From: Philippa Chapman (Glastonbury, Somerset, UK.) Date: Sat, 05 Apr 1997 07:00 +0000 Subject: Girl Talk, Part 2/5 GIRL TALK PART 2 Sam put the questions he had about his doppelganger out of his mind and used the knowledge he had gleaned with his photographic memory to help himself and Al do the job that Melissa and Alexandra were paid for. He also started action on the tasks that Tina had assigned earlier in the day. It was dark outside when the insistent tap on his shoulder finally got through. "What is it, Al?" Al grinned. "Tina's waiting for us to go over and deliver my stuff....Alexandra's stuff. You know it's rude to keep a lady waiting, plus it's getting close to suppertime." "Okay, Al." Sam carefully saved everything he'd done and locked several sensitive disks away in the wall-safe. He stretched and eased out the kinks in his neck and shoulders, then rubbed his eyes,"I'm not used to this. It's been a while since I spent hours over a hot computer." Al decided to bite back the comment that hours with a hot woman were much nicer, but Sam knew his friend well enough to read the glow in his eyes. "Well, yes, that'd be extremely satisfying, but not this Leap." "Don't I know it. Let's go, Sam." Al and Sam went outside into the growing darkness. "Wow, I'd forgotten how hot this place gets! Do you know which car is ours?" Al looked around. "Well, Tina's over there by her sports car...ooooh, it's a red Ferrari." Al fished in his purse,"We got a Ford of some description if this key-fob's anything to go by.....yes, the green number. Servicable, but no speed to speak of." Al and Sam got into the car, Sam in the driver's seat. He fished in his own purse. "Driver's licence? Address? Where are we going?" Sam suddenly struck gold with Melissa's library card, "Okay, you'll have to help me. I know the basic direction, but the details are hazy." Al looked in the glove compartment and pulled out the relevant street-map. "Bingo!" Sam started the car and drove so that Tina could follow easily. Sam and Al worked together to find the right street and apartment block in town, then the three people went inside. Sam found some cold lemonade and poured them each a glass, then Al went to pack while Sam dismantled the bed section of the couch. "I'm sure you and Al will get along," ,"but if it doesn't work out, I'll gladly take Al back." "Thanks, Mel. You've adapted really well to me being your boss, even though you were two years ahead of me in university." Al came back into the room with two large cases. "Okay, I think I've got everything. Melissa, if you find anything else, you can bring it into work." "Yes, no problem. Sam ushered them all back out of the door and looked at Al with raised eyebrows, "You've changed into flatties." Al grinned. "Can you blame me?" Tina smiled back at them both. "Okay, y'all. We'll dump Al's stuff at my place, then I'm taking you out for a meal." Al's grin became radiant. "Sounds just fine by me." Tina lived in a small house not far away. Sam had to admit that the decor was a little flamboyant for his tastes, but Al was clearly approving mightily. The tiny lobby was lit with a pink light and had a pleated pink blind at the window. The inner door led into the living room, complete with huge black leather couch and rich burgundy curtains. Off to one side was the small kitchenette, all crisp greens with a dash of yellow. Tina led them upstairs. "....and this is the bathroom. I hope you like sunken baths, Al." Al's eyes glowed hotly, but he said nothing as he saw the champagne coloured suite and the thick peach carpet. Tina carried on, unaware of the heated male hormones on one side and the slightly edgy and guarded ones on the other. "This is your room. I hope you don't mind blue, Al." Al looked at the incredible mix of navy, silver and pale blue. "Wow! I had a suit like that once! I approve." Tina giggled. "Yes, the Seventies. I always wished that I'd had the nerve to wear one of those sequinned boob-tubes, but it would have been like waving a red rag to a bull." Al came to a sudden halt, completely overtaken by the mental image. "Here's my room." Al managed to move his feet to take a look, then almost wished he hadn't. They went back down the stairs and Sam gave Al a very hard stare. Al looked back, equally serious. "I can do it. I made you a promise and I'll keep it, no matter what." Sam nodded. "Then I trust you, Al." After dinner, the two friends said their goodbyes until the morning and Al went back with Tina to her house. "Just checking my mail, then I'll make us a coffee." "Okay, Tina." Al went upstairs and started to unpack, but some sixth sense told him that something was amiss. He came back down to the living room, where Tina was gazing at two items of mail, her face white as a sheet. She looked up at Al and sudden tears spilled down her cheeks. Al acted on instinct and folded Tina into his arms. Tina sobbed quietly, then pulled away, wiping her face. Al offered her 'his' handkerchief. "It's Charles. He's just broken things off between us and then there's this...this filth." Al kept his arm around Tina while he read the letters. One was a fairly typical, 'You won't give me what I want, so I'm going elsewhere' message, but the other was far worse. It was made up of stuck-down newsprint and described several nasty and probably illegal things that the writer would do to Tina if (presumably) he got the chance. Al felt himself get very, very angry. "We ought to take this to the police, Tina. They might be able to find out who it is." Tina nodded slowly. "Could you call them? I've got the shakes." "I'm not surprised, after reading something like that on top of everything else." Al made the call and they waited together. The policeman who arrived was luckily sympathetic and helpful. He took both letters. "I'm sorry to suggest this, Ms O'Farrell, but we must consider the possibility that the same guy sent both letters. If not, then your ex-boyfriend will have his name cleared straight away." "I can't believe it of Charles. He made no secret of the fact that he wanted to get me into bed and our dates had degenerated into fights or me walking out, but I can't hear such....such language coming from him." "Have you had any others?" Tina paused, then nodded very slowly. "At work. Someone thinks I'm the weak link in the chain...but they're wrong. I'm a tough cookie under this feminine exterior." Al squeezed her shoulder. "I know, I can tell. You are doing magnificently." The policeman nodded. "I'll have to come in and get those other letters, Ms O'Farrell. There's far more likelihood that there's a link between those and this nasty specimen." Eventually the policeman left and Al gave Tina another hug. "Thank-you for being here, Al. It gave me that little bit of extra strength I needed. You're going to be a good friend." "I hope you'll always regard me as a friend." Al said, truthfully. "I can't face that coffee now. I want to go to sleep." "That's okay. You know I'm here, for what it's worth." Al and Tina got ready for bed, separately. Al flopped under the sheets and fell asleep almost instantaneously. In the middle of the night, he felt something touch his shoulder and he came instantly awake, as he'd had to many times in Vietnam. "Who's there? Tina?" She sat on the edge of the bed. Al recognised her shape and her perfume and relaxed. "I'm sorry. I just need to talk." Tina began to tremble. "Hey, you're shaking like a leaf. It's delayed shock, you need to keep warm." Tina climbed into bed beside Al and lay beside him. Al stared at her in the darkness, tenderness flooding through him, along with his desires. "What is it with men, Al? I mean, I really enjoy making love, but there has to be more to a relationship than that. I suppose my generous curves are a disadvantage, even now I have to fight past being drooled over." "Well, you do have a stunning....physique. Men will notice that, it's only natural." Tina sighed softly. "Yes, I know. I'd just hoped that someone would appreciate all that *and* love me. I want to share everything I am, not just my body." It was Al's turn to sigh. Here in the dark, he found it easy to bare his soul. "I know. I thought that I'd found it once. I was in love....or the closest I've got to it yet. We're just two lonely people looking for a soul-mate." "What happened with you? Presumably you broke up." "Yes....after quite a long time together. That indefinable something either wasn't there or we'd lost it along the way." "Of course, if I ever found the one I'm looking for, I'd move heaven and earth to be with him." Al sighed. "Lucky guy. I hope he feels the same about you." "If he's my soul-mate, then he will.....in every way. I want to find love, utter closeness and incredible passion." Al laughed softly. "That's a tall order. Sounds like you need three guys, not one!" Tina laughed back. "Just one will do, though maybe with enough love and passion for three. Sometimes I wonder if he's out there....with eyes that show me that he loves me without saying a word." "Yes," Al agreed, softly,"I want to know even before we kiss that this is *it*, this is the one I've been waiting for....then I could give myself completely, without hesitation or restraint." Tina snuggled closer. "Would you mind holding me for a while?" Al closed his eyes and took Tina in his arms, in a way that he hoped was appropriate for two women sharing a bed. Tina seemed to think that it was, because he felt her smile in the darkness against his shoulder. "Thanks, Al." Al smiled in the darkness, feeling her closeness and the warmth of her body through her pyjamas. "You're welcome." Al gently stroked Tina's hair and managed to ignore the deep desire tugging at him rather insistently. Tina sighed softly and he felt her relax and fall asleep, even as he drifted back into slumber himself, a gentle smile playing about his lips. Sam closed the door to Melissa's apartment and began to get ready for bed. He looked up at the ceiling. "Please, help Al keep his promise. I hate to think of the damage he could do to Tina's psyche and his own if he gave in and goodness only knows what it'd do to the time-lines." Sam undressed and got into his pyjama bottoms, then sat on the edge of the bed, wondering what the coming morning would bring. He suddenly felt all the hairs on the back of his neck stand upright. He shivered and turned around. "Hello, Sam. We need to talk." Sam gasped, then stretched out his hand. "Are you real? Are you *me*?" The other, older man smiled warmly and showed Sam that he was effectively like a hologram. "Call me Becket, with one T. That'll save us getting confused. I'm an alternative version of you, from a parallel universe or time-line. I think they could be the same thing. Since you helped your Al's marriage, the veil between us has got very thin. This time and place seem to be critical to defining the way forward. You, Al, Tina and Melissa are all connected and your being here is important. You see, when I came to my version of here over ten years ago, I was myself. I recognised Tina, of course. I tried to help her with the difficulty she had then. There was a phenomenal lightning storm and in Leaping out I pulled Melissa through time with me. We've been Leaping together ever since," Becket smiled softly,"That's the best part. She's the one I've been looking for all this time. When we became lovers, it was everything both of us had dreamed of....and more." His face suddenly became serious,"But we lost the project. It's gone, completely.....and everyone with it. When we managed to Leap there, all we found was the after-effects of a terrible explosion. We've been searching through our time to find a way to put that right. I've come here to warn you, to help you. *We* might never get home, but your being here *with* Al has changed things for you." Sam gulped as he took all of this in. "So, what do we do? And how can you be sure that it'll work?" "I can't be sure. All I can do is tell you what I know, then you can be on the look-out for the same patterns. First, Tina has been receiving the most hateful, depraved letters. That I know to be true here. This distracted her enough in my time-line that she failed to spot subtle clues that someone was passing on details of the new processor at Greenbaum Technologies to places like Cuba and Iran." Sam winced. "That might get it into the hands of the wrong people." Becket nodded. "It did...at least where I came from. I've spent a long time with Melissa trying to alter that and reshape it to better ends. The other major disaster, the explosion at PQL, seems to be centred around the twin facts of my not getting home and the absence of Melissa from the right time-stream. Of course, you can't do that at the moment, unless the Leap out goes really ca-ca, so things are looking up. My best guess is that you may Leap home soon, in which case, watch yourself. When I finally took the chip out of my neck, it was too late. I Leap completely by my own power.....unless it's His. Get someone to take your chip out immediately....and Al's too. If you find Melissa is there, hang on to her like crazy. There is strong psychic energy involved in this along with the science. Do anything reasonable that it takes to stay home at PQL. Then you'll be in a position to save your friends.....or at least go down fighting." Sam nodded. "But are you okay?" Becket nodded and smiled. It was a warm, open, free smile. He spoke softly. "Yes, in spite of the sorrow of losing the project, I'm content in a way I've never been before. Melissa and I are proud and happy to keep on Leaping, if necessary, for the rest of our lives. We *know* we'll see all our friends again one day." Sam saw that it wasn't just pie-in-the-sky. On some level, Becket was as sure of the fact as he was that the sky was blue. "I don't pretend to understand everything you've said, especially how you can face the death of your friends with such equanimity. But thank-you for coming to help us. I hope you make it home one day." Becket smiled again and the hazel flecks in his eyes were warm. "We will. When you've seen the wonders we've seen and heard things that cannot be communicated in normal language, you'll understand. There is no end, just more journeying; onwards and upwards." Sam's eyes flashed. "Narnia!" Becket laughed softly. "You're beginning, Sam. Watch for the mountain tops and the gardens of delight." Sam was about to ask what *that* meant, but Becket raised his hand in something that looked like a gesture of blessing and disappeared. For the sake of Melissa's decency, Sam put on her pyjama top and buttoned it up, slowly going over everything that Becket had said. Sam got up and gazed at Melissa's face in the mirror. "*Are* you the one here, too? I must go carefully....although you certainly are incredibly attractive. No, let's be honest, Sam. Stunning is more like it," his voice dropped to a whisper,"And though I'd never admit it to Al, with what looks like a figure shaped from all my sweetest fantasies. I just hope you're as nice on the inside. That's where true beauty comes from anyway. I'll be content to wait and see. As Al said, a woman that lovely is worth waiting for, especially winning her love in return." Sam climbed into the bed and fell asleep quickly. Al woke up with something tickling his nose. He moved and blew whatever it was away. Then his brain clicked in and his eyes opened. Tina's red-gold hair was close to his face, her body spooned softly in front of his. Al moved back again and gently smelt her hair. Tina murmured in her sleep and turned over. Tina's eyes opened and she smiled. Al clenched his hands at his side to stop himself reaching out for her. "Thank-you, Al. I know we don't know each other well yet, but that really meant a lot to me. I felt safe, which was what I needed." Al managed to smile back. "It's okay. Anytime. It meant a lot to me, too." Al watched Tina leave the room and his lips curved into a soft smile. STALLION'S GATE "So, now you know everything that I can tell you. Are you ready to see the faces of the men who have taken your place?" Alexandra and Melissa nodded slowly. Tina led the two women over to the mirrored table and gently peeled back the cloth. Alexandra went first. She made a sharp intake of breath. "Whoa! Yes, I can *see* he's Italian now. If I went for older men, he'd be pretty high up the list. I tend to go for men with red hair usually, but he has got very expressive eyes. This guy's seen a lot of life." "He certainly has," Tina agreed, then added, sotto voce,"But not half as much as he's going to see when he gets home!" Melissa took her turn. "My goodness! This is *strange*, hearing my voice coming out of a man's mouth. Your Doctor Beckett has beautiful eyes as well.....actually he's very attractive. Oh, you and he aren't....have I just made a blunder?" Tina shook her head. "No, until recently I was married to someone else.....and I actually prefer much older men. I feel easier with a guy who has a chance of having been around the block as much as me. You know what I was like in university, Melissa. I had all those gorgeous guys drooling around me and it went to my head for a while. I've calmed down a bit since then, and I was faithful to Gushi, although it was a bit of a chalk and cheese mixture." Melissa looked at Tina. "So, why not *him*?" she said, indicating the reflection of Al,"He's exactly the physical type you used to day-dream about." Tina shuffled awkwardly. "Well, there are reasons....." Melissa gave Tina a direct look. "You're falling in love with him, aren't you?" "You know I can't answer that. I don't know for sure what love is." "I think you will before too long. Just don't be scared to *tell* him how you feel.....or show him. You've always backed off before." Tina made for the exit. "I....I'm going to get Verbeena Beeks. I'm needed.....in the control room." Melissa and Alexandra exchanged significant glances. SILICONE VALLEY 1990 Sam arrived at the office first and logged on to his computer. He divided his time between more hacking and doing more of the tasks Tina had set him yesterday. He was typing with one hand and talking to Edwards in manufacture with the phone tucked under his chin when Al came in. Sam felt his lips curve into a smile when he saw Al's flat sandals. He looked up at his friend. "Morning. Are you okay?" Al nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. I slept like a baby for the first time in ages. I've got everything under control." Sam nodded briefly. "I know how difficult it is. Well done, Al." Al powered up his computer. "This reminds me of when we used to collaborate back in the old days....building Ziggy and trying to get funding. I think I know one reason why we might be here. Tina got the most obscene hate-mail yesterday *and* a 'Dear John' letter from her nozzle-headed ex-boyfriend Charles." Sam's eyes widened and he closed the conversation with Edwards as quickly as he could. "I was told about this. The other Sam visited me last night. We've got to support Tina as much as possible...." Sam filled Al in on most of the conversation, but left out the personal stuff about Melissa. Al mulled the ideas over. "The question is, who is the mole?" "Let's make a list of suspects....Charles, of course. Maybe one of the board after a quick buck or two....Edwards in manufacture has access to the things, but he's been so highly vetted that I would be really surprised." "Yeah, and don't forget that lounge-lizard Stephens. And that guy Tina jokingly warned us about yesterday." "Denton Walsh." "Yeah, him. Anyone else?" Sam's eyes narrowed speculatively. "Well....I hate to say it, but what about Alexandra? Maybe you've Leaped in to stop her before she goes too far." Al bristled slightly. "You might say the same thing about Melissa, Sam." Sam's chin hardened. "No, not her," he said, rather too quickly. Al moved closer. "She's getting to you, isn't she? Look, I think Tina is the most gorgeous woman on the face of the planet at the moment, but I'd put *her* on the list. Not that I'd ever believe it of her.....but we should consider all options." "Okay, Al. I concede. I don't believe it, what with Melissa apparently being an old friend of Tina's and all, but she ought to go on the list." Sam and Al worked on together for some time, until Al's phone rang. It was Tina on the other end. "I'm glad to hear the cop's arrived. Uh-huh. Okay. Yes, it *is* for the best. Charles is cleared? No, I didn't like the way he dumped you either, it would make me mad. He didn't deserve you. Are you okay now? Good; look could this letter campaign be deliberate, to make you distracted so that you miss something nasty going on here? Well, sabotage or double-dealing come to mind. The contents of the letter I saw were enough to haunt anybody. I have an idea. Oh, you're distressed and you're going home early. I understand. Yes, we'll be 'working late'....we've got those tests to see through. Okay. Take care, Tina. Bye." Al gave Sam a 'thumbs up' sign. He took a small piece of paper and wrote the words; 'Stake-out. In hiding. Tonight. Here. Police in plain clothes. Okay?' Sam read the note, then deliberately ate it. "Oh, well. Back to the grindstone." The rest of the working day passed with aching slowness. In due course a plain-clothes policeman came into their room disguised as a janitor. "I don't like the idea of your being here, Ms Sorridente, Ms Maclean. I'd really rather you left the building now. Ms O'Farrell is quite safe." Al and Sam exchanged significant glances. Sam spoke. "We were just going, officer." He made to go past the police-man, but then both of them acted and knocked the man out. "The Leap's fairly close, isn't it?" Sam nodded quickly, "Thought so. It's like a faint tingling in my solar plexus." Sam and Al quickly crept towards Tina's office and hid inside. An hour went by. Suddenly the door opened and both men went on the alert. A figure crept in and began to work at Tina's computer. Sam recognised the order sheets and enough of the technical specifications to realise that this was it. He motioned Al to wait. The figure put in a disk and began to make some adjustments. Al couldn't wait any longer. He crept out of hiding and jumped the person, landing on him at the same time as Tina who came out of the stationery cupboard along with the plain clothes' cop. In a second, the room was flooded with light and the door had burst open, revealing the company security guard and several other policemen. Al pulled the black ski mask off the hacker. Tina gasped. "Edwards! How could you?" Edwards threw a punch at Tina and said some very unsavoury things as the police cuffed him and took him away. "Tina, love....are you okay?" Tina nodded slowly and hugged Al. Sam touched Al's shoulder and they left the office. Sam felt the Leap starting to envelope his body. "Al, I don't want to worry you, but you just called Tina your love." Al looked at him with a mixture of shock and growing wonder. "Ohhh, Boyyyy." Then they were both swept away. It was warm. Blue, warm...but there was hardness against his back. The man blinked. "Where?" A woman's voice answered him. "It's okay. You did it. You're home." His eyes opened wide and he looked around. "Is....?" Verbeena's face swum into focus. "Yes, he's fine too. Get up slowly and come with me, Admiral." Al smiled as he rose and followed Verbeena out of the Accelerator Chamber door and almost immediately into Sam's bear-hug. "Thanks, Al. I got here less than five minutes ago." Al grinned up at his friend. "S'okay. What a welcome home party we're going to have!" Sam suddenly clutched at his head and his knees buckled. Al was forced to go with him as he toppled and fell to the floor. Sam's face went white, then yellow and his eyes widened in shock. "Chip. Out." Then Sam became unconscious. The medical team swung into action in a blaze of activity. Sam was rushed into the tiny emergency medical unit and hooked up to about every monitor they possessed. Al let the medics do their stuff, including removing the chip as Sam had indicated. Al made an on the spot decision and decided to have his removed too as soon as Sam was stabilised. Al watched closely as Sam's cheeks slowly regained their natural colour, but his eyes remained closed in what looked like sleep. He stopped the doctor, a tall black man in his thirties. "I need to know what's wrong, Doctor Thompson." The other man nodded slowly. "Well, it's early yet....but the prolonged Leaping followed by the retrieval seems to have been something of a shock to the system. Doctor Beckett is just barely unconscious...in fact, it's more like sleep. He'll need to be monitored day and night. I'll have someone in here at all times." Al looked over at his friend. "I want to go on the rota, Doctor. Get everyone to monitor anything he says....it might be important. Even better, get a hook-up to Ziggy in here. If he starts reeling off quantum physics, I want somebody who'll understand." "Consider it done, Admiral." Al asked for his chip to be removed, then, when it was out, he took the first watch with one of the nurses. "Come on, Sam. I didn't rescue you so that you could spend the rest of your life like Rip-van-Winkle. Your family needs to know that you're alive. There's your mom, Katie and her two little ones. Tom, Edie and the three kids from hell. And Sammy-Jo and her son Albert Samuel. She knows who you are, kid. You didn't do too bad at all, even considering you were technically thirteen when she got made. Even I didn't start *that* young....though it was a close run thing. Then there's my four little princesses....all grown up now of course. They're all going to love you to bits. So you gotta wake up for me, Sam." Al was woken by a gentle tap on his shoulder. "Admiral, it's time you slept in a proper bed. You've done more than enough for tonight." Al slowly looked up, half-dazed. He had fallen asleep with his head on his arms on the edge of Sam's bed. He rubbed his eyes and combed his hands through his hair. He looked at Verbeena, then Sam. "Any change?" Verbeena shook her head. "No better, but luckily no worse. He's stable. I promise you'll be paged if there's any change either way." "I don't want to leave him." Verbeena laughed softly. "You're worse than Tina. She went without sleep for over twenty-four hours, working with Ziggy to get you home. In the end I had to get the M.P.'s to drive her to a plane and forcibly remove her to Taos for a break." "She did that, for me?" Verbeena gently led Al out of the room. "Well, for you *and* Sam, but it's you she loves, Al. I've seen the signs for ages. She's utterly and completely in love with you, but scared to tell you." Al's smile was radiant. "It's okay 'Beena. I love her......I just figured it out recently." Verbeena smiled. "Well, make time for each other. Here's your relief shift now." Al looked up slightly into familiar blue-violet eyes. "Melissa Maclean? Mama mia! Ohhh, BOY!"