Time flies, doesn't it? Did not mean to take so long to update this…

I hope people are staying safe/healthy/financially secure in these odd times. Strange, isn't it – it's rare that the whole world is dealing with one thing at the same time, but here were all are. Thanks much to healthcare and other essential workers who are out there, at risk, for the rest of us. Thanks to those of you who can, and do, stay home to stop the spread.

Thanks also to qwertygal for checking this over for me! Though she didn't check the latest version – any mistakes are on me :)

Sometimes it's so easy
To let a day
Slip on by
Without even seeing each other at all

Wyatt wrinkled his nose as he ran his tongue over his freshly-cleaned teeth on his way out to the parking lot. Why in the hell did those dental hygienists always make it a point to practically destroy his gums in the name of a mere checkup? It's not like he had bad teeth, so what the hell?

He just hoped his mouth was back to normal by the time he saw Lucy in cas-

No, he chastised himself. No. It was just dinner.

…never mind that their last dinner had him about two seconds from leaning in to kiss her. With the mouth that currently felt like it had been torn to shreds.

But he would not let that happen again. It was dinner. Nothing else.

…except the rides he'd promised her, insisting that a rental car was a waste when he could pick her up for dinner and bring her to the airport after. But nothing else. And all that was still only because she'd texted again, insisting that she owed him for paying last time she was in town. Not because he wanted to be with her.

Because he didn't.

…except he totally did.

And he'd had to physically distance himself from his phone multiple times over the past few weeks, lest he give in and allow himself to text her. Or worse, call her.

Of course, his success in resisting those temptations were just going to end up moot, considering that he'd be seeing her in person again in less than an hour, and was just going to end up all tongue-tied and drooling over her yet again.

Since meeting her, and even more so since leaving San Francisco, Wyatt had lost count of how many times he'd wished that he'd met Lucy in some other circumstances, some other timeline, where they were just… different people and actually made sense together. Or that he hadn't been such an idiot and had actually been open to being with her when they were doing the time travel crap, which is when they might have made the tiniest bit of sense together.

But even in those fleeting moments when he was now willing to admit to himself that he wanted to be with her, what he wanted still didn't actually matter. She was the poised, charismatic, prestigious-university professor living in the Bay Area. Nothing was ever going to change that he was the Texas hick, son of a no-good drunk who just went wherever the US Army told him to.

Lucy deserved more than him, that was for sure.

But that didn't stop him from pausing when he caught a glimpse of a florist in the same strip mall as his dentist.

Wyatt let out a wry chuckle at himself and just how pathetic and powerless he was when it came to resisting Lucy... He'd scheduled the dentist appointment to try to keep his mind off her. It made sense to get a checkup and a cleaning before he got deployed anywhere, and since the office was down toward San Diego anyway, it was killing two birds with one stone given that had he stayed up at Pendleton, he'd have spent the entire day getting worked up about seeing her and then getting more worked up about the fact that he was getting worked up about her when he really shouldn't have been.

The dentist appointment was supposed to help with that. But damn that dentist and hygienist for not being behind schedule for once, leaving him with over half an hour of down time before he had to go pick Lucy up at the university, with only his stupid brain to keep himself company.

And apparently his stupid brain had decided to zero in on the freaking flower shop and the notion that he should buy some for Lucy.

Which was ridiculous. It wasn't a date. They weren't in a relationship. There was no need for flowers. Co-workers didn't get flowers for no reason. He wouldn't get them for Jiya, and he wouldn't get them for Agent Christopher. And he knew them in exactly the same context as he knew Lucy.

But before he could talk himself out of it, Wyatt found himself crossing the parking lot toward the florist.

Apparently, he would get flowers for Lucy, because not ten minutes later, he found himself back out in the parking lot, still with sore gums, but this time clutching a small bundle of …daisies, he was pretty sure. Plus some other blue and purple things that he'd already forgotten the name of.

He could still back out of giving them to her, he told himself. He had them, but he didn't have to give them to her. He could hide them in the back of the car, and they'd just be co-workers, and she'd go home to Stanford still none the wiser about just how pathetic he was when it came to her.

Still, when Wyatt reached his Jeep, he couldn't bring himself to toss the flowers in the back.

With a sigh, he flopped into the driver's seat, setting the bouquet on the seat next to him with his phone and the free floss from the dentist.

Fuck. He just wanted to magically be more than a nobody soldier, be living closer to Lucy, and pretty much just be a different person altogether. Then these feelings he was having might have snowball's chance in hell of actually coming to fruition, with him actually in a real relationship with her. Was that really so much to ask?

Wyatt was halfway through a self-deprecating eyeroll when his phone buzzed to life on the passenger seat, Lucy's name popping up bright and insistent on the screen.

And he couldn't help but grin as a few little butterflies took flight in his stomach.

Fuck, he was in so much trouble.

But hey, pathetic as he was, at least maybe he'd get to see her sooner than he'd anticipated. With a swipe of his thumb over the phone's surface, still smiling, Wyatt greeted, "Hey, you done earl-"

"Wyatt," Lucy cut him off, sounding far less enthusiastic than he felt. "I am so sorry. I-"

Wyatt didn't mean to then cut her off, but he couldn't help the breath that escaped him in a deflated "Wh-?"

"The stupid chair of the scheduling committee decided that he wants to add a whole separate session for students," Lucy blurted out, "because he wants to give more of them a chance to give talks, which they wouldn't have done in a regular sessions, because they would have just gotten a poster, but now we have-"

She hadn't gotten to the punchline yet, amidst her rambling, but the sinking feeling in Wyatt's stomach told him all he needed to know. "Lucy?" he cut in once more, trying to prompt her to get to the point.

There was a pause, and then when she did speak again, Wyatt could barely hear her, her voice so quiet and timid as she explained, "We're going to be here until later tonight. We have to rearrange the whole workshop schedule, and they're talking about ordering food later. I can't come to dinner; I am so sorry."

Wyatt set his jaw stoically; it was pretty much what he'd figured from the first word out of her mouth. "Hey, no big deal," he forced himself to reply, keeping his tone purposefully detached and casual. "You're here for work, right? Not me."

"I know," Lucy protested, "but-"

"It's ok," Wyatt insisted, his tone cool. "I'll catch you next time or something."

"…ok," she echoed in a small voice, sounding almost crestfallen, Wyatt realized. Before he could unpack that entirely, she followed it up with yet another timid apology. "I'm really sorry. I- I wanted to see you."

And damn it all, when she sounded like that, saying that, he felt helpless to resist bringing up the ride he'd promised. Because what if she really did want to see him?

"…You still need a ride to the airport later?" Wyatt hedged tentatively. "You don't have a rental this time, right?"

"Oh, no," Lucy deflected immediately. "You- you don't have to come down here just for me. I, uh, I'm-" she stammered, "I'll just share a cab with one of the other people with a flight tonight."

Wyatt closed his eyes and shook his head. Clearly if she did want to see him, she didn't want to see him that much.

And down here. She figured he was still up near Pendleton, not quite heading out to pick her up yet. So, better to look pathetic and tell her he was already in town, overly anxious about seeing her, and willing to wait around for another five hours for her, but then still get to see her and drive her to the airport? Or be a coward, let her think he's still at home and not so affected by her, keep his distance and let her make her own way to the airport?

He hated himself for it the instant the words started tumbling out of his mouth, but he went full freakin' coward. "Ok," he conceded. "I will… see you around then. Uh, safe flight," he choked out as an afterthought, as if such a pleasantry could somehow help him save face for basically ditching her, even if she had told him to.

"…yeah. Bye," Lucy murmured, softly enough that he had to strain to hear her.

Wyatt wasn't even sure that she was on the line anymore when he offered a lame "Bye…" of his own, so focused on the unsettled feeling in the pit of his stomach was he.

He stabbed at the 'End call' button with his thumb.

Fuck. Fuck, indeed. So not only was he not going to see her, he was upset that he wasn't going to see her, and to top it off, he'd freaking run away with his tail between his legs and couldn't even be bothered to suck it up and bring her to the airport.

And, he noted bitterly as he tossed his phone onto the passenger seat with a little more violence than necessary, now he had the stupid flowers. Stupid flowers mocking him from the other side of the car. Stupid that he got them in the first place, and now even more stupid considering that Lucy's career was always going to come before him – as it should. Because she deserved more than him anyway.

Lucy's shoulders slumped as she stared at the phone she clutched, Wyatt's name fading as he ended the call. When the screen went black, she let her eyes fall closed and leaned back against the wall behind her.

She felt so stupid.

Biting her lip and willing her eyes not to water, Lucy shook her head. There she was, hiding out in the hallway away from her colleagues, practically on the verge of crying over a cancelled dinner, and Wyatt sounded like he didn't even care one way or the other.

Why the hell was she so… affected by him?

She should have known better by now, shouldn't she? That hint of possibilities that day when they'd gone to save Amy. Only for him to claim he didn't even know what he really meant by it.

And last month… The hug at her car had been déjà vu, and she could have sworn that he was actually going to kiss her that time. And then her stupid phone had gone and ruined it.

Now? Nothing. Not that she'd necessarily …expected anything this time either, but it still would have been nice to see him. Even as friends. Which she'd thought they were.

But given just how blasé he'd just sounded when she'd cancelled? Were they even really that?

Lucy sniffed and took a shaky breath, trying to pull herself together. Wyatt wasn't wrong; she was there for work, and they still had a good four or five hours of nit-picky schedule rearranging to deal with. Which meant she was going to have to suck it up and try to focus on the meeting, no matter how much she'd rather have had her own private pity party.

So she pushed herself up off the wall and furtively swiped at her cheeks in case any stray tears had indeed managed to slip out without notice. One more shaky breath and Lucy was able to steel herself to return to her colleagues. Her phone, guilty by association, got shoved in her back pocket as she headed back into the conference room.

The chaos of essentially having to revamp the entire workshop schedule turned out to be mostly a blessing in disguise, because the next couple of hours weren't quite the torture she'd expected.

Until it came time to order takeout for dinner, which just served to remind her that she should have been out with Wyatt for dinner. Which just then reminded her further that Wyatt didn't really seem to want to be out with her.

She ended up barely picking at her burrito, listlessly pushing bits of it around the foil wrapper instead of actually eating much of anything.

Mercifully, the clock near the door finally dragged its hands to where they needed to be for Lucy to have a reasonable excuse to leave for the airport. She was just as grateful that the colleague sharing a ride with her spent the entirety of the drive on the phone with his kid; the last thing she felt up to was inane small talk. Of course, it might have been at least a bit of a distraction, given that without any sort of conversation, Lucy was left only with her own thoughts, which meant wallowing in dejected disappointment, and then feeling dumb for feeling disappointed, for the whole ride to the airport. And in the security line. And waiting at the gate. And for the whole flight. By the time she touched down at San Jose, Lucy was more than ready to just crawl into bed and try to forget everything about the day.

Not that she'd been successful yet in trying to forget about Wyatt, but she could still try. Sleep would at least be a break from feeling constantly on the edge of tears.

Except, Lucy realized glumly, Amy had once again agreed to pick her up. So she'd at least have to deal with her sister before the retreat to bed.

Once off the plane, Lucy trudged to the arrivals doors. She didn't see Amy yet, but made her way out to an empty area of the curb anyway.

God, she just wished that things were different with Wyatt. That he hadn't been married to Jessica, or that she hadn't been killed and they'd gotten divorced instead. So maybe they could have just gotten together earlier, back during their missions, with fewer emotional strings on his end.

Lucy shook her head and practically laughed out loud to herself at that; as if a guy like him would have been single for very long if he hadn't had the mitigating circumstances of his wife having been murdered. And even if he had been, it's not like 'bland, boring professor' was the kind of thing that good-looking career soldiers fell for.

Yeah, it probably would have been better if they'd never even-

"Hello? Earth to Lucy?"

Lucy jumped; she'd been so wrapped up in her misery that she hadn't even noticed Amy pull up in front of her.

Once she'd shaken off the minor shock, Lucy flung open the passenger door and climbed in; she just wanted to get home and sleep.

"Hey," Amy greeted her with a lazy grin.

Shoving her bag between her feet and buckling up – which, of course, only served to remind her of the Lifeboat and Wyatt strapping her in – Lucy mumbled a glum "Hi" in response. And with a deep sigh, she closed her eyes and let her head loll back against the seat.

After a beat, the car still not pulling away from the curb, Amy's voice piped up again. "…that's it?" she asked, "No 'yay, my meeting was so productive'?"

Lucy just feigned sleep and remained silent. After the day she'd had, she was not in the mood for conversation, even with Amy.

Amy did finally pull out into traffic, but it didn't stop her from getting in another jibe. "Or even a 'thank you, dearest sister, for staying up late and braving the freaking insane airport traffic to pick up my sorry ass. Again.'?"

Lucy was definitely not in the mood for Amy's snark either. With a wry snort, she spat out an obligatory "Thanks", without even bothering to open her eyes.

She thought she might have been in the clear, but it wasn't long before her sister's voice cut through the quiet in the car once again. "Ok, really," Amy prompted. "Are you ok?"

No.

"I'm fine," Lucy lied.

"Liar," Amy snorted.

Lucy scoffed, lifting her head so she could stare out the window. Of course she wasn't fine. Of course Amy knew she wasn't fine. But the only reason she wasn't fine is because she was being stupid, and letting herself get way too invested in… something that wasn't even a relationship. Which was just pathetic, so she wasn't about to let Amy in on that information.

Even more pathetic, given that she could feel her eyes welling up. Lucy was grateful that it was dark, and that only one tear managed to escape, but she was still pretty sure that Amy noticed her wipe it away anyway. Mercifully, her little sister chose that moment to have some tact and didn't say anything.

The rest of the ride home was quiet. Lucy could feel Amy's eyes on her as they climbed out of the car when they got back to the house, but once inside, she was left alone in the foyer as Amy headed for the TV and some late-night talkshow.

Lucy eyed the stairs – yet another spot she'd sat in, nearly crying over Wyatt – and sighed. None of it was Amy's fault, and she shouldn't have been so cold to her in the car. So she inched toward the doorway, where she could see her sister texting away as commercials flitted across the TV screen.

"…I'm going to bed," Lucy spoke up haltingly. "…Thank you. For the ride."

With a grin, Amy looked up from her phone and shrugged. "You owe me one."

Lucy tried not to wince at the unfortunate wording. She owed Wyatt a dinner.

But she must not have been as good at hiding her reaction as she'd hoped; Amy frowned in concern, asking, "You sure you're ok?"

"Just…" Lucy bit her lip. "…a long day," she forced out, far more pleasantly than she felt. "We were working on stuff right until I had to get back to the airport." Which wasn't even a lie.

Amy's brow furrowed, sarcastic skepticism all over her face. "Isn't that what you… do?" she teased.

"No, I was-" Lucy managed to catch herself in time; admitting to anything regarding Wyatt was not what she needed to do right now. Any mention of any guy, and Amy latched on hard. And Wyatt was… nothing. So she fudged her explanation a little bit, stating, "We, um, go grab dinner or drinks and stuff. After the meeting." Never mind that the 'we' in question was not the 'we' she was intending Amy to hear it as.

"Oh, I see how it is," Amy snorted, laughing. "A 'work trip' and you dorks just all end up at the bar? And now you're all mopey because you had to actually work on a work trip?"

Lucy gave a weak nod of agreement and forced a shaky smile. "Yeah…"

Amy didn't need to know why she was actually upset. Especially considering that she didn't even really have any good reason to be upset. She was the one who had needed to cancel. Wyatt hadn't done anything wrong, and he didn't owe her anything in the first place. She'd allow herself one cry, one wallow, when she got upstairs, and then she was just going to have to get over it. Get over him.

Though Amy was already engrossed in her phone again, Lucy murmured a half-hearted "G'night," and headed up the stairs.

Hopefully sleep would help.

Unfortunately, once Lucy was up in her room, she realized that her own phone was still in airplane mode. And, not even thinking, she switched it back to normal.

There was a bit of a delay while the dated model sorted itself out, but there it was waiting for her when she returned to her room after brushing her teeth.

A text. From Wyatt.

Wyatt Logan – cell

- 10/05/2017 Thu -

You get home ok? Let me know?

10:28 PM

Her heart pounded as she sank down on her bed, biting her lip and trying to ward off the overwhelmed tears she knew were coming.

How could he be so unaffected earlier, and then do this? Checking up on her, as if he did actually care? Couldn't he just pick one or the other and stop the back and forth that had been wreaking havoc with her emotions since that afternoon?

It was just too much for her to deal with that late at night, after such a long day.

Feeling defeated, she set her phone on the nightstand, fully prepared to just ignore it – him – for… well, for however long she could.

Except… once she'd burrowed under her covers and flipped off the bedside lamp, the phone – and text – were still there.

Lucy sighed, staring up at her ceiling in the darkness. He'd cared enough to text. If she didn't reply, he might get worried, and-

She allowed herself a hiccuped snort of a stifled laugh at that, even as she wiped away the streak of a tear from her cheek. Would he get worried? Or by tomorrow would he just forget that he'd texted at all?

In the end it didn't really matter, because she was too polite for her own good. She couldn't just not answer.

So she reached for her phone and tapped out the most cursory of replies.

Wyatt Logan – cell

- 10/05/2017 Thu -

You get home ok? Let me know?

10:28 PM

- 10/06/2017 Fri -

Yes. Home now.

12:52 AM

And with that, she turned off her phone completely. She couldn't even begin to guess at what he might text back, if he did at all. But she didn't need to lie awake waiting for him if he didn't.

Instead, she rolled onto her stomach, feeling a little bit helpless, and a little bit hopeless, wishing, as a few tears dampened the sheet beneath her cheek, that she hadn't had to cancel their dinner.

And wishing that Wyatt had cared a little more that she had.

TBC…