Lucy and Wyatt are still in my head, and in this case would not stop bugging me about the 'what if' of a post-S1 world where Carol wasn't RH, RH was indeed obliterated by the Time Team's work, Amy came back, and everyone went back to their normal lives. Excuse the cheesy song tie-in; for whatever reason, it became the soundtrack for this fic in my head. Still working on other WIPs, including the Timing epilogue, pinky-swear.

Did you know that before you came into my life
It was some kind of miracle that I survived

Lucy collapsed into her office chair with a flourish, her brow furrowed contemplatively as she did so. Most of her department's faculty meeting had been as routine and boring as they usually were, especially given that it was still summer.

Routine and boring. Except that last bit, just before they'd adjourned until next month. The chair had insisted someone help organize some little throwaway meeting. Lucy had stupidly volunteered, thinking that it could just be a webinar, then out of nowhere there was talk of people going to an actual, physical, in-person workshop, plus planning meetings. Next thing she knew, she'd been shuffled off to the admin assistant's office, and suddenly she was the proud owner of a round-trip flight to San Diego. The first of a few tickets to San Diego.

San Diego.

UC San Diego.

For a workshop on the role of women in the settling and founding of California.

That she was Stanford's representative for on the workshop's organizing committee.

A workshop.

In San Diego.

Which also happened to be just half an hour from Wyatt.

If he was even still at Pendleton, she reminded herself as she tried to get the notion of him out of her brain. Odds were that he'd already been shipped off on another mission a long time ago. And either couldn't tell her, or just… hadn't told her. Which honestly made sense, considering that the sum total of their interaction since they'd all parted ways after getting Amy back was one hand's worth of bland texts and a few stray social media 'likes' here and there, mostly early on after he'd left town. It was actually more than he'd said he'd do, right? Just call if he ever needed a bossy know-it-all?

Which he didn't. Call, that is. Or need her. Or any other boring, bossy, clumsy, awkward, know-it-all nerd. In any way, shape, or form. Obviously.

After the mission to save Amy, which somehow, some way, had actually worked – a fact that Lucy could still barely believe – Wyatt had just slipped away with hardly a word. Which, yes, had stung a little in the moment, but, to be fair, Lucy had been pretty focused on Amy. But she'd still figured that he would keep in touch.

And, sure, he had. Sort of. Certainly not as much as she'd have hoped given… Well, given what she'd thought he might have felt. Which he clearly didn't actually feel. Why would he? Again – boring, bossy, nerd…

So while Lucy might have had the irrational hope for more, he didn't owe her updates on his deployments, or on anything else in his life. And certainly not on that cryptic mention of possibilities back, well, months ago at this point.

And yet… Lucy's thumb hovered over her phone's screen as she chewed her lower lip. And scrolled down to "Wyatt Logan – cell".

Should she say something?

She just really didn't know if she should.

If it had been any other guy, she'd dish to Amy and ask for her advice. But… Honestly, Lucy wasn't fully sure what things had been like during the timeframe that this Amy had lived.

No one else knew that she felt… whatever she felt for Wyatt. Well, maybe Jiya had a hunch, but even then, it wasn't anything Lucy had talked about with her. And it's not as if suddenly coming back to a healthy mother who had been hiding family secrets for decades and was accusing Lucy of throwing her life away at every turn had been particularly conducive to sharing about burgeoning feelings for the grieving widower at her new job. Not to mention the whole NDA thing, which was a good excuse for not saying a damn thing about anything to anyone, be it the job itself, guys, or otherwise.

But would she have let anything slip to Amy? What sorts of conversations had this Amy had with her that Lucy didn't even know about?

Though when she'd asked Amy if she could invite Rufus and Wyatt to the podcast launch, Amy hadn't questioned it and had seemed to recognize them when they'd arrived. Which, if she'd known how Lucy was feeling about Wyatt, would not have been what Lucy would have expected.

So Lucy figured that she either hadn't gone to her sister at all about any feelings regarding Wyatt or that Amy had perhaps suspected something but that she'd denied it well enough that Amy had been convinced and just let the issue go.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have been campaigning so hard for Lucy to get out in the dating world again, right? If she'd known how ridiculously hung up Lucy already was on one particular soldier?

And it was ridiculous, right? The way her stomach still did a little flip-flop when she thought of him? How, when Amy bugged her about not putting herself out there and checking her okcupid profile more often, she still always felt her cheeks get warm as she recalled that kiss back in 1934? Not just ridiculous. Pathetic, right? She should be putting herself out there, moving on from… well, everything from the past year, really. And certainly moving on from a silly, one-sided, crush.

But her thumb tapped out a message anyway, as if it had a mind of its own, heedless of what Lucy was trying to convince herself.

Hi, hope things are good with
you. I have a meeting in San
Diego in a couple weeks. Maybe
we could get coffee or drink to
catch up?

Which sounded dumb, right? Too wordy? Too uptight and business-like? Too presumptive? It's not as if it was a given that he'd want to see her…

Quickly, she swiped around the screen, amending and adding to her initial message, hedging a bit.

Hope things are good w you. I
have a meeting in SD in a
couple weeks. Coffee or drink
to catch up? If you're free/still
around.

Still, she studied the phone, wavering.

Nothing had ever actually happened between them. One kiss while playing a role. The barest hint at… something… when he said he wasn't ready to say good-bye. And then they'd gone to save her sister, and she'd been ever so grateful to him, and to Rufus, when it had worked, and then she'd invited them to meet Amy, but after he had, Wyatt had just sort of… disappeared, with only the barest of vague goodbyes.

And since then, he hadn't shown much of an inclination to even keep the lines of communication open. So why would she think that he'd want to see her? It's not like they had anything in common aside from the time travel anyway, and with that over…

God, she hated that she was acting this way, stuck in a loop and wavering, obsessing over some guy. She hasn't been ten years old for a long time.

Lucy almost jumped out of her chair just then; her screen lit up with a text just as she'd almost talked herself into sending the stupid message to Wyatt.

Before she registered who it was, for a half-second, she irrationally panicked that it could have been Wyatt, as if she'd somehow accidentally sent something to him already.

But it was only Amy, letting her know that she'd be out that night with the guy she'd met over the weekend.

Because of course her little sister was having the luck with guys that Lucy had never really had, and never would, if she didn't either put herself out on a limb and feel things out with Wyatt, or just get over him altogether.

Lucy shot off a quick acknowledgment message to Amy, staring at her little sister's initial text.

And then, with a deep breath to bolster her resolve, she flipped back to her drafts and chose the limb.

Wyatt Logan – cell

- 08/23/2017 Wed -

Hope things are good w you. I
have a meeting in SD in a
couple weeks. Coffee or drink
to catch up? If you're free/still
around.

3:38 PM

Message sent.

Her stomach twisted into knots immediately.

Oh god. Now she'd be anxiously checking for a reply every three seconds. A reply that wouldn't even come if he'd been assigned to a mission and deployed to god knows where. Which he probably had.

Groaning inwardly, Lucy clenched her eyes shut. Deep breath again. At least it was close to the end of the day, not to mention summer. So no one would miss her if she headed out early.

Eyes open once more, she snatched up her totebag and buried the phone at the bottom. She dumped her notebook, agenda, and laptop on top of it.

Maybe with Amy out, she could go to a movie herself. Something long. Something that would require her to leave her damn phone alone for at least a couple of hours.

As Lucy headed out, locking up her office, she was half hoping that Wyatt would just say no and put her out of her misery. Then maybe she could finally get over him.

Wyatt took a slug of water from his bottle and sighed, absently regarding the rest of the group doing the same.

Another mundane PT session done. If nothing else, at least he'd be in the right shape whenever the Army got off its ass and figured out what they were going to do with him.

Which also meant he was facing another equally mundane night of forcing himself to spend a few hours on Duolingo. No, it wasn't an official task, but he wasn't stupid enough to presume that things like Farsi and Arabic were going to be enough anymore given the changing geopolitics lately. He hated that damn little owl with a passion, but if a mission came up in Korea or Russia, he was going to be ready. Or at least more ready than most of his doofus peers, many of whom, he noted, were currently trying to trip each other for no apparent reason.

He let out a bemused snort at their antics, knowing that a decade or so ago he'd have been right there with them. But that's not where they were now, were they?

With another sigh, he made his way over to one of the benches at the edge of the weight room where he'd left his keys and phone. And out of habit, he swiped his thumb over the phone's screen to check any notifications that had come in during their workout.

Checking may have been habit; stopping dead in his tracks when he did so, nearly dropping the phone, was not.

Lucy.

Jesus, he missed her so much it ached. Which is why he'd been fighting tooth and nail to not even let himself think about her. Most days, it almost worked.

But today… Today she'd apparently decided, out of the blue, that she was coming down to San Diego and that she wanted to catch up.

"Yo, Logan," came a voice, shaking Wyatt from his stupor. "You comin' old man?"

Wyatt looked up, blinking. "Huh?"

A few of his younger cohorts chuckled from where they'd started to gather on their way out the door. "Dude," one snickered, "he is zoned out. "

"Right?" another exclaimed, "What's on that phone, man?"

"Nothing," Wyatt mumbled, hoping his ears weren't turning red. He didn't need this from those little shits. "I'm coming," he added, giving one last glance of disbelief down at Lucy's message.

An ill-advised last glance, given that it apparently distracted him enough that he didn't notice one of said dumb little shits hopping up to stand on the bench next to him and reading over his shoulder.

"Text from Luuuucy," the kid announced, in a sing-song, taunting tone. Which of course elicited a bunch of whoops and hoots from the rest of them. "Logan's finally got a girl," another teased.

"There's no girl," Wyatt muttered, pushing past them out of the gym.

"'Lucy' though?" he heard one of them wonder aloud behind him. "Yo man, sounds like something you call, like, a… puppy or a kitten or some shit like that."

"She's not a puppy," Wyatt snapped, unable to stop the reflex to correct them. "Or anything else," he added in a low grumble.

"Oooo, defensive," came the reply. And another voice chimed in, "Not such a monk after all, huh?" Still one more was loud enough that Wyatt could hear even as he tried to put more distance between himself and the group by heading for the parking lot, "Look at that – I've never seen him like that, man."

Mercifully, Wyatt's training partner, Nate – who actually happened to be a friend from a few years back, not to mention his ride that day given that they lived in the same apartment complex off-base – hadn't gotten far enough ahead of the rest of them to miss what was going on.

Backtracking a bit to chastise the younger soldiers, Nate glared at them. "Ok, enough," he warned. "See you assholes tomorrow."

Wyatt was grateful for the rescue; he didn't need that kind of annoying shit even in the most innocuous of circumstances. When he'd just received a text from Lucy? Hell no. "Thanks, man," he said, nodding in appreciation.

If Nate responded somewhere in the space of them walking to the car, getting in and driving off, Wyatt didn't even notice.

Lucy. Had texted. And was coming here.

He really didn't know whether he was elated or devastated.

It had become pretty clear to him by the time they'd gone back to re-set things with Lucy's parents that he could no longer ignore the fact that he'd developed feelings for her. Pretty intense feelings, if he was going to be honest about it. The joy on her face when they'd returned to the present to find Amy's listing in Lucy's phone, replete with photos, texts, and call history? Wyatt had known more than ever that he wanted to be the person to make Lucy that happy all the time. And for the briefest second, he'd even entertained bringing that fact up to her to see where she stood on that sort of thing. But reality had hit hard when, to introduce her fellow Time Team members to her sister, Lucy had invited them to some party for Amy's podcast team for having been picked up by a bigger website. And yes, it had been a special event, not the normal day-to-day, but god… It was… weird. At least he'd had Rufus to hang out with, who had thankfully backed him up on the skepticism-front when the passed appetizers had turn out to be bizarre vegan concoctions with far too much reliance on avocados and cauliflower. But it wasn't so much the weird food… It was the trendy neighborhood, the whole podcast/downtown/city/cool-kid world, the intellectualism of it all… And Lucy fitting right in with it perfectly.

That was her life. Not time travel. Not trying to save the world. And certainly not some half-assed, long-distance, part-time-because-of-deployments relationship with a messed-up, reckless, lunkhead soldier from nowhereville Texas. Which, honestly, he figured she might have even said yes to trying, just to be polite, because that's who she was. But it never would have worked.

So he'd done them both a favor, talked himself out of doing anything, and just… left. Ducked out of Amy's party with half a wave at her from across the room and headed back to base the next day. And for the most part, then just tried to push Lucy out of his brain in the hope of just getting over her while she lived her life without him.

But n-

"Who's Lucy?" Nate asked suddenly, cutting into Wyatt's daze.

He looked up, caught off-guard. "Nobody," he lied.

Nate snorted. "Sure about that? Gonna burn a hole through that thing," he added, nodding down to where Wyatt still gripped his phone tightly, Lucy's text front-and-center on the lit-up screen.

Wyatt shook his head with a sigh. Caught red-handed. "She's…" he started, then thought better of it and reiterated, "It's nothing."

It seemed for a second that he'd been let off the hook, but as soon as the car rolled to a stop at a red light, Nate turned toward him. "Man, I've known you long enough to know you were married before. Those asses don't," he added, nodding back in the vague direction of where the younger soldiers lived on base in the bachelor housing. "And I know what happened. So I get why you've been alone for so long. But bro," he insisted, "I have never seen you like this."

Wyatt scoffed, even as he reflexively tapped the screen to brighten the message window again. "Like what?"

Nate just chuckled as the light switched to green. "Like… some freaking… sad puppy. Or cartoon character with hearts flashing in their eyes."

Wyatt snorted.

"No, seriously man, back there?" Nate insisted. "Totally dopey smitten-kitten thing going on. Also still going on right now."

"She's just someone from my last assignment. A friend," Wyatt tried to downplay. "Co-worker," he stressed.

"Hot?" Nate teased with a smirk.

Prompted like that, Wyatt couldn't have stopped his brain from going there if he'd tried. He really should have tried though... Hot? Well, yeah, but… She was more than that – whether in some ratty gown in the Pennsylvania woods, a Jackie O suit with Rufus' blood all over it, a silky slip in bed in a some gangster's cabin… topless in a New Jersey jail cell… even in the jeans and sneakers she threw on when they'd had late night missions. "She's… beautiful," Wyatt admitted, before he could stop himself.

Nate just laughed. "You got it bad, dude."

Wyatt sighed. He wasn't wrong. But it didn't matter. "She's… totally out of my league," he said, shaking his head. "Different world, man."

"What'd she text?" Nate asked.

"She wants to get coffee," Wyatt admitted reluctantly.

Nate laughed out loud. "Coffee?" he chortled. "So you've already been hooking up and she wants to break it off, or she wants to start hooking up. That's what 'coffee' is."

"Jesus, no," Wyatt denied immediately, recoiling and willing his brain to please, please not conjure up any images of that particular suggestion right now. "She's just gonna be in town for a meeting and, I dunno," he shrugged, "just wants to say hi or something. We're not… anything," he finished, deflated.

"In town?" Nate asked. "Oh, she's from up-"

"-north," Wyatt finished. "Yeah."

That clarification earned Wyatt a snort from his friend. "Dude," Nate scolded, "that's dinner, not coffee. Tell her you'll take her out."

Wyatt shook his head vehemently. "No." There was no way he'd be able to make it through dinner. Dinner was waaaay too much like a… date. And he was not dating Lucy. He couldn't let himself go there. Hell, even just coffee or a drink… he had to say no even to that.

And though they were nearing their apartment complex, Nate shot a quick glance around and took and impulsive left in the opposite direction. "Maybe I don't go home until you do," he snorted, smirking.

With a sigh and an exasperated head shake, Wyatt threatened, "Maybe I beat your ass."

The jerk had the gall to burst out laughing, pointing out, "Who just benched more than your sorry ass ever will?"

Wyatt scoffed, but didn't have a comeback for that; Nate wasn't wrong on that front. He probably had at least three inches and twenty pounds on Wyatt.

But, in the lull in the conversation, Wyatt's gaze drifted back down to his phone. He tapped at the screen to brighten it again without even thinking.

The next thing he knew, Nate was speaking again. "Seriously, man. Being real."

Wyatt looked up, startled by the sudden grave tone in his buddy's voice. And it was with even more confusion that he glanced around; without him even realizing it, Nate had pulled over, and they were the parking lot of some random IHOP. He eyed his friend quizzically.

"Look, bro," Nate said with a shrug, "this Lucy obviously… affects you. You've been single for a while. She texted you. Take her out."

Shoulders slumping, Wyatt just shook his head. "She-"

But Nate didn't even let him get a second word of protest out before he butted in again, instructing, "Even if it's just 'as friends'. Take the woman out to dinner. You never know."

Wyatt snorted. "I know. We'd never work, man."

"Take her out to dinner anyway," Nate insisted, undeterred. "She wants to see you. Don't be an asshole."

That gave Wyatt pause. The last thing he wanted to do, friends or not, dating or not (which they were definitely not), was to be any more of an ass to Lucy than he already had been so many times since they'd met in that Mason Industries waiting room however many months ago. (Including when he'd left Amy's party without saying goodbye...) For as much as it would be better for both of them to just keep going their separate ways, she had asked. And he could never bring himself to disappoint her if he could help it.

Wyatt eyed Nate skeptically. "And you'll actually turn around and go home if I text her back?"

Nate smirked. "If I approve."

Eyes falling closed, Wyatt took a deep breath. One dinner. He could get through that. So he forced himself to focus on the phone once more, and tapped out a reply before he could second guess himself anymore.

Hey, I should still be here. Just
let me know day/time. Can do
dinner if you want?

He held it out to Nate for approval. "Good enough for you?"

"Not really," Nate replied with a teasing jeer. "But I'll let it slide. Send it," he added, nodding down at the phone.

It was such a bad idea… There was no way Wyatt should have even been contemplating it… Not when he was trying to put the Lucy stage of his life behind him.

But he pressed 'Send' anyway.

Lucy

- 08/23/2017 Wed -

Hey, I should still be here. Just
let me know day/time. Can do
dinner if you want?

5:14 PM

Feeling defeated, Wyatt offered up his phone to Nate as evidence that he'd sent the message. "Can I go home now?"

While his snort still indicated that he wasn't exactly impressed, Nate gave in and threw the car back into drive.

Wyatt was grateful that his friend remained silent for the rest of the ride back to their apartments; his stomach was in knots as it was, just sitting there waiting for whenever Lucy would reply.

Thankfully, the drive was short, and with Wyatt having had just about enough of having to publicly deal with the emotional turmoil that Lucy's text, he was ready to jump out of the car when Nate rolled up to in front of his building.

But before he could get out, Nate spoke up. "Hey," he said seriously. "I know nothing about this Lucy girl, but you're into her. Like, a lot. Pretty obvious." And with a shrug, he added, "Maybe something happens."

Wyatt froze halfway out the door, hating that part of him did want something to happen. He shook his head and chewed at the inside of his lip. "Nah," he finally countered. "Better if it doesn't. It's just… dinner."

"Jesus, you're hopeless," Nate chuckled. "Get out. I'll see ya tomorrow."

"See ya," Wyatt replied, then closed the car door behind him.

He watched as Nate headed off to the parking lot at the other end of the complex, wondering how in the hell he'd let himself get talked into not only accepting Lucy's offer to see her, but actually taking it a step further and turning it into dinner.

If she even accepted. Maybe she'd only been being polite? And wouldn't want more than a quick drink herself? Wyatt glanced down to where he gripped his phone tightly. No reply.

So he turned and trudged inside the building, the prospect of his looming online language lessons far from enticing.

No reply from Lucy as he jogged up the stairs. No reply from Lucy as he unlocked his door. No reply from Lucy as he entered his apar-

And, oh god… He was going to be checking the damn phone every three seconds until she did reply, wasn't he? Fuck.

Wyatt was under no illusion that the damn Duolingo owl was going to be enough of a distraction from checking his stupid phone constantly. He needed to physically get away from it.

So, before he drove himself crazy, he flung his phone onto the couch somewhere, snagged his ancient iPod and earbuds from his desk, and turned right back around and left the building. He may well have just come from a pretty brutal workout already, but he had a feeling that going for a long jog with music blaring in his ears might have been his only shot at keeping Lucy out of his head.

Talk about trying to run from your problems. He could only hope that it worked.

Lucy

- 08/23/2017 Wed -

Hope things are good w you. I
have a meeting in SD in a few
weeks. Coffee or drink to catch
up? If you're free/still around.

3:38 PM

Hey, I should still be here. Just
let me know day/time. Can do
dinner if you want?

5:14 PM

Sure, dinner works. If you have
time. Thurs Sept 14. At UCSD
until 5ish. Have to be at airport
by 845-9.

6:09 PM

Sounds good. You know a
place? Or should I find
one? Near airport prob best.

6:25 PM

I don't know SD v well. You
pick.

6:31 PM

I'll find something. Will let you
know.

6:32 PM

Ok. See you then.

6:34 PM

(*thumbs-up*)

6:34 PM

TBC...

Bah, this site doesn't let me format things the way I want. No right-justify or wingdings/symbols (for that thumb emoji there at the end)? Boo. Sorry :\