From: "M. Cogburn" Date: Fri, 4 Dec 1998 22:26:07 -0600 Subject: Portraits Of The Past, Part 6 Chapter Six Sam glanced in the mirror and had to take a double take. The image he saw wasn't exactly what he had expected. Al said that Jason was a quarterback, so he had naturally thought of a somewhat muscular person, but this? If dipped in green dye, he'd be the handsome version of the incredible hulk. Now, he understood the flirtatious glances he'd been getting throughout the day. "Are you finished?" Al drawled as he pulled out the handlink. Sam sighed and turned to Al. "How can she be able to see all of these people that I have leapt into?" Sam leaned against the cabinet as he watched Al fiddle with the handlink. "Personally, I don't know." Al responded as he programmed the question into the handlink. In seconds, it blinked back coherently. "Ziggy says that there are special neurons at play when you dream or daydream. Margaret may be this type of person who can just close her eyes and dream almost instantaneously." Al scratched his head and frowned as he read the rest of the data. "The only thing that Ziggy can come up with is that her mesons and neurons must be close to the same frequency as yours." "Hhmm. That makes some sense, I guess." Sam turned back to the mirror. He grinned a lopsided grin and shook his head. "This is amazing." He was still amazed at Jason's bulk and good-natured looks. Al watched Sam as he flexed his arm muscle. Al smirked as he scratched his head. "Yeah, amazing." Sam turned back to Al as he opened the door and pointed a finger at him. "You be good." Al mimicked back as he followed Sam back into the living room. They found Margaret looking at the memorial she had up. She had a hammer in her hand and began hammering a nail into the wall. She then placed a new picture on the wall below her family. It was a picture of her late boyfriend, Bobby Wayland. She straightened the picture then slowly her head bowed and both hands went to her face as she began to cry softly. Sam glanced at Al who suddenly became interested in cleaning the handlink. He nervously bit at the inside of his lip then went to her and laid his hand on her shoulder. Margaret jumped slightly then turned trying to wipe away the tears that kept falling. After realizing that he didn't need to say anything, Sam pulled her into his embrace. Margaret felt his arms wrap around her body and hold her close as they had so many times before. She remembered the first time he had put his arms around her. It was three months ago when they saw each other at the encounter group for people who needed a way to cope with death in their families -- she lost Bobby and him his twin brother. Just the thought of Bobby made her cry more. Sam just held her close and caressed her back. "I . . . I don't understand why all the people I love continue to die. It must be my fault. It has to be. Just like . . ." Margaret knew how everyone thought about her at the school. The girl that death shrouded over her. She had heard one teenager talking to his friends as she had walked by. "Don't date her or you'll wind up dead." "No, it's not your fault." Sam said softly interrupting her. "It was their time to leave, you didn't cause it." "I just don't understand why all the people I love die." She said, her words muffled by his shoulder. Sam didn't know what to say, so he just held her tighter. He glanced at Al who now looked downhearted. Al looked back at the portrait of Beth. He somewhat knew how she felt. When he found out that Beth had remarried, it had almost killed him. That was when alcohol had become a good pain reliever. He looked back at Margaret and clicked his tongue and sighed. Once she calmed down, Sam continued to hold her. They stood there for a long moment holding each other. Slowly, Margaret pushed back away from his embrace only to look into his face. His hands came up to wipe away the moisture from her face. Sam broke the gaze as he looked at her mouth only to go back to her eyes. Again, there was that warm feeling as before. A feeling of wanting her and needing her. Slowly, he began to bring his face close to hers. "Uh, Sam . . . that's not a good idea." Al said quickly. Hearing Al's voice, Margaret moved away from his embrace. Al was right. She didn't want to kiss when her emotions were haywire. Sam followed her as she walked down the hall to the bathroom. She went in and grabbed a few Kleenex tissues from the box on the back of the toilet. She blew her nose then turned to look at herself in the mirror. Her face was red in some areas of her face so she splashed water on her face. As she dried off her face, Sam came in the bathroom and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Are you going to be okay?" "Eventually," came the muffled reply. She pulled the hand towel from her face and looked at him through the mirror. What she saw made her face grow pale. She saw an older attractive man, perhaps in his late thirties with green eyes and brown hair except for a gray streak at his left temple. "Oh my God." She breathed quietly. "What?" She turned back to 'Jason' only to look back in the mirror. She looked at his face once more. He looked familiar. She closed her eyes and shook her head quickly, then opened her eyes once more focusing on the image in the mirror. "Who are you?" Sam frowned as he looked at Jason's image in the mirror then back to Margaret. This happened before with a young woman named Tamlain -- but she had been a physic. He took a step back from her as he removed his hands from her shoulders and his arms swayed slightly from the movement. "I'm . . . I'm Jason." Sam glanced at Al then back to Margaret. "No, you're not." Margaret stated looking at him through the mirror. "You're someone else." "Oh boy." Al said with a frown as he began working with the handlink. This couldn't be happening again, Al thought miserably. It couldn't, could it? "Ah, you can . . . can see me?" He raised his eyebrows wonderingly. "Careful Sam." Al warned. He was worried about Sam giving away the Project. Margaret turned to look at him. She didn't have to look at the mirror to see his face. Jason's physical appearance seemed to alter in her mind and she could see the man before her. "Yes." She looked past him to see Al hit the handlink. She nodded toward Al. "I can see him too." Al stopped in mid-air as he was about to hit the handlink yet again. He slowly looked up at her. "You can see me?" "Ever since choir." She nodded her head affirmatively as she turned to Sam. Her head tilted as she searched her memory. He seemed so familiar. It came to her. Her father took her to a science convention two years ago. He was one of the officers that had to pull as security, and he allowed her to go with him. They were sitting together when they announced that the next Einstein was in the room -- that caught their attention. As the announcer called the man up to the podium, her father said, "You're looking at one of the best. If you watch him, you'll learn from him. Learn from the best." "The best, huh?" She commented sarcastically. "Yeah. Always learn from the best." Her father said as he moved her closer so she could get a better look at the man who stood at the podium. "So, does the best have a name?" She asked smiling. "Dr. Samuel John Beckett." She came out of her reverie as Al started talking to him. "Don't tell her anything." Margaret looked at Al curiously then looked at Sam. She studied his face for a long moment making sure that it was him. Her mouth dropped in awe. "It's you. Oh, wow. Dr. Samuel John Beckett." A smile began to play on her face as she remembered all she ever read or heard about the man standing before her. It flowed from her and she used her fingers to help her out with the information as she leaned against the bathroom door frame for support. "Dr. Samuel John Beckett -- noted scientist; Nobel Prize winner; IQ of a certified genius; obtains six doctorates, fluency in seven modern languages and four dead ones; former child prodigy and most commonly known as the most intelligent man on earth." Margaret opened her eyes and glanced at both men with a new fascination as she smiled. Sam felt heat creep up his face. Although proud of his achievements, he never thought of himself as anything special, just himself. He was an Indiana farm boy turned scientist. There were times when he couldn't help wondering why people thought he was so interesting. His work was interesting, but he was just another scientist searching for something more. Sam quickly looked away from her eyes and that made her more definite on who he was. A thought suddenly hit her hard. That lieutenant who had come to the door had said his name was Thomas Beckett. Could it be? she wondered. "Do . . ." She smiled amazed in what was happening. "Do you have a brother named Thomas?" Now it was Sam's turn to be shocked. His mouth dropped open. "How . . ." He looked at Al quickly wondering how she knew that. "How did you know that?" "Oh wow." Margaret licked at her lips and blew out the breath that she had been holding. "Thomas Beckett came to my house when I was only five and he gave my father the pictures that my Aunt Maggie had taken in Vietnam." Her mouth moved slightly then clamped shut as she realized what she was doing. She pointed to Al as she took a step toward him only to step back to lean back against the frame once more. "I . . . I know who you are too." "Doubt it." "Follow me." Margaret turned to walk to her room. Sam glanced back at Al quizzically then they followed Margaret. Her room contained two dressers, a bed, two end tables with antique lamps and an easel in the back corner. Sam went directly to her and followed her gaze. He stared at the portrait as he recognized the picture. "Al." Al took his time as he entered the room. He meandered over toward them and almost fell over when he saw the portrait of himself. He was being led down a jungle path by the Vietnamese. He was looking back and had seen the person who had taken the picture. "You were a POW in 1971 and five years later you were repatriated. You're name in Alberto Ernesto Giovanni-Baptista Calavicci. My aunt Maggie took this picture in 1971, so I decided to make it a portrait for her." Suddenly her train of thought switched gears. She turned to them with her eyes wide and curious. "Why . . .why are you here? Am I a part of some experiment? What's going on?" Sam meandered to the bed and sat so that he could look at her more directly. He opened his mouth to begin to babble what they had done but Al stopped him before he could start. "Sam, you can't tell her." "Al, she's going to figure it out somehow." Sam's gaze never left her. Anxiously, he yearned to be himself. He wanted to tell her about the Project and tell her what he had achieved. "You know the rules." Al replied as his military awareness pressed through. "Rules? What rules? What's going on? Please, tell me." Margaret begged as she grabbed a hold of Sam's hand and glanced back and forth between them. "Al, she knows who we are, we didn't tell her -- does it matter any more?" Sam said as he took his eyes away from her only to plead with his eyes as well. Al deliberated on it and frowned as he gave in. "Well, since you put it that way, okay, but I'm going back to check on Jason." As soon as he said Jason's name, he wanted to shove the words back into his mouth. "You have Jason?" Margaret perked up at Jason's name. "What's going on?" Al pushed the button to open the door. Margaret watched in awe as the door slid open. Al stepped in the bright light that filled the doorway then closed the door. The door then slid down and vanished. Margaret's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as she pointed to where Al disappeared. "Where'd he go?" Sam slowly grabbed her arms slightly to get her to focus her attention back on him. "Okay . . . um . . . this is going to sound a little strange but I'm from the future. In 1995, I created a secret government project code named Quantum Leap. The result of this project was the ability to travel back in time -- to inhabit other people's lives and now I'm here. Before you saw me in the mirror, I was Jason. When I leap, people see the person I've leapt into but when I leap, it's my body that's here. It's my spirit." "Come again?" "You can see me, right?" He asked as he pointed to himself. "Uh, well . . . yes." She frowned. All of this was too much to comprehend at once and she was trying to pay attention. "Okay, when others see me, they see Jason -- they see Jason's physical aura. Inside that physical aura is me; my body; my spirit." Margaret slowly stood as she scratched her head. The information he uttered sounded crazy. Aura? Her mind raced as she went to the kitchen. He followed cautiously. Leaped? She grabbed the two cokes from the kitchen cabinet and started toward the living room. 'If what he says is true, then there was a particular time and place where he leaped in, and there had to be a reason why he is here,' she reasoned with herself. She wanted to believe him but with such a story? 'But then again, it is Samuel Beckett, the most intelligent man in the world -- if this is possible; he could do it -- couldn't he?' As she sat down on the couch, she handed him a soda then asked, "Okay . . . well . . . when did you leap in?" "Well . . . ah . . ." Sam began as he looked down at the aluminum can in his hands as he popped the sides nervously with his fingers. "Did you leap in before Jason . . ." It suddenly became clear. Jason hadn't kissed her -- Sam Beckett had. Jason wouldn't have done such a thing -- would he? "You kissed me, didn't you?" Sam bit his lip and quickly looked around the room. "Well . . . you know . . ." Sam stammered, " . . . uh, you paint really well . . . ." "Oh no, you don't. You're not getting out of this that easily Sam." She placed her hand on his arm. "You kissed me this morning. Why? Why did you play a child's game?" Sam ran his hand over his mouth and sighed. "When I leaped in, Jessica was giving Jason an ultimatum: either to commit wholly to her or kiss the next girl that came in the door. I didn't know exactly what to do. I usually have more information to go on before I do things but I had to act as if Jason would. I'm really very sorry I embarrassed you." He took a sip of his soda then set it down on the coaster provided on the coffee table. "But you almost kissed me ten minutes ago. Were you trying to act like Jason then?" "Well, uh . . . when I leap, the mind of the person I leapt into somehow intertwines with mine. So, some of Jason's emotions may be coming through." "Oh I see." Margaret responded not actually understanding but took the information at face value. Her eyes swept the room only to fall onto her sketch book. She considered all the information she had come in contact with then picked up the sketch book and thumbed through it. "You said you felt like you knew the people I've drawn. But Al said you did know them, that they were people you've leapt into or were people who's life's you had affected. Right?" Sam sat back on the couch with a grin. "Photographic memory?" "Sometimes, but you didn't answer my . . . " "Yes." "When did you start leaping?" "1995." "And what year is it now -- in your time, I mean." "1999." Margaret's eyes widened as she figured out what was happening. "I started the sketches of my dreams four years ago." She closed her eyes and smiled to herself as she felt another 'dream' beginning. She opened the book to find a blank sheet of paper. She sat down on the carpet and used the coffee table as her drawing board. Sam watched intrigued as she drew. As soon as she finished, she looked at the sketch with her eyes wide and frightened. Her breathing increased and she gasped as if he had not realized what she drew. She drew herself lying on the floor. A black colored substance surrounded her body as it lay in an awkward position; the cause -- her arms slit from the inner wrist up to her elbows, and a rather large kitchen knife clutched in her right hand. Most of the sketch didn't bother Sam until he saw her eyes. They were pleading to him yet they were still and dark as they looked heavenward. Margaret raised her head to look at him. Her face paled and her eyes widened with fright. "You came for me, didn't you? You're here to save me from myself."