PROLOGUE

The blue haze of the leap cleared and, as usual, the disorientation of settling into a new body slowly started to clear. Sam looked around, wondering just where, when and who he had leaped into. He discovered himself standing alone in the middle of a long white hallway broken only by an occasional doorway. He took in a deep breath and frowned. There was a strong smell of antiseptic that lingered in the air and it seemed to be too quiet in the hallway. It was always quietest before the storm, wasn't it?

Sam looked down at the clothes that his host had gifted him and experienced a mild shot of panic when he saw the long white medical coat and nametag. He reached for the nametag and turned it so that he could read it correctly; it read: Dr. Marsters.

Suddenly, the sound of running feet made him plaster himself to the wall.  He looked down the hallway and his eyes widened in surprise as a group of women came pelting toward him. His mind registered vaguely the green medical scrubs they were wearing as they began to run past.

"How long?" he heard one ask.

"About three minutes out," another replied.

"Doctor? What are you just standing there for?" a young nurse asked him as she jogged passed. "They'll be here soon!"

Sam watched her confused for a moment as the words she had just said to him slowly registered. His frown deepened. Why was he always right when it came to quiet and storms?

"Ohhh boy!" he groaned and took off in a run following the women toward the ER.

PART ONE

Sam jogged behind the young nurse through the maze of corridors apprehensively. This leap already had a feel to it that he couldn't describe and the nagging sensation that was seeping into his body was telling him that something was brewing in the clouds. He wasn't quite certain what lay ahead in this leap but at least he knew that he had the skills to deal with anything this leap had in store for him. At least, he hoped he did.

They led him to a set of double automated doors with an exit symbol emblazed on the floor before it. As they passed through the doors, Sam felt a blast of muggy air hit him and the unmistakable wail of a rapidly approaching ambulance assaulted his ears. Sam tensed, preparing himself for anything as the ambulance pulled into the short alcove driveway up to the hospital. It came to a jerky stop in front of them and immediately the doors swung open; the emergency medical technicians working together like a well oiled machine. The back door of the ambulance was thrown open and the EMTs pulled out a gurney holding a young girl. The EMT from inside the small automobile climbed out from the other end helping with the smooth transition between their care into the hospital.

"What've we got?" Sam asked as they rushed towards him.

"Joanna Collins," the one who exited the ambulance last answered quickly. "Fine up until two and half hours ago, then she started complaining of a severe headache. She collapsed shortly after. BP and pulse rate have been going up and down the scale like a yo-yo, she's been unresponsive for the last 30 minutes."

Sam nodded at the information then glanced down at the young girl on the gurney. He felt a pang of familiarity run through him as he looked down at her. Her dark hair and pale complexion brought an elusive memory of a similar young girl rising up from the depths of his Swiss-cheesed mind. He tried to hang onto the memory, find it and thrive on retrieving it, but found it slipping away as quickly as it came.

As they moved through the doors and into the hospital, Sam shook himself out of trying to figure out who the girl was and let the nurses guide the young one to the nearest medical bay. Entering the room, the team moved the gurney to the bed. Within seconds, they transferred the young woman to the bed. Even as the gurney was being removed from the room by another medic, Sam took the girl's hand in his and called out to her. "Joanna? Joanna, can you hear me?"

There was no response. He tried another tactic. He pressed his knuckles across the girl's chest hoping for a response but none was given. 

"Penlight," he demanded as he held out his hand. One of the nurses popped the required instrument into his hand. He leaned over Joanna and carefully pealed back one of her eyelids. He hissed softly in alarm when he saw that her eye was rolled back into her head. This was definitely not good. "She's seizing," he snapped, "I need 20 CC's of Demexethine stat!"

"Yes doctor, " one of the nurses replied and quickly scuttled away to get the medicine while the other nurses were prepping her. 

"Also, call the cat scan room." He desperately hoped that they had one. "Tell them that we're coming in."

"They're already waiting," another nurse replied at his side.

Before Sam could even glimpse it all in, the nurses had already placed an IV in her arm, and had a blood pressure cuff on her arm taking her blood pressure every minute as well as the electrocardiograph monitor displaying her heart rhythm.

Sam nodded at their quickness and steady hands as they continued to monitor the young girl and did their best to get her stable. "Where's that Demexethine?!" He asked a bit harshly.

"Doctor Marsters," the first nurse that Sam had spoken to magically appeared at his side.

Sam held out his hand and the requested dosage of Demexethine was placed in his hand. He quickly inserted the medication into her IV and started counting backwards from twenty. When he reached one, he again pealed back her eyelid. This time, a gray-green eyeball stared back at him. He sighed in relief and shone the light into it. The pupil responded sluggishly. He repeated the same action with her other eye getting the same response. He glanced up at the monitors the nurses had hooked Joanna to while he was doing his examination and sighed in relief at the high-tech look of them and the stats they were displaying. Joanna Collins was stable for the moment.

"Okay, let's go!" he said, raising the side rail of the bed. One of the nurses on the other side did the same and they wheeled her out into the hallway and down the hall toward the elevators. Even as Sam glanced down at the little girl lying on the bed, he knew that it was going to be one of those leaps.

PART TWO

Thirty minutes later, Sam was standing in a darkened room, his green eyes staring at Joanna's cat scans displayed on the lightened boards. His left arm supported the weight of his right as he rubbed one cheek then the other, and then finally rested his hand on his chin with a concerned frown. What he saw on the scans wasn't what he wanted to see - far from it. He blinked and softly shook his head. It was then that he finally heard the sound of the Imaging Chamber door opening.

"Hey kid," Al greeted him genially.

"Hi Al," Sam responded absently his gaze still locked on the scans before him.

"Whatcha lookin' at?" Al asked, coming to stand beside him as he turned his head slightly to the side to try to see what was in the slides in front of them.

"Cat scans," Sam replied simply. "Little girl by the name of Joanna Collins."

"Just looks like great big black blobs to me," Al replied with a chuckle as he glanced down at the handlink and began to get information about this leap for his colleague.

"That's because of the blood," Sam informed him, running a light finger across the closest scan.

Al looked up quickly, a bit startled, "Blood?"

Sam nodded as he brought his finger back toward his chin. "Normally on a scan like this, you'd be able to see most of the details of the brain, but not on Joanna's. Her head is to full of blood." He sighed and looked over at his friend wearily, "Al, am I here to save Joanna?"

The handlink whistled at Al, getting his attention, he looked at it and frowned as the information displayed through the tiny screen. "Yeah kid, you are. Ziggy says that according to the records, Joanna Collins was admitted to the hospital for a massive brain aneurysm. She was in a coma for five days and then was pronounced brain dead on the sixth." Al pressed a few more buttons, his frown deepening. "The kid's only nine years old, Sam."

Sam groaned softly as he moved from the lighted board to a chair that was across the room. He sat down heavily and put his head in his hands. 

"What's the date today, Al? I need to know what's available to help her." When Al didn't answer, Sam looked up. The hologram seemed to be so engrossed in the information displayed on the link that he hadn't even heard Sam's question. "Al?" Sam called to him, "Yoo, hoo! Earth to Admiral Calavicci!"

"Hmm... What?" Al looked away from the handlink as he looked at Sam.

Sam rolled his eyes in exasperation. "What's the date today Al? And where am I?"

Al hesitated for a moment, wondering if he should tell his cohort the information that he had just received from Ziggy. Seeing Sam's questioning eyes, Al finally said, "It's April 28, 1995. You're in St. Joseph Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico."

Sam's body jerked up out of the chair and he took a step toward Al, his eyes got wide, "It's..."

"Just before you leaped, I know," Al finished promptly for him. "Your name is..."

"Dr. Kevin Marsters," Sam gestured dazed at his nametag. This had to be the closest he'd ever leaped to home, which meant...

"Don't get any ideas Sam," Al said darkly. "You're here to save Joanna... in more ways than one."

Sam was about to ask him what he meant by that when the door opened and nurse poked her head in, "Dr. Marsters, Joanna Collin's family is here."

Sam heaved himself out of the chair and with a glance to Al, followed the nurse through the corridors to where Joanna's family waited. His mind was in overtime, trying to figure out how he could help the little girl but he kept getting distracted by too many other thoughts. 

One was the familiarity he felt when he saw Joanna. Where had that come from? Was it possible he had leapt into her life before?

Then another thought interrupted that one, the fact: the thought that not only was he in New Mexico about two hundred miles from the Project but he was so close to
being back home. He was tempted to go get into the car and go to the Project to tell himself what he'd accomplished; what he'd learned. Even as his steps echoed in the corridor, he knew he couldn't. It was against the rules.

Plus, he had a little girl's life held in the balance. He had to try to save her life.

The nurse led him to a private waiting room and stood aside. Sam nervously cleared his throat then gently pushed the door open. As he entered, two adults and three children anxiously rose to their feet.  

The man, obviously Joanna's father, was tall, thin and had light blonde hair. A stocky woman with dark brown hair and brown eyes stood next to him. Her nervousness was apparent as she slid her hands continually over her purse strap. Next to her stood two children, both built like the woman: a teenaged girl with the same hair color and a young man with red hair. The other child, the youngest, stepped out toward him and caught Sam's attention with her gray-green eyes as she pushed back a wayward strand of light brown hair from her face.

Just the visage of their faces told Sam about this family's history. Sam continued his quick study of the family and noticed their clothing. He made a mental note of their threadbare apparel. It was painfully obvious that this was going to cause some complications since their insurance, if they had any, wouldn't even cover half of what he needed to do to even start saving Joanna's life.

"I'm Dr. Marsters," Sam said in a pleasant tone.  "I've been taking care of Joanna."

"Dale Collins," he said as he stuck out his hand to Sam. He quickly pulled back from the handshake and placed his arm around the woman once more. "This is my wife, Barbara." He glanced at the rest of the family wondering if he needed to introduce them or not. His eyes quickly found Sam's once more and he took a calming breath then asked, "How's my daughter?"

"Not well, I'm afraid," Sam replied softly. He knew that he didn't need to soften the blow of what had happened to their daughter. "She's had a massive hemorrhage and she's in a coma."

"Oh no," the youngest choked out as she turned toward her father and pressed her head against his chest. "Dad."

"Oh, boy," Al said sadly as he looked at the young one who was upset with the news. He quickly picked up the handlink and began to access anything and everything that he could get on Joanna Collins and her family.

Dale put his arm around his daughter and felt his wife lay a comforting hand on his back. "It's okay, Jocie," Dale said comfortingly. He glanced back up at Sam searching his face for some small clue that everything would be all right. "What can you do for her?"

Sam sighed. "I can't do anything until you've signed some consent forms." He swallowed then plowed ahead with what he needed to do to save her.  "To be frank with you, Mr. Collins, I need to operate."

Dale paled and his wife clutched at his arm. "Operate?" she asked softly, scared for her stepdaughter as she glanced at her husband then back to Sam. "Why?"

Sam gestured for them to sit. Once everyone was sitting down, he perched on a chair before them. "We need to drain the blood before it can do any damage. All it will entail is drilling a small hole in Joanna's skull and inserting a tube that will allow the blood to drain out. If we can drain the blood, then Joanna should start to stabilize."

"'Should'?" Dale asked.

Sam kept his voice firm and solid as he held the man's gaze. "There's no guarantee Mr. Collins. I still don't know why the hemorrhage happened and what kind of damage it's caused. Until we get the blood drained there's not much else I can tell you."

Dale sighed and glanced at his wife and children for a moment as he thought about what he needed to do. Finances were tight. How were they going to do this with everything going on? They were already behind as it was. But as he glanced at his daughter before him, worry clear in her eyes and his mind was made up even as he was calculating their bills in his head. "All right, I'll sign whatever you need me to sign. Just... do what you can, Doc."

As Sam talked to the Collins, Al began reading all of the information that he had received on Joanna Collins and her family. The information that he read made him clamp his teeth tightly and he took in a deep breath and shook his head slightly.

Sam nodded as he stood and went to the door. He motioned to the nearest nurse and asked her to get the consent forms for the surgery. Returning back to the group, he held out his hand to the man once again. "Mr. Collins, I'll do anything I can for her. As soon as they're signed, consider Joanna in safe hands."

Dale Collins stood and shook Sam's hand. "Thank you, Dr. Marsters."

Hearing that the conversation was concluding, Al re-centered himself out in the hall so that he could talk to Sam. While he waited, he paced back and forth trying to relieve his aggravation. It wasn't working.

Sam gave the man a small smile and a nod then turned around. He started to make his way to the door when he heard Jocelyn say, "Dad, you should call Mom and let her know what's happened to Jo."

"Those poor little girls," Al said softly as he shook his head.

Sam glanced back at the family as he went out the door. 'So, that explains it,' he thought to himself. He'd wondered why Joanna and her sister looked so dissimilar to Dale's wife. He heard a gruff voice being cleared and turned his head to see Al motion toward him in the hallway.  Closing the door behind him, he looked expectantly at Al.

When Sam turned to Al with an expectant look, Al pocketed the handlink. He motioned to the door with his hand. "Joanna and Jocelyn are from Dale's first marriage," Al explained.

When Al didn't elaborate, Sam asked, "So, where is their mother?"

"New York," Al answered plainly, almost bluntly. "She sent the girls to live with their father three months ago."

There was something in Al's tone that made Sam pause and take a closer look at his friend. "Why?" he asked.

Al gave a small shrug as he crossed his arms across his chest in an insolent pose. "Dunno, maybe she just wanted to party or somethin'," Al said lightly, but the handlink squealed in protest and he put his left hand back in his pocket and pulled out the handlink. He tightened his fingers around it and felt the casing give slightly under the pressure of his grip.

"Al, are you okay?" Sam asked, concerned.

Al shot a forced smile. "I'm fine. Look Sam, you'd better hustle your buns up to the OR," he said, pressing in the code to call up the Imaging Chamber door. "Joanna doesn't have much time."

Before Sam could ask any more questions, the rectangular white doorway was behind Al. Al stepped through it and the door closed behind him.

Sam stood there for a moment, completely and utterly confused by his friend's behavior. He was sure that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out what. Sam wasn't too happy by Al's evasiveness and disappearing before Sam could get a chance to ask him if he had leapt into their lives before. He decided that he would have to get the answers later, after the surgery.

The later turned out to be much later. The surgery went very smoothly and after Joanna was installed in the pediatric intensive care unit, Sam anxiously watched as the blood slowly left her brain. Mr. And Mrs. Collins had questions about Joanna's condition and Sam tried to answer them as best as he could but the most common phrase that he could offer to them was, "Well just have to wait and see."

During this time, Al came and went, never staying long enough for Sam to get him alone. He kept making excuses that he was needed at the Project but that he would be back as soon as possible. Sam began to notice an air of tension and agitation growing around Al and wondered what was going on back to the project that could be causing him so much trouble. But after Al popped out for the umpteenth time in the last hour, Sam had an overwhelming urge to nail Al's feet to the floor and demand answers to the questions that kept popping up in his mind.

It wasn't until the next day that he finally got some.

PART THREE

As Sam made his way to the pediatric ICU; he tried to get his apprehension under control. He wasn't any closer to saving Joanna than when he was after her surgery. Five minutes ago, the nurses had phoned him in his office to let him know that Joanna's mother, Ms. McInnis, had finally arrived. The nurse hadn't given him any indication as to what kind of state the woman was in. He had talked with Dale and Barbara Collins and neither of them had given him even a hint as to the woman's personality, nor did they tell how close she was to Joanna. For the millionth time, he wished that Al would stick around long enough to give him some guidance.

Sam entered the unit and looked over to the medical bay where Joanna was.  He could just make out the form of a woman standing alone beside the bed through the curtain that covered the glass doors that led to Joanna's room. He took a moment to compose himself as he grabbed Joanna's chart from the nurse's station.

'Dammit Al. Where the hell are you?' He asked silently as he heaved a sigh. He took a deep breath and headed toward the room.

As he neared, the woman shifted slightly and Sam caught a glimpse of her profile. He stopped dead in his tracks and gaped as the familiarity that he felt with Joanna returned in full force. Maybe it was the way her dark brown hair fell in front of her face as she looked down at the young girl, or perhaps it was the way she raked her fingers apprehensively through her hair that made Sam sure that he'd seen this young woman before.

He forced himself to move forward and enter the room. Joanna's mother jerked slightly startled by the interruption and turned toward him. He was mesmerized for a moment as he looked into her eyes. 'Her eyes... they're green,' he thought as he just openly stared at her. Sam struggled to figure out just where he'd seen her before but when she raised an eyebrow at him curiously, she asked in a cool demeanor, "Is there something you want or are you just here to stare?"

Sam blushed slightly. "Uh. No. I'm Dr. Marsters. I've been taking care of your daughter," he managed to blurt out as his mind continued to work overtime. Where..? Even her voice. . .

A vision seemed to appear in Sam's mind - a woman with dark hair, hazel eyes and a warm smile looking down at him, her hair around her face as she looked down at him with love in her eyes; was she. . . was she naked? Slowly the vision vanished as Ms. McInnis' words broke through his concentration.

"Alison McInnis," she replied with a brief nod as she ran her hands down the arms of her red, velvet blazer. She straightened her shoulders and glanced down at her navy skirt as she placed one of her hands in her pocket. "What's wrong with my daughter?"

Sam moved around the lovely visage and stood at the end of the bed so that he could look down at Joanna on the bed. "She's had an aneurysm," he told her as he flipped open the chart. "She's a very sick little girl."

"How?" Alison demanded, her cool demeanor vanishing quickly before his eyes. "She's only nine! How could something like this happen?"

Sam shrugged slightly. "It could have been caused by many different things..." he began to reply.

"What kinds of things?" Alison asked, cutting him off.

Sam blinked in surprise, but definitely understood her concern for her daughter. He was sure that he'd feel the same way if he had children. "Anything from a birth defect to head trauma. We won't know until we find a way to get a clear picture of what's happened inside of her skull..."

It was Alison's turn to blink in surprise. "Trauma?" she whispered, she looked down at the bed, then to her daughter and her hand came into a tight fist. "You... you. son of a... " She seemed to catch herself and she looked up at Sam as she tried to reason this out in her own mind. "What do you mean? You can't get a clear scan of what's going on in her brain?"

"There's too much blood," Sam said softly. "We've managed to drain a lot of it but because there was so much released, it's causing her brain to swell and the swelling isn't helping it to drain. Actually, it's keeping it from draining properly."

"Fix her," Alison stated vehemently as she came up toward him. "I don't care what it costs, just make her well again!"

"I'll. . . I'll try," Sam said softly. "I'll do everything I can." He was going to say more but just then the door opened and Dale and Jocelyn came in. Sam saw Alison tense as she looked at her ex-husband. Just a glance at her hands told Sam more than he knew.

"So. You're finally here," Dale sneered. "I'm so glad you could find time in your busy schedule."

"Mom!" Jocelyn squealed as she rushed over and hugged her mother. The sigh that came from the little girl was enough to know that it had been some time since she had seen her mother. "Oh, mom, I missed you!"

Alison grinned and patted her daughters back lightly. "I missed you too, sweetie. I'm sorry it took me so long to get here."

Sam heard Jocelyn sniffle. "It's okay Mom, you're here now."

"Aww... ain't that just sooo touching!" Al's voice said behind him. "The prodigal mother finally returns."

Startled, Sam looked over his shoulder and glared at Al.  He was appalled at Al's total disregard of the situation. 'How could he say something so horrid about this child's mother? She was concerned about her daughter, of course she'd come,' Sam thought irritated.

"Mom? Can Jo and I come home now?" Jocelyn asked.

Alison blinked in surprise and looked down at Joanna. Her daughter looked so shrunken and vulnerable. "I...." she began to say and then looked over at Dale, not knowing what to tell her daughter. "I don't know yet, hon."

Dale sat down beside Joanna's bed and took his daughter's hand in his and rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. Reaching up, he caressed her cheek as he completely ignored the woman who was talking to his child. 

"Course you don't know," Al snarled sarcastically. The statement was so soft spoken that Sam wasn't sure at first if he'd actually heard it.

Alison turned her head slightly as if she had heard something then lightly shook her head dismissing whatever it was. She frowned as she watched her ex-husband touch her daughter.

"Mom, we just wanna come home! Please?" Jocelyn whined as she pulled out her mother's embrace. "Please mom?"

Alison paled and her eyes searched her daughter's face in front of her. She then turned her head slightly to look down at Joanna and felt her chin quiver. She turned her attention to Sam and cleared her throat and licked at her dry lips. "Can Joanna travel?"

"What?" Sam, Dale and Al cried at the same time.

"Can she travel?" Alison asked more vehemently. "I'm sure that there's specialists more qualified to handle Joanna's condition..."

"Oh, you would do this!" Dale snarled, getting to his feet. "You can't even be contemplating this!"

Alison lifted her chin defiantly at him and met his gaze glare for glare. "I am. I want what's best for both Jo and Jocie, Dale..."

"Over my dead body!" Dale roared as he started to come around to meet up with his ex to shake a rational thought into her brain.

The monitors that were at the head of the bed began to beep out of sequence and Sam immediately noticed it and glanced at the two people now standing before him. He was the only thing that separated the two of them from a fight.

"Enough!" he snapped. "All of the loud noise is disturbing Joanna. If you're going to be here, then you should know that she needs complete and total silence. Any loud noise or extreme external stimuli will severely increase the swelling inside her head." He checked the readings and his frown deepened as the blood pressure reading had risen. "If you insist on arguing, then take it outside."

Alison didn't look as if she was going to give in, but when Sam turned his attention to her, he once more saw the vision that he had seen before in his mind's eye and reached out and touched her arm gently. Alison blinked several times and then finally nodded. Sam turned back to look at Dale who stood with his hands on his hips looking down at the floor. When Dale looked back up into Sam's eyes, he grumbled his agreement.

"Typical..." he heard Al mutter.

If looks could kill and if Sam hadn't been in the past, Al would have been killed instantly by the look Sam shot him. "Now, Ms. McInnis, Joanna most definitely cannot travel. Trust me when I say that we are more than qualified to handle her treatment here. I will do everything I can to make her well again," he said as reassuringly as he could.

"Are you sure?" she asked. "If it's as bad as I think it is..."

Sam gave her a small reassuring smile. "It is, but there's not much else that can be done at this juncture. Here or anywhere else."

Alison sighed and let her shoulders drop as she relinquished to him. "Alright," she said in a near whisper as she looked over at her youngest daughter. "Just... make her well again."

Sam nodded, slightly relieved as some of the tension in the room had eased. "I'll do everything that I can." He gave Al a brief look that told him to follow him as he headed out of the room. He heard Al sigh but heard the unmistakable sound of him of popping out of the room.

Anger rolled around inside of him, this whole leap was turning out to be a nightmare. As he passed Jocelyn, he noticed that she had a small, lost look on her face. He flashed Jocelyn what he hoped was a reassuring smile and the girl rewarded him a small brave smile in return.

Once outside, Sam gestured to Al to walk beside him as he left the unit. He was going to get some answers one way or another. He found an empty room a few doors down and motioned his hologram inside. Closing the door behind him, he asked angrily, "What the hell is your problem?"

"What?" Al snapped back.

"Ever since this leap began, you've been angry and moody. What's going on Al?"

"It's nothing," Al replied tightly, looking down at the handlink.

"Oh no, don't you go hiding behind that!" Sam said bluntly. "Tell me what's going on! Is it because of Alison and Joanna?"

Al looked at the handlink for a moment and then looked sharply up at his best friend. "Dammit, you don't know when to leave well enough alone do you?" he growled.

Sam blinked at the words that erupted from Al. Again, he questioned, "Is it because of them..."

"Just Alison," Al interrupted. He raised his hand and pointed toward the room where Sam had left them. "Women like her should never be allowed to be mothers!"

"Al..."

Al didn't hear him, his own anger and hurt was welling up inside of him. "You saw her Sam! Did you see the clothes she was wearing? I know Gucci when I see it! I bet Dale's family could live off of the cost of that outfit for a month!" Al waved his arms around aggravated with the situation. "She abandoned them to their father. It's obvious she didn't want them, she's out there livin' the high life while those little girls barely get enough to eat! I'm surprised that she even had the decency to come to see her daughter!"

Realization hit Sam like a ton of bricks; Al wasn't really talking about Alison. All the times that Al had talked to him about his mother, it all came back to him as if it had never left him. "Al, listen to me. Alison... she's not like your mother..."

Al went on, oblivious of Sam's words, "Sam, Ziggy says that after Joanna died, Dale filed for and won custody of Jocelyn. It was Marsters testimony that clinched it for him. You should stick with that part of history."

Sam sighed; he hated seeing Al like this. "All right Al," he agreed just for the sake of appeasing his friends hurt. "All right."

Al nodded and pressed some buttons on the link, the bright portal of the Imaging Chamber door appeared behind him. "Good. I'll be back as soon as we come up with a way to help Joanna." He stepped through and then was gone.

"Oh, Al." Sam sighed.

PART FOUR

Al leaned against the Imaging Chamber door for a moment, trying to compose himself. A war of emotion was going on inside of him. His nerves felt like they were wrung taut and his head buzzed with tension. With a soft snarl, he pushed himself off the wall and stomped down the ramp. St. John looked up from the control console in surprise as Al pitched the handlink onto it.

Al strode angrily toward the Control Room door before St. John barely had time to open his mouth to say a word. He barely noticed the Project staff purposefully getting out of his way as he stomped down the corridors. His mind seethed with a mass of emotions and unwanted memories. He smashed his fist into the call button for the elevator wanting to go to the cafeteria and then growled angrily when it didn't instantly arrive in the 2.3 seconds he gave it. He spun on his heel and headed toward his office.

As Al turned the corner, he found himself colliding with a small body.

"Ack! Oops!" Stephen Beckett said as he dropped the comic books that were in his arms and they scattered across the floor. "Uh. Er. I'm. I'm sorry, Uncle Al," he stammered.

Al stared down at the small boy for a moment, his face unreadable. "You know you're not supposed to be in this part of the Project!" he barked.

"I know, but I was just looking for my mom," Stephen said softly.

"Snooping is more like it!" Al snapped again. He was just like his father, always sticking his nose where it didn't belong. "Do I have to tell security to keep you outta here?"

Stephen blinked as he searched Al's face and his chin quivered slightly.  Never had Uncle Al snapped at him like this before. He took in a quivering breath and blinked back the tears that threatened him.

'Damn,' thought Al as he looked down at the young man standing before him. That was the same look that Sam had before he walked out. Al softened a bit as he suddenly realized that he had been taking his anger out on the poor child. He realized that Stephen hadn't done anything wrong. Al sighed. "Just, get outta here, kid. I'll pretend I didn't see ya."

The boy, knowing that he was getting off lightly, nodded solemnly and began to gather up the comic books. 

Al stepped around him and walked silently to his office door. He paused just outside and looked down the hallway at the boy for a moment.  "Dammit," he grumbled and opened the door.

Once inside, the lights came on instantly as Ziggy registered his presence. He made his way across the room to one wall and pressed his hand against a concealed switch. There was a soft click and one of the panels to the left of his hand swung open. He looked inside at the safe, contemplating for a moment and then quickly pressed a code into it's numeric pad. The safe gave a soft whirring noise and then opened to reveal its contents. Al hesitated for a moment and then pulled out the bottle of fifty-year-old scotch inside. It was only a quarter full. It had been that way for seventeen years.

Al crossed the room to his desk, sat heavily into his chair and placed the bottle onto the desktop. He sat back, staring at the bottle. It was the same one he had in his hands the day he met Sam Beckett. The same one Sam had pried from his fingers as he sat sobbing on the floor. The same one he swore that as long as there was liquor inside, he would never drink again.

Just one drink. Just one drink to numb the pain. One wouldn't hurt, would it? He reached forward toward the bottle.

"That won't help, Admiral," Ziggy's purr surrounded him making him blink in response.

"You stay outta this!" Al snarled as his hand closed over the bottle.

A clicking sound emitted from the computer above him and then the words floated around him. "I would, but I can't."

Al looked around the room, anger welling up inside of him. "This isn't any of your business you tin plated bitch! So butt out!"

"Admiral, I cannot. Since you are the Project coordinator, it is my obligation to.  .  ."

"OBLIGATION!!" Al thundered as he sprang to his feet. "What the hell do you know about obligations?!" He walked around his desk and began to pace in the familiar five steps one way, five steps back. "I have spent the last eight years - eight fucking years - looking out for a man who is lost in time. Keeping his dream alive so that maybe, maybe he has a chance to return to his family someday. Always watching, always waiting, always trying to be that little voice of sanity in any insane situation he gets himself in!" The world seemed to close around him and his breathing came out more and more labored. "And now... now when I want to just get rid of my goddamned pain, his... his computer says that I can't?!" The temperature in his office seemed to soar up to a million degrees. He yanked off his tie, trying to cool himself off.

"Admiral, I do suggest that you calm down." Ziggy tried to soothe him.

"CALM DOWN!?" Al snatched up the bottle angrily off the top of his desk. "Who the fucking hell are YOU to tell ME to calm down!?" Al gave out a furious growl and pitched the bottle across the room. It collided with the wall with a loud smash that shocked Al down to his bones. He blinked furiously as he watched the liquid drip down the wall. He let out a low groan and sank to the floor.

From somewhere deep inside of him, he heard Sam's voice. "Al."

"Oh no..no..no..no!" Al moaned. "Please tell me he's... dammit kid... just...just leave me alone."

"Admiral?" Ziggy asked softly.

After a moment of silence, Al looked up at the ceiling, his anger someway abated. "It's okay, Ziggy. I'm done."

"But, Admiral..."

Al sighed heavily. "Yup, I'm definitely done."

He glanced over at the floor where the bottle lay in shards. He shook his head and slowly stood up and moved to the couch and sank into the cushions. He covered his eyes with his arm and relinquished to the sleep that he needed so desperately.

PART FIVE

April 30, 1995
3:30 PM
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Over the next two days, Sam watched the entire family and tried his best not to step on Al's ever-sensitive emotional toes. For once, he was at a bit of a loss as to what to say to him to help him get over the anger and resentfulness he felt for his mother. There were times that he saw Al venomously staring at Alison that he wished that there were some way... some way that he could heal the wounds that his friend had been carrying for over fifty years.

As Sam got to know Alison and Dale better, he began to see past his first impression of them. Dale, at times, seemed very stubborn and when someone tried to challenge his views he turned into an angry and resentful person. While Alison wasn't as much of a cold person she'd appeared to be, there was always an air of sadness around her that didn't always seem to have to do with her daughter. The whole family seemed to be one huge enigma.  Barbara, after sticking around for the first three days, spent less and less time in the PICU with Joanna and her children didn't even seem to care other than the fact that they were incredibly bored.

Late one night Sam had been unable to rest and decided that instead of prowling around Marsters' house, he'd returned to the hospital to check on Joanna. He was surprised to see Alison sitting quietly beside her daughter's bed, just holding her hand and staring into her daughters face. He got the impression that Alison was trying to will her daughter better.

He'd stood there outside of the room, just out of her sight, and spent the entire time studying the woman. He chased up the same visage again, the woman peering down at him with love in her eyes. The more that he tried to pinpoint who she was and what she meant to him, the more his head began to pound. He was hesitant to ask any questions about Alison to Al, afraid of the emotional outburst it would provoke but he wanted - no, needed - to know.

Instead of thinking about it much more, he went down to his office and slumped on the couch and thankfully, fell asleep.

Then, on the afternoon of the third day, the storm he didn't even know that he had been waiting for hit with a vengeance. He had been taking a well-deserved break in the cafeteria when his beeper went off. He glanced down at it and his breath caught when he saw the 911 numbers blinking. He took off in a run out of the cafeteria toward the closest stairway. He took the stairs two at a time, his fear increasing with every step, and burst out panting just outside of the PICU.

"Sam!" Al appeared in front of him. "Joanna." The hologram managed to choke out.

That was all Sam needed to hear. He sprinted through the doors into the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and his heart leapt into his throat when he saw the numerous nurses, interns and doctors rushing into Joanna's room.  Alison, Dale and Jocelyn hovered just outside, trying to see what was going on inside but at the same time trying to stay out of the medical staff's way.

Alison managed to grab Sam's arm as he tried to pass her. Her green eyes pleaded with him. Sam gave her a quick glance then went into the room. He winced when he heard all the monitor alarms where going off. With a glance he took in the readings from the wildly clamoring  equipment.

Joanna's blood pressure was dropping rapidly and her heart rate was way below normal. He checked briefly the drain line from her head and groaned softly when he saw that it had stopped completely. He knew from her latest set of scans that they hadn't even managed to drain an eighth of the blood inside of her head.

A nurse talked rapidly beside him; he listened with half a mind as his brain jumped from possibility to possibility trying to figure out what was going on now.

"Light!" Sam demanded as he leaned over Joanna. A penlight was placed into his outstretched hand. Gently, he peeled back the lid of her right eye. He flashed the beam briefly into and waited apprehensively for a reaction.

There was none. He repeated it a second time and still got the same results.

"Damn!" he muttered and moved to the other eye. He repeated the test and held his breath as he waited for a reaction.

"Sam?" he heard Al say from somewhere in the room.

"I don't know..." he murmured and repeated the procedure again wanting to be doubly sure before he did anything rash. He held his breath for a second then he saw it. 'Yes!' he thought excitedly, but he wasn't going to give up on this little girl. Sam moved quickly and with one quick swift motion swept off the blankets off of Joanna. "I'm not giving up yet, Joanna. Don't you give up either!"

Several of the nurses gasped and the other medical technicians in the room turned to him in question, voicing their concern about what he was doing.  Sam moved down to her bare feet. He grabbed her foot and pinched her big toe on her right foot and felt a slight twitch in her foot. He couldn't help but give a little smile. He took his thumbnail and ran it roughly up the girl's instep. Sam nodded in satisfaction as he saw a twitch in the muscles of her leg and her toes lightly curled. He repeated the actions with her other leg and got the same reaction, if a little less.

"Up the Metheline. We've got to bring down that swelling," he ordered. "Also, we've got to bring her blood pressure back up again, increase those meds and her fluid intake."

Over the next twenty minutes, Sam and the nurses worked continuously trying to stabilize the girl. Sam used everything he learned from med school, and then some of his genius, until finally he was satisfied that they weren't going to lose Joanna. When he finally stepped outside the room, Joanna's parents looked at him anxiously.

"She's alive," he said.

Al appeared at Sam's side and murmured absently, "By the grace of God."

Alison gave out a small sob and Dale sighed in relief, "Thank God..."

Alison looked through the window of her daughter's room as tears rolled down her cheeks. "There's. . . there's got to be something that we haven't tried yet. Isn't there?" she asked as she turned back around to face Sam. "I mean, if . . if the blood needs to get out of her brain, c-can't you drill another hole and try to get it out another way?" She didn't know if what she said was even possible or probable, all she knew, all she wanted, was for her daughter to open her beautiful eyes and call out her name and be right as rain again.

Dale couldn't believe what he had just heard. He grabbed her roughly by both arms and shook her. "Are you nuts? You must be! What do you want to do, Alison? Kill her? That's be just what you would want, wouldn't it?"

Al shook his head as he maliciously glared at her. "That's right. Kill your daughter. Why not? You already broke her spirit, didn't you?"

Alison's wide eyes swung around to look at Sam as her chin began to quiver. "NO!" She broke free of Dale's grip and pushed past Sam and ran down the corridor.

Sam glanced at Al, disappointed in his friend, then turned his attention to Dale. "How could you even think that she would want to kill her own flesh and blood? She loves that little girl just as much as you do. And even if it was out of the question to even try such a procedure, it was a decent question to ask. At least she's trying to figure it out. You're just... being a bully."

With that said, Sam turned around and began to jog down the corridor to catch up with Alison.

PART SIX

After asking several nurses if they'd seen a woman running down the halls, they pointed toward the exit doors. Although she was upset, Sam knew that she wouldn't leave the hospital ground, not without Joanna at her side.  He had a gut feeling about this woman. He had to find her. He glanced around the parking lot searching down the rows for her when Al popped in beside him.

"What are you doing out here, Sam? You need to be in there with that little girl!" Al said, aggravated as he pointed back to the hospital.

"I have my pager. If she needs me, I'll be there. Right now, I'm looking for Alison."

"Alison doesn't need your help, Sam."

Sam stopped in his search and looked back at Al. "How can you stand there talking to her like that, saying such horrible things? You don't know her, Al. Just because it seems like the same circumstances that happened with your mother, doesn't mean that she's like your mother. Now, either you tell me where Alison is right now, or you step back into that Imaging Chamber and don't come back. I've had it up to here with your cruel, taunting, smart aleck remarks. I'd rather stumble around in a fog than even hear it. Understand?"

Al blinked at Sam's words and looked down at the handlink as he rubbed his finger along its side. "All right." He picked up the handlink and slowly punched in a question. "She's over there." Al pointed toward a small group of trees on the right side of the parking lot.

Al popped in beside her even before Sam got up to her. He just stood there, watching her sobbing, his face void of expression.

Sam jogged over to the area and stopped a few feet away from her. Moving to her, he hesitated before he sat down beside her.

"Ms. McInnis?"

Alison jerked her head up at her name being called and saw him sitting beside her. "Oh. Dr. Marsters. I..." she hiccupped. "I... I would never." Just the thought of what her husband had said sent her off into another sob.

Sam sighed and moved a bit closer to her. He put a reassuring hand on her back and rubbed her back in a circular motion. "I know that you'd never hurt Joanna purposefully, Alison."

Slowly, she calmed herself down and pulled out a tissue from her purse and blew her nose. "I... I left him b-b-because of the emotional.... physical... and mental abuse that he.... inflicted on me. I...I just couldn't take it anymore. I've tried so hard to put my life together. I mean to make a decent home and give... my daughters the life th-that they deserve. I've worked... so damn hard... to get where I am." As she talked, Alison's voice went up half notches until she had power behind her words, but just as quickly she came back down.

Sam listened to her, wanting to understand what was going on in her life but at the same time, he could tell that she was close to the brink. She was rising and falling so much that he wasn't sure if she was going to finish or pass out.

Alison turned to him and put her hand on his arm before she looked up into his eyes. She frowned a moment when she saw green eyes instead of the concerned blue eyes earlier this morning. "But then Joanna started acting out. Jocelyn became withdrawn and depressed. My professional life was on the rise, but at home... it was literally falling apart. No matter what I did, things just kept getting worse." She scanned his face and noticed that the jet-black hair had faded to a sandy brown and a white streak beside his left temple.

"After almost two years of listening to Joanna say, 'Living with Dad would be tons better than living with you!' I finally gave in and sent them to be with their father for the summer to prove to them that their life with me was better than being with their father." She frowned as she scanned his face yet again. Dr. Marsters had come back - black hair and blue eyes. 'What is going on?' she thought to herself.

Sam nodded at her words. "That's understandable. Let them see what it's like and then let them decide, right?"

Alison nodded and glanced away from him, but as she did so, she saw a bright flashy sparkle out of the corner of her eye and blinked rapidly.  What was that? Why was it always there? "Right. But, then Dale decided to be an idiot and didn't allow the girls to come back home. He kept giving them excuses why they shouldn't. I missed them terribly and knew that they had learned the lesson, and now..." she glanced back up at the hospital. "Now. I'm going to lose one and maybe the other forever."

Fresh tears began to fall. She looked back at Dr. Marsters, and the visage of him flipped back to the sandy brown hair and green eyes. "Ohhh no!" she moaned softly as she looked around her and saw the flash again beside her. This time the flash took form and she jumped on the bench. "Oh God, please no! Don't... don't take my daughter. You.... you can't... Please."

"What's she talking about?" Al asked as he looked at Sam then back at the woman like she had lost her mind.

Sam shook his head not certain what she was doing. "Alison?"

"You can't do this. I... I know that I'm going to hell for being the horrible mother that I am, but please," she quickly stood up and knelt down right before Al, and grasped her hands together. "Please. Take me...Take me instead of her. Please... I know... I knew that angels were watching over my daughter. I just didn't know how close she was to... to... oh God, please. Just take me. I'll do anything... Just please don't take her!" 

Al looked down at the woman kneeling before him, dumbfounded. He blinked at her in shock. This woman loved her children more than life itself.  She was willing to trade in her soul for her kids. He felt so ashamed.

Sam moved to Alison and placed his hands on her shoulders to try and calm her down. "Alison. It's okay. Calm down. Nothing is going to happen to Joanna."

"NO! PLEASE! PLEASE DON'T TAKE HER!" She lunged toward the white light that was before her and suddenly she went totally rigid and fell forward.

"Whoa!" Sam quickly caught her before her head hit the ground. Even as she began to seize in his arms, he looked up at Al. "Al! Look into her history. See what's wrong with her." Sam quickly and gently laid her down on the ground where she was safe from falling.

As soon as Sam began talking, he began asking Ziggy questions about Alison McInnis. A slue of information came at him as soon as Ziggy accessed it.  He glanced down at Sam at her side as he dumped out her purse in search of medication. "Ziggy says that she is being treated for a rare neurological condition known as: ADE. That's..."

Sam read the label of the medication and immediately recognized the corticosteroid medication. He quickly took out a pill and popped it into her mouth then coaxed it down her throat. "That's Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis. At least now, I know what's going on now." 

Al frowned. "What do you mean, Sam?"

Sam sighed with relief as Alison's body slowly began to calm down. "I mean, I know now why Joanna hemorrhaged. With ADE, anything could happen. ADE inflames the brain and spinal cord caused by the myelin sheath in the brain. Usually there's an infection that triggers it or can just come to be on it's own. Joanna had many of the symptoms of ADE, Al: Headache, lethargy, coma, and seizures. Hell, other symptoms include monoparesis or hemiplegia."

"Huh?" Al asked a bit confused.

"Paralysis of a single limb or on one side of the body."

"Oh. Is she going to be okay?" Al asked cautiously as he looked down at Alison for the first time with concern.

Even as Alison's eyes blinked open, Sam replied, "Yeah. She'll be just fine." He stayed with her for a few minutes longer and made sure that she was up on her feet. Together all three of them walked into the hospital after Sam got a promise that she would let him check her out thoroughly before she went back to see Joanna.

PART SEVEN

May 1, 1995
5:30 AM
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Sam paced across his office, his mind working furiously. They were running out of time! Joanna would probably be brain dead in the next twenty-three hours if he didn't something quick. He stopped pacing and moved to his desk and began to grab at books.

Although he had figured out what was wrong with Alison, the same treatment wouldn't help Joanna any if they didn't get the blood out of her brain. He grabbed one of the books on top and flipped frantically through the pile of books and journals on his desk, uncertain of what he was looking for. He was just getting to
the bottom of the pile when he heard the Imaging Chamber open.

"Are you going to help me this time?" he asked a little cranky as he looked through another book.

There was a pause and then Al finally replied, "Yeah."

"Good. Now, help me find a way to save her!" Sam pitched a book over his shoulder as panic started to well up inside of him. He grabbed another book and quickly opened it but there wasn't anything in that one either, so he hurled it in front of him where Al stood.

"Relax kid, you're not going to find the answer that way," Al joked weakly as the book tossed his way went through him and landed on the floor with a thud.

Sam sighed and slumped. "I know the answer is in here somewhere!" He sank tiredly into his chair and closed his eyes then rubbed his face hard. "There's got to be some what to stop the blood clotting and to help drain it away." He heard the handlink whistle and the unmistakable sound of Al trying to coax the message from Ziggy. When the pounding on the handlink stopped, Sam asked, "What's she got to say?"

Al frowned at the message. "Ziggy, I think you've lost your last marbles. This doesn't make any sense." The handlink squawked in his hand again. "Okay. Okay. I'll tell him."

"Well?" Sam asked wearily.

"RTPA."

Sam froze for a moment. "What?" Sam pulled his hands down and opened his eyes as he turned to Al. "What did you say?"

Al gave a lopsided grin. "Not me, Ziggy. She says that you've gotta find RTPA, whatever the heck that is."

Sam blinked as his Swiss-cheesed mind reluctantly let open a hidden door to him and the information came flooding in. A slow smile crept across Sam's face. "Of course," he said softly. "Tell Ziggy that if she had lips, I'd kiss her!" he began to paw through the books once more again, a goal now set in his mind. He heard the handlink whistle again and Al chuckled softly. "What'd she say?"

"You don't' wanna know!"

Sam sighed in relief. There was a light at the end of the tunnel at last.

8:00 AM

"Experimental drug?" Dale said suspiciously. "What drug?"

Sam handed him the photocopies he held in his hands. "It's called RTPA - Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator. It's still in the experimental phases but they've been having some great results in stroke victims," he explained as Dale began to read the packet. "Basically, what it will do is break up the clotted blood on Joanna's brain and allow it to drain."

Allison looked at him incredulously. "Are you sure that it will work?"

"I don't know," Sam admitted reluctantly. "It only has maybe a fifteen to twenty percent chance of working. But if we do nothing, Joanna will most certainly die."

"Then do it!" Alison said.

Sam gave a brief nod to Alison and started toward the door.

"Wait a minute," Dale spoke up.

Sam turned back around to look at Dale. "Yes?"

"Uh oh. This doesn't look good," Al said from where he stood beside Sam.

"I don't want my daughter to be some sort of lab experiment. No," he said with a shake of his head. "It's not going to happen. Forget it."

"What?" Al and Alison said together both totally in awe at the man's words standing in the room with them.

"I said no," Dale responded plainly. "Forget it."

Sam blinked for a moment but somewhere deep inside of him a spark ignited. Where it came from, he wasn't quite sure, but he knew that he was about to get into it with Dale Collins. "You're telling me that there might be a chance to save your daughter and you don't want to even try? You'd rather her die instead of trying?" Sam walked up to the man and locked his gaze with Dale. "What kind of father are you?"

"I love my daughter..." Dale began.

Sam grabbed the man by the shirt and pushed him up against the wall. "Listen, I didn't come here to argue with you. I came here to save your daughter and I will do that by any means possible. Do you understand that? If you stand in my way of saving her life, I'm sure that Alison will have a dandy case of child endangerment on her hands that she'd love to file on." Sam watched as Dale turned to look at Alison. He did the same only to see Alison cross her hands over her chest.

"I have custody. They may be visiting you for the summer, but I have custody. You try and I'll gladly do it." The look on her face was one of 'just try me, buddy.'

May 1, 1995
9:30 PM

It took a ton of paperwork, talking with the higher ups at the hospital and a check from Marsters personal checking account to get the medication airlifted to the hospital. Thanks to Al, Marsters had approved of them dipping into his account to get the medicine to save the little girl. If it worked, he would make sure that the hospital kept the medicine stocked permanently.

Sam stood in Joanna's room looking down at his patient for a moment before he looked down at the syringe lying in his hand. He licked his lips and swallowed before he looked up at the ceiling above him. "Please, God, let this work. She's too young to die." He took a deep breath once more and then carefully inserted the first dose of RTPA into one of the tubes going into her skull. All that he could do now was wait. As the nurse came into the room, Sam turned to her and told her. "I don't care what happens, I want her to receive that second dose of RTPA exactly at 2:30 this morning. If it doesn't, it's going to be your job."

He sat down in the chair beside the bed and reached over and placed Joanna's hand into his and rubbed her hand softly. "Fight Joanna, fight.  We're all routing for you."

He propped his arm on the bed and laid his head down on his arm. He closed his eyes and quietly began to pray for her survival. Before he could even finish his prayer, sleep won out.

May 2, 1995
3:30 AM

Sam moaned lightly and opened his eyes with a yawn. He raised his head off the bed and yawned. Looking down at his watch, his eyes popped open and he was immediately awake. He stood up as the nurse came into the room to check on him. "I thought I told you 2:30, not 3:30," Sam hissed at the nurse.

The nurse gaped at him. "I did give her the dose at 2:30, sir. You were asleep."

Sam opened his mouth as he raised a finger to her but a gravelly voice behind him stopped him from castigating the woman further.

"You were, Sam. I've been here since 2:00. She did give the dose. I saw her."

Sam slowly dropped his finger and said, "Oh. I apologize Ms. Hendson. I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just very worried about her." Sam turned his attention to the little girl on the bed and sadly smiled down at her. 

A movement caught his attention and he asked the nurse to turn on the overhead light. As she did so, Joanna's eyes tensed and her head slowly turned to the side. Sam felt a surge of hope and he moved to the head of the bed. He looked down at the drainage bag then turned to the nurse.

"When was this changed?"

The nurse opened the file that she had in her hands. "It's been changed every 30 minutes for the last four hours, sir. Looks like that medication did what it was supposed to do."

Sam turned his attention back to the little girl on the bed and couldn't help but grin at her. He held up his finger to the nurse to stop her from saying anything else. "Joanna? Joanna, honey, can you open your eyes?"

Sam watched as Joanna turned her head slightly once more and he could see her eyes rolling under her eyelids. "Come on, honey. Open your beautiful eyes."

She moaned and slowly her eyes peeked out from under her eyelids. She blinked as she barely opened them to squint out. Sam felt tears welling up in his eyes as she continued to make her eyes work on her own power.  He motioned to the nurse and without taking his eyes off of her, he said, "Call Alison and Dale in here."

The nurse hustled out of the room with a happy smile on her face. It only took a moment and Alison and Dale magically appeared at the door, both of them sleepy but hopeful as they looked to the bed. Alison's eyes immediately filled with tears as she heard a moan emit from her daughter. Her chin quivered and a soft bubble of a laugh touched her lips as a tear cascaded down her cheek.

"Joanna?" she called out to her daughter as she came to the side of the bed.

"Mom...my?"

The word was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard in her life and she grabbed her daughter's hand and kissed it lightly. "I'm here, honey. And I'm never leaving you again." Alison turned her head to look at Sam. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

Sam nodded with a smile and reached across to give Dale a firm handshake.  He slowly walked out of the room to give the family a chance to talk to their daughter in private. "So, how is she Al? Is she okay?"

Al looked down at the handlink. "She survives and after a lot of rehab, she leads a pretty good normal life. Joanna and her sister go back home with their mother and they live in Manhattan. So, get ready to leap buddy."

Sam didn't feel the normal sensation that always concluded his leaps. He shook his head. "I don't think that everything is done here, Al." He walked back down to his office and sat down, thinking of what was left for him to do. It took him a few minutes to realize what needed to be done. "Al?"

"Yeah, Sam?"

"I know why I haven't leaped yet."

"You do?" he asked confused. "Then why haven't you done it?"

"It's not mine to do," Sam said plainly.

"What? What is it? What do you mean?"

"I think that it's what you haven't done, Al. Do you remember when Alison thought that she was seeing angels? The ADE affects the brain in different ways and if I'm not mistaken, she could see us in some way. And if she could see us, then she could hear us. She heard what you said. I think that," he paused and pointed up toward the heavens. "I think that the big guy is giving you a chance to say that you're sorry."

"No. no, Sam. I can't do that."

"Yes, Al. You can. And you should." Sam gave him the puppy dog look and Al rolled his eyes and looked away. When he looked back, Sam still had the same look on his face.

"Oh all right. I'll go."

"Good boy," Sam said softly and chuckled as Al rolled his eyes once again and popped out of sight.

Al popped into Joanna's room to find Alison sitting quietly beside Joanna's bed, holding her hand as she slept. Al walked up to the other side of the bed and opened his mouth then closed it. He took a deep breath and tried again, but again, he didn't know exactly what to say or how to say it.

"I'm sorry for what I said," he finally blurted. "I'm such an idiot. This is. . ."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," he heard Alison say softly.

Al froze and blinked at her. "What?"

Alison chuckled softly and looked toward the bright form of light that seemed to hover beside the bed. "You're being too hard on yourself," she said simply, her green eyes full of sadness and compassion that he could hardly bare to look into them. "You were hurting, probably as much as I was." She gave him a crooked smile. "I forgive you."

"You can...!" Al whispered incredulously.

She nodded slowly. "I've been able to on and off ever since the other day. I don't know who or what you are, Al, but thank you." She looked away from him and looked to her daughter. "I just hope..."

"She's going to be okay."

Alison sighed softly and looked over at him again. "I know she is, thanks to you... to whoever brought you here. I just hope..." she began to say something then stopped.

Al knew that he should leave, but she hadn't finished her sentence and he wanted to know what she hoped. "Hope what?" he asked tentatively.

"I... er... I just hope that one day that you can forgive her," she finished softly.

Al blanched and stood there with his mouth slightly open. It felt as if someone had hit him right in the center of his being. He opened his mouth to say that there was no way that he could ever forgive his mother, but suddenly he found himself standing alone looking at the cool blue walls of the Imaging Chamber. He opened his mouth again and finally managed to say, "Thanks."

EPILOGUE

Wheee-oooo. Sam grabbed tightly onto another life and began yet another leap. This place was cold, the wind blowing gently. People were hustling and bustling all around him passing to and fro in a hurried but somewhat enchanted state. Colored lights hung from the storefronts along the commercial thoroughfare and reflected in the snow that had been pushed up against the large plate glass windows displaying their wares in bright holiday colors of reds and greens. A loud speaker crackled with a poor reproduction of a classic song.

"..let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas Day. To save as all from Satan's power when we have gone astray. Oh tidings of comfort and joy.."

Sam spun around looking directly at the loud speaker and grinned. 'It's Christmastime! No wonder everyone looks so happy,' he thought.

"Merry Christmas!” Sam cried out loud.

"Merry Christmas!” Three separate strangers called back. With Christmas in the air and now in Sam's heart he walked down the slushy sidewalk with an extra skip in his step. Keeping pace with him reflected in the storefront windows was the image of a thirtyish man in a long overcoat and hat wearing Sam’s big smile. The face was friendly though it was creased with many worn lines. Passing the last store on the block Sam unexpectedly was pulled into an alley and dragged into the dark shadows. When he was released, Sam jumped back and braced himself in a defensive position though the stranger did not make any further aggressive moves. Sam squinted at this unknown assailant and waited.

"Hold it! Hold it, Jonesy. It's me, Malone. Take it easy," the tall man with the shifty eyes said smiling a little wickedly. “Easy, fella.” Approximately Sam’s age, he was dressed similarly in a nondescript manner.

"All right. What do you want?” said Sam squinting and watching him carefully.

"We were supposed to meet here twenty minutes ago. Remember? Did you get it all passed?" he asked quickly.

"Passed?” asked Sam definitely not understanding the tall stranger named Malone.

"The dope? Did you pass all the D's? How much moolah did you get?” he asked reaching into Sam’s pocket pulling out a large roll of fresh twenty-dollar bills.

Sam's eyes opened wide at the sight of the large cache of cash and connected the smell of fresh ink with one thought, 'I'm a counterfeiter?' and then ever so softly he responded, "Oh, b-oy!"