodded. He went on, "Honestly, no. I'm not comfortable seeing him within a mile of you. He's cunning, resourceful, dangerous. He thinks you've betrayed him."

Lucy said, "He's right about that."

Wyatt said, "No he isn't." He took her hand. "Lucy, you've fought for him, cared for him, saw the good in him when no one else did."

Lucy looked down. "I do care, despite what he's done." She looked at Wyatt again. "That's what I really wanted to ask. Do you trust me with him?"

She looked steadily at Wyatt. He returned her look but seemed to turn inward for a moment. Then the tension when out of his shoulders and he looked at her with a serene, happy look. He put his hands on her arms and just said: "I trust you."

Lucy looked at him shaking her head, something happy bubbling up inside of her, completely at odds with the moment, but feeling right.

Wyatt went on, "I trust you with my life, Lucy. I don't trust Flynn as far as I can throw him..."

Lucy cut in:"Which would not be very far right now."

He gave her the stink eye, but they were both smiling. Then he said, "As I was saying, and I do think he's full of tricks that he wouldn't hesitate to use on any of us. but you were right to offer him hope. And I was wrong..." His voice sank even quieter. "...to doubt you. About him. About us."

Lucy nodded, wishing they were any where other than standing in a military complex full of dangerous secrets, their friends and enemies.

She said, "Wyatt, please note two things: 1) thank you for admitting you were wrong, I won't let you forget it, but I appreciate it, and 2) I absolutely want to kiss you right now even though it's totally the wrong moment, I feel like we've come so far and I want you to know—"

Lucy was cut off this time, by Wyatt pulling her to him and giving her a kiss that left her gasping.

Their friends had the temerity to applaud, and Lucy was left having to walk over to the interrogation room with her cheeks still flushed and her heart still pounding as she turned the door-handle on the room that held Garcia Flynn.

Flynn was surrounded by neat stacks of papers, several objects and photos of some of the larger equipment. He looked up at her calmly.

"Welcome back, Lucy. What meaningless promise will you make to me today, I wonder?" He looked back at papers, took some notes.

Lucy felt like she'd been struck with a bucket full of cold water. Wyatt's hand tightening on her elbow, she saw his anger blossom.

Agent Christopher saw it too, she put a hand on his shoulder and narrowed her eyes at Flynn. Wyatt took a deep breath. Lucy nodded at the two of them & then picked up a chair. She moved it over to Wyatt, carefully placing it for him to sit in, and ostentatiously giving him a hand. Wyatt looked at her like she was mad but gratefully and grudgingly sat. Lucy turned to Flynn & saw that he watched carefully. His eyes flickered across Wyatt taking in his condition.

"They didn't go down without a fight did they? You underestimated them...like you always have." Tension rose in the room. Flynn and Wyatt stared at each other.

"Not as much as you underestimated my patience. Cut the crap & start talking." Wyatt bit back at Flynn.

Flynn had the audacity to let out an exasperated sigh. "I have to give it to Lucy for putting up with that temper of yours."

Lucy knew she had to intervene because as much as Wyatt agreed, he wasn't going to tolerate Flynn's behavior acting superior for long.

Lucy said, "Flynn. Wyatt nearly died here." Both men looked at her in disbelief. Agent Christopher raised a quizzical eyebrow.

Lucy looked to Wyatt, he still seethed at Flynn but gave her a slight nod. Lucy turned to Flynn: "I want you to understand the stakes we're dealing with."

Flynn raised his eyebrows, and he became more heated as he spoke, "You're telling me what the stakes are? I've already lost everything."

Lucy dropped her guard and let her feelings show. She looked at Flynn with compassion and sadness. She said quietly. "I'm showing you what the stakes are for me."

She looked at Wyatt, still allowing her full feelings to show on her face, shifting now to love, longing, fear. She took his hand. Wyatt looked bewildered. Agent Christopher smiled.

Lucy squeezed Wyatt's hand and dropped it with a sad smile. She turned back to Flynn. Now she became businesslike, her tone sharp and biting. "I am in."

Lucy went on, "I am here to find the key we need to crack this code. Whatever it takes. I know what you want. You know what I want. We don't have to trust or like each other. We just have to know that working together is the option we have in order to protect, and perhaps save"—her lip trembled as she said this, but her eyes stayed stern—"our loved ones."

Agent Christopher watched Flynn as he listened to Lucy make her case. She saw him become guarded as Lucy expressed her care for him. Saw pain as Lucy showed her love for Wyatt. Flynn looked to Agent Christopher for confirmation as Lucy spoke about saving their loved ones.

Agent Christopher nodded, thinking, Heavens let there be a way to save his family, or there will be hell to pay.

When Lucy was done, Wyatt took her hand. Flynn was staring darkly at them, but nodded. He said, "You owe this to me." Lucy nodded, too. She heard Wyatt's sharp intake of breath.

Lucy looked at Wyatt and saw that he looked daggers at Flynn. But she nodded and said to Flynn. "I do." Wyatt could take no more.

Wyatt stood up and stepped close to Flynn. "Lucy has been your strongest ally from the start, Flynn, and you know it. She's saved your life many times."

Flynn leaned back taking this in. "From whom?"

"From me. And everytime you stepped into the Mothership, Lucy—some Lucy—directed and you gave you the help you needed to fight Rittenhouse. Gave you the tools to save your brother. Change your mother's life."

Wyatt paused and then went on, "..Perhaps even someday you'll be able to save your wife and daughter."

Flynn grew angry again. "You don't know that. She may have been manipulating me all the time. She gets what she wants." He gestured to Wyatt. "But what about me."

Wyatt spoke intently, "I don't know about any other Lucy, in any other timeline. I don't know about the one who gave you that book. But this Lucy you can believe in. She has done nothing but fight for your right to find your wife and child since you've been here. If you ever see them again, you should thank her."

Finally, a light entered Flynn's eyes. He gave a deep sigh, and somehow looked much older. As though his anger had been holding him together. He looked from Wyatt to Lucy. "If ever I do, that day I will." She nodded. Then he smiled & the usual Flynn was back.