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Image by @tinymintywolf
Screencap courtesy gv-archive.com
“…...no wonder Lucy said I should give you a ‘second chance’,
you wouldn’t give up pestering her!……” Jessica Logan
An Oilfield, San Antonio, Texas, 23 November 1936
At the hatch of the Lifeboat, Lucy stared down at what seemed like a ‘precipice’ beneath her. Letting out a sigh of resignation, she put one foot on the door ledge.....
Then..... a strange thing happened.....
‘Oohh! This was an unusual feeling! Of being lifted as though as light as air by strong arms gripping her waist as she instinctively reached out putting her hands on the firm muscular shoulders that were immediately in front of her. Coming out of her daze she saw the sparkling green/brown eyes of Garcia Flynn with that ‘special‘ look on his face that he seemed to have only for her.'
“Gar…” was all she could get out as he moved her across and slowly to his left in a fluid movement, his arms accidently sliding up her bare back under her loose blouse as he did so. Arching her back, she gasped with surprised pleasure at the sensation, Garcia fully noting her reaction which joined his as he had never expected to hold her so intimately. They were both startled by an awareness and Garcia wobbled a little on his feet as he set her down. She also stumbled a little and, still holding her, his concerned voice quickly asked if she was okay. He seemed a little embarrassed. She still had a look of pleasure.
“I’m fine...fine…..that’s not the normal way I leave the Lifeboat!’ Looking up at his face ‘...but certainly the nicest...ever.”
His smile was as wide as hers as he briefly nodded in reply.
“I usually have to manage on my own." she continued.
Garcia frowned with disgust.
“Not even….. ?” hastening to stop himself, Garcia instantly regretted his words. She had enough reminders of Wyatt’s behaviour on a daily basis at the bunker, not least now that Jessica, Wyatt’s supposedly dead wife, was living with them.
"Nooooo, he’s usually too busy "leading us!” and she laughed.
He grinned, pleased that she seemed that she could stop justifying anything Wyatt did.
Time after time on a mission, she was left to get out of the Lifeboat on her own, despite often costumed with a large voluminous skirt or high heels (depending on time period) and the distance to the ground from the Lifeboat landings varied in height. While others jumped, she had to struggle to edge her way down the outside surface.
She was the last to leave the Lifeboat this time and seeing how high the hatch was from the ground, and her hesitation, Garcia had waited to lift her out with ease.
They both noticed that he was still holding her and Garcia quickly released her in a slightly awkward manner his face turning away slightly. She could still feel the imprint of his hands on her back and she wriggled a little to enjoy it more. They both looked ahead.
Connor had been first to leave the Lifeboat and a short distance away, waxed lyrically about the universe. Nearby, Rufus looked bemused.
Connor experienced his first time travel sickness marked by Garcia’s “..and bang goes the dynamite...!” and the team moved off.
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The small 1930’s car sped along the bumpy unmade roads as the team drove from Cassie Thompson’s bar back to the Lifeboat, their mission complete.
What a change in atmosphere from usual, no weariness, no injuries, no sense of ‘failure’.
Connor and Rufus were in the back seats discussing various aspects of ‘blues’ singers and songs, both in their own cloud of happiness after all that had happened.
Lucy sat next to Garcia who was driving. They weren’t talking, just enjoying the ride ‘home’ and snatching occasional glances and smiling broadly at each other .
Lucy and Garcia both felt rather overwhelmed by the whole mission and the revelations and changes in behaviour between them that had come about from it.
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In the Gunther Hotel room after they had arrived, Garcia had joked that he was more fun than Wyatt on missions, as a way of breaking the ice between them. Surprisingly she smiled, realising that he was and nodded, joining in his joke. “Yes, we do seem to do well...together. It’s nice, you always seem to know the right thing to do, .....makes things easier.”
When he mentioned ‘her journal’ she was not as defensive as usual and asked if he would tell her more about that Lucy.
"I’d be happy too....I feel I know her rather well.” Garcia had replied and they left it at that.
While they had been driving, chasing the Rittenhouse agent to Cassie Johnson's bar, a Bing Crosby song had played on the radio. It reminded them both of those they had lost - Garcia's wife Lorena and his daughter Iris and Lucy’s sister Amy. They opened up to each other about memories of both. Garcia told her that the Lucy in ‘the journal’ was very impressive and Lucy was surprised that he used such a word to describe her. Enjoying her willingness to talk he said that he would like to get to know her and she said that she would like that too despite the fact that the atmosphere in the Bunker wasn’t very conducive, particularly with Wyatt’s antipathy towards him. Then they sat in silence, she moving in her seat so that she could look at him more easily. He didn’t seem to mind as he was making sideways glances at her and smiling too. They were both more relaxed and both becoming more and more aware of each other.
Listening to Robert Johnson recording at the bar, she sat close to him at a table and looked at him, smiling at how he was tapping his foot to the music. It had felt almost like a ‘date’ and she decided to say “we made quite the team today” as a comment on the success of the mission. Glad that she remembered his words, he raised his glass in a toast saying “and when we know each other better we will be unbeatable!” as he looked directly at her. Lucy muttered the word “together…’" almost to herself and beamed a smile at him.
When they got back to the Lifeboat, it was Garcia who lifted her up into it. Again, Lucy enjoyed the sensation of his arms holding her firmly and she continued to smile at him, noticing that he took a little extra time while doing this, keeping her in his arms just that little bit longer. Rufus and Connor, still on their cloud, paid little attention.
================
The wind clearing and the sound of the Lifeboat hatch opening was always a time Denise and Jiya held their breath, wondering what sight awaited them.
As the hatch opened and the team started to come out, they noticed a real change in mood. All the team were laughing and joking.
Coming down the steps:
Lucy: “Oh, my gosh, Jiya, you should've seen it. It was amazing." she gushed.
Garcia: “Mason was something truly to behold.“ Garcia was laughing genuinely too, something not seen before in the Bunker.
Well this was a change, a welcome one – the team arriving back in good spirits as though they had just been on an outing and not bearing a worn expression on their faces or wounded.
Lucy was first to reach the bottom of the steps and stopped close by. Garcia had followed her out of the Lifeboat and with everyone crowding around the bottom of the steps, was about to bump into her from behind but managed to stop and held his arms away from her.
“Sorry, Lucy…"
Lucy turned and noticed what had probably happened and was...disappointed... ‘It would have been quite nice to be caught in his arms...again.’
“It’s okay...” came out rather like a sigh.
Jiya: Sounds like you guys had fun, huh?
Connor was exuberant: Oh, well, yeah, that all depends, though. Were there hippies in the '60s? And a band called Led Zeppelin?
Jiya:Duh.
Lucy, softly, "Elvis?" There were glances at Lucy, given this hitherto undisclosed information about her.
"Oh yes, but...."
“That’s okay, ...I know......” she sounded a little sad. Elvis Presley died at the age of 42 on August 16 1977.
Lucy decided on a ‘throw away’ comment - “Well, I only like the best” and looked straight from under her eyelashes at Garcia as she said it. Garcia’s body instantly indicated his feelings to him and he just about held himself together. Pleased at their growing closeness, he continued to smile at her.
“You did it.” exclaimed Garcia, congratulating Connor.
“Nice!“ Rufus added.
Jiya: Yes.
Wyatt came up to the group, his eyes, as always, on Lucy. He carried his helmet and was still wearing a flak jacket. He scowled seeing Garcia and Lucy laughing together.
Denise turned to him and then explained to everyone that Rittenhouse’s HQ had been found and Wyatt had gone in alone on a reconnaissance mission that had turned into a hard hit but with Keynes, Carol Preston and Emma now on the run. She omitted the fact that Wyatt failed to shoot Carol Preston when he had the chance, letting her escape and Denise was now mulling a difficult decision about this.
“De-briefing in an hour" reminded Denise to everyone .
Conversation followed as the team separated. Garcia looked at Lucy, his face a question. and she nodded, heading off with him, towards his room.
“You seem to be 'Going My Way'" joked Garcia, reminding Lucy of another famous Bing Crosby song.
As they turned the corner, still talking and laughing about the mission, their hands brushed together for a moment and they both felt the crackle of electricity between them.
'Feeling the moment' still she snuggled her arm through his as they slowly walked along. There was a moment’s hesitation and then he pulled her closer and he took her hand, his large fingers closing onto hers with a decisive grip.
They nodded an understanding to each other, both acknowledging the change in their relationship.
Then their reverie was broken as they heard Wyatt’s voice. “Lucy can I have a word?“
Garcia noticed that Lucy managed to swallow an exasperated sigh.
She turned to face him and her expression should have told him that she was ‘otherwise occupied’ at that moment.
“I just wanted to say that Jessica is giving me a second chance and that it’s thanks to you.”
“Well that’s what you always wanted” she replied, blandly stating the blindingly obvious.
Garcia was still holding hands firmly and Wyatt’s face showed that he had noticed this. Neither of them wanted to relinquish the hold, and Garcia certainly didn’t, if it annoyed Wyatt.
Ignoring the fact that Garcia was actually standing there -‘’What about Flynn? You keep him on a short leash?"
‘’He was actually ‘’great.‘ said with emphasis and looking up at Garcia as she replied.
Wyatt’s face was starting to twitch.
Garcia was desperate to move on because he just wanted to burst out laughing at Lucy’s treatment of Wyatt. ‘LONG overdue’ he thought and he oh so gently pulled her hand slightly and whispered. “atta girl Lucy”. She giggled and held him closer.
Lucy’s voice became uncharacteristically sharper‘’ We’ll [emphasis on the plural] see you at the de-briefing. Go to your wife [emphasis again] Wyatt.”
Wyatt rocked on his feet a little at Lucy’s tone.
And then she and Garcia turned and carried on walking. She was squeezing his hand so tightly now.
Wyatt had gone expressing a loud ‘hmmphfff’.
Garcia laughed and taking leave of her hand put his arm around her shoulders instead pulling her closer to him. She turned and looked up at him and said ”that’s nice.....” and put her arm around his waist.
At his room, Garcia opened the door for Lucy and she ventured inside, feeling a little nervous, but she looked up at him with innocence in her eyes and a fluttering of eyelashes - “I think you wanted to ‘get to know me’…..”
“Oh Lucy, we only have half an hour before the de-briefing, what can we do in that time?"
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At the de-briefing later Denise looked very serious. She was glad that the mission had gone well and that Connor had been able to participate in a good way, saving the day.
Both Connor and Rufus were still on their ‘cloud’ and it was only Wyatt who was scowling, still fuming at Lucy’s mood towards him. Jessica hadn’t been exactly ecstatic either when she realised that Wyatt had gone straight to Lucy when he came back from the mission instead of her. When he noticed both Garcia and Lucy had very swollen mouths, his fury intensified.
It was later that night, when all was quiet that Lucy got up from the couch to make her way to Garcia’s room as they had arranged. She looked at the vodka bottle under the couch and smiled. She certainly wasn’t going to need that tonight!!
=================
The next morning Garcia and Lucy, spooned together in his tiny bunk, woke early as she was going to have to leave his room to go back to the couch for appearances sake. They were deliriously happy being now finally "together" in more ways than one!!
She was dragging out their ‘goodbye for now’, not wanting to be away from his touch for any length of time, even until breakfast.
Garcia had just opened the door when they both heard a furtive sounding noise from further along the corridor and saw a shadow in the early morning light – Wyatt!!
“So much for the only thing he wanted was to have his wife back!” Lucy was disgusted, her face more than showing it.
Garcia kept this thoughts on the subject to himself for the moment, then smiled a smile that could only be described as “naughty”.
“Why don’t we give him something to ‘look at?’”
Lucy looked at him gleefully wide-eyed, ready to join in any plot Garcia might have in mind.
A giggle. “Oh YES!!”
Lucy looked as though she had slept in her clothes (far from it!) and Garcia's hair was very unkempt. He took off his robe, leaving himself just in his black underpants.
The door opened and Lucy walked slowly out but was grabbed and pinned to the door frame by the nearly naked Garcia who delivered even more kisses of the kind most women dream of. They kept this up for a couple of minutes, while Wyatt was obviously choking in disgust.
Then....there was another voice... Jessica!
“...Wyatt, you got up early...whatsthematter....? Then in falsetto.. “OMG what ARE you doing here?” She gasped as she saw Garcia and Lucy entwined.
‘I was worried about her....’’ was Wyatt’s pitiful, really pitiful reply.
Continuing falsetto..‘’Well she certainly doesn’t look like she’s in any trouble at the moment!!!!…You lousy, arrogant, lying bastard!” Mimicking Wyatt’s voice: “I’ve changed Jessica, really I have…”
“No wonder Lucy said I should give you a ‘second chance’, you wouldn’t give up pestering her! All you seem to do is continually check on what she’s doing! And you brought me down here to ….” she looked around her...”THIS? Well, that’s IT! Don’t think you can come creeping back to bed ...you’re on your own! Find somewhere else to sleep, then your ‘nocturnal activities’ won’t disturb me!!”
She stormed off hugging her robe about her. He heard the door of their room bang and then lock, leaving Wyatt standing there wondering what to do next and, in his disjointed way of thinking, why Jessica would be so mean to him.
It was too much to expect that this fracas went unheard, given the thinness of the walls of the Bunker. Doors were angrily pulled open, some very rude utterances were shouted and doors were slammed shut again.
Wyatt stood there with his petulant face, known to many, realising that at that moment he had absolutely nowhere to go. Not his room, nowhere, unless he sat in the dining/sitting room and he couldn’t do that because Lucy would be there on the couch and that would involve explanations to anyone else who came to the kitchen and had voiced their feelings about him a little earlier.
Garcia and Lucy went back into his room for a joint giggling fit, having enjoyed the moment very much.
“Serve him right and then some…” Lucy just managed to get out while trying to calm down her giggles.
“What a great start to the day...after our ‘goodbye’ ......” Garcia said slowly, looking down straight into her eyes.
“...Yes, that would be a great ‘start’ to any day....” and they both knew to what she was referring.
“And now I really must go before anyone else is up.”
“Well, before you do…” and there was that firm mouth on hers again, his grip on her a little stronger this time, before slowly letting let her go. He watched her walk with a jaunty air down the corridor, past Wyatt who was sitting on the floor completely unable to understand why his life was so shitty.
Her breezy “Morning Wyatt” as she went by was so shiny that the sun got a rest for a moment.
=================
There was a long but cheerful queue outside the bathroom that morning as the others decided that it was more than their turn for hot water, (Wyatt always using it up for himself with no concern for anyone else) keeping it fully occupied so that, when they had all finished, the water was stone cold. What was that expression? ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold’?
Breakfast was a strange affair. Wyatt and Jessica were noticeably absent apart from the sounds of raised voices from their room and lots of stomping around and drawers and cupboards being open and banged shut.
Sensing a bad situation, both Rufus and Jiya had their heads down, obviously doing a joint study on the nutritional value of their cereal. Connor was contemplating his coffee cup as though he was trying to ‘read’ their future in the coffee grounds.
Garcia and Lucy sat together quietly
If it was possible, smoke would have been coming out of Denise’ head.
No-one had ever seen her so livid.
‘THIS situation simply couldn’t go on!!’ She’d been advised of what had happened upon her arrival that morning and her decision the previous night would now seem the only answer.
‘They were fighting a war with Rittenhouse, Wyatt didn’t take the chance to take out Carol Preston and now I have domestic tantrums?’
She spoke to both Wyatt and Jessica separately. She made it understood that Jessica’s presence in the Bunker could no longer be tolerated and that she would be removed and de-briefed as soon as it could be arranged. After Wyatt disobeying her order to take out Carol Preston at the raid on Rittenhouse while the rest of the team were in San Antonio, she considered that he could no longer be part of the team and he would be allowed to resign his commission and a replacement for him would be brought in. 'This was not going to look good for me either' she thought as he signed the relevant papers.
Removing Carol Preston would have made quite a difference with Rittenhouse, perhaps bringing an earlier end to the team’s continuing quest to bring them down. She appreciated that Carol was Lucy’s mother but Lucy had now long accepted her mother for what she really was. In any event, Denise had planned to tell Lucy that her mother has been ‘caught in crossfire’ and killed to save her any more grief than she had already been through.
Jessica quickly packed her things and then sat next to her bags as leaving couldn’t come soon enough for her.
Wyatt went through yet another version of “oh but I love you and I really will change. I didn‘t know that Lucy had moved on....” to absolutely no avail. He, too, had to accept Denise’ decision.
========================
Later that day there was suddenly the whir of the blades of a dark helicopter overhead before “Raaaah Raaaah Raaaah,” the perimeter alarm sounded. Everyone looked frightened and Garcia immediately wanted to go for his gun.
Denise stood up and said loudly “It is okay, I asked for this.” She looked at her watch...”Right would everyone now please go to their rooms and stay there until I advise you otherwise. Lucy, perhaps you would go in with Flynn...and Flynn, I particularly do not want you to be seen. Garcia nodded in firm agreement and everyone did as they were instructed.
Several armed, uniformed Homeland Security Officers entered the Bunker and greeted Denise. In the next few moments both Wyatt and Jessica found themselves under guard. Wyatt was advised that his commission was now at an end. Jessica was held, ostensibly for a de-briefing but, given that she could have been a ‘plant’ from Rittenhouse, she was going to be held indefinitely.
Denise stood there feeling disgusted and let down over Wyatt’s behaviour, someone who had chosen to let his personal feelings continually interfere with missions in direct violation of his duty, even after she had stuck up for him early on in their quest.
Wyatt’s replacement, Dave Baumgardner, had slipped out of the helicopter unseen as he did not want to bump into his friend, Wyatt, in such circumstances. The team already knew him and he was welcomed later on when the helicopter had long gone.
Unusually, nobody really had much to say after that and they generally moved aimlessly around the Bunker. Everyone was pretty much of the opinion that maybe a change would be for the better. Rufus who had been Wyatt’s friend had been disappointed at his bringing Jessica to the Bunker and the way he had treated Lucy. No-one would miss the acrimony between him and Garcia and the discordance this caused for everyone else, but it was still a big change.
Lucy was asked how she felt about the situation and she replied that she wasn’t the first woman to be hurt by a man and that she had begun to realise early on that Wyatt took their ‘relationship’ to be more serious than it was. She hoped that the ‘new’ team would go on to finally beat Rittenhouse.
Garcia, strangely, chose not to ‘gloat’ over the situation. Whilst he and Wyatt hadn’t got on from Day One, he had a certain amount of respect for him as he was a soldier. It was bad that he let his emotions overcome his judgement as that had affected them all.
Then came the other news from Denise that, given they couldn’t be sure about Jessica, or news of Wyatt’s removal getting out, they would be relocating just as soon as possible to a new Safe House, possibly in the next few days. “I realise that’s not necessarily bad as it’s hardly been wonderful here, but it does give us so much extra work to do, particularly if Rittenhouse ‘jumps’ more than once during this time and we never need more disruption to our days. I suggest you all start packing your ‘lock-boxes’ and other things as quickly as possible."
=================
By that evening, things had just about settled down, although everyone was aware that this had been very serious and, because of it, they would be more scrutinised, something they didn't need.
Garcia cooked a meal for the new team, his cooking always being something of a treat.
No-one felt much like talking and eventually wandered off to their rooms for an early night.
When the others had left, Garcia and Lucy were still sitting on the couch rather closer together than they might have been normally.
Garcia stood up, then bent down to take hold of one of Lucy’s hands and firmly kissed her knuckles. Her reaction was everything that he hoped for, as she bit her lip in anguish at his touch and her body language showed she obviously wanted much more.
“Going my way?” was his deeply throaty question.
“...I don’t think we’ll need a map…?” giggled Lucy grabbing him in a hug, “but there are some places I might want to explore.......!!"