When Future Lucy and Future Wyatt materialized in the bunker on that fateful day a month ago, not one person living in that bunker, save Garcia Flynn, could believe what they were seeing. Their hardened expressions, their combat-ready attire, their no nonsense, confident personas were a stark contrast to their younger counterparts who were emotionally and physically beaten and broken. Seeing the four of them together was nothing short of bizarre.

Jiya - while fascinated at first by the future couple? Were they a couple? They looked like a couple - was far more interested in the upgraded Lifeboat, as was Conner Mason. The two of them were like kids in a candy store, exploring every square inch of the new and improved time machine. They scribbled down notes, took measurements, made calculations and stayed up until the wee hours tinkering with their own Lifeboat.

"I think I did it, Mason…I think…oh my god, I really think I did it!" This was the most excited Jiya had been since they had almost lost Rufus. Upgrading the Lifeboat, keeping busy, kept her mind from darker thoughts.

Mason scrambled up the stairs and crawled into the hatch of the Lifeboat. "The power system? Did you manage to extend the life?"

"Yup – we are now an energy efficient Time Team!" She was beaming from ear to ear. "Instead of needing to charge between every two jumps, we can now extend that to six."

"You tripled our charge capacity?" Mason asked incredulously. "That's fantastic, Jiya!"

"Yeah, well you know if we were ever in a situation again like we were in 1888 –" her face fell. She was back in that saloon, back to that last moment with Rufus before he was shot. Mason put a comforting hand on her shoulder, breaking Jiya out of her reverie. She gave him a small smile and cast her eyes downward. "if we ever needed to go back and bring an extra person home, we wouldn't have to wait so long between jumps. And ya know, I – I could've come home without…without anyone risking their life to get me."

Mason hugged her as she wiped away the tears. "Rufus will be so proud of you."

Jiya beamed again "Ya think? – I mean, technically he's been harping on this for two years now. Anthony was able to make the Mothership nuclear and we've been having to recharge ours constantly like some sort of crappy cell phone."

Rufus' head popped into the Lifeboat. "Did I hear my name?" He stopped short when he saw Mason's arms around Jiya. "Are you two having an affair?"

Mason smiled at Rufus, "That's my cue. Don't work too hard, Jiya. You've done enough for one day. Don't underestimate a good night's sleep…or you know, a quiet night with a loved one." He slapped Rufus on the back as he made his way down the metal staircase.

"What was that about?" Rufus turned to Jiya and immediately saw that she had been crying. "Do I need to kick someone's ass? Because I can get Flynn or Wyatt to do that. They both kind of owe me right now."

Jiya laughed and pressed her lips to Rufus'. "No. I just love you. That's all."

No one had told Rufus what had happened during that initial trip to 1888 because only one person from the team remembered first-hand what had actually happened…and that was Conner Mason. The Wyatt and Lucy of the future had taken Conner Mason back to 1888 – Conner felt it was only right that he should be the one to bring Rufus home. It was poetic, he thought, as it paralleled his earlier relationship with Rufus, when he plucked him out of that Chicago neighborhood and gave him a new life at Mason Industries.

It had been a delicate rescue mission, nothing else could change – only Rufus' mortal wound. It was a distraction really, that's all it took. Emma's shot now hit Rufus in the shoulder. While the Futures went back to their LifeBoat to wait, Conner had emerged from the shadows, completely surprising a distraught Wyatt and Jiya with his assertion that he had come to save the day. After issuing assurances that all would be well, that Rufus and Conner would be brought back later, the original team returned to the present, albeit unwillingly. Jiya was near hysterics as Wyatt pulled her away from a wounded, bleeding Rufus. As the LifeBoat disappeared from 1888, Conner pushed the cart in which he had laid Rufus, towards the new and improved time machine.

Rufus had lost quite a bit of blood, so his stream of consciousness had faded in and out. He vaguely recalled the cart ride, he could feel himself being lifted into the LifeBoat, but due to the mind-numbing effects from blood loss, he had trouble processing all that was actually occurring around him. He was strapped into a seat, obviously confused that he wasn't on the controls, and it was only then that he seemed to notice anything amiss. "What the hell? – Do you have a beard, Wyatt? How long did you leave me in 1888?"

"Sorry, man – we got here as soon as we could" Future Wyatt had said with a smile, though his eyes couldn't hide the emotion he had felt by seeing his old friend alive again.

The second appearance of the new Lifeboat was met with the same shock and surprise as the first time. Future Lucy and Wyatt stunned everyone, just as before – but this time, instead of daring them to save Rufus, they already had and they were carrying a now, unconscious Rufus into the med bay.

Conner decided that Rufus didn't need to know and that it was better that he shouldn't know that he had actually died and was dead…until he wasn't…until they saved him. However, Conner and the Futures decided that it was necessary for the rest of the team to know just exactly what had happened so as not to affect the course of natural events too drastically. The revelation that Rufus had actually died and had been dead, visibly shook the inhabitants of the bunker…Jiya and Wyatt especially. Wyatt, because he felt personally responsible for what had happened and Jiya, because she had almost lost him. She had been an emotional wreck since that day.

Jiya looked at Rufus with watery eyes, her arms still laces around his neck. Rufus gave Jiya a quizzical look, "I love you, too. But if I'm being totally honest, you're kinda freaking me out with all the crying. In fact…everyone around here has been doing a lot of crying. I didn't think anybody would miss Jessica after what she pulled, but oh my god, it's been a regular weep fest since we got back."

Jiya gave him a hard look, "Believe me when I tell you Rufus, that NOBODY is missing Jessica. Not even Wyatt."

"Good to know." Rufus said simply. "Now, are you gonna be in here all night? We've got a whole hour before Agent Christopher shows up and I really don't want to be sitting in this tin can any more than I have to."

"I'm coming, just hold your horses, okay? I wanted to show you –"

"Good evening, people!" Agent Christopher's voice rang through the Silo. "I know I'm early but I wanted to lock down the perimeter before nightfall. We've almost got the clearance for our new location. It's taken longer than we thought, let's just hope that our luck holds out."

The entire population of the bunker gathered around the tables in the kitchen awaiting Agent Christopher's brief. Wyatt had winced at those last words – he knew he was to blame for their current situation.

Jessica's presence in the bunker, while not an immediate problem anymore, had compromised the security of their base of operations. She knew where they were, knew the layout of the bunker and it was only a matter of time before Rittenhouse used that information to their advantage. She was still alive and well, and as far as anyone knew, still working for Rittenhouse.

"Everyone here?" Denise cast her eyes around the room. "Good. We have scouted a new location for our base. The good news is, it's not a bunker. You will each have your own rooms. There are two bathrooms, instead of one and it has central heat and air. The bad news is we can't get in there until next week."

Protests erupted all around.

"I know. I know. Believe me when I tell you we are working as fast as we can. We have to get permission to use the site, we have to get the highest security classification, we have to figure out the logistics to move you, keep you protected and off the grid. And that's just the easy part. We've got a wanted criminal that we helped break out of prison, two of you are supposed to be dead - " There was a sharp collective intake of breath and everyone looked at Rufus.

"Why is everyone looking at me? Wyatt's supposed to be dead too – technically he's AWOL."

Agent Christopher gave a little cough – "and then there's Lucy."

Lucy sat alone, her arms folded in front of her, not meeting anyone's eye, but she could feel all of theirs on her.

The pure-blood aristocracy that made up the top tier of Rittenhouse leadership wanted Lucy Preston. They made no secret of that. Her face had been plastered all over the news as a "Missing Person." Her lineage connected her to their beloved founder and as such, she was the rightful heir to all that Rittenhouse had to offer. With the death of her mother and Nicholas Keynes, she was now the last remaining direct descendant and they were not about to let her throw that legacy away. She was too important to them symbolically.

Intelligence reports indicated that due to Emma's attempted coup d'etat, Rittenhouse was fractured. Emma and Jessica were stirring the pot among those that had been recruited into Rittenhouse service. These were people who had dedicated their lives to the organization. People like Emma, who no matter what they did or how much they accomplished for the cause, were never quite good enough because Rittenhouse blood didn't flow through their veins. When Emma killed Carol Preston and Nicholas Keynes it sent shockwaves through the society. She boasted of her action arguing that she was merely protecting Rittenhouse from the weak leadership shown by their superiors. Leadership that would not allow Lucy Preston to be killed merely because she was family. This same leadership, she argued, now wanted Lucy Preston, the woman who had been actively fighting against them for years, to take up the mantel and call the shots. It was ludicrous in her mind and in the minds of those that followed her.

The aristocratic line – the blood line – knew full well that Lucy had been less than willing to join their cause, but they were convinced that given the right motivation and a better understanding, she could be groomed, she could be tamed, to be the Rittenhouse leader she was always meant to be.

Lucy Preston would never willingly join Rittenhouse – all they had brought her was grief and pain. The fact that she was a direct descendant of the man who had once, in 1780, ordered her to his bedchamber made her physically ill. His disgusting blood flowed in her veins, his genetic makeup was linked to hers and she was somehow an heir, the only direct heir, of all that he and his band of followers had wrought on the world.

She looked around the table at her new family – all broken, all victims in the crosshairs of their war with Rittenhouse and she felt a surge of guilt. Even though none of them blamed her or considered her even remotely responsible for the actions of that cult, all of their lives had just been made more difficult now that Lucy was the last of her bloodline. Rittenhouse was getting desperate and already there had been evidence of perimeter breeches outside the bunker. It was only a matter of time before they made their move. The longer they stayed in that bunker, the more vulnerable they were. Sleep was a near impossibility these days.

Wyatt finally caught Lucy's eye and tried to give her a reassuring smile. Things had gotten decidedly better between them in the last few weeks. Wyatt had confessed that he loved Lucy and while she was sure she felt the same, the pain she had experienced over his dealings with Jessica made it difficult for her to return those sentiments. She needed to trust him before she put her heart on the line again.

Wyatt was doing everything in his power to regain that trust. Aside from making her breakfast every morning and supplying her with her favorite kind of tea, Wyatt was also teaching her how to defend herself. Her last run-in with Emma had drove a jolt of panic through his heart and seeing her bruised and bloodied made him swear that if he ever got a hold of Emma she wouldn't live long enough to even ball up her fist. When news reached their ears that Rittenhouse was actively searching for Lucy, Wyatt wasted no time and immediately took Lucy to the training room to teach her some basic defense moves.

Agent Christopher was wrapping up their meeting when Flynn, always ready to rub Wyatt the wrong way, piped in. "So, we're just supposed to wait here like sitting ducks while Jessica and her Rittenhouse friends breach our defenses and take us out one by one?"

Agent Christopher turned to Flynn. "I would hope you have more faith in me than that. I have taken every possible precaution that I can in order to protect this bunker, to protect you. In fact, I will be staying here on-sight until we get you moved to a new facility."

"How very thoughtful of you, ma'am" he retorted and then made his way back to his room without another word.

The whole room watched him go. He had been in a crabby mood since they had gotten back to the bunker. Food supplies had been scarce because of the limited times Agent Christopher could come due to the need for an increase in security and everyone had been on edge. Flynn, ever the resident grump, had taken his crankiness to a whole new level. Agent Christopher shook her head and sighed, "Is there anything else that needs to be discussed?" "Jiya, how are the updates to the LifeBoat coming?"

A grin spread across Jiya's face again, "Well. Really well. We've managed to increase the charge capacity of the LifeBoat."

"What does that mean?"

Rufus jumped to his feet and ran to Jiya "It means that my girlfriend is a freaking genius." He planted several kisses on Jiya's face setting her giggling. "We don't have to charge the LifeBoat after every two jumps. We can do multiple jumps without having to plug in."

"Really?" asked Lucy, "How many?"

"Six" said Jiya. "So that would be three round trips according to my calculations. It's the best I could do. We'll never be able to match the mothership in terms of power, but given our last mission, I wanted to increase our jump capability as much as possible."

Agent Christopher nodded in agreement and then turned to Mason. "Conner, any luck on making the LifeBoat capable of revisiting a point in time?"

"No, Denise, we're not quite there yet…and even so, we would need to test it. Anthony was the only person I knew who had ever tried it in the LifeBoat and he almost died of internal hemorrhaging. I'm not ashamed to say that I hesitate sending any one of you on a jump that could end in your - well, to put it bluntly, - painful death."

"Noted." sighed Agent Christopher.

After their evening brief, Wyatt and Lucy headed off to the training room to work on some new moves. While he primarily offered to teach her some basic moves for her own safety, his other motivation was more selfish. He loved being near her again. Even though things between them were strained, their close contact was helping break down the barriers that they both had put up over the past couple months – when Jessica had suddenly come back into Wyatt's life.

Using self-defense as an excuse to be closer to Lucy did not go unnoticed by Rufus. As Wyatt draped his arm around Lucy's neck to teach her how to ward off an attack from behind, Rufus sauntered into the room with a big grin on his face "Well, don't you two look cozy?" Jiya elbowed him in the ribs.

"You know Rufus," Lucy grunted as she tried to break Wyatt's hold around her neck. "Wyatt offered to teach Jiya too – if you're not careful you might find yourself with a girlfriend who can kick your ass."

Rufus didn't even hesitate in his reply. "Oh she can already kick my ass – didn't you see her in that bar back in 1888? She broke some dude's wrist in like two seconds."

"I'd hate to break up all the ass kicking talk, but I'm trying to teach Lucy how to actually avoid an ass kicking, so if you don't mind -"

"Oh, is Wyatt teaching us how to protect ourselves from Rittenhouse spies?" Flynn drawled as he stepped slowly into the room. He was watching the scene with mild interest but the sneer on his face denoted that he was more concerned with goading Wyatt than actually watching the lesson.

Lucy could feel Wyatt's muscles tense around her as he fought to maintain some calm. "Just ignore him, Wyatt" she mumbled.

Wyatt glared back at Flynn, he wanted nothing more than to punch that smirk off of his face. They had teamed up in Chinatown. He had been more than grateful for Flynn's help during that awful awful moment when Lucy ran off into the night after Emma. Once they had gotten back to the bunker, however, it was back to the same old jabs and pointed comments. Wyatt knew part of it was his own guilt eating away him that gave Flynn's words so much weight, but he couldn't help but wish he would just shut the hell up and leave him alone. Lucy's voice called Wyatt's mind back to the task at hand. He felt himself relax a bit at her words, he took a deep breath and went back to instructing. "Right. Okay Lucy" He wrapped his arms around her arms in a bear hug hold, "What do you do if an attacker comes from behind and pins your arms?"

The first time Wyatt had taught her this, she struggled with each of the steps – she didn't want to admit that having his arms wrapped around her made her lose her focus a bit, but it had. Being that physically close after so long apart was distracting. She had floundered so badly on that exercise she was sure that she would never get the hang of it. That had been almost three weeks ago and now that she was acclimated to his nearness again, her mind and body were responding with a little more discipline than before. Lucy immediately kicked back with her foot and struck Wyatt's knee, then she knocked her head backwards to hit his head and finally used her elbows to hit him in the ribs to loosen his grip so she could break free. She had done it so quickly this time, that even Wyatt was surprised.

Rufus and Jiya applauded her success with enthusiastic woops and cheers. Flynn gave her a satisfied smirk and Wyatt was absolutely beaming with pride. She had come so far since that first day when her face still bore the fresh bruises and cuts from her run-in with Emma. He chuckled at her as she gave a mock bow. "That's my girl"

"I thought Jessica was your girl?" Flynn retorted as he uncrossed his legs and stood up.

"Shut up, Flynn." Wyatt growled as he flushed with anger.

"Okay, look – I think we've had enough training for one night." Lucy said and she led Wyatt out of the room and back into the kitchen area. "C'mon Wyatt, let me buy you a drink."

She handed Wyatt a beer and sat across from him at the kitchen table. Wyatt was brooding. "You know," she said "you shouldn't let him get to you."

Wyatt didn't meet her eyes…he was focused on peeling the label off of the bottle. "Nah - Flynn just likes to remind me how much I messed up."

Lucy bit her bottom lip nervously and sighed looking at him with frustration "You've taught me a lot in just a few weeks. I never thought I'd be able to break free of some of those holds when we first started out."

Wyatt gave her a small smirk. "I knew you could do it, Lucy. You're stronger than you think." He took a drink of beer. "I'm sorry about everything, Lucy. Jessica. All of it."

Lucy looked at him sadly and reached her hand out to hold his. "How many times are you going to apologize Wyatt?"

"If I have to apologize every day for the rest of my life, it won't be enough. And Flynn won't ever let me forget it."

Lucy raised her eyebrows "I didn't think you cared what Flynn thought."

Wyatt snorted, "I don't." He said forcefully as he glanced at Lucy and gave her a half smirk.

Lucy smirked back at him, "Then it shouldn't matter what Flynn says. I don't pay attention to it and neither should you."

Wyatt's eyes darted up towards Lucy's in stunned surprise. "I thought you and Flynn were bosom buddies these days?"

Lucy laughed. "Bosom buddies? Really, Wyatt?" She shook her head. Wyatt smiled. He loved her laugh, he had missed it. "Flynn knows how to push your buttons – you shouldn't let him. I know you're sorry for what happened. And so am I"

Wyatt furrowed his brow, "What are you sorry for?"

"My mother is the one who brought her back, Wyatt. She masterminded all of this." Lucy said through gritted teeth.

Wyatt reached over and held her hand, his voice wracked with emotion. "Don't do that. This was never on you. Ever." His eyes sought hers as she focused her attention on the battered table top, not trusting herself to look into his face and keep her emotions in check.

Wyatt gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, when she refused to meet his eyes. Lucy shifted her gaze to their joined hands. That sight brought a smile to her heart. She had missed this. She had missed the warmth of his touch, the steady, sure and strong feel of his hand in hers. She sighed "I just think we need to stop beating ourselves up. We have enough to worry about as it is."

"You're not wrong!" Rufus had joined them at the table slapping Wyatt on the back. 'Hey man, good job teaching Lucy. Who would have thought that our history professor could pull out the moves?"

Wyatt visibly relaxed with Rufus beside him. "Maybe I'll teach you next – "

"Who me? No..nonono. I'll leave the fighting to you and Flynn." Rufus rubbed his wounded shoulder, "I've had enough action to last me for a while."

"Haven't we all" said Lucy as she rolled her eyes. She stifled a yawn as she checked the time and then slowly slid her chair away from the table. "Well, I'm headed off to bed." She smiled at Rufus as she stood up, then patted Wyatt on the shoulder as she walked away.

Rufus watched her leave as he sat next to Wyatt. Once she had disappeared down the darkened corridor, he turned his attention back to his friend and sighed, "So, how are things with you and Lucy?"

Wyatt shrugged, "I don't know, man. I messed up pretty bad." He frowned and Rufus could tell that he was struggling with a lot of pain.

"Well, Wyatt – it doesn't look like she hates you." Rufus gave a small laugh. "I mean, she was sitting here holding your hand." He turned his head to face Wyatt who was back to focusing on his beer bottle label. "I think you're gonna be okay. She's just going to need some time."

Wyatt glanced over at Rufus and nodded his head, "Thanks, man."

Wyatt curled up on the sofa after everyone else had slowly gone to bed. He didn't mind taking the rock hard couch – he figured it was part of his penance. But tonight, after talking with Rufus and especially after talking with Lucy, he felt like for the first time in weeks, he might actually get a good night's sleep despite the less than ideal sleeping conditions.

He was wrong.