Scarlett cleared her throat as she slipped into the 1970's jacket. "So, just to be clear, you lurked outside your dad's house for hours without ever knocking."

"You know there are stalker laws, right?" Wyatt asked, agreeing with Scarlett as he looked over at Lucy.

Lucy frowned and shook her head. "Correction: I had a dad. This man is just my biological father."

"What I'd give to speak to my biological father," Scarlett muttered under her breath.

It had been a few days since she'd told Mason that she was planning to dig around in her past once more. She'd certainly tried around thirteen years old, but she'd been shut down and told that it wouldn't do any good. Of course, Mason had been right about that time. The exploration had only brought back the tremors and traumatic shakes. It had taken a year of therapy before she even considered stepping foot near a bonfire or barbecue pit over the holidays.

Now was a different story though. She was ready to face whatever answers she might find as it decreased the amount of questions swimming around the inside of her mind. As much as she'd tried to accept that Carlos was gone, she couldn't. She'd found his grave at the address that Jiya had written down for her... she couldn't bring herself to go in. It would only make it real when the matter of the fact was that reality could change in the blink of an eye or the flap of a butterfly's wings. For some reason, there was the delusion clouding her judgement that if she could figure out what really happened that night, it would solve the question of how to bring Carlos back.

"You're still his daughter," Wyatt replied to Lucy's statement.

The historian scoffed. "A daughter that he didn't want to see for my entire life."

"Listen." Wyatt stopped adjusting his suit to face Lucy without any distractions. "I don't know what kind of guy is gonna answer that door, but I do know, at some point, you're gonna have to knock."

A soft smile formed on Lucy's face that Wyatt matched in the following moment of silence. Neither look went unnoticed by Scarlett; however, before she could comment and completely unaware of the moment, Agent Christopher entered the conversation.

"Press credentials. Completely authentic," the agent clarified while handing over the badges. "Should get you into the White House without too much of a hitch."

"And we're positive Flynn's going after the Nixon tapes?" Rufus asked as he walked up behind Mason and Agent Christopher, buttoning his brown leather jacket.

"No, but it's a good place to start," Lucy replied, slipping the lanyard of the press credentials over her head. "And June 20, 1972 is a special day. It's the day that Nixon records the missing eighteen and a half minutes. I would give anything to hear that tape."

"Not me," Rufus contradicted.

"Oh really?" Scarlett asked, raising an eyebrow. However, as Rufus looked back over his shoulder at her, the two were briefly locked in a battle of eye contact. It was almost as if they were going back and forth with the question: do you know? No, you couldn't—could you?

"When you find Flynn, maybe you can blind him with that suit," Agent Christopher snarkily suggested as she looked Wyatt over.

The soldier formers with a tired look. "I look like Greg Brady."

From the side, Scarlett snickered at the accurate comparison. Agent Christopher simply gestured over her shoulder toward the lifeboat. "Well, go find Marcia, Peter, and Cindy and get going."

Wyatt continued down the gangway, meeting with Scarlett. Then as a pair they caught up with Lucy and Wyatt. Together, the four stalked down the rest of the platform, pausing briefly in front of the lifeboat to take a collective breath.

"Ready?" Lucy asked.

After a second pause, Scarlett confirmed the question with a nod of her head. "Yep."

——— • — 𖥸 — • ———

"These colors just don't exist anymore." Rufus laughed as he looked in every direction while walking down the pavement toward the White House. "Like, not even in nature. Burnt orange, that puke tint between green and yellow."

"And maybe that's a good thing," Scarlett added, glancing at her heels that made a wet print with every step she took.

"Jeez," Lucy muttered as she tried to adjust her own heels. "We had to land in a marsh?"

"Thought it was a bit more private than the South Lawn," Rufus explained.

As they neared, a squad of soldiers were peacefully passing through the lines of protests when one of the hippies stepped forward with the intent of creating conflict.

"There they go," he called out, a skip in his step as he moved out in front of the soldiers. "Couple of Nixon's baby killers."

The soldier frowned. "What in the hell you call me?"

The hippie shoved the soldier in front, and the soldier retaliated. It only took a second for the rest of the crowd to get involved, sucking Wyatt into the conflict as he tried to keep things from escalating.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey!" Wyatt exclaimed as he tried to push his way between them. "Take it easy! Take it easy!"

However as Wyatt was pulled deeper into the crowd, the others quickly lost sight of him. Lucy called out for him, trying to push her way through the mob with no luck, "Wyatt!"

"Lucy!" Wyatt called back but remained unseen.

"Wyatt, help!" Lucy shrieked as one of Flynn's men grabbed her by the arm and tried to drag her away.

"Lucy!" Wyatt called out again, then his voice was followed by a loud grunt.

Scarlett leapt forward, driving her knee up into Flynn's goon's gut. Lucy was freed, but the victory was short lived as half a dozen other guys rushed forward and pulled Scarlett, Lucy, Rufus, and an unconscious Wyatt off the streets and up into one of the abandoned buildings.

A couple minutes later they were bound with their arms between the slats of their chairs. Gradually, Wyatt stirred, groaning from the headache he'd earned from his beating.

"You okay?" Lucy asked, her voice filled with concern.

"Peachy," Wyatt grunted as he blinked to regain his balance.

The door on the other side of the room creaked open and Flynn stepped inside. Lucy and Rufus tensed up while Scarlett and Wyatt tried to lunge for the man despite being tied up.

"Recognize this room?" Flynn asked, his voice filled with amusement as he looked around the space. Slowly, he removed his outer suit jacket and took a seat in the chair before them. "You stayed here the night Abraham Lincoln was shot. A few weeks for us. A century for them. Remarkable, huh?"

"Oh, God," Wyatt rolled his eyes with a sigh. "You're gonna talk us to death, aren't you?"

Scarlett also scoffed with displeasure. "For a villain monologue. It's pretty weak."

Flynn frowned but he ignored the more spirited opposition. "Had a hunch I'd find you on the way to the White House, Lucy. I need you to do something for me."

Lucy fervently shook her head. "We're not getting the Nixon tape for you."

"Not necessary," Flynn contradicted, accepting the tape from one of his henchmen. "Already got it myself."

Although he tried to hide it, fear flashed in to Rufus's eyes along with a look of discouragement. Only Scarlett noticed the way he averted his eyes and silently cleared his throat.

"You broke into the White House basement," Lucy noted.

"You think you're the only ones who can forge a 1970s ID?" Flynn asked rhetorically as he set up the tape recording. "I do own a color printer and a laminator. The only problem was I had to shoot a White House guard on the way out. Well, two, actually. And now I can't really move around the city freely. Authorities are looking for me. So I need you to find something."

Lucy shrugged. "What?"

Flynn smiled. "Let's have a listen."

He pressed 'play' on the tape and President Nixon's voice immediately filled the space. "Have to give the press another story, because the real truth is this doc is more important than anyone knows. If Rittenhouse..."

"Mr. President, we can't discuss Rittenhouse in here," another voice, likely and assistant, continued the conversation.

"We need to get the doc back," Nixon insisted, "We need to get the doc back now."

"And if we can't?"

"I'm done," Nixon replied. "They'll see to that. Not just with the presidency, but with my wife, with my girls. Rittenhouse plays by different rules. Do you understand who they are? How deep I'm in with Rit—"

The tape stopped and a smug look was plastered to Flynn's face. "Did you hear what President Nixon just said, Lucy? I'm sorry. I didn't hear that."

Flynn bent down as if forcing Lucy to answer his question. Lucy gulped then allowed the name to be uttered by her lips in a quiet whisper, "Rittenhouse."

Flynn nodded his head. Slowly his eyes drifted over to Scarlett as if continuing the conversation with her—even though he'd ignored her since he'd stepped foot inside the room. "I guess it's not so much my paranoid delusion anymore, is it?"

"They say a broken clock is right at least twice a day," Scarlett spat her reply.

Flynn frowned, straightening as he directed his attention back to Lucy. "This document Nixon wants..."

"I don't know anything about it," Lucy insisted. "I don't know what he's talking about, okay?"

"I believe you." Flynn nodded his head, picking up the journal from beside the tape player. "I even looked in here. I couldn't find anything about this document."

"What's that?" Rufus asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"Oh, this is Lucy's journal," Flynn explained, lifting the book into the air to emphasize his point. He chuckled. "What—she never told you about it?"

"What's he talking about?" Wyatt asked glancing between Lucy and Flynn.

"I didn't write it," Lucy contradicted.

"Well, it's complicated," Flynn countered with his own explanation. "You see, she's going to write it a few years from now."

"What?" Rufus asked, only more confused.

"I know. Time travel, right? Pew!" Flynn acted as if his mind had been blown. "It's my guide. Apparently, she and I are gonna be quite the team one day."

"It's not real," Lucy insisted. "It's a fake."

"Lucy, we've talked about this." Flynn chuckled. "You even admitted it's your own handwriting."

"No. I said it looked like my handwriting," Lucy corrected, raising her voice as she grew more upset, "not that I ever wrote it or ever will."

"But you did talk to Flynn?" Rufus asked. "When?"

"Our conversation was cut short at the Hindenburg," Flynn replied. "When your second pilot shot me."

"I'd do it again in a heartbeat," Scarlett seethed.

Flynn chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, I know. You certainly tried to prove that at the train station in 1865 and the nazi castle in Germany. But you and I have had much longer conversations than I've had with Lucy."

Wyatt's head snapped in her direction. "You did what?"

"She didn't tell you either?" Flynn asked, pacing across the room to stoop down in front of Scarlett. "Pilot, what have you told them about us? I assumed you would have shared your knowledge about the journal with Lucy. I thought you might have asked why you weren't mentioned."

"What's he talking about?" Rufus asked, hysteria creeping into his voice.

"Your second pilot hasn't even been courteous enough to introduce herself," Flynn replied. "It'd be nice to know the name of the woman who gave me a nasty scar on my shoulder."

"How could he not know your name?" Rufus's confusion only grew. "Your face is literally ev—"

"Then it shouldn't be too hard to find," Scarlett interrupted. "If he wants to know then he can look it up, but he's so narrow-minded that if the information doesn't come from his magic book then it's worthless."

"It's the only book that matters," Flynn countered.

"I bet," Scarlett agreed with a scoff and a bitter laugh. "I wouldn't even be surprised if you admitted that you'd taken lemon juice or a black light to the pages to check for hidden messages."

Flynn's brow furrowed as if the thought hadn't actually crossed his mind. However, Wyatt broke the silence that followed with an accusatory question, "Is that true?"

"Someone had to take him out!" Scarlett didn't hesitate to defend her actions. "I'm the only one who's touched him on these missions."

"You're a civilian!" Wyatt snapped.

"I've been certified!" Scarlett countered.

"That doesn't matter!" Wyatt interjected then turned his head toward Lucy. "And you? You kept this information a secret? You're also hiding the truth?"

"It's complicated," Lucy tried to defend herself.

"No." Wyatt shook his head. "The truth is not complicated."

"I don't know what the truth is anymore," Lucy admitted.

"Okay, the truth is she didn't believe in Rittenhouse until President Nixon just confirmed it," Flynn spoke for her. "But for now, if Rittenhouse wants this document so badly, whatever it is, I want it first."

"How are we supposed to find it?" Lucy asked.

"If there's one thing you've proven, it's your resourcefulness," Flynn replied, standing as he unlocked the cuffs that kept them restrained to the chairs. "You'll find a way."

One by one they were unlocked; however, he skipped over Wyatt and unlocked Scarlett last. The second she was free, Scarlett stood, rubbed her wrists, then lunged toward Flynn. He effortlessly caught the fist she'd tried to swing at his jaw then shoved her across the room to join Rufus and Lucy.

"If you don't bring me the document in five hours..."

"You'll kill me?" Wyatt interrupted. "Why don't you do it now, save everyone some time?"

Flynn ignored him. "It's up to you."

"Go straight to the Lifeboat," Wyatt ordered. "Screw Flynn. Do not give him what he wants."

"Five hours," Lucy called out as she rushed out the door. However, she left a final warning or plea; the interpretation of her tone was left pretty vague. "Don't hurt him."

"Lucy. Lucy, damn it, listen to me!" Wyatt called out after them. "Don't! Lucy!"

His shouts were the last thing they'd heard before they were ushered back down onto the streets below. It was clear that Rufus was panicking more than either of them, and why shouldn't he with the recording device in his pocket that incriminated every single one of them.

"This is bad," Rufus uttered. "This is very bad. How could you not tell me and Wyatt about the journal?"

"It's not real." It sounded as if Lucy was trying to convince herself more than anyone else.

"You don't know that," Rufus contradicted, shaking his head. "Not with all the mind-trippy crap going on around here."

"Rufus—"

"Lucy, if it is, who knows what Flynn knows about us. Maybe we're playing into his hands right now. You don't think we deserve to know that?" He asked, pushing for an answer.

"I wasn't trying to keep anything from..."

"Our jobs are dangerous enough!" Rufus snapped.

"She's sorry!" Scarlett shouted to interrupt him before he could continue berating her. "Flynn showed her the journal once, could you give her a break?"

"You're not any better." Rufus shook his head and wagged his finger discouragingly. "No, if anything you're worse because you met with Flynn, spoke to him, and kept that information a secret."

"Rufus, I swear to God..." Her breath shook and she laughed before her face deadpanned. Her eyes screamed threat as she lowered her voice to conceal the rage biting behind her tongue. "The things he told me about that journal—not to mention the fact that I'm not mentioned anywhere in it... I'm freaking out Rufus and it's not just Carlos anymore. Because if what Flynn is true and I'm either insignificant what's to say I don't disappear too? What was I supposed to say: 'Hey, Wyatt, I stole your gun to go murder the guy that made my fiancé vanish before he does the same to me'?"

"We could have helped—"

"Yeah?" Scarlett chuckled and turned to ask a loaded question. "Have you ever had a secret that just scared the living hell out of you? Have you kept someone else's secret for fear of what might happen to them?"

Lucy looked over at Scarlett with an appreciative expression, unaware that she wasn't talking about either of them anymore. Lucy nodded as if she understood, agreeing with everything before taking a deep breath. "Now, please, can we just... Can we just save Wyatt?"

Shaken and slightly pale, Rufus nodded his head. It was like and Scarlett were back to that show down of: 'does she know?', 'I know', 'she couldn't possibly...'. He blinked and took a breath. "What about the documents? How do we even start?"

"We know they're connected to Watergate," Scarlett suggested, finally breaking her glare from Rufus.

"I have an idea. You remember how to use a payphone?" Lucy asked rushing back toward the park. Rufus and Scarlett glanced at one another in confusion. Her eyes threatened that their conversation was far from over. As Lucy stepped into a payphone, flipping through the available phone book, she explained her plan. "We'll call every William M. Felt in the D.C. area until we find Mark Felt."

"Mark Felt?" Rufus asked. "Who's that?"

"Mark Felt. Deep Throat. Secret informant," Lucy replied, but as she noticed that both Rufus and Lucy remained confused, she tried to give more information, "'Follow the money'? Deep Throat?"

"I know the porn one," Rufus admitted.

Scarlett frowned. "Seriously?"

"He was Associate Director of the FBI, and Deep Throat was his cover name," Lucy explained the man's historical importance. "He tips off two reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, about Watergate, breaks open the entire case. If anybody knows about this document, it'll be him."

"If he's such a secret informant, what makes you think he's gonna talk to us?" Rufus asked.

"Because except for Woodward and Bernstein, nobody knows his identity for 30 years," Lucy replied.

"But let me guess," Scarlett interjected with a soft chuckle of disbelief. "We do."

——— • — 𖥸 — • ———

Scarlett found the abandoned parking lot sketchy, and the sounds that echoed around the open space certainly didn't help. It had definitely taken some time to arrive at the disclosed location once they arranged a meeting with Felt, and frankly time was something they had little of.

"Over there," Lucy gestured to the man standing in the open. The three approached and Lucy continued the conversation. "Mr. Felt? We're the ones that called you. From 'The Times'."

"You said you have some files on J. Edgar Hoover?" Felt asked them to confirm what had been discussed over the phone.

"Actually, no," Lucy admitted. "We wanted to ask you about the Watergate Hotel break-in."

Felt quickly shook his head as a look of well-masked fear flashed into his eyes. "No. I only came... I don't know anything about the Watergate."

"Yes, you do," Lucy contradicted. "You talked to Bob Woodward at the 'Washington Post' about it just yesterday. Your secret's safe with him, but not with us. If you don't answer our questions, we'll blow your cover to anyone who will listen."

"You think we should worry about how much information we let out into the open?" Scarlett asked in a hushed whisper, leaning closer to Rufus. "We've got to sound like proper stalkers and psychopaths when we tell people these intimate details about their lives that are eventually recorded in history books."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much now," Rufus sounded as if he were trying to console her. "I'd say this is pretty mild compared to Flynn murdering people through history."

"That'll ruin me. Please," Felt pleased with Lucy. "All I want is a president who plays by the same rules as everyone else. Now is that too much to ask?"

"I know you're trying to do the right thing," Lucy agreed. "So are we. But you go to tell us what you know."

The echo of tires squealing could be heard from the floor above, only adding to Felt's unease. However, the man sighed and nodded his head while pushing the brim of his hat out of his eyes.

"Now, the burglars were looking for a specific document at the Watergate," Lucy prodded.

Felt shook his head as if going back on his decision to share the intel he possessed. "I don't know anything about that."

Scarlett scoffed, clasping her hands together as she urged the others to turn and begin walking away. "Well, we'll spell your name right on the front page."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Felt called out after them. "Nixon's fingerprints are all over the burglary. But they hired total amateurs to do it. They got caught breaking into the DNC headquarters, but first they broke into a hotel room one floor up."

"What?" Lucy sounded surprised. "I never heard that."

Felt's brow furrowed. "Why would you?"

"The investigators find anything at the hotel?" Rufus asked, hoping to distract Felt before he felt the need for an answer to the previous question.

"They barely investigated," Felt replied. "Someone called them off it. I don't know who."

"Did they find anything?" Scarlett asked.

"Only a crumpled piece of paper in the trash," Felt answered.

"Was anything written on it?" Lucy asked, continuing the quick pattern of question and answer.

"Nothing written." Felt shook his head. "It just had a weird symbol. A fist with what looked like horns."

"Did you recognize it?" Lucy asked.

"Never saw it before in my life," Felt admitted.

Rufus scrambled for a pen, pulling one from his jacket pocket before scribbling down what it looked like on a napkin which had been in his other pocket. "Did it look like this?"

"Yes." A look of fear flashed across Felt's face as he looked between the three. "How did... Who the hell are you people?"

"It's safer for everyone if we don't say names," Lucy replied as she, Rufus, and Scarlett quickly walked toward the exit; however, before they were gone, she shouted over her shoulder, "Make sure you keep talking to Woodward, or we'll find out."

——— • — 𖥸 — • ———

"We only have three hours left to get this document," Lucy said, worrying flooding her voice as they walked down the streets where the buildings looked more worn down than the others. "Are you sure that this a the symbol for the Black Liberation Army?"

"Positive. It's an obscure BLA calling card. See?" Rufus asked as he gestured to the symbol plastered to the window of the building they stopped in front of. "Right there. This is the D.C. chapter's unofficial headquarters, ran by Gregory Hayes."

"How do you know all this?" Lucy asked. "I mean, I don't even know this stuff."

"Gregory Hayes and Eldridge Cleaver, the founder of the BLA... I've read everything about these guys," Rufus explained. "Kind of went through a militant phase back in college."

"Really?" Lucy sounded impressed.

"Yeah," Scarlett scoffed, rolling her eyes as she outed Rufus. "As in he had a militant crush on a militant girl."

"Ah." Lucy nodded as if that made much more sense in her mind.

"If this document is at all linked to the BLA, Gregory Hayes should know about it," Rufus paused, stopping Lucy and Scarlett from entering the building behind him. "You should probably wait outside. You should be fine, just don't make any eye contact."

"Wonderful," Scarlett said with a fake smile before leaning against the building as she huffed. Once Rufus was gone, Scarlett turned her head toward Lucy who'd moved beside her. "Are you doing alright?"

"Me?" Lucy asked with a chuckle. "Shouldn't I be the one asking you? It's only been a couple weeks since we started doing this. I hadn't realized you'd been working on your own to hunt Flynn down."

"This doesn't end until he's dead." Scarlett shrugged. "They didn't say it was Wyatt who had to do it. Flynn is responsible for destroying both our lives. Doesn't some small part of you want to kill him yourself?"

"He's destroying history, which is the reason my sister is gone," Lucy replied, sounding as if she agreed; however, she slowly shook her head. "I know we need to stop Flynn, but I don't think killing him is the answer."

"Why not?" Scarlett crossed her arms.

"Because what if it's all true?" Lucy asked. "Because if I do write that journal, a terrorist gets his hands on it and makes it his doctrine to destroy history. And if we've actually been on the wrong side, and this Rittenhouse is real and an even bigger danger, then Flynn—"

"Even if he's right," Scarlett interjected. "And that's a big if. There's got to be a better way to handle it than killing people across time and space. So first, we stop Flynn. Protect history and the rest of the people we care about. Because even though Mason and Rufus piss me off, you don't want to know what I'd do if I get back and either of them have disappeared. They're the only family I've got left. And I think you'd feel the same way about your mom... or Wyatt. So, yes, we continue our mission to stop Flynn then focus on what to do about Rittenhouse."

"You say that without a doubt," Lucy quietly noted. "When did you start believing that Rittenhouse was real?"

"When you were sneaking around with Bond," Scarlett took a breath as she admitted the truth of moments she'd omitted, "I grabbed Flynn for a dance before he could follow after you."

"You danced with Flynn?" Lucy's brow furrowed with a mixture of emotions.

"Alright, calm down, it wasn't a waltz," Scarlett paused. "Alright, it was a waltz, but it wasn't like a romantic thing or anything. I was keeping him distracted from the two of you. Before I could kill him, I was caught. But we spoke and he'd talked about his mission to destroy Rittenhouse."

"Just the one talk?" Lucy asked if she wasn't quite convinced. "That's all it took?"

"It took multiple conversations to even consider the possibility," Scarlett admitted. "First, the Hindenburg. You were there for that one... My response was to shoot him. We spoke again at the train station while Robert Lincoln invited you to that evening's performance. I tried to shoot him again. And even while surrounded by Nazi's, I was still going to shoot him. Then I had time to reflect on the conversation when we got home that night."

"Scarlett, you tried to punch him in the face earlier after he finished telling us about Rittenhouse." Lucy asked, "Is violence your solution to everything?"

"Hey, I didn't try to shoot him this time," Scarlett pointed out.

"Only because you didn't have a gun," Lucy countered. "And you still want to kill him."

"Yes, yes I do," Scarlett agreed. "Look, I believe that Rittenhouse is real and a threat. But so is Flynn. So we'll deal with one problem at a time, and Flynn only responds to violence. He's not going to hesitate to kill us. We saw that in Germany, and the Alamo. Lucy he held a gun to your head after claiming he knew you at the Hindenburg. He might not be crazy about Rittenhouse, but that doesn't mean he's sane. He watched his entire family be murdered before his eyes... that twists your mind in ways you don't understand."

"Scarlett..."

Before Lucy could ask for Scarlett to explain, and before Scarlett could reach the haunting conclusion that she and Flynn were more alike than she let on—or maybe she had recognized her own reflection and it scared her—Rufus exited the building with another man.

"Make a friend?" Scarlett asked, switching away from the conversation she'd just had with Lucy. Her hands trembled, but she folded them behind her back to conceal them.

"This way," the man said, ignoring Scarlett as he took a seat in the driver's side of the car brought around the block.

Without another word, the three followed. As the car pulled away, the interior remained silent. Scarlett's inner thoughts become the loudest thing, exposing her fears to the forefront of her mind. She and Flynn were alike. And all they had was a dead family and rage they misdefined as righteous fury. She tried to convince herself that she was different, that she wasn't a cold-blooded killer.

Her hands trembled and flashed from the night of Lincoln's assassination returned. She could see the blood of the man she'd shot stained into the carpet. It not only stained the carpet and the wood floor, but her clothing, and her hands. She'd ignored it up to this point, but she'd killed a man and tried to justify the action as vengeance for her dead fiancé. True, it had been in defense to protect the course of history, but she'd enjoyed it. She wasn't enjoying it now.

Flashes of blood and fire mixed in her mind, tormenting her with images she couldn't remember and those she couldn't forget. Twisting the past she could recall with the guilt, fear, and anger stored in her heart. There was so much she clung to and so much she wanted to let go. She craved the taste of liquor to soothe the pain, but recognized that may solve the present but make things more complicated for the future. And it might not be so bad if she only had to deal with one problem at a time, but the world was out to destroy her. Unanswered questions from the past colliding with the devastating present and unknown future.

"Hey." Lucy gently placed a hand on Scarlett's shoulder, pulling her back to reality. "Are you alright?"

Scarlett's heart fell with one final thought. "I'm becoming Flynn."

"I'm not going to let that happen," Lucy replied to the thought that Scarlett had voiced out loud. "Like you said, we fix this one problem at a time. We stop Flynn. We your fiancé and my sister back. We deal with Rittenhouse. And go back to our normal lives."

Scarlett's breath quivered. "It sounds so simple when you put it like that."

"Simple," Lucy agreed. "But not easy."

Hayes cleared his throat as they approached the house, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. "White girls is fine and all, but she don't look like she down for the cause, much, brother. And walking around with the other is like waving a red flag."

"What's he implying?" Scarlett whispered to Lucy.

"That you're a communist," Lucy replied, leaning closer to keep their conversation quiet.

Rufus glanced back at them before shaking his head. "Oh, they're just my pieces on the side."

Lucy frowned. Once Hayes turned his back and entered the house, Scarlett punched Rufus in the arm as she passed by. Rufus quietly whined with a wince, but Scarlett threatened worse as she held up a fist.

Lucy took her bawled up hand. "Maybe we cut back on the violence for now."

"Fine," Scarlett muttered under her breath.

"Hey. Get your stuff together," Hayes called out, stepping into the living room and revealing not a file but a person. "Folks is here to pick you up. Meet the Doc. She been a little rattled here the last few days, but give her a minute, she's all yours."

Scarlett, Rufus, and Lucy quickly glanced at one another, silently making the same obvious observation while simultaneously agreeing that this wasn't what they signed up for.

"You weren't supposed to be here till next weekend," the woman noted.

"Change of plans," Rufus replied, calmer than any of them expected.

"But you are a Panther, right?" the woman asked

"Psh." And there was the breakdown Scarlett had been expecting as Rufus scoffed and brushed the question aside.

"And you are gonna drive me to San Diego?" the woman didn't sound convinced.

"Yes, we are going to drive you," Lucy agreed.

"Where'd you pick up Laurie Partridge and Katsumi?" the woman asked, looking both Scarlett and Lucy over.

Scarlett frowned. "Sayonara took place in Japan."

"Excuse us," Lucy interjected, pulling Rufus and Scarlett into the next room—before Scarlett started a fight and so that they might figure out the next step in their plan that was quickly falling apart.

"Um, that's a person," Rufus hissed as soon as the doors were closed

"We can see that," Scarlett retorted.

"I mean, I guess it makes sense," Lucy quietly muttered more to herself than the others. "I mean, Nixon never said 'document' on the tapes... He said 'Doc'."

"So, what?" Rufus asked. "We're just supposed to turn her over to Flynn?"

"If we don't, Wyatt's dead," Scarlett reminded them.

"I don't..." Lucy sighed then turned back to the door.

"Wait. Lucy. Lucy," Rufus whispered, hissing to call her back.

Lucy knocked on the door and a moment later, the woman opened it with an unamused look. She asked, "Can I help you?"

Although it didn't look like she was very pleased to, she allowed Lucy and Scarlett to walk back inside the room. Rufus elected to remain in the kitchen and the doors closed once more.

"I'm Lucy, by the way," she introduced herself. "Why do they call you Doc?"

"I got a Ph.D. in history," the woman replied. "University of Chicago."

"That's crazy." Lucy chuckled. "I worked in that department for a year under old man McNeil."

"Old man?" Doc's brow furrowed. "Professor McNeil is thirty-eight."

"Right. Yeah. It's just a nickname," Lucy covered. "But still, the way that he points to make every point."

Doc laughed at Lucy's impression of their professor, nodding her head. "Yeah, that's him, all right. Look at us now. Sure making the most of our degrees, huh?"

"So... how long have you been here?" Lucy asked.

"A couple days," Doc answered. "Was staying at The Watergate, but had to split. Some guys broke in there looking for me."

"Rittenhouse, you mean?" Scarlett asked.

"What do you know about them?" Doc returned the question with one of her own.

"Not much," Lucy admitted. "We're trying to get more info."

"Why are they after you?" Scarlett asked.

"Because I left," Doc replied.

"Left Rittenhouse?" Lucy asked. The surprise in her voice was hard to mask. "You're telling me you're a member?"

"I never joined," Doc contradicted. "I was born into it. Most of us are. Going back generations."

Born into it. That phrase made the pit of her stomach drop. The more she heard about this organization, the more concerned she grew. According to Doc, it wasn't something just anyone was selected for, but the elite were born into. No choice. No say. But the constant threat of your life being held in someone else's hands.

"Why did you leave?" Lucy asked.

"I'm sorry." Doc shook her head, looking around as if they were being listened to. "I shouldn't have..."

"Who is Rittenhouse?" Scarlett bluntly asked, but there was fear pooling into her eyes. "Please. I—we need to know."

"I might be mixed up with them too, and I'm scared," Lucy admitted. "I am... I am really scared."

"You should be," Doc agreed. "They control all of us. Look. I don't know everything. No one does. One part never knows what the other parts are doing."

"What was your part?" Lucy asked.

"Kept the roster," Doc answered. "No one knows the full membership roll except for the leadership and me."

"So, you were the bookkeeper?" Lucy asked.

Doc shook her head. "No books. Members' names are never written down. It's all up here. Every member since the founding in 1778."

Scarlett swallowed, backing away toward the door. "I think I'm gonna check on Rufus. You guys keep talking."

She stepped outside the room, quietly sliding the door closed behind her. She sighed as if even just the change of rooms was enough to release the crushing pressure she'd felt in her chest whenever the discussion turned to the elusive name of Rittenhouse. She took a deep breath, but it caught in her throat at the sound of the phone line beeping across the room.

"The doc is not a document," Rufus hissed into the phone, his voice quivering with every syllable. "The Doc is a woman."

Scarlett felt her veins turn to ice as she slowly faced Rufus. She knew he was involved with Rittenhouse. She even knew he'd been spying on them. But to see him betraying them so openly... it hurt. It crushed her.

"Did you hear me?" Rufus asked, repeating his previous statement. "I said the doc is a person."

Scarlett could only assume he was given orders and that they weren't good. She took a step forward, tempted to rush him and take the phone. To listen to the voice on the other side of the line. To find one source of her discomfort. Flynn was responsible for the death of her fiancé, that she wasn't going to change her mind about. But Rittenhouse was the unseen factor that divided her from her father and the man she considered a brother. Perhaps they were the reason the time machine even existed in the first place.

She knew Mason had gone bankrupt. And she knew that there was only one way for him to be in so deep with these people and this shady organization. It wasn't the first time he'd made the mistake in a mad chance of power and status. He'd done something similar in her youth, only there was a way out that time.

"You want me to kill someone?" Rufus asked incredulously. He stumbled over his words as he shook his head.I can't do that. No way."

Rufus quickly hung up, breathing heavily as he tried to regain his composure. Scarlett opened her mouth to begin reprimanding him, only it was Lucy's voice that broke the silence. "Who the hell was that?"

Rufus and Scarlett whipped their heads around to see Lucy standing in the doorway.

"Sh-sh-sh-shh!" Rufus hushed them, then gestured to his ears and the space around them. "Don't say anything. They are listening."

"Who?" Lucy whispered, her confusion evident.

"Rittenhouse," Scarlett answered for Rufus, refusing to look away from him.

The shocked look on his face only lasted a second as he slowly pulled out the recording device from his pocket, confirming what Scarlett already knew to be true. He turned toward the sink, jamming the device down the drain as he turned on the water.

He breath was shaky as he began to pace around the room. "Maybe I can tell them the recording device shorted out, or... or that it was destroyed. Maybe they'll believe that."

"Wait. 'They' who?" Lucy was having trouble wrapping her head around it all. "Rittenhouse? You've been taping us for them?"

"I didn't have a choice," Rufus objected. "They were at my brother's basketball game."

"What?" Scarlett's expression fell. "They're threatening your family?"

"Not just mine," Rufus vaguely agreed then shook his head as if he'd said too much. "Trust me. It is bad."

"Rufus, what do you know about them?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know anything." Rufus shook his head. "They just told me to record our trips. That's all I did. I swear."

"And lied about it," Scarlett contradicted.

"Do you even comprehend the trouble that you put us in?" Lucy asked. "I mean, who knows what they heard us say on those recordings."

"I'm not the one who is having chats across history with Flynn about a secret journal that tells the future," Rufus countered. Scarlett's eyes drifted toward the ground, not from guilt but anger and disappointment.

"So that makes it okay?" Lucy asked. "And by the way, you were the one giving me crap when you were holding onto this the whole time."

"I've barely been able to sleep, barely been able to eat," Rufus insisted. "They have been messing with my car while I am driving it. They threatened my family. You don't understand."

"What don't I understand?" Lucy asked. "I lost my sister!"

"Look," Rufus explained, "If I don't turn her in to Rittenhouse, they are gonna kill me or my family."

"If we don't give her to Flynn, he'll kill Wyatt," Lucy countered.

"We just have to trust each other, okay?" Rufus asked, frantically moving from one topic to the next. "We'll figure it out. Right, Scar?"

Scarlett finally looked up from the ground. Her lips were pulled back into a scowl as she shook her head. "Rufus, how can we ever trust each other again? Lucy's on the verge of a hysterical breakdown. With that journal around she's lost any sign of the truth. She didn't trust any of us enough to mention it. Me, I've already lost it. The world is spinning and my hands are shaking so bad that I can't even reach out and stop it."

She released a hysterical laugh. "I'm turning in to Flynn. I've already killed one guy and the only way I can drift off to sleep at night is believing that one day I'll get the guy that destroyed my life. Maybe it's a good thing Wyatt refuses to give me a gun on these missions because let's face it, he thinks I'll be the one to shoot him in the back. He's got so much PTSD that he can't go a mission without reflecting on his dead wife—which, by the way, is a problem that could be solved by the time machine; you know how easy it would be to simply take it on a joyride and fix that problem? But that's not the worst of it because he was willing to lie down and die on our last mission. He would claim it was a sacrifice to save us, but let's be honest, he saw it as the easy way out of his guilt and pain."

"And you." Her laugh turned bitter. "Rittenhouse is already inside your head. You're one of them. I trusted you, thinking that maybe you'd reach out and tell me about it yourself. Instead, you lied to me and the rest of the team. We're a team of liars slowly going insane with each second we spend in the past. So no, I don't think we can ever trust each other again."

Scarlett turned to storm from the room, but Lucy grabbed her by the arm. "We can be mad at each other later. For now, we need a plan."

"Call Flynn. Call Rittenhouse for all I care," Scarlett retorted. "There's not a way out of this because either way we lose something."

Lucy paused, releasing Scarlett's arm. But it was the curious look on the historian's face that made the mechanic stay. "That's not a bad idea."

"What's not?" Scarlett asked, knitting her brows together in confusion.

"We call Flynn—"

"But—"

"—And we call Rittenhouse," Lucy finished her thought before Rufus could interject. "We turn our enemies on one another and let them take themselves out while we get the Doc out of here and we save Wyatt."

Realizing they had little time to lose, Rufus nodded his head in agreement. He rushed to the phone and quickly called back his contact. He barely had time to regain his composure before he was called on to report. "Yeah. I have the Doc. Come pick her up."

——— • — 𖥸 — • ———

"I still don't understand," Doc admitted as she followed Lucy, Scarlett, and Rufus down the alley way.

"Okay, there is this scary guy, Garcia Flynn, and he is after you," Rufus replied.

"Why?" Doc asked.

"Same reason Rittenhouse is," Lucy answered, "for the things that you know."

"So you decided to call Rittenhouse and this Flynn and tell them where I was?" Doc asked.

"Exactly." Scarlett nodded her head. "Send both to the house. Have them turn on each other."

"Which saves us some time, but not much," Lucy admitted.

"To do what?" Doc asked, her brow furrowing as she recognized the danger she was still in.

"Save our friend," Lucy replied. "Come on. Let's hurry."

"We'll wait here," Scarlett announced. "Lucy will head inside to get Wyatt while Rufus calls for Hayes to come pick you up."

Doc nodded her head in agreement and moments later the plan came to fruition. Lucy and Wyatt sprinted out of the building, catching up just as Rufus reunited with the group.

"Hey," Scarlett greeted them. "You good?"

"Yeah." Wyatt nodded. "I'll live."

"I called Hayes," Rufus confirmed once they had moved away from the building they'd been held captive. "He should be here any minute."

"Okay." Lucy nodded her head.

And just as Rufus said, the car pulled up a few moment later. Of course, during that time they caught Wyatt up on everything that he'd missed. As Hayes opened the door to the car, stepping out to get close confirmation from Rufus, Doc turned back to Lucy one last time.

"Thank you for helping me."

"Yeah." A soft smile formed on Lucy's face.

"You know, you asked me why I was running from... you know." Doc sighed then held out the photo she'd hidden back at the house. "This is why."

"Is that your family?" Lucy asked. "What happened to them?"

"They're okay. At least, I think they are," Doc said. "Made it to Hong Kong. Headed north from there. It's been almost a year. Once my son was born, I... I just couldn't let him be born into... Trapped into all this, the way that I was. But now I'm gonna see them again. You're not so bad, even if you are a Laurie Partridge."

Lucy smile remained but she nodded back over her shoulder toward the group. "I got to go."

"Okay." Doc nodded.

Rufus then took his turn, carefully relaying instructions to Hayes that needed to be followed. "Cleaver wants you to drive her to San Diego personally, and once you're there, make sure she makes it onto her boat, you dig?"

Hayes nodded his head. "I dig."

"Don't stop for anyone," Rufus wanted. "Don't talk to anyone. Don't know who you can trust. Okay?"

Hayes nodded again. "Thank you."

"Take care," Rufus said. Once the car was gone as the it was just the reunited team of four, he turned back toward the others. "Now what?"

"We hope this recorder still works," Scarlett replied, pulling out the device she'd taken from the sink as she handed it over to Rufus. "Just leave out the part that could make us traitors to the state."

"Report." Rufus took a deep breath then continued to speak into the recorder which miraculously still worked. "Garcia Flynn found us. We escaped, but we got separated. We lost Doc. We tried to find her in the chaos, but no go. Um... really sorry about that. Good-bye."

Once Rufus turned off the recorder, he quickly turned to Wyatt who had remained quiet since they'd told him. "Look, Wyatt, you got to say something sometime. I'm really sorry, but I didn't have a choice. Rittenhouse made me spy on you."

"You're gonna keep spying on us," Wyatt finally said.

Lucy's brow furrowed in confusion. "Huh?"

"All of us will act like everything is normal," Wyatt added.

"And why would we do that?" Scarlett asked.

"Because Rufus is gonna be spying on Rittenhouse for us," Wyatt replied. "Whatever you find out about them, you're gonna tell me. We're gonna figure out what the hell's going on here. You got it?"

"Like a double agent?" Rufus asked. "I can barely single agent."

Wyatt scoffed. "Yeah, well, congrats on the undeserved promotion. I guess you're gonna learn on the job."

"I'm going to talk to Mason about this," Scarlett announced. "I know you want us to act like everything is normal, but this is affecting my family life too. Besides, two heads on this is better than one."

Wyatt slowly nodded his head, but his frown remained as he gestured to Lucy and Scarlett. "The two of you are no better."

"Wyatt..."

"In a fight like this, you are only as good as the guy next to you, and all three of you lied to me," Wyatt interrupted Lucy before any defense could be made. "I don't trust any of you."

——— • — 𖥸 — • ———

The return to the present had been awkward and the flight was silent. No quips. No remarks about how awesome it had been to meet some historical figures. No comments about how they barely scraped by with their lives yet again.

And once they were back in the present, Wyatt had immediately left once the debriefing was finished. Lucy and Rufus had remained behind to see what they could find on the Doc. And Scarlett, well she'd pulled her father up into the meeting room away from everything else.

"Is everything alright, Scarlett?" Mason asked.

"Have you found anything on the fire yet?" she bluntly began the conversation.

She wasn't openly avoiding Rittenhouse, but she did realize it was a little soon after everything to jump straight into that conversation. She was going to talk to him about it. She was going to demand answers. But she needed to time it right and—as much as she wanted to scream and throw things—now wasn't the right time.

"Have you looked into the fire that killed my family?" Scarlett repeated her question. "Because you've kept me too busy chasing after Flynn to do the research on my own."

"Nothing new," Mason replied. It was short and blunt, but a lie all the same.

There were two people in this world that she could read like the back of her hand: Mason and Rufus. She'd been burned by liars so often that's how she wound up on the streets. She'd chosen surviving on her own rather than relying on others that didn't have her best interests at heart. She originally thought that might have changed when Mason took her in. It didn't take long to realize she was just another token to look good in the eyes of the public. However, he'd never done anything to put her in harm's way—not until now anyway. He wasn't the best father, but he had provided for her. That she could not deny.

She looked him in the eye—not with defiance or anger, but on the verge of tears. "I hope it's worth it, Mason."

In that moment, she made it known that she was done making excuses just because he was her father. In that moment she silently declared that she had no father, or simply didn't recognize it any more. The last thing she saw in his eyes, was them breaking like her heart had already done ten times over. She snatched the keys from her motorcycle from the table then walked away. She was tired and the realizations and secrets revealed did nothing to repair the fractures of her mind. She'd fight another day, but for now, she return to her empty apartment and rest before she damaged herself beyond repair.