Wyatt's mind was clear for the first time since hearing Jiya's terrible words. Dodging bullets, judging exit points, hot wiring a car – protecting Lucy. These were things he could do without thinking. His training, his experience and his instincts took over and for the few minutes it took to get them from the bar into a "borrowed" SUV and on the road, at a slightly higher than average speed, his mind was full of nothing more than tactics, contingencies and probabilities. He wondered what it said about him that he vastly preferred this mental clutter to the kind that had dogged him the past few hours. He used the ride back to the bunker to try and get some answers.
She was understandably tight-lipped - more inclined to ask questions than answer them.
"Why were you in that bar? Why did you take me with you? Where are we going? Why is Rittenhouse after you? How do you know my name?"
One of the many things that gutted Wyatt since this whole mess began was Lucy needing an explanation as to how he knew her. Here he was loving her, needing her and she was wondering how he even knew her name. It was almost too much. Until he switched back to soldier mode and thought about routes and potential tails. He found refuge in the numbness these things provided and put his heart on hold. As much as that was possible.
"How about we make a deal." He said taking a sideways glace at her as he took a sharp left. This was a mistake. Both the glance and the sudden turn. The glance because Lucy looked just the same as his Lucy and he was just as affected by her beauty and the turn because it threw her towards him for a moment – why wasn't she wearing a damn seatbelt?. He was also just as affected by her unique scent which was also apparently the same – vanilla and strawberries. A high end shampoo she favored that he mocked her mercilessly about. It was $20 a bottle! His senses were trying to force him back to thoughts, feelings and memories best left unexamined. He pushed ahead. "For every question of yours I answer, you answer one of mine."
"Very well." She answered demurely settling herself back into the passenger seat and, he noted with satisfaction, buckling up. "What's your name?"
"Wyatt, Wyatt Logan." That was not where he expected her to start. Then he saw her taping away on her phone. "You googling me?"
"Absolutely." She confirmed. "You go ahead and ask your question." she encouraged without looking up.
Wyatt was not going to waste his questions.
"What do you know about Rittenhouse?"
"Super secret, super evil organization that both sides of my family have been a part of for generations." She stated still intent on the screen of her phone. "Would you like more or do already know enough about them yourself, Master Sergeant and are simply wondering how much I know or better yet whether I am a wiling participant?"
So she had found his military record. "Willing participant?" he asked, emphasizing the first word.
"No, it is my turn." She countered meeting his eye as he glanced over. He never could deny her anything, any version of those eyes were going to get their way with him so he did not point out that she really didn't answer his question. "Where are we going?"
"A government site that is unknown to Rittenhouse where operatives who have been working against them for some time are located." There. That was truthful, might offer some reassure and also not freak her out with the whole time travel thing.
"Willing participant?" he definitely wanted that one explained.
"My family revealed my dynastic destiny at my very swanky sixteenth birthday party. Rittenhouse royalty. Isn't it great. Come join the fold and take over the world, undermine democracy and progress with us – you know the family that is evil together stays together and all that."
When she seemed disinclined to continue Wyatt pressed her.
"And what did you do?"
"After I begged them to tell me it was all some sick joke? I ran away. I ran to my aunt in Boston. They actually let me stay with her on the east coast through the rest of high school, then I stayed out there for college and post grad and there was no Rittenhouse talk during my infrequent communication with my parents. I thought maybe I had blown it all out of proportion. But regardless I loved my life, I was close with my aunt and her family. Then all of sudden a few years ago my aunt was killed in an accident and a few months later I got a job offer from Stanford." She paused her and seemed to gather herself. " I should have been suspicious, but . . . well anyway I wasn't. Again, nothing happened other than a welcome home party with a bunch of the same creeps from my sweet sixteen. No mention of my evil destiny though. Then last year . . . well let's just say the recruiting began in earnest. I began to see what they were capable of and I'm not sure how much longer they will take hell no for an answer."
Wyatt was trying to process these revelations on several different levels. Trying to understand the pain Lucy had been and was currently in. That would always be his first thought – for her and how anything affected her. But in this case there was another her to consider. He was trying to grasp this timeline to understand how his Lucy got lost. Then of course there was the intelligence about Rittenhouse – any piece of information about how they operated would always get filed away for later use in the ongoing quest to bring them down permanently.
"Will I be safe," she asked, her voice small for the first time since he had met her. "Where you are taking me, will I be safe?"
"Yes." He said risking a long glance at her so she could read the sincerity in his eyes. "You will always be safe with me." She held his gaze for a moment, tilted her head to the side as if puzzling something out and then nodded.
"What's your favorite movie?" he asked. He didn't want to force her to revisit any more painful memories or consider dire consequences so Wyatt decided to lighten the tone of the Q & A.
"It Happened One Night."
"Some things never change." He laughed.
"Excuse me?"
"Never mind." Wyatt said quickly. "Your turn."
"Who is John Wilkes Booth's older brother?"
That seemed an odd question, although maybe not, this was Lucy.
"Edwin Booth." He answered and then added, "at one time the most famous actor in America."
Lucy nodded thoughtfully at this.
"Favorite meal?" He asked.
"My aunt used to make the most amazing chili. I have never been able to get it exactly right, but I come close. So hers is first and my version is second. I love chili."
As did Wyatt's Lucy but he was able to keep from reacting this time. She probably already thought he was a crazy person so in the interest of not scaring her further he tried to keep his behavior more firmly in the normal camp – as in don't act like you're are riding in a car with an alternate timeline version of the woman you love. Time machine problems.
"Who were the other men who warned the colonists of the coming British Army alongside Paul Revere?"
Again with the history? Maybe it was her way of calming down after dealing with so much in one evening Wyatt decided. They had never traveled to Colonial Boston but his Lucy was thinking about writing a book on some of the Sons of Liberty who laid the foundation for the rebellion against Britain for years before the actual revolution. Paul Revere among them.
"Samuel Prescott and William Dawes." He stated proudly. Being in love with a historian really did turn you in to a geek.
"What do you like to do for fun?" he asked.
She listed a few things that were familiar to him – reading, yoga, biking and board games. But then she added karate and he looked at her in surprise.
"Who was Lydia Taft?" She asked and this time he had the feeling she suspected he knew the answer. He did. Again, even though they hadn't traveled to her time period his Lucy had been researching to write a book on the women's suffrage movement before she was dragged into Mason Industries one fateful night. So she had read him a lot of her notes and draft chapters.
"The first women to cast a legal vote in the United States. Although I guess it wasn't the Untied States yet – 1756 or 57 wasn't it?"
They had arrived at the bunker. Wyatt pulled around behind the building and into the underground garage.
"Is the reason you know me but I don't know you because of time travel?"
Wyatt turned the car off and took a breath before he looked at her. Lucy didn't look scared only concerned.
"Why would you say something like that?"
"You didn't answer my question." She pointed out, but then answered his anyway. "My parents have been ranting about changing history for . . . well ever but then five or six years ago – about the time my aunt died and I got that job offer the way they talked about it started to change. And then one night when my Mom was trying to pitch me the family business again she said something strange about being able to experience history. My father shut her down after that and they actually backed off of me for a few months. And then I get called in to consult on a government project – researching historical events. It all felt very connected. I'm not exactly sure how. It would seem out of the realm of possibility but Rittenhouse is so powerful and their drive to control everything so absolute. Then one day last week I stopped by my parents house to borrow some of my Mom's notes for some research. When I was looking through her closet I found all of these clothes. They were from different time periods and they had been worn, some had tears and dirt on them. Things she would never do to vintage pieces. And that was the other thing, they weren't old and yet they seemed, in every way I could tell, authentic but even the British soldier's uniform from the eighteenth century wasn't faded, or aged at all."
They sat in silence for a minute as Wyatt thought about Lucy uncovering these clues, wondering what it all could mean and fearing the conclusion she was coming to.
"And then there's you." She continued. "You clearly know me. You knew my name at the bar, but you could have overheard that. You care what happens to me and I have no idea why. You know all of my favorites and if I try to sneak a fake one by you and you know random historical facts I doubt most thirty-something soldiers know unless they are well acquainted with a historian who talks too much on certain subjects."
"You never talk too much." Wyatt said with a smile.
Even though she was the one to suggest it Lucy seemed genuinely taken aback at his tacit admission. After a deep breathe she asked. "So we meet sometime in the future?"
Of course, a time travel explanation could never be that simple. This Lucy might understand, theoretically, the idea of time travel but what would she say to the idea that he was in love with another version of her and he would very much like to get that version back? Maybe less was more at this point.
"Something like that." Wyatt hedged. "Shall we go inside?"