Sam awakened to the feeling of suffocation. His eyes shot open to a room bathed in a brilliant orange; the late afternoon sun was pouring in the window. But that was the least of his concerns right now. Something was covering his mouth.
His eyes scanned the room, and stopped as he saw Maggie, clad in her Sheriff’s uniform. It wasn’t his reflection… it was her. She’d come back!
He wanted to say something, but something was in his mouth, between his teeth. Some kind of a cloth. But why?
He moved to lift his hands to his mouth, only to find them secured in handcuffs behind his back.
Oh boy.
“Hey, uncle,” whispered Maggie. She looked determined, but her voice was shaky and full of remorse. “I’m sorry about this, I really am. But I need you to come with me.”
He sat up, and shook his head.
“Mm-mm,” he said, and made a move to get up. But that plan was scrapped as soon as he saw Maggie holding her gun on him.
“You don’t have a choice.”
She nodded towards the window, which was fully open.
“Out there, quietly.”
Sam pleaded with his eyes.
“You want me to do to you what I did with Colin?”
Sam felt his eyes widen, and he shook his head.
“Then go.”
He stood, and moved to the window. With his hands behind his back, all he could do was slither out of there like some kind of slug. He made a banging noise as his legs hit the upper window frame.
“I said quietly,” she hissed at him. He couldn’t answer, so he just looked back at her, hoping his apology would be clear in his expression.
She followed him out of the window much more gracefully, and pulled him up by the cuff chain. He looked at her through narrow, betrayed, eyes.
“Come with me, shut up, and stick to the shadows,” she murmured into his ear.
“Mm-hmm,” he said, not knowing what else to do. If anyone saw them walking together, he was quite sure they’d be a little alarmed about Maggie holding her doppelgänger hostage. He didn’t know how anyone would explain that one.
He just wished he wasn’t gagged, so he could talk to her. He needed to know what was going through her head. What did she want with him?
If only he wasn’t still tired, he might be able to puzzle this out.
As the sun went down, Sam’s hopes of making it out of this one faded with the daylight.
* * *
Quinn stretched as he looked at the clock at his bedside. It was 10 at night. He’d slept a good long time, then. He felt much better, though waking up in the dark was off-putting for his body clock.
Besides feeling a little off-kilter from the disorganised sleep – a feeling that brought him back to his college days – he otherwise felt in good spirits, knowing what he’d accomplished yesterday. There was just this final matter of Sam.
He hobbled to the door of the guest room, and as he approached it, he heard spirited conversation.
He wandered into the living room, seeing Colin and Rembrandt talking with Sam.
“Hey, Q-ball!” Remy said, as he caught his eye, “Maggie’s back!”
“She is?” Quinn looked around the room for the second Maggie, and lowered one eyebrow in confusion when it was clear that only one was here.
“Sam leaped out,” said Colin, a big grin plastered over his face.
“R-really?!” Quinn wasn’t sure how to process this. Their Maggie had really returned? But that meant Sam was gone for good. Nonetheless, this was great!
He walked over to the couch, where Maggie sat.
“It’s really you?”
She stood up and gave him a hug. “Yeah, it really is.”
Quinn didn’t know why he still felt uneasy about this, but he broke away from the embrace and went into the kitchen to grab his new toy.
He picked up the spacetime distortion detector and flipped the switch, before returning to the living room and moving the wand over Maggie.
No clicking sound.
The unease that was snaked around his stomach slowly released. Maggie… really was back? He felt his mouth drifting open. A relieved laugh escaped him.
“Thank god,” he said, and resumed the hug he’d cut short. “What was the future like?”
“I don’t really remember anything,” she said, her eyes squinting as she tried to think.
“Oh right, Sam said something about memories being like swiss cheese…”
“Yeah,” said Maggie, “That’s exactly right. I remember something vague about my uncle, and time travel, but that’s it.”
“How long is that meant to last?” Colin asked, looking at Quinn.
“I… I didn’t think to ask,” Quinn said, wishing he’d pressed for more information. He wondered what else Maggie had forgotten.
“I’m sure it’ll come back with time,” Maggie said, brushing off the concerns. “Anyway, how long ’til we get out of here?”
“We’ve got about twelve hours now,” replied Quinn, finding himself finally able to start relaxing.
Maggie sighed, and sat back down on the couch. “Alright. I guess that’s enough time for a good sleep.”
“I don’t get it, though,” Quinn mused, “Is the other Maggie just… gone now? Where’d she go? And why?”
Maggie shrugged, nonchalant. “She probably hated this dump and desperately wanted to get out of this boring old town. It’s what I’d do.”
She brought a knee up to her chin. “She’s a big girl; it’s her choice, right?”
“If she wanted to disappear that bad, she coulda just asked.” Rembrandt said thoughtfully. “We could have taken her with us.”
Maggie looked at him wide-eyed for a moment, before adjusting her gaze into a cynical smirk. “You think you can deal with two of me?”
At this, Rembrandt laughed. “Maybe not.”
Quinn pressed his lips together, thinking about two of the same person sharing a vortex.
“Have we ever had doubles together in the vortex before? I wonder if it’s safe.”
He thought a moment. He could see potential issues arising if the vortex was destabilised or experienced an energy surge. Not predictable, given what data he had. If only Sam was still here to ask.
* * *
Sam could feel a spider crawling on his foot. It tickled, but his tense anxiety was eclipsing his urge to laugh from the sensation.
He jerked his leg, and the spider fell from him.
He was in pitch darkness, so he had no idea what other creepy crawlies might be here in this tool shed.
He could feel a stinging sensation on his shin; he’d grazed it at some point while being manhandled into the shed. He hoped that it wasn’t bleeding much, or that it wasn’t dirty, but there was no way to tell at the current light levels.
He didn’t know where Maggie had taken him - it was a part of town he hadn’t been to. It was in the backyard of a house he didn’t know. He did see the number on the house, though: 409.
He couldn’t call for help, as he was still gagged. The handcuffs were secured around a brace on the wall. His mouth was dry and he was very thirsty.
Maggie’s plan had become clear to him as he had been sitting here in the dark. She was going to take the other Maggie’s place, and she was going to leave this life behind forever. It was so obvious, now that he really thought about it. What better way to drop off the face of the Earth?
But what of Sam? There was nothing in the historical record about him being found; at least, not last he’d heard from Ziggy.
As if on cue, he heard the Imaging Chamber door’s familiar noise.
“Sam, Ziggy’s freakin’ out, and… Sam? Where are you, I can’t see a thing!”
Sam banged a hand against the tin wall.
“Mm-mmm!” he grunted.
“Sam? Oh jeez, what happened?!”
Sam could just make out Al’s silhouette in the extremely low ambient light, with the flashing handlink being the only thing standing out in the darkness. Unfortunately, being a hologram, it was not casting any light into Sam’s prison.
“Mmm mmm mm…” Sam moaned, in an irritated way. He couldn’t speak words, but he could at least put across his feelings in some small way.
“Okay, okay, no need for such filthy language, Sam,” Al joked, seemingly in an attempt to relax him. Sam rolled his eyes.
“Look, Ziggy says that guy Billy is now found to have Maggie’s blood in his back shed, which is enough to get him arrested and put on trial for her disappearance. I can’t tell you the results of that trial, ’cause it’s still ongoing in our time.”
Al stepped through the wall for a moment, and then returned.
“This is the shed, Sam!”
“Nn mm Mmm-mmm,” Sam said furiously, which was meant to be: ‘it was Maggie.’
“I dunno what you’re tryin’ to tell me. We gotta get that gag out of your mouth.”
“Mm-hm!”
“And somehow we gotta alert someone to where you are.”
“Mm-hmm!!” Sam nodded.
Go back to the house, Al. Try and get Colin’s attention.
That’s what he wanted to say, if he’d been able.
“Gnn-nnn!” That was the closest to ‘Colin’ he was going to get with this thing in his mouth.
“Sit tight, Sam. I’m gonna go look at what’s happening at Maggie’s place. Ziggy! Centre me at the house!”
He pushed a button on the handlink, and blinked away, leaving Sam back in stifling darkness.
He started pounding on the walls of the shed, hoping desperately that someone would hear.
“Mmm!” he cried at the top of his lungs. “Mm-mm-mm mm!”
Come on, someone hear me. Please.
But nobody came.