March 2019
The Lifeboat navigation had experienced an error while landing and they'd missed the Bunker. Somehow, not a few feet from where they'd landed was the Mothership. Rufus muttered something about the CPUs being linked and some sort of temporal short in the flux capacitor causing them to end up in the same place. Not that it mattered. The only thing that mattered was that their enemy was literally at their front door. Anything could happen the minute they opened that hatch.
"Can we just...go? You know, take off?" Lucy asked as they all stared warily at the round metal door.
"We could try but there's no guarantee we won't take them with us," Rufus told them with a nervous gulp.
Wyatt's gaze narrowed on the pilot as a thought struck him. "And vice versa?" He asked.
Rufus sighed tiredly and nodded. "Yeah."
"Oh, hell no," Lucy said with a glare. "We can't let them jump."
Wyatt huffed and nodded. "Yeah, I get that, but we don't know what's on the other side of that hatch. They could be waiting on us."
"Or they're prepping to jump right now and we're all going to end up reciting some psycho propaganda in our sleep because we'll be along for the ride to Rittenhouse HQ," Rufus said dryly with a forced smile. "It's only my worst nightmare. So, sure we can just chill in here."
"He does have a point," Lucy said to Wyatt with a pointed glance.
Wyatt gave them both an exasperated look before letting out a low growl and nodding reluctantly. "Fine." He pulled his spare gun out of his shoulder holsters and handed it to Lucy. "Take that," he told her as he caught her eyes with a meaningful look. "Stick close to me. Okay?" He waited for her to nod and then turned to Rufus. "You keep that door closed and fix the short in the flux temporal capacitor whatever and do not come out until you're ready to go, got that?"
"Trust me, I don't want be out there just as much as you don't want me out there," Rufus told him with a vigorous nod. "You'll have to keep the Mothership here for at least ten minutes. I have to diagnose the problem before I can fix it."
"Perfect," Wyatt snapped with a roll of his eyes. "Just gotta keep who knows how many murderous psychos busy for ten minutes. Hope I have enough bullets. Both of you take cover away from the door," he ordered as he motioned them away from the curved entrance.
The hatch opened painfully slowly but only silence met them. Wyatt peeked out around the door and found an empty clearing. On the other side of the clearing sat a gleaming white orb, with the door wide open.
"They're out there somewhere, I doubt they'll leave the Mothership unguarded," Wyatt whispered. "We need to get out there and get this door closed."
He climbed down first and when no shot whizzed by his head he turned and helped Lucy down. He gripped her hand and pulled her toward a grouping of trees to the left of the Lifeboat as the Rufus closed the door behind them.
"I haven't seen anyone," Lucy said quietly.
Wyatt's eyes narrowed through the trees. He could feel eyes watching them. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "They're here. I just wish I knew who and how many."
"Personally, I'd be a little more worried about where."
His blood ran cold and his jaw clenched. That wasn't Emma.
Jessica.
He spun and pulled Lucy behind him. He gave her the gun but he would prefer it if she didn't have to use it. Not until he taught her how to shoot properly, at least.
"Long time no see, Wyatt," she said with a smirk.
She looked exactly the same as the last time he'd seen her nearly a year ago. Her hair was longer and closer to her natural shade of blonde, but that was the only difference. No additional weight. In fact, she seemed thinner. Not a single trace of motherly anything in her eyes. She looked determined and hard. Whatever soft edges she'd pretended to have, while living with him in the bunker, were gone. She had a gun in her hand but it wasn't pointed at them. She held it at her side.
Her gaze scanned over Lucy from head to toe. Wyatt knew she'd see at least one discolored mark on Lucy's neck. He may have gotten carried away during their down time on the mission and left one behind. Jessica would know exactly what it was.
As he predicted her eyes hesitated over Lucy's neck before she nodded at her with a cold expression. "Lucy. I see you're taking excellent care of my husband while I'm away, but then...you always have, haven't you?"
To her credit Lucy didn't flinch, but he felt her grip on his hand tighten.
A grin tugged at Lucy's lips. They were a faded shade of red from the lipstick he kissed off of her just hours earlier.
"Husband?" She asked with a challenging glare. "That's funny, I don't see a ring."
Their chances of death were already pretty high and, while some part of him was enjoying the snark coming out of Lucy's mouth, he really wished she wouldn't provoke the enemy. Wyatt bit back a groan as Jessica raised her weapon. He hadn't seen Jessica for so long that he had almost convinced himself he never would again. Things were going so well, and with nothing to remind him of his estranged wife and possible child, he almost felt free. He should have known that was too good to last.
He raised his weapon in return, keeping himself solidly in front of Lucy. "Lower your gun, Jessica. We don't have to do this."
"You picked a side, Wyatt, and it was the wrong one. Of course we have to do this," she said with a scoff. Her eyes then met his with a hopeful expression. "Unless you've changed your mind?"
He sighed and shook his head at her. Did she really not understand?
"Where's the baby? Was there even a baby to begin with? You owe me the truth."
Jessica laughed bitterly at him and then rolled her eyes. "The truth? Who the hell even knows what that is anymore?"
There was a shout of Jessica's name from inside the Mothership and a second later he heard the click of the safety on her weapon.
"Time for me to go," she told them. She kept her gun trained on them as she edged away toward the Mothership. "You can tell Rufus that Emma fixed the damn temporal flux thing. You go your way and we'll go ours. No one has to get hurt. Deal? None of us want to be prisoners to the enemy, do we? Although, maybe Lucy wouldn't mind. She's already survived our programming once. I'm sure she could do it again."
Lucy tensed behind him. He couldn't see her face, but he knew this time she'd actually flinched. What did Jessica know about Lucy's time with Rittenhouse? What was Lucy remembering that had her shaken? As curious as he was, that hardly mattered now. He wanted Jessica out of his sight as quickly as possible.
"Go," Wyatt told her through a clenched jaw. "I won't stop you."
"Thanks," she said with a grin and a wink. "See you later, hubby."
"Ex-hubby," he corrected her with a stern glare.
"Sure, whatever you say," she replied with a chuckle as she turned her back on them and walked away. "Enjoy my leftovers, Lucy. You may not have him for long."
What the hell did that mean?
"That sounds ominous," Lucy said in a hushed tone through gritted teeth.
"Let her talk," Wyatt said with a sigh. "It's all bullshit."
Lies. Manipulation. Deceit. Everything she told him. Bullshit.
Lucy tugged at his hand and pulled him toward the Lifeboat as Rufus slid the hatch open. "Come on, let's go home."
He let her lead him away, but he kept his eyes on the Mothership until it vanished from existence. He'd actually believed her. He thought if there was ever one thing she wouldn't lie to him about…
But he was wrong. There was no baby. There never was.
"You guys okay?" Rufus asked as they stepped inside.
Lucy didn't answer but glanced to Wyatt, deferring the question to him.
"Yeah," he answered stoically. "Not a scratch on us. Let's get the hell out of here."
He was the first one out of the Lifeboat once it landed and the first one in the showers. He spent the entire shower analyzing everything Jessica had ever said to him. Every potential lie she told him. He'd been such an idiot. Until earlier that day when his ex-wife was standing opposite him with her gun aimed and her stare impassive. Enough time had passed that she could have had the baby. He could have a child that he'd never met. In fact, he never once questioned whether Jessica actually was pregnant. She had done a lot of things since Rittenhouse revived her but, surely, she wouldn't lie to him about a child. Some part of her must still be the Jessica he knew and that Jessica would never lie to him about a baby, their baby.
But if the baby existed, wouldn't she have mentioned it? Wouldn't she have held it over his head the way Emma did with Jessica? Yes, she would have. Her vague answers and her attempts to rattle Lucy told him that. So the fact that she didn't taunt him or try to use his very real concerns against him led him to believe that the baby didn't exist. Jessica was never pregnant. He fell for her lies and manipulations hook, line and sinker. Even now that he knew what she was she still had the ability wreck him.
He passed Lucy as he exited the bathroom in freshly clean sweats. She gently grabbed his arm and pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Hey," she said softly as she stepped close and ran a hand across his cheek. "You okay?"
His brow furrowed at her for a prolonged moment before he pulled her into the bathroom and shut the door behind them. He had to tell her this. She needed to know. He needed someone to listen. His failures and mistakes and all the ways he'd been blind and naive were swirling around in his brain and unless he told her they had nowhere to go. He could have broken it to her a million different ways but, much like the jackass he had been when he announced it originally, he couldn't seem to find his tact. He felt tears pooling in his eyes as the words ripped from his throat.
"I'm a fucking blind asshole, Lucy."
She blinked at him in surprise, but didn't flinch. He watched as her face transformed from soft surprise to a hard glare. "You aren't."
He laughed bitterly and and scrubbed his hands over his face to try and hold tears at bay. "You were right. You were god damn right. Go ahead say it. You deserve to say it."
Her mouth set in to a firm line and she huffed. "What exactly do you think I deserve to say?"
"I told you so. You deserve to say I told you so."
"Is that what you think I want to say?" She asked him with an offended flinch. "Do you think I wanted to be right about her? Because if that's what you think, Wyatt, then what the hell kind of person do you think I am?"
He winced and shook his head. "That's not what I think. I'm sorry. I didn't mean—I just meant you tried to warn me. You told me to be careful and I—God, I snapped at you. You were just...you were trying to look out for me and I spit in your face." He turned away from her and walked to the other side of the bathroom. "I had all the evidence I needed to prove that she wasn't who she said she was and yet I kept trying. I kept forcing myself to see her as the woman I knew. She was manipulating me from the start - using my guilt against me. Meanwhile you were…."
He couldn't bear to finish his sentence. He didn't want to talk about how Lucy was absolutely constant with her support, even when he didn't deserve it. "There's no baby, Lucy. She was never pregnant. She used me to keep herself alive. And, worse, a part of me knew it all along. Deep down I saw it but I...I forced it to the back of my mind. I willed myself to keep her on a pedestal. I talked myself into believing her. What kind of weak idiot does that?"
He felt a hand on his back, a small soft hand that trailed up the middle until it stopped on the nape of his neck. He felt her shoulder brush his as she came to stand in front of him, all with her hand still on his neck. He looked down and away from her.
Why was she still here? She should have given up on him a long time ago. He'd given up everything for Jessica, made choice after choice in the hopes that she was the person he wanted her to be. Every one of those choices was wrong. The right choice had been right in front of him the whole time and he'd kept himself from reaching out to her. He let his pride and his naive hope keep him from admitting, even to himself, that he'd made the wrong choice.
"Wyatt, I need you to listen to me, and I mean listen. Okay?"
He couldn't look at her, but he could hear the thickness in her voice. When he didn't look up he felt one of her hands on his cheek. Her thumb absently trailed across his skin and then she moved her hand to his chin and nudged his head up so she could see his eyes. In turn, he could see hers. They were just as red and raw as his own.
"You are not an idiot or weak or an asshole or anything else you've let her convince you of," Lucy assured him. Her hand moved back to his cheek and she caressed it tenderly. "You trusted her because she was someone you loved, someone you mourned, someone who you once thought you might have a future with. You trusted her because you are good and you want the people you care about to be good."
She put emphasis on the 'good' with her voice and her hands. The hand on the back of his neck pulled his forehead to hers on the last word of her sentence.
She placed a kiss to his lips before she continued with their foreheads still touching. "You believed her because she is goddamn good at her job. She was trained for this. For you. She knew every chink in your armor. Hell, Wyatt, she knew every chink in my armor," she told him as she closed her eyes and pinched her brow in pain.
He could remember a few instances where, looking back, Jessica had been a bit pointed with Lucy. At the time he had chalked it up to Jessica's own insecurities, but now he saw it for what it was - a way to hurt Lucy. That thought brought his hands to her back to rub soft circles over it in attempt to soothe the memories away. She took a moment to gather herself by taking in and releasing unsteady breaths. When she spoke her voice was quiet - wounded - but also determined.
"You weren't the only one she fooled, you know. She fooled me, she fooled Jiya, She fooled Mason. She even fooled a veteran Homeland Security agent. She was well prepared and there isn't any way that we could have braced ourselves for that. You couldn't have braced yourself for fighting your better nature and I wouldn't have wanted you to." Her hands framed his face now and skimmed over his stubble repetitively. She opened her eyes that glistened with heartfelt tears as they met his. "You are a truly good and honorable man, Wyatt Logan, and I love you because of that. Don't you dare let her break you now. Not after we've made it this far. Is that clear?"
He felt a tear fall at the soft yet stern tone on her voice. No one else could have pulled that off like her. No one could have said all that and made him believe it but her. He was so amazed and in awe of her and her strength that he forgot to answer her.
"Is that clear, soldier?" She repeated firmly with an emotional gulp.
"Clear, ma'am," he replied hoarsely.
If Lucy believed in him then he could do the same. If Lucy forgave him then he could forgive himself. Lucy saw the best in him. It was Lucy that truly loved him. Maybe he made the wrong decision at first, but he owned it and worked hard to make up for it. It took him too damn long, but he made it right. He made things right with her. Everything else, including Jessica, was secondary.
"I love you," he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her in a crushing hug. "Thank you."
This was his future. Lucy Preston was his future, his home, his everything. For some reason, the confrontation with Jessica drove that home. It was the final bit of closure on an open wound. He had answers. Not the ones he wanted, but it was better than the never knowing. It took a weight off of his shoulders and he felt freer than he had in long time. The strings between himself and Jessica loosened each and every day. Pretty soon they'd be untied all together and, for the first time, he knew without a doubt that he wanted that day to come. He wanted to let Jessica go. For real this time.
"I love you too," Lucy replied with an empathetic smile.
"Forgive me for taking so long to get my head out of my ass?" He asked with a self deprecating grin and a sniffle.
She ran a thumb across his cheek and flashed him a watery smile. "You were forgiven long before you thought to ask."
He would never understand what hand of fate led him to Lucy Preston or how that same hand kept her around but he was immensely grateful. She saved his life more times than he could count and he had a feeling she would keep on saving his life for as long as he knew her.
