Chapter 10
Sam Beckett had been leaping for a very long time. Of course, since he couldn’t keep track of said time, he had no clue just how long it had been. But he knew he was getting old. His eyes weren’t what they used to be. He had joint pain. Leaping was getting harder all the time.
Not that it wasn’t rewarding. He relished it when he completed his goals and helped people—though without the help of Ziggy, that wasn’t easy; particularly in future eras he’d never actually lived through. But he did his best, and that was all God or Fate or Time could ask for, right?
But this leap felt like a big practical joke on him. Leaping in with a lungful of bong smoke was bad enough, but having to return to a place he never wanted to think about again, in the dark, with weird occurrences all over the place, and another leaper in the mix?
This was unbelievable. Was it all just a nightmare, like that one time with the devil goat? That would make more sense.
“My god, it is you,” came a deep voice beside him.
Sam softened his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel, and he turned to the old black man in his neat grey suit.
“Doctor Sam Beckett. We meet at last,” the man continued, absent-mindedly extending his hand to shake.
Sam looked down at it, smirking. “Not used to this hologram thing, are you?”
Magic seemed to realise what he was doing, and chuckled, removing his hand. “Not as such, no.”
“How did you come to be here, doing this, Mister Williams?”
“Admiral Williams,” Magic corrected, “but call me Magic—everyone does.”
“Since the war, right?”
“Yes. You know that well enough, I guess.” He paused, making firm eye contact with Sam. “Sam, you leave an impression on people. Haven’t you ever wondered what people think after they come back to their lives and everything’s changed?”
“Of course I have—but it’s not like I get to see that.”
Well, he thought, for the most part that was true. It was a rare treat when he would be able to cross paths with a former leapee again. It was the closest he ever got to anything familiar.
“Well, when I came back, I couldn’t get your face out of my head. And when I finally got my hands on the Quantum Leap records, well I knew I had to do whatever it took to help you, like you help everyone else.” He twisted his body to better face Sam. “Look, I understand you’re having some, uh, difficulty believing we’re here in your best interest.”
Sam let his hands drop from the steering wheel to his lap. “It’s… been a long time since I’ve seen a friendly face. And I don’t know who I can trust.”
“But you’ve been in contact with someone you do, haven’t you?” Magic asked, stroking his chin.
Sam tensed up. “That’s a secret I don’t intend to give up freely.”
“We traced that phone call to Hawaii. I know you have family there, Sam. I’ve even met your sister Katie.”
“Damn. I knew using that payphone was a mistake.” He clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, cursing his sloppiness.
“I get it, you don’t want whoever it is to be traced to you. But we can help you. We can bring you back. Reunite you with whoever you’ve been speaking to.”
Magic leaned in to Sam. “You know, Al once told me a story. He said one day, just after the last time he saw you, he blinked and suddenly he had four daughters, and he was married to Beth again. Took him by complete surprise, he said. A whole life rewritten; and he knew it must have been you. He wanted desperately to thank you, but he never got the chance.”
Okay. So he knows about that. Maybe he really was Al’s friend.
“I… I know about Al’s daughters. Janis studied astrophysics… did she help you build the new machine?”
“No,” Magic said with a trace of regret. “Beth didn’t want her father’s obsession to be passed down to her, so she asked me not to take her on. Didn’t stop her getting involved in the end, though. She’s a tenacious one.”
“So… you’re in contact with her?”
That might change things.
“Yes, she helps out from time to time. I’ve recently come to realise that leaving her out of it was a mistake, truth be told.”
“I bet she made you regret it,” Sam said with a weak smile. “She’s a firecracker.”
“You say that like you know her.”
“Well…” Sam leaned his head back, pressing his lips together. “If it’s true you’re on good terms with her, why don’t you go ask her?”
Magic’s eyebrows rose. “Guess I’m going to have to now.” He waved a hand at the steering wheel. “So will you go back and talk to Ben? The man’s a pussycat compared to Janis.”
Sam snorted. Maybe this situation wasn’t so bad after all… but he wasn’t planning on blindly trusting these people. He’d been burned before. “Alright,” he said, taking off the handbrake, “I’m going.”
* * *
“Come on, Addison,” Ben muttered, pacing by the gate of the asylum, where a single street lamp cast a pool of light on the cracked road.
“Greg, what the hell happened? Where’s the van?” Joey called out, approaching from the main entrance.
“Uhh…” Ben bit his lip, “well, Iris drove it away.”
“Bro! You’ve gotta be kidding, right? Where the hell’s she going?”
Ben shook his head, scuffing his foot in the dirt. “I don’t know, but she hasn’t got her phone…”
Joey moved a hand to his belt, and gripped his walkie-talkie. “What about this?” He drew it to his mouth, activating it. “Iris, you there? Come in!”
There was silence for a moment, before a blast of static came out of it, and Iris’s voice.
“I read you, Joey.”
“Where are you going with the van, Iris?!”
Somewhere beyond the trees in the distance, the sound of the Ghostbusters themed horn blared.
“I’m on my way back. Can you tell Greg to hop in when I pull up? We just need to talk.”
“Sure thing…” Joey put the walkie-talkie down and met Ben’s eye. “She okay, man?”
“I don’t know,” replied Ben. “But I think we need to be alone for a little while. Can you tell Alex we’ll be back in there soon?”
And finally, a set of headlights appeared over a hill crest, driving steadily back towards the asylum. The van pulled up next to Ben, who got into the passenger’s seat, which was now vacant of any hologram.
Sam moved the van into a dark corner of the asylum block, and turned off the engine.
“Doctor Song,” he said. “I guess we need to talk.”
Sam held a hand out to Ben, who took it nervously and shook.
“Ben’s just fine. Can I call you Sam, or…?”
“Yeah.”
The next moment passed in silence, as the two doctors sized one another up.
It was Ben who spoke first. “So how did you do that thing… when I grabbed your hand and you started looking like you, instead of Iris?”
“Neat trick, huh?” Sam said, smiling weakly. “I don’t know how it works. That’s just what happens when two leapers touch.”
“Huh,” said Ben. “The only other time I’ve met another leaper, I saw their real appearance the whole time.”
“Really…” Sam cocked his head. “But not me?”
Ben shook his head. “Nope. I just knew you were acting… different. Come to think of it, Iris was pretty intimate with me at first, then she turned standoffish. Guess that must have been when you showed up.”
“You really didn’t know I was here before then? Even with your hologram watching me like a hawk?” Sam’s brows were high with surprise.
Ben shook his head. “Our system’s supposed to notify us if it detects another leaper. But it didn’t. I guess whatever way your leaps work… it’s different.”
“In that case… I’m sorry I ran away from you. I thought you were out to kill me.”
“You’ve got leapers out to kill you?” Ben pursed his lips. “Well, I can relate. We had one gunning for us. Wanted to stop our project from getting off the ground, and intended to kill us all in the process.”
Sam’s pensive gaze moved to the darkness outside the windshield. “Maybe it was a mistake, inventing time travel. Seems like it always ends up in the wrong hands.”
Ben placed a gentle hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Seems to me it’s in exactly the right hands.” After a pause, he added, “I’m talking about you, not me, in case that wasn’t clear.”
Sam snorted at this. “Thanks, I guess. It just feels sometimes like those other leapers are destroying things at a faster rate than I’m fixing them. That inevitably, it’s all going to unravel, like entropy… tearing history apart. And, well, I’m… not gettin’ any younger.”
“In that case,” Ben said, smiling, “it’s a good thing we’re here! You can pass the torch.”
Sam drank this in, a series of emotions passing over his face, ending in a sad smile.
“Magic said you built this version of the project in an effort to bring me home…”
“Well…” Ben scratched his head. “I don’t really remember much about that, but I’ll take his word for it.”
“Okay,” Sam said. “So what’s your plan to do that, exactly? It’s not like it hasn’t been tried. Lots of times.”
“Well, with you, me, and my team, surely we can figure something out. We’ve found you, and that’s step one, right?”
“Years ago, I made a decision not to return home,” Sam confessed. “I’ve rarely regretted it, because of all the good things I’ve done.”
He brushed a tear from his eye. “But nothing lasts forever, does it? Maybe it is time to stop.”
He unbuckled his seatbelt. “What are you here for, Ben? What does… what does Ziggy say you’re supposed to do?”
Ben frowned. “Originally it was to stop Joey from going on those stairs you nearly fell through. That’s why I was so adamant about them. But as soon as I took care of that, Ziggy started freaking about you potentially dying.”
“And then you saved me from the stairs…” Sam finished, brow furrowed. “But you didn’t leap. And that doesn’t explain why I showed up, either.”
Sam rubbed his chin. “Well, that leaves the field wide open. But look, whatever it is you have to do—as soon as it’s over and you feel a leap coming—you need to grab onto me. That way, we’ll leap together. Okay?”
“How do you know we will?”
“I’ve done it before.”
Ben nodded. “Well, okay. It’s worth a try.”
Sam smiled mischievously. “I think we’d better get back to the shoot, huh? Married couple alone in a parked van in the dark… the others might be getting ideas.”
“Are you going to be okay in there? I know that place must be tough for you… I heard about what went on.”
Sam licked his lips, avoiding Ben’s gaze. “Just… don’t make me go in the electroshock room again. The rest of it, I can handle. Even a collapsing staircase. But that room…”
“Deal.” Ben opened his door. “Let’s go, Iris.”
“Coming, Gregory.”