Well, now it's just tradition. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Happy Groundhog Day!

(Thanks much to qwertygal for the beta!)

After having come so close to not only losing Lucy in the earthquake, but also to almost making the worst decision of his life and nearly losing both of them, Wyatt had vowed to himself immediately to put his everything into showing both his girls just how much he loved them. It was another few weeks before he and Lucy had recovered enough to finally bring Lena to the beach, but once they were, Wyatt had made sure they made the most of that trip, as a family with Lena, and as a couple in the three days before Carol and Lena joined them at the rental beach house they'd found.

The missions to chase Flynn came to an end just under a year later; with Jiya's help, they actually tracked him down in modern times. No small feat for Wyatt and Lucy, considering that Lena was a few months past two years old at the time, meaning they were also fighting the potty-training battle between the jumps and all the research.

Putting an end to the Flynn era meant a return to the original missions of the timeline – weekly scheduled trips for Lucy to witness and record historical events. It wasn't something they were familiar with from their own experience, but as soon as they'd made the first visit to the past for benign purposes, Wyatt couldn't have been more thrilled. Lucy practically glowed with excitement the entire time and he was just so damn happy for her getting to do what she loved, though she did complain about only getting one jump a week and having to spend the rest of the week sitting and writing up all the reports. Wyatt also surprised himself in just how much he relished being a stay-at-home dad to little Lena. Aside from guarding Lucy on her history jumps, he did stay active in the reserves and had periodic training sessions, but very little of that could hold a candle to playgrounds and Sesame Street with their little girl.

Of course, nothing about that new routine did anything to deter him from his promise to Lucy back on the floor of that conference room at Mason Industries, the promise that they were more than circumstance and defaulting into a relationship. They weren't just a default; every day that went by, he fell more in love with her and their life. It wasn't long before he was itching to make real his commitment to her by giving her the proposal she deserved. But he didn't want her to think it was too soon. So he waited. And he waited more. And it drove him crazy. Finally, when he just couldn't wait a second longer, his proposal came about six months after they'd taken care of Flynn, blurted out on a lazy Saturday morning making blueberry pancakes with Lena, complete with a small sapphire ring from the 1920's that Lucy could subtly wear on her right hand.

They figured that a vow renewal would be a reasonable disguise for their own personal wedding; unfortunately, though Carol was on board, she nixed their plan to do it right away and pushed them to wait another six months until their anniversary.

So, on what appeared to the rest of the world to be their 7th anniversary, with 3 year-old Lena as the flower girl, Wyatt finally got to marry Lucy. For real. Which was absolutely wonderful in and of itself.

The icing on the cake was his new wife whispering to him, somewhere in the hubbub of the reception-style party afterwards, that she was six weeks pregnant. He couldn't have been happier.

Lucy had never been more relieved as when they'd finally been able to put an end to the Flynn missions. And with him taken care of, Lena finally potty-trained, and the routine of the new (old) research jumps in time finally settling down, she had even gotten a little over-ambitious and decided to get back into teaching, via a one-course-per-semester adjunct contract back at Stanford.

She'd juggled everything with ease, at least at the start of the term. Then Wyatt surprised her with a proposal, which was truly everything she could have asked for. But it did also mean that figuring out the vow renewal(/actual wedding) was yet another thing for them to contend with. And then her mother decided to renovate her house, leaving Lucy and Wyatt to host not only Thanksgiving, but Christmas as well, when hosting a holiday wasn't something either of them had done before. And of course they didn't keep it to just the three of them and Carol; they bit off a bit more than they could chew and asked not only Rufus and Jiya, along with Rufus' family, but also Agent Christopher, Michelle, their kids, Mason, and a few other stragglers from Mason Industries. To top it off, they learned that Lucy's adjunct position didn't actually earn her a slot in the coveted Stanford campus preschool, so all of a sudden, along with the first semester back to teaching, and everything else, she and Wyatt were left scrambling to research and interview at all sorts of preschools if they wanted to try to secure Lena a spot for the next fall.

So, with all that piling up, Lucy could hardly be faulted for losing track of time and not realizing for over a month that she hadn't swapped out her last nuvaring when she was supposed to. Which meant she wasn't even close to fully covered. At first, she wasn't quite sure what to do with that revelation; she and Wyatt often alluded to or joked about a nebulous 'more' or 'next one' when they were dealing with Lena, but really, they'd only just been getting to the point where, had they been in a normal relationship, they might have been starting to talk about the possibility of kids. She eventually broached the contraceptive slipup with Wyatt cautiously, but after a discussion that led to a few admissions on both their parts, it turned out that they were both on board with just seeing what happened. They both rather liked the idea of being there for the whole experience, start-to-finish, rather than showing up to a pre-existing baby.

Winter and spring didn't end up being that much less stressful than fall, given the upcoming wedding/vow renewal. And after a few months of irregular cycles and various disappointments, it didn't even register for Lucy at first. But once it clicked, she secretly made an appointment for just days before the ceremony. The test result was obviously the best part; getting to tell Wyatt on the day of their wedding was an amazingly lucky bonus.

Now, she would pass on the morning sickness, the heartburn, the really uncomfortable last few weeks, and the hours and hours of labor, but Lucy was so, so thrilled to finally get everything else she and Wyatt had missed with Lena. After the insane way they'd become a family in the first place, new addition Elizabeth Marie Logan was born in December with big sister Lena nearing four years old.

With some things about their previous timeline still not casual common knowledge, they'd wanted to subtly acknowledge the two women that had unwittingly been sort of sacrificed for their current life. Luckily, both had been given some of the generic girls' middle names of the 1980s and early 90s such that Lizzie was bestowed Amy's and Jessica's middle names, respectively. Even close Mason Industries colleagues didn't necessarily know those full names, so, for Lucy and Wyatt, it remained their private secret. If asked, they just claimed Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Marie Curie as namesakes. And it hadn't really factored in when they'd chosen the names, but Lucy knew Wyatt was also kind of tickled to have another little girl with an 'L' nickname, to go with Lena and her own name.

Nicholas Sherwin Logan was a bit of a surprise, showing up not even a year and half later, just two weeks shy of their 2nd (9th…) anniversary, and right as Lena was nearing the end of her preschool career. And not that they didn't love the girls' names, and still gave Nick Grandpa's name as his middle name, it was kind of nice to not only get to pick a name, but get to pick one simply because they liked it.

Lincoln, a shelter mutt whose mix of breeds left her looking to all the world like a black lab, save for the wonky left ear and a blue right eye, rounded out the family at the insistence of 10 year-old Lena. The name itself came at the equally insistent lobbying of 6 year-old Lizzie, who begged to name the puppy after Mom's first book, despite the puppy being a girl.

It wasn't always easy; life in their house was pretty much always chaos in one way or another. But Lucy was forever grateful for that one tiny little timeline tweak that had brought her Wyatt and their family.

The rain starts to hit the windshield with more force. She squints through the darkness into the sea of brake lights ahead of her and grips the steering wheel a little tighter.

All she'd wanted to do was get home after a long day on campus, but it seems the traffic gods want to keep her from her family just a little longer.

Even longer, she realizes a minute later, when the already sluggish flow of traffic slows to a dead stop. Of course. She sighs, but at least she's able to take advantage of the lull to pull her long, wavy dark hair away from her face and up into messy knot.

With a glance down at her phone on the seat next to her, she bites her lower lip, debating calling home to let them know what's going on. But she thinks better of it, not wanting to worry anyone. Plus, the cars ahead of her start creeping forward once more.

But then there are suddenly more brake lights, and she's slamming on her own brakes, breathing hard even after it's clear that she's still fine.

Ok, so yeah, considering she still doesn't have a ton of driving experience, it probably isn't the best idea she's ever had – deciding to head home for Thanksgiving a day early, late on Monday, but she sure as hell isn't going to admit that to anyone.

Besides, with Tuesday's calc class cancelled, and nothing to stick around campus for, it just made the urge to get home and see her family that much stronger. Even her dumb little sister and brother. But she certainly isn't going to admit that to anyone either. Definitely not to said brother and sister, or her parents, and definitely not to her roommates, who already see her as the little 17 year-old kid who's only there because she'd managed to squeeze four years of high school into three. Whatever. Like she was going to stick around there for another year when she had enough credits to graduate. It's not as if they had any more classes that would be useful for an eventual bio/earth sci double major anyway.

She snorts to herself; she'd been so gung ho about getting to college early, she hadn't really realized until course registration that she still won't see anything remotely resembling the paleontology and paleoclimate she wants to study for at least a year anyway. Stupid gen ed classes.

Which, she recalls grimly, she's going to have to work on over the long weekend. Stupid project. Stupid freakin' history class requirement. Yet another thing she won't ever say to her mom, but ugh. No matter how much she'd begged her freshman advisor, there had been no getting out of those mandatory credits. So she'd picked the only vaguely interesting course – some weird genealogy/cultural anthropology thing she can never remember the cutesy name of. At least anthropology is vaguely related to archeology which is vaguely related to paleontology. Kind of.

She stifles a yawn, then snickers. Even thinking about the dumb project awaiting her is as boring as all get out.

By then, the speed on the highway has picked back up again, thankfully, and it looks like she might be back on track with her drive timing. At least it's only another hour left according to the car's GPS; it's been over three hours since she left Santa Barbara and she just passed Salinas.

Turns out the traffic is enough to slow her down a bit again after another forty minutes or so, but about an hour and a half later, she finally eases into a spot along the curb in front of the familiar blue house. It's silly, the tug in her chest that she feels upon seeing the same old windows and porch and the cars in the driveway. It's just a house. But it hits her a little harder than she expected.

She finds herself a little dismayed to not see any lights on inside, but then again, tomorrow's still a regular day for everyone else in the family. Middle school still has classes, and probably Stanford too. And it's not like she told them she's coming tonight anyway, considering they'd have just insisted that she wait until daytime to drive.

Too late for that now, she smirks to herself.

So she digs her house keys from her backpack, pulls the bag over her shoulder, and climbs out of her seat. And, once she grabs her bulky duffel bag from the back, she locks up the car and hurries across the front lawn to the darkened porch. It takes a minute to finagle the keys into the door's locks given that she has to awkwardly hold up her phone to see anything, but soon enough, she's slipping inside.

It smells like home. And her eyes sting a little with the beginning of tears.

Which she'll never admit to anyone either.

But a few tears do slip all the way out a minute later when she hears the faint click of doggie nails coming down the stairs, followed by a wet nose pressed to her jeans and a few thumps of a strong tail hitting the foyer wall. "Hey, Linc," she whispers, dropping her duffel softly and crouching to embrace the dog and scratch under her graying chin. "Missed you, girl."

Of course, the thumps just get louder at that. "Shhh," she hisses, giggling softly, then quickly stands and heads down the hall past the kitchen to her room. "C'mere, Linc," she beckons, as quietly as she can. Thankfully, Lincoln follows her.

Her breath actually catches for a second when she flips on the light in her bedroom. It's so weird being back after more than three months away. And now that she's here, it's almost hard to wrap her mind around the fact that she has a whole other room, and life, somewhere else. Because nothing has changed about this place.

And ok, she's definitely a little bit choked up again when she spots her ancient stuffed bunny propped up against her pillow. She'd left him behind back in August, thinking it was just another thing that could remind her roommates that she was younger than them. But fuck it; she's bringing him to campus when she goes back. One of her roommates is 19, since she took a gap year, and she straight up sleeps with like three ratty old stuffed animals every night.

She's still sort of lost in thought for a while; she only realizes something's up when Lincoln, who had climbed up on the bed, perks up and suddenly jumps down and pads in the direction of the door.

Lena whirls around to find her mom, wrapped in one of those crazy flower-pattern robes she has, leaning against the doorframe to her bedroom. She winces over at her mom and gives her a sheepish wave.

"Hi… You're early," her mom says softly. "You know I don't like you driving in the dark…"

"Calc was cancelled tomorrow," Lena stammers, feeling guilty, especially knowing that her mother has never been thrilled with the fact that her grandmother not only gave her the car, but also used some sort of university buddy-buddy clout to finagle a parking spot for her too, despite her being only a freshman. Plus she herself had been uncomfortable with parts of the drive too. "I just… wanted to come home," she finally admits with a self-conscious shrug.

Thankfully her mom seems to understand, and her expression softens as she crosses the room and pulls Lena into a hug.

She relaxes into her mother's tight embrace, and god, she has got to stop getting all teary-eyed all the time; it's kind of pathetic. But she really had missed her.

Lena squeezes a little tighter when her mom whispers, "It's good to have you back." But then her mom backs away to reveal a wry smile. "Weird to be here again?"

Well, that's an understatement, Lena thinks to herself as she stifles something that ends up coming out as a snorted laugh. "Yeah," she confesses. Though she's still not quite ready to admit out loud that she's missed everyone, so she jokes instead, "You have a real kitchen. I can eat more than Easy Mac in my room." Which is actually also true…

That earns her a chuckle from her mom. "Oh yeah, a whole smorgasbord, all yours." Then she nods back out to the hallway outside Lena's room "You want anything now? Tea?"

So tea isn't really her thing, and she's tired from the stressful drive, but Lena does have to admit that it's kind of nice to have her mom all to herself right now, after three months, and with no annoying siblings in sight. So she nods and gives a half smile. "'k."

Her mom grins and reaches for her, giving her another affectionate squeeze as she leads her out to the kitchen with a soft, "Come on." She nudges Lena towards the high stools at the counter and goes about filling the kettle and grabbing a couple of mugs. "So how are classes so far?"

Lena doesn't even have a chance to get her mouth open to answer yet when her mom keeps going.

"You know, I know a campus schedule is crazy. I get it," she says. "Especially your first semester." But of course, she follows it up with that… mom glare, that look of mild disappointment that always makes Lena feel a little guilty. "I think Dad would like to hear from you more though…"

"I know…" Lena sighs, her mood turning a little glum. It's fair – she probably doesn't call enough, and her mom's just better about checking emails and apps than her dad is… She feels bad about disappointing him, because he really is the best.

Thankfully, her mom doesn't drag it out, and instead asks more cheerfully, "But classes are good?"

"I mean," Lena shrugs, rolling her eyes, "it's mostly dumb gen-ed classes. I don't get anything in my major, or even cool at all, until next semester. It's ok," she adds, shrugging again.

"It's good that they make you take things outside of science," her mom chastises mildly with a smile.

Lena practically bursts out laughing at that. This coming from the same woman who had looked at her like she had three heads when she'd declared her intent to become a scientist way back in elementary school. "Right," she says with a wry smirk, "because I'm sure you loved when you had to take your required science classes when you were an undergrad."

The withering smirk that gets shot Lena's way tells her that she's right on the mark with that comment, but she doesn't want to push it any further. So she quietly basks in her small victory as her mom goes about rifling through a couple flavors of tea and some tea infusers.

And as she does, Lena can't help but notice that her usually pretty put-together mother is rocking some truly messy hair.

She eyes her mom a little suspiciously. Like, ok, your hair's gonna get messed up from sleeping, but it's looking kinda crazy. Like extra crazy. And it's not that late, so she shouldn't have even been asleep that long ye-

Lena freezes in horror then as she registers the sound of the shower running upstairs. Which has to be her dad. She'd just assumed he's been sleeping through her arrival, but… Messed-up hair and jumping in the shower late at night? Oh god, she thinks, then shudders, trying not to let her brain add up all the pieces. Except it's too late…

Like, ok, she gets it. Her mom's only 50, and her dad isn't even quite 50 yet, and her mom is still always getting hit on (sooooo embarrassing to see in person), and her roommates and her friends down at UCSB all insist that her dad is like a totally hot silver fox now that he's got salt and pepper hair, and yeah, she'd rather have them still in love and… having sex… and whatever, rather than most of her friends' angry, bitter, divorced parents, but still…

Ugh, she grimaces to herself, trying not to think about what they had probably just been doing. So… icky. Like, fine, she wasn't supposed to be home until tomorrow, but it's not like it's just the two of them. She kind of feels bad for Nick and Lizzie upstairs; she's waaaay grateful that she got to move out of the room she and Lizzie had shared and into the downstairs office by the time she was twelve-ish and starting to understand sex. God knows how much had been going on in the next room when she was still little and clueless.

She wrinkles her nose again at that thought and tries to refocus.

When she was little. Ok. Good, yes. Go with that. When she was little – she needs info on that for her project anyway. So she shakes the last of the disturbing parental sex thoughts from her brain and reminds her mother, "I do actually need your help on some stuff for that project I told you about. Where are those albums from Grandma's side?"

Her mom looks up from the steeping tea and nods toward the big bookshelf out in the living room. "Out on the shelves, left side, bottom," she says.

Lena wanders through the dining room out to the living area and spots the old photo albums that are supposedly her great-grandmother's. She plucks them from the shelf and, just as she's turning to head back to the kitchen with them, catches a glimpse of three pastel volumes on the next shelf, each with a faded "Baby's First Year" printed on the spine.

"Mom," she calls softly, so as to not wake anyone upstairs, "these are our baby books?"

"On the other shelf?" her mom whispers back. "Yeah."

So Lena carefully adds those to her stack of books and retreats back to the kitchen.

"You need those too?" her mom asks, looking confused as she eyes the baby books. As she does, she's sliding a cup to tea over to where Lena drops the stack of albums on the counter. And then takes a seat on the next stool with a mug of her own.

"They said everything," Lena explains with a helpless shrug as she collapses onto her chair. It seems kind of crazy to her too, but being raised by a professor gives you a certain respect for them, so she's not really in any position to question it. "Biggest picture with the DNA migration and haplogroup thing, to family ethnic background, to… us," she adds, gesturing between the two of them. "So I guess baby books and family history too?"

The tea is still steaming, so, opting not to scald her mouth just yet, Lena reaches for the top book, which happens to be Nick's. And, flipping through to a random page, she lands on the description of the day he was born. She can't help but snort out loud. "Oh my god," she chuckles. She's heard it before, but it's just so ridiculous that it's hard to believe that it all could have happened like that. Though the handwritten page is a little skimpy on the finer details. "What actually happened that day?" she asks her mom, almost incredulous. "I mean, I kind of remember the car. But that's so crazy. What actually happened?"

"Probably pretty much what you remember," her mom laughs, shaking her own head as if in disbelief too. "You and Liz had both been late," she says, shrugging, "so I don't know, it was three weeks from my due date, I think? We figured Dad was ok to go to one last weekend training, even with Grandma away at a meeting." She takes a sip of her tea, then adds, still with a bemused grin on her face, "I still felt good. I guess I thought I was trying to prove I was Superwoman or something – I had you two, and I told Rufus and Jiya that I'd drop Obi off at the vet for them since they had that comic con thing… Basically, labor was instantaneous."

Lena winces at that. She's not exactly looking forward to the labor part of having kids someday, and having it come on so suddenly just sounds even more miserable.

"I called Dad," her mom continues, adding to the absurdity. "He was panicking trying to get back, I was trying to drive to the hospital, even though I had a dog in the car. And no one to watch you guys until Denise or Jiya showed up. But it ended up so painful so fast that I had to pull over."

Wide-eyed, Lena takes a gulp of her tea. She doesn't remember ever having been told quite this many details. Holy crap.

"I was terrified, trying not to let you guys see that, but Lizzie was screaming anyway, Obi was barking because she was screaming, traffic just kept flying by…" Her mom smirks at her then, and Lena knows she probably looks horrified by the whole idea, but really… it's pretty horrifying.

"You just sat there," her mom describes, "completely freaked out, I think, because I was obviously in pain… I mean, we were only five minutes or so away, so the ambulance got there pretty quickly. You guys came with me, but I think a police officer drove the car, with the dog, and then sat with it until Jiya got there? You guys were whisked off to hospital daycare until Denise and Michelle came… And you know dad's helicopter story and how he barely made it."

"Jesus," Lena breathes with a slight shake of her head. You can't make that kind of insanity up.

But, still. Also kind of interesting at the same time, to hear those little bits that she wouldn't know about otherwise.

Her curiosity piqued, she reaches for the next book in the stack and flips to the name page. Lizzie's. She raises an eyebrow, asking her mom, "Guess Lizzie was really boring compared to that?"

"Well, yeah," her mom says, smirking, "but we didn't know how that was going to go either. It was crazy in the opposite way. Took forever," she adds with a groan. "And we were all paranoid and trying to be prepared, so we sent you with Grandma at the first contraction, but then it was a false alarm, but we didn't want to wake you up late to bring you home, so since Dad and I already didn't have to work, we basically camped out at home with Netflix and waited. Real ones eventually started, but it still took forever, and we just didn't know what to expect with it progressing so slowly. We even went to basically visit you at Grandma's and then came back to wait more."

Lena thinks back, wracking her brain and trying to figure out if she has any fleeting memories of spending those couple of days with her grandmother. But she draws a blank as her mom continues.

"I think we watched three full seasons of West Wing, plus a bunch of Downton Abbey and Friends before it was close enough to go to the hospital," her mom reminisces with a laugh. "And then it was still hours… So yeah. Boring, but not."

Tugging the last baby book over to her, Lena pries it open to the page about her own birth. "What about me?" she asks with a smirk, knowing that her sometimes-neurotic mother must have been pretty freaked out the first time she'd gone through the whole 'having a baby' thing.

But, weirdly, all she gets is a cagey shrug as her mom chooses that moment to go get more hot water to refill her mug. "Well, you know," her mom mutters while she fusses with the tea, not even looking at Lena. "We've told you that before. You were first – we really didn't know what to expect at all. But uh, pretty standard, I guess."

Lena frowns. Aren't parents supposed to be most gung-ho with the first kid? The page in her baby book has more details than her mom bothered to talk about. What the hell?

So she flips to another random section in her book. "My first shots?" she asks, eyeing the details scrawled on the page.

"You cried…" her mom says with a shrug as she stirs her tea. "Babies cry." And then there's a weird pause before she sort of blurts out, "Um, you did eventually stop when we showed you your bunny."

Which Lena already knows, because there it is written on the page in front of her. And instead of adding any new info, her mom just sudden launches into a different kid's story.

"Lizzie though," she chuckles, still stirring, "she screamed." Then she eyes Lena with a wry smile as she comes back to sit. "I swear your needle phobia is because I brought you and you were traumatized when you saw her get hers. You ended up screaming almost as much as she did and you didn't even get shots that visit. Definitely kept you out of there for any more of hers or Nick's."

It's all Lena can do to force a wan smile before she turns to another page in her own book. Talk about giving your own kid an inferiority complex. What's the deal with all the sappy nostalgic crap about Liz and Nick and the evasiveness about her?

It doesn't make sense. So she scans the page before her and tries again. "My first word? Was 'Dad'?"

If nothing else, that at least earns her a smile from her mom, who teases her gently as she returns to the stool next to Lena, "I think you always liked him best..."

Lena scoffs and rolls her eyes, her cheeks burning, because of course she loves her mom too, but it's not like she's just going to say that now. "Mo-om…" she whines.

"See?" her mom just smirks back.

With another eye roll, Lena goes back to her initial issue – like why in the hell her mother doesn't seem to know, or at least care, about some of her first kid's milestones. "So I just… said it?" she asks, grasping for any more details.

The bland "Mmhmm" she gets as her mom takes another sip of tea is not exactly helping Lena's growing sense of unease.

She grabs for one of the other books, flipping quickly to the same page for her sister. "Lizzie's was 'ball'?"

"Yeah," her mom confirms with a faraway half-smile. "Dad was at the stage of trying to get you into sports, so you guys were always out trying t-ball in the yard, or soccer, and one day, you two were throwing a ball – you couldn't catch, really." Lena wrinkles her nose a little at that; her two varsity softball letters from high school can certainly attest to the fact that that stage hadn't lasted long.

"And Lizzie and I were sitting on the grass," her mom continues, chuckling, "just watching and your missed catches kept rolling to her. But you wouldn't let her have it, and I think eventually she just got frustrated enough to ask for it herself," she finishes with another grin.

Lena chews at her lower lip. Ok, so it's not like there are no details about her when she was little, but still… She'd been like… five by then, and it didn't make sense that there was a whole story about Lizzie's first word but like nothing about her own. What the hell? Not only is it kind of disconcerting, but it's also starting to piss her off a little.

She reaches once more for her own baby book, scouring for another key milestone. "What about my first steps?" she asks next, almost accusingly, because she's betting all she's going to get is a lame "You walked" or some other bland crap like that again.

"Oh my god," her mom sort of exhales with a big smile. "You," she emphasizes with a knowing mom-glare-smirk-thing, "had been so close for so long, but you just wouldn't give up on the death grip when people were helping you. Finally – it was the day we moved here, actually," she adds with a faraway grin and glance around the kitchen. "The movers were terrible, and Dad was about to kill them, and you were just little and fussy, so I sent you both in the yard. Of course, he let you get all muddy and I don't know, you ended up wearing half your lunch too, or something, so you needed a bath."

Lena has to smirk at that; sounds about right given what she remembers of her dad being the more lax parent when it came to letting the kids get gross.

That gets her half a returned smirk from her mom as she continues. "And I was still dealing with movers for a while, and by the time they left, I think I thought you had both drowned in there or something," she chuckles. "At some point, I was in the kitchen, and you escaped from Dad, then started trying to crawl down the hall at top speed. But," she emphasizes, "he'd put you in a dress – you looked so adorable, by the way – but it kept getting caught up under your knees, so you just… stood up and decided that walking would be easier," she laughs with a shrug. "You've seen the video – Dad got there in time to record, you walked over to me, then I turned you around and you did a complete faceplant on the way back to him." There's a cheeky grin that accompanies that reminder of Lena's clumsiness, much to Lena's chagrin. So she rolls her eyes.

But then her mom's gentle tease fades, and all of a sudden she almost seems choked up. "It was… I don't know," she sighs. "Really pretty amazing to see," she eventually says with a dreamy look. "I mean," she adds, focusing on Lena, "think of how much you've walked, how many steps you've taken in your whole life. First ones," she says with a shrug, nodding over toward the front door. "Right there. I-"

And, oh, jeez, Lena realizes, her mom is getting choked up and she didn't mean to make her cry or anything…

Thankfully, her mom pulls it together and finishes with a little bit of a watery smile, "Yeah, Dad and I were- It was a big deal."

Once she realizes that the tears are not, in fact, imminent, and once she realizes her mom is done talking, Lena stares in confusion at her mother. That is not what she'd been expecting. Like, yeah, she's seen the video a few times, a long time ago, and had been more amused by her young-looking parents than by her own walking. But to hear it now? She feels a warm tug in her chest at just how nostalgic and… happy her mom had just sounded, so she can't help but look wistfully over at the front foyer herself.

But wait, she frowns. What the hell? Hardly any extras whatsoever on other things about when she was a baby, and all of the sudden her mom is a big sappy puddle of goo – very detailed goo, at that – about her first steps? Weird. So weird… It's not just her, it's… when she was little? Or little-er? That somehow gets shortchanged on the sap?

Lena reaches for the baby books and flips through a few more pages, then tests her observations again. "What about when you found out you were pregnant?" she asks her mother.

"Which time?" Her mom replies, smiling, but also with a bit of a wary eye-narrowing. "And what about it?"

"Well," Lena says with a shrug, "how'd you tell dad? Were you excited?"

With a big sigh, her mom sort of shrugs back. "Well, not the f- Not every time," she admits.

Which catches Lena off-guard. Had something been wrong? Is that why the details are scarce from when she was little? "What do you mean?"

And suddenly her mom is shifting a little in her chair and staring down into the stupid tea. But finally she looks back up at Lena with a serious look on her face. "Well," she starts, very matter-of-fact, "right before Liz, I actually had a miscarriage, so…" She trails off with a shrug.

Lena's jaw drops a tiny bit. That's not something she'd been expecting to hear. Yeah, sure, she knows it happens, but… She could have had another – a different, a totally different – sibling. She's halfway to trying to imagine another brother or sister between her and Lizzie before she realizes that she should probably say something in response to what was probably a pretty shitty time for her mother. "I'm sorry," she offers quietly, not quite sure if that's the right thing to say or not, like… fifteen years after it would have happened.

Her mom just gives Lena a smile and reaches to give her forearm a little squeeze. "It was a long time ago," she says. "And it happens to a lot of people. And I knew I was getting older… Anyway, with that one," she continues, "I actually went to the doctor before I even told Dad I was pregnant, just to be sure, I guess. Since I already had a regular appointment scheduled before I suspected anything anyway. So I just went," she shrugs again. And then, with another glance down into her tea, she finishes, "But it was a missed miscarriage; there was already no heartbeat, so that was not a happy telling."

Lena frowns, feeling a little deflated and a little guilty for causing what shouldn't have been a particularly deep late-night conversation to go down that path.

Thankfully, her mom brightens up, and with a cheeky smile, goes on to explain, "But after that, with Lizzie… I actually got to tell him at our vow renewal. When you had the twirly dress you liked so much," she reminds Lena. "That was a good telling."

That dress is actually one thing Lena remembers from when she was that young. Or at least she thinks she remembers it. Or maybe it's just because she's seen the picture so often – someone had captured her mid-twirl, with her parents in the background, watching and laughing. It's still framed and hanging on the wall in the upstairs hallway, or at least Lena's pretty sure it's still there. Either way, she has to admit, it does sound kind of nice that her parents were able to find out about Lizzie on what was already a happy occasion, especially if there had just been a miscarriage not long before that.

She's pulled from her thoughts when her mom continues, this time going so far as to let out a little chuckle as she adds, "With Nick, Dad knew first."

Lena lets out an incredulous laugh. "What?"

"Well, he didn't know know," her mom explains, "but he figured it out."

"How?" Lena scoffs.

Her mom sips at her tea before launching into the tale. "Either you or Liz had brought home some stomach bug from daycare or school, and we all ended up puking our guts out for days," she says, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "You guys and Dad got better," she adds, "but I kept throwing up all the time. Liz was only… 7? Months old? We wanted to eventually try for another baby, but I was in denial that it would have happened so fast. Or ever, honestly," she admits. "Your dad eventually forced me into the bathroom to take a test."

It's Lena's turn to grimace and wrinkle her nose; she'd walked herself right back into that. More suggestions of rampant parental sex. Not to mention pee tests. Either way, waaaay more bodily functions than she needs to be thinking about with respect to her mother and father. Blech.

But… the discrepancies in details about her milestones compared to her siblings… Well, she can't not ask. "And me?"

"We were just so excited – you're the first," is all she gets. And then her mom just gulping tea again.

Lena sighs, mumbling a glum "Oh…" What the hell? And yes, it's mostly perplexing and kind of pissing her off, but she can't deny the little wounded pang when it's her milestones that are the ones getting glossed over.

And something about her confusion and annoyance must be showing on her face, because all of the sudden, her mom is up off the chair and gathering everything from in front of her. "Wow, getting late," her mom chirps. "You must be tired," she says to Lena, "and I'm not as nice as your professor, so I didn't cancel class and still have to teach tomorrow."

But Lena doesn't move. The weird discrepancy between the stories about her first year and everything else from her childhood, and her siblings'… it just isn't sitting right. For a moment, she just sits there, absently watching as her mom rinses the kettle and washes the mugs. Trying to puzzle it out all the while.

But once her mom is drying things and looking like she's wrapping everything up for the night, Lena can't hold it in any longer. "…Mom?" she asks.

"Hmm?" her mom replies absently, still putting the now-clean mugs back in the cabinet.

Lena takes a deep breath. No, things aren't sitting right, but she's also not entirely sure she wants to know why. She bites her lower lip, wavering, then finally ventures timidly, "Was something wrong? With you and Dad? When I was really little?" She sees the surprise and concern on her mom's face, but once she's started, she just wants to get it all out there. "Like was someone… sick?" she continues, her mind starting to spiral a little out of control. "Or were you fighting? Was I one of those relationship-fixing babies you're never supposed to have?"

"What?" her mom gasps, turning to face her. "No," she declares vehemently. "Why w-"

"I don't know," Lena blurts out, feeling torn between wanting to apologize for bringing it up and just being increasingly annoyed and curious about the why. "It just seems like you know every little detail about everything for Liz and Nick," she rambles. "But for me, it's hardly anything until I'm like at least a year old or someth-" Her words come to a dead halt just then, as a possible explanation hits her like a two-by-four. "Am I adopted?" she exclaims accusingly, aghast.

"What?" Her mom looks devastated at the suggestion. "No," she insists, her expression softening as she hurries across the kitchen in her direction. "Oh no... Lena…"

Which, sure, logically, Lena knows she's wrong as soon as she brings it up; she's seen the photos of the day she was born, all three of them in the hospital, her all gross-looking and her parents all young and happy. And all the other pictures from when she was a baby. And now she also feels terrible for causing that look on her mom's face, but… What the hell else could it be? "Then what?" she huffs helplessly.

Her mom had been on her way over to… well, Lena doesn't really know. Hug her or something, but now she's just frozen halfway over to where Lena is sitting, looking… defeated. Or upset. Or overwhelmed. Or some combination of stuff like that.

After a pause, and with a weary sigh, her mom has just started to open her mouth to reply when there's another clatter of Lincoln's nails on the floor.

And of course her dad has impeccable timing; he chooses exactly that moment to come hurrying down the stairs with the dog, through the foyer, and into the kitchen.

"Thought I heard you down here," he says with a grin, quickly closing in on Lena.

And ok, she's not letting her mom out of an explanation, but the weirdness clearly went straight over her dad's head, and he's… her dad. She missed him. So Lena hops off the bar stool and lets him fold her into one of his trademark bear hugs.

"Hey, baby girl," he says softly against the side of her head, pressing a kiss to her hair. "It's good to have you home."

Even though she's still a little irked and hurt, not to mention baffled, by the conversation with her mom, Lena can't help but grin and cling to her dad a little tighter as she mumbles a muffled "Hi, Dad" against his shoulder.

But then he releases her, she backs up a couple steps, and then there's her mom in her line of sight again. So the air in the kitchen is right back to being as awkwardly tense as it was right before her dad had come downstairs.

Lena glares at her mother and lifts her eyebrows in exasperation.

Her mom just kind of sighs again and rubs her temple like she's got a headache coming.

And that's when her dad finally picks up on the weirdness, his gaze darting back and forth between them. "Everything ok?" he inquires, sounding concerned, like he very much already knows that everything is not ok.

For a second, it looks to Lena like her mom is going to explain to him, but then she redirects her attention back to Lena. "Ask him," she says, nodding to where he stands next to her.

So of course, now Lena's the subject of her dad's worried and questioning stare. "What's wrong?" he asks, apprehension written all over his face.

Jeez, Lena groans inwardly. Now he thinks something's wrong. And fuck, this is not how this night was supposed to go. Everyone should have been asleep when she got home. Now everything is all… weird. She half wishes that she'd never brought anything up to get them going down this road, but… She still has no idea what the hell is up with why her own mother doesn't seem to give more than half a rat's ass about memories from when her oldest daughter was really little.

"Nothing," she stammers, trying to reassure her dad. "Just, um…" She bites her lip, suddenly not sure if she wants to deal with the fallout of… whatever this is. But a glance over at the pile of open baby books on the counter gives her the last push. So, she simply asks her dad, "What do you remember about the day Nick was born?"

And suddenly it's like she's flipped some magic switch or something. Gone is whatever worry her dad seemed to have had about her, and now he's got this doofy grin plastered on his face as he exclaims, "Jesus. We thought we had time," he laughs. "Even the doctor didn't think he'd be early. So I leave for my Pendleton weekend that morning. Your grandmother's, I dunno," he shrugs, "off giving a talk… wherever. This one," he draws out with emphasis, pointing over at her mom, "decides it's a good idea to be a dog chauffeur too."

Lena catches him looking at her mom just then, as if he's expecting her to swat playfully at him, but of course, her mom is still all stressed and worried-looking. Her dad looks at her mom a little weirdly at that, but he still turns back to Lena and keeps right on rambling about Nick being born.

"I'm literally still on the tarmac after getting down there when she calls from the car," he explains, "telling me it's time and that she's driving you two and the dog to the hospital. I tell them at Pendleton. They can get me to Moffat in an hour and a half. Great. But before that even happens," he adds, "your mother calls again. She's convinced Nick is going to show up on the side of the road. She can't drive anymore, you're all in the car, I'm thinking I'm not getting back in time. But we go with it," he smirks with a shrug. "Thankfully once you guys got there, it still took a while. But traffic from Mountain View to the hospital? My commander pulled some strings and they choppered me to the medivac pad on the roof. Got there just in time." With that, her dad finishes with a pretty pleased looking smile on his face as he reaches to squeeze her mom's hand.

Lena forces a weak smile, then swallows hard. "And me? When I was born?"

And ok, she's no idiot. And she's not blind, for god's sake. Lena most definitely sees the nervous little look that her dad shoots her mom before turning back to reply to her.

Of course when he does, in spite of whatever that little look is for, he's still putting on the patronizing 'dad' voice in full force. "Way less exciting," he teases her. "You know, except for the fact that we had our first baby being born. Which is pretty exciting on its own."

"See?" Lena scoffs. "That. Lizzie wasn't exciting either," she snaps accusingly, now just getting more and more frustrated, "but now I know exactly how many episodes of what that you guys Netflixed while you were waiting. Why don't you talk about that stuff for me?" she exclaims, emotions and exhaustion finally getting the best of her. "Or anything from when I was really little?"

And, oh, shit. Lena snaps her mouth shut after that outburst; maybe she's gone too far, because her Dad looks like a deer in the headlights, like he knows he walked into a trap, and she has never seen that expression on him – some weird combo of guilt and surprise – before. Ever. And now she's kind of afraid of what's coming next.

Thankfully, there's no immediate reprimand or anything, so Lena breathes a sigh of relief.

But it's still… weird.

Her parents don't say anything, they just sort of… exchange looks. Like they're doing that thing they do when they basically have some sort of secret conversation with their eyes without even speaking. It's always freaking frustrating when they pull that in front of her and her siblings, but now? Lena's even more annoyed. She hates it – why can't they just talk like normal people? And talk to her?

Finally, she thinks she catches a hint of her mom mumbling towards her dad's shoulder, "She'll be 18 in a couple months anyway…"

Which… what? Now Lena's worried, because what in the hell does that have to do with anything?

But then both her parents fix their gazes on her, looking… resigned. Her mom shoots one more helpless-looking shrug in her dad's direction, and then her dad is nodding quietly.

"C'mere," he says gently in Lena's direction, reaching an arm out to her as he tilts his head towards the living room.

Lena skeptically allows him to guide her out toward the couch, but she ends up feeling even more unsettled when her parents each take an end of the couch, leaving her in the middle and awkwardly surrounded.

If she didn't know her own health as well as she does, she might have thought they were going to tell her she has some terrible disease or something.

Which she doesn't. …right?

Who the hell knew at that point, Lena admits silently to herself as she pulls her feet up under herself. And maybe she doesn't even want to know. But things are so weird and awkward and… heavy, that she now just needs to hear their explanation, whatever it is, so she looks back and forth between her mom and dad expectantly. "Well?"

She is not prepared for what she hears from her parents next.

Some twenty minutes – or maybe thirty or an hour or more, she has no idea, and yes, there's some sort of irony buried in there about time, Lena realizes, but that's not the point right now – she's still there, perched between them on the couch, frozen in position and utterly stunned by what she's just heard.

"So… all your work trips? Your 'meetings'?" she finally manages to stammer in disbelief, "Like when Grandma stayed with us? Are time travel? That's… not even possible," she blurts out.

Time travel? Time travel?

She is dying of a terrible disease, Lena realizes. She's sure of it. She has a brain tumor. Or she's in a coma or something. And whatever it is, it's making her hallucinate that her parents have just told her they're time travelers.

But her dad just reiterates softly, "It is possible."

Lena's mind races. How could it be? She's heard of things like string theory and all that, but actual time travel? Even if it were possible… her parents? Her stupidly-in-love, amazing-but-admittedly-pretty-normal-and-boring mother and father? A regular old professor and part-time reserve soldier? Time travelers?

No, she shakes her head. No. They're crazy. Because even if it is true, then…

"Ok, fine, sure. It is," she scoffs facetiously before accusing, "So then you're just not my parents?" Because they're not, right? And have been lying her whole life?

"Yes!" her mom yelps, then immediately quiets herself. "Sorry," she apologizes in a hushed tone. "It's late. We can't wake them up," she says, nodding up to where Lizzie and Nick are sleeping. But then she refocuses on Lena and eyes her in earnest. "We are. Baby, you look just like him," she says, almost pleading as she gestures to the other end of the couch. "And you know you're cursed with my frizz."

Lena almost – almost – feels bad for having brought on the wounded expression on her mom's face. But…

"But you weren't actually there when I was born?" she asks harshly, making sure she's got things straight.

The guilty looks her parents trade are enough to tell her she's right, but her dad replies anyway, sighing, "Not… this version of us."

She's absolutely floored. Some sort of hysterical, choked laugh escapes from her, but otherwise Lena is utterly speechless. She can't process any of what they just said, and she doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity of… everything.

So instead, she hauls herself up off the couch to pace the living room, yanking out her ponytail and raking her hands through her hair simply because she has no idea what else to do.

None of it makes sense.

Except… it does.

If you believe the time travel thing, the rest does make sense. All the details about Lizzie and Nick. The vague evasiveness about her. The 'meetings' her mom had for work all the time that seemed to require her dad to go too, for no apparent reason. Everything. Which means…

"So you didn't want me," she cries suddenly, the timbre of her voice sliding higher and higher as realization sets in. "I was just here. You didn't want me," she reiterates as she feels the prickle of tears stinging her eyes. "You weren't-" she pauses, sniffling. "You weren't even together."

Time travel or not, her dad really is some kind of super stealthy soldier, because before she even realizes, he's up and over to her in a heartbeat, pulling her into his arms and trying to calm her down with a soft, "Hey, hey, hey…" murmured against the top of her head.

Lena still can't quite reconcile everything she's learned with how she feels, but somewhere, on some level, of course he's her dad, and she melts into his arms, burying her face against his shoulder and clinging to him with another sniffle.

He just holds her for a moment, swaying slightly, and somewhere in there, Lena feels a hand that's not her dad's stroking her hair right about the same time she hears her mom echo the sniffling from a lot closer than the couch.

"Kid," she eventually hears her dad choke out, "you… that timeline switch that dropped you in our lap is the best thing that could have ever happened. Ever," he repeats, squeezing her a little tighter. "Even if we missed your first year. We have always wanted you."

"Always," she hears her mom reaffirm in a low murmur.

Which, of course, has Lena tearing up yet again. If just seeing the house can do it, hearing that from her parents was never not going to get to her. Everything is still so weird, but she loves them. And she truly was worried for a bit there that it might not quite be a balanced two-way street. It tugs somewhere deep in her chest to hear them so fervently prove her wrong.

But… that doesn't mean she's not feeling kind of sheepish about her meltdown-ish thing just now. And it also doesn't mean she's 100% ok with everything.

So with yet another ghastly, disgusting sniffle, she reluctantly extricates herself from her dad's – and sort of her mom's too, she now sees, given that she's been leaning against her dad's other shoulder – embrace and gives her teary eyes a furtive swipe.

"I'm still not even supposed to be here though," she protests. And, gesturing up to her siblings' rooms, she adds with lingering frustration and confusion, "Like, none of us would exist if some random dude from the 1800s had lived or died differently and you'd stayed in some other timeline? You wouldn't even be together!" she reminds them, though she's honestly not even sure what's driving her words and emotions anymore. "You could have married anyone else."

And now she's confused, because for all the emotions on all their parts that have just been spilling out, there wasn't really any humor. But suddenly her mom and dad are doing that goofy-grin, talking-with-their-eyes thing that they do.

"No," her dad says with a smirk, "we were going to get there eventually anyway. Like, pretty imminently."

"I don't know if it was quite as imminent on his part as he claims," her mom adds with a roll of her eyes even as she grins. "But yes, we were getting there. So you would have gotten here eventually too."

Which… is actually more a weight off Lena's chest than she would have expected. She manages a weak smile for her mom and dad. Turns out it's nice to know that your parents weren't enemies or pining for other people and just ended up together because your helpless toddler self inadvertently forced their hand when something in the time-space continuum went wonky.

But she furrows her brow. "Well, it wouldn't have been me if it was later," she points out. "The timing is all wrong then. You, or whatever version of you," she rephrases, eyeing her mother, "would have still ovulated the egg that became me way earlier than you guys would have actually hooked up. And," she continues, eyeing her dad, "you-"

"Ok!" her dad cuts in, his eyebrows up. "Thanks, Miss science brain, that's fine. We get it," he says with a teasing but pointed glare.

Lena feels her face flush and cringes. "Sorry," she mutters. For all her efforts earlier to avoid thinking about her parents' sex life, she'd walked herself right into that, hadn't she? And very directly, in a conversation with them, no less. She should probably just go hide in her room forever now…

But she doesn't, and instead just takes a moment to take a deep breath and sort through… everything. She steps past her mom and dad and flops back onto the couch, trying to process a bit.

Which is what gets her to realize that she hasn't even touched on a couple things. A couple crazy things.

"We have an aunt?" she murmurs to her mom, in awe. "Who suddenly never existed? And you were married?" she squeaks, looking up at her dad. For as much as she was just arguing not five minutes ago that both of her parents could have married other people instead, she really can't actually picture either of them with anyone but each other. So she can't quite wrap her brain around her dad having already been married.

They do the look thing with each other again, of course, and then her dad randomly heads upstairs while her mom comes back to the couch to sit next to her.

"He'll be right back," her mom assures her, hugging her to her side.

Lena's confused, but really, that's just how the whole night is turning out, so she goes with it, and indeed, her dad is back soon enough, and holding his wallet of all things. What? This time, instead of the opposite end of the couch from her mom, he slides in behind her mom, who's still perched on the edge of the seat, and then they both lean back against him, so they all sort of end up a cozy trio, all curled up together.

And that's when her mom pulls off the locket she always wears and opens it.

Which doesn't make any sense – Lena has seen the photos. One from their vow renewal – well, wedding, she realizes and mentally corrects, now that she's been filled in on their real history – and one of the three kids, when she was maybe six and Lizzie and Nick still both small enough to look more like babies than kids.

And holy crap, it dawns on her – this all explains the big gap between her and Lizzie. She'd never asked, but had always kind of wondered if she'd been some sort of hell-raising toddler that they couldn't fathom having another one until they'd shipped her off to preschool. Never in a million years could she ever have guessed that she was an only child for so long because her parents were essentially still only dating until she was three.

In any case, the locket still doesn't make sense; she knows the pictures and they don't seem to have anything to do with …Amy …or Jessica.

Dang, she thinks, it's so weird to have those two new names bouncing around.

She looks at her mom questioningly, but it makes a little more sense when she sees her use her nail to pry up the two familiar photos.

Hidden behind them are two other pictures. And Lena's close enough to see what they are. One with her mom looking so young, with another woman. And another of just the other person.

Amy. Aunt Amy. It must be.

Lena starts to tear up yet again, but she doesn't have time to get very far with that, because the next thing she knows, her dad is gingerly pulling a larger, folded and worn photo from the depths of his wallet.

"Lizzie – Elizabeth Marie…" her mom explains softly as she hands the locket and photo to her. "It's their middle names."

She's been starting to get emotional about Amy, but she can't help but laugh out loud the instant she sees the photo of her father.

"Oh my god, Dad, you look so young!" she exclaims, sitting up straighter. "What were you, like twelve, when you got married?" she teases. He laughs good-naturedly too, but Lena sobers pretty quickly when she takes in the image of the young, blonde woman smiling sweetly next to her dad. She still doesn't quite know what to think of Jessica amidst everything else she's learned. "…I'm sorry about what happened to her," she pipes up after a moment. "I mean," she then catches herself and elaborates, "I'm not, because…" She fills in the blank by gesturing to herself and her parents, then continues, "...but I am."

He gives her a strained smile and, swallowing hard, he nods. "I know. Thank you."

Still trying to make sense of what she should be thinking about her dad's previous wife, it takes Lena second to realize she's still clutching her mom's locket. She shakes herself out of her daze and focuses on the small photo inside. Seeking confirmation, to be sure, she wonders aloud, "Amy?"

Her mom just nods, tears obvious in her eyes.

Lena swallows hard and peers at the pictures more closely. And she can't help but smile a little. "She looks like Lizzie," she whispers. "I mean," she rephrases, catching herself, "I think. It's small. Does Lizzie look like her?" she asks, her voice hushed.

"Yeah, she does," he mom confirms with a watery smile.

Lena swipes at her own eyes and takes a deep breath. They're supposed to have an aunt.

Of course, if you go with 'supposed to', she and Liz and Nick aren't supposed to… well, be. At all. But… Amy. What would things have been like if their family had more than just a grandmother and some distant great-aunts, -uncles, and cousins-however-many-times-removed?

And what would her mom have been like, with her sister still around? As much as Lizzie gets on her nerves, Lena can't really wrap her mind around her just… disappearing like that.

It's all… a lot. So with a shake of her head, Lena eventually passes the locket back to her mom. And with a sigh, she regards both her parents next to her, as her dad hugs her mom closer. "This is… crazy," she finally blurts out.

Her mom just shrugs. "I know," she admits.

"Hey, we lived it," her dad points out with a smirk. "How do you think we feel?"

"I just…" Lena shakes her head again and trails off. "I don't even know," she confesses, half-chuckling and incredulous about everything she's just learned. One thing she does know though, she realizes… "I- I'm glad you told me," she manages to admit to her mom and dad, giving them a grateful nod.

They both sort of smile at her, but it's her dad that lets out an apologetic sigh, explaining, "If we thought it made sense to earlier, we would have. Kinda glad you know now," he says with a grin as he nudges Lena's knee.

But then her mom cuts in, looking worried. "And if you… have questions, or want to talk about it, or want to talk about it with someone who's not us, just tell us. We'll figure it out," she promises. "I know it's a lot."

"No shit," Lena breathes in agreement. And subsequently realizes that her time away from home has made her get lax on the not-cursing-in-front-of-parents front. "Sorry," she mumbles sheepishly.

Thankfully, her mom and dad just laugh. "It's ok," her mom says. "This kind of deserves that."

They all end up quiet after that, and Lena's still just trying to figure out exactly what to make of everything. "I mean, I have questions," she admits, biting her lip for a second before adding, "like a million."

It's then that it registers how all the insanity came up in the first place. And what it means for why it had originally come up. Her face falls. "But I can't exactly talk about all this in my project," she points out. "Right?"

Her mom rockets up from where she's been leaning back on the couch. "No, you can't," she orders seriously. "And you can't tell Liz and Nick either. This is pretty much a felony happening right now. You weren't allowed to know until you turned 18. So all that about figuring it out?" she sighs. "We will if we need to, but hopefully it can wait two months. Really," she stresses, "do not say anything to anyone, especially before your birthday. Even after, you can't talk about this. Only with us. Maybe if you come to Mason later at some point… But basically, you can't say anything."

Lena's already essentially stunned into silence by the grave tone in her mom's voice, but even if she'd been able to say something, her dad jumps in before she can.

"Ever," he warns, his voice harsh and almost frightening. "Lena, I mean it. This is-"

"Yeah, I get it, Dad," Lena manages through a shaky breath. "I know."

Still utterly dumbfounded by the magnitude of everything her parents have just said, she just sort of goes with it when they reach for her and sort of fold her into their combined embrace.

Holy fuck. Like really, holy fuck. Time travel. What in the actual hell? It doesn't seem real. It doesn't seem real at all, never mind as something that could have played such a fundamental role in her own life.

Her mind is racing with all of the questions she's going to want to ask when she's been able to process things a little more. Sure, they've mentioned some things, but where – when – else had they gone? Who had they met? What else had they seen? How in the hell did they not get smallpox and malaria and plague at some point?

It's that veering of her brain in the medical and scientific direction that has Lena freezing, an idea suddenly flickering to life.

Still curled up against her dad's shoulder, she lifts her head up. "Mom?"

She looks up toward Lena with a curious "Hmm?"

Lena takes a deep breath. "Do you still… go? Now?"

Her parents look guilty as soon as she asks, and they do that look at each other again. And then they both nod sheepishly.

Ok. Wow. Like, she's been having enough trouble processing that all of this happened sixteen years ago to make her just… appear… in her own parents lives. But Lena somehow hadn't quite made the mental leap to today until just then. They could have been decades ago, like, yesterday. Like 19-something. Hundreds of years, even. Which is freakin' crazy.

And also reminds Lena of the idea that had started to take shape in her mind a moment earlier.

"How far back have you gone?" she wonders aloud.

"Oh," her mom frowns slightly, clearly struggling to recall the correct answer. "Uh, well, we went to-"

"Well," Lena cuts in, rephrasing. It doesn't actually matter when they've gone to. "I guess-" she tries again. "How far back can it go?"

"I, uh- Do you know?" her mom asks, turning to her dad. "I don't actually know."

Her dad shrugs too. "I dunno," he replies, addressing Lena. "We can ask Rufus and those guys," he offers.

Before Lena can affirm that yes, he definitely should ask, her mom eyes her with a skeptical smirk. "Why?

"Well…" she starts, "I mean, can you imagine the kind of senior thesis I could do if I could actually go get data from different geologic time period? Like, yeah," she points out, "we have proxies for climate and stuff, with the corals, and isotopes and stuff, but I could prove those linkages." Lena ends her sentence more excitedly than she started it, and her voice ratchets up yet another notch when she realizes what else awaits her in the past. "And see trilobites!" she adds. "And dinosaurs!"

Her parents apparently don't share her excitement. They just exchange bemused, wary looks, and then her mom snarks at her dad, "How did we get such a science dork?"

Her dad just shrugs and points to her. "Ask her, she's the science dork." Lena rolls her eyes, even as he continues, joking to her mom, "Something in the timeline switch altered her would-be history-dork DNA from you or something."

Which earns a giggle from her mom, but Lena's less than amused at being blown off as a joke. "I'm serious!" she insists. "Could I? Use the time machine?"

Now, Lena pretty much predicts her mom's hesitant "I don't think-"

But her dad surprises her, jumping in with an emphatic "No."

"But it's history too!" she protests. "Just… way older and using scientific data instead of… boring scribbly stuff on crumbly old parchment," she adds, wrinkling her nose.

Her dad just shakes his head, echoing, "No."

Lena huffs a sigh. He went off and joined the Army when he was basically her age. And went to war. How can he be so… frustrating? She tries to point out exactly that argument, starting, "But-"

"No," he cuts her off, repeating himself yet again.

"Dad, it's the same thing as you do!" she whines. "And-"

"No," comes his refusal for the millionth time. Though for this one, he must feel a little bad for denying her over and over, because he at least tries to explain his rationale. "We…" he sighs, then rephrases. "Ours is more like Bill and Ted. Or Back to the Future. No big deal. You want Jurassic Park," he says, looking horrified. "It's bad enough with her," he gripes, nodding over at her mom. "I'm not letting you get eaten by a dinosaur." With one more emphatic shake of his head, he reiterates yet again, "No."

She's thrown off for a second, trying to figure out who the hell Bill and Ted are. People they work with? Should she know them? Is that a movie? Or people? She at least knows the other ones, but she's never been a huge fan of movies from, like, fifty years ago. Whatever. She shakes if off a moment later, since it doesn't actually change her argument. She tries again, "But-"

This time it's her mom that interrupts her, albeit with a somewhat more diplomatic tone. "Lena," she says gently. "It's moot." With a shrug, she reminds, "Officially, you don't even know about this yet. Tonight has been… a lot," she exhales, sounding pretty drained. "For all of us. Can we just… be glad you're home for Thanksgiving for now? We've missed having you here," she adds as she reaches over to give Lena's hand a little squeeze.

"Bu-" Lena starts, but the protest dies on her lips before she gets even one full word out. She sighs heavily and her shoulders slump. Fighting them on this now is looking hopeless anyway, and then her mom has to go and use the mushy family sentiment against her. Like she knows how misty-eyed she's already gotten however many times since arriving home.

So she regards her parents, and with a little roll of her eyes, she admits, "I missed you guys too." And, corny as it is, when both of them break out into a smile at her words, she can't help but lean into both of them for a hug.

"And just to be clear," her dad reminds her, even as he's dropping a kiss on the top of her head, "one more time – no dinosaurs."

She's just about to shoot something snarky back at him, but then he goes and gets all mushy too, sounding choked up as he adds, "But we are so glad we got you because of all this."

Damn it all, but the tears are back, welling up in the corners of Lena's eyes as she clings to both her parents.

She still can't really wrap her brain around everything they've just told her. It's kind of a mind-fuck to think that she could have been living a whole different life, with different – but the same – parents. Maybe different siblings, an aunt, who knows what else.

What she does know? She's just as glad to have them as they are to have her, and she wouldn't change the quirk of time travel that brought them together for anything.

…even if they're being dumb and not letting her use the time machine.

Because her mom's right. It's been a weird night. She'll ask again eventually. Maybe after her birthday.

But she'll definitely wear them down at some point.

It's all in the timing, after all.

End

*First note = The confusing bit. I've had this epilogue half-written since I started the fic; I always knew where I was going. Including the names. But I started this in mid-late Season 1, before the DVD, which allowed for some obsessive detail-hunting. So, based on pausing on her birth certificate, I'm pretty sure that Lucy is actually Lucy Elizabeth, which pretty much rules out Amy Elizabeth. But Lizzie was already Lizzie in my head for this, so I kept it. Same for Nick – who knew back in January of 2017 that over a year later, Lucy would end up with a time traveling great-grandpa named Nicholas? I literally chose that name so they'd have a kid not named after anyone. Anyway, yeah. Those two names don't really work anymore, but I kept them anyway :)

*Other note = Well, there it is. The whole thing. I can't believe how long it got (almost 300 pages in Word!), nor can I believe the amazing reception that it's gotten from so many of you lovely readers/reviewers over the years that I've been chugging away at it. Really, thank you SO much to everyone who has taken the time to let me know that you've enjoyed this along the way. I've never seen anything this big (it's longer than regular novels!) all the way through before, so it's a testament to you guys (and our amazing Lyatt) for having kept me inspired long enough to get to this point. I really appreciate all your kind words. And though it's doubtful that we'll ever be seeing any new Timeless on the screen, I do still have other fics to finish, and some other ideas up my sleeve, so as long as I know someone (or a few someones…) is out there reading, I'd love to keep writing about these two. As an aside, I know some people may have been expecting/hoping for a beach vacation scene as the epilogue. Let's just say no promises but I'm not ruling out a bit of a 'deleted scene' chapter, so we may not be quite done with this universe yet ;) Thank you again everyone!