From: kitkin@aol.com (Kitkin)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.quantum-leap.creative
Subject: WHATEVER IT TAKES 9/9
Date: 10 Jun 1996 12:21:06 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)
Message-Id: <4phi1i$lsp@newsbf02.news.aol.com>

WHATEVER IT TAKES PART 9

   Sam's eyes softened and a smile spread itself slowly across
his face. "It really IS up to me, isn't it Al? I mean the leaping. If I
NEED to go back home, then that's where I'll go!" he said with
the new found comfort and acceptance that came from this
revelation. Al smiled back at his friend, and simply asked," 'You
ready Sam?"  With tears of joy and relief starting to shine in his
eyes, Sam replied,"Let's go home Al."
  They both got up from the bench to head for the men's room, to
change into the cover-alls, when Sam suddenly stopped and
said, "What about the girl?"
Looking puzzled, Al said, "What girl Sam?"   Turning his head
wildly from side to side, Sam quickly looked around the terminal
as he answered, " The teenager from the bus. Al, I think she's
the one I'm supposed to help here! I can't leave until I find out if
she's o.k."
   Al gave an exasperated little sigh, "Eagle scout Sam Beckett
rides again!" Sam shot Al a dirty look, and said, "She went into
the ladies' room, and I don't think she's come out yet. I'll ask that
woman to go check on her." he said, pointing across the
terminal. "Better let me go," Al said as he caught hold of Sam's
arm. Sam looked from the woman and then back to Al, and with
a lop-sided grin he said, "I didn't think she was your type Al."
  "Very funny." he replied sarcastically. Stepping back, Al
surveyed Sam from head to toe as he explained, "It's just that
you look kind of....well..." Remembering that he had leaped into
a bum, Sam relinquished.

   Sarah's eyes were squeezed tightly shut, as she waited for the
inevitable to happen. Suddenly, a large black woman came into
the bathroom. "What in heaven's name do you think you're doin'
to that girl?!!" She bellowed as Rick turned from Sarah to see
what this intrusion was. What he saw was a woman who was
nearly six feet tall, and probably tipped the scales at a very solid
300 pounds. Her size told Rick that she could break him like a
toothpick, and her expression told him that she'd be willing to do
it in a heartbeat. Giving her as wide a berth as the ladie's room
would allow, he re-zipped his pants, and headed out the door.
   Al waited with Sam in the terminal for the woman to come
back. In the back of his mind was an uncomfortable thought. If
this girl that Sam was looking for was the one he was intended
to help on this leap, and if Sam succeeded in doing so, it was
very possible that he would leap on his own to some other
destination in time, rather than getting back home.Shifting his
eyes up toward the ceiling, Al said silently to himself,  "I sure
hope you know what you're doing."
    Just then, a thin young man emerged from the hallway. At
once Sam recognized the denim jacket that had belonged to the
girl.   "Stop!!" Sam yelled. Rick looked around to see a street
bum running toward him. Before he could make his escape, the
bum tackled him to the floor. "Hey man!" Rick bellowed, "get off
'a me!" Sam sat straddling the man on the floor, as a crowd of
on-lookers gathered around. One of the security officers was
busy phoning the police, and all Rick could do was struggle.
    "What did you do to her?" Sam asked angrily. Trying once
again to free himself, Rick was astonished at how strong this
bum was. "I don't know what you talkin' about, man! I don't know
nothin' about no girl!"   Sam turned toward Al, "Go check the
ladies room Al!"   Without hesitating, Al went down the hallway.
    Meanwhile, the cavalry had arrived. "All right, what's goin' on
here!?" the policeman asked as he began to pull Sam off of the
man on the floor, while another one took charge of Rick. Moving
the two combatants far apart from each other, the police were
ready to hear what happened. One of the officers listened as
Rick began his version. "All I know, is this bum comes runnin' up
t' me and tries to get my jacket! I don't care if he IS cold, he ain't
gettin' it!"
     Witnesses that were standing around, began to coroborate
Rick's story. "That's what I saw too  officer, this bum just ran up
and tackled this poor young man." said one woman. After two
more people agreed that those were the same things that they
had seen, before Sam knew it, he was being put into handcuffs.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" he pleaded,"Don't I get a chance
to tell you what happened?!!" One of the policemen yanked his
arm and said, "I think we've already heard enough of what
happened."
  Sam was determined to be heard, "But this guy stole that jacket
from a girl who...." The policeman started escorting Sam toward
the door, and with only the faintest show of interest, the officer
said, "Umm-hmm, and just what girl would that be?" They were
almost to the door, when Sam craned his neck to take another
look back and saw Al coming from the hallway with the battered
girl. "That one!!" Sam shouted as he swung around, and pointed
in the general direction with his head.

    When the police finally left with their skinny prisoner in tow,
Sam and Al were once again sitting on the bench. Sam was
looking over at the teenage girl, who was still being tended by
the paramedics who had shown up. "Well Al, I guess she wasn't
the one after all." Sam said with a small sigh. Al looked at him
and gave a little shrug, "You ready?" he asked. Sam smiled a
tired smile,"Ready."   Both men once again started for the
hallway.
   "Mister?....Mister, wait." It was the voice of  the young girl.
Sam and Al turned, and saw Sarah trotting up to them. "I just
wanted to thank you, both of you for helping me." She had a
gauze bandage taped to the bottom half of her lip, but she still
managed a smile. She put out her arms and hugged them both
briefly. During the hug, Al began to worry that maybe this little
extra moment was going to be the thing to trigger Sam's leaping
out. He'd seen it happen like that many times before. When he
reopened his eyes though, he saw the smiling girl again, as she
waved to them, turned and started back toward the terminal. Al
gave a sigh of relief, then tugged at Sam's sleeve in the direction
of the hallway once again."Let's go." he said.
   Giving a final smile to the girl, Sam said, "Coming Al."  He
thrust his hands into his pockets, as he turned back toward the
hallway, and his fingers mingled with something inside them. It
was the change that he had collected as a bum on the street
corner earlier. "Miss?" Sam shouted after the girl.  Al turned and
saw Sam go up to the girl, and hand her the change out of his
pocket, and he looked on, as Sam spoke, "I just thought you
could use this to maybe call someone to come and get you."
Sam smiled down at her, and as he started to put the coins in
her hand,  as Al began to run toward them, shouting,
"SAAAMMM!!!!!"
    When the blue-white aura faded away, both the young girl and
the bum were staring at Al with puzzled expressions. The bum
then turned toward the girl and held out his hand, hoping that the
coins she now held,  were meant for him. When instead, she
closed her hand around them and walked off in the direction of
the telephone booths, the bum shrugged slightly and then
shuffled out the door. Al watched as he left, closed his eyes with
a sigh of utter dispair, then turned back toward the hallway.
   Al felt as if his insides had been turned to stone, and his mind
was a vacant corridor with a cold wind blowing through it. He
moved mechanically, as he had done this morning when he was
getting ready. Had it been just this morning? It felt like so much
longer. He didn't care though, because it no longer mattered.
Inside one of the stalls, he opened the small duffle bag, and
extracted one of the cover-alls. For a brief moment, he looked at
the other one, the one that should have been worn by Sam.
Once the suit was on, he pulled the hand-link from the pocket,
and with one last sigh, he tapped the keys to spell out:
RETRIEVE WHEN READY. A few seconds after the green '
afirmative' cube flashed, he began to feel a tingling sensation, as
he once again became engulfed in the blinding blue-white light.

   Darkness, and the feeling of passing time. But slower
somehow now, than what he had  remembered when he had
come after Sam. "Sam"  he thought to himself, he'd failed to
bring him home, he'd let him down. Then he noticed images as
they began to play themselves around him. A jungle, Vietnam.
"Please don't make me go back there" Al found himself thinking.
Then, it was more like watching a video of his memories,
projected on an invisible screen in front of him. He saw himself
being hurried along a path with other POW's, tethered
together,and being made to run. He recognized them all,and the
memory of how some of them had been killed and torchered,
stabbed like a knife in his soul.
   "Why are you doing this to me?" he pleaded out loud as the
images continued to flash. They were all around him now,
surrounding him, engulfing him. He saw the tiger cage prison,
first viewing it from the outside, then suddenly, his view of
everything was seen through a pattern of sturdy bamboo bars.
He was actually in the cage now! It was here, that he began to
notice the smells. The rotting odor of the spoiled bits of fish
mixed with weevil infested rice was almost overwhelming, and
there was also the nauseating smell of the fouled water in the pit
near the cage. Most pungent of all though, was the  'green' smell
of the jungle itself. He felt the oppressive heat and humidity, and
his shoulders already ached from standing in a stooped position.
     "What's going on?!" he clamored in his mind.  No longer was
there any sense of viewing something. It was all on a sensory
level now. As the feeling of reality gradually slipped away, so too
did Al's memory of anything that had come after that which he
was currently experiencing. It was as if the past were re-creating
itself into the present.
   The speed at which this time was unfolding began to
excellerate, until it moved at nearly a blur with only momentary
snatches of conversation. "We can make things easier for you,
or much more unpleasant."......"Hey! 'ya hear that man!
Americans, we're free!"...... "Congratulations, Ensign, uh,  that
is, Lieutenant Calavicci, here are your orders for
home."........"Beth, honey?" .....  "I love you"......."It's a
girl!!!"........"Twins?"........"Here's your new baby daughter, Mrs.
Calavicci" ...."been chosen for the space program"......"Have a
pleasant retirement, Admiral, sir."...... "What exactly is Project
Star-bright?"......."a brilliant young man, Sam Beckett"....." I want
you as my best man Al"......."take Donna as your lawfully
wedded wife?"........"I've got this string theory, Al" ......."Did you
say nerve cells?"......"Hello Ziggy."......"funding will be cut without
proof "..... "Admiral, he leaped!"......"what ever it takes, I'll get
you out of this"......."Let's go home" ......"Saaaaaaammm!!!!!"

     In the middle of the scream, a light pierced the darkness. It
wasn't the bright blue-white light of leaping, but a softer mellow
one. "Wake up honey, it's all right, it's just a bad dream." she
said, as she turned on the bedside lamp.
   It was the soothing voice of his constant companion of almost
39 years, his wife, Beth. Al rolled over and hugged her tightly to
him. After a moment or two in the familiar warmth of her arms,
his heart had slowed it's hammering in his chest. An odd thought
suddenly occured to him, and  pulling away slightly, he asked,
"Where's Sam?" Beth smiled  at him quizically, and said, "Asleep
with his wife, silly, where else would he be?"
   "Asleep?" he asked, not remembering going to bed himself.
"Yes, honey," Beth assured him,  "he leaped back just like he
always does, a few hours ago, while you were sleeping,  then he
and Donna went to bed." She hugged him close again, and
whispered in his ear, "That must have been some dream."
  The Great Gear in the Cog-Works of Time had turned again,
but this time it had gone completely unnoticed.

...............................THE
END......................................