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mommabearclarke · 6 years

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The Lightning Struck Tower

Fandom: Timeless Pairing: Lucy/Garcia Rated: T, but really it’s nothing. Also on: ao3 A/N: It took me about 3 months to write this, but here I am! My first Garcy fic! I want to thank @qqueenofhades for inspiring me to write again. Her stories are so fabulous, and so lifelike, I wanted to try my hand at it again. Two things: I am not a historian, nor do I live in America, so I have exactly 0.5 knowledge about important historical characters. I tried to keep away from history altogether, but this is Timeless, after all. Secondly, I am sorry if I butchered the Czech language xD. I tried to use what I remembered from my holiday there a few years ago. I hope you like it anyway!

Summary: Present-day Prague. Lucy is kidnapped, the Time Team loses their collective minds and some feelings are exchanged. Flynn is always a garbage king, no matter the circumstance.

Prague’s Astronomical Clock was one of the most intriguing sights in the city. It denoted 5 different times, including the Star Time and Zodiac placement. Its face was intricately decorated with the sun, moon and stars. Tour guides liked to fool tourists into believing the creator was both blinded and had his tongue cut out after its completion, so that nobody could ever own such a beautiful clock. And while that wasn’t true, Garcia had always wanted to actually see the clock for once – he’d only ever been working when in Prague, and had never had the time. But he had more pressing matters on his mind at the moment, as he ran past it towards where he had seen Lucy last.

There had been a muffled scream not one minute before, and when he looked, Lucy wasn’t at her assigned station anymore, and he knew instantly something had gone wrong. Without thinking twice, he had started to run, and when the clock started to do its routine, he missed it completely.

The chair on which she had been sitting was turned on its back, her coffee cup upended, and coffee was splattered everywhere. She had apparently not come quietly. People were staring at him as he turned frantically on his axis, trying to see through the tourists. He hated having to work in the 21st century now. Too many people, too many tourists, too many obstacles.

“Co se stalo?” said a young woman, looking rattled.

“’What happened’?” Garcia spat, in English. “That’s a damn good question.”

His heart was beating in his ears, and he knew he wasn’t thinking clearly. If it had been a mark he had to eliminate, he would’ve been halfway through questioning everyone and everything around him. But he was panicking, and he knew it, and could do nothing to stop it.

He became dimly aware someone was yelling in his ear, and it took him a moment to remember he was wearing an earpiece, which meant Logan and Rufus were on the other end.

“FLYNN!” Rufus bellowed, and it finally broke through his panic haze enough to shock him into action. “Where are you? Wyatt’s lost visual of both you and Lucy! What’s going on?”

He lifted his hands to his hair and ran his fingers through them, messing up his hair even more. “She’s gone.”

“WHAT?” Logan yelled into his ear, and he winced. “Where did she go?!”

“Do you think I’d be here if I knew?” Garcia snarled back, trying to spur his panicked brain back into action. “I turned around for two seconds to check the perimeter and next thing I know she’s gone. Signs of struggle.”

“You bastard! You were supposed to keep an eye on Lucy! This is your fault!” Rufus exploded.

“Excuse me?!” Garcia began to reply, knowing full well Rufus had a point, but feeling like arguing anyway. Arguing made him feel like he was doing something. Logan cut them both off before he could go any further.

“Alright! Fighting will get us nowhere. Lucy is in danger. We need to regroup and figure out where she went.”

Knowing Logan was right, Garcia pushed aside his resentment and took a deep breath. “You’re right. Converge on my location. We’ll work from where she vanished.”

“Did you just agree with me?” Logan said, sounding astonished.

Garcia let out a snarl. “Don’t make me take it back.”

“Alright, calm down. We’ll be there in five.”

Rufus and Logan disappeared from the comms and Garcia was left alone with his thoughts. He stared at the upturned chair and dripping coffee, his insides churning with guilt. This was his fault. If he hadn’t turned away. If he hadn’t dragged Lucy into all of this. She would’ve been safer inside Rittenhouse; evil organisation or not, they could provide protection.

And now she was gone and it was his fault.

It was like his entire brain was making that flatlined noise, making it impossible for him to think clearly. The woman was still asking frantically what happened and what was going on, but it was but meaningless noise to him and his screaming brain.

Just as he ran his hand through his hair once more, he heard a voice in his head, drowning out the other noises. “What are you doing, soldier? We don’t wallow in self-pity! We don’t have time for that! There’s always the next op! Get your ass moving! Let’s go!”

His old CO had yelled this at him the first time he had lost a man in the battlefield. He had sat with his hands in his hair, staring at nothing, completely useless, against a wall in the middle of a war. His CO had found him there and had lost his temper like no one else he knew could.

When they were all safe, he had taken Flynn apart and told him to see a psychiatrist if he needed. His CO had been the best man Garcia had ever known.

He dropped his hands, and he felt a switch had flipped. His brain had spurred back into action and his next op was clear: search and rescue. He had done this a hundred times before. And now he could do it again.

He turned to the woman he had just yelled at. “Paní, promiňte, did you see what happened?” he asked her in perfect Czech. She lit up when she realized he understood her, and began rattling in rapid Czech.

“The lady was sitting there and then this big man came up to her and asked her what time it was. When she went to check her watch, the man grabbed her and started to drag her away. She tried to fight, that’s how the cup and the chair got turned over, but he was at least a full head taller than her and she would’ve fitted twice into his width. My boyfriend tried to stop him, but...” She stepped aside, and Garcia saw a man sitting on the floor, looking dazed, a thin trickle of blood running from under his hair. He crouched down, and checked the man out. He took out his handkerchief and pressed it against the small cut. The man looked grateful, and took over.

“Děkuji,” he said softly to the woman, “The cut isn’t deep but he might need stitches. You should take him to a doctor.”

She nodded. “Why did they take her?”

“Because she’s far too innocent, and far too important.” he said, and left it at that, turning away. “Did you see where they went?” he added, and the lady pointed west, onto Malé nám street. “Thank you.”

He headed towards the Malé nám, but before he could get very far, his path was blocked by two very angry people. “Where is Lucy?” Rufus said, poking a finger in his chest. Garcia hit his hand away, annoyed, glancing at Logan to see a similar expression of fury on his face.

“I don’t know. I spoke to someone who saw everything, and they went this way.”

“Alright, let’s go.” Logan said, clapping Rufus on the back, and turning into the direction Garcia had indicated.

They took off running, Flynn keeping his eyes peeled for anything unusual. He was acutely aware that if the street split off in other directions, they would have no way of knowing which way Lucy had gone, and they would have to figure out some other way of tracking her down. Logan’s set face betrayed the same worry, and they exchanged dark looks every now and then.

He and Logan may not see eye to eye on everything (or, to be frank, on anything), but it was clear that their goals were aligned for once – Lucy was more important than their disagreements at any day.

It seemed they were lucky (a relative term – Flynn didn’t feel very lucky lately). A group of Praguers were standing huddled together, looking rather ruffled and upset, several people holding phones to their ears. It was obvious something had just occurred here. Flynn approached them. “What happened here?” he demanded of one of the girls, who was just hanging up. She looked completely unsettled.

“There was a man! He was dragging a woman with him, and she looked like she didn’t want to come! We tried to stop him, but he pulled a gun, and fired!” She pointed over to the storefront, and he saw a Jewellery store window, shattered completely to pieces. Flynn nodded, his anxiety rising. This man had a gun.

“Where did they go?” he asked, urgently, while Rufus ran his hand across his mouth and cursed vehemently. Logan was already gearing up to start running, and Garcia could sense his anxiety, adding to his own.

The woman pointed to the right. “That way! Are you going to save her?”

“If it’s the last thing I do.” Flynn said, gritting his teeth, and taking off, Logan and Rufus in his wake.

“Did they know anything?” Rufus shouted from behind him, out of breath and clutching a stitch in his side, both of which he ignored.

“Not more than a general direction, but if we get more of those, we may get lucky!”

“Lucky?!” Rufus yelled, and with one lunge, he grabbed Garcia’s arm and pulled him to a halt. Without thinking, Garcia spun around, pulling his fist back and swinging at the panting man’s face.

Logan, curse his entire being, was faster. “Hey!” he yelled, hand shooting out and catching Garcia’s fist before it made contact.

His heartbeat was thundering in his ears and he had half a mind to knock both of them unconscious and continue by himself. But looking at both of them, despising both of them, he also knew Lucy would not likely forgive him if he did anything of the sort, so he took a deep breath, shook off Logan’s grip and righted himself. Logan looked murderous, but it was Rufus’s face that truly calmed his temper. The man’s eyes were wide with fear, his entire body trembling, and Garcia remembered how he had Rufus shot in 1931. Apparently, Rufus had not forgotten that. Taking another breath, he took a step back and half-raised his hands. “Sorry,” he said calmly, “It was instinct.”

Rufus kept looking at him with suspicion in his eyes, but nodded. “We can’t rely on luck,” he said, digging in his pocket. “This is Lucy. If we can’t agree on anything else, I think we can agree on her.” Logan nodded, and so did Garcia. “Alright. Now, she had her phone on her...” He took his own out of his pocket and started typing frantically. “If she’s clever, and she is, she’ll have hidden it somewhere where it'll take a while for them to find it. Hopefully, just long enough for me to triangulate her position...”

Garcia only half-listened. He was itching to keep moving. The longer they stayed still, the farther Lucy was from them, the less chance they had of finding her. “What does that help?” he asked, impatiently.

Logan threw him a filthy look, and Rufus gave him a glare filled with disdainful. “It helps, asshole, because we now know where she is.” He held up the phone which showed a map, and a pin was pulsing in the middle of it.

He grabbed the phone from Rufus and held it up so he could see the map better. “That’s not far from here.” Garcia remarked, realizing far too late how stupid he sounded. Rufus snatched the phone back with a scoff.

“Clementinum Library,” the pilot said, checking the map a little better. “That way, first right, immediate left and keep going until a small street to our right should lead us right to it.”

“Well done, Rufus,” Garcia said, impressed despite himself. Surprise flickered across the other man’s face, and even Logan looked momentarily stunned. For some reason it annoyed him; he wasn’t a complete monster, and them acting like every act of common decency was a miracle in and of itself did not help with his intense and overwhelming feelings of guilt.

(It was his own fault. His rate of making bad and harmful decisions had shot up exponentially ever since setting out on this suicide mission, and he had not made favourable impressions on any of them.

(Though he'd thought him saving their asses from an explosion at Mason Industries would have put him in their favour at least somewhat.)

“Let’s just go,” he said, his voice hardening again. No time for emotions at this point. They had a chance to save Lucy, and he would not blow it by submitting to such trivialities as emotions.

They took off running, and sure enough, a hidden sideroad not half a kilometer later led them into a massive courtyard, which housed one of the oldest libraries in Europe. Once again, Garcia was unable to take in any of the exterior, as he burst through the door and came to a halt into a small entrance hall, where an old lady was selling tickets.

“Three tickets?” she asked, as Rufus and Logan tripped inside after him.

“Je mi líto, má drahá, but we have no time.” Garcia said, as gentle as he could, barely stopping in his pace to spare the woman a glance. “Come on!” he urged the other two, and they kept on running, ignoring the woman’s yells. They’d probably have to deal with the fallout of that later – perhaps a security guard or two – but they hardly cared. “Rufus, where is she?” Garcia barked as they hustled past a startled group of tourists about to have a tour.

“Up, up!” Rufus yelled back.

Cursing, Flynn began taking the stairs two at a time. He soon realized he wasn’t going to maintain it. They were climbing towards the Astronomical Tower and if he wanted to arrive with his insides intact, he would have to pace himself.

But as bad decisions were part of his daily routine now, he kept on running at top speed, ignoring the stitch in his side and Logan’s shouts to slow. down. Suddenly, the floor evened out and he nearly face-planted as he mistook the landing for another step. Logan grabbing his arm saved him from any embarrassment.

There was a tour going on in the next room and he heard a snippet of it even as he spotted the next flight of stairs. “And here you see the library’s oldest collection of books. We cannot go in, as these books are very fragile, but take a look and we will continue up the Astronomical Tower in a few minutes...”

Of course there was a guided tour going on. Because nothing could ever just go well for them, there always had to be something in the way.

“We need to keep going up,” whispered Rufus sharply, checking his phone again, “Why are they going all the way to the top?”

Garcia did not want to think about the possible reasons, because every one of them was worse than the last. He ran up the next flight of stairs instead, thinking only about getting to Lucy and getting out of here.

“There’s someone behind us!” yelled Rufus suddenly, halting both Logan and Garcia halfway up the stairs. The two of them exchanged dark looks as they heard several thundering footsteps coming nearer. No way were they going to get to Lucy before someone intercepted them.

“Keep going,” said Logan, his face set.

Within a few seconds, they reached another landing, this one dark and filled with glass cases holding telescopes and other astronomical devices. It was eerily quiet and cold here, and almost completely dark, save for a few spotlights. Rufus checked his phone once more, shaking his head. “We have to keep going up,” he said, looking down the stairs to see their pursuers.

“We’re never gonna make it,” Garcia said, running his hand through his hair even as he started for the next – and hopefully last – flight of stairs (because God his legs hurt). At that exact moment, two men dressed in black – how wonderfully cliché – burst out onto the landing, guns drawn and faces set.

To both Logan and Garcia’s surprise, Rufus sprang forward and clocked the first man right in the jaw, making him fall over and topple back down the stairs. The second man whirled around to aim his gun at Rufus, but Logan jumped him from behind and knocked the gun from his hand. Garcia stood, frozen, even as the first man came thundering back up the stairs and dove straight at Rufus, not sure what to do.

“Go!” snapped Rufus at him, earning a punch in the jaw for his momentary lack of attention, and jumping out of the way. “Go get her!”

Garcia’s eyes met Logan’s, and the two men nodded once at each other. Right now, amazingly, miraculously, the two men understood each other perfectly. He and Rufus would hold off the men, while Garcia went up and dealt with the guy who took Lucy. Why he had taken her to the top of a fucking library tower was anyone’s guess, but Garcia didn’t make a habit of understanding brainwashed cult members.

Forcing his legs to move, he took the last flight of stairs, and after a minute or two of excruciating running (after this he was never taking any stairs ever again), he reached the next and final landing; a small room with several doors that led straight outside. His heart missed a beat as he saw one door open. The bastard had taken Lucy onto the small balcony from where Prague could be viewed. Judging by the man’s actions thus far, he had been feeling hunted from the moment he took her, and had made some erroneous choices, and Garcia was willing to bet half his leather jacket collection that he was quite desperate at this point. Desperate people made bad decisions.

He laughed mirthlessly at himself. Something about pot and kettle, he thought, as he drew his gun and slowly made his way to the balcony. It was paramount not to startle anyone, so as to not force people to do something rash. He stepped onto the balcony gun-first, looking around for any sign of Lucy’s dark hair. “Hey! Anyone out here?” he called, and immediately, he heard a yell of fear. “Lucy!” he yelled, and in three steps, was around the corner to the other side.

His heart stopped beating altogether and his blood ran cold. There they both were. The man who had taken her, standing on the ledge, and in one hand a gun, and in the other hand...

Lucy, held in place only by her captor by the front of her coat, hanging over the ledge, her hands scrabbling at the man’s arm for something to grab onto, her eyes wide and terrified. One wrong move and she would fall.

“Don’t move!” the man said, shaking Lucy, which made her cry out in fear. “Don’t do anything stupid, Flynn!”

Garcia lowered his gun immediately, straightening up and holding up a hand in an effort to look calm and unthreatening. “Alright, calm down.” He looked straight at Lucy, who was staring at him pleadingly. He tried to communicate to her to not be scared, but it may not have come off all that well, seeing he was halfway to terrified himself. “So what’s your big plan here?” he said, forcing himself to inject some of his signature Garcia Flynn Disdain™ into his voice. “Drop Carol Preston’s daughter off a tower? Benjamin Cahill’s only living heir?”

“If you try anything, yeah!” the man said, and he let go of Lucy for the shortest amount of time, causing her to fall further backwards. She screamed and Garcia’s stomach turned and her name was already on his lips, but the man grabbed her arm before she could fall any further to her death. She was now tipping over dangerously. “So stay back!” he yelled, his voice trembling, and his face devoid of colour. He knew harming Lucy would probably get him killed, but he was desperate and scared. Garcia was still recovering from the shock that had just gone through his system when he thought she was going to plummet to earth with only the ground to stop her fall. She recovered faster than him, however.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Lucy said, drawing the man’s eyes to him, giving Garcia a chance to inch forward slightly. “My mom and I may not see eye to eye on, well, anything, but I am her daughter. As I am Benjamin Cahill’s. And they will destroy you in more ways than you can possibly imagine if any harm comes to me.” She sounded terrifying, and Garcia was genuinely impressed how well she held up under these extreme circumstances.

“Our orders were clear: separate Lucy Preston from the degenerates whatever the cost.” the man said, sounding extremely unsure.

“The cost is, I am sure, not her life,” Garcia said, his eyes on Lucy’s. “Trust me,” he added, and Lucy nodded almost imperceptibly. She was holding on to the man’s arm for dear life, and she squeezed, drawing the man’s gaze once more.

“Please,” she said softly, “don’t do this. This won’t help anyone. Either he kills you or my parents will, killing me will not gain you any favours.”

The man looked at his hand holding her, but before he could reach a decision, Garcia took two giant strides towards him, took a precise shot at the back of his knees, causing him to yell and crumple to the ground, his hand letting go of Lucy’s arm. For one terrible, heart-stopping second, she was suspended in midair, but in one fluid motion, Garcia went from aiming at the man to losing the gun and grabbing hold of Lucy’s hand. The next moment, he had pulled her from the ledge straight at him, and she stumbled into his arms clumsily. Without thinking about it, he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tightly for a moment, thanking any and all beings up there for her heartbeat and her warmth pressing against him.

In an impulse, so it seemed, Lucy flung her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, sobbing quietly. He could feel her entire body trembling against him, as the adrenaline wore off and the fear and the reality of death coming so near hit her. “That was terrifying,” she sobbed into his shoulder, tightening her grip. Was he deluding himself or was she actually whimpering his name into his shoulder?

“You’re alright,” he said softly, putting a hand to the back of her head and stroking her hair soothingly, “you’re alright now, Lucy.”

“How did you find me?” she said, amazed, but still not letting go off him.

“I – ” began Garcia, but another voice cut him off from behind them.

“That was actually me, so...”

Lucy finally let go, staring over Garcia’s shoulder at Rufus who had just appeared behind them. Garcia turned around as Lucy flew at her friend and hugged him, too. Rufus returned the hug with a big smile, and Garcia noted that his mouth was slightly bloody. He also had a nasty cut above his left eyebrow, but looked otherwise alright. Behind him, Logan appeared, panting and looking distinctly the worse for wear with a torn jacket, a spectacular cut under his eye, which would probably turn blue in a few hours as it was already starting to swell, and holding his left arm as if it hurt badly. He still was able to catch Lucy as she flew at him, too, and hugged him.

“Thank you,” she said, after letting go of Logan with an apology for his hurt arm, and looking at each one of them in turn. “I don’t know what would’ve happened if you guys hadn’t shown up.” She locked eyes with Garcia and she smiled slightly. “Thank you.”

“Let’s go back to the bunker. Mission’s aborted as of now,” Logan said, and for once, Garcia wholeheartedly agreed with the man’s orders. It would be a hassle getting back to the Lifeboat and jump it back to America (two dead guys, a Rittenhouse deserter, and a wanted man were not going to pass customs, so Mason and Rufus had rigged the Lifeboat to also be able to just jump space, instead of space-time), but after the day they had had, it seemed laughably easy.

------

After a hot shower and a quick check-up by their (by now regular) doctor, Garcia felt slightly normal again, or as normal as a person living in a bunker could feel. His anxiety had worn off slightly, and his brain didn’t sound like a fork stuck in a garbage disposal anymore, so he counted that as a win. His mind was still buzzing with worry about Lucy however, and he had decided to just go to her and see how she was doing. The doctor had declared her physically fit, and she had fled the room as soon as she could, leaving the three men behind to lap up their wounds alone.

He had long since learned the intricacies of the bunker, its many, many tunnels that led absolutely nowhere (some kind of strategic defence, but it just ticked him off every time he took a wrong turn), so it took him only a few minutes to find her and Jiya’s door. It took him several more to gather up the courage to actually knock.

The small, chipper tech-genius opened the door, and her eyebrows shot up into her hairline when she saw him. “Flynn,” she said, surprise in her voice, “What can I do you for?”

“Yeah, uh...” he said, fully aware that this was the least eloquent he had ever been. “Is Lucy here?”

A smirk appeared on Jiya’s face and she opened the door further, revealing Lucy sitting on her bed with her legs crossed, her hair still damp from a shower and buried in what looked like three hoodies. She smiled at him, but it didn’t reach her eyes, which broke his heart a little. He remembered how she had smiled standing next to Houdini, and wished he could make her feel that way again, even for a little while. “Hi,” she said softly.

“Hi,” he replied. “I was wondering if I might have a word?”

“Sure,” she said. “Jiya, would you mind – ?”

Jiya still had that mischievous grin on her face even as she grabbed a sweater and walked out of the room. “No, not at all! I’ll go see if Rufus has my money, he’s gonna owe me so much!”

With that confusing statement, she left. Garcia gaped after her for a moment, unsure of what to make of that entire exchange, before realising he was still standing in the open door. “May I come in?” he asked, turning his attention back to Lucy.

“Of course,” she said, gesturing at the bed opposite her. “Have a seat.”

He sat down, shifting uncomfortably as his legs were too long for the bed. “How are you doing, Lucy?” he asked, trying to make eye contact. She was looking at her fingers, picking at her nails and basically doing anything but look at him.

“Fine,” she said, her voice pitching to an unnaturally high note, and she closed her eyes, her cheeks flushing red. “Okay, maybe not so fine. But I will be. You know. I just need some sleep.”

Garcia kept his gaze on her, trying to discern any emotion at all, but she kept her face stoically blank. He didn’t believe for a second that sleep would fix this. “Lucy, you nearly died and – ”

“Don’t,” she said sharply, looking up at him at last.

“Lucy....”

“No, Flynn, don’t tell me how I feel!” she hurled at him, jumping from the bed and putting her hands on her hips, suddenly angry as hell. She barely towered over him, even with him sitting on the lowest bed ever invented in human history. “You have no idea how I feel!”

Garcia jumped up as well – it was a little more impressive when he did it, and she took an involuntary step back. “I don’t know how you feel? Don’t you think I’ve been there? I’ve been near death more times than I care to remember!”

“Do you think this is about almost dying? Are you actually this dim?!” Lucy hurled at him, looking so spectacularly frightening that he took a step back from her. He was a good foot taller than her, but her rage was magnificent, and he couldn’t deny he was a tiny bit scared. “‘Separate Lucy Preston from the degenerates whatever the cost’! That’s what he said! Dead or alive, in short! My own parents don’t care if I live or die! My parents, Flynn!” While she was talking, she had moved closer to him, and had prodded his chest with her finger at the last word.

Garcia opened his mouth, couldn’t find any words to say, and closed it again, looking down at her as her eyes slowly filled with tears. “So don’t tell me you know how I feel, you have no idea!”

“I’m sorry,” he said, softly. A single tear leaked down her cheek, and he reached out and gently wiped it away with his thumb. “You’re right, I don’t know how you feel. I can’t even imagine.”

She turned away from him and wiped furiously at her eyes. “No, it’s fine. Just...I need some time.”

“Alright,” Garcia said, stepping forward and putting a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to look at him, her eyes wide, watery and bloodshot. “If you need anything, anything at all, you come to me, okay?”

She nodded, wiping her nose on her sleeve and giving him a shaky smile. “Thanks, Garcia,” she said, her voice soft and trembling.

“Anytime,” he said, and he kissed her forehead without thinking. Her breathing stopped momentarily, as did his, and he pulled back just far enough to look into her eyes, his heart pounding in his throat. His brain was numb again, and he was unsure about what to do. She was beautiful up close (who was he kidding, she was beautiful from every angle), and she still had tears stuck on her eyelashes. Her eyes were alight with a fire he could not place, however. They breathed together for a few moments, and Garcia was about to step away, when Lucy suddenly reached up, curled her hand around the back of his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers. She pushed herself onto her tiptoes, pressing her body against his, as she kissed him with a passion that could only stem from desperation.

He would never admit it to any living being, but he had dreamt about kissing Lucy Preston ever since the older version had pressed the journal into his hands and told him what to do with it. She was everything to him – everything – and every time they worked in close proximity, he’d had to employ all his self control not to kiss her. And she was kissing him. He should be ecstatic.

However, he knew this was coming from a place of grief, of anger, and this is not how he wanted this to happen. He put a hand on her waist, nearly died twice, but then he pushed her away gently. She let out a whining moan, her fingers scratched lightly at his scalp as she tried to pull him back towards him, and he nearly gave in again. “Lucy...” he said softly, his thumb stroking her cheek, but keeping her at a distance, despite her best efforts. She tried to push herself back up to his lips, but he shook his head. “Lucy, we can’t.”

“Why not?” she whispered, kissing his cheek lightly and nuzzling his neck. His stomach twirled as he caught a whiff of her flowery hair, and his resolve almost broke. “Come on, please,” she said, her voice pleading, her fingers running through his hair.

“Lucy, please,” Garcia said, in turn, his voice gruff. His entire being was shouting at him to shut up and kiss her again, but the rational part of his brain was arguing that she was upset, and would probably regret this in the morning.

“Don’t you want me?” she asked, her voice thick with want as she nipped at his bottom lip.

He closed his eyes hard for a moment, took a deep breath, and opened them again, looking her straight in the eyes. “God, Lucy, you have no idea.” He stroked her hair gently, and hoped she could see the truth in his eyes. “But you’re distraught and angry, and this is not how this should happen, how I want this to happen.”

She finally pulled back, her eyes large and confused. “But I want you...” she began, but Garcia put his thumb to her lips to stop her.

“Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. But if this is ever going to happen, I want it to happen because you actually want it, and not because you’re upset.” He pressed another chaste kiss to her forehead and then stepped back from her, finally letting go of her waist.

She stood for a moment, swaying on the spot, blinking at him. “You’re right,” she finally said, her cheeks flushing red. She raised her shaking fingers to her mouth and traced her lips absentmindedly. She seemed to come out of a sort of trance, and her eyes widened slightly. “Yeah, you’re right, oh my god, I’m so sorry...”

“Don’t apologize,” Garcia said, shaking his head, still backing away. “Just get some sleep, Lucy.”

“Yeah. Good night, Garcia,” she whispered, sitting down on her bed and looking down at her hands.

He walked over to the door, a leaden weight dropping into his stomach. “Good night, Lucy,” he said, before exiting the room and closing the door behind him. He banged the back of his head against the door once, squeezing his eyes closed and mentally cursing himself. How could he have let this happen? Well, it would just be another bad mistake in a long line of disastrous ones, and boy, this one was stupendously, magnificently awful. Coming to Lucy at all had been a mistake, he knew what she did to him, how his resolve weakened around her. God, what a train wreck. He took another deep breath, straightened up, and opened his eyes.

He froze.

Rufus and Jiya were standing a few feet away, looking up with sparkling eyes. “Everything go okay?” Jiya asked him, her voice skipping slightly.

He merely threw them a loathing look, fearing if he opened his mouth he would do something else stupid, and returned to his room, where he dropped on his bed and tried to wipe the last ten minutes from his memory. He was extremely uncomfortable and the air felt way too hot. Shower restrictions prevented him from taking a cold shower, and he cursed out the entire bunker for this inconvenience. At last he fell asleep, a restless sleep plagued by too vivid images of Lucy, and how her body fit against his.

------

Two weeks passed without them mentioning the kiss again. They went on a few more disastrous missions, and they continued to work well together. Even Rufus seemed to get more comfortable with taking Garcia on more missions.

After yet another disastrous mission that only barely saw them come home alive, and he was extremely exhausted. It had been emotionally exhaustive, lots of kids involved that hit just a little close to home. After a quick shower, he made a beeline towards the fridge, took out a cold beer and dropped down onto the tiny couch. Sighing deeply, he closed his eyes and took a long swig from the – frankly disgusting – cheap beer.

It had been a tough couple of weeks. During missions, he and Lucy worked exceptionally well together. Surprisingly, to everyone, they were on the same line of thought more often than not, and were more often attuned than they used to be. Flynn couldn’t understand it, he had been so worried that their inadvertent kiss would disrupt the fragile bond they had formed, and yet it seemed to have strengthened it. As if their shared show of weakness had deepened the trust in one another.

His musings were interrupted by another body dropping on the couch beside him. It was so small that their body was pressed tightly against his, and he immediately recognized the presence as Lucy’s. She was small and warm, and when he glanced at her, she looked completely exhausted. She was nursing a beer in her hands.

“This stuff is disgusting,” she said dully, before taking another swig.

“You okay?” he asked, looking at her out of the corner of his eyes.

She sighed, took another swig of her beer, and then did something that made him freeze completely. She put her head on his shoulder. For a moment he was completely distracted by the way her head seemed to fit perfectly on his shoulder, and how comfortable she apparently felt with him to do this. “I’m tired of losing people, Garcia,” she said softly.

“Tough mission?” he guessed, taking a careful sip of the beer.

“Yeah. Hey, who wrote Moby Dick?”

“I don’t know, it was an anonymous writer, wasn’t it?” He remembered quite clearly the printing on the front, and the foreword by the publisher, describing the day when an unfamiliar woman showed up in his office, handed him the finished book and disappeared.

She groaned. “Nooo,” she said, her voice obtaining an adorable whining quality for a second. “His name was Herman Melville, and Emma killed him before he could submit it. I had to finish the final chapter from memory. I’m pretty sure I messed it up, but that happened.”

Garcia raised his eyebrows in surprise. “You wrote Moby Dick?”

“Only the final chapter.”

“You’re amazing.” It was out of his mouth before he could stop it.

She raised her eyes to his and gave him the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. “Thanks.”

“No, but really...the Mystery Woman who delivered the finished manuscript to the publisher and vanished? No one has ever been able to solve that mystery, and it was you all along.” He saw her smile slightly, before she settled back against his shoulder, and closed her eyes, sighing deeply. “Some changes aren’t awful, Lucy.”

“I know, but...as a historian, it hurts.”

“I know,” he said softly, putting an arm around her and rubbing her shoulder. Looking down at her, Garcia considered whether he had the nerve to talk to her about the kiss now, while she was emotionally drained. He could hardly stand it anymore, not talking about it, not knowing where they were. “Lucy?” She hummed in response. “About...that night?”

Her eyes flew open, and he felt her tense up against him. “Garcia, before you say anything, I just want to apologize for that. I was...I wasn’t doing very well, and I don’t know what came over me.”

“No, please don’t apologize. I understand completely. I just...wanted to know if we were okay.”

She looked up at him again, her brown eyes overbright as she gave him another smile. “We’re fine, Garcia.”

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, his arm still around her, her head still on his shoulder, before she spoke again.

“Did you mean it?” Her voice was so soft he nearly missed it.

“Mean what?”

“What you said, you know...that night.”

He remembered every detail of it vividly, and knew instantly what she was talking about. For a moment, he considered lying about the whole thing, and prevent another potential falling out, but the thought almost make him scoff. As if he could ever lie to Lucy. “I did,” he said, locking eyes with her. “Every word.”

She sat up straight so fast he jumped a little. She was so close – this couch was tiny – he could almost count the freckles on her cheeks. A small smile was playing around her lips, and he was completely distracted for a second. She leant in slightly, leaving exactly a breath of space between her lips and his own. His breathing stilled in his throat, and his mind shorted out. “Good,” she whispered, and with a wicked grin, she pulled back, stood up and walked away. “See you tomorrow, Flynn!” she called, laughter evident in her voice.

Garcia stared after her for a moment, before deciding to screw the rules and take a shower. He god damn well needed it.

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