PROLOGUE
The
blue white lightning of the leap engulfed Dr. Sam Beckett as he felt himself
being whisked away to the mesmerizing blue void, which held an inner peace.
In the blue void, he was safe from harm and he felt at home.
It was there that he could remember some of the family and friends
he’d left behind when he stepped into the Quantum Accelerator.
Normally, he would get to spend time with his thoughts, but this time
– this time something was definitely amiss.
Even
as quickly as he came, he felt himself being pulled away and he felt gypped
of the memories he could have remembered.
Still the same mantra echoed around him as he began to fall into his
new host, “You will know all you need to know.”
Even
before Time and reality began, he felt out of control.
As the leap began to permeate around the host and grab onto them to
pull them away, Sam felt something slam into his right side causing
indescribable pain. He also felt his head ricochet back then tipped forward as
intense white-hot pain erupted inside his skull before it shot backward then
forward once again the pain increasing with each pass.
The leap then deposited Sam Beckett into the past leaving him in a
slumped unconscious bloodied mess in the driver’s seat of a mangled royal
blue Dodge Caravan.
A
searing stinging burning pain enveloped his body and mind.
He opened his eyes and found that he was looking down at a mattress.
Confusion immediately entered his mind as he heard a thunderous
explosion near his ear and felt more pain as if someone had inserted a nail
into his head. Fearing for his
life, he tried to move but the hands that held him firmly wouldn’t budge
and seemingly held tight.
“Let
me go!” he retorted forcefully as he felt another intense spasm wracked
his body and mind. “You’re
hurting me! Let me go or
I’ll… I’ll…” he began to threaten as he tried to think about what
he might do to them if he got the chance.
He wasn’t sure he could do anything at the moment to the faceless
captor but he would do everything in his power to make the hold even more
difficult. However, even as he
confirmed that thought in his mind, he felt a cool sensation enter into his
right arm at his inner elbow. It
almost immediately made him relax somewhat before another thunderous jolt to
his brain was induced. Sam
cried out in pain. “Aaauuuggghhh! Do that again and I’ll kick you into next Tuesday!!”
He wasn’t sure where the thought emerged, but he knew he had the
skills. All he needed to do was
get free of their grasp.
“Listen
to me, Mrs. Conahey. If you can
get up off the ER table on your own volition after all the blood you’ve
lost then by all means, you can do whatever you want to me,” a male voice
replied somewhat close to his ear.
Sam
swallowed and blinked at the information given to him.
‘ER Table?’ he questioned himself.
‘What’s going on?
Why am I here? Al? Where are
you? Oh God… what’s
happening?’
Another piercing thud came
and again he cringed and cried out in pain, this time not as loud or
forcefully as thankfully whatever was given to him for pain knocked him out.
PART
ONE
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Project
Quantum Leap
April
23, 2004
|
Stephen
Beckett, the brown-haired, blue-eyed prodigy looked down at the circuitry he
had taken apart from Zeus – a smaller portable version of the master
hybrid computer, Ziggy, and frowned. He wasn’t pleased. Everything
he had read about how the holographic chamber was set up, didn’t really
apply to Zeus, but Zeus had some form of holographic circuitry.
It had to for it to show the leaps, current and past in the air above
the contraption itself.
He
sighed, slapped his hands to his face, and rubbed hard hoping for some
divine intervention to show him the way toward his favored outcome – to
make some form of a holographic friend. Being an eight year old in a complex where he secretly longed
for companionship, he knew he could do it - if he could just figure out how
Zeus’ matrix worked. ‘If only… if only Dad was around to help me,’ he thought with some
sadness. He rubbed his face a bit harder |
|
then heaved a sigh. “I
should be able to figure this out,” he mumbled behind his hands then
dropped them to his side letting them swing slightly.
His eyes peered into the mass of wires as he stepped back away from
the table he had been working on. He
knew when he needed a break and he most definitely needed one.
He
moved back to the beanbag he had in the corner of his small workspace and
plopped back onto it. Once he
wiggled into a comfortable position, he crossed his arms and frowned more
than a bit upset with himself. He
shrugged and screwed up his mouth then opened it to talk to Ziggy.
Before
he could even say a word, loud claxons rang out through the complex.
Stephen frowned. The
bells weren’t the normal cling-clang that indicated that Dr. Beckett had
leaped. They were more urgent.
“Dad…” he whispered softly then hurriedly wrestled himself out
of the beanbag and started toward his passageway back to the main corridor.
Stephen crawled through the airway quickly then peered through the slits in
the air vent and watched in awe as he saw Beth Calavicci and her emergency
medical team run through the corridor toward the Waiting Room.
‘Oh no,’ he thought.
“Ziggy?”
“Yes,
Stephen?” Ziggy’s voice seemed to emanate around Stephen even in the air
vent leading to his secret escape from reality.
“What’s
going on?” he whispered almost afraid to know the answer before she even
spoke it.
Ziggy
was quiet for a moment as if searching for the words to say to Stephen
without giving away too much detail. “The person that Dr. Beckett leaped into is in need of
emergency medical services, Stephen.”
Although Ziggy knew not to give Stephen too much information, she
kept to the basics and softened her voice somewhat.
“Don’t worry, Stephen, the medical team will do all they can.”
Stephen
sank to the floor of the air vent and laid his head down on his arms.
“I hope you’re right, Ziggy.”
“Let’s
go!” Beth Calavicci
said as she heard the claxons sounding and grabbed her medical bag.
She knew that Ziggy only used the claxons when something was terribly
wrong. Rounding up
the other medical supplies, she began on her trek to help out the soul
that Sam had leaped into. She
wasn’t sure if there was anything she could do or not, but she wasn’t
going to take the chance.
As they turned toward the
Waiting Room, Beth turned her head up toward the ceiling.
“Update me, Ziggy.”
“As
soon as the leapee showed up, she fell to the floor unconscious and
approximately four point five cups of blood has gathered under the
visitor’s body and it’s growing. Admiral
Calavicci is trying to stop the bleeding.”
Hearing
Ziggy’s words, adrenaline coursed through Beth’s body and her steps
quickened. “Let’s go
people!”
They
raced to the door finding the Waiting Room open.
Entering, Beth saw her husband pale and concerned as he knelt beside
the visitor, using one of his favorite purple suede jackets to stop the
bleeding that was obviously coming from the leapee's head.
“God,
Sam, you’ve got to be ok,” Al murmured softly as he peered down into his
best friend’s aura and yet saw another soul inside. Knowing that he
couldn’t do anything about the gaping hole under the woman's lip that was
beginning to purple and bruise, Al’s mind went into a different gear.
“I… I’ve gotta do something.”
Beth
skidded to a stop at her patient’s side.
As the other medics gathered around in similar positions around Sam,
some of them tearing at the fermi suit so that they could assess the
situation, Beth put the earpieces of her stethoscope in her ears and placed
the diaphragm over the heart of the young woman surrounded by Sam's aura.
Hearing a faint heartbeat, which was beginning to slow down as time seemed
to speed by, Beth turned to her husband and told him frankly, “Let Ian
take your place.”
Beth
motioned to Ian, who forcefully moved in beside Al then gingerly took hold
of the visitor’s head and barely nodded respectfully to the Admiral.
Al
glanced at the man who moved in, then slowly stood up.
He looked at the other people who surrounded the visitor knowing that
the person, whoever she might be, was in capable hands.
With warring emotions on his face, he stepped back from the person
now wearing his friend’s aura to give them room to work.
He
began to pace back and forth, the familiar four steps – turn - four steps.
His thoughts were completely overwhelmed with the leapee’s well
being. ‘Why had GTFW leaped Sam into the situation when the leapee was
hurt… wait a minute… if the leapee is hurt… then Sam’s…’ He
stopped in his tracks and looked back at the visitor, his eyes growing
concerned as he heard his wife yell out something that he didn’t want to
hear.
“CODE
BLUE!”
Al
took a step toward the medical team as they sprang into action doing CPR to
save the leapee’s life. He
shook his head slightly then closed his eyes.
“No…” he whispered softly.
“No…” he quickly pivoted and walked out of the Waiting Room
then went directly to the Control Room.
“Why
did Ziggy sound the claxons?” a voice asked as soon as he entered the
Control Room from another hallway. “Al… what… happened?”
Al’s
eyes fell on Sammy Jo, her curiosity eating at her before he slowly held up
his own hands to her showing her the blood on them.
“I don’t know what happened, but I’ve got to get to Sam,
now!”
“Oh
my God, Al… are you hurt?” Sammy Jo reached out to touch him but Al
flinched away from her.
“No,”
he said firmly. “I… I’m
fine. It’s... hers. I came in
the Waiting Room just like I always do to try to get some information about
the leap. He - she was on the
floor bleeding.” Al shook his
head, closing his eyes as he did so to try to get the image out of his
mind’s eye. He opened his
eyes then realized that he was using the wrong gender for the leapee.
“I used my jacket to try to stop the bleeding, but… it’s a big
gash on the back of his… her head. Doesn’t help that she has a hole
below her mouth either.”
“Oh
no…” Sammy Jo looked over toward St. John who came around Ziggy’s
mainframe.
From
down the hallway, Al heard Beth’s voice as she yelled out, “Ziggy!
Get me Dr. Jenkins! Now!”
“Acknowledged,”
Ziggy’s voice echoed back at her.
“What’s
going -- oh God… what is it? What’s
happened to Sam?” another woman’s inquiry broke through their
conversation.
“The
leapee…” Sammy Jo began as her attention span came back to look on Dr.
Donna Elesee-Beckett. “…
the leapee was hurt. A… gash
on their head and under their mouth?” Sammy Jo glanced to Al for
verification.
“Yes.
A nasty one,” Al replied then ran his tongue over his now dry lips. “It must have happened on the leap in. I don’t even know who it is.
All I know is that it’s a woman.”
“You
don’t know?!” Donna spat out angrily.
“My husband’s life is hanging in the balance and you don’t know
if he’s going to be okay or not?”
“Donna,”
Sammy Jo called out to her, but Donna was in too deep to give Sammy Jo a
thought.
“Don’t
you ‘Donna’ me, Sammy Jo. Why did this happen?”
“We
don’t know,” Al said softly. “But we’ll figure it out.”
He took a step toward the mainframe but even as he did so, Verbena
Beeks hurriedly entered the Waiting Room.
“I
heard the claxon’s up on the upper level and I hurried down as soon as I
heard them. What’s going…
who’s hurt?” she asked carefully as she saw the blood on Al’s hands.
Al
took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Once again, he told all three
ladies what he’d seen and done, but left out how he’d prayed for Sam to
be okay. He frowned as he
looked down to his hands and thought about giving the suggestion about
leaping into Sam.
“No,
Al,” Sammy Jo said plainly.
“No
what?”
“I
can tell what you’re thinking right now.
No. We don’t know
what’s going on in the leap and you could make things ten times as worse
if you leap into Sam right now.”
Al
nodded his head solemnly. Closing
his eyes, he knew that she was right. He could do something that Sam wouldn’t have done and it
would be detrimental to the leap. “Until
we hear from Beth about the medical evaluation on our leapee, there’s
nothing that we can do…” he looked up at all three ladies in turn before
he finished with, “… except pray and hope that Sam’s okay. Ziggy!”
“Yes,
Admiral Calavicci?” her voice silkily echoed around the room.
“Did
you ever have a lock on Dr. Beckett?”
“Yes,
Admiral Calavicci. It was faint
then I lost it. I’ll do my
best to relocate it once again. The epochtonusalgraphic probe will aid in the search for him,
Admiral.”
Al
raised his hand toward the ceiling. “Find
him, Ziggy. We don’t have time… I need it like two weeks ago!”
PART
TWO
Stallions
Gate, New Mexico
Project
Quantum Leap
April
23, 2004
7
PM
Admiral
Albert Calavicci kept looking at his clock on the wall, waiting for the
moment that his wife would call to tell him the status of the leapee and to
get an update from Ziggy that she’d found Dr. Beckett’s signal in Time.
As he glanced up at the clock for the umpteenth time in the last two
minutes, he got up from his office chair and began his four-step pace yet
again. He knew that he should
be working on the budget that the senate needed but he just couldn’t work
on it at the moment knowing that his buddy was in dire straights and that he
couldn’t do anything about it. He
was more than worried – he was antsy.
He knew he had to try something… but what?
He knew that the senior staff would go completely bonkers if he tried
to put on another fermi suit and leap into Sam.
He knew it as well as he knew his own name.
His
eyes flew back to the wall. He growled under his breath and shook his head before we went
to the corner of his office where he kept the coffee pot.
He poured himself a rather large cup of coffee.
What he really wanted, but knew that he couldn’t have, was three
fingers of Crown Royal. As he
took a sip of the hot liquid, he didn’t even appreciate its warmth as it
slid down his throat.
“God,
just let him be okay,” he whispered then continued pacing as he sipped at
the hot brew.
Dr.
Donna Elesee-Beckett sat in the cafeteria fingering her lip as she tried to
still her mind from working overtime on what might have happened to her
husband. Not being able to know
how he was doing, or even if he was okay was driving her almost to the point
of going into the cafeteria and pulling out the bottle of vodka she had
hidden some years ago then drinking herself into an oblivion.
She
knew that it wasn’t an answer to the problem set before her, but it sure
would help with dealing with it. She pushed her seat back from the table and stood then sat
back down. She knew that as
soon as Beth had some kind of answers for them that a staff meeting would be
called – but it was the waiting for that meeting that was the problem.
“Mom?”
the words came from the eight-year-old boy standing in the doorway of the
cafeteria caught her attention.
“Sweetie,”
she held out a hand to him as her eyes began to fill with tears.
Immediately seeing the little boy’s
concern, she sniffed back the emotions that threatened her and hugged
him close to her when he came up to her side.
“Mom,
you’re… pale… and… why are you shaking?”
Stephen knew his mother more than he cared to admit.
He could tell that something was up and that she was trying to cover
it up.
“Oh,
baby, don’t you worry. Everything’s
going to be all right,” Donna said as she touched his cheek lovingly.
Stephen
moved away from her touch and tilted his head to the side.
“Tell me what’s wrong.” When
she hesitated, he knew who it was about and he searched her face then
shuffled his stance before he questioned, “It’s dad, isn’t it?”
Donna
thought about hiding the information from her son, and then just nodded as
she bit at her lip. “We
don’t know where he is, and he’s hurt.”
Stephen’s
eyes clouded over for a moment as the information filtered through. He knew
it when he heard the claxons ringing four hours ago. ‘What
am I going to do if something happens to dad?’ he questioned himself.
His face paled as his mother stood up from her chair and hugged him
tightly against her.
“Stephen,
whatever happens, I want you to remember one thing.”
She paused as he looked up into her face and met her eyes.
“We’re going to do everything humanly possible to make sure that
your daddy is going to be okay.”
Stephen
nodded to his mother and hugged her tightly once again, letting her know
that she wasn’t alone.
Samantha
Josephine Fuller sat in her quarters knowing that Verbena, Tina, and St.
John were in the main conference room discussing what was going on with the
leap so far. She didn’t feel
like being with others especially when something personal and emotional hit
her as this did. She had always
been withdrawn when something big happened in her life and she somewhat
blamed that on Leta Aider -- walking up to the kitchen door and seeing the
woman kill herself wasn’t something that a little girl should ever have to
deal with but she had. Dealing
with major things that brought out her emotions just made her withdraw from
society as a whole and seemed to help keep her sane.
She
chewed on the end of her pencil to keep herself from chewing on her
fingernails. She was most
definitely worried. She knew
what Al wanted to do, but if he leaped in, it could be in the middle of a
surgery that could hurt him and Sam at the same time, or even something even
more fatal. She didn’t want
to risk it. The whole thing was
nerve wracking and hit on thoughts that she didn’t want to even think of
– one being that she wouldn’t be able to give her father a hug when he
got home. Not if, but when.
The
thought brought quick tears to her face that spilled over.
She wiped at them quickly and shook her head as she planted other
thoughts in her head aloud, “We are going to find him.
We are going to bring him back home.”
The
thoughts reaffirmed her and she stood up to stretch then quickly went to her
desk and sat down to pull up the retrieval plan. If she couldn’t help finding him in Time, she was at least
going to work on the process to bring him back home.
She was reading over the information when the door opened and
Commander Daniel Fulton, her fiancé, entered the room.
She glanced back over her shoulder at him then quickly got up and
went into his arms.
The
moment he had heard what was wrong, Daniel Fulton had known that Sammy Jo
would need his support and wasted no time in getting to her quarters.
Now, holding her close, he felt her body tremble, then felt her
nuzzle her face close to his neck, almost as if seeking to hide from her
fears. Gently, he placed a
reassuring kiss on her forehead, letting her know without a doubt that he
was there for her.
Al
couldn’t take it anymore. He
had been in his office pondering, waiting on news about the leapee and Sam,
trying to work on his budget, but to no avail.
He was about to walk out when the phone rang making him jump toward
it out of anxiousness. “Yeah?”
Verbena
could hear the apprehensive tones in his voice and she blinked then licked
at her lips. “Al, we need to
call a senior staff meeting.”
Hearing
Verbena’s voice on the other end of the phone, Al felt crushed.
He was hoping for a call from Beth to let him know about the
evaluation. “Did Ziggy find him or did you get news from Beth?” he
questioned a bit harshly wondering if Beth had just bypassed him.
“No,
but I think that the senior staff needs to get together to vent about the
situation. Tina, St. John and I
all feel the same way. Shall I
call the meeting?”
Al
nodded at her answer then licked at his own lips. “Yeah.
Maybe by the time that we all have a chance to vent, we’ll have an
answer.”
“Ten
minutes?” Verbena questioned.
“Make
it five,” Al said then hung up the phone.
As he started toward the door, he heard Ziggy announce the meeting
throughout the project.
By
the time that he arrived at the conference room, as well as everyone else,
an unwavering silence filled the room.
He knew why Verbena called the meeting but he wasn’t sure that he
was ready to be the first one to say anything about the situation.
He glanced at each person separately in the room as each of them
looked back at him with the same expression.
“Well…” he started off then dropped silent not quite sure what
to say.
As
if on cue, each person dropped their gaze to look at the table, but an
emotionally filled thought interrupted the silence that permeated the room.
“I don’t understand this. I honestly don’t understand.”
“What
is it, Donna?” Verbena asked more than a bit concerned for the woman.
She had been through so much since Sam started leaping that she was
concerned for her well being.
“We
all believe that a higher power is moving Sam through time…”
“I
know where you’re going with this, Donna.
I’ve been having the same thoughts and it just doesn’t make sense
why he was leaped in when a catastrophe hit this woman.
Why would God, Time, Fate, Whatever leap Sam into that moment in time
and let the same thing happen to him? Why
not sooner? Or even later? Why did he have to leap in at that time?
Why?” Al said as he felt his eyes begin to gather moisture.
Sammy
Jo reached out and put her hand on Al’s arm.
“We won’t know why until we can get a lock on Sam,” Sammy Jo
said as she nodded her head in affirmation of Al’s comment.
“Since we don’t know what year that Sam leaped, I’ve got to
assume that Sam’s in the same state.
That must be why Ziggy’s having such a hard time getting a lock on
Sam’s brainwaves.”
Donna’s
breathy gasp caught in her throat and the moisture that had been gathering
spilled out onto her cheeks. St. John got up from his seat then went to stand behind
Donna.
“That’s
a most definite possibility,” St. John said simply as he put his hands on
Donna’s shoulders and gave her a small squeeze of reassurance.
“But if he’s unconscious as well, it’s going to take even
longer to find the lock until he is conscious.”
He looked over at Al apologetically.
“It’s going to be a long search, Admiral.”
Al
glanced down at his hands on the table and although he had washed his hands
since he’d handled Sam’s head, he could still see the blood on them.
“Whatever it takes, St. John.
Whatever it takes.” Al glanced up at the ceiling once more as he
addressed Ziggy. “Zig?”
“Yes,
Admiral Calavicci?” Ziggy’s smooth timbre fell around the group in the
room.
“How
much longer will it take to find Dr. Beckett?
Do you know?”
“I
have searched the years between 1953 up to 1984.
Dr. Beckett’s brainwaves are not between those years.
I will continue the search from 1984 up until the present date as
fast as I can Admiral, but certain anomalies keep getting in the way.”
“Anomalies?”
“All
of his previous leaps are counter balancing the others.
It’s the ripple effect, Admiral.
The result of him leaping into their life touched others, which in
turn touched others. The closer
Dr. Beckett gets to the present time, the harder the search becomes.”
Al
tilted his head slightly to the side as he glanced over at St. John who
shrugged a shoulder and slightly nodded at her answer.
Al took in a deep breath then let it out slowly.
“All right, Ziggy. Don’t stop until you find him.”
PART
THREE
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Project
Quantum Leap
April
23, 2004
9
PM
Stephen
Beckett looked down at the wires on the desk before him and shook his head.
He pivoted away from the table then kicked at the comic book that lay
at his feet. They hadn’t
found his father in Time; he wasn’t getting anywhere with his own
research; and according to what he heard about the woman his father had
leaped into, she was on life support with only little hope for survival. His
hands found their way back up to his face and he fell back into his beanbag
and curled up on his side. “You can’t die, dad,” he whispered, his words muffled
in his hands. “You need to
come home… to mom… to me… to us.”
Not
wanting to cry, he flung his arms out as he turned onto his back and looked
up at the ceiling. “Why
can’t I figure this out!!” he screamed. Stephen’s right leg began to shake with energy that needed
to be expelled then suddenly it stopped as a thought came to mind.
He tilted his head to the side as his mind reviewed over the
information. “That… could
work.” His eyes scanned the
ceiling. In his mind’s eye,
he traced the wires back to their original setting, then back to where they
went, squinted, and then went through the process in his mind again.
A
soft guffaw emerged from his mouth as he realized where the wires were going
and why. “Well, duh,” he
muttered then sat up as he continued to review over his thought.
“If I moved that conduit and input into that relay…” he quickly
got up and went to the desk. “Ok… that can be done.”
Stephen’s
hands worked diligently as he connected wires.
A
chime rang throughout the building and Stephen looked up at the ceiling with
a smile. “Now, if Ziggy can
find Dad, then I can get this accomplished.”
With a giggle under his breath, he asked himself, as he remembered
something his Uncle Al had once told him.
“Well, Stephen, how do you eat an elephant? One little bite at a
time.”
“Where
is he, Ziggy?” Al asked as he closed his office door and headed back
toward the Control Room.
“He’s
in the year 2003, Admiral. May 12, 2003 to be exact.”
“Do
we know who he is?” Al asked.
“Margaret
Conahey. She’s a thirty-two
year old teacher who was in an automobile accident on her way to school.
Fortunately, her children, who were also in the accident, had minor cuts and
scratches.”
He
tsked his tongue in response. “How’d it happen?”
“According
to the police accident report, Mrs. Conahey was going around a curve when
she hit water in the road. She hydroplaned, went into a spin then her car collided with
a tree. Her automobile was
wrapped around the tree and two tow trucks had to pry her car from it.”
By
the time that Ziggy’s report was finished, Al stood in the middle of the
Control Room with a feeling of dread washing over him.
“What happened to Mrs. Conahey, Ziggy?”
Al asked.
“Mrs.
Conahey died May 15, 2003. She slipped into a coma and passed away peacefully in her
sleep,” Ziggy’s voice said very somberly.
Al
closed his eyes as he reached out to take the handlink from its stand.
Taking a deep breath, he paused then he let it out slowly.
“Did she ever wake?”
“Yes,
Admiral. She woke, even talked
to one of her students in her drugged state then on May 15th
around 10:20 in the morning, she went into a coma and died that night.”
“Ready
the Imaging Chamber, Ziggy. I need to see how Sam’s doing.”
“Acknowledged.”
May
12, 2003
Temple,
Texas
Scott
And White Hospital
11
AM
Al
stepped out of the Imaging Chamber door, his purpose set in his mind to
check on his best friend. What
his eyes found shocked him and the blood drained from his face.
The
prone figure lying in the bed of a sparsely decorated room was that of Dr.
Sam Beckett. A variety of
machines flanked the good doctor. An
electrocardiograph to his left, displayed his heartbeat showing a steady
pulse. To his right, a
respirator pumped up and down methodically as it pushed the much-needed air
into Dr. Beckett’s lungs. IV
tubing from two IV trees went to both arms – one replenishing his blood
supply the other giving medications for infections and pain.
The
sight itself made Al catch his breath and he quickly pocketed the handlink.
Moving to Sam’s side, he put his right hand up to his face and
rubbed at his cheek before moving his hand slightly over his mouth.
It was plain by the casts on Sam’s wrist and leg along with all the
defibrillator that Sam had suffered the same fate as Margaret had.
That disturbed him more than anything else.
“Oh Sam...”
He
scanned his buddy from head to toe and shook his head.
“Ziggy, how’d you find Dr. Beckett if he’s unconscious?” he
knew that it had to be possible, but how, he wasn’t sure.
“I
looked for Dr. Beckett’s neurological makeup.
I was able to obtain it earlier, but only for 15.23 seconds.
Using that data, I was able to find him again.” Her words fell
silent as she saw the Admiral nodding at her statement.
“Alright,
so is he going to wake up soon?”
“He
may, but Dr. Beckett was put on heavy medication, Admiral.
I’m not sure when he might wake.”
The
sound of the door opening behind him made Al turn his head to see who was
coming in the door. A red
headed young lady wearing jeans and a green shirt with the words ‘Burnet
Bulldogs’ on it came in the door first, her expression of utmost concern
filled her lovely face. Behind
her a gentleman walked in wearing dark slacks and a dark maroon shirt with a
company logo on it, his expression matching the young lady before him.
“Melissa,” he said as he watched her walk over to Margaret’s
right side. “The other side.
Don’t mess with her right side.” His words were spoken in a hush
and filled with love and care for the woman that Sam had leaped into.
“Okay,
Daddy,” she said softly as she changed her direction. Al watched as the little
girl lightly took hold of Sam’s left hand then leaned down and kissed it
gently. Tears then quickly
brimmed in her eyes as she looked at Sam.
“Momma?” she asked softly, sweetly, then crumbled at the side of
the bed sobbing.
“Oh
honey…” Al said softly as he watched her crumble. Before he could do
anything, her father was at her side, holding her gently and caressing her
long red hair gently.
“It’s
okay, Melissa,” her father said gently.
“Momma is going to be just fine.
See… they’re doing all they can.
Okay?” He looked
down into his daughter’s eyes and searched her face, letting her know just
by the look on his face that he was telling her the truth.
As
if on cue, the respirator across from them suddenly let out a bleep and they
turned to look down at their family member and heard a low guttural noise.
Melissa’s
eyes brightened and her face showed all of her excitement through the tears.
“Momma?” she asked again and peered into her mother’s face,
looking for any sign of her coming awake.
“Sam?”
Al asked just as curiously as Melissa did and he licked his lips in
anticipation that his friend would finally be awake.
Another
guttural moan emerged from Sam and there was a slight lifting of an eyelid
then a hand moving slightly on the soft blankets that covered the bed.
“Melissa,
go to the nurse’s station and tell them that you think that Momma might be
waking up. Okay?”
“Alright,
Daddy.” She shot out of the
room quicker than what he wanted her to, but seeing that his wife was waking
up, he didn’t blame her one bit.
“Come
on, Sam. Wake up, buddy,” Al
said as any doting parent would who was trying to get up their child for
their first day of school.
“Margaret?”
Al watched as Margaret’s husband, Matthew, stood up beside the bed,
reached out and touched his wife’s face gently.
“Margaret?”
Sam’s
eyelids flickered then immediately closed again as if an invisible hand was
holding them closed. But once
again, slowly, there was movement. Another slight moan came from Sam’s throat as his eyes
continued their flashing open then shut.
The
door behind Al opened once more, this time, the doctor and a few nurses
entering into the room. Matthew
moved out of the way quickly as they flanked the bed and began to read the
information and looking after their patient.
Al
heard them talking to Sam and he brightened as he stood back as well.
He didn’t particularly like having someone stand in his holographic
matrix, so he stepped back and put his hands in his pocket.
Hearing one of the nurse’s say, “Okay, now, you’ll have to take
a deep breath in through your nose and then as you breathe out, we’ll pull
out the tubing.” She paused
then, “Okay, Mrs. Conahey, breath in and ready?
Okay.”
Hearing
Sam cough from the force of the tubing coming out of windpipe made Al bring
his head down as relief flooded into his system.
He heard the handlink squeal in his pocket and instead of picking it
up, he left it. He didn’t
want to talk to Ziggy at the moment. All he wanted to do right now was take a look at his friend
and talk to him.
“Margaret?”
Matthew’s voice filled the room as the nurse’s parted for him.
“Oh Margaret.” In
the moment that his eyes fell onto Sam’s face, which looked up at him
warily, Matthew’s brave front seemed to fade and tears of relief came into
his eyes. He picked up Sam’s
hand and gently pressed his lips on Sam’s curled fingers.
Sam’s
eyes flitted around the room, the medication that was being pumped into his
system the cause for the room swaying and swirling before his eyes as if he
were drunk. He looked around. He glanced at the nurses who seemed to dance before him as
well as the doctor then looked over at the man standing before him and
crying. He saw someone come
into view for a brief moment, someone that he recognized, someone that he
knew wanted to talk to him but the forces on his eyelids were too much.
He succumbed to the pressure and let his eyes close.
Turning his head slightly away from Matthew, he sighed slightly then
relaxed, letting the medication take him away.
PART
FOUR
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Project
Quantum Leap
April
23, 2004
10:30
PM
Stephen
Beckett couldn’t help but grin. He
was glad that he hadn’t stayed in his bed like his mom had wanted him too.
He had it figured out. He
was sure that it would work now. All
of the conduits were in place, all the relays active, every part ready for
input. It had to work. It had to. Right?
“Come
on, baby,” Stephen said sweetly to the quadrilateral object lying on the
table. He licked his lips and
then ran his teeth along his bottom lip.
He
gingerly reached for the button then quickly pulled it back just as quickly.
He wanted it to work so badly. ‘What
if it doesn’t work? What
then?’ a voice in his own mind anxiously asked.
“It’s gotta work,” Stephen said aloud.
“What’s
got to work, Stephen?” Ziggy’s voice queried from all around him, her
voice smooth as silk.
“This
link. It’s just gotta
because…”
“Because?”
Stephen
didn’t answer for a long moment. “I…
I’m lonely.”
Ziggy
was also quiet for a moment as she watched him looking down at the handlink
that he had taken apart and put back together with a sampling of Zeus’s
holographic matrix inside of it. “Are you going to activate it?”
Stephen
bit at the inside of his cheek, took a deep breath then reached his hand out
toward the large handlink. He placed his fingertips on top of the button then closed his
eyes. Then, he pressed it.
May
12, 2003
Temple,
Texas
Scott
And White Hospital
4
PM
Al
wasn’t sure how long he’d been waiting for Sam to regain consciousness
again, but he didn’t want to leave his best friend behind with no one from
his own time around to reassure him when he opened those peepers yet again.
He had just stood up from the chair that had been brought into the
Imaging Chamber and had pulled over toward the bed to begin to pace when he
heard another guttural response from the bed.
“Sam?”
Al called his name as he went toward the bed.
Since he was a hologram, he knew that he couldn’t touch him, but
thank goodness, he had his voice. “Come
on, Sam. Wake up. We need to talk, buddy.”
Sam’s
head moved slowly on the pillow and he frowned as he started to bring his
hand up toward his head. His
hand actually made it to his head where he gingerly touched his scalp, but
his frown deepened before he ever so slightly opened his eyes.
“That’s
it, Sammy-boy. Open those eyes
so that we can talk.”
“Aaall?”
Sam’s voice drawled out hoarsely. “Is…
t-that… you?”
“Yeah,
buddy, it’s me,” Al said glad that his friend was back with him.
“I… I don’t feel…”
“I
know buddy. You leaped in just as the leapee, Margaret Conahey was in a car
accident,” Al told his friend carefully.
“You were hurt pretty bad, but you’re going to be okay, now, Sam.
Just hang in there.”
“But
how… am I… going to…” Sam began struggling with the words as they
crossed his lips.
“Going
to do what? Fix things?
You want to know why you are here?” Al asked and felt even more
assured that his friend was going to be okay when he saw Sam nod his head as
his eyes closed then reopened. Al licked at his lips.
How was he going to tell his friend that he had to just survive for
the next three days and that would be enough?
Knowing that scuttling around the issue wasn’t going to do any good
with Sam, he answered, “You just need to hang on, Sam.
That’s it. According
to history, Ziggy told me that Margaret Conahey dies in two days.”
Sam
frowned, slid his hand up his chest and put it to his head.
“Two? You said… ohhhhh… I hurt… Aal.”
“I
know, Sam. Just… hang in
there, okay?”
“I’m…
tired,” Sam said, as he gingerly rubbed at his head then flinched and
moaned when his hand hit a sensitive spot that had been stapled back in
place.
“Don’t
do that, Sam. Put your hand
down… and just relax. Sleep.
Okay? I’ve got to go
back and check on Margaret. See
how she’s doing. Just…
relax.”
Sam
slid his hand back down to the bed and did as Al said.
He took in a deep breath and did his best to relax but it was most
difficult when your head felt like a pincushion.
“How bad?”
Al
frowned. “How bad? What?”
“Hurt…”
Al
didn’t have to pick up the handlink to tell his partner.
“Your head was cracked open like an eggshell – a long slit across
the back. They stapled it back. They
also put a cast on your right wrist along with stitches from your wrist up
to your elbow. You have
bruising up and down the right side of your body. Margaret must have bitten down when it happened; there was a
hole below your lip that they fixed up pretty good, too. Your right leg was mangled up pretty bad, but it’ll be
okay. The doctors had to set
it, then realized that it wasn’t set right and had to re-break it earlier.
Probably why you are in a lot of pain, but don’t worry, Sam.
You’re going to be just fine.
Okay?”
“And…
Margaret? How’s…”
“She’s
okay, Sam. Beth is taking care
of her as we speak and you know how good she is with patients in her
care.”
Sam
nodded slightly and once more fought his eyes in closing on their own.
“Aal,” he slurred as he half-looked toward his friend.
“Go… check on… her. I’m…
not…” Sam’s eyes closed then reopened a couple of seconds later. “… going… anywhere.”
Al
grinned back at his friend and shook his head vaguely.
“Alright, Sam. I’ll
be back in a bit, okay?”
“’kay,”
Sam said then relinquished to the sleepy feeling that was overwhelming him.
Al
watched his friend as he dropped off to sleep again. There were still two
days before Margaret died in her sleep.
That was plenty of time for Sam to rest and feel a little better so
he could deal with the rest of the facts and whatever it was he had to do to
leap.
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Project
Quantum Leap
April
23, 2004
10:32
PM
Stephen
didn’t know how long he had actually stood there with his eyes squeezed
tightly shut. He didn’t want
to open his eyes for fear that he’d find that all his hard work hadn’t
paid off. He screwed his mouth
from side to side and then let one of his eyes open slightly.
With just that one peek, his eyes immediately opened and he
couldn’t help the awed grin that spread out across his face.
Stephen couldn’t believe his eyes.
|
|
Before
him was a holographic image of a young man about Stephen’s age who had
dark brown curly hair, brown eyes and wore a smile and what appeared to be a
white t-shirt, and jeans under a brown coat.
The holographic matrix was looking around the room curiously before
its eyes fell on that of the young boy.
“Where am I?” it asked Stephen curiously.
Stephen
couldn’t help his excitement as he jumped up in the air and gave out a
whoop. “It’s about time!”
he said excitedly then looked back at the image before him.
“Oh… sorry. Uh…
you’re in… my lab.” He
gave out a nervous laugh. ‘If
Uncle Al ever finds out that I grabbed one of his pictures from when he was
a kid, he’ll have my butt in a sling,’ the thought fidgeted through
his mind. He licked at his lips
and wondered how much of the encoding that the matrix remembered
and |
how
much research the small link could do as well as how quickly it could access
that information. ‘Quiz
time,’ he thought with a grin. “So, what’s your name?”
“Dante.”
Stephen
nodded his head approvingly. “How
old are you?”
Dante
replied, “Don’t you know? You created me.”
Stephen
grinned then answered back, “I know how old you are, but how do I know
that you know how old you are?”
“That
would depend on which way you’d want me to answer.
The photo says that I’m nine years old, like you and I sound like
this… or I’m five minutes old. If I’m five minutes old, then shouldn’t I be in a diaper
and crying?” he said grinning.
Stephen
responded with a grin of his own; a feeling of pride at what he had
accomplished welling up in the form of laughter that filled the small room
and spilled out into the hall.
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Project
Quantum Leap
April
24, 2004
2:15
AM
From
the moment that Al left the Imaging Chamber a little less than fifteen
minutes ago, he ambled his way back toward the Infirmary, his goal to check
up on Margaret Conahey. He was
sure that his wife would have some information for him.
If she had given a report to the rest of the senior staff, he
hadn’t been filled in yet.
Entering
the infirmary, he looked at the bed that was now filled.
In Al’s eyes, he saw both Sam’s aura and Margaret Conahey and
once more, Al felt bombarded by his friend’s health.
Moving toward the bed, his eyes warmed as Beth came from the side of
the infirmary, a concerned expression on her face.
“How
is she?” Al asked cautiously as he noticed the concern etching his
wife’s face. He knew that
look. He didn’t like it.
“Not
as well as I’d like to see, Al,” came her response.
Al
frowned at his wife’s words. “What is it?”
“With
any head trauma there are risks,” she said as she grabbed his arm and led
him back toward the outer office area.
She motioned to another nurse, who nodded and went to the bed to pull
up a chair.
Al
looked back at the person lying in the bed and motioned to the leapee.
“Risks? Don’t hide
behind it, Beth. What’s going
on?”
“She
and Sam have had severe head trauma. I’m
just concerned. Often with
automobile accidents, with head trauma, sometimes the brain swells, usually
with blood. If that occurs,
I’ll have to put a shunt in to help relief some of the pressure.
Otherwise…”
“Otherwise?”
Al prompted.
“Otherwise
the brain would swell, causing her to go into a coma then, she’d die.”
Al
ran his hand through his hair and shook his head.
“I’m
not going to let that happen, Al.”
“I
know, Beth,” Al said before he pulled her into his embrace.
He knew that she needed the hug just as much as he did.
Beth
appreciated the hug more than he knew.
But when she pushed back away from him, she searched his face
genuinely showing him just how much she cared.
“I
hope that they are watching Sam like I’m watching Margaret, here.
I’m worried. Because
of the trauma they’ve suffered, they could start building fluid or even
seeping blood into the brain. If
Sam should happen to leap out, that’s great for him.
You know how he seems to heal faster when he’s leaped… but I
don’t know how it could affect Margaret.”
She glanced back over her patient and shook her head.
“If swelling should start, Al, I’m going to put a shunt in.
I just hope that it doesn’t affect either of them in the wrong
way.” She lightly tapped him
on his arm and gave him a somewhat grim look.
“I’ll keep you updated.”
PART
FIVE
May
13, 2003
Temple,
Texas
Scott
And White Hospital
10
AM
The
chunk-zoom of the Imaging Chamber door opening was enough to make Sam moan
as he woke. He wasn’t sure if something had summoned him to wake or not,
but he knew that he had to wake. Opening
his eyes, he was more than surprised when he saw a young man with dark brown
hair, blue eyes with a well-built physique standing before him, his black
cowboy hat held respectfully in his hands before him.
As the kid’s gentle eyes found Sam’s, he smiled, showing exactly
how old he actually was.
“Mrs.
Conahey, I’m so glad you’re awake,” his tenor voice ringing out
soothingly, thankfully and so very charming.
“Cody,”
the name slipped from Sam’s mouth so gently and coolly that he knew that
it was the right one. “Thank
you for coming.” It was then
that Sam frowned and reached up with his left hand and touched his head
gingerly. “Shouldn’t…
shouldn’t you be in school?”
“Yeah,
kid… he needs to be resting.”
“I…
got permission to come and see you, Mrs. Conahey. As soon as they said that you could have visitors, I wanted
to be one of them. I’m just
glad that you’re still here. I
don’t know if we could have handled another teacher passing away;
especially one who means so much to us.”
“You’re
too sweet, Cody,” Sam said once again then felt his head starting to beat
with the thump thump of his heart along with it.
He knew that it had to be Margaret beaming through to the kid
standing at the end of the bed. “Thank
you.”
Cody
grinned, blushed a little and looked down at the hat he had in his hands.
He looked a bit awkward at what to say next, but behind the blushing,
Sam could tell that Margaret Conahey had done more than just teach this
child. She had touched his
heart. He admired her for that.
“Cody…
Cody…” Al frowned as he looked down at the handlink and began to do a
search. “Oh… Cody Jennings.
Seventeen year old who is in Special Education Reading with Mrs.
Conahey. He’s a really good
kid, but he’s kinda dependent on others,” Al revealed to his friend
lying on the bed.
Cody
fingered the black velvet hat carefully then looked up and met Sam’s eyes.
He licked his lips and smiled at her considerately.
He nodded his head at his own thought then approached Sam tentatively
on his left side. “Mrs.
Conahey, you rest up and get better. Okay?
Murl, Stutter Box and I need you back in class.
We need to finish that book before finals, remember?”
Sam
had no idea what Cody was talking about but he nodded all the same.
“I remember,” Sam said with a hint of emotion in his voice as he
could feel tears springing up from the kid’s thoughtfulness that Margaret
had felt and also from the extreme headache that he was having.
Cody
smiled at him then before he lost the nerve, he leaned down and cautiously
placed a quick peck on Sam’s cheek. “I…uh…
brought a card from the class.” Cody
revealed a card from behind his hat and placed it down at Sam’s hand.
“Come back to school soon.”
Seeing the tears that had welled up in Margaret Conahey’s eyes,
Cody tilted his head crestfallen at the thought of making her cry.
“Don’t cry. I’ll
tell the guys that you said that you’d kick our butts into next Tuesday if
we didn’t start studying for finals.
Okay?”
“Everything
on this front looks okay. So
Sam… you rest, I’ll be back. I’m
going to check on Margaret, okay?”
Sam’s
eyes closed slightly and he felt as if he couldn’t open them once again.
They were so heavy. In
an attempt to answer both at the same time, he murmured, “Okay,” as he
felt consciousness fade away.
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Project
Quantum Leap
April
25, 2004
9:00
PM
“Margaret?
How do you feel?” Beth asked the leapee as she opened her eyes and
glanced over her way sluggishly.
“Train…
hit me…” she said quietly then smiled.
“Just
about,” Beth said gently. “What do you remember from the accident?”
“Rain…
kids… green… black,” Margaret said lethargically.
Beth
nodded at her words understanding most of it except, “Green?”
“Trees
spinning around…”
Once
again, Beth nodded. “Listen,
Margaret, how does your head feel?”
“Hurts
like hell…” seeing the look that sprung up on the doctor’s face,
Margaret held up her left hand to ward off the words.
“Sorry…”
“Don’t
be. You have every right to
tell me what it feels like. I’m
the physician… you just be the good patient and get better.”
“Have…
I… have a head…ache; bad headache.”
“Okay,
Margaret. I’ll get you some
more medicine and I’ll tell your family that they’ll be able to see you
really soon, okay?” Beth
lied. She hated lying to her
patients. It didn’t seem
morally and ethically right, never mind godly to tell the patient that there
was a definite possibility that she’d die.
As
Beth went toward the cabinet to get more morphine… one more round then
that’s it, she promised herself. She didn’t want to give Margaret Conahey more problems.
She had just filled up the correct dosage on a syringe when Al showed
up once again. “So, Dr.
Calavicci, you’re back,” Beth called out to him sweetly as he walked in
from the hallway.
Margaret’s
eyes opened at the sound of the doctor in the room and smiled at the man
standing there. He was wearing
bright red pants, a black shirt and a red sports coat with a black talisman
around his neck and black leather shoes that made him look rather sharp.
Margaret was more than a bit surprised to see an unlit cigar in his
hand that he pocketed a moment after he spoke to the brunette.
“That’s
right. Ever the hero,” he
said with a quirk. “How’s
the patient?” he asked as he started toward the bed.
“She’s…”
“I’m
okay,” Margaret said softly, “… considering.
I feel…” Margaret closed her eyes and brought her hand up toward
her head then flinched at even the pressure.
“My head… hurts… bad.”
Al
looked at Beth as she returned to Margaret’s side and injected the
morphine into Margaret’s IV. “There
you go, sweetie. Just a
little.”
Even
as the morphine began to take effect on Margaret’s system, taking on the
warm, calming effect that took off the edge of the pain, Margaret looked
over to the man in red.
“Hi,
Margaret,” he said softly, the twinkle in his eyes and the way that his
lips were twitching a bit made her smile back at him.
He looked into her drug-sleepy eyes, seeing past the little wince of
pain. “I just wanted to stop
by and see how you’re doing.” Al’s
smile widened, as he watched her eyes blink slowly at him as if trying to
get his face into focus.
“Yaknow,
a...nother shot of… whatever she… gave me and… I’ll feel as … hot
as you look… doc.”
Al
hastily made his way back toward the Imaging Chamber to go see Sam.
Hearing that another woman thought that he looked hot had made his
day, but when Beth cornered him out in the hallway about Margaret’s
prognosis, his spunk slowly began to die.
Beth informed him that she’d give it another hour before she would
insert a shunt into Margaret’s brain to relieve the pressure building
there. “That’s why she’s
been complaining of a headache. It’s
not just the staples; although they can be bothersome and hurt like hell,”
Beth informed him. “But I
won’t wait any longer than that.”
“Ziggy,
fire up the Imaging Chamber. I
need to talk to Sam now.”
“Acknowledged,”
she purred back then proceeded to fire up the Imaging Chamber.
Once it was online, she gave the tones signaling so and went silent
once again.
Al
entered into the already formed scene of the ICU Unit and was more than
ready to talk to Sam about what he felt the doctors were doing for Margaret.
He wanted to know if it was enough for her to survive.
But what Al saw in the bed made his complexion lose color.
Tears
were streaming down Sam’s face as he had his hands up to the sides of his
head. He was slightly rocking
back and forth in an effort to calm himself.
“Sam?”
Al asked softly, apprehensively.
“Ohhh,
Al… this… hurts,” he said as he laid his head back on the pillow then
gasped when he felt one of the staples press against his scalp.
“Sam…
I need to ask you a few questions. I
know that you’re in pain, but… do you know if the doctors here are
thinking about putting a shunt in to relieve pressure off of the brain?”
Sam
shot Al a frightened look then closed his eyes and heard the beep that
indicated that another inoculation of pain medication was administered into
the IV. Sam thankfully glanced
up at the IV stand and looked back at Al before he shook his head.
He then succumbed to the medication and thankfully closed his eyes
and let the medication take him back into the land of milk and honey.
Al
couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
A patient in need of medical services and there was no help
available. That couldn’t be
right. Didn’t all patients
need to be taken care of? Al
angrily pocketed the handlink and shook his head.
“No,” he said softly and began to step off his four step pace.
“No. You can’t do
this to him,” Al said plainly to the thin air that was around him.
“You can’t have leaped him into this place at the worst possible
time and then just let him die. You
can’t!” Al said plainly as he stopped and looked up at the ceiling.
“After all he’s done for you... You can’t let him die! He’s the best thing to an angel that you’re ever gonna
get! Don’t you dare let him
die!”
Stallion’s
Gate, New Mexico
Project
Quantum Leap
April
25, 2004
9:00
PM
Stephen
Beckett made his way back to his hideaway and sat down with his pajamas on
as he looked down at the large handlink that he had specifically made for
his Uncle Al. He had noticed
how Uncle Al had been squinting to read the handlink and he knew that he
wasn’t getting any younger, so, something had to change.
He leaned into the desk and pulled out the handlink that he had
mastered last night and proudly punched the button to restart the program.
Dante
immediately came back online and glanced over the circuitry that was lying
on the cabinet and quirked, “Hmmm. That
for me?”
“No,
it’s not. It’s for Uncle
Al, but it is basically the same concept that you are built on.
It’s just through Ziggy’s processors.
And that’s why it’s so hard to work with.”
“Hard?
It’s got to be easy. You’re
only making it hard,” Dante answered back.
“No,
I’m not. I’ve tried for the past month to get the conduit runners
together. They don’t want to
fit and they don’t want to be bonded either. I don’t know what to do.
Nothing makes sense,” Stephen said more than a little upset.
“What
are you putting together?” Dante asked as he came around to look at the
machinery sitting there.
Stephen
gasped. “I just told you.
The conduits. They
won’t fit. They won’t bond. Dang
it… why won’t it work?” He
sighed. “Can you think of
what I can do to make them stay in place?”
“Ever
try bubblegum?” Dante asked flippantly.
Stephen
slid his eyes then turned his head to look at Dante with an awed expression
on his face.
Dante
grinned and shrugged. “You
asked.”
PART
SIX
May
13, 2003
Temple,
Texas
Scott
And White Hospital
9:45
PM
Al
had paced back and forth listlessly for the last forty-five minutes worrying
about this leap. He was more
than upset. He had less than
fifteen minutes before Beth was going to put a shunt into Margaret’s
brain… fifteen minutes and in the last forty-five minutes not a single
nurse had come in to check on Sam.
“Admiral?”
“Yeah,
Ziggy?” he said as he looked up at the ceiling.
“Unless
something is done, Dr. Beckett is going to die.”
“No
no no,” Al whispered with a shake of his head.
“Yes,
Admiral. There is swelling and
it’s only getting worse. Unless
it’s taken care of, Margaret Conahey and Dr. Beckett are going to die.
According to history, when Margaret dies her children are lost
without her and resent her for not being there for them and the students
that she teaches at school, several of them who she had been working so
diligently with go down a road less traveled.”
Al
placed his hands on his head and turned in a circle then looked back to his
pal lying on the bed. “Come
on, Sam. You gotta do
something. You gotta wake up
and let these nozzles know that you need some help.”
“There’s
a eighty-seven percent chance that if Dr. Beckett doesn’t leap within the
next eight point forty-seven minutes that Margaret Conahey will die.
The entire leap will be a loss, Admiral, and the original history
will play out. If Dr. Beckett
doesn’t leap, he will meet the same fate; however, Margaret will survive
thanks to Beth’s expertise.”
Ziggy
was quiet for a moment before she added, “Because of the lack of influence
in his life that Margaret Conahey gave him, Cody Jennings, one of her best
students ends up altering his own life for the worse.
He’s now in the State Penitentiary for murder.”
“No…”
Al took a few steps toward the middle of the room then dropped his head
trying to think of something that he could do.
He turned back to the bed and said,
“Come on, Sam. Open your eyes. Open
your eyes and do something. Do
something!”
“One
minute, Admiral.”
“Sam!”
Al called out to him and took a few steps toward the bed just in time to see
the electric blue illumination come over Sam’s body.
Al ran his hand over his face and shook his head as the electric hue
continued and then whisked his partner away.
The
blue white lightning of the leap engulfed Dr. Sam Beckett as he felt himself
being whisked away to the mesmerizing blue void, and he immediately fell
into a new host. He had just
finished taking a step then stopped and glanced around his new surroundings.
He was standing in a white hallway and a nurse passed him by.
He ran his hand through his hair before he glanced toward a door that
was to the right of him. He was
more than surprised to see Al standing in the room looking at the woman
lying in the bed. Sam immediately opened the door and stepped inside,
“Al.”
Al
turned and immediately looked relieved.
“Oh, Sam. I’m glad
that you leaped out of her,” he motioned her back to the woman lying in
the bed. “But… you got to
still help her, Sam. She still
needs your help.”
Sam
frowned. The memory of his last
leap was quickly fading away from him, what little he could remember.
He approached the woman and looked down at her.
“Fill me in, Al.”
As
Al began to tell Sam about what had happened to Margaret Conahey, Sam began
to assess her injuries. He was
so engrossed in his duties that he didn’t even realize that a nurse had
walked into the room, asking him questions.
“Dr.
Mahoney, didn’t you hear me?” the brunette asked as she finally stepped
up to him and grabbed his arm to get his attention.
Sam’s
attention finally focused on the woman beside him.
“What?”
“This
is Dr. Parker’s patient,” the woman explained once again.
“She’ll be fine.”
“No,
she won’t, Sam. She’s going
to die,” Al said plainly.
“Has
Dr. Parker looked in on her lately? Has
he actually laid a finger on her at all?”
Seeing the look on the nurse’s face, that said it all, Sam looked
back at Margaret then licked his lips.
“Alright, listen to me, I want an MRI on this patient immediately.
And if it’s not done, your job is on the line, especially if this
woman dies.”
Those
few words spoken, made the nurse move into gear.
She immediately went to the phone, picked it up and began to order
all the necessary arrangements.
Al
watched carefully then looked down at the handlink as the nurse hung up the
phone. “That’s it, Sam.
The MRI shows that there was bleeding into the brain and some
bruising by being severely jostled during the auto accident.
That was enough for Dr. Mahoney to order a shunt to be placed in
Margaret’s brain to release the fluid.
She’s alive and all because of you, partner.”
Al was quiet for a moment as the information flowed through the
handlink. “You know, Sam,
it’s amazing what one person can do.”
“How
so, Al?” Sam asked as he reached down and gently moved a clump of hair
from Margaret’s forehead.
“Margaret
went beyond the call not only in her personal life, but also in her
professional life as a teacher. She plays a pivotal role in numerous lives and encourages all
the people she touches. Do you
remember Cody, Sam?”
“Cody?”
Sam asked inquisitively as he looked up at Al.
“Yeah,
Cody. The teenager that came to
see you… Margaret when she was still in and out of consciousness?
Cody Jennings?”
“No.”
“Do
you remember her family coming by?”
“No.”
“Well,
let me tell you something, Sam. This
woman does more than just teach. She
made a promise.”
“What’d
she promise?” Sam asked as he looked down at her once more.
“Her
family was going to move to another town and she had been talking to the
kids in the car about change. She had told them that changes will come and go and nothing
ever stays the same except how you feel about yourself. That if you have a good self image that it doesn’t matter
what happens around you as long as you believe in yourself.
She then promised the kids that she’d always be there for them
then… she smacked into that tree. I can see why her own kids were resentful.
She reneged on a promise. As
for the kids at school that she teaches, she made the same promise to them.
Cody Jennings relied on her an awful lot.
She helped him have a better self-image about himself, and then she
died. It destroyed him.
But now, he decided that he liked how he felt about himself and
decided that it was important to spread that feeling around. He’s in
college now, going for his teaching certificate.”
“That’s
great, Al.”
“Well,
get ready to leap.”
Sam
smiled as he felt the familiar tingle and pull begin to ebb around him.
A
low guttural moan caught Sam’s attention and he turned to see Margaret
open her eyes then once more close them. “Get well, Margaret,” he whispered then smiled as a small
smile appeared on her face.
“Thank…
you…” she murmured softly her eyes still closed.
Sam
gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before the felt the pull of the leap
whisk him away.
EPILOGUE
Stephen couldn't wait for his father's best friend to arrive. He'd
kept this secret long enough and now he felt it was the right time to reveal
it to the one person that he knew could give approval to the result of his
long hours of toil. Time to reveal what he'd spent most of his waking hours
working on, furthering, developing and perfecting.
The
Admiral entered Sam's lab just as Stephen had finished tightening the final
screw.
"Whatcha
doin' there kiddo?" Al asked when he saw Stephen sitting at the
workbench. Stephen had his back to him and didn't turn even to answer his
question.
"Just
something I've been tinkering with for the past couple of months,"
Stephen said drearily, hoping to keep his own excitement and enthusiasm out
of his voice.
"Ha,
ha," Al laughed as he neared the young boy. "So what is it, some
new toy?"
"Nope…
I've had the idea for quite some time, over a year now," the eight
year-old said and sensing Al's closeness,
he covered his 'secret' over with both hands.
Seeing
the boy's secretiveness, Al quizzed him further, "Well, if ya don't
want me to take a look, why did you ask me to come down here?" He
stopped in his tracks, knowing full well that the boy wanted to share but at
the same time being too embarrassed to do so. 'You're
too much like your father for your own good,' Al thought to himself and
then added, "You know I'm busy. Your dad could leap again at any
minute, so, if you're not gonna show me then…" Al turned to leave,
knowing that if the kid thought he was about to leave, it might bring him
round.
"No!
Don't go!" the boy turned abruptly. "I want you to see, I really
do, but you might think it silly."
"Silly!"
Al conjectured, giving a sly glance towards Stephen. "Nothing you could
ever do would be considered silly, Stephen. What makes you think that?"
"Because
it's different," Stephen returned somberly as he slowly lifted his
hands exposing the object beneath them. "Look."
Al
stepped in closer and wasn't in the least bit surprised at what he was
seeing. "What's so different about this?" he asked. "You've
built one of these before."
Stephen
looked at Al despondently but at the same time excited to disclose its
secrets, "This one's biomolecular… and this here displays a
holographic matrix… well it will… when I've downloaded the biogenetic
code. It's not finished
yet."
Al
looked at Stephen with more than a perplexed stance.
He was totally stunned. "And what will this holographic matrix
display?"
"Ziggy,"
the boy's reply had Al even more confused. "You and dad will be able to
communicate directly with Ziggy. It'll
save time. You won't have to
translate everything to dad, he'll see and hear it at the exact time that
you do Uncle Al."
The
Admiral stood blinking. 'Definitely
his father's son, he's already confused the hell outta me. Out brained by an
eight year-old, but an exceptional eight year-old. Only one person has left
me feeling so mediocre before and that was Sam. He could baffle the hell
outta me with two words and his son has me baffled already with only one. A
holographic image of Ziggy, displayed from this handlink, is this possible?'
"But
will it work?" Al deliberated.
"Only
one way to find out," Stephen divulged.
"Now
where have I heard that before?" Al stated, more as fact than as a
question.
Stephen
giggled.
"Oh
Boy!" Al sighed.
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