Scarlett stirred as her phone vibrated on the bedside table. Keeping her eyes closed, her hand fumbled across the worn-down wood until she found the electronic device that disturbed her slumber. Begrudgingly, she opened her eyes, but immediately winced at the discomforting light emitted from the phone. She squinted to clear her vision so she could read the name in bold: Connor Mason.

She groaned and finally answered the device, pressing it up against her ear as not to disturb her partner in bed beside her. "Hello?"

"Scarlett, is that you?"

"No, it's the pizza man," she whispered her retort in a harsh tone. Apparently, it was never too early for her sarcasm.

"Must you always be so difficult?"

"Any and all complaints should be taken up with the manufacturer," she replied, paused, and then added, "Oh wait, that's you."

"Did I do something to deserve this?"

She rolled her eyes at the way he somehow always brought the conversation back to himself. "What do you want, Dad?"

"Es tu papá?" Carlos stirred and groggily asked, slowly sitting up.

She stifled her laughter at the way he spoke his native tongue when disoriented, then forced him to lay back down. She placed a finger to her lips, silently shushing him as her father replied.

"We need you to come in."

Scarlett frowned. "Dad, I told you earlier that I was done with Mason Industries—"

"We need a pilot," Mason clarified, interrupting her.

"You've got Rufus and Anthony," Scarlett contradicted. She pushed the covers off her legs and got out of bed, too frustrated to stay put in one place. "Two excellent pilots for a machine that only requires one."

Silence filled the air as Mason didn't reply right away.

"The mothership was stolen."

"What?!" Her eyes widened. She glanced over her shoulder to see that Carlos had sat up with a concerned look on his face. She offered him an apologetic look for waking him up, but he shrugged it off. She lowered her tone as she spoke into the phone once more, "How do you lose something that big?"

"We didn't lose it. Once again, it was stolen—but enough of that. We need you to come in, I'll explain more later."

Her father didn't let the conversation continue; instead, he hung up. She always had the option of ignoring her father's plea, but she'd never actually be able to go through with it.

She jumped as Carlos placed his hands on her shoulders and started to lightly massage the tension from her muscles. She hadn't realized that he'd gotten out of bed.

"That was your father, yes?"

She nodded her head in agreement, placing a hand over one of his, momentarily halting the massage. "I've got to go."

He tenderly kissed her neck, moving down her arm to her hand. "You could always tell him no, hermosa."

She sighed, gently pulling away even though every fiber of her being told her to stay within the warmth of her fiancé's arms. "I can't."

He slowly nodded his head as if he'd predicted that to be her answer then let go of her hand, allowing her to walk into the closet to change. However, she placed one last kiss on his cheek before she left the apartment, hopping on her motorbike to ride down to her father's company.

——— • — 𖥸 — • ———

Scarlett stormed down into the lab, pushing past security in the process, until she saw exactly the tech she was looking for.

"Rufus, what the hell?" she shouted and punched him in the arm. "You were held at gunpoint?"

"Ow," Rufus whined and rubbed his arm. "You know, most people try to console you after a life-threatening incident."

"Well, I can't get anyone to tell me anything," Scarlett retorted, punching him again for good measure.

"That's not my fault." Rufus winced and took a step away to avoid her next blow.

She slowly nodded her head, calmer than before, and looked him over as if to check if he'd been shot. Before she'd handed her father her resignation, the two had worked together long enough to consider one another siblings. They understood one another in ways that others didn't: Mason's daughter and Mason's prodigy. Each position carried a weight unlike anything else. Her gaze softened. "I'm glad you're alright."

"Thank you," Rufus nodded his head before his eyes caught the glittering rock around her finger. He didn't say anything, but his stare was far from discreet.

Scarlett smiled and held up her hand as if placing it on display. "You like it? Carlos gave it to me."

"He proposed?" Rufus looked at her confused. "Does Mason know?"

Scarlett shook her head but froze as she watched her father exit the meeting room upstairs. She muttered under her breath, "He will soon enough though."

She crossed her arms as she watched him descend the stairs and approach the pair. Although Connor Mason was not her birth father, he'd adopted her at the age of ten and treated her as his own. She appreciated everything that he'd done for her, but at the same time it almost felt like she couldn't be her own person, as if she was his trophy daughter meant to show off his success. It was the main reason why she had wanted to break away from the company in the first place. She was determined to make sure he understood that this would be the last project she worked on for him.

"Scarlett," Mason greeted her, "I was starting to think you weren't coming."

"That was an option?" Her arms remained crossed.

Mason sighed and shook his head at his daughter's hostility, then motioned for her to follow him. "Agent Christopher would like to ensure that the entire team is briefed."

"Team?" Her eyebrows knit together in confusion. "What team?"

He didn't answer. She was forced to follow after him as her curiosity got the better of her. He stopped behind a small group that had gathered together in front of one of the monitors.

"Garcia Flynn," the agent with the group announced, introducing the individual that had just saluted on the recording caught by the security cams. "Ex-NSA asset in Eastern Europe."

"Ex since when?" Just from the way the man held himself as he asked the question, Scarlett could tell he was a soldier.

"Since he killed his wife and child and went off the grid—that was a year ago," the agent answered, "We thought he was holed up in Chechnya, but apparently not."

"Why's he taking the Star Tours ride?" the soldier asked as the recording continued to play.

It wasn't until after the machine completely disappeared into thin air that the group was shocked into silence. Scarlett grinned at their reactions. She always found the stunned stupor that followed her father's science fiction-brought-to-life quite enjoyable to watch.

"What the hell was that?" the third member of the party, another woman, asked almost as if panicked.

"Some kind of special effect?" The soldier didn't seem to believe his eyes.

"Ever hear of a closed timelike curve?" Mason asked. The group turned around to face him while Scarlett rolled her eyes at his haughty tone.

"You're Connor Mason." The soldier gaped. "My buddy has one of your cars."

"Excuse me," the woman requested an explanation, "Closed timelike what?"

"Say this is the fabric of space-time." Mason picked up a piece of paper from the desk to assist his explanation, bending it back into a loop. "If you had a powerful enough gravitational field, you could actually bend it back on itself. Creating a loop that you could cross over to an earlier point."

"An earlier point... in time?" the woman asked, "You mean—"

"What he means is," the agent interrupted, equally unamused as Scarlett with his shenanigans, "Mr. Mason invented a time machine and chose not to tell the government until it was stolen by terrorists."

"Right." Mason rolled his eyes. "'Cause the Federal Government never screws things up and always keeps a secret."

"You're asking for our help now," the agent retorted.

"Hold on. This is a joke." The soldier still refused to believe what he'd witnessed. "Some psych test a shrink in the Pentagon came up with. Right?"

The woman seemed to agree. "This isn't—this can't be possible."

"That's what they said about the moon shot." Mason shrugged. "Until someone with enough imagination made it very possible."

"Correct me if I'm wrong," Scarlett finally spoke up, "but a terrorist just stole our time machine... So, what am I doing here? Doesn't this seem like a problem better left to the suits?"

The agent turned her head and looked at Mason in confusion. "Who's this?"

"This," Mason paused for dramatic effect, "is the other pilot I mentioned, my daughter, Scarlett Mason."

"Wyatt Logan," the soldier introduced himself and extended his hand.

Scarlett accepted the gesture with a nod of her head before turning toward the woman. "And you are?"

"Lucy Preston," she introduced herself.

"And that must make you Agent Christopher," Scarlett made the connection before shaking the final woman's hand.

"Correct," Christopher agreed.

"But seriously," Scarlett turned toward her father, "Why am I here?"

"This way." Mason motioned for the group to follow him. Scarlett frowned by the immediate lack of answers. However, she walked along with the rest of the group as Mason performed his miniature tour of the compound, ending practically back where they'd started. He quickly revealed the large machine that Scarlett had only ever viewed as trouble.

Her frown deepened. "The Lifeboat?"

Mason nodded his head. "Our earliest prototype. Not fancy, but she works—"

"Usually," Scarlett muttered under her breath.

Mason frowned at the interruption, but continued his introduction, "We kept her operational in case the crew of the Mothership ever needed a rescue. As Scarlett mentioned, we call this one the Lifeboat."

He paused as he walked back toward the computer systems that Rufus and Jiya had managed to get back online. "Their CPU's are linked—unfortunately, it can't tell us where exactly the Mothership went. But it can tell us when."

"Right, naturally." Wyatt rolled his eyes as he sarcastically agreed. "Only tells you 'when'. Time machine problems."

"We're working on it," Mason insisted, "but for the moment, that's the best we've got."

"3:30pm, May 6th, 1937?" Lucy questioned, still in disbelief, but also awe.

Agent Christopher extended a notebook out to Lucy. "And we found this on the dead shooter. It's an address, a tavern in Manchester, New Jersey."

"That's the Hindenburg. About four hours before it crashed," Lucy explained. "You're telling me this guy actually traveled back in time, for real, to the Hindenburg?"

"Lucy, if Flynn kills people in '37 who aren't supposed to die," Mason tried to help her understand, "they don't have the kids they're supposed to have, do the things they're supposed to do, history changes—reality changes."

"So why would you be stupid enough to invent something so dangerous?" Lucy asked.

"I didn't count on this happening," Mason admitted.

"You never do," Scarlett muttered bitterly.

Lucy turned toward Wyatt unconvinced. "And you're just buying all this?" His answer was a simple shrug that even Scarlett found infuriating. Lucy took a breath and then asked another question to understand, "Why would Flynn do it?"

"We don't know—or how Flynn even knew about the machine in the first place," Agent Christopher replied, "But there's room in there for four passengers."

"To do what?" Lucy asked. "Go after him?"

Agent Christopher looked between the three. "Why else would we bring you here?"

The shocked silence between the three only lasted a second. Lucy rushed out of the room, and it looked like she had no intention of turning back anytime soon. However, Agent Christopher followed after her in an attempt to persuade her reconsider her decision to leave.

The doors closed behind them, clanging as they collided with the metal posts. Clearly, her father was smart enough to invent a Time Machine, but the budget ran out when it came to doors that eased close.

Scarlett silently took a seat. She'd flown the Lifeboat before, it was what she'd trained on for crying out loud, but that didn't make the thought of using it any less terrifying. Especially since they'd corrected many of their initial mistakes with the Mothership. When she finally looked back up from the floor, Wyatt had already left, and it was just father and daughter in the room.

"You're serious about this..."

He nodded his head. "Indeed, I am."

She silently nodded along before voicing a question. "Does Rufus know?"

"He's about to."

Rufus was less than thrilled to learn that he'd be going with the team on their mission. He quickly shook his head, adamant to prove his point.

"No, I am a coder. I don't like leaving my desk, much less going in there or back then. Okay?" Rufus stopped his rant just long enough to gesture to his face. "And I don't know how it works across the pond, but I'm black. There are zero places in history that are gonna be awesome for me."

"You know how to pilot the Lifeboat," Mason replied.

"So does Scar," Rufus pointed out.

"The Lifeboat requires two pilots," Scarlett reminded him.

"Scarlett... give me a minute with him," Mason held up a finger as he made his request, "You go get changed."

"Alright," she nodded as she walked off, but called over her shoulder, "but I'm not wearing a skirt!"

——— • — 𖥸 — • ———

Rufus snickered at her displeased look as she took a seat beside him in the other pilot's chair. She punched him in the arm then readjusted her skirt so she could sit comfortably.

Noticing the tension between the two, Wyatt asked, "So you've done this before, Rufus?"

Apparently, the group had acquainted themselves with one another before she had boarded the Lifeboat.

Rufus hesitated to nod his head. "Just... simulations. Um, you should buckle up."

She noticed that Wyatt and Lucy quickly heeded his instructions as they tightened the multiple belts and safety restraints.

"Are all these seat belts necessary?" Lucy asked.

Rufus nodded his head but looked as if he were about to be sick. "Oh yeah. You'll see."

The hatch behind them closed and Scarlett began to input the final coordinates necessary prior to take-off. She glanced over at Rufus and noticed that his hands were shaking.

"We're gonna be fine," Scarlett whispered in an attempt to console him.

He didn't exactly agree, but he did appear appreciative that she was trying to make him feel better. However, he looked just as sick a moment later when the machine began to rattle with them inside.

Although she'd been trained using the Lifeboat, she'd only ever taken one trip out, and it hadn't exactly been permitted. Against her father's instruction, she'd convinced Anthony to take her out to experience her own Jurassic Park moment. He was hesitant at first, but ultimately agreed. Her father was furious, but it had been worth it.

She didn't remember the Lifeboat shaking so much last time, but she did remember the nausea that came with time travel. It honestly felt as if someone had tied her stomach up in knots, and evidently the others felt the same way.

Scarlett immediately placed a hand to her head to try and stop the throbbing. "Oh God. My head."

"They say it passes," Rufus muttered.

"Who's they?" Scarlett asked, wondering how anyone else could possibly know.

"You okay?" Lucy asked as she looked over at Wyatt.

"Totally good." Wyatt nodded his head, but looked as if he immediately regretted his decision.

Lucy was the first to exit the Lifeboat, followed by Scarlett and Rufus. Wyatt lingered behind just a bit longer before stumbling out of the machine. The fresh air definitely helped clear out the motion sickness, but it still took time.

"You sure you're alright, soldier?" Scarlett asked, a smirk twisting at the corner of her lips as she teased him. "You're looking a little green."

"I'm fine," Wyatt repeated, but with less certainty. He spat and then asked, "Are we here?"

Rufus nodded as he looked around the expanse of forest. "I think so."

"You sure?" Wyatt asked, clearly unconvinced.

Lucy's eyes were trained on the sky as she agreed with Rufus, "Pretty sure."

Wyatt's jaw dropped and Scarlett released an excited laugh at the sight of the giant dirigible flying overhead.

"Alright, now that is cool." Scarlett laughed again, shaking her head. She knew how the science worked and yet even she struggled to believe that they were presently standing in 1937.

——— • — 𖥸 — • ———

It didn't take long to find the road once they left the woods. The walk had mostly been quiet with the occasional spark of conversation between Rufus and Wyatt.

Wyatt shook his head. "Okay, just one thing that I don't get—"

"Just one?" Scarlett snickered playfully.

Wyatt ignored her comment as he proceeded to ask his question. "Apparently, this time machine works. So why don't we just go back five minutes before Flynn stormed in and then shoot him in the face?"

Rufus quickly provided an answer, "You can't go back to any time where you already exist, where you might meet a double of yourself. It is bad for the fabric of reality."

"Define 'bad'," Wyatt requested.

"We tried it once—"

Scarlett interrupted Rufus's explanation as if she were telling a spooky campfire story, "The pilot came back, but not all of him."

"What?" Lucy looked over at her in shock. However, as she turned her head, she caught sight of the bus approaching them from behind within her peripheral vision. "Oh!"

Lucy quickly waved at the driver and the bus pulled up beside them, stopping long enough for them to get on.

Scarlett could see Rufus's shoulders tense up as he was immediately the center of attention. He was slow, almost paranoid, as he walked to the back of the bus and took a seat. Scarlett offered him an apologetic look as she took a seat beside Lucy; however, it was then that she noticed the stares in her own direction. An older gentleman sneered and upturned his nose, which she took as the last straw.

"What's the matter with you?"

"Scarlett—"

Scarlett shook her head and didn't let Lucy deter her. "No, if this gentleman has an issue I'd rather he say it to my face."

The man glared and practically spat. "Chinks ride at the back of the bus."

The word was like a dagger, a slur she hadn't heard since middle school. At first, she was too caught off-guard to say anything, but as the word kept repeating itself in her mind, her face turned crimson.

"Excuse me?"

"You 'eard me." The man almost seemed to challenge her to defend herself with the way he was looking at her with such hatred.

"That's no way to speak to a lady." Wyatt looked as if he was ready to stand and make the elderly man take back what he'd said.

Scarlett frowned at his action that diminished her to no more than a damsel in distress. "I don't need you fighting my battles, Wyatt. I can take care of this myself."

Lucy grabbed Scarlett by the arm before she could stand and march over to the man sitting across from her. "We don't need to draw attention to ourselves..."

"You're just going to tell me that this is how it is?" Scarlett asked, the disgust evident in her tone.

Lucy's eyes drifted toward the ground. Scarlett rolled her eyes and stormed to the back of the bus, taking a seat beside Rufus. She didn't mind the seat itself, but it was the principle of injustice that had just occurred.

Although she was aware of her Asian heritage, it wasn't something that Scarlett was reminded of daily. True, there were still issues in the twenty-first century, but she wasn't exposed to her culture within the home of her adoptive father. Not to mention that since he was rich, people tended to look at the color green first. Sure, there had been some unpleasant instances in her childhood, but nothing as infuriating as what she'd just experienced. She'd almost been blessed that her father kept her sheltered from most of the world.

"Welcome," Rufus muttered a greeting.

"If only I could show that guy a piece of my mind," Scarlett seethed, slouching in her seat with her arms crossed. Her posture only drew more stares. Rufus tapped her on the arm and motioned that she should sit up. She begrudgingly complied.

Aside from the initial issue, there weren't any other problems the rest of the ride. The bus stopped in town and the four disembarked.

"So the back of the bus was amazing," Rufus sarcastically said as the group pulled off to the side of the road.

Lucy pulled Scarlett aside. "I'm sorry about all that, it's just—"

"I get it," Scarlett seemed to accept the apology, "We didn't need to call attention to ourselves... besides it's not like you could do much as a woman anyway."

Lucy nodded in appreciation that she seemed to understand before looking around at the distractions surrounding them. She sighed with a smile as she spoke to herself under her breath, "Mom, I wish you could see this."

"Come on, Professor," Wyatt called for her, "we gotta move."

"So what exactly are we getting ourselves into here?" Scarlett asked.

Lucy was quick to explain. "The Hindenburg is just reaching the airfield, but she won't be able to land right away."

The changing weather and thunder interrupted her explanation.

She pointed toward the sky with a nod of her head and continued, "Because of that. Light rain and high winds. So she'll make a bunch of turns, causing the air friction, building up static electricity. Then, at exactly 7:25 p.m., the Hindenburg will throw down the mooring ropes, but the ground crew will drag the ropes through the grass... They get soaked."

Rufus nodded in agreement with the scientific implication behind the accident. "Which electrically grounds the ship, causing a spark in the metal hull.

With Rufus's addition, Lucy continued, "The spark ignites a leaking hydrogen balloon, burning 2,000 cubic liters and 36 people alive."

"So why is Flynn here?" Rufus asked in confusion.

"Maybe there's something else we're missing?" Scarlett suggested.

Lucy shook her head as she purchased a paper from the nearby stand. "No, the Hindenburg's the only option."

"Thank you, miss," the newsstand owner thanked her.

Lucy offered him a nod of courtesy before turning back toward the others with a suggestion of her own, "Maybe he wants to kill all 97 people on board instead of just the 36? Make a bad thing worse? Whatever it is, we find him first, fast as we can."

"And if we do find him?" Rufus asked for the next step.

"Leave that to me," Wyatt insisted.

"Ah," Scarlett grinned, "I knew there was a reason you were brought along for the ride, pretty boy."

Wyatt raised an eyebrow at the nickname, but silently followed Lucy down the street, not taking the bait of starting another argument. Their history expert entered the nearest bar and the music flooded their ears. The occupants within were either smoking or drinking, but all actions complemented the raucous noise.

Wyatt scoffed. "It might be the '30s, but Jersey's Jersey."

"You see Flynn?" Lucy asked, looking around the room.

Scarlett shook her head. "No, but I do see a lot of hostility."

Lucy quickly noticed the same thing. She gently turned back toward Rufus. "Um, everyone's staring at you. Maybe you should just wait outside?"

"On a scale from Million Man March to Mississippi Burning, how safe do you think I'm gonna be out there?" Rufus asked in return.

"You should be fine, just, uh... don't make eye contact with anyone," Lucy suggested.

Rufus sighed and turned toward the door. "So glad I came."

Scarlett gestured for Lucy to join Wyatt before whispering, "I'll be outside with Rufus."

Lucy nodded and the two parted ways. The music faded and Scarlett was once more greeted by the honking of cars on the street.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Thought you could use the company," Scarlett lied before quickly revealing the truth, "Didn't want to risk causing a scene."

"Was the bus your first time?" Rufus asked, seeing through the mask she wore to hide her hurt expression.

She slowly shook her head. "No... but it'd been a while. I guess I just never realized how bad it was for the other groups trying to make a start here..."

Rufus placed his hands in his pocket and leaned up against the nearby wall of the building, but Scarlett was quick to pry him away from the bricks as he received a few glances from those passing by.

"I hate the 30's," he muttered.

"You and me both," Scarlett agreed with a short, but sarcastic laugh. She paused before crossing her arms. "How do you put up with it?"

Rufus hesitated as he processed the question. "I don't put up with it, but there's only so much you can do about it before realizing that people don't change overnight."

Scarlett slowly nodded her head. "At least we've got each other's backs."

She didn't notice it, but Rufus was hesitant to nod his head in agreement. She also didn't notice that his hand subconsciously drifted further into his pocket as his fingers wrapped around the small recording device in his pocket.

"You tell Mason yet?" Rufus changed the topic of conversation.

She looked at him in confusion before remembering the small ring on her finger. She shook her head. "No."

Rufus opened his mouth to speak, but Lucy and Wyatt exited the bar, interrupting him. Scarlett was quick to jump at the opportunity of changing the subject.

"Find anything?"

Lucy nodded her head and answered, "Flynn and his men are working as ground crew."

"We owe Kate another drink for that one." Wyatt readjusted his hat, almost as if he were in a daze. "She is amazing."

"Who we talking about?" Rufus asked in confusion.

"Kate Drummond," Lucy replied, "She only has about 90 minutes to live. She'll be right under the Hindenburg when it crashes down on top of her."

"Wait." Wyatt stopped and shook his head. "You just stood there, chatting her up, knowing she's about to die?"

"Well, we can't change anything." Lucy shrugged, but appeared sympathetic. "Today's the day she... Today's her day."

Lucy turned back around and Rufus followed after her, but Wyatt lingered behind. Scarlett glanced over her shoulder, but Wyatt shook off his vulnerable expression and caught back up with the others. It sucked, but that was the truth of the matter. They were meant to get in and out without changing anything from the past. However, knowing the truth didn't make it any easier to follow.

They arrived at the airfield within the hour as the Hindenburg prepared to land. The crowd was thick and almost impossible to get through.

"How the hell are we gonna find Flynn in this mess?" Scarlett asked the others.

Lucy looked around before Scarlett recognized the look of an idea dawning. Without much warning, Lucy ran off. "Guys, follow me. Follow me."

"Do we have a plan now?" Scarlett asked in confusion.

"Commander Rosendahl?" Lucy stopped in front of the decorated soldier. "Oh... um, I'm sorry to bother you, but it-it's urgent."

"Yes?" The commander looked at the four in confusion.

"Um..." Lucy pulled out the photo that they'd been given of Flynn prior to the mission. "This man is working as one of your ground crew, and it's very important we find him quickly."

"He's a threat to your base, sir," Wyatt added for emphasis.

"How?" Rosendahl asked. "Who are you?"

"Well, uh, we're actually..." Wyatt stuttered for an explanation.

Lucy quickly interjected, "This is Doctor Dre. I'm Nurse Jackie." She paused briefly looking over at Scarlett and Rufus, who simply shook their heads. "We're from General Hospital. This man is a patient of ours, which is, uh, why he's..."

"Wearing pajamas," Wyatt added in unison with her.

"He has a bad case of Spanish Flu, which last time killed, what, almost 700,000 people in the US alone," Lucy continued with her cleverly crafted lie, "so, you can see why we're nervous."

"Yes, yes, of course." The commander nodded his head. "I'll help however I can."

"Oh." Lucy appeared pleasantly surprised.

"Officers!" Commander Rosendahl ordered, "Step forward!"

The commander quickly showed his officers the photo and the soldiers spread out in search of Flynn. Rufus anxiously looked down at his watch as the Hindenburg continued to land. "He's only got five more minutes."

"Yeah, let's split up. And if you see Flynn, don't engage," Wyatt instructed, "You find me first."

The four split up and began to look for Flynn in the midst of the crowd. Scarlett had little to no luck and was frustrated less than a minute into her search.

"Now if I were a homicidal maniac where would I be hiding," she muttered under her breath. It was then that her eye caught movement off to her right.

She turned her head and there he was, Garcia Flynn, walking away from the ground crew toward the hangar. However, she wasn't the only one to notice his presence. Lucy quickly met up with her and pointed out Flynn just as she had seen him.

"Yeah, I know." Scarlett nodded and began to walk toward the hangar, but Lucy stopped her.

"Where's Wyatt?"

"I don't know, but we're losing him," Scarlett replied and pulled her arm away.

"Wyatt told us to get him." Lucy shook her head, but her eyes anxiously followed after Flynn. She bit her lip before stopping with relief at the sight of their soldier beside Kate Drummond. "Wyatt!"

"Where?" Scarlett looked around in confusion.

"Wyatt!" Lucy called again, but gave up seeing that he couldn't hear her. She turned her head toward Flynn once more before making her decision. "Come on."

"What about Wyatt?" Scarlett asked in confusion.

"He's busy," Lucy retorted almost bitterly.

The two followed the direction that they'd seen Flynn go, but since they had hesitated, they lost him in the crowd. Cautiously, they entered the hangar.

"Wow," Scarlett whistled as she became distracted by the sight of the various planes in the open expanse.

Lucy quickly shushed her. "He could still be here."

"But look at the—" Scarlett's thought was muffled as a hand slammed over her mouth, attached to someone trying to subdue her from behind. She struggled against his strength, but failed as the man pushed both her and Lucy against the hard metal walls.

"Are you following us?" their intruder asked but didn't allow them to answer, "Flynn wants to talk to you."

Scarlett's eyes widened in fear, but before the henchman could actually kidnap them, Wyatt rushed toward him. With the element of surprise, he knocked the thug back and pulled his handgun from the holster hidden at his side.

"Take me to Flynn," Wyatt demanded. The thug remained silent and attempted to charge toward Wyatt. He didn't hesitate to shoot. The thug immediately collapsed to the ground, now drowning in his own blood. Rufus jumped back in fright, almost as if Wyatt had missed and hit him as he stood behind the thug, but at a second glance realized that he was alright.

Lucy forced herself to look away from the body while Scarlett kept her eyes trained on a Wyatt's gun. Realizing that it was oddly quiet, Lucy rushed to the hangar doors to see that the Hindenburg had successfully landed.

"You two okay?" Wyatt asked.

"Flynn just saved the Hindenburg." Lucy continued to gawk. "So no, I am definitely not okay."

"He did what?" Scarlett quickly joined Lucy's side as she stared out the hangar doors.

There was a moment of silence as they tried to process what had happened. Wyatt bent down to deal with the body, trying to see if he could find ID or anything that they could use to figure out who the guy working for Flynn was.

"So saving the Hindenburg, huh?" Wyatt asked. "How'd Flynn even do it?"

"The mooring ropes." Rufus made the connection. "I saw crewmen, they didn't let the ropes touch the wet grass. They wrapped them up. No wet ropes means the ship doesn't ground. There's no spark in the hull, no boom.

"Those must've been Flynn's guys," Wyatt agreed.

"I'm less concerned with how Flynn did it then why," Lucy retorted.

"It's a bad thing 36 people lived?" Wyatt asked as if he didn't believe anything wrong had actually conspired.

"Very bad," Lucy emphasized the potential danger, "It could change the present in ways we can't possibly predict."

"Huh," Wyatt muttered as he pulled out some kind of walkie-talkie from the guy's jacket.

"Are you looting the body?" Scarlett raised an eyebrow.

Rufus on the other hand, was much more enthralled by the technology. "Finally. Some civilization in this backwater crap-hole. I can rewire it to track the other walkie's signal, use it to find Flynn. Give me a minute."

Rufus walked off to work with the device. Scarlett turned toward Wyatt and gestured to the weapon. "How come you were the only one given a gun?"

"Because I'm a licensed U.S. soldier," Wyatt retorted.

"You shouldn't have brought it," Lucy interjected.

"Oh, I shouldn't have brought the thing used to save your asses?" Wyatt retorted, vaguely amused.

"We are surrounded by nazis," Lucy explained, "What if one of them takes your future gun to Berlin?"

"Sometimes things get messy," Wyatt defended himself.

"It is my job to make sure there is no mess," Lucy reemphasized.

However, Wyatt was quick to contradict her, "There's always a mess. That's the deal. So now we make it up as we go. And I take out Flynn. Which, by the way, might require the use of a damn gun."

"So then maybe we should have more than one damn gun?" Scarlett suggested, refusing to drop the subject.

Lucy scoffed. "So if that's your job, why did you run off after Kate?"

"Hey, guys?" Rufus interrupted the argument, "Turns out I can't track Flynn because this isn't actually a walkie. At least, not anymore."

"What do you mean?" Scarlett asked before jabbing, "Losing your touch, Rufus?"

Rufus shook his head. "Someone soldered the lead wires. And then there's this thing."

"That's a blasting cap," Wyatt realized as he turned the device gently in his hand, "This is a detonator."

"For a bomb?" Lucy asked in confusion. Wyatt shrugged, but it was in that moment that Lucy remembered the paper she'd purchased earlier. "Wait. Kate's column. Listen: 'The Hindenburg will welcome many luminaries aboard its return trip to Europe and the king's coronation. John D. Rockefeller Jr., Omar Bradley, Igor Sikorsky...'"

Wyatt shook his head. "I don't follow."

"Rockefeller's gonna help build the United Nations. Bradley's crucial to planning D-Day. S—Sikorsky invented the damn helicopter. I mean, what if that's why Flynn saved the Hindenburg?" Lucy rhetorically asked. "What if he didn't want to blow it up on the way in because he wants to blow it up on the way out? If these people died, the—the damage to the timeline it's—it's catastrophic..."

"Hands up!" Lucy was interrupted as several armed officers entered the hangar. "Stay right where you are!"

The body that Wyatt had poorly concealed under a tarp was quickly discovered, only making things worse. Scarlett slowly raised her hands into the air, following the actions of the others.

"Let me guess," Wyatt said as they were led outside, "someone called in an anonymous tip?"

"Shut up," the officer instructed before throwing Wyatt into the back of the car.

Scarlett sighed as she was roughly shoved in the backseat beside Rufus. She then muttered under her breath. "I hate the 30's."

Rufus nodded in agreement with a whisper. "You and me both."

——— • — 𖥸 — • ———

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞|

There are elements of racism included within some of these chapters as they may relate to the time period. I have made an effort to do some research, but I may not be accurate about everything. In no way do these beliefs align with my own, nor do I encourage the actions associated with the above aforementioned prejudiced actions.