Seeing Lucy on that gurney, pale, unconscious and fading had been one of the worst moments of Wyatt's life. He crumpled to the floor when they took her into the OR and left him behind the double doors. Rufus had somehow gotten him to his feet and Jiya had wrapped her arms around his waist in a hug as they slowly made their way back to wait. When the doctor emerged hours later, Wyatt covered his face in his hands and sobbed as it was announced that while Lucy had made it through the surgery, the combination of alcohol, drugs and the stress of her injury had caused her to go into cardiac arrest. She was stable now, but they had almost lost her. Those complications would have her in the ICU until they felt she was stable enough to be moved into the recovery unit. "She's a fighter, that one." the surgeon said as he left them.

Wyatt nodded his head, and felt a strange surge of pride in her as he muttered almost to himself, "I know."

It was late, but Wyatt didn't care. He wasn't going to be able to sleep anyway. Rufus and Jiya wouldn't leave him. They were worried about Lucy too, but Wyatt was the one that needed their support now and they were prepared to give it.

When the news of Lucy's condition had reached Agent Christopher, she and Garcia Flynn arrived at the hospital soon afterwards – Flynn sporting handcuffs so as to ward off any would be heroes who recognized him from the FBI's Most Wanted list. Wyatt was surprised when Flynn sat next to him and gently said "I know how much you love her, Wyatt. She is very lucky to have you." Flynn didn't wait for his reply, but instead stood up and paced the floor, himself, his brow furrowed in deep concentration.

After a few hours, a nurse approached them and announced that Lucy was doing much better than expected, and would most likely be moved before morning. She was still unconscious from sedation, but if they wanted, they could see her one at a time. Wyatt had just gotten up from his chair to follow the nurse, when Agent Christopher's phone buzzed at her hip.

Mason, what's going on?

What? How?

You're sure?

But we haven't tested….do you think?

No, she's not out of recovery yet.

Will do. Sit tight, we'll be there soon.

Everyone's eyes were on Agent Christopher as she sat there in stunned silence. Jiya was the first to speak, "What's going on?"

"The Mothership has jumped." Wyatt scrunched his face and breathed out a curse. Agent Christopher looked to Rufus. "Emma has gone to December 13, 2003, looks to be outside of Sacramento."

"What the hell would Emma want to be doing there? And in her own timeline? What's worth that risk?" Rufus asked.

Wyatt's eyes darted to Rufus. Why would Emma go back to just 15 years ago? What on Earth would she be doing there? With Rittenhouse on her tail he half expected her to go back further in time, to hide, but outside of Sacramento? There was nothing there except rolling farmland and rivers-" Realization dawned on him as he bounded towards Agent Christopher. Seventeen years ago Lucy started college. Two years after that….

Garcia Flynn's recollection hit him almost at the same time. "Lucy's accident." He said softly. "It was in her journal. The one Jensen talked about"

Wyatt spun around and looked at Flynn, his words verifying his suspicion and fear. "Oh my God. Lucy can't jump, so if she dies then –"

"She's won't exist here anymore. She will have been dead for 15 years." Agent Christopher muttered. Wyatt's knees almost gave out as a fresh wave of panic overtook him. He would have never known her. She would have been dead long before they ever met at Mason. A fury began building inside of him as he considered how hard Lucy had fought for her life just hours ago only to have Emma try to kill her in the past. He wouldn't let that happen – it couldn't happen. Agent Christopher was watching Wyatt closely, she seemed to have discerned the decision he had just made as she tentatively spoke, "There is a big risk, to whomever goes – Mason has not tested the new matrix for returning to your own timeline. It could be deadly."

"Doesn't matter" said Wyatt. "I don't care what happens to me. The most important thing is that she lives." He caught Flynn's eye. "Stay with her. Here. Please." Flynn nodded.

Rufus looked at Jiya. She knew that there was no use arguing with him, he would never let her pilot a mission that risky. She gave him a tearful smile – "Go be a hero."

Wyatt rushed down the hall of the ICU, until he was at her bedside. The sight of her lying in that hospital bed, alive – but for who knew how long, brought tears to his eyes. Even if he was successful in stopping Emma, there was the very real possibility that he wouldn't make it back. But he refused to think about that. He had to be the one to go. He couldn't go ask anyone else to go for him. He doubted he would trust anyone else to go for him. He fumbled for her fingers and kissed them, before rushing out of the room. He wasn't about to say good-bye.

Rufus and Wyatt sped all the way to their new headquarters and sprinted into the hangar bay to a waiting Conner Mason, who was doing some last minute checks to the machine and the calibration.

"I can't pretend that this isn't an enormous risk. I've re-calibrated the system and made some changes but without testing them, I have no idea how successful those changes will be, if they're successful at all. The good news is, Anthony didn't die when he made the jump and he did it without these modifications." Rufus raised his eyebrows at Mason. "I know. It was close. But these adjustments should help…but try not to stay too long, if you can help it. The less time you spend in a timeline you've already existed in, the better."

Wyatt and Rufus looked at each other with anxious determination and then nodded at Mason. They clambered frantically into the hatch, desperate to save Lucy before it was too late. Mason shook their hands, "Good Luck, you two and God speed."

With that, the hatch closed and Wyatt and Rufus were left alone, hurriedly buckling themselves in and powering up the machine. "For what it's worth, Wyatt– there's no one else I'd rather go down with if it comes to that. We're a team and I think it's only right, that it's the two of us going to save her."

Wyatt nodded, "Same here, man."

Lucy's eyes fluttered open. Her head ached and she felt stiff, her hand was tethered by IV tubes and heart rate monitors, the beeping causing the pain in her temple to pulse as it recorded each beat of her heart. She tried to focus her eyes, and found herself struggling to even lift her head from the pillow.

"Hey Beautiful"

Noah.

As he came into focus, she saw him decked out in his scrubs and lab coat, clipboard in hand. "Wh-What happened?"

"I was hoping you'd be able to tell me – I mean, what the hell was that?" Noah asked incredulously.

Lucy thought back to the last thing she remembered. She had been talking to him and then everything started going fuzzy. She had dreamed about Wyatt, but knew he couldn't have been there. She looked back at Noah, puzzled.

Noah approached her bedside and took her hand in his, his eyes filled with emotion. "Lucy, I – I don't know what the hell has been going on with you for the past two years, but it scares me. I know I don't have a right – I mean, I saw how that guy held you –"

Lucy shot up, "Wyatt?! – where is he?" she had been so sure she had dreamed all of that, but who else could it have been? "Please Noah, is he here?"

Noah cleared his throat – "No, he um…left." Lucy looked disappointed and almost heartbroken. Noah, screwed up his face. "You know Lucy ever since this new job and this guy came into your life, you've been – different. And I know you said I would never understand it – but the last two times I've seen you, there have been gunshot wounds involved. Lucy, what the hell are you doing?"

Lucy looked at Noah, appreciative of his sincere concern. "Noah, I can't tell you what I do, but it's important. And Wyatt – I trust him."

Noah cast his eyes downward and shook his head, biting his lip. "It doesn't have to be this way, Lucy. You are so important and you could have anything and everything you ever wanted. You just have to embrace who you are."

Lucy gasped and flinched backwards away from him. He put up his hands in an apologetic motion, seemingly sorry that he had spooked her. She didn't know why she was surprised. As she had surmised before, Rittenhouse would have never allowed for her to marry someone other than someone they approved of. Noah, of course would have been one of them. "Lucy, I –I'm not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you."

She looked at him doubtfully, inching her finger towards the call button. Her voice was choked full of emotion as she countered him, "All Rittenhouse has ever done is hurt me."

"Not true, Lucy. You just don't know the whole story, you only see a small part. This – this was not Rittenhouse. This was Emma Whitmore and her pathetic attempt at revolution. She will pay for what she's done to you and your mother."

Lucy stared at him. "Where's Wyatt?"

Noah sighed. "I don't know. He was here and then he left." He took her hand again. I'm here though. Lucy, I know what you must be thinking, but what we had was real. I had seen you at an event and my mother pointed you out to me, and then Carol told me you liked to jog over the Golden Gate bridge. I just wanted to talk with you away from Rittenhouse, see if maybe we could be good together without any pressure from our families. When we met there on that jogging path, I forgot about all that Rittenhouse stuff and saw only you."

Lucy removed her hand from his. "Noah, the Lucy you knew and fell in love with was a different Lucy. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. I grew up with a sister named Amy and a father named Henry Wallace. My mother was dying of cancer. And then one day I started a new job and Amy was gone, my mother wasn't sick and you were suddenly in my life telling me that we were engaged." She sobbed. "I didn't even know who you were. Hell, I still don't even know your last name."

He pointed to his nametag with a soft smirk, "Carmichael." He cleared his throat. "Lucy, I don't want to force you into anything you don't want to do, but at least consider what you're doing. You can't keep living like this."

She nodded at him solemnly and he stepped away from her bedside, "Um…you have some visitors. One guy is in handcuffs" She gaped at him. "I'm not judging….but yeah, Lucy. You lead a very strange life." He chuckled to himself as he reached her door and then turned to her, "Shall I send them in?"

Lucy nodded, 'Please…and Noah?" He looked back at her. "Thank you."

Flynn, Jiya and Agent Christopher entered her room, tentatively. Lucy was appreciative of their hugs and well wishes but she only wanted to speak to Garcia Flynn. She sent Agent Christopher and Jiya on a mission for some real food and a milkshake. When they left, she arrested Garcia Flynn with a serious gaze.

"What is it, Lucy?" he smiled at her.

"How long have you known?" she asked him with a piercing look.

Flynn opened his mouth to speak and then seemed to think better of it. He pursed his lips together and cocked his eyebrow at her. "Known what?"

"Benjamin Cahill is your father too." Lucy said matter-of-factly. "Don't tell me you didn't know that."

"How did you find out?" Flynn asked her as he sat beside her, hands still bound in front of him.

"Your mother's name was written in a genealogical chart my mother made for me, with an entry next to Ben Cahill that indicated a boy born in 1975. I put two and two together."

Flynn smirked at her. "Yes, Benjamin Cahill swept my mother off of her feet. She was very young, a widow…and very smart. He was impressed by her abilities and he was well connected, wealthy…" Flynn cast his eyes down, deep in thought.

Lucy cleared her throat "Emma told me she was recruited by him to join Rittenhouse. You never told me that she was part of Rittenhouse. Why? And if she was part of it, why would they –"

"Kill my family?" he finished for her. "My mother was recruited by Rittenhouse, yes. She was a brilliant engineer and her designs were instrumental in a number projects bankrolled by Rittenhouse. Benjamin Cahill stayed with her until he met your mother at a party. Your mother was a direct descendant of David Rittenhouse, younger and well, that combination was too much to resist. It broke my mother's heart when he began pursuing her. So she left, got a job working for the government in Eastern Europe – and that was supposed to be our last association with Rittenhouse. I was maybe a year old when she married Asher Flynn."

Garcia Flynn sighed. "When I grew up, I didn't know anything about Rittenhouse or Benjamin Cahill until one day, my mother called me, upset. Carol Preston had paid her a visit demanding she sign off on the plans she had developed for a hypothetical project…time travel. She refused, much to Carol's disappointment and frustration. But they weren't finished with her. Benjamin Cahill paid her a visit soon after. I have no idea what he said or what he threatened her with, she died of a stroke not long after those visits." Flynn scoffed biting back the tears forming in his eyes.

He got up and walked towards the window and looked out at the San Francisco skyline. "I was working with the NSA at the time and I vowed to get to the bottom of whatever it was this Rittenhouse was up to with my mother's plans." Lucy nodded at him. "That's when I saw the large sums of money being funneled through the Caymans to Conner Mason. When I forwarded it to a contact of mine within the NSA," he paused and looked back at Lucy before slowly turning his eyes back to the view outside, "my family was murdered just days later."

Lucy shuddered as she let out a sob. Flynn gave her a wan smile. "I imagine I was left alive because Cahill couldn't stand to wipe any of his own children off the map, with all of their obsession with bloodlines - even half blood was better than nothing." Flynn grimaced. "So I ran, until one day in Sao Paulo, you walked in with a promise that we could stop them."

"Did you know then? Did she…I mean, did I tell you?" Lucy whispered.

"Yes. But you gave me specific instructions that I was not to tell you." he smirked at her. "I guess you didn't want me to ruin the surprise."

Lucy breathed out a small laugh. She thought of those early days when they had believed Flynn to be the enemy and they were unwittingly working for Rittenhouse. He had terrorized them, tried to kill them – "Did you think I was one of them?"

Flynn turned to face her fully now, "I had my doubts during some of those missions. Wondered if I should have trusted you at all…that maybe you were sent to turn me into a monster. But then, after Watergate, I saw that you were beginning to realize the truth of the situation….even if you were still too kindhearted and naïve to deal a deathblow to those bastards."

Lucy tilted her head at him and gave him a small grin, "Yeah, but if I had let you do everything you wanted to do, who knows if I would've been around to give you the journal in the future – you could have wiped me off the face of the Earth…and then what would you have done?"

Flynn didn't answer. He was thinking about Wyatt and Rufus on their mission…if they weren't successful, if they didn't save her, Lucy would be wiped off the face of the Earth. He grimaced suddenly, as he was hit with a pang of worry.

Lucy could see the concern in Flynn's eyes as he looked at her. "What's wrong Flynn?" Agent Christopher and Jiya were walking back into the room…she thought it was strange that neither Rufus nor Wyatt were there. Panic rose in her chest as reasons for their absence assaulted her brain, but only one, she knew, would explain why both of them were gone. "Where are they?"

Flynn's eyes softened as he gave her an apologetic frown. It made Lucy sit up straighter in her bed, groaning as she did so. "Flynn. Tell me. Where is Wyatt?"

Lucy imagined for one terrible moment that Wyatt, in his anger had gone hunting Emma and Jessica. Her mind darted to every awful scenario and thought, from the look on Flynn's face that he might even be there in the hospital fighting for his own life. Her eyes demanded an answer and Flynn closed his own as he uttered her name.

Lucy.

Agent Christopher stepped forward, "You know, you've been through enough today. You don't need to worry about anything, they'll take care –"

"Don't. Don't treat me with kid gloves." Lucy gritted with determination. "Just don't. I deserve to know the truth."

Flynn lifted his bound hands to hers and looked into her face. "The Mothership jumped while you were still unconscious, Lucy." He looked up at her face, full of expectation and fear. He heaved a heavy sigh, "They went back to December 13, 2003."

Lucy gasped and paled as memories from that night came rushing back, filling her with dread. She knew the implications of what that mission would entail for not just herself, but for Wyatt and Rufus. They all could die. Emma, she thought, wasn't satisfied with taking her out in this lifetime, she wanted to take her out before she even became a threat to her and her bid for power. And now Wyatt and Rufus could die trying to stop her. Why couldn't Emma just leave her alone? Flynn stood up and sat beside her on the bed as she leaned into his chest convulsing as heavy sobs escaped her. Agent Christopher and Jiya rushed to her side as well, all of them succumbing to the emotion of the moment.

Flynn had provided Rufus and Wyatt with as much information as he could remember from the journal for the location of her accident. They arrived in 2003 with a pop – anxious for a myriad of reasons. If this mission failed, there would be no Lucy to come home to. Her life would end right here, he would have never met her, and yet, he would've known her. Wyatt couldn't imagine a worse kind of hell. If they somehow managed to save her, there was still the side effects from traveling back to their own timeline – Mason had worked out a few kinks in the equation, but it was by no means perfect and since it hadn't been tested, they had no idea what this trip would do to them.

Wyatt opened the hatch and looked out into the dark night. They were near a stretch of lonely road next to a winding river. Rufus worked to conceal the LifeBoat from sight with a few well placed branches when a whoosh and a thud on the other side of the river caught their attention.

It wasn't the Mothership. It was another LifeBoat. Their Lifeboat.

Wyatt looked at Rufus "What the he-"

Rufus gasped loudly as the LifeBoat hatch opened and he saw Anthony Bruhl step out into the night. "Anthony? Wh- Why is Anthony here?"

"Isn't he dead? Didn't Flynn kill him?" Wyatt asked.

"Yes, but not yet – well, not yet in his timeline. No, he must have come here in the past at some point." Rufus' face went from marked confusion to sudden realization. "Holy shit! THIS is where he came when he landed in the hospital for revisiting his own timeline." Rufus' eyes were wide with wonder as he stared at his mentor and friend. "But why? Why here? Why now? He didn't know Lucy then."

But just as he uttered those words, they watched as Anthony spilled oil all over the darkened roadway at the point of a dangerous curve. Rufus and Wyatt looked on in horror, knowing now that it was he who caused Lucy's accident. No, not Anthony – Rittenhouse.

Wyatt's mind went back to that conversation in 1944, he heard Lucy's trembling voice, saw her pale face as she recounted how she had almost died.

I was ready to give up the whole history thing.

I was going home to tell my mother I was going to join a band.

I didn't notice the oil slick on the road.

"Shit, Rufus. Lucy was never supposed to be a part of any of this. She wanted to join a band – she told me. That's why she was coming home, to tell her mother she was giving it all up. And then Rittenhouse invented a damn time machine and changed her future."

Rufus gaped at him, "She wanted to what, now?" He had a hard time imagining Lucy as anything but their beloved historian.

Wyatt rushed down towards the road as he saw headlights approaching at high speed. It happened so fast, Lucy's car spun out jumped the small bridge and landed in the water. Wyatt was just about to race in after her when another car pulled up suddenly. That would be Jensen, Wyatt thought. He watched as Jensen ran towards the water and was suddenly felled by two shots to his head.

Wyatt pulled out his own gun and shot the man now standing over Jensen's body. Wyatt raced across the street as Lucy's car slipped under the surface of the water.

Shit.

Wyatt dove in and swam as fast as he could to her submerged vehicle. It was cold night and the water felt like daggers in his skin. It took his breath away, but he had no thought for that. He could think only of Lucy. Her car was almost completely submerged now. He could see her struggling inside, a pocket of air still visible within. He reached in his back pocket and pulled out a window hammer. As the glass broke free, the water rushed in and he heard Lucy give one last whimper as it swiftly washed over her head. Her arms were flailing in panic, she was still caught in her seatbelt – of course she was – and Wyatt was desperately trying to get her free as she struggled. Freeing her from the seatbelt, he pulled her through the window and kicked desperately to the surface, his lungs burning for air.

He swam towards the river's edge, dragging Lucy behind him. She wasn't moving and Wyatt was panicking – the shore seemed to move further and further away the more he paddled towards it.

He managed to touch the riverbed with his feet and used that to help him propel Lucy ahead of him and bring her to land. As he pulled her from the water and onto the river's edge, he saw, much to his horror, that she was not breathing.

"No, no, no, no, Lucy!" he yelled. He tilted her head up, put his mouth to hers and began CPR. He had just started pumping her chest, when the sound of a breaking twig startled him. There standing just feet away from him was Jessica, pointing a gun at him.

"Step away from her, Wyatt." She said with a voice of deadly calm.

"Jessica" he breathed "Don't do this – please."

"She has to die, Wyatt. And if I don't kill her, Emma will. She's due back here any minute." She made another step towards him as he continued blowing breaths into Lucy's mouth.

"I said STOP, Wyatt." she screamed at him, the gun shaking in her hand.

Wyatt continued to administer CPR, looking up at Jessica as she stared him down. "If you kill her then you'll have to kill me, because I can't live without her and I won't."

He breathed into Lucy's mouth again and Jessica fired the gun into a tree right beside them. "I said STOP." Her eyes were determined and murderous. Wyatt glared at her as he once again pumped Lucy's chest pleading with her to breathe. "C'mon Lucy, breathe for me, babydoll. Breathe, Lucy."

Jessica's gun was now at Wyatt's head. "One more move and I will pull the damn trigger."

Wyatt paused for just a moment. When a shot rang out, piercing the night. He felt Jessica falter beside him and fall. He turned and saw Rufus standing just beyond the bushes from where Jessica had emerged, looking at once horrified and relieved. "I-I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean to kill her, I swear…I just grabbed that guy's gun" he said as he pointed to the goon who had killed Jensen.

"Don't be sorry, Rufus. I'm not" he said through gritted teeth, though tears were escaping his eyes. He breathed into Lucy's mouth again. "Please, Lucy, BREATHE!" He pumped her chest again and then quickly turned her over on her side as she coughed and sputtered onto the dusty ground, gasping for air and shivering all over. "Oh thank God" Wyatt breathed out shakily. Wyatt looked to Rufus, who shook off his jacket and handed it over. Wyatt wrapped her in it and held her close to him. His head was pounding, but he didn't care.

"Wyatt," said Rufus. We can't stay here, man. I used Jensen's cell phone and called an ambulance. They're on their way. She'll be fine. We need to go."

Wyatt shook his head, "No, Jessica said Emma was coming back. I'm not leaving her until she's safe."

'Wyatt – we need to get the hell out of here! Your nose is bleeding. My head is pounding. You won't do her any favors if you die out here." Rufus was breathing heavily.

Wyatt reluctantly pulled away from the younger Lucy. He had to smile at how young and innocent she looked, she was staring at him with wide eyes, her mouth opening and closing as if she were trying to find the right words to say. He swiped the wet hair away from her cheeks and held her face "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head.

"Good." He looked intently at her, "Okay, listen, I can't explain anything, but you need to hide. Stay hidden until the ambulance comes. And if you see a woman with red hair" he handed her the gun Jessica had dropped. "shoot her – before she shoots you."

Lucy gaped at him, incredulous but she nodded as Wyatt stood up, grimacing from the pain in his head. "Wha-What about you? Where are you going?" her voice was shaking from fear and from the cold.

"Don't worry, ma'am. You'll know soon enough." He rushed over to Rufus and the two of them made their way to the waiting LifeBoat.

Rufus and Wyatt clambered into the LifeBoat as quickly as they could, despite the pounding of their heads. Wyatt taking one glance back towards Lucy before the hatch closed. "You alright, man?" Rufus asked Wyatt.

Wyatt nodded, "Yeah…I was just wondering what Lucy's life would've been like if Rittenhouse hadn't done this to her."

Rufus nodded as he switched on the controls, "You do realize that we're going to go back to a time where you saved her instead of that Jensen, guy? I wonder if she would have recognized you when you first met at Mason?"

The thought sent Wyatt's mind reeling. Would it change anything between them? Would things be completely different when they got back? His thoughts were wrapped around Lucy and he couldn't wait one more second to be back at her side.

The LifeBoat had come alive and was shuddering as it prepared to launch, when the alarm sounded. Wyatt's heart dropped into his stomach. "What is it, Rufus?"

"Emma" – Rufus said as he looked back at Wyatt with wide eyes.

"Stop us, Rufus. We need to go back!" Wyatt was struggling with his harness.

"It's too late, Wyatt, we're mid-jump now."

The trip back to the present seemed to take forever. The pain in Wyatt's head was awful. As soon as the hatch opened, he vomited all over the floor of the warehouse, Rufus right behind him. The world seemed to spin as he lay on the floor, feeling as if his head were going to explode, feeling as if his body had just been broken into millions of pieces and taped back together. He tried to ask Mason about Lucy, but his vision blurred and soon he knew nothing but darkness.

Wyatt awoke in an unfamiliar room. His headache gone, the pain in his body too. He sat up tentatively in bed and looked around. He wasn't in the hospital, he looked to be in what looked like a dorm room, but he was attached to heart rate monitors and an IV. He swung his legs over the bed and stood up, gingerly as the door to his room swung open.

"Oh, you're awake, I'm Colonel Schuster the on-call medic for your team." Col. Schuster glanced at the clipboard in his hand. We did an MRI, you're going to be fine. But had you been any longer, I'm afraid you would have suffered some serious complications. You and Mr. Carlin should consider yourselves very lucky. You've been out for a week as it is – the trauma to your head was akin to a serious concussion. We transferred you back to base for continued observation – security was becoming a factor with so many of you in different hospital units.

Wyatt didn't care to hear anymore about his condition, he only wanted to know one thing. The doctor attempted to do a quick examination, but Wyatt swiped away his hands, "Where's Lucy?"

"Lucy?" Colonel Schuster asked. Wyatt was immediately filled with dread, he couldn't breathe. He staggered somewhat as the doctor instructed him to lie down and rest. "No. Please, God. Tell me she's alive."

"Alive?" he considered Wyatt for a moment, "Do- do you mean the young lady with the gun shot wound? Yes, she's fine. She was brought back here just yesterday."

Wyatt's voice hitched in his throat, all he could muster out was "Where?"

"I believe she's resting in the common area. Now if you would just relax I need to check your vitals"

But Wyatt had already unclamped his IV and left the room. He was unfamiliar with the layout of their new home, he wandered down a hallway that never seemed to end turning his head from side to side, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. He turned a corner, walked through a kitchen and suddenly there she was – her back towards him, sitting in a chair, nursing a mug of tea.

"Lucy?" he gave a strained whisper

She quickly turned in her chair and stood up, staring at him.

He was at her side in two strides, He wrapped one arm around her waist and ran his other hand through her hair as he crashed his lips against hers in an insistent and passionate kiss. Lucy gasped as she pulled away from him and wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight embrace, tears falling freely from her eyes. "I love you" she whispered desperately as her lips grazed his cheeks, her face nuzzled against his. The sound of those three words coming from Lucy, sent Wyatt's heart soaring, every fiber of his being came alive as he held her close to him, their hearts pounding in a unified rhythm. Wyatt's hold on her tightened – he never wanted to let her go. He nuzzled his nose into her hair and neck, his lips grazing her jaw until they found hers again. His own eyes were wet with tears as he thought about how close he had been to losing her, he needed her, he wanted her – his insistent lips communicating just how much. Wrapped in each other arms, breathless, panting they broke apart slightly, foreheads touching and gazing into each other's eyes – completely lost in one another.

Garcia Flynn gave a little cough which brought the two of them to their senses. Still wrapped in an embrace, they turned their heads and saw, much to their surprise, that Rufus and Jiya were standing right next to them, grinning broadly, eyebrows raised in excited anticipation.

"Hi." Rufus said with a wide grin and smiling eyes

"Is it happening?" asked Jiya unable to contain her giddiness.

Wyatt and Lucy stood there, holding onto each other taking in the scene around them. Rufus and Jiya standing right beside them, goofily grinning back at them, Flynn sitting in the nearby armchair smirking and "reading" the newspaper, and Mason fondly smiling at them like a proud parent pretending to be fiddling with the computers. Wyatt cleared his throat and took Lucy by the hand walking her away from their gawking teammates as Rufus yelled after them, "So, it's happening?"

"What I wouldn't give for just a little privacy. We may not be in the bunker anymore, but nothing has changed." Wyatt muttered as they wandered away from the common room.

Lucy pulled him over into the hall and pressed him up against the wall with a soft kiss, her eyes flirtatious and smiling as she raked her fingers through his hair. "Well, I don't know about that." She stood on her tip toes and nuzzled into his neck, whispering in his ear, "all of these doors have locks that actually work."

Wyatt gave her a devilish grin, "That's very interesting, Ms. Preston." He dropped his face to her neck and began moving his mouth along the length of it, causing Lucy to gasp and giggle. "But I thought we were going to take things slow?" he muttered against her skin.

Lucy pulled herself away from him and nuzzled her nose against his "Well, it HAS been 73 years since our first date."

Wyatt gave her a quick kiss on the lips and wrapped her in his arms looking fondly at her, "We never did finish that date, did we?"

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him, smirked and then attempted to pull a serious face, "No, we didn't." She frowned playfully, "It was kind of a disaster."

Wyatt frowned back at her, "Probably not good for my chances, huh?" He shook his head in mock frustration, "I had high hopes of making out with you on top of the Empire State Building." He glanced at her with a playful smirk. "What do you say? Give a guy another chance?"

Lucy pulled herself away from Wyatt and began pacing the floor in front of him. "Hmmm…I don't know." She gave an apologetic shrug, "You see, there was this guy who pulled me out of a sinking car and saved my life - " Wyatt dropped his gaze to the floor, grinning and shaking his head.

He feigned a deep, sad sigh, rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and twisted his face into a grimace. "Oh I see….and you fell for him?"

Lucy pursed her lips, 'Well that's just the thing, he just left me there by the side of the river. I had to wait 13 years to see him again…and then he didn't even recognize me." She shrugged her shoulders in mock annoyance.

Wyatt wrapped his arms around her waist, pulled her towards him and murmured against her lips, "Sounds like a jackass."

Lucy smiled against his cheek, "More like a reckless hothead."

"Well to be honest ma'am," he began peppering her neck with kisses, "I'm kind of hung up on a bossy know it all."

"Mmmm" sighed Lucy "good to know." She wrapped her arms around his neck as his mouth crashed against hers again. He lifted her as she wrapped her legs around his waist while he conveyed her down the hall. Lucy's giggles as Wyatt fumbled with her bedroom door carried all the way to the common area where Rufus and Jiya sat together, side by side smirking as they worked to update the computer system.

"It's happening" Jiya muttered as she and Rufus gave each other five.

Flynn rolled his eyes as the two of them slapped each other's hands and squealed in delight.

Mason shook his head at the three of them with a smirk, never wanting to admit that he was just as excited as Rufus and Jiya about a happy end for Lucy and Wyatt. So he waited until he had crossed the room, well out of earshot - before he breathed under his breath, "It's about bloody time."