Sorry it's taken a few days to update again. I've been busy helping with my best friend's baby shower and that took a LOT of time!

Business As Usual

Flynn-

Neither Flynn nor Lucy said a word after they'd consumed their breakfast and left the hotel room. Lucy seemed deep in thought. While he was curious to know what she was thinking, he figured he'd leave her to her thoughts. Besides, it seemed awkward at this point anyway. The air was full of tension again, both aware that they'd rejoined the real world, the world where they were enemies again. Flynn sighed at the thought of that word: enemies. He and Lucy would be at odds for a while longer still and Flynn hated it.

Now they sat at a small table in the restaurant area of the hotel. Flynn ordered them both a Pabst Blue Ribbon, a terribly cheap beer, which he really would've rather not drank, from the young waitress. What the hell, he thought though. It was very popular now, having just won the blue ribbon at the fair. We're in history so we might as well experience it as it happens, even if it is a disgusting beer.

Flynn felt it was time to get back to business as usual. He needed to bring back the Flynn from when they'd first landed in Chicago, the man who told Lucy she was now expendable if she wouldn't help him or got in his way. He fought the urge to cringe at his threat. He seriously wondered now if he would truly be able to kill her if it came to that. Last night had irrevocably changed things between them. He was no longer sure of what he would or wouldn't do concerning Lucy and her life. It was so confusing. A part of him wished he could go back in time, not for the first time obviously, and change what had happened. He would make sure not to complicate matters like they now were.

Flynn was aware he needed to start telling Lucy more of his plan. The young woman brought their beers, unknowingly explaining to them what they already knew about it, and left.

"So, Professor, as you well know, Edison was a paranoid son of a bitch. Didn't ever trust anyone near his prototypes except Henry Ford, who was?" He knew Lucy knew the answer, but he felt he needed to keep this ruse of airy questioning.

As quick as she always was, Lucy said, "Edison's employee. His chief engineer at the time."

Flynn continued with his impromptu 'lesson' and plan. "This afternooon, Edison, and Ford are going to meet with their financier, J.P. Morgan." Rittenhouse bastards, Flynn thought to himself, but continued out loud, "They'll be in a heavily guarded room very difficult to get into, even for me, even in 1893. But still, before they show up, I'm gonna plant a bomb there—" He didn't have the chance to finish.

Lucy abruptly interrupted. "I'm not going to help you. You'll have to kill me."

Damn, why did she have to say that? Flynn knew it was time to be the old Flynn now, the one who didn't seem to care one way or the other about Lucy's life. He loathed what he had to say next. "You don't think I will?"

Lucy didn't react with fear the way he thought she would. Instead, she said, "I read your classified file—"

Where the hell is she going with that?! he thought in surprise. Don't believe everything you read," he cut her off.

Lucy continued, determination written all over her face. "You saved people in Kosovo. You helped a family in Iraq. You used to care about people. You used," Flynn could hear the emphasis on the word 'used', "to be good," emphasis again. "That Rittenhouse killed your family, I believe you. But now you're putting all of us in danger."

Oh, Lucy, he thought, if only it were that simple. I'm not the same man who did all those good things. Flynn wasn't sure what to say. He was saved by the bell, literally, when Carl came inside the hotel, the little bell above the door jingling. He strode purposefully and directly to their table.

"Well, they were easy to find. They went right for Roosevelt, just like you said they would," Carl said. Flynn felt it couldn't have been more fortuitous that Teddy Roosevelt was in Chicago at this exact time. It was the perfect bait for Logan and Rufus to lead them where he needed them to go. He truly did feel bad for where he'd sent them, but it would definitely keep them from interfering in his plans and from rescuing Lucy.

"What is he talking about?" Lucy asked.

Flynn did honestly not look forward to telling her the location of where he'd had Carl send her team on a wild goose chase looking for her. It was unavoidable, however.

"Maybe you don't care about yourself, but you do care about Wyatt and Rufus, don't you? I've sent your friends to the, ah, World's Fair Hotel." Flynn quipped out, noticing her eyes becoming glassy with unshed tears at the mention of Logan and Rufus. It took a lot of willpower to not break and show his remorse, he did truly feel remorse for what fate possibly awaited Lucy's team, and the pain she would be in if they didn't survive.

"You son of a bitch." Lucy said, outrage coloring her tone. Flynn felt absolutely terrible. And hurt, as irrational as it was, if he was completely honest. He wouldn't expect any other reaction from her, but it still stung. He was aware that by sending her friends where he did made him the terrible person he was before their night together, the man who killed Lincoln in front of her, and countless others since this madness had begun. But he didn't let any of this show on his face. He just continued in his usual flippant attitude.

"But the hotel came to be known by another name. What was that again?" Flynn was being a smartass and he knew it, but he had to play this role now. This smug, indifferent asshole.

"The Murder Castle," Lucy said, almost reluctantly, as if she didn't say it it wouldn't seem as bad as it was.

Flynn decided if he was going to play the asshole, he might as well do an excellent job. "You know, the phrase "serial killer" was not even coined yet when H.H. Holmes, the owner of the Murder Castle, was caught?" he asked Carl, feigning nonchalance, like he was asking Carl about the weather.

"Is that right?" Carl asked, playing along.

"The press called him a, uh, "multi-murderer". And the hotel he built was an elaborate death trap. Trapdoors, acid vats, torture racks...he'd even disssect them sometimes. But you know all this, Lucy, don't you?" he asked with a smirk. It wasn't strictly necessary for him to describe the horrors of the hotel or that Holmes sometimes dissected his victims. As he'd said, Lucy knew this. He was just, like the ass he was being, driving the point home that Logan and Rufus had just been led into the proverbial lion's den. Only this "lion's den" was much, much worse.

If looks could kill, Flynn was sure he and Carl would be dead. He couldn't blame Lucy. Not one bit. He absolutely abhorred himself for what he was doing to her.

Flynn pressed on though. "You can still save your friends, Lucy. The sooner you help me, the sooner you can get back to them, hopefully in time." He knew it was a dick move to dangle the lives of her friends of front of her like that. But, as usual, it served a purpose. Motivation, so to speak, for her to help him. "Maybe you can help me find someone who can evade the security, break into the office, all that without being detected."

Lucy wouldn't look at him.

"Oh, come on, Lucy, you always have all the answers." Flynn said, purposefully goading Lucy.

He could see the wheels turning in her head. Her face became alight with an idea and Flynn wondered what stroke of genius had just come to her mind. It was sure to be brilliant, as Lucy always was.