WHAT THE FUCK? It was hard for Blair to think of anything other than that vulgar inquiry as she opened her eyes with a small groan. Almost immediately she shut them again, the harsh light beaming straight into her eyes making her vision swim instantly. She slapped a hand over her eyes and rolled onto her side to face away from the source of light, her body recoiling in on itself out of instinct.

"What the fuck?"

The ground Blair was curled up on was cold and slightly wet, the sticky sensation making Blair cringe in disgust. From what she could gather, she was in an alleyway in the middle of the night, but that was about all Blair had been able to scope in the millisecond before she had been temporarily blinded by the light. The alleyway ground felt gross, and it was definitely not somewhere Blair wanted to be while her head still felt like a million little construction workers were drilling holes inside it.

"Shit," a voice muttered. The light disappeared with a click and darkness enveloped Blair and the mysterious figure once more. "Sorry 'bout that."

The slight country drawl sounded vaguely familiar, the slow and laid back pronunciations triggering something in Blair's brain. She wracked her head like a game of Guess Who to determine the name belonging to the mysterious figure, but her luck did not prevail, and Blair was left with that terrible feeling of not being able to place the name.

"Stay layin' down, now, you had quite a fall," the voice commanded, their accent becoming more noticeable as their volume increased. "Just relax, alright?"

The black spots in Blair's vision felt like they had disappeared, so the girl tried her luck at opening her eyes. Her vision was indeed clear, the dingy alleyway finally fully visible in its disgusting glory. Most importantly, Blair could finally see the nameless and faceless figure— his charming smile lighting up the dark alleyway.

"Atticus Wren?" Blair croaked, her strained and hoarse voice breaking off into a cough at the end of her question.

The twenty-something year-old squatted beside her, his hand reaching out to brush a few strands of Blair's hair out of her face. He smiled and nodded, confirming Blair's question without even speaking. Atticus had been one of Blair's partners back in Russia, and judging on his young appearance and still notable country accent, he must've been in the stage of his life that was only a few years after joining the team. A much younger version of Blair was probably in Russia at that moment in his life, even though that didn't make a lot of sense. Time travel, you do it once, and your whole life turns topsy turvy.

"Y'know, I didn't think a visit to Dallas would be so interestin', but here ya are," Atticus laughed, "little Blair Hargreeves. Whatcha doin' here, kiddo?"

"I'm older than you," Blair stated despite the burning in her throat that longed for some water.

Atticus cocked his head to the side, "what?"

"I'm older than you," Blair reiterated, a smile crossing her face, "kiddo."

Atticus laughed and shook his head, not bothering to ask how that was possible. Blair supposed he must know that time travel and the Commission had played a hand in her precarious situation, but if he had questions, he wasn't voicing them. Questions were littering Blair's brain, filling her up to the brim with curiosity. Where was she? When was she? Most importantly, what had happened to her siblings?

And yet she kept her questions to herself, choosing not to overwhelm Atticus with incessant inquiries. He hadn't asked her anything, so she wouldn't ask him anything. Well, maybe she'd ask the basic stuff, just not the more extensive ones. As much as she didn't want to scare him off, she also wanted to know things, and a few of those questions were worth potentially scaring Atticus off.

"You popped out of a hole in the sky, Hargreeves," Atticus commented, shifting his weight in his squat as he looked down on Blair. "Looked an awful lot like time travel to me. So, what were ya doin'?"

"Stuff." She turned her her head to the side, looking each way down the alley as if her siblings would just pop out and yell 'surprise!'. When they didn't, she asked, "did anyone else fall out of this 'hole in the sky'?"

Atticus shook his head 'no'.

Blair bit back her groan. Of course no one else had fallen with her. That seemed about right for her luck. Slowly and carefully, she stood up, Atticus reaching an arm out to support her when her knee buckled.

"Where are we?" Blair asked as the two of them limped towards the street outside of the mouth of the alley.

"Dallas, Texas," Atticus replied.

"When are we?"

The two friends exited the alleyway, the scene in front of Blair causing her to do a double take. Bright colors overwhelmed her, her eyes darting to each and every little thing to understand the gravity of her situation. The old cars, the strange fashion, the movie theater playing From Russia with Love, and just about every person passing Atticus and Blair by clued her in on when she was. One thing was for certain, she definitely wasn't in 2019 anymore.

"WELCOME TO 1963, BLAIR HARGREEVES."