This chapter covers most of 1x07 (to be continued in the next chapter!)

Pennsylvania, September, 1754. Out of all the time periods to end up stranded in, the beginning of the French and Indian War would certainly not have been on the top of Lucy's list. They had already been there for three days, wandering through hostile territory and trying to survive while locating Flynn. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful in working out where Flynn was and what he planned to do, and ended up getting captured by some French officers. While the three of them sat on the mossy ground of the clearing in the forest, bound by ropes, Lucy watched one of the officers, fascinated.

'I think that's Lieutenant Louis Coulon,' she said in an awed voice. 'He's the only man George Washington has ever surrendered to. He-'

'No,' Wyatt interrupted in a very firm snap, and Lucy faltered awkwardly. 'No history. Not right now.'

Lucy fell silent at once, downcast and somewhat angry. Wyatt had continued to be blunt and dismissive towards Lucy and Rufus, making sure to only speak to them when he had to. Lucy had forced herself to accept that it would take Wyatt a while to forgive them, but recently she found herself losing patience; they were starving, dirty and sleep-deprived, having been stuck outdoors this whole time, and the three of them needed each other more than ever…and yet Wyatt still refused to make an effort or even put his grudge temporarily on hold so they could move past their unfortunate fallout and focus on survival. It was infuriating.

The three of them then began to argue and whine about their situation – as was custom nowadays since their relationship as a group had become strained – but eventually Lucy lost it.

'I don't like it either but, Flynn is still out here somewhere, and if we're gonna find him, we're gonna have to work together, okay?' Lucy said sharply.

'Work together? Really?' Wyatt said sceptically, raising his eyebrows at her. ''Cause Rufus is over there-'

'Hey!' Lucy protested, staring at him in outrage, but he was so angry that he didn't care anymore.

'-Recording us for Rittenhouse,' he finished loudly and spitefully, so that Rufus's audio device couldn't miss it, and he scoffed. 'Yeah, we're really working together, aren't we?'

There was a tense silence. Lucy was so cross with him that she didn't dare open her mouth to begin yet another argument; she wasn't sure what she would end up saying. As they watched the remaining French officer keeping guard over them and messing with Wyatt's gun, Wyatt then leaned over to her.

'How do you say, "I had sex with your mother" in French?' he murmured.

Lucy glared at him. 'You don't, unless you're trying to get us killed right now,' she said shortly.

'I'm trying to do my job,' Wyatt said slowly and firmly, his eyes burning into hers.

Lucy gazed back at him for a minute. He hadn't looked her in the eye properly since the day their trust had been broken, back in Flynn's hideout Washington. She looked over his lips, his tatty, mud-soaked shirt, the collar and top few buttons wide open to show off his broad neck, and his worn, dirty face. Even roughed up a little bit, he still looked devastatingly handsome. There was a sort of sexual tension that hadn't been there before, like these last few days of built-up anger at each other was finally reaching its peak.

Considering him carefully, Lucy's eyes flickered back to Wyatt's lips and then to the distracted guard, before leaning in and whispering the French translation in Wyatt's ear. Wyatt was so impressed that he almost smirked, and then repeated the insult loudly to the French officer.

The subsequent fight between Wyatt and the officer was brief, although terrifying to watch. Once Wyatt had cut Lucy and Rufus free from their ropes, he then set off at a brisk pace so that they could get as far away from their captors as possible. As they marched on, Wyatt tossed Rufus's audio recorder from Rittenhouse into a river. He no longer cared about the consequences. All Wyatt could focus on was the fact that he still couldn't stand to be here with his team members who he felt he could no longer count on. He kept asking himself as they trudged on through the woods why he hadn't just quit outright, but then remembered it was Lucy and Rufus he had to thank for keeping his job in the first place.

While they debated what Flynn could possibly be doing here, the three of them then came to a sudden halt at the sign of Flynn's henchmen gathered around the Lifeboat, parked not very far away amid some trees. They seemed to be fixing various devices onto the capsule.

Lucy frowned in horror. 'Is that-?'

'C4,' Wyatt confirmed: they were connecting explosives all around the ship.

Hidden behind a tree, Wyatt then proceeded to shoot at the henchmen; Lucy grabbed his shoulder anxiously as they shot back, and then one of them aimed their bullet at one of the C4 devices on the Lifeboat. There was a loud explosion, and as Rufus cried out and ran after the henchmen, who were escaping, Lucy stared in despair through the smoke at the large hole that had been burnt on the side panel of the capsule.

'That was our ride!' she heard Rufus yell in a panic to Wyatt. 'The Mothership's our last chance to get back to the 21st century!'

Lucy followed Wyatt and Rufus in what seemed like slow motion; by the time they'd run through into the field and caught up with Flynn's team getting into the Mothership, she knew it was already too late. Wyatt tried shooting desperately at the capsule door to prevent them from leaving, but within seconds the engine had whirred and with a great gust of wind the Mothership had disappeared on the spot. There was a stunned silence as Lucy, Rufus and Wyatt slowly got up to their feet and stared at the place where their ride back home had vanished. Her breathing coming in quick, panicked gasps, Lucy's knees then buckled and she collapsed to the ground.

'We're trapped here,' Lucy panted, her voice shaking.

Bewildered and unable to believe what had just happened, Wyatt turned around to face Lucy and took in her tear-filled eyes, her heavy breaths, her trembling lips, her pale white face. Why was it becoming a weekly occurrence for him to always see this poor innocent woman looking so agonised? Despite how annoyed he still was at her, he hated to see her going through this, and so he walked unsteadily over to her side and crouched down to her level.

'Hey. Lucy. Lucy!' He put a hand on her shoulder and shook her roughly, for she seemed to have gone into some kind of stupor; she blinked and her eyes focussed on him; her pupils dilated. 'This isn't over yet.'

'H-how?' Lucy murmured helplessly. 'They wrecked the Lifeboat, they've taken off with the Mothership…'

'They haven't completely wrecked the Lifeboat. Only one of the C4's went off,' Wyatt reassured her. 'We can patch it up, and head straight back home once it's fixed. Right, Rufus?'

There was a sticky pause. Wyatt slowly inclined his head in Rufus's direction; Rufus was staring back at him as if he had lost his mind.

'Right, Rufus?' Wyatt repeated pointedly, glaring at Rufus.

Rufus rolled his eyes. 'Y-yeah, sure,' he replied airily, clasping a hand to his head.

Lucy's lips almost twitched into a smile as Wyatt turned to look back at her. 'I know you're bullshitting me to make me feel better, but I appreciate it,' she said glumly.

Wyatt sighed, not really knowing what to say. 'C'mon, let's get up and head back. See if there's anything we can do,' he said, and he held out his hand; Lucy took it and he pulled her up to her feet, where they stayed stood rather closely in front of each other, looking at each other while they tried to accept their predicament, wondering if this really was it…if they were trapped here for good.

Rufus cleared his throat. They all knew that by 'we', Wyatt meant Rufus. There was nothing Wyatt or Lucy could do now to improve their situation. It was all down to the pilot. So, he led the way back to the Lifeboat and immediately scrambled up to the capsule door to assess the damage. While Rufus groaned and moaned about just how terrible the blast from the C4 really had been for the Lifeboat, Lucy and Wyatt theorised that their trip to 1974 had been an elaborate ruse; Flynn's plan all along had been to trap them here, 300 miles from anywhere, in an era full of hostile forces and smallpox. This troubling fact seemed to bring Wyatt's anger back, and he ended up storming off in a huff to the edge of the clearing.

Leaving Rufus to his work, Lucy tentatively went after Wyatt and found him searching the henchmen whom he had shot dead earlier. He pulled out a few wallets and documents from the dead man's jacket, and Lucy took one of them. Leaning against a tree trunk, she watched Wyatt expectantly, but he refused to look up at her – clearly, his brief moment of kindness before when he'd helped her up to her feet and tried to comfort her had been only out of pity, rather than genuine affection.

Lucy sighed, irritated. 'Ugh, come on,' she said impatiently, and Wyatt stared up at her indignantly. 'You have to talk to me at some point.'

Wyatt shrugged. 'What do you call this?'

'Look, I-I will say it again, and I will keep saying it – I'm sorry for not telling you about the journal,' Lucy said earnestly.

'What about your little deal with Agent Christopher?' Wyatt asked, looking up at her, and Lucy froze, speechless. 'When were you gonna tell me about that?'

Lucy had no answer. She could remember the night she had made that deal. She had been in good spirits enough following her agreement with Agent Christopher, and then Wyatt had invited her for a movie night. He'd said she deserved to be more than just some Bond girl. How times had changed now.

'Yeah, Christopher told me,' Wyatt said heavily. 'So I kill Flynn, she helps you get your sister back. Nothing about me or my wife, but, hey, as long as you get what you need.'

Lucy closed her eyes as she watched him walk away. Now it made perfect sense why he had kept this up for so long, why he had been refusing to talk to her, why he had acted that way over the phone. Lucy couldn't believe Agent Christopher had told him about their deal, not when she'd known he would react in exactly this way. No wonder he hated Lucy now.

'Okay, that is not fair,' Lucy said, following Wyatt. 'It is not a secret that I'm trying to get my sister back.'

Wyatt turned to face her, his face incredulous, almost amused. Lucy's hair was lank and greasy, her face and arms covered in dust, her dress muddy and slightly torn, and she looked exhausted, both emotionally and physically. And yet even now, in all this horror and turmoil and fury and guilt, she was still a vision.

'I mean, you were the one that said, "Figure out what you're fighting for." Well, I am fighting for Amy, and you of all people should understand that,' Lucy said sharply, her voice tremoring again.

Wyatt's cynical smile faded at her words. He'd often thought back to their little bond in the guestroom of Ian Fleming's secret cottage with fondness. He had helped her 'get over the hump', after all, or so Lucy had assured him afterwards. And now she had thrown that back in his face, a conversation in which he had forced himself to open up to her in order to help her, and now he just didn't know how to feel. She made a good point, of course she did. But Wyatt still couldn't see the fairness in any of it, or the reason for why she wouldn't trust him enough to tell him about it.

He began to shake his head and opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Rufus interrupted them with an update on the damaged Lifeboat. There was some serious damage to both the side panel and circuitry; Rufus claimed he would be able to cannibalize the wiring from the navigation system, and possibly be able to patch up the hole with some iron…but in order to replace the necessary capacitors that had been damaged, he would need some foil, tin or copper, salt, some glass jars, a forge, and the skill of a blacksmith. Even if he managed to somehow procure all these materials and successfully fix the Lifeboat, Rufus would also need to use the wiring from the navigation system, which would render him unable to control where they would land. Lucy felt like she almost might faint as Rufus rattled off the endless problems, but then a flicker of hope lit up in his eyes as he explained to them Connor Mason's protocol system.

Rufus read out the instructions from the protocol sheet as Wyatt irritably dug a hole deep in the ground exactly 3 feet from the front of the Lifeboat, in which they placed a jar made of non-biodegradable polyethylene, containing Rufus's message with their location coordinates and instructions for Jiya on how they would be able to help the Lifeboat land from Mason Industries. The idea was that Mason would fly to this spot with a team of archaeologists in the present day and dig the jar up to track their coordinates – though, as Lucy rightly pointed out, this was a risky game considering they had no idea what would happen to this patch of land over 260 years. They wouldn't even know if this bizarre protocol system would work, seeming as it had never been tried before. It was all just one huge risk…but they had to try. They had to.

Trying to be optimistic, Lucy then suggested that they go to Fort Duquesne, the fort 20 miles away where the French soldiers who had captured them last night came from, in order to search for some of the materials that Rufus would need in order to begin the tricky process of trying to fix the time machine.

As they walked, Lucy's imagination began spiralling out of control…what if they couldn't find a way out of 1754? What would they do? She could picture it now in her head…her and Wyatt and Rufus, trying to start up a farm somewhere obscure or settling down in some sweet little village while trying to avoid small pox…maybe Wyatt would eventually forgive Lucy and their dire circumstances would push them closer, perhaps even close enough for Wyatt to see her in a different light, the only woman he really knew left…

Lucy shook her head rapidly. Stop it. It's never going to happen.

'This is all gonna be downtown Pittsburgh one day. Concrete as far as the eye can see. But for now…it's really beautiful, isn't it?' Lucy said brightly as they walked through the forest in single file.

Rufus rolled his eyes. 'Super beautiful. Just wiped my butt with some leaves,' he said sarcastically

Before Lucy had a chance to scold him, Rufus was distracted by some berries hanging by a bush; he nearly ate one, until Wyatt seized his wrist and stopped him just in time.

'What the hell, man?' Rufus protested. 'You said the red berries are safe to eat.'

'The ones that are solo. When they're a cluster, they will kill you,' Wyatt said furiously. 'I told you that!'

'Well, I'm sorry, that's confusing!' Rufus said, frowning.

'You realize we are in 1754, right?' Wyatt said in a low voice. 'There's no ambulance, there's no antibiotics, there's no tetanus shot-'

'I get it-'

'-You make one mistake, you'll die!' Wyatt snapped.

'I get it! I get that I suck at this!' Rufus shouted. 'I hate the outdoors! And-and camping. And bees. And I really hate this survivalist crap. That's why we have you.'

'Who do I have, Rufus?' Wyatt demanded, rounding on him, and Lucy felt her heart sink as she watched the two of them argue.

Rufus hesitated awkwardly. 'You're Delta Force,' he replied.

'Delta Force isn't a person, it's a team!' Wyatt yelled, and he shook his head in disbelief. 'I'm just one guy. If I don't have someone that I can count on, I mean really count on…we're not gonna make it out of here.'

Wyatt then turned around and gave Lucy a filthy look before marching on past her. Lucy sighed; urging Rufus to follow, she then caught up with Wyatt.

'Wyatt, you have us,' she said softly.

'Do I? Really?' Wyatt said sceptically as he trudged on, without looking at her. 'I can count on you to be honest with me, have my back, tell me the truth, is that right?'

Lucy fell back, lost for words, and she and Rufus walked side by side as they followed Wyatt on through the mud and trees hopelessly. What would it take to make him forgive them?

They waded through the river to avoid the French officers, who were nearby still searching for them, and all seemed almost calm and relaxed…until the Shawnee tribe arrived, their arrows and crossbows aimed directly at the three of them. They had no choice but to go with them, and before they knew it, all three of them had been tied up with ropes (again), this time against some posts inside one of the tribes' tents, where a fire crackled threateningly. When the tribe members had left them to fetch their chief, Wyatt immediately began struggling against the ropes, trying to free himself…but froze when they heard the odd yelling from outside.

'What the hell is that?' Rufus breathed, trying not to sound too scared, as the man continued to cry out outside.

'Battle cries,' Lucy replied in a dazed murmur, and Wyatt slowly turned his head to face her in disbelief. 'It's what they do when they take prisoners. Like us.'

Close to, Wyatt could make out the freckles on her cheeks.

'So do they scalp you after they kill you, or is scalping, like, how they kill you?' Rufus asked, and Lucy frowned at him.

Wyatt turned back to Lucy curiously. 'These are Shawnee?'

'Yeah.'

'And they think we're British?'

'Yeah.'

'And how do the Shawnee feel about the British?' he asked.

'Depends on the tribe, depends on the day, but I think it's safe to say…they're not fans,' Lucy replied heavily.

Wyatt nodded. 'Yeah.'

'So we should take it as a positive sign they haven't tried to kill us yet, right?' Rufus said hopefully.

'I think they're just waiting for their chief,' Lucy admitted hopelessly, and she sighed, trying not to panic. 'Come on, Wyatt, there's got to be…a way to get us out of this, right? You can, just…something.'

Wyatt raised his eyebrows at her. 'Unless one of you can barf up a knife, I think we're gonna be here awhile.'

The three of them exchanged a dark glance and then turned back to the fire that had been made in the centre of the tent, somewhat comforted by the flames. So this was it. This was how they were going to die. Lucy felt so exhausted from the traumatic past few days, not to mention tired from Wyatt's attitude, that in this instant she had already accepted defeat. It was just a matter of waiting for the chief to turn up now.

They waited without speaking to each other, having given up trying to break free from the ropes, but soon enough the tense silence for too much for Rufus.

'You know, if this is really it, you know, like, really it-'

'Don't say that. It's not it,' Lucy interrupted him softly, though not really sure whether she believed what she was saying.

'-Even if we get out of here, there's no telling if we'll actually make it out of 1754,' Rufus pointed out, and Lucy fell silent. 'I can't stop thinking…what I wouldn't give…for one more Chocodile.'

Lucy looked up at Rufus in alarm. 'What?'

Wyatt also looked bemused. 'What the hell is a Chocodile?' Wyatt asked, raising his eyebrows, and he chuckled.

'Twinkie. Covered in chocolate,' Rufus replied, as if it were obvious.

There was a silence as both Lucy and Wyatt looked at each other, unable to stop themselves from smiling. And then they laughed, and with it came a sudden release, a feeling of warmth and relief…they were laughing with each other again. After all that had happened this past week or so…all the tension and snappy arguments…it had taken a Shawnee tribe to tie them up with the promise of a brutal execution that had finally made Wyatt see fit to let go of his anger. And despite the sense of impending doom in the tent, despite knowing what was about to happen…it was blissful just to smile and laugh again together like this.

'Rufus, that is…monumentally stupid,' Wyatt said in amusement, still laughing.

Rufus grinned. 'Well, clearly, you've never had one before.'

'No,' Lucy said, and all three of them continued to laugh.

When the laughter eventually died down, Rufus's face then fell. 'What I wouldn't give to be able to tell Jiya how I feel about her,' he murmured, and Wyatt inclined his head at him, sympathetic.

'How do you feel about her?' Lucy murmured softly.

Rufus hesitated. 'I like her,' he admitted, and the thought made him smile fondly. 'We went on a date once.'

Lucy smiled. 'Really?'

'Yeah. Super awkward. Haven't had the guts to talk to her about it since,' Rufus said sadly. 'I don't know why that, of all things, was so…scary to me, just…talking to someone.'

Lucy leaned back and rested her head against the post; Wyatt watched her carefully, his gaze on her eyes, which reflected the firelight. She knew how Rufus felt. For weeks now – before their fallout, at least – Lucy had kept getting nervous whenever she was in a room alone with Wyatt…even though she knew she had no reason to be, because there was nothing there, and nothing would ever happen even if there was. Wyatt would never consider her in that way, particularly now after what had transpired between them. She couldn't imagine anything happening with anyone ever again, to be honest. She was a woman in her thirties trapped in the middle of a war-torn eighteenth century. Her story was practically over now.

'When I was little…my mother used to read to me these biographies for children,' she murmured, and she smiled over at Wyatt. 'It was like, 'Einstein for Kids', 'Churchill for Kids'…they were really good, actually. I guess I just I always figured that I'd read them to my kids. Just always figured there'd be…time.'

Wyatt's smile had faded. He had never heard Lucy speak about her hopes for her own personal future at all, what with her being so dedicated to her academic career, so he had always assumed that she was the independent kind of person who just wasn't bothered about settling down or starting a family. To find out that she actually was bothered only made their present situation even more devastating.

Wyatt swallowed. 'Yeah, I know what you mean,' he said gently. 'Jessica always wanted a little boy. And I would always say, "Relax. We got all the time in the world."…'

He trailed off, lost in his memories and grief, and as he gazed down at the fire, Lucy found her eyes welling up. Hearing him speak like that about his wife…it made her feel so guilty, for getting a crush on him, for being selfish enough to make a deal with Agent Christopher without mentioning the possibility of getting Jessica back, for being so obsessed with history and facts that she'd never given a second to properly consider the torment Wyatt had undoubtedly been going through ever since he'd found out that time travel was possible.

'Wyatt,' she whispered, shaking her head and closing her eyes. 'I am…I am so sorry that I said that Jessica's death was meant to be-'

'You don't have to-' Wyatt began.

'I do,' Lucy interrupted fiercely, and she gazed sorrowfully into his eyes. 'You deserve to get Jessica back.'

Wyatt considered her for a moment. 'Well, I wish you could get Amy back too,' he said softly. 'And if I could make a deal with Agent Christopher…I would.'

They looked at each other, and nodded in reassurance, Lucy's eyes still rather watery. Whatever bad blood there had been between them, it was over now. They had finally moved past it. And Lucy could only hope that they would come out of this with a stronger bond because of it.

'Yeah, well,' Rufus said, and Wyatt looked up in surprise; he had almost forgotten that Rufus was still there, 'what's the point of having a time machine if you can't fix your regrets?'

'Yep,' Wyatt said, slightly bitterly.

The chief of the Shawnee tribe then arrived; it turned out to be a woman, who spoke very good English, by the name of Chieftainess Nonhelema. Lucy had heard of her before, and was momentarily awestruck…until Nonhelema ordered Lucy and Wyatt to be executed. It took Rufus's incredible power of persuasion to convince Nonhelema to remove the knives placed threateningly against Lucy and Wyatt's throats:

'We're not who we said we were. We're not from France. We're not British; we're not from anywhere around here. But these people didn't force me to be with them – these people are my friends. They've saved my life on more than one occasion. We look out for each other,' Rufus said to Nonhelema earnestly. 'Thing is, we're not even supposed to be here…we just want to go home. Now, you can kill them, and I'm pretty sure there is nothing I can do about it, but if you do you're gonna have to kill me too.'

Wyatt knew then in that moment, as the tribe cut him and Lucy free from the posts, that he would do anything for these two people. Yes, they may have withheld some information from him, but only out of fear or consideration for his feelings. And Rufus had risked sacrificing his life for theirs. And Wyatt had seen the look on Lucy's face after he had spoken of Jessica's wish to have a son; he knew she felt bad, that she cared deeply for him.

And so, as they found appropriate disguises and made their way to Fort Duquesne, Wyatt made more of an effort with Lucy and Rufus to make up for his petty, rude behaviour over the past few days. They entered the fort with somewhat ease: with Lucy speaking to the soldiers in French, Wyatt and Lucy stalled and acted as injured civilians while their 'servant', Rufus, searched the fort for supplies for the Lifeboat. It was only when the camp surgeon offered to tend Wyatt's 'injury' by rectally inserting mercury to remove Wyatt's blood that they were forced to deviate from their original plan. Wyatt hit the surgeon unconscious and grabbed Lucy's arm urgently, guiding her out of the tent so they could find Rufus…only it turned out that the French soldiers from last night had found them as well.

Wyatt helped carry Lucy over the high fence that bordered the fort as they escaped, and then once the three of them were safely back on ground, they ran as fast as they could back to the forest. Once back at the Lifeboat, Lucy kept a lookout for the French officers who were undoubtedly following their tracks, while Wyatt and Rufus set to work on fixing up the Lifeboat as quickly as they could.

'Oh, come on,' Wyatt said sceptically as he watched what Rufus was doing with the bottles and foil. 'That can't actually work.'

'It should work enough for one trip,' Rufus said airily. 'Except, we won't know until the rings start spinning…but, by then, it'll be too late to change our minds.'

'What do you mean, "change our minds"?' Lucy asked, frightened.

Rufus glanced awkwardly to Lucy and Wyatt. 'Without the navigation system, we could land anywhere. The Earth is 70% water,' he explained helplessly, and Wyatt froze and looked up at Lucy. 'We could land in the middle of the ocean, on a mountain, inside of a mountain…'

Lucy felt as if she were about to have a heart attack just at the mere mention of the word 'water', and she turned despairingly to Wyatt. He gazed back at her, already knowing what she was thinking. He could still hear her words from Fleming's guestroom…

'Every time I get in that time machine…I feel like I am back in that car, like I am drowning all over again…'

'The middle of Fallujah would be an amazing result right now,' Rufus went on briskly, clearly frustrated. 'Needless to say, it is very complicated, and we need Jiya and Mason to help us land. That is, provided they got my note.'

Wyatt glanced back at Lucy, who had turned away to hide her face as a tear fell, and then frowned at Rufus. 'Let's say they didn't. What are the odds?'

'Err…somewhere between one in a billion and impossible,' Rufus replied, and Wyatt and Lucy exchanged another look of anguish.

Rufus then explained that Jiya and the rest of the team at Mason Industries would need to catch the Lifeboat mid-jump, take over the controls, and guide it back to their location in the present day – similar to what the Death Star did to the Millennium Falcon in 'Star Wars'. It sounded near impossible.

'So what are our options? We stay here and fight off the French or die of smallpox eventually?' Lucy asked.

'Pretty much,' Rufus admitted.

'Likely death either way,' Wyatt said slowly, and Rufus nodded. 'What the hell? I'm in.'

Lucy looked up at him to see that his eyes were already on her, and she knew then that she was with him, whatever his decision. 'Me too,' she murmured, and she managed a small smile; Wyatt nodded and smiled back.

'Tough call for me. I was really hoping to be sold into slavery,' Rufus said sarcastically; Lucy and Wyatt barely had time to laugh softly in response before the sound of galloping horses reached their ears.

The French soldiers were here.

Taking Lucy's hand, Wyatt helped her up into the capsule and the three of them managed to slide the door shut just as the officers reached the Lifeboat. The officers instantly began firing; Lucy flinched as each bullet hit the side of the capsule, and Wyatt hurriedly buckled her up into her seat, placing his hand briefly over hers to stop her from shaking.

'Hurry up,' Lucy said agitatedly to Rufus.

'Here we go,' Rufus announced, as the engine began to whirr, and Lucy sighed in relief, trying to smile reassuringly at Wyatt as they held desperately onto their seatbelts straps.

But then the engine groaned and after a few seconds, the electricity powered down. Lucy's heart had never beat so fast. Something was wrong.

'Go where? We're not going anywhere!' Lucy said, panicked, trying to ignore the sound of the bullets ricocheting and French soldiers yelling.

'No!' Rufus muttered, jumping up from his seat and rushing over to the corner to try and fix one of the wires. 'No, no, no…'

'Rufus, come on!' Lucy urged anxiously, and her wide eyes turned to Wyatt to see that he, too, was terrified.

'This patch is not as strong as the rest of the ship,' Wyatt said ominously, trying to keep his voice steady. 'If they hit it-'

'YOU'RE NOT HELPING!' Rufus roared at him angrily, as he sat back down in the pilots' seat.

'Come on, Rufus,' Lucy said pleadingly. 'Get us out of here!'

She scrunched up her eyes tightly shut as Rufus tried switching on the control panels again, but this time when the engine came alive it did not fade away and judder to a halt. Instead the familiar sound of metal clanking and rumbling began to deafen her ears…it was working. It hit Lucy then that actually she shouldn't be scared of the soldiers firing at them outside, but of the unknown destination they would soon be thrown into. She looked up to see that Wyatt was staring at her, for she was the only comfort he could find in this moment of horror, and he was breathing heavily while the ship shook them violently in their seats. They had never been so petrified about travelling in this vessel before.

And then they were in transit, flying helplessly through the temporal zone while praying that Jiya back at Mason Industries would be able to catch them in time. As the Lifeboat juddered aggressively, Wyatt looked at Lucy's tear-streaked face and he reached out and held her hand. She squeezed it back, with a hint of a smile, and reached out to hold Rufus with her other hand. The three of them were in this together now, at last a proper team once again. And yes, this was Lucy's nightmare, only she was somehow living it in reality, fully expecting the ship to begin filling up with water any second were they to land in the middle of the sea. Their fate was entirely out of their control now and there was nothing they could do and they were more likely to perish right here right now in this very ship than survive…but they had each other. And Wyatt was holding Lucy's hand like his life depended on it, because all was forgiven and all he could focus on right now to stop him from yelling out was her. Whatever was about to happen…at least they were in it together.