A/N: Remember that Wyatt Logan hurt/comfort fic I promised? Well, here’s a snippet of what’s to come!
After another hour of going over current events and finding nothing, Wyatt began to get restless. As cliché as it sounded, he wasn’t used to just sitting around and his body was practically begging him to do something active.
“I’m going to go for a walk. See if I can spot any of Flynn’s men,” he announced, hauling himself to his feet and grimacing as his back angrily protested.
Before Lucy could open her mouth, he waved away her concern. “I’m tired of sitting, that’s all,” he stated, replacing the grimace with a lopsided smile.
“I’m down for a walk,” Rufus spoke up as he pushed himself away from the desk. “I’ll go with.”
“No!” Wyatt said so forcefully that both Lucy and Rufus stared at him with a mixture of confusion and indignation. “You guys can’t come with,” he added in a much softer tone, hoping that would be the end of it.
But then Lucy straightened up, dug in her heels and crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. “Why not?” she demanded. “We can cover more ground that way.”
The reasons were too numerous for Wyatt to explain: there were too many variables with the three of them out there. One of them might be the target and more easily taken down in isolation. Sure he’d put Rufus and Lucy through a soldier’s version of self-defense class but they were nowhere on par with the abilities of Flynn’s men.
Mostly though, he couldn’t protect both of them out there, especially if whatever happened earlier happened again.
“I need you both to trust me,” he finally said. “It’s better if you stay here.”
“You know, the whole splitting up thing has never worked well for us,” Rufus commented but he did sit back down in his chair.
Wyatt smirked at that. “I’ll be fine Rufus.”
The pilot’s gaze shot up to lock onto his. “I sincerely hope you’re right.”
Fortunately, that was the end of the protests from both of them. After promising to check in every hour or so, Wyatt checked his weapon then left the hotel.
He walked up and down Downtown Chicago which was amazing in its own right, so different from the skyscapes of today, until his feet hurt from tight fit of his dress shoes. Much to his surprise though, he found himself aching in more places than just his feet. His chest burned, struggling to bring in air even though he wasn’t walking all that quickly, and his limbs felt oddly disjointed and stiff.
Needless to say, he was happy to not run into Flynn’s men as he finished another lap of the area. He was just turning around to head back to their hotel when the agonizing pain returned, this time in his head.
For an unending length of time, he knew nothing about his surroundings—there was nothing but a pain so sharp he couldn’t even think.
[More under the cut!]
When it finally started to decrease again, he found himself sitting against a wall, knees pulled to his chest, hands clutching at his head. There was a blur in front of him and, when he squinted, a cop came into view, seconds before the man disappeared in a white blaze.
“You can’t be out here,” a voice boomed. “Collect your stuff and get out of here.”
Then the white disappeared…caused by a flashlight, Wyatt’s foggy brain realized. Unable to find the breath for words, he just nodded and shakily pulled himself upright.
“You okay, sir?” the officer suddenly asked, suddenly sounding more warm and generous.
“Migraines,” Wyatt ground out, hand rubbing at his head. “Bad.”
“You need a lift?”
Wyatt considered for a split second then nodded. “Yeah, that’d be great.”
“Where have you been?” Lucy demanded as soon as she opened the door to her hotel room. “It’s after eleven!”
Crap, he’d been gone for almost four hours.
“Where’s Rufus?” Wyatt asked, wincing as the ache in his head ratcheted up a notch.
“About to go out looking for you.” Without taking her eyes off Wyatt, Lucy tapped on the connecting door. “He’s back,” she called loud enough to be heard in the other room.
Rufus burst through the door almost immediately. “We are never splitting up ag—What happened to you?” he demanded as soon as he saw Wyatt’s disheveled appearance.
“I think I’m getting sick.” Wyatt then proceeded to describe his earlier head- and stomachache, the growing aches, then the head pain.
“And that might not be a big deal but I wasn’t sick before I got here and haven’t been sick for the last few days and I really don’t want to be a Typhoid Mary for some futuristic virus.”
Lucy walked over and rested her hand against his forehead. “You’re not running a fever but I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.”
“So what’s the plan?” Wyatt asked, dropping into a chair and wincing as the motion jarred his knees. “Do I have to worry about this or—”
Without warning, pain exploded in his chest, stealing his breath. He doubled over, clutching at his ribs and forcing his lungs through steady inhales.
“Rufus, what’s happening?” he heard someone…Lucy…ask as he struggled to bring air into his lungs.
“Either he was poisoned somehow or…” Rufus cursed. Loudly. And creatively. “Would you say the pain is sharp or dull?”
“Seri’sly?” Wyatt grunted out, his forehead pressed to the wooden table in front of him.
“It’s important! Sharp or dull?”
“Sharp.”
“Started in your stomach, head, then chest.” Rufus cursed under his breath. “This is bad.”
Suddenly there were hands under his arms, hauling him to his feet. Disoriented, Wyatt looked around until his gaze landed on Rufus, who was fully supporting him, Lucy hovering off to his right.
Fix-It for the Baumgardner storyline, which means spoilers for The Lost Generation.
“You ready for this?” Wyatt asked Jiya as he slid into his usual seat and buckled himself in.
“She sure is,” Rufus responded for his girlfriend, bending down and kissing her. She grinned in the embrace then gently pushed him away.
“I am,” she stated, swiveling in her seat to face Wyatt.
“That means you have to go, Rufus.” The soldier pointed outside the door where Lucy and the rest of the support team were waiting.
“I am,” he groused but first rested his hand on Jiya’s shoulder. “You can do this.”
“I know,” she beamed at him. Then she shoved him again toward the doorway, this time with more force. Taking the hint, Rufus shot her a quick thumbs-up then carefully maneuvered his way to the door.
“You sure this is exactly how it went down?” Wyatt asked as Rufus passed, holding up the sheet of paper where he and Lucy had detailed Baumgardner’s death.
Rufus nodded.
“Alright then.” Wyatt folded the paper, slid it into his pocket then tilted his head back against the plush rest and closed his eyes.
Rufus paused to lightly punch Wyatt on the shoulder before climbing down the portable stairs. “Good luck,” he called as he palmed the sensor and the doors slid closed.
By this point, Jiya had turned back in her chair and began the launch sequence.
“You were trained for this. You can do this. They wouldn’t have sent you if you weren’t ready,” she muttered under her breath as she grabbed the steering joystick.
“Alternatively, ‘We are one with the Force and it is one with us’,” Wyatt deadpanned, popping open one eye to stare expectantly at Jiya.
“Careful Logan. Your inner nerd is showing.”
Before he got a chance to respond, she flipped the final switch and the Lifeboat creaked into an ugly but effective motion.
“But where's your modern gun... like whatever Wyatt uses? “
“I was told not to bring anything back from 2017.”
From his perch not far from where Baumgardner would make his last stand, Wyatt groaned. “Never rely on someone else’s weapon,” he muttered under his breath. “You know better than that, Bam-Bam.”
“Go! Run!” With that, Baumgardner peeled away from his cover, standing in the middle. of. the. alley. as he fired at Karl.
Wyatt cursed under his breath then dove out from behind his own cover and fired twice, hitting Karl once in the leg and a second time in his shoulder.
“Wyatt?” he heard both Rufus and Lucy ask in confusion but didn’t look back, his eyes never left Karl’s unmoving body.
“Get back,” he hissed as he sprang to his feet and slowly made his way toward the other end of the alley. He heard light footsteps behind him and knew Baumgardner was backing him up.
“What are you doing here?” Dave asked, after a split second.
“Saving you from death by idiocy.”
Wyatt kicked Karl’s gun away then bent down to take his pulse. “He’s still alive.”
He quickly patted the man down and, when he found no additional weapons, manhandled Karl out of his jacket, sliced it in half with his very modern pocketknife, then tied the thick fabric against his wounds.
With that out of the way, he turned back to Baumgardner and demanded, in a very calm, very level voice, “What the hell were you thinking?”
“They told me not to take—”
“Not that!” Then he paused to reconsider. “Well that too. But mostly you standing in the middle of the alley, with no cover in sight.’
“Past weapons are rarely accurate. I would have been fine.”
“Flynn’s men don’t play by those rules,” Wyatt stated, standing up so his face was inches from Baumgardner’s. He then pointed at the very modern weapon resting on the ground out of Karl’s reach. “That Glock is extremely accurate. And it was supposed to kill you.”
To his credit, Baumgardner barely reacted outside of a quick double blink. “Oh,” he finally said.
“Oh is right.” Wyatt smacked the back of his hand against Baumgardner’s chest. “You have to be more careful, man! Did I teach you nothing?”
“I’m sorry,” Dave replied, looking genuinely contrite.
“Can we come out now?” Lucy poked her head around a box, eyes wide with excitement.
“Yeah, it’s safe.”
Two seconds later, he staggered backwards with the full force of a Lucy hug. “What the hell are you doing here? How did you escape? How did you get here?”
As she paused to breath, Wyatt gently pulled free of her embrace. “One question at a time.” He waited for her to nod before ticking points off on his right hand. “I came to save his dumb ass. Christopher helped me and Jiya flew me.”
“Jiya?” Rufus asked, his face contorting in great concern.
“It’s a long story. Think Back to the Future II.” In the distance, bells chimed and Wyatt refocused on the task at hand. “Bam-Bam and I need to go,” he stated.
“But—”
“You both do just fine without him. Just tell the new guy he,” Wyatt paused to jerk his thumb in Baumgardner’s direction, “died protecting you.”
“But—”
Wyatt reached out and grabbed Lucy’s hand. “You’ll both be fine. I promise.”
She smiled uneasily. “Okay.” She ran her thumb along the back of Wyatt’s hand then pulled away. “What do we do now?”
One corner of Wyatt’s mouth lifted as he looked her in the eyes. “I think you know the answer to that.”
It took her a moment but she eventually nodded.
“Be careful,” Wyatt said, pausing to look at both of them. They nodded slowly in unison.
“When will we see you again?” Rufus asked.
“Very soon,” Wyatt said, unable to resist the chance to be cryptic.
As Rufus and Lucy walked off toward the bar, Wyatt turned back to Baumgardner.
“Ready to go home?”
The soldier nodded, still slightly paler than usual.
“Good, because there’s about 80 different exercises I’m going to run your dumb ass through when we get there.” Wyatt holstered his gun and walked away, muttering about where Baumgardner thought standing in the middle of an alley with no cover was a good idea.
Baumgardner gulped, remembering Basic, then hurried after his friend, unwilling to miss his ride home despite his currently ugly future.
