Alternate Lives

Summary: Whether by choice or by fate, Lucy and Wyatt always find each other, no matter the timeline.

Disclaimer: I don't own Timeless or any other original work (TV, film, book or other) referenced in these one shots.

Pairing: Wyatt/Lucy, possibly some Jiya/Rufus

Rated: T, may go up later

A/N: A series of one shots about our favorite time traveling couple. Some will be only slightly AU, some set in a completely different universe to the series. Some may be teeth rottingly fluffy, some will be racy. Also, I sometimes write long, like, really long, oneshots. I apologize in have been warned. ;)

Warning: I proof-read, but I'm not a native speaker and this work has not been beta-read. All mistakes are mine

Chapter 1: Official Secrets

"You know you don't have to come with me every time."

Wyatt almost chuckled. Lucy said that every time, always on the ride home just before they pulled up in their driveway, and in various other ways throughout the evening. In the kiss she gave them as they headed out to the car. In the way she grasped his arm when he knocked on her old front door, as he had when they'd started dating. In the way she gently squeezed his hand whenever her mother made another one of her cleverly disguised snide remarks.

He saw how sorry she was in the way she looked at him, her gaze so full of the apology she couldn't bring herself to say out loud at the dinner table. And in the shame he could often find in her soulful eyes, because she felt she didn't stand up to her mother often enough for him. But she stayed with him, despite her mother's disapproval. So when she gave him his weekly out, Wyatt did what he always did. He pulled over, even though they were maybe 400 yards from their house, pulled her to him and kissed her, softly but thoroughly.

"I mean it, Wyatt." She always said that, too, but Wyatt was sure that she appreciated that he came along anyway.

He kissed her again and pulled her forward until their foreheads touched and all he could see were her beautiful brown eyes.

"That's never gonna happen, ma'am," he told her firmly.

"But… I don't like how she treats you. You shouldn't have to subject yourself to that, and certainly not by my mother. And I should speak up more, stand up to her when she-"

He sighed.

"Lucy, do I enjoy going to these weekly dinners with your dragon of a mother? No. Do I like having my integrity and intentions questioned on a weekly basis? Certainly not. After two years I would have thought that I'd proved myself, proved that I love you and that I would never deliberately hurt you and that should be enough. So I'm not a fan of your mother," Wyatt explained more clearly. "But I can't exactly resent her for it either. She's your mother and she wants only the best for you, so I understand why she would prefer that Doctor Noah guy she invited last month, since he can certainly… provide better than a… an accountant."

He looked away in shame when he said this. Lucy, seeing this, pressed her hand more closely to his face to make him look at her again.

"I don't care about money-" Lucy started to protest, but Wyatt pained look quietened her as he went on.

"Add to that, that she is your mother, whose just been given terrible news, and with whom you have a close relationship. I'd never take that away from you. So we're going to Friday Night Dinner as long as it's possible, and when it isn't anymore, we'll go sit with her and read to her, or we'll go to just be with her."

He saw the shine in her eyes, and knew she was close to tears. He moved to kiss her forehead, but Lucy had other ideas. She intercepted him midway to plant a much more passionate kiss on him than he'd dare to give her so far. At the first touch of her tongue, Wyatt opened his mouth for her without hesitation. He let her in to explore at her leisure, and then chased her tongue when it retreated again, intent on prolonging the kiss as much as possible. His hand moved from the back of her head to her cheek, and he felt her caress his own as well, her thumb brushing ever so lightly across his stubble.

"Besides, I'd never let you walk into the den of the lioness all by yourself," he panted when they finally parted. It had the desired effect, eliciting a suppressed laugh from his girlfriend and another kiss placed softly against his lips. He nudged her nose with his, a delicate caress before he finally pressed the planned kiss upon her forehead. "I just wish she'd stop pushing about grandkids."

At Lucy's gasp, Wyatt cursed himself. That had definitely come out wrong. He hadn't meant to imply- Lucy was about to pull away from him, he could feel the tension in her petite body. He moved his hand from her cheek to her waist to keep her close, offering her muttered apologies against her hairline. Another kiss, and he pulled away only just far enough to look into her eyes. He could see the hurt reflected there, and the forlorn expression on her face cut him straight to his bones. His hand ran soothingly up and down her back a few times, before he returned it to her cheek. Her slight flinch almost broke his heart altogether.

"I didn't mean that I don't want-"

"But you don't, do you?"

Wyatt sighed. This was a conversation for home, but he couldn't very well just switch on the engine now.

"I didn't think I did. I-it was the bow that broke the proverbial camel's back on my last relationship. Jess, she wanted kids so badly, but I… I said we had time, but what I really meant was…"

He looked at her, and at her encouraging gaze he shook himself mentally. This wasn't about him and Jess. That was his past, this, Lucy, was his future, and she deserved the whole truth.

"I want kids with you, Lucy. I want to see you radiant with child, you'd be a fantastic mother. I- I just don't think I'd be a good father. I don't exactly have the best role model. You know my father was a first class asshole."

"Wyatt, you don't think I'm worried. You've met my mother, not exactly a good role model either. And you, you're not your father."

"I'm not sure we should test that theory the hard way."

He looked away, ashamed. This topic hadn't come up often, and Lucy had never pushed when he'd done his best to avoid it, but they couldn't avoid it any longer. She deserved to know who she was dating, and all the baggage that he brought into their relationship that he hadn't already fessed up about. Their relationship had already seen plenty of ups and downs, and he'd never opened up with anyone as much as with her. That had been hard-earned on both their parts. With Jess, he hadn't needed to talk; she'd had a front row seat to the shit show of his early life. Lucy, though, was completely untouched by his dark past. Letting her in had come naturally enough, much to Wyatt's surprise, but overcoming his qualms about tainting her relatively happy (if over-organized) childhood with the knowledge of his… suffering had taken a lot more effort.

He hadn't wanted to risk her pity, but one of their early arguments about her mother's behavior toward her had escalated and tricked him into revealing more than he'd intended. He hadn't been able to look her in the eye after that, but when she'd grasped his chin and gently forced his gaze to meet hers, all he had seen were compassion and support. Since then, it had been easier to talk for Wyatt. Now Lucy knew about his mother's early death, about his father's abuse, and at least the general details of how his relationship with his ex-wife disintegrated. She knew him better than anyone had in a long time, and though there were still things she didn't know, things he kept from her that had guilt churning in his stomach almost constantly, he didn't want for this to be one of them. He wanted her to know him as best as he could allow, wanted her to know that he trusted her and loved her, so no matter what happened and what questions might arise, she would always know that they were real.

"-att. Wyatt!" Lucy calling him pulled him out of his reverie. As he did, he realized with a sense of deja vu that her hand was under his chin and she'd turned him back to face her. Her expression was fiercely determined, and he could tell she was upset with his self-deprecating assessment. He had to suppress the beginnings of a smile at that. His Lucy was always on his side, even when he was not. "Your father was… w-was abusive… to your mother as well, right?"

Wyatt swallowed uncomfortably. He didn't know what this had to do with anything, or why she had to dredge up those memories for him, but he saw the determination on her face and knew she was going somewhere with this. So he nodded, even as his throat threatened to close up on him as his mother's face flashed blurry before his eyes. He'd been so young when he'd lost her, he barely remembered her. His father had destroyed any picture of her, too, so he didn't really have much to remember her by. But he remembered that she'd been warm and kind and sad, and in his memory she always smelled like apple pie. He didn't know how much of that was true, but he did know that his father had ended up beating her more than once because she'd gotten in his way when he'd been about to grab Wyatt himself.

"Have you ever abused me?" Lucy asked next.

Wyatt blinked, uncomprehending.

"Lucy, I would never-"

"Damn right, you wouldn't," Lucy agreed with him, immediately. "So it's not just a theory, Wyatt. You have already proven that you're not your father. Because you always treat me with respect, and with such infinite care that there are times I want to smack you cause I won't break, for God's sake! We don't tell each other what to do, or how to live our lives. We plan our life together, and if we can't agree, we find a compromise because we love each other."

As she said this, Lucy began to move. With all her usual grace, she began to climb across the console to set herself in Wyatt's lap. The way she stumbled uncoordinatedly toward him made him want to chuckle, but at first he was too fascinated by her open declaration, and then he could suddenly feel her weight, heat and shape pressed fully against him. Of its own accord, one hand went to steady her waist, because Lucy was liable to fall sideways if he didn't keep her firmly in her saddle. Meanwhile, the other hand climbed from her knee to her upper thigh, sneaking its way beneath the wine-colored skirt of her dress. Lucy still looked at him expectantly, but Wyatt couldn't form the words to agree with her, because he was suddenly distracted by another memory: the reward system Lucy had established for him for after Friday Night Dinners.

"Wyatt," she commanded his attention before he could unravel completely.

"Yes, ma'am?"

"You will be a great dad t-to… our kids… Are we okay?" She asked this in a small voice, obviously worried that she'd pushed him too far by bringing up his family and theirs. Hopefully theirs. Wyatt could never stay mad at her, though, even if he had been angry in the first place. Which he hadn't, because Lucy's faith in him had greatly outweighed any discomfort about his past as it always did. So in answer to her question, he kissed her hard on the mouth, while his hand rose the last few inches to brush right against her folds. He felt her shudder at the first touch of his fingers, then again as their swift intrusion wrung a low moan from her. Her head dropped against his cheek, whispering naughty things into his ear between her moans and mewls as he worked her up into a frenzy. He wanted nothing more than to bring them both together, but that was best left for the roomier back seat, and he was not disentangling himself from her just to climb over the seats. He pushed her gently back till she leaned into his steadying arm, so he could watch her come apart in his lap.

Neither of them spoke again until they'd both calmed their racing hearts and Wyatt had carefully settled a blissed out, flushed Lucy back in her own seat, tucking her into her seatbelt for good measure. And if his straying fingers sneaked in a quick caress across her breast, well, who could blame him?

"We're going straight to bed when we get home."

"If we make it to the bed," Lucy offered mischievously.

He cast her a warning glance, but when he was about to switch on the engine, he stopped mid-motion.

"What's wrong?"

Following his gaze, she spotted the two dark vehicles that had just stopped in front of their home as well as the four well-dressed men who got out. Two remained with the cars, two more made their way to their front door to ring the bell. When no one answered, one of the men at the door sent the other one round the back. Lucy grasped his arm in shock and worry at the unexpected guests' behavior.

"Who are they? What do you think they want?" She asked him.

"I don't know, but those are government plates," he informed her darkly. He had a bad feeling about this.

"How do you-"

"I think I should go meet them alone, just in case I'm wrong. Would you mind waiting here for a moment?" He cut her off with a quick kiss and an apologetic look. Lucy still wanted an explanation, that much was clear, but for now she let it go. She eased herself out of the car as quietly as she could and watched him drive on without her. As he pulled up on their driveway, the men turned to watch him. They waited patiently for him to get out of the car and go meet them, and Lucy breathed a sigh of relief that they neither pounced on nor drew guns on him. He saw Wyatt exchange a strained conversation with the man who seemed to be in charge, until finally he deflated a little and motioned for her to come join them. She could still see the tension in his body as she approached them, and when she was within earshot she realized they were still arguing.

"-why you need both of us. Lucy is-"

"Frankly, sir, we need her to come with us. You're an added bonus, but expendable," the man in charge replied tersely.

"Careful, Agent Hondo. Where Lucy goes, I go." Wyatt's narrowed eyes seemed to make Agent Hondo nervous, but he nodded without protest and invited them both to take a seat in one of their cars, all the while offering Lucy his badge so she could be up to speed on who their late night visitors were.

Homeland Security apparently had need of her services, though they were rather reticent to tell them what for.

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Agent Hondo dropped them in a small waiting room. At least the chairs looked comfortably plush, Lucy thought with trepidation. From what little of Agent Hondo's and Wyatt's conversation she'd heard, she'd gathered that they had something to discuss with her. So the entire drive to the warehouse they'd been dumped in, Lucy had wracked her head trying to remember anything that happened that might have caused a government agency to take an interest in a boring little historian like her. For the life of her, she couldn't come up with anything, and the tension in Wyatt's body and posture didn't make sense to her. For a second as she joined him and the agent, he almost looked sure he knew what this was about, only Hondo's declaration that he was optional had obviously thrown him off course. So, did this have to do with Wyatt's civilian army contract or didn't it?

She chanced a glance at her boyfriend. He seemed to have abandoned his sour mood in favor of popping himself into a comfy chair and prop his feet up onto the table. So maybe he had not entirely let go of his bad mood. He was doing that to annoy their hosts, she knew, because he never put his feet on the table at home. Or at least not when she was around. Lucy frowned, this was hardly the right moment to bother with this, and still it irked her tonight.

"Wyatt, you shouldn't put your feet on the table. It's rude," she chastised gently.

He snorted.

"They ambush us in front of our home, drag us to God knows where in the middle of the night without so much as a by your leave and I'm the rude one?" He chuckled at her primness, but set his feet on the ground without further prompting.

"There's no need to be rude int return," she told him a little stiffly. "Though you're right. Where are we?"

She looked around, and, for the first time, noticed the logo on the wall.

"Are we at Mason Industries?" She wondered aloud.

"No idea, ma'am."

"What do you think they want from us? From me?"

That sobered him up quickly. The small smirk he'd been wearing since she'd admonished him disappeared like a mirage. Instead his face set into a grim expression. He stood up from his chair and walked over to her to take her hand. Lucy expected him to try to calm her down, because she was obviously nervous about the sudden interest by the authorities. Yet, when she caught his eyes, what she found in them was an apology rather than the reassurance she'd expected. It puzzled her. She raised a hand to smooth his cheek as if she wanted to make sure she had seen right. As she did, guilt slowly mixed itself into the apologetic look, and Lucy was left more adrift than before. Wyatt looked down and away from her. He seemed almost ashamed, and Lucy's gut began to churn with fear at what could possibly have such an effect on her boyfriend that he wouldn't even look her in the eyes anymore.

"Lucy, I need to te-"

"Sorry for the wait, we're kind of in uncharted waters," a new voice reached them as the door was abruptly thrown open, making them jump apart like two guilty teenagers. "Lucy Preston, I'm Agent Denise Christopher from Homeland Security. You've got one hell of a reputation. History. Anthropology. You're world class."

"I'm just a teacher. My mother is world class."

"Nope, don't let her tell you that. I've heard her lecture. She really engages her students."

"Well, you're biased," she teased him. "And you've never heard my mother lecture."

"Lucy, I doubt your mother jokes in her lecture about former president's nicknames for their cocks. You tell all the funny or strange or wondrous details, making history come alive for your students," he countered easily, his patented smirk back in place.

"Of course, that's what you took away from that lecture," Lucy muttered incredulously.

"Which brings us to you. Master Sargent Wyatt Logan, Delta Force?" Agent Christopher asked curiously as she turned to him. Lucy, who'd been just about to sit back down, shot up off her seat with an even more incredulous look on her face. "We weren't sure if you'd be home. Your CO wouldn't tell us much."

"Yes, ma'am," Wyatt replied reluctantly. Incredulity morphed into pain on Lucy's face, and Wyatt closed his eyes shamefully. He couldn't bear to look up and see it morph further into betrayal.

"Speaking of reputations… Well, we're on the clock, so follow me… and hold on to your asses."

"No, one second," Lucy interjected. This was all new and raw to her, and Agent Christopher just wanted to brush over it and move on to business. Not with her; she looked expectantly at Wyatt. "You're military?"

"Lucy, I-"

"Dr Preston, I know this must come as a shock to you, but we're-"

"Damn right it does," she fumed. "You're in the army. In the actual army. Delta Force. Wyatt-"

"Dr Preston," Agent Christopher tried to intervene, but this time it was Wyatt who cut her off.

"Give us a moment, please."

"Master Sargent, we don't have time-"

"With all due respect, ma'am, you dragged us here. You need us, and we need a moment. Now you could stay there and argue or try to pull rank, but I won't budge, and the sooner you leave, the sooner we'll be ready. You can court-martial me later, now leave us."

Agent Christopher looked ready to protest, but she looked between the couple once, stubbornly facing each other and ignoring her, and decided better on it. She told them they had five minutes, to which Wyatt snorted disdainfully, and closed the door behind her. For a moment, all was silent between them. Wyatt waited patiently for the outburst that was sure to come. Lucy had every right to it, and she looked about ready to explode. As she stared him down, his calmness seemed to infuriate her more. All that building anger set her in motion, furiously pacing around the small room, but the entire time well away from Wyatt.

"Don't you have anything to say for yourself?" Lucy demanded angrily.

"I figured I'd let you get it all out first."

"Oh, don't be so damn magnanimous, Wyatt," Lucy hissed back at him. "Why didn't you tell me? Was it funny? The clueless little history teacher-"

"It was hell," Wyatt admitted openly. "I hated lying to you, but I couldn't tell you. I wasn't allowed."

Well, she had known that already. Fairly little was known about Delta Force in the general public, the unit shrouded in legend and secrecy. What was known, or suggested, rather, was that Delta Force members called themselves operators, were sent on the most dangerous missions or lent out to various other government agencies for their extensive skill set, and they usually didn't even admit being in the military. He really couldn't have told her.

He probably went too far already when he told her he worked at Pendleton Base, albeit as a civilian, but he had to explain his weekdays absence somehow. When they'd gotten serious, she'd been all set for them to look for a house in San Diego, since she could teach anywhere, but Wyatt couldn't exactly just move the entire base, but then her mother had fallen ill and Wyatt had insisted she should be nearby. He could live on base during the week or whenever he was needed, and then on the weekends he'd come home. So she knew he had sacrificed for her, and he wouldn't have done that if he weren't serious about her, but still…

"All those work trips, when I sometimes wouldn't hear from you for days or weeks, were… were you…"

"I was deployed on missions or on drills." He hung his head.

Lucy's heart stuttered.

"Why couldn't you just tell me that you were a soldier - no-not Delta Force, but just in the army."

"Lucy, I-"

"No, listen, Wyatt," she cut him off imperiously. "What if something had happened to you on one of your missions? What if you'd-" She choked at the thought, but she had to continue. "What if you'd been killed? Would they have told me that your plane crashed? Or that you'd been in a car accident? A closed coffin so no one would see the injuries or, worse, that there wasn't anything to bury cause they'd only brought home your dog tags?!"

With every word, Lucy's voice grew louder and more anguished, until she practically sobbed out the last words. As Wyatt watched her hug herself tight, knowing that he was not welcome to hold her even though the urge was almost overwhelming, he swore he could feel the metal band burning on his chest. Even though they remained on base to keep his secrets. Even though he never brought them home or otherwise wore them around her. Wyatt's heart tugged and twisted in his chest, clenching painfully at the sight of his distraught girlfriend as she imagined what it would have been like to lose him and not know.

"Lucy, I never meant to hurt you. I-"

"Don't. Don't you dare say you were trying to protect me," she rasped at him.

"That's what I told myself. That I kept it all from you so you wouldn't worry, but in the end, it was much simpler than that. I followed orders, even though I hated it. That's who I am, Lucy, a grunt. Obedient. Dutiful. Replaceable."

"You're not replaceable to me, Wyatt," Lucy replied more softly. A small shimmer of hope nestled itself in Wyatt's heart, and he made a move toward her, but she held up a hand to stop him. "I love you, Wyatt, and nothing, not even this, will change that. But I'm angry, too. I am so angry at you right now, and I have a right to be angry. You lied to me. I get why you did it. I get why you didn't have a choice. Here." She pointed at her head, then moved her hand to point at her heart. "But here, this still feels like a betrayal, and it hurts, and I'm not sure when or if I will get over this. For now, I have to be angry… you have to let me have that."

Wyatt swallowed thickly, but nodded. If his only chance at Lucy forgiving him was to let her work through it in her own time, then he'd give her all the space she wanted. He just hoped it would be enough, because he couldn't imagine his life without her anymore.

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When Agent Christopher returned for them, she could still cut the tension with a knife. Perhaps it would have been better to bring in someone else for Logan's part, but they'd figured an untrained civilian like Dr Preston would be more approachable and work better with him there. She should have considered the strain her sudden revelation would have on their relationship. It was a little late for that now, and much too late to substitute either of them.

So she briefed them on Flynn and the time machine anyway, with Connor Mason's input and not without a few jibes passing between her and the inventor. All the while, Denise noticed how, unlike in the waiting room, where they'd been so close, Dr Preston had deliberately put half the room between her and her boyfriend. And though he did pay attention during the briefing, the Master Sargent's body was turned unconsciously toward his history professor. He'd also positioned himself between her and the door, and was eying all the glass walls warily, training and instinct kicking in to protect her from this unexpected threat.

"That's a joke, right? Some psych test the government came up with?" He asked them incredulously.

"I mean this can't be possible," Dr Preston added more quietly.

"Well, that's what they said about the moon shot, until someone with enough imagination made it very possible," Mason pointed out. As the couple followed his gaze out the window, they finally noticed the heavy piece of machinery that was being lowered into the large hall as they spoke. Mason continued, leading them out of the conference room and down to the ground level. "Our earliest prototype. She isn't fancy, but she works. Now we kept her operational in case the crew of the mothership ever needed a rescue. We call her the Lifeboat."

Denise kept watching their two guests as they stared in equal parts wonder and disbelief at the Lifeboat. She was trying to assess if they could work together after their fight. There was still quite some distance between them, but they weren't aggressive. They didn't snipe at each other, and seemed to be on the same page so far.

"Now their CPUs are linked. She can't tell us exactly where the mothership has gone, but she can tell us when."

"Naturally, she can only tell us when. Time Machine problems," Wyatt snorted, and Denise did notice a small smile on Lucy's face at the comment.

"Yes, well, we're working on that, but for the time being, this is the best we got," Mason replied, pointing to the monitor.

Lucy took one glance at it, and color drained from her face. Wyatt looked at it too, and realized just how close it was to WWII. He moved closer without thinking, then stopped abruptly as he remembered that she needed space. Still, he didn't move back and Lucy neither flinched, nor tried to put further distance between them, and he would take that.

"3:30pm, May 6th 1937."

"We found this on one of the dead shooters. It's an address for a tavern in Manchester."

If there had been any color left in Lucy's face after realizing time travel was real, and someone had gone back to the rise of Nazi power, this would have drained the last of it from her face. Sure, it was better than if this Flynn guy had actually gone to Hitler Germany, but it was still a bloody Nazi airship he'd picked as his target.

"That's the Hindenburg, about four hours before it crashed. You're telling me that this guy actually went back in time - for real - to the Hindenburg." She was becoming near hysterical, she could feel it.

"Lucy," Connor Mason spoke up again. "If Flynn kills people in 37 who aren't supposed to die, they won't have the kids they're supposed to have. Do the things they're supposed to do. History changes. Reality changes."

"So why would you be stupid enough to invent something so dangerous?" Lucy challenged him, making him admit that he hadn't thought its misappropriation a possibility.

"Are you kidding me?" It was Wyatt's turn to sound incredulous. "A couple of years from 37, the Nazis will mass murder Jewish people in concentration camp, use others for human experimentation, and our own government will drop atomic bombs on two cities, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians-"

"And you thought no one would be tempted to misuse your time machine?!" Lucy finished for him.

"Well, why do you think I kept the government in the dark. I wanted a peaceful, scientific exploration of time travel and history, not a free-for-all Time War."

"Time War?" Denise asked, pointedly.

"You know what I mean. It was never built for government or commercial use, only for learning." Even as Mason told them so, Wyatt was almost sure he'd planned on commercializing his little Star Tours Ride, but that was a matter for another time.

"So why are we here? I'm pretty sure you could have found out where Flynn had jumped using Google," he pointed out.

"Why would Flynn even go back to the Hindenburg?" Lucy added.

They made a good team, Denise finally decided, despite the tension.

"We don't know," she offered them. "But there's room in there for three passengers."

"To… to do what? Go after him?" Lucy's snort turned into a strangled groan at the agent's serious face.

"Why else would we bring you here?"

The historian sucked in a breath, shaking her head emphatically. She stormed out, before anyone could say anything. Wyatt exchanged one look with Agent Christopher and knew he was the lucky one who was supposed to convince Lucy to come back. Joy. He would have preferred to just pack her up and go home with her, but if what Connor Mason had said was true, reality could change under their noses and then he might never have known Lucy at all. And that was not an option.

He caught up to Lucy just before she slammed open the outer door and walked out, still muttering under her breath. When she noticed him, her anger seemed momentarily forgotten in favor of the insanity that went on around them. She gesticulated wildly, even as she moved past several agents to cross the parking lot and into the night. Since they hadn't come here in their own car and they didn't have an address to give an Uber to come pick them up, he wondered briefly if she planned on walking home.

"They're insane. Even if I believed them, which I don't, I'm not getting in that thing to… to what, go after a terrorist? I'm not a soldier!"

"They've got a soldier, Lucy. That's why they brought me along. But I need a historian. Someone who knows the time and customs, and the history we're trying to save, and makes sure I don't muck it up. I don't know a thing about the Hindenburg besides that it was a hot air balloon and it crashed and burned. But you, you knew it was the Hindenburg he'd gone to from a date and the address of a tavern. I can't do this without you."

"You know there are other historians. I can give them names."

"Great, let them go drag some other poor woman out of bed and brief her. Hours will pass and Flynn may have already accomplished what he went for. An they won't be you! If I have to save history with a bossy know-it-all, I want her to be you…Lucy, please, you love history. Don't you want to preserve it?"

She cast him an annoyed glance, because he had flattered her and dared to make sense in just a few sentences. How dare he talk reason to her when she was angry at him and completely blown away by events?! She took a deep, calming breath, because he was right. She loved history. She couldn't just sit by and let Flynn unravel it, one event at a time. Their world could change. People in it could disappear, replaced with strangers. She looked at Wyatt, and in his eyes she saw that the same thought that was going through her head had crossed his mind to. Either or both of them might never be born, or might never know each other. As angry as she was with him, she couldn't bear to think about a world, her world, without him in it. The love and fear warring in his gaze told him he felt the same way about her. So that, at least, had been real, but hadn't she known that already?

"Besides, don't tell me you're not the least bit curious about visiting the past," he teased mildly, bringing her out of her spiraling thoughts. "And who knows, once we stop Flynn, maybe Mason will proceed with his academic discovery of time. He could use a historian for that."

"And a soldier to keep her safe?" She asked softly.

"Bet on it."

She turned around to him more fully, a sardonic smile on her face.

"Well, if we're really doing this, we need a change of clothes."

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They were separated the moment they were back inside, led to perfunctory changing rooms, clothes thrown haphazardly at both of them. The next time Wyatt saw Lucy, he actually heard her first. She was dressed in a deep pink skirt and a white blouse under a tartan coat. There was a Bask hat in her hand and she was complaining to an agent about how anachronistic her clothes were.

"- and this blouse? They didn't have that fabric yet, or underwire bras."

"Who's going to see your bra?" Wyatt asked her as he adjusted his tie and vest. "I'm in the dog house, and I doubt you're planning to flash someone?"

"Keep going, soldier, and you'll never see it again," she taunted right back, putting a short-lived grin on both their faces. The tension had eased somewhat with their conversation in the parking lot, and the suddenly very real possibility of losing one another by no fault of their own, but it was still early for such jokes, and Wyatt cleared his throat uncomfortably as he walked on. Lucy focused on Agent Christopher again, who told her it was the best they could do on short notice and that she could call her sister after the mission was over as she and the other agent she had spoken to herded her to the Lifeboat. The address and money were planted in her hand on the go as Agent Christopher issued final instructions before they climbed on board to find their third team member.

"Okay, this is… tight," Lucy said with some trepidation as she and Wyatt bumped into each other a few times as they tried to sit down. He finally let her sit down first, closing his eyes as he felt her body slide along his, then lowered himself into the seat across from her. She turned to their new colleague to hide her blush. "Lucy."

"Ah, Rufus, I'm the pilot, kind of."

"Kind of?" That did not make Lucy feel any better.

"Wyatt." He watched her struggle with the seat belts for a moment. With a fond sigh, he disengaged his again to help secure her in her seat. She threw him a grateful smile.

"Are all these seatbelts really necessary?"

"Oh, yeah, you'll see," Rufus told them.

Normally, Wyatt would have simply moved to hold her hand, but they were on unknown territory now, so he just offered his hand to her. She clasped it without hesitation, then reached for his other hand as well. When they touched, their connection almost felt like he was holding her securely in his arms and Wyatt let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding, because some of the tension in Lucy's shoulders eased at his reassuring grip.

"You might want to hold on," Rufus suggested unhelpfully, and a moment later they found out exactly how necessary the seatbelts were.

From then on, between Wyatt unexpectedly being more affected by the ride than either of his team members, Rufus sarcastic commentary on the overt racism, and Lucy's wide eyed wonder and quick fire lecture to give them the basics, they pretty much blundered and guessed their way through the mission. It could only go downhill, and it did. Spectacularly. Wyatt's ill-fated sister comment to Kate - because he couldn't exactly say girlfriend, could he, and they didn't have rings so he couldn't say wife, and he couldn't come up with an era appropriate term - didn't help the least.

It only made Lucy snap at him over his modern gun, the one he'd just saved her ass with, thank you very much. Also not helping, he was aware. Nor did his continued and obvious worry while they were stuck together in a not so comfy cell. Apparently, putting a man and a woman together in a cell was better than putting a white guy and a black guy in a cell together. Though when Lucy chose that moment to pounce on his concern for Kate Drummond, he realized that she was more bothered than she should be, and it killed him. It wasn't a competition. It was never a competition, because Lucy was his entire heart.

"So I'm your sister now?" She teased, but he could hear the insecurity that still hung in her voice after their fight.

"I just… didn't know what to call you. Here, I mean. We don't have rings to fool them, and, I mean, I don't think extramarital lover would have been particularly helpful," Wyatt sighed at his blunder.

"What is it about her?" She proceeded to ask bluntly, but her voice was small. "You're still thinking about her, I can tell."

He sat down, aggravated. He didn't want to bring this up, but he couldn't, wouldn't lie to her again, so he took a deep breath and explained.

"Kate reminds me of my ex-wife."

"Jessica?" Lucy wondered, surprised. Wyatt had few pictures of that time and he spoke about it even less, but he had shared some details with her. Now that she thought about it, Kate really did look a bit like the happy, kind-hearted blonde woman Wyatt had told her about. For a moment, she wondered if that was why he had referred to her as his sister, because he was still hung up about his ex. Then she dismissed that petty thought. Wyatt committed himself completely to the people he let in. She'd seen that when he told her some of his friends had died in a… plane crash she now had to suspect was code for something else. It was before they met, but Wyatt still called their families and visited his friends graves regularly, being there for them in the only ways he knew how.

He devoted himself to the people he cared about, and while Jessica would always be someone he cared deeply for, the two divorced and parted ways relatively amicably. When they had started dating, Lucy had noticed the same devotion grow in him directed at her, and she knew without the shadow of a doubt that he loved her. It was petty and thoughtless of her to doubt that now, just because she'd found out an unpleasant piece of the complex man she'd given her heart to. It didn't make him a bad man, it was just another side of his devotion, this time to duty and service and she should be proud of him. A part of her was, she was just hurt that she had to find out like this, but she shouldn't let her hurt run away with her.

"When I saw Kate, I couldn't just let her…die," he offered carefully, gently grasping her hand for support. She placed it firmly between both of her own hands and pulled it to her chest, to the heart he held to let him know she understood. He smiled ruefully at her, leaning over to touch their foreheads together and breathe in her scent.

"Hey, no funny business," the guard on duty warned from his desk, making them jump apart. With a scoff, Wyatt stood and moved away toward the cell door again. It was a cheap ass lock as he had pointed out earlier. If only he had something to wriggle it open with. He tried to think of something when the guard called out to him again, in the middle of an inspection of his firearm. "Hey, what the hell kind of a gun is this?"

Lucy looked at him pointedly, and he rolled his eyes, ready to look away when he realized something. He did technically have something with which to jimmy the lock, but it would require a serious distraction from Rufus for Lucy to even contemplate letting him take it. As it was, his intent gaze at her midsection made her frown, then huff and turn her back on him when she misinterpreted his interest. Somewhat.

He moved over to whisper his plan in her ears, but the closer he got the more her shoulders tensed again. Okay, she had been seriously put off by what she'd (mostly) mistakenly read in his gaze. So instead of following the plan right away, he stayed a small, but still respectable distance away.

"Lucy-"

"Seriously, now? Wyatt!"

"Lucy, I am sorry, sorrier than you can know about not telling you about my military career. You were right, I should have at least told you I was enlisted in the service."

Her shoulders slumped, all the anger turning into pain and disappointment and it made him swallow hard for being the man who put it there.

"I know why you didn't. It just hurts, Wyatt."

"I know, and I will work on making up for any pain I caused you for the rest of my life if you let me. I won't always be able to tell you the whole truth, but I promise nothing I say will be a lie. If I can't tell you, I'll tell you that."

She finally turned to look at him, her eyes searching his. He held her gaze. Steady. Sure. He had just made her a promise and he would keep it.

"I- I can live with that," she offered, hesitantly.

"I don't want to lose you."

She turned to face him completely.

"I don't want that either," she admitted. "I love you."

Wyatt's heart soaked up the words like a sponge.

"I love you too. I hope I didn't make you doubt that. Never doubt that," he implored, almost choking on his next words. "I know I lied to you about my work, but everything else… Everything that I told you, that I did with you, it was real. It was me. I just want you to know that."

Lucy raised a hand over his heart, where he gripped it immediately. Then he pressed as closely to the rapidly beating organ under his skin as was possible. He wanted her to feel it. Feel him and the effect she had on him. Feel how his heart beat faster for her. Lucy's dark eyes shone with unshed tears, because she understood - and Wyatt breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't lost her.

"Happy tears, I hope?" He asked her in low seductive manner.

Lucy laughed under her breath.

"Not happy enough for you to get lucky in a jail cell, mister - sorry, Master Sargent," she reminded him. "So mind out of the gutter."

"Sounds like you should take your own advice, Professor." At her curious glance, he elaborated. "I was just going to ask you to show me your bra - your underwire bra."

The emphasis seemed to catch her onto his plan, her eyes wide and looking furtively around to see how they could get the coast clear. He moved to hold her by her upper arm so she refocused on his face.

"But now, you permitting, I have a different plan."

"Wha-what plan?"

"Well, what do you think that guard is going to do if he thinks we're up to funny business in here?" He asked her mischievously as he leaned closer. "I know you're probably still upset and we still have plenty to talk about, but may I? For the mission."

Lucy snorted, but her eyes were alight, and Wyatt took that, rightfully, as invitation. He leaned down to kiss her, manipulating her petite body until her back faced the bunk beds so he could walk her backwards toward them. He heard Rufus make an awkward sound, something between a choke and a cough, and he heard the guard complain and order them apart, but now that he had Lucy in his arms and her lips enthusiastically returning his kisses he couldn't care less. Besides that was all part of some grand plan, wasn't it? To get them out of here?

Wyatt needed to focus again, so he defused his mouth from Lucy's with great reluctance, and moved on to kiss the side of her throat. If he coincidentally latched onto that spot just beneath her jawline that made her give a small moan of appreciation every time, well, then that was just a happy accident. As a happy bonus, he could think somewhat straight again, and train his ears to the ever more agitated guard, who now banged his night stick against the bars to get their attention, even as he ran a hand up his girlfriend's entire side, from her hip to her chest, over her breast to the other side of her throat to gently tug on her earlobe. Something he'd normally do with his teeth, but those were otherwise occupied nibbling on her pulse point.

Wyatt heard the other guards come in through the door at the metallic clanks, but he didn't let up on Lucy, at least as far as their visual was concerned. He did stop to nibble on her skin with one final kiss, keeping his face close to her throat as he lay in wait for his prey. The first one through the cell's door moved to beat him over the head with his baton. Lucy's worried gasp of his name clued him in, but the guard didn't expect Wyatt to turn around in a sudden burst of movement, block his descending arm and break his nose. The soldier easily caught the night stick before it fell to the ground and made short work of the other two men, while they stood stunned at the sudden change in power dynamics. When all three lay unconscious on the ground, he grabbed the keys to Rufus' cell, and handed them over to Lucy with another kiss, before he ran to grab his gun and cover their retreat.

The rest of their mission was a walk in the park by comparison to their heart to heart. Maybe with the exception of watching Lucy in the hands of that terrorist.

"I know for a fact that you're not going to shoot," Flynn had said, like he knew him, knew them, and knew that Lucy meant the world to him. And maybe he did, given his ramblings to Lucy about a diary she was yet to write as she told him privately before returning to 2016. Or maybe something in Wyatt's eyes gave him away in the moment itself as he watched with barely contained panic and a good portion of rage as Flynn dragged his historian slowly backwards to make his retreat.

"Wyatt," Lucy had called to him, nodding ever so slightly at him. Telling him to shoot. Trusting that he wouldn't hit her. Her faith in him humbled Wyatt. He took a deep, steadying breath, because as much as he didn't want to risk Lucy, letting Flynn take her was just as bad. What was more, in the end all his COs and the special agents could go to hell, Lucy was his top priority and his General. He'd follow her anywhere, do anything for her. So he took the shot, then rolled away from Flynn's answering fire. A small yelp of shock aside, Lucy was fine, but they lost Kate and he couldn't follow Flynn.

The Hindenburg had burned a day late. People had lived who shouldn't. Other people had died when they should have lived. All in all, the mission was a catastrophe, but when they returned, history seemed to have adjusted without too much damage, all the major events still in place. Only time and extensive research would tell them all the small ways in which changed history had changed reality. For their part, Lucy and Wyatt were just glad they were still together to everyone's knowledge and their house was still there. They asked about Rittenhouse, but no one was able - or maybe willing - to answer, so they dropped it for the time being, tacitly agreeing to keep the diary a secret until they could figure out what it was. Everything else could wait until tomorrow, or so they'd thought, only to find out that Flynn had jumped again.

"I hate him already," Wyatt groaned as he turned the car around. "And I don't trust anything he said."

"It looked like my handwriting, though." Lucy was a bit more pensive. She couldn't dismiss Flynn's cryptic warnings out of hand.

Wyatt grabbed her hand.

"We will figure this out. Together," he promised her.

The End

A/N: So, I thought I'd start out easy. Close enough to the actual episode, just with a slight twist. It's probably been done before, but this is my take on what if Lucy and Wyatt had known each other before the pilot episode. I read somewhere that Delta Force operators might not even admit to being in the army, and wondered how Lucy woul react at finding out the hard way.

Anyway, I've got a list of ideas for more one shots that I want to write. I don't know how regularly I'll get to work on them, though.