From: akulsum@aol.com (AKulsum) Newsgroups: alt.tv.quantum-leap.creative Subject: window 7/7 Date: 10 Oct 1996 03:59:20 -0400 Message-Id: <53iaco$idh@newsbf02.news.aol.com> OK, here's the final part. For anyone who's curious, parts 1-6 are in the archives. I will also probably start posting "The Road Taken" soon, which I recently finished. I must warn you that it is a different kind of story than this one, so you be the judge. Again, thanks to all for your support! -amkt "Window to the Future" pt. VII Inside the Accelerator, Al dropped to his knees and looked about himself in shock. The door opened and Sam rushed in and over to Al. He fell to the floor beside him and began to look him over for any sign of injury. "Al...are you?..." Al seemed dazed and he looked at Sam curiously. "He....shot me," Al put a hand to his chest and looked down, expecting to see the lifeblood draining through his fingers. Instead, his eyes met with the pure white of the fermi suit. "Sam....how did I?" Sam smiled gently. "I leaped Zoe into you. Did you do it?" Al nodded mutely and reached out a hand, trembling with anticipation--and touched Sam's shoulder. Sam pulled him into a stong embrace and buried his face in his friend's shoulder, relief and joy at the contact they had been unable to share. A moment passed without a sound as the two savored the moment. Sam could feel the intense burn of fever from Al and he finally pulled away. "You need medical attention, Al. Can you walk?" Al snorted and glared at him. "Whaddya mean, can I walk? Do I look like an invalid?" Sam supressed a grin and helped Al to his feet. Despite his earlier bravado, Al leaned quite heavily on Sam as they exited the Accelerator. The sight that greeted Verbeena's eyes evolked nothing short of pure joy and if Al hadn't looked so unsteady, she might have just stood there and cried. As it was, medical instinct kicked in and she ran to his other side, helping Sam support him. They led him over to a chair and he sat down carefully, leaning on Sam and Verbeena. Sam placed a hand on Al's shoulder, unwilling to break contact even for a moment. "Dr. Beeks," Gooshie called as he rushed in the room. He stopped dead when he saw Al. "Admiral?" he asked cautiously. "In the flesh," Al replied. "Speaking of which...where's Tina?" Sam groaned. "In her quarters," Verbeena answered. "I'll get her in a moment. What is it, Gooshie?" "Senator Reed refuses to secure funding." He looked at Sam. "It's official. We're finished." Al cursed silently. "I was so close." Sam shot him a puzzled look. "Close to what?" "It doesn't matter now, not if all the funding is gone." He reached up to pat Sam's hand, still resting on his shoulder. "I guess this is it, pal." Sam's eyes glittered. "Actually, because I haven't leaped yet, I can only assume that I'm here to get our funding back." Across the room, Gooshie was already shaking his head in defeat. That was when Tina entered the room. "I've got it all hooked up," she pronnounced. Then she saw Al. One look at the appreciative glance he shot her way was enough to reassure her that it was really him. "Oh, Al!" she squealed and was in the chair next to him in an instant. Al gave her a kiss. And then a longer one. Sam cleared his throat conspicuously. "Albert," he teased, "I don't think it would be a good idea to raise your blood pressure before the doctor gets a look at you." Al pulled away and a gleam lit up in his eyes. "Why not? Dr. Beeks is always saying I need more exercise." "I have said no such thing, _Admiral_," she said, placing extra emphasis on his rank. "I think we need to worry about getting our funding back." "No problem," Tina smiled. Al gave her a condesending look. "Really, Al, I already took the remaining research budget to put it together. By the time Reed severed our lifeline, I had already taken what we needed. All we need is a blood sample." "Uh...could someone tell me what's going on here?" Sam asked. Al shot him a surprised look. "What, our resident genius hasn't figured it out yet?" Sam shrugged. "I set up a program so that, with a blood sample, Ziggy could hook anyone up in the Imaging Chamber. Been working on a proposal for months. That's how come I needed the extra money. I figured that would prove to the government that you'd leaped and would secure our funding once and for all. See? I'm not just looks, y'know?" Sam grinned. "Not only that, but if I was unable to observe, someone else could take my place. Temporarily, of course." "No-one could ever take your place, Al," Sam said gently and Al looked up at him. "Yeah, well, same goes for you, pal." The rest of the room fell respectfully silent as they hugged again. Finally, Verbeena took control, leading Al out of the room to tend to him while Sam and Tina took care of the senator. Sam knew somewhere inside of him without the aid of Ziggy's calculations that as soon as he got the funding back, there would be nothing left for him to fix and he would leap out again. More than likely, that meant that as soon as he showed Senator Reed what Al had invented, assuming that she would believe him, he would be gone. He wished there was some way he could postpone this, so that he could stay as long as possible, but it was about as good an idea to mess with an angry US Senator who all but held your very life in her hands as it was to play with a rabid dog. He could only assume that once he proved to the senator all that he had told her, he would leap out again and Greg Turner could have his life back. Once he had convinced her to stay another day, he left Tina to the details and sought out Al. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Beeks had ordered Al to his bed for the next week or so. He'd been insufferably pleased about this until she ordered Tina to stay _out_ of his room for the next week. He was in his bed pouting when Sam showed up. Sam sat on the edge of the bed. "I just came to say goodbye." Al half-sat up in the bed, pulling up the covers a little higher despite the heat. His window was open and a rare desert breeze wafted through the room. Al sighed. "I guess there's no way to delay this anymore." "Not really. The senator was ready to leave the moment she set foot on Project Quantum Leap, and she's even more so now. It was incredibly hard to convince her to stay and see another, and I quote 'useless demonstration of incompetence.' But, I did and so it's now or never." He took a deep breath. "I wanted to ask, Al...what happened... where you were?" Al's face darkened. "Nothing you need to know about, Sam." There was an uneasy silence for a moment or two. "Look....it's over. We succeeded, right? And you won't need to worry about them again. Hopefully the cost of re-building the entire computer core from scratch will be enough to deter them from doing so. And if not, well, we put them out of commission for a while, right?" "Right." Sam paused. "How's your wrist?" he asked, indicating Al's right wrist resting atop his chest, wrapped securely in bandages. "Doc says it may never be the same. Says I did some things with a broken wrist that I shouldn't have and it may always be a bit of a problem, but it shouldn't be too bad." Sam nodded and glanced at his watch. "Well....she'll probably be waiting." He looked out the window, but made no move to get up. His hand sought Al's and he closed his eyes. He was surprised at how weak Al's grip was and he gained new respect for some of the things Al had pushed himself to do over the past twenty-four hours. He wasn't sure how long he sat there, but when he finally opened his eyes, Al was asleep, breathing peacefully. Sam squeezed Al's hand gently. "I love you, Al," he whispered and left the room, closing the door softly behind him. OK, bring on the comments!! amkt