Sweet, Sweet Relief

Lucy-

Lucy sighed as she stepped into the Lifeboat behind Rufus, Wyatt behind her. The relief was almost overwhelming it was so great. They settled into their seats and Wyatt leaned forward to help buckle her harness as he always did while Rufus powered the machine up for the return trip home. Home. She closed her eyes, truly relaxing for the first time since waking that morning. Her body and mind were so exhausted she half expected she might fall asleep for the short time it would take to get back to the present. The Lifeboat started its usual violent shaking, reminding her that she definitely wouldn't be falling asleep, no matter how tired she was!

Thinking back to the two trips Lucy had taken in the Mothership, how smooth they were, made her wish she was in it instead. She knew how irrational that thought was, because to be back in the Mothership would mean she would still be with Flynn and Carl. She was sure Carl would not be feeling very charitable towards her right now, since Harry Houdini had knocked him out and helped her escape and kept Flynn from murdering countless people today. The thought of how Carl would treat her after that made her uneasy. He hadn't exactly been friendly before, but now he'd probably be even more horrible to her.

Still being with Flynn, on the other hand, made her feel uneasy in an entirely different manner. It wasn't just that he'd be furious she'd derailed his plans, yet again, but mostly because of what had happened between them the night before. She'd interfered today, stopped him, so how applicable was his threat to kill her now. Was it even more so in effect? Lucy would like to say that no, Flynn would not kill her because of what he may feel about her, but the truth was that she didn't know that. While last night had meant something more than just sex to her, or that it might have been only a brief moment for Flynn, she didn't have the confidence to say it was enough he wouldn't make good on his threat.

Lucy closed her eyes as she sighed, wishing she knew the answer to that question. In all honesty, she probably didn't want to know.

Wyatt's voice interrupted her thoughts. "You okay there, ma'am?" The concern in his tone was unmistakable.

She opened her eyes and gave him a small smile. He knew how much it annoyed her to be called 'ma'am'. Lucy suspected he'd said it to get a reaction from her.

"I'm fine." Wyatt raised his eyebrows, clearly letting her know he knew she wasn't telling the whole truth. She wanted to reassure him so she said, "All right, I'm not all the way fine, but I will be. After some food and a good night's sleep, I'll be okay." It would take time to get over the events of the day, especially almost being burned alive by Holmes, but that was to be expected.

Wyatt leaned forward and earnestly said, "If you need to talk about what happened today, I'm here for you."

Rufus then piped up as well, "Me too! I'm happy to lend an ear."

Lucy couldn't help the grin that came over her face. She was so lucky to have these friends, was grateful Harry, she couldn't help but think of him on a first name basis since he'd offered to make her his assistant (her grandma would be over the moon if she knew about that), had helped her rescue them, and was ecstatic that they were all still alive! Life felt pretty darn good in that particular moment. And these wonderful friends of hers were more than willing to let her talk about the tramuatic day and would probably even put up with it if she cried. It was the same thing she would do for either of them.

"Thank you both. I appreciate the offer, but all I really want right now is to get out of this dress, take a long, hot shower, get some food, and hopefully sleep for, like, two days straight." Wyatt and Rufus laughed at her list of her desires and she laughed along with them. It felt good. It felt like it had been a long time since she'd been with them, laughing and not feeling the pressure they usually did while on missions. Lucy always felt like the weight of the world was on their shoulders as they tried to prevent changes to the timeline. It haunted her how much damage the smallest change could do and how powerless she felt at not being able to stop them.

It wasn't a fair feeling, Lucy knew that. There was no way to predict or even know what small changes were made and how they would affect the future/present. Someone not catching a bus because of some reason Flynn or them had caused, or someone not meeting someone else, like with her mom and Henry Wallace, could change the course of a person's life. One person not dying when they originally had had erased her sister from existence and her mom was now healthy and not dying of lung cancer, all because one certain person had lived.

And Lucy felt absolutely wretched for being angry and bitter that someone's life had not ended. She tried to justify it by thinking the woman who'd originally died in the Hindenburg disaster was meant to die, therefore it was meant to happen that her parents, she would always think of them as her parents, got married and had Amy. Yes, it would mean her mom would now being lying in a comatose-like state and dying, but Amy would be there, and they would still have each other. It meant Lucy wouldn't feel as alone as she did.

Lucy decided to push the sorrowful thoughts away for the time being. They would be back eventually, but she wanted to focus on something positive right then.

"What do you two say to grabbing some dinner when we get back?" she asked.

An "I'm in," came from Rufus at the same time Wyatt said, "Sure."

Lucy then directed a question to Rufus. "Do you think Jiya would like to join us?"

"I'm sure she would," Rufus replied, swiveling his chair around to face them. They'd landed back at Mason Industries.

"Great. I'll hold off on taking my 'long, hot shower' in favor of a short one and we can go as soon as Agent Christopher releases us." A long, hot bubble bath later would feel better anyway, Lucy thought.

"Anywhere in particular sound good to you?" Wyatt asked her.

"Hmmm," Lucy hummed, taking a moment to think of what she wanted to eat. "How about Chinese?"

Wyatt smiled and nodded, Lucy returned the smile. It really was good to be back with her friends.

"Ping's Kitchen isn't too far from Mason. We got take-out from there a lot during the really long days, especially in the early days of the program, while we were working on the ships." Rufus said. "Either one of you been there?"

Both Lucy and Wyatt responded in the negative.

Rufus perked up and said, "Well, you're going to love it. They have egg rolls to die for," he said as if he was about to share the greatest pleasure life had to offer them.

Lucy and Wyatt looked at each other, sharing a silent look of amusement. The silence only lasted a short time because Rufus caught on that they were trying not to laugh at him and cried out in indignation, "What? They are!"

They both burst into laughter, not able to contain themselves any longer. Oh, it's so good to be back, back where I belong, Lucy thought as she laughed with the two men who were more than just her teammates. They were part of her family now.