A/N: There wasn't a big response to the last chapter (which is fine, I appreciate any and all reviews I do get) but I wanted to make sure it wasn't because the site glitched. So, if the last thing you read was Lucy and Wyatt watching Weapon of Choice, a new chapter was posted on Thursday, which covers Wyatt's last few days in the hospital.

Now, on to the epilogue!


"Home sweet home," Rufus quipped twenty minutes later as the elevator doors opened onto Wyatt's floor. The pilot stepped out first, then flattened his hand against the sensor to keep the doors from closing while Wyatt slowly shuffled out of the car.

A door opened somewhere behind him but Rufus didn't pay it any attention until a familiar woman's voice called out, "You look like shit."

Rufus then looked over his shoulder to see none other than Kassandra Lowing leaning out of a nearby apartment, her gaze locked onto Wyatt.

The soldier straightened up as much as possible, evenly met her accusatory stare, then replied, in a tone that was completely serious and not at all offended, "Thank you."

While the two continued their impromptu staredown, Rufus' gaze flitted awkwardly between them, freezing on Kassandra when he noticed the engagement ring on her left hand. His stomach dropped to somewhere around his knees as possibilities flashed through his head, especially those hinging on Kassandra and this timeline's Wyatt being engaged because of something that happened one of the last two jumps. It would explain a lot though, especially her almost possessiveness of Wyatt's apartment...

Eyes wide and jaw slack, Rufus turned to look at Wyatt and was surprised to find the soldier grinning widely.

"C'mere Kass," Wyatt said, holding out one arm. The redhead hurried out of her apartment and flew into Wyatt's embrace, almost, but not quite, knocking him over as she did so.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she mumbled, her face buried into his neck. Wyatt just nodded and rubbed the back of her head reassuringly.

Rufus' head was again spinning with the speed at which things tended to change around Kassandra Lowing and, from Lucy's and Jesse's expression, he could tell they were both similarly confused.

A split second later, Kassandra pulled out of the hug. "I'm sorry I didn't visit you in the hospital," she began as she rubbed her hand up and down Wyatt's arm, but the soldier shook his head, cutting off the rest of apology: "Don't be. I understand."

Before Kassandra could reply, Lucy cleared her throat…loudly.

Grinning sheepishly, Wyatt shuffled around to face Rufus, Lucy, and Jesse, then gestured with his left hand. "Guys, this is Kassandra Lowing. She's Bam-Bam's brother's fiancé. I promised Dylan I'd look after her while I'm stationed here."

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," she said, holding out her hand, and Jesse and Lucy shook in turn after introducing themselves.

Kassandra then turned to Rufus and hesitated. Wyatt must have thought Rufus had frozen, like he'd used to do in Jiya's presence, for he cleared his throat and said, "That's Rufus."

"I know," Kassandra replied. "We've met before."

She was about to pull back her hand when Rufus reached out and took it.

"Ya know you could have led with the fact that you're Baumgardner's sister-in-law," the pilot pointed out as they shook hands.

"A strange man in Wyatt's apartment? I didn't have to tell you anything."

Wyatt's face scrunched in confusion. "Rufus, I didn't warn you about Kassandra?"

"Warn?!" the redhead repeated, fixing Wyatt with an unamused look.

The soldier shrugged, not looking the least bit apologetic, then turned to Rufus. "Sorry man," he winced. "I meant to tell you to stop by her apartment first."

At that point, Rufus could do nothing but shrug; their first meeting was in the past and even with the Lifeboat, nothing could be done to change it.

"Well, I should let you all get settled," Kassandra said as she took a large step back. "It was nice to meet you all. You know where to find me if you need anything."

"It was very nice to meet you too," Jesse called, waving as Kassandra unlocked her door.

She had barely taken a step forward before she exclaimed "Oh!" and spun back around to face Wyatt. "Since you're not answering your phone, I'm supposed to tell you Dave has the weekend off and he'd like to come visit if you're up for company."

"I'll give him a call soon," Wyatt replied. "Thanks Kass."

She smiled back, almost self-consciously, then disappeared into her apartment.

"She seems nice."

"Don't start Grandpa," Wyatt pleaded as he began walking toward his apartment. "I'm really not in the mood."

"I'm just commenting that that was a very nice thing you've done," Jesse continued as he picked up his pace to match Wyatt's, who, despite his efforts, wasn't really walking all that fast.

Wyatt ignored him and, when they reached his apartment, focused intently on unlocking the double deadbolts of his door. He grinned when he succeeded but immediately froze as the door swung open to reveal a large Mylar "Happy Birthday" balloon bobbing in the entryway. "Please don't tell me there's a whole party in there."

Rufus saw Wyatt's borderline-panicked expression and was quick to shake his head. "One, we didn't know of anyone outside of our job that we could invite and two, we figured you'd be pretty beat once you finally got here. But we couldn't let the fact that you never told us when your birthday is go unheeded."

"It's two weeks early but they insisted," Jesse cut in, holding up his hands in mock surrender.

Wyatt looked over his shoulder at Lucy and Rufus, who just smiled and shrugged as if the whole thing had been planned without their notice.

"There aren't any other decorations but Rufus bought a cake, made by Jiya's mother," Lucy added.

"Jiya swears she's the best baker in the world," Rufus interjected defensively. "I thought we'd give it a try."

Wyatt stepped into his apartment, dodged the balloon, then leaned against the wall and began kicking off his loosely-tied shoes by stepping down on the heel and sliding out of them in the manner that Jesse hated. "You should invite her over to try it with us," he said, motioning for everyone else to enter.

"Are you sure you're up for that?" Jesse asked as he stepped into the apartment, trying to be discrete about checking it out. Rufus couldn't help but notice the way he nodded proudly before refocusing on the current conversation.

"If I get tired, I'll just go to bed," Wyatt was saying as he made his way over to the couch and lowered himself onto it with a contented sigh.

"Somewhat less important than Wyatt's health, but still of great importance to the person who is expected to love it," Rufus paused for effect, then finished, "what if the cake's bad?"

Chuckling under his breath, Wyatt turned his head to look the pilot right in the eye. "Then you'll need practice. If you stick with Jiya you'll be eating a lot of it."

Rufus gulped loudly, which made the other three grin. "Maybe I'll try a tiny slice before she gets here...just so I can be properly prepared."

"As the only parent in the room, I feel obligated to tell you there will be no cake until after we've eaten a proper lunch," Jesse spoke up, waving down the exaggerated groans from Wyatt and his friends. "Are we going to need to go food shopping?"

"Lucy went," Rufus said, having noticed there was fresh food yesterday when he'd come over to straighten up one final time.

To his surprise, the historian shook her head. "No, I didn't. I've never been here before."

"Kassandra," Wyatt surmised and the rest of the room nodded.

"Maybe you should invite her over for cake too...if you're up to it." Jesse didn't wait for Wyatt to respond before walking in the direction of the kitchen. "How's mac 'n' cheese sound?"

The three time travellers responded enthusiastically and Lucy even offered to to help prepare it.

"Thank you but no. I can manage on my own as long as Wyatt tells me where the pots are."

"Right of the sink."

"Great. Now why don't you lay down some and I'll call you when lunch is ready," Jesse suggested as he disappeared into the kitchen.

Wyatt wanted to object but knew from how he was struggling to stay vertical that his body needed a rest. He nodded and carefully shifted positions until he was lying on the couch. "You guys can watch TV or whatever. It won't keep me up," he mumbled as his eyes slipped closed.

Rufus sat down in the reclining chair, clicked on the television, then turned the volume way down. "What do you want to...what are you doing Lucy?" he asked when he saw the historian quietly rolling up the large rug in Wyatt's entryway.

"I don't want him to trip," she whispered as she heaved the roll upright and stuck it in the corner behind the door. "Until he is more steady on his feet, anything he could stumble over or slip on should go."

Rufus looked over to make sure Wyatt was well and truly asleep before standing and helping Lucy push smaller pieces of furniture to the side, basically making long unobstructed walkways between rooms. They stayed away from the master bedroom though, in an attempt to give Wyatt some semblance of privacy.

Not long afterwards, the Time Team was all sitting around the dining room table, fighting over the last bit of the macaroni in the pot, ignoring Jesse who was insisting he could just make more. In the end, they split it three ways and, while Wyatt chewed his last bite, he couldn't help feeling incredibly lucky, both for the current company and the additions later that evening.

He'd be surrounded by wonderful people from all aspects of his life—his blood family, his army family (and those about to marry into it), his work family—and, despite the awful circumstances that had transpired to bring them all into the same room, he couldn't be more grateful for this time with all of them.


And that's the end of this adventure. Thanks so much for sticking around; your support has meant the world to me!

Until the next story,

usa123