Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing, favoriting or following. It is always encouraging to know if my writing is entertaining someone.
I kind of want to rant a little about this week's episode but as it is not really connected to my story . . . I'll just say – I love Flynn's character and the way they have developed him as an individual and with the team but if they try and put him and Lucy together romantically I do not think I could handle it! Ok rant over – sorry!
"Ma'am, really?" she asked, a familiar annoyed smile crossing her face. "You and I have got to be about the same age. And you think calling me ma'am is going score you come points?"
Wyatt almost missed what she said. He was so lost in her eyes, her scent, the tilt of her head as she admonished him. It was all so familiar, so achingly familiar. How he stopped himself from reaching out and drawing her in to his arms he had no idea.
"It's a sign of respect." He countered, dimpled half smile firmly in place. Lucy had confessed how very much she loved his smile and so he would use it now. He would use any and every thing. To do what, he wasn't yet entirely sure, but for now to prolong this conversation.
"Oh you respect me?" she scoffed. "That seems a bit hasty. I could be a bank robber, an identity thief, a truly rotten person from a long line of truly rotten people totally unworthy of respect."
Wyatt couldn't be certain, this wasn't, entirely, his Lucy but he felt too much truth in her last words.
"I doubt that." He said, taking the seat beside her. "But why don't you tell me about yourself and I'll let you know." This was said without any pretense, no smirk, no games. He needed to hear her tell him who she was and find out how he could become part of her life again. Because really that was the only way this could go. The only way it could have gone ever since Jiya uttered those horrible words in the bunker merely hours ago. There was no world where he could live without Lucy by his side, without being by her side. Whatever it looked like, whatever it took.
"Sure, let me tell you everything about me and then you can tell me if I am worthy of respect or not." she agreed with a not insignificant amount of derision.
He shouldn't love her disdain this much, but he did. She was engaging with him and that was enough – more than enough for now.
"Not quite what I was imagining but if that's what you want, okay." Now the smirk was back.
She huffed, turned her back to him and signaled the bartender to bring her another beer. But she didn't get up and walk away. Although he didn't ask, when Jim gave Lucy hers Wyatt ordered one of his own.
"I'll have what she's having."
"I'll have what she's having," Lucy mocked. "Seriously? So far I am unimpressed with your game."
Wyatt laughed gently, "I can't help it if we have the same taste in beer."
He regarded her quietly. This Lucy was certainly more irritable. Although to be fair he was intentionally pushing her buttons just to be sure she'd fight with him as opposed to blow him off. As he sat and wondered how to back off from the antagonistic rapport he'd established he didn't realize he had been looking at her a little too long.
"And now we've moved on to the creepy serial killer staring portion of the evening I see." She said, but instead of turning away again as he would have expected she faced him more fully and seemed to really look at him for the first time. Wyatt met her gaze, was pierced through as her chocolate eyes looked into his and he saw there was no spark, no recognition, no warm glow of shared memories and moments. This was worse than any torture he could remember enduring. To be here with her, but not with her. He hardly noticed as her perusal went from his face to the rest of him and then returned to look him in the eyes once again.
"I've offended you somehow?" she asked with marked incredulity when he remained silent in the face of her words and obvious perusal.
"No . . . I," Wyatt struggled for words, for anything to make this make sense. "Maybe this was a mistake." He meant to stand and leave, but his limbs wouldn't listen.
"You're one of them, aren't you?"
"One of who?"
Before answering she looked him over once more. Up and down and then in his eyes again for a long moment. Wyatt did not know how much more he could take staring into the eyes of the woman he loved and seeing her look back at him as if he was just some guy at a bar hitting on her, some guy whose life, whose heart and soul she didn't hold in the palm of her hand. It hurt more than he could have imagined.
"You're a soldier." She said, "and not my type at all which is maybe them trying to fool me. Smart. Most handsome one they've sent thus far I'll give them that. Is the plan to kidnap me if I don't come willingly?"
These seemingly unrelated questions and facts were stated and asked with apparent absolute indifference. But Wyatt knew Lucy, even this Lucy, and she was scared. Scared of him? Just when he thought his heart couldn't break any more.
"What is it you think I am?"
"Rittenhouse."
Understanding dawned, but before Wyatt could process what that meant, for this Lucy, for this time period, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and heard glass shattering. Throwing himself to the floor as he grabbed Lucy from her stool he rolled them beside the bar.
"Stay down." He ordered, drawing his gun before he saw that this was a fight he could not win. Out of a black car on the curb at least 6 armed men were making their way into the bar as patrons ran screaming. A man lay dead from a bullet Wyatt thought might have been meant for him. He turned to the woman who had brought him to this place, the woman he would die for, the one he lived for.
"Lucy, I know you have no reason to trust me but please come with me." He held out his hand even as his mind mapped out their best plan for escape and mentally walked them through it.
She quickly looked from his eyes to his hand and back again. Fear, uncertainty and desperation all played across her face. Finally, she placed her hand in his. As he yanked her up and toward the rear exit she said quietly, "I never told you my name."