I feel like a broken record, you guys, but again - thank you so much for all the kind and inspiring feedback! You're awesome for sending so much great encouragement :)
I hope you all enjoy this part - some was easy to write, some trickier. Hopefully it still averaged out for an interesting chapter for you to read. Oh, and reminder - I started this after the Houdini episode (minus the revelation of Jessica's killer's name), so we're officially way off course when it comes to things that have happened in the actual show since then.
Also, just in case some of you hadn't seen it (the default view on here is to NOT show 'M'-rated content in the list of stories), I posted a separate one-shot, which is indeed 'M'-rated.
Consciousness crept in on Wyatt slowly. Warm and relaxed, he pressed closer to Jess, cuddling her closer and nuzzling at her collarbone. He took a deep breath, inhaling her scent and sighing it back out with contentment. Absently, he wondered what time it was and if they had time to fool around before they had to go anywhere. With a grin of anticipation emerging on his face, he blinked in the early morning light, with the intent of seeking out the clock on Jessica's nightstand.
Except the sight that met him was dark, wavy hair instead of a sleek mix of sun-kissed light browns and blonde.
So not Jessica... Wyatt tensed.
It was only a split-second - a highly panicky split second - before he focused in on Lucy's slumbering face and the whole of the previous night's preposterous situation came rushing back.
Roughly one second after that was when it registered that he and Lucy were touching in a whole lot of ways that were not ok for co-workers. He pulled away roughly. This whole thing with Lucy was already incredibly unnerving, even if he ignored the fact that he'd just mistaken her for his wife.
Safely across the bed, he peered over at Lucy carefully. Luckily, she still hadn't stirred, even after the rather abrupt disentanglement of their various body parts.
Wyatt flopped onto his back. Fuck. This was such a mess. How the hell was he supposed to get Jess back now, when he'd yet to be able to do anything at all? And that was when she'd at least existed. Now she was just as non-existent as Lucy's sister was. Fuck. He rubbed his eyes in exasperation.
He was halfway to falling back asleep, trying to avoid the mess by simply avoiding consciousness, when a noise caught his attention.
It wasn't something he recognized; he couldn't place it. Leaning up on an elbow, he eyed Lucy warily. But she was nearly silent.
Then the noise again, louder this time, and it finally dawned on Wyatt.
The baby monitor. He'd almost managed to forget there was a kid caught up on this mess. A freakin' kid who suddenly existed as if by magic.
A kid who sounded like she was well on her way to crying, if the noises coming from the baby monitor were any indication.
Wyatt shot another glance at Lucy. Still out cold. Lucky... But given that she looked so peaceful asleep, and knowing that she'd not be nearly as relaxed if awake in this new reality, he figured he'd let her sleep.
Resigning himself to what he was about to do, Wyatt steeled himself and headed hesitantly out of the room and down the hall to his not-office-anymore.
He peered in cautiously. The ki- Lena, he mentally corrected himself. Wasn't her fault she wasn't supposed to be here. Lena was standing at the edge of the crib, gripping the edge. He little face was red, and not at all happy.
Kids were not his thing. He had nothing against them, he just had no experience with them. But even he knew that she was going to start screaming soon if he didn't do something.
She let out a louder whimper, loud enough that Wyatt forced himself to enter the room without a plan other than to somehow head off a tantrum with some sort of preemptive strike.
But all it took was him stepping into Lena's line of sight for her face to brighten and a wide grin to spread over her little face.
It was such a stark change that even Wyatt had to chuckle. "...hey, kid," he said softly, stepping a little closer to the crib as he did. She was cute, he had to give her that.
"Da!" was the happy little shriek he got in return.
Well, at least he'd headed off the crying for the moment.
But Lena wasn't finished, and babbled on. "Da da da," she seemed to insist. All while staring straight at him.
And that's when it registered in Wyatt's mind what she was actually saying. His stomach twisted into knots at the insinuation being made by the tiny little person in front of him. Dad. He'd never given all that much thought to when he might have had that title, but he sure as hell had never envisioned this.
Of course, Lena wasn't wrong. In her world, the little that she knew, he was exactly who she said he was. For her sake (and in the hope of continuing to ward off tears), Wyatt managed to choke out a gravelly acknowledgement and a forced smile in her direction. "Right. I guess I am."
Except that admission did little to appease Lena, who escalated her side of the conversation to a continuous "da da da da" while simultaneously stomping her little feet, dancing and reaching one pudgy hand towards him.
Again, Wyatt didn't know kids, but it didn't take a literal rocket scientist like some of those at Mason to be able to figure out what Lena was asking for. Tentatively, Wyatt covered the remaining distance to the crib.
Now both little arms were reaching out for him.
"Uh, ok," Wyatt acquiesced, carefully slipping his hands under her arms and hauling her upwards. "Don't scream if I drop you." Trying to mimic how he'd seen Lucy hold her the night before, he brought her in closer, tucking her against one side of his torso.
It was immediately clear that Lena was the one in the pairing that was far more comfortable with the relationship; almost right away, she rested her head on his chest and firmly planted her thumb in her mouth.
And that was that. No longer any sign of an impending meltdown, so Wyatt wasn't going to mess with that. He didn't move his arms, save for his thumb absently stroking her tiny back as he slowly walked himself around the room.
The last time he'd seen it, it had been sparsely furnished. Desk, chair, cheap half-empty bookcase. The only decoration, as it were, had been the clippings and printouts of any information he'd been able to gather. Now? Gone was the industrial Ikea, in its place a crib, a rocking chair, changing table, dresser... Bears, bunnies, and other stuffed critters galore. Colorful picture books filled the... Wyatt squinted. Ok, well, maybe the bookcase actually was the same one.
Gracing the walls were numerous framed photos that Wyatt was only now really registering. One collage had Lena at various ages, reminding him of a similar one at his grandparents decades ago. He moved in closer, studying the images of her little face intently. He could see what Lucy saw. He'd seen the photos of himself as a child enough.
The reality starting to set in even more, he bent his head down, whispering to Lena in a quiet admission, "You do kind of look like me."
Lena offered a subtle but silent confirmation when she turned to look up at him upon hearing the sound of his voice. She blinked at him, her pale blue eyes wide.
Wyatt's breath caught in his throat, just a little.
But Lena broke the eye contact and nestled herself back up against him. And so Wyatt was back wandering and taking in the photo arrays. Including a set of images that looked to be from the day she was born.
A few were just of her at what must have been within a few hours of birth, looking far more red and scrunchy and way less admittedly cute than she did now.
Other candids must have been taken by him, showing Lucy, absolutely glowing, even post labor, as she held Lena. Even he couldn't deny it; she was beautiful in them, looking just as enthralled as she always was when they headed to her favorite historical periods for the first time.
But someone else must have been there to take the others. Lucy's mother? The rest included him, looking equally as smitten as Lucy did with Lena. Others... the others were unsettling to say the least. It was a plain as day; the way he looked at Lucy... He'd seen it before in pictures with Jessica. And he felt almost queasy, knowing there was a version of him that didn't feel that for Jessica and only Jessica. This whole new reality felt like a horrible betrayal of Jess. Baby birth pictures? What about the little boy she'd wanted, that he was supposed to have with her? That's what was meant to be in these pictures, not Lucy with a daughter.
Lena took that opportunity to remind Wyatt that she was there, whether she was supposed to be or not, by reaching up and slapping her drool-covered hand against his cheek.
Wyatt grimaced, shifting Lena in his arms as he reached up with a wrist to wipe at where she'd slimed him. In doing so, he was reminded of another rather pressing issue as her diaper crinkled against his arm.
He leaned back so he could level with her. "I don't quite know how the diaper thing works. Or bottles. Or any of this," Wyatt sighed. "Hopefully Lucy- your mom," he corrected, "knows a little more than I do." He shook his head slightly at his own wording, turning to eye the set of family photos once more.
In the meantime, Lena yelped happily in response to hearing the reference to Lucy. "Ma!"
"Yeah, she is," Wyatt murmured, rubbing her back and still staring contemplatively at the photos.
Lena just grew more emphatic, twisting in his arms and reaching out with another "Ma!"
That was enough to prompt him to turn around to see what the fuss was all about. Lucy stood in the doorway, hair disheveled from sleep, still clad in pajamas, and waving the baby monitor at him. "I can hear, you know," she admonished lightly, even as she acknowledged Lena with a soft smile. "Don't think you're going to stick me with all the diapers."
Wyatt grimaced, even though he'd never really expected he'd be able to pawn everything off on Lucy.
"Look," Lucy continued, her voice a little shaky but determined. "We need to get to Mason and see if we can figure this out."
"Yeah, no shit," he agreed. Understatement of the year. Belatedly, he realized that maybe you shouldn't curse in front of impressionable little ears. Looking down at Lena, he absently muttered a soft "Sorry."
By then, Lucy had inched into the room, close enough to offer Lena her fingers to grab. "We have to bring her, I guess," she added. "Can you get her dressed and ready while I shower? I mean..." she stammered, catching herself. "Is it ok if I shower here?"
Wyatt hesitated, a sudden mental picture of Lucy, naked, standing in the billowing steam of his shower, in his bathroom, flashing unbidden through his brain. Fuck. He squeezed his eyes hut, willing the image to go away. But it had to happen, right? She lived there too, at least in this reality. "Your place too, right?" he ended up sighing with a shrug, then nodded down at Lena in his arms. "Yeah, I'll figure her out."
Lucy flashed him a grateful, if sheepish, smile as she pried her finger from Lena's grasp. "I'll deal with her breakfast after," she promised, "so you can get ready." And she was gone, leaving Wyatt and Lena alone once more.
So began his first venture into the field of diaper changes. He'd disarmed bombs and other IEDs. He could assemble his weaponry in record time. He'd been trained in hand-to-hand combat. Surely he could wrangle a 13 month old into a new diaper and clothes.
Once he'd managed to get the pajamas off her, and finally open the diaper, he'd couldn't think of anything he'd been more grateful for than the fact that the diaper was only wet. Lucy could deal with whatever showed up later in the next one. It took him a minute to fiddle with the stupid sticky tabs on the sides of the new one, but still, Lena was relatively quickly re-diapered and grinning up at him from the changing table.
Clothing proved to be a bit more of a wrestling match, but even so, just a few minutes later, he was pretty proud of the fact that the kid was looking entirely reasonable in some stretchy blue pants, a t-shirt, and the hoodie they'd pulled off the night before.
Wyatt could still hear the water of the shower running - no, don't think about who was in what state of undress in that water, Wyatt warned himself - so he scooped Lena from where he'd set her on the floor to shove her feet into socks and tiny sneakers, and headed out into the living room. He cast a glance at the kitchen, but figured Lucy could deal with food. He still couldn't wrap his mind around the mess of half-packed boxes. How could a quick trip to the past bring all of this on? It hadn't even been a particularly eventful mission, at least compared to some of the other ridiculous things they'd had to deal with before.
He was still scanning the room, eyeing the boxes incredulously when he spotted his laptop out of the corner of his eye. The one he used so diligently to research Jessica's murder. The one that, now, would probably show absolutely nothing of the sort. More anxious than ever to get to Mason Industries and figure out how to set things right, he shifted Lena in his arms helplessly.
Luckily, Lucy appeared from the hallway relatively quickly. Her appearance took Wyatt aback for a moment; he was so used to seeing her either look put together in modern clothes, or in the whole range of historical getups they'd been forced to parade around in. The casual, wet ponytail, makeup-free, barefoot look rattled him for some reason. But he didn't allow himself to dwell on it, instead crossing the room with a purpose to shove Lena at Lucy. "She's ready," he declared bluntly, stating the obvious.
Lucy looked a little rattled herself upon the unceremonious dumping of a fully dressed daughter into her arms. "Well, look at you, all SuperDad."
Wyatt didn't respond. Lucy in his apartment, Lena, no Jessica - it was all suddenly hitting him full force, and escaping to the bathroom for a shower seemed like the best option at the moment.
Until he was assaulted by the scent of Lucy's shampoo and whatever else. Dammit. He used to love walking into a room full of the smell of Jessica's bodywash, and shampoo, and perfume. And he hadn't had that luxury in so long. Now, to have it be Lucy's? It didn't sit right.
So he hurried through his shower, ducking into the bedroom for clothes practically before the water had stopped running. He dressed quickly, emerging back into the living room just a few moments later.
He was greeted by the oddly domestic sight of Lena in a high chair, smearing something all over the tray, and Lucy by his stove, dumping what appeared to be scrambled eggs -Jess' favorite - onto a small plate.
It was a moment before either of them realized he was there, but Lena soon gave him away with a shriek of "Da!"
He could see Lucy startle at the sound. "Oh, hi," she began, looking over at him and waving a piece of paper in his direction. "Apparently you really are SuperDad. Super detailed lists of what she likes to eat. Not my handwriting."
She slid on across the counter towards him, and he did indeed recognized his own precise print.
"I guess we're gone enough that a sitter would need it," she explained. "I figured eggs and banana seemed easiest. Although somehow a banana ended up being way messier than I thought it could," she added.
Wyatt grimaced at what he now recognized as banana goo being expertly worked through one side of Lena's hair. As if on autopilot, he snagged a paper towel, wet it in the sink, and began wiping her and the high chair clean. He'd just finished when Lucy slid the tiny plate of now-cooled eggs onto the chair's tray.
"I'm not really hungry," she explained, "But if you want, I could make more..."
He shrugged off her suggestion, the domesticity really now hitting full force and leaving him in need of an escape to Mason for an explanation as quickly as possible. "No, me either. Let's just go."
Lucy nodded in agreement.
And so, a few moments later,as soon as Lena had shoved the majority of her scrambled egg in her mouth and the diaper bag, among other things, was tossed in the car, the trio was off. They rode in awkward silence, save for Lena's nonsensical babbling from the back seat.
Once they arrived at Mason, Lucy made quick work of pulling Lena from the carseat, leaving him to grab the diaper bag, stroller, and some other bag of toys and snacks.
It was this state, hurried and laden with a baby and baby paraphernalia, that they burst through the door of Mason, only to run directly into Rufus and Jiya.
Jiya squealed, reaching for the baby immediately, clearly far more used to her presence than any of the rest of them. "Lena! Hi! Hi guys," she added, smiling up at Lucy and Wyatt. They exchanged a wary glance and returned the smile weakly.
"Do you want to practice walking with me again?" Jiya continued to gush, turning her attention back to Lena. "You're almost there..." And as if she'd done it every day before, she plucked Lena from Lucy and headed down the hallway, helping Lena toddle along with her.
Wyatt raised a questioning eyebrow in Rufus' direction.
Rufus clearly caught his drift immediately. "I didn't tell her," he admitted. "I wasn't sure who you'd want to know that this..." he waved his hand between the two of them, "isn't a thing."
Wyatt snorted. Well, at least Jiya thought everything was normal. Lucky her. "Did she tell you about this?" he shot back incredulously, gesturing to his awkward grip on the stroller and diaper bag and glut of stuffed animals.
Rufus nodded sheepishly. "I was kind of starting to pick up on the fact that this might be a thing."
Lucy finally spoke up, hushed, her gaze darting between the two of them. "Do you know who Christopher told?"
"I don't know where she went after you guys split last night," Rufus replied. "I kinda wanted to make sure I didn't have a surprise wife waiting for me at home. No offense," he added hurriedly, warily looking at Wyatt. "I didn't, so... You win," he joked nervously.
Wyatt rolled his eyes. "Did anything change for you?" he asked insistently, "Why just us? Why this big?"
"Turns out Jiya has an older half brother by her dad this time," Rufus explained. "I haven't met the family yet anyway, so no big deal for me. Whatever."
"Another new person..." Lucy murmured.
"Yeah, but not one apparently spawned by people who weren't actually there," Wyatt corrected incredulously.
"Man, seriously," Rufus agreed, "How does a baby exist if you guys never even-" He stopped short, suddenly looking at them skeptically. "...you didn't, did you?"
Wyatt's stomach flipflopped at the insinuation, as he willed himself to not somehow inadvertently telegraph to Rufus that not only had he woken up tangled in Lucy, but had also pictured her as she showered. Jessica was who everyone needed to focus on.
At the same time, Lucy swatted at Rufus, with an emphatically hissed "No!"
Wyatt forced himself to avoid looking in her direction, instead turning to Rufus and setting him on the right track. "Look, that's what we need to figure out. And it seems like Jessica was never in this timeline. Who's here?" he inquired, looking around for any evidence of Denise, or anyone else who might have some insight.
"Everyone, I think," Rufus confirmed.
It was only after a few steps in the direction of Mason's office that Wyatt and Lucy seemed to simultaneously remember Lena. Their eyes met quickly, and they stepped back to catch a glimpse down the hall of Lena and Jiya. "Are they-"
Wyatt cut her off, nudging her back on track. "I think they're good. We need to find Mason and Christopher."
TBC...