With no new episode of Timeless this week, I turned to AO3 and FFNet to ease the long wait until The Salem Witch Hunt airs, and have compiled the ten fanfics you should be reading to get you through to Sunday.
1. Breaking Point
By: GaelicSpirit
Summary: Set after S1 Epi 9, Last Ride of Bonnie & Clyde. After bouncing erratically through time for a confusing week, Flynn finally lands at one point in history long enough for the team to go after him. They are immediately thrown into the turmoil of World War I, wreaking havoc on Wyatt. When Lucy is captured as a means to manipulate the team, Wyatt and Rufus take a calculated, but dangerous risk to get her back.
Why You Should Read It: Angst? Check. Wyatt Whump? Check. Rufus being awesome? Check. Lyatt? Check, check, check.
So something’s thrown Wyatt and Lucy off their game, and Rufus has noticed the change in their behaviour. The team heads to 1918, but then Lucy’s taken, Wyatt’s injured, and thank God for Rufus holding the fraying strings of this team together or they’d never make it home intact. Breaking Point is an angsty romp through time, and one of those rare fics that reads almost like an episode.
Sample:
Lucy hated the jolt most of all. The way her body instinctively fell one way while the lifeboat shifted the other. It felt like time was wringing all sense of balance and order from her in retaliation for defying it. After so many of these trips, she thought she was starting to get a grip on the nausea, but she could see her teammates hadn’t quite mastered it.
Rufus looked positively green as he breathed slowly through his nose, flipping switches to power down the machine.
“June 9, 1918,” he confirmed. “Flux capacitor…fluxing.”
“Never gets old,” Wyatt grinned crookedly, bouncing a fist off the one Rufus held out toward him without looking.
Lucy rolled her eyes. “So glad you’re taking this seriously.”
2. The Devil’s Right There in the Details
By: Geneeste
Summary: She shouldn’t be, but she’s genuinely surprised when Noah is brought in for questioning.
Why You Should Read It: A strong team fic, full of lovely moments, and even has hints of Lyatt. This is my go-to fic when I need a little Time Team bonding. There’s no flowery language here, nothing that pulls you out of the story, and every moment feels in-character. And, for once, Rufus hesitates before barging through a door – only this time he really didn’t need to.
Sample:
She’s used up all her calm, and before she really thinks about it, she’s moving quickly back down the hallway, looking for the ladies’ bathroom she’s pretty sure is down here somewhere.
Footsteps behind her announce that Wyatt is following her. “Wait, Lucy, where are you going?”
She doesn’t spare him a glance. “To throw up.”
To her relief, the women’s room is only a few doors down from where she thought it was, and when she pushes through the door, she’s startled to see that Wyatt has followed her.
Her stomach is still rebelling with all this new, disturbing knowledge, and she doesn’t want him in here. “Wyatt, really, I need–”
The sound of him hauling a large, open trash can across the floor to where they’re standing cuts her off. “If you need it, there it is,” he says. “Now talk to me.”
It sends her back to the last time he sought her out like this, in a cottage behind enemy lines. She’s not as scared now as she was then, but it’s close. “You don’t talk.”
He gives her a dark half-smile. “For you I do.”
3. Though she be but little (she is fierce)
By: petit_chou
Summary: They don’t see her.
Until much, much later when one of them does.
Why You Should Read It: Last year OfficerParker announced a prompt that should have been the most ridiculous scenario ever: Wyatt adopts a kitten. It, however, blessed the fandom with countless wonderful Wyatt + Kitten = Smitten Lucy fics.
While they’re all fantastic, this one stands out for me. It’s told simply, from a different POV, and there’s a beauty in the execution that makes my eyes leak every time I read it.
Sample:
She’s hiding under one of the unmoving, but very big things that must belong to this male human who spots her.
He kneels down and stares at her.
She stares back.
He doesn’t try to touch her, just holds out his hand. She takes a tiny step forward. Then another. She leans in and sniffs cautiously.
He smells nice.
(She thinks. She’s not really sure what humans are supposed to smell like.)
She sniffs again then takes another step forward. Good kitty, the human says and though she doesn’t know what that means, he says it in a way that makes her feel safe.
She lets out a meow that really sounds like a mew (the sound is little, like her).
Then she walks closer to the human and rubs her head against his knee. He scratches underneath her chin and she finally climbs into his lap and starts to purr.
The human cradles her against his chest. When he stands, she’s very far off the ground, but she’s somehow not scared. She knows this human won’t drop her or hurt her.
She just hopes he feeds her, because she’s still really hungry.
4. Near Miss
By: USA123
Summary: When a mission runs dangerously close to Wyatt’s day of birth, will the team be able to get him back to the present in time to save his life?
Why You Should Read It: USA123 sends Wyatt to a time he (almost) already existed, and then proceeds to literally tear him apart. It’s a gripping read, includes Grandpa Sherwin and baby Wyatt, and even Karl gets some lines. There’s no ship here, but heaps of team bonding, and a whole lot of whump.
Sample:
“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.
“Waz goin’ on?”
“We need to go now!”
5. Fight or Flight
By: deadlyrainbows
Summary: The Time Team must travel to 1901 Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in order to stop Flynn from interfering with Wright brothers’ quest for first flight. (Set in season one, pre-finale)
Why You Should Read It: This story is about as close to an episode as you can get in fic form. If NBC or Sony are looking to release novels of the series, I nominate DeadlyRainbows to write them. And, on a Lyatt note, jealous Wyatt is always fun.
Sample:
A dozen paces away, Wyatt suddenly registered Lucy’s absence and stiffened. Her jerked his head and immediately found her over Rufus’ shoulder with Wilbur. His heartbeat slowed, seeing she was safe. Lucy’s back was turned to him, but he had a clear view of Wilbur, who was smiling down at her in an irritatingly familiar way. Wyatt couldn’t help but huff in annoyance, causing Rufus to glance at him questioningly.
To Wyatt’s chagrin, Rufus raised an eyebrow and followed his line of sight. Amused comprehension dawned on his face and he chuckled, shaking his head at the sight of the captivated Wright brother. “We really can’t take her anywhere, can we?”
Wyatt scowled. “You’d think she was only the woman in North Carolina,” he grumbled.
6. This house is not a home (without you here)
By: galaxylane
Summary: Lucy moves across the street from Wyatt, and he finds himself spending more time at her place than he spends at his own.
[Or, five times they hang out at Lucy’s apartment, and one time they end up at Wyatt’s.]
OR: A slow burn from friends to lovers through six gloriously USTy chapters, and the result is a fanfic you just want to wrap around yourself like a blanket and stay snuggled inside forever.
Sample:
Lucy watches his face grow serious under her gaze, and she feels almost lightheaded. People frequently like to make comments about her relationship with Wyatt, and she shrugs them off every time, insisting that it’s nothing, that they are just friends. But it’s times like this, when it’s just the two of them, that she wonders if maybe they have a point. It’s not just that Wyatt is attractive–because of course he is, she’s not blind–but that he’s the only constant, steady thing in her life. If she’s honest, he’s sort of become her best friend. She feels lighter when he’s around, and when he was practically MIA from her life outside work the past few weeks she missed him with an intensity that surprised even herself. He’s the first person she thinks to call on bad days and good days. Sometimes she doesn’t even have to pick up the phone. Sometimes he just knows. And all of that is important enough to her that she typically ignores the way her stomach flutters when he looks at her, or how sometimes she would like nothing more than to just reach out and touch him.
And then there are times where she doesn’t want to ignore it at all.
She realizes then that she is no longer still, but leaning forward so gradually that she is barely moving at all. She waits for him to pull away, to give her a sign that she’s making a mistake or crossing a line. But he doesn’t. Instead his gaze shifts from her eyes to her lips and her heart begins to race. Emboldened, she starts to dip her head, her eyes beginning to drift closed—
7. Timing
By: OnceUponAWhim
Summary: They’ve come back to many slightly altered realities by now. This is not one they’ve seen before. [Wyatt/Lucy]
Why You Should Read It: If you’re only reading one Timeless WIP, make it this one. If you’re only reading one ‘Oops we returned from the past to find ourselves married with kids’ fic, please, do yourself a favour, make. it. this. one.
Updates may not be frequent, but when Whimsy updates she sure as hell makes it worth it.
Sample:
No…
“Rufus…” she whispered, just as he stammered his own “Umm…” as he was clearly putting his own mental puzzle pieces together just behind her.
“Wyatt,” she managed to croak out softly. But he didn’t hear, still busy interrogating Christopher about Jessica’s whereabouts. “Wyatt!” she hissed, louder. He finally paused and turned to look at her.
She held out her own open palm, two rings sparkling.
Next to Wyatt, realization dawned on Agent Christopher’s face. “I take it you two aren’t married in the timeline you started in?”
8. Seven Weeks
By: RavensWing
Summary: There is time and then there is torture.
Wyatt Logan isn’t sure which is which anymore.
[ those 6 weeks between season 1&2 as a story told 100 words at a time. ]
Why You Should Read It: An exercise in restraint. RavensWing writes 100 word sections, where every word is carefully chosen. It’s simple, but effectively gets Wyatt’s worries and frustrations across as he hauls himself through the six weeks without Lucy at the silo, and the final chapter after her return is full of feels.
Sample:
Pain.
That is all he feels.
All he knows.
There is no ‘getting comfortable’.
There is now.
There was then.
There was her.
These are the three things he knows beyond a doubt.
The greatest of these are her: her eyes, her warmth, his failure.
She may as well be on the other side of the universe for all he can help her now.
If he even can help her.
Is she alive?
He doesn’t know. Yet he does.
She is. She has to be because if she isn’t…
He closes his eyes.
The answer hurts more than his wounds.
9. When the world was at war, we kept dancing
By: Iambeck
Summary: “It doesn’t even matter that the clumsiest woman he knows is hugging him with a grenade in her fist.”
Seven days in and out of The Silo.
Why You Should Read It: Iambeck’s story of the days following Lucy’s return to the silo is achingly beautiful. It’s day one when Wyatt realises he’s in love with Lucy, but it’s a few days later before they manage to admit it to one another, and in between there’s dead soldier angst, and Rittenhouse mother angst, almost-kisses in car trunks, wounds tended to, and Rufus – giving Wyatt that push he needs.
Sample:
Wyatt’s heart is thumping against his chest. He doesn’t care that Rufus shoots him an I-know-I-was-right smirk while Lucy’s distracted by her examination of her gown. It doesn’t stop him from untangling hairpins and twisting out curls at her instruction, though his hands are a little less steady now. They’re nineteen years before their Daytona trunk entrapment, twenty-three years post grenade hug and lightning to his soul, and seventy-seven years away from a present where he’s fighting all odds and biding his time to give his heart away.
10. Believing is Seeing
By: TheVelvetDusk
Summary: “Sometimes he thinks he’s exaggerating it in his head. Maybe he believes so strongly that it should be happening that he’s only seeing what he wants to see.” [ Or the six times Rufus suspects that Lucy and Wyatt are totally in love, and the one time he wishes he could scrub his eyes with bleach ] Lyatt, set somewhere in the season 2 future.
Why You Should Read It: Chapter one was great, but then Velvet blessed us with a second chapter, of Wyatt’s versions of the events, filling in some gaps for us, and the end result might just be my favorite Timeless fic ever.
Lyatt through Rufus’ eyes. Our two favorite idiots in love stumble through the years, and finally into bed. And Rufus gets an eyeful – not unlike in canon.
Sample:
He is simultaneously relieved and stunned at what meets him as he rounds the corner. There’s one miserable piece of furniture in this room, basically the rudimentary 1847-version of a futon but without the reclining capabilities, and somehow both Lucy and Wyatt are crammed onto it, blissfully tangled together and out cold. Wyatt is flat on his back and snoring lightly with one hand hanging off the edge of their makeshift bed and the other balled up in the fabric of her blouse. Lucy’s arms circle his neck, her head lodged beneath his chin, the rest of her body wedged sideways between him and the back of the narrow settee. Their legs – snarled into a tidy little web – dangle over the end of it, both of them being too tall to rest comfortably on something so inadequately sized.
Which Timeless fanfic is at the top of your favorites list?
Thank you so much for all of thease!!