Sam pumped air into the cuff on Maggie’s upper left arm, as she yawned. She had admitted to being the Maggie who’d chained him up in a shed not so long ago, and he thought owning up to it must have taken some level of courage.
But right now, that wasn’t important. He got his niece back.
He came through again, Sam thought. Al the Bartender, or whoever, had finished what the combined brain power of all those here couldn’t.
“How many more tests?” she asked with a frown. Sam took a moment to read the analog gauge attached to the cuff before answering.
“That’s it. You’re good to go,” he said, confirming that her blood pressure was in the normal range. He pulled off the cuff and stepped away from the bed, allowing her to rise to her feet.
“Thanks.” She smiled at him.
“So, you feel like yourself, right?” he asked. “Any residual memories or feelings from the other you?”
Sam knew, from unfortunate experience, that one of the potential leap effects could involve psycho-synergy, but in this special case, it had been entirely complete, with both minds not only combined, but fully synchronised. While God or Time or Fate’s influence clearly untangled the minds, Sam wasn’t sure to what extent that might be.
Maggie thought for a moment.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “I don’t think so, but I feel different. Lighter.”
Sam felt her hand gingerly grasp his.
“I want to stay here,” she said.
Sam looked into her serious, sad eyes, and he couldn’t say he didn’t think this might be a possibility. After all, she willingly chose to leave her old life for the unknown.
Sam could hardly argue against that without being a hypocrite.
“Here, as in this world, or here as in 1978?” he asked.
“Both,” she said. “I think this is where I’m supposed to be. Helping him.”
She gazed across the room, towards the bed where John was taking care of the other Maggie.
Sam looked at the young double as he listened to Slider Maggie’s heartbeat through his stethoscope, and wondered what she could mean. He re-established eye contact with Maggie, and looked at her, puzzled. She rubbed her forehead as she formed her next words.
“I think I… met my future self,” she said, hesitant. “I know I was in a coma, but it felt like more than a dream. I think I have things I need to do here. In the coming years.”
Sam wondered just what she had seen during her time unconscious; what experiences had changed her in this way. But he knew better than to deny something profound.
Sam leaned towards her, giving her a knowing smile. “Whatever experience you had, trust in that.”
She wrapped her arms around him. “Thanks, Uncle Sam.”
Sam reciprocated the hug, and they both knew it was one of the last ones they’d have together.
* * *
The sun was already beginning to rise when the group arrived back at the Dominion Hotel, with yet one more body to fit into the room. With only Rembrandt earning any cash, money was spread far too thin to get a second suite, so it was getting somewhat intimate.
Quinn had retreated to the stairwell, in an effort to have a breather, and was deep in thought when the sound of the door echoed off the concrete.
“I thought you would want to spend some time with Maggie,” Colin said, sitting on the step beside him.
“Nothing I’d like more,” he replied truthfully, “but there’s so much on my mind right now, I just needed a moment to think.”
“I understand,” Colin said as he cradled his chin over his high knees.
“I’ve got all these notes I have to write for the Professor, so that our timeline doesn’t get screwy. And I still have to figure out how to get us all back to our time.”
He sighed deeply. “And I want to make sure Maggie’s doing okay after all this.”
He turned to his brother. “But also… I know you’ve had a lot on your mind, too. Talk to me.”
Colin gave him a weak smile, and finally asked the question Quinn had been expecting from him for some time now.
“Do you think I should get our father to retrieve me as a child?”
Quinn threw his arm over his brother’s shoulder. “What I think doesn’t matter, bro.”
“But it does,” Colin said, meeting his eye. “Your opinion is more important than anyone’s. Because… maybe he could take me to grow up with you.”
Quinn felt a fluttering in his stomach. All this time, he was thinking about Colin growing up with their birth parents, but it seemed Colin was on an entirely different page.
“That would change things a lot…” he said anxiously.
“I know, and that’s what I’ve been wrestling with all this time,” he explained. “But I just want to know your opinion, Quinn.”
Quinn’s mind raced, and it took him some time to form an answer.
“With all that’s happened lately, all this talk of higher powers…” he began, feeling the butterflies in his stomach raging, “and, uh, certainly against my better judgement…”
He gave his brother a mischievous smile.
“I say go for it.”
* * *
As afternoon arrived, the gaggle of displaced travellers gathered in the lecture hall, with Professor Arturo standing at the front, as if he was about to give a lecture.
John sat, ever the student, at a half-desk, pen poised over a notepad, and a flamboyantly-dressed hologram sat casually in the front row, smoking.
How can I go back to my normal life after all this?
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Arturo’s voice boomed. “Well done on last night’s accomplishments, but there remains the matter of your time displacement. Have we any ideas?”
John grinned. He’d been thinking about this for days.
He saw Sam about to speak, and pre-empted him: “I think it may be a matter of recreating the temporal conditions of the vortex by sending an Accelerator charge through it with my double as the focal point.”
He blushed as Sam grinned at him, approving.
“We’ll need an anchor to 1999 to make sure we don’t end up in a random year of my lifetime,” Sam added.
“What kind of anchor?” Quinn asked.
After a moment of pensive silence, the little machine that Al carried – which John had learned was called a ‘handlink’ – made a chirping and whirring sound. Al studied the device for a moment, as the two Sams looked on in anticipation.
“Well, how ’bout that,” Al said, “Ziggy’s finally come through for us.”
He stood from his seat and turned to Sam. “She says that she can provide a lock-on point in 1999 using data from your last leap, and draw the wormhole to it using the retrieval algorithms. But we have to get the timing exactly right.”
John and Sam exchanged an excited look, and there was a moment of tension as they had a nonverbal argument with their eyes, deciding which of them would announce the news to everyone else.
But, John conceded, Ziggy was not his computer, and Al was not his buddy. So, he bowed to Sam, who stood and relayed the message, to everyone’s relief.
John scanned the people in the room, none of whom he’d met until so very recently. A man who was apparently a former member of a singing group that had a hit a few years back, but advanced in age. Two brothers from the future and their father, from a parallel universe. Two identical women who were genetically his own nieces, from universes where his brother was alive. A cantankerous cosmology Professor, who’d coped with this bizarre situation remarkably well, considering he’d just been approached out of the blue by time travellers.
And then, there was the other him; from another universe and near twenty-five years in the future. Someone who was everything he wanted to be, and yet… he didn’t want to get trapped in time.
I’ve got a head start, though. I know all the major calculations now. What if…
He was pulled out of his thoughts by Michael Mallory clearing his throat.
“This all sounds terrific, but I still need to return to my home. ”
“Yes, that’s been a sticky wicket,” Arturo said, “and something I’ve been mulling over.”
He looked pointedly at Quinn. “Mister Mallory, I daresay you may need to make good on my initial request after all.”
Quinn folded his arms. “Well, I am trusting you with literally every other secret. But you have to promise you’ll keep it under wraps.”
“Of course. Besides, I will not be able to operate it without the timer, which I won’t have.”
“What request?” Michael asked, looking back and forth at the two.
“If you remain behind after the time-displaced individuals leave,” Arturo told Michael, “We can construct a sliding device as per your son’s schematics, which should allow you to return home.”
Michael nodded. “More delays… but, that’s acceptable.”
John shot to his feet. “Let me help!”
For so long, he’d been floating along, learning all there was to know about different topics, collecting degree after degree, but never quite knowing where he would wash up. But now, it felt like he was exactly where he needed to be.
Arturo’s eyes lit up, and he clasped his hands together excitedly.
“My boy, if your older version is any indication, you shall be a welcome addition to the team.”