Wyatt woke to the sound of someone shrieking. Immediately, he was on his feet, ready to investigate. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was nearly 6 a.m.
The sound was coming from the living room. He burst in to find Jenna tangled in her blanket on the couch, screaming bloody murder. He rushed to her side and placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking it a little to try and wake her as he called her name.
"Jenna! Hey! Wake up! It's just a dream!" he said. Her eyes shot open and with the light from the dawn Wyatt could see how large her pupils were. She was petrified.
She was crying and mumbling incoherently, sweating and in a panic. Wyatt continued to try to comfort her, but she was not calming down. She started gasping and saying, "Where is she? Where is she?!"
"Who?" Wyatt asked. Jenna's eyes couldn't seem to focus on him and she kept repeating the question.
Wyatt shook her shoulder slightly, trying to snap her out of it. "Who?!" he demanded once more and Jenna's eyes focused on him briefly before darting away again.
"Lucy" she finally rasped out, hyperventilating.
"Lucy? You want Lucy?" Wyatt asked and she nodded. Wyatt walked over to where his phone was resting on the table and dialed Lucy's number.
She picked up on the second ring. "Hello? Wyatt? What's wrong?" she croaked sleepily.
"It's Jenna – she's having some kind of panic attack or nightmare or something. She keeps asking for you," Wyatt explained quickly.
"Oh, um, okay," Lucy sounded more alert now. "Do you want me to come over there?"
"If you don't mind," Wyatt replied. "I can't get her to calm down."
He gave Lucy the address and hung up the phone, returning to Jenna's side. She was curled in a fetal position, crying softly and drenched in a cold sweat.
"Lucy will be here soon, okay?" Wyatt said. He thought he saw her nod but it was hard to tell with her crying shaking her body.
He reached a hand out to rub her back comfortingly. About fifteen minutes passed before there was a knock at the door and Wyatt rose to answer it.
"She's on the couch," he cocked his head in the direction and led her inside.
Lucy hesitantly walked towards the girl and knelt down next to her. Jenna reached out to grab her hand and squeezed it, hard, still not speaking. They sat like this for a while, Wyatt kneeling behind Lucy, as Jenna's crying slowly waned.
"Were you having a nightmare?" Lucy asked softly when it seemed like Jenna's breathing was close enough to normal to speak.
Jenna nodded slightly, her grip on Lucy's hand not relaxing one bit. Lucy waited a few moments and then spoke again.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked. Jenna looked at her, her pupils now a more normal size, and shook her head.
Lucy nodded and they returned to silence once more. Wyatt wondered if Lucy was thinking the same questions he was. As he drifted deeper into his thoughts, Jenna's crying stopped completely.
Finally, Jenna broke the silence. "I saw the whole thing," she said gravely.
Wyatt got an eerie feeling at her words. "What thing?" he asked.
"They died right in front of me," Jenna responded.
Wyatt paused a moment before asking, "Your parents?" Jenna nodded, still squeezing Lucy's hand.
They sat like this for a while more, the sun now coming up and shining some light through the windows. They were all fully awake now.
"How did they die?" Wyatt asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. This was all too suspicious; he had to know more.
"They were murdered," Jenna answered in barely more than a whisper.
Lucy and Wyatt exchanged a cautious look and it was obvious they were thinking the same thing. Her parents were murdered right in front of her?
"How old were you when this happened?" Lucy asked.
"Eleven," Jenna replied and Lucy's eyes widened as she looked to Wyatt again. No wonder she was in such a panic – she had probably been reliving the whole experience in her nightmare. Wyatt could relate to that. Hell, Lucy could too, with that car wreck. But seeing your parents murdered right in front of you as a child? That was extremely traumatic by anybody's standards.
"Did they ever catch the killer?" Wyatt asked, his sympathy apparent in his voice.
"No," Jenna said coldly as she got a bitter look on her face. She released Lucy's hand and Lucy pulled it back and stretched it out, grimacing slightly at the soreness. The girl had quite a grip.
They sat quietly for a little while longer. Wyatt stood to announce he was going to take a shower and change his clothes, and told Lucy to make herself at home. He saw Jenna lie back down and Lucy reach up to stroke her hair, tucking it behind her ear as she closed her eyes. They looked so peaceful and comfortable with each other. He didn't know how to feel about it.
When he emerged from the shower in fresh clothes, he found the girls sitting at the table, smiling and talking quietly over some coffee. Wyatt quirked one side of his mouth up in a small smile as he entered the kitchen and poured himself a cup.
"Feeling better?" he asked and Jenna nodded shyly.
"I'm sorry I woke you up," she said.
"It's okay, don't worry about it," Wyatt said, and he meant it. When you saw things like that happen right in front of you, the memories never really stopped haunting you.
Wyatt made them some breakfast and they sat in his small kitchen in comfortable conversation for a while. At one point, Jenna asked if she could get a change of clothes, and Lucy offered to drive her to the mall to get some necessities since it didn't seem like she was going home for a while. They were still waiting on Flynn and he had made no contact or movements since they met him in Richmond. This would be the third straight day in the same clothes for her – a Mexican style peasant blouse, jeans, and huaraches – and she desperately wanted to brush her teeth and shower.
When they were finished eating, Lucy and Jenna got up to head out to go shopping and Jenna asked Wyatt if he would come with them. He thought about staying home – he was pretty tired – but he didn't like where his thoughts went when he was left alone, and he had some things he wanted to talk to Lucy about.
Jenna turned out to be the world's slowest shopper. She wanted to look at every last thing in a store before making a decision on what was the best deal, and most of the time she decided on nothing at all. She seemed to be very considered about making the most of every cent, and Wyatt wasn't used to seeing such a young girl so concerned with money. By the third store, they had convinced her that they would get Mason Industries to cover the costs as "travel expenses" and she finally picked out a few functional outfits. Lucy laughed as Jenna admired her purchases, calling them "vintage."
They stopped at another store to pick up some toiletries – soap, a toothbrush, a hairbrush – and by then it was early afternoon so they stopped at a food court. Lucy and Wyatt sat at a table while Jenna got in a line. Wyatt was debating how to bring up his newest suspicions when Lucy spoke in a low voice.
"Do you think her parents' murder has something to do with… you-know-who?" Lucy asked cautiously.
Wyatt looked around to make sure no one could overhear them and fidgeted with a napkin. "I was thinking the same thing," he responded. They both deflated as the possibility sunk in.
"We have to tell Rufus and Agent Christopher," Lucy declared, and though he didn't like it, Wyatt agreed.
"Why do you think Flynn brought her here?" Wyatt asked after a moment.
Lucy shook her head. "I don't know, but if her parents' death is connected to Rittenhouse, and she's part of one of our futures…" she trailed off.
"You think he's trying to manipulate us into joining him? Showing us something horrible that will happen in the future because of Rittenhouse?" Wyatt filled in the blanks.
"I think it's likely," Lucy said lowly as Jenna walked over and joined them with food. Wyatt suddenly didn't have much of an appetite, and tried to drown out his dark thoughts by listening to Jenna and Lucy's light conversation. Jenna was telling stories about some of the horses on the farm she lived on, and the time her cousin let all the rabbits loose as a prank on her and she had to chase them all down back into their pens before her Grandpa found out.
Lucy cleared her throat. "So, are these your father's parents that you live with?" she asked.
Jenna shook her head no. "My mother's," she said softly. Clearly there was another secret there, so Wyatt tried to ask.
"What about your father's parents?" he asked. "Are they around?"
Jenna looked down. "They used to be," she said. "But they're back in Mexico now." It was clear she was sad about it.
"Were they…?" Lucy started.
"They were deported," Jenna said shortly and took another bite of her pizza as if to say "we're done talking about this."
Lucy drove them back to Wyatt's house and dropped them off. Wyatt could tell she didn't want Lucy to go (he didn't want her to either, if he was being honest), but they had no real excuse to ask her to stay, so they watched as she drove off.
Inside, Wyatt showed her how to work the shower and left her to clean herself up. Exhausted, he slumped onto his bed. For once, his mind had mercy on him and he passed out almost immediately.