“What are you going to do now?” Rembrandt asked his captor.
Maggie’s face was betraying her desperation. Rembrandt felt some pity for the lady, but it was far overshadowed by her increasingly unhinged actions.
The timer was on the dashboard; Maggie had confiscated it as Quinn had entered the car. If only he wasn’t cuffed, he could reach it. So tantalisingly close.
“You’re taking me with you, or I’m going alone,” she stated matter-of-factly. “I don’t care which, but I’m leaving.”
“Is it really that bad here, Maggie?” Sam said, looking at her with the level of pity that Rembrandt couldn’t muster. “So bad that you’d do all this just to escape?”
Maggie drove on in silence for a moment.
“Yeah. It’s that bad.” She glanced at her uncle in the rear-view mirror, and Rembrandt saw her wince as she saw the reflection that suggested she was looking at her double. “Did you know Dad hasn’t spoken to me since I was twenty-four?”
“I… no, I didn’t know that.”
“Never forgave me for refusing to enlist,” she continued. “And then every day since, my life has just proved him right. I should have joined the air force, ended up an adventurer like these guys’s Maggie. Instead I got stuck with an abusive husband and a job I hate.”
She wiped sweat off her forehead.
“Then my uncle, the famous super-genius quantum physicist, disappears, and then reappears the very week I’m planning to run away, along with a bunch of people who have the perfect method to get me out of here. What was I supposed to think? I took it as a sign.”
“But then we were assigned to watch you day and night and make sure you stayed put,” Rembrandt interjected. Maggie’s eyes darted to him, before returning to the road.
“Yeah.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” Sam said. “I should have just asked you what you wanted instead of assuming I was here to keep you living this life.”
Rembrandt glanced at the timer. Fifteen minutes.
“You know Billy’s going to be blamed for your disappearance, right?” Quinn said, impatient.
“Good.”
“Maggie, you know that isn’t right,” Sam said, his voice wavering. “He may be a lot of terrible things, but he’s not a murderer. Let him take the rap for the things he actually did.”
“And who’s going to be around to testify against him?”
Sam went quiet.
Rembrandt shifted in his seat to face Maggie better.
“Did you know that our Maggie doesn’t have a Dad, or an uncle, or even her own Earth anymore? Her whole life was destroyed. Husband murdered. Nearly everyone she ever knew, irradiated to death by a pulsar.”
Maggie didn’t respond, but seemed to be paling.
“She has a tough outer skin, but underneath she’s vulnerable and it affects her way more than she lets on. But she wouldn’t let the wrong person take the fall.”
“Are you sure?” Maggie asked, eyebrow raised.
“Don’t get me wrong, she holds a grudge like nobody’s business. She’s reached the limits of her empathy on more than one occasion. So she fell back on us to help with that. And since she’s been dependin’ on us, she’s really unlocked a part of herself that she had closed off before.”
Maggie scowled. “Well, lucky her, having friends who care about her.”
“Is that all you need?” Sam asked. “Because I care about you, Maggie. So much.”
Maggie was blinking back tears now. “Then why did you leave?”
Sam gazed at her for a minute, before finally looking down at his feet.
“Maggie, before I started leaping, you didn’t exist.”
This made Maggie, and everyone else, silent. Remy could only guess what that actually meant, but it seemed Maggie understood.
Several minutes passed, and Maggie finally pulled into her driveway.
“You… remember me not… existing?” she finally said.
“Not really,” admitted Sam, “I just remember saving your Dad’s life. And knowing that he wouldn’t have survived if I hadn’t been there.”
“And while I was growing up, and you came to visit… do you remember that?”
“A lot of it’s come back to me since I’ve been here. Remember I used to sing to you, when you were a kid?”
Maggie nodded. “Que será, será, right?”
Sam smiled. “That’s it.”
Maggie smiled bitterly. “Humph. Whatever will be, will be.”
She picked up the timer. One minute was remaining until the slide window.
“Let’s test that theory.”
Rembrandt looked to the back seat, glancing between Quinn and Colin.
Sam became frantic. “I haven’t leaped yet. Al…”
Rembrandt watched him make eye contact with the invisible guy in the future. He was getting more and more terrified.
He looked to the faces of his fellow prisoners.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. His eyes were welling up.
For that matter, so were Rembrandt’s.
“Tell Maggie I’m gonna come back, okay? We’re going to find her again.” Sam said to the hologram.
Maggie pointed the timer ahead, and activated the wormhole, which opened just beyond the hood of the car. Then she slammed her foot on the accelerator.
The last thing any of them saw as they entered was a blinding flash of blue light.
* * *
The car landed smoothly on a paved urban street, and Maggie slammed the brakes.
“What… what did I do?” she said, hardly able to understand what just happened. She was so sure just a moment ago that this was what she wanted, but now… something was making her heart pound and her stomach do back flips, and it wasn’t the bumpy ride.
She peered into the rear view mirror, and at her uncle in the back seat. Then, with a feeling of faintness, she realised that instead of seeing her double in the mirror, she was seeing Sam’s own reflection.
She turned, and saw that Quinn and Colin were both staring at Sam, mouths open.
“Uncle Sam… I don’t think you’re me any more.”
Sam leaned forward, positioning himself to see his own reflection in the mirror. With a shallow breath, he murmured: “Oh boy…”
Maggie spun back around and pressed her hand to the handprint panel. Her heart would not stop racing.
“Higgins, open all doors… and handcuffs.”
With a chime, the doors sprung open, and Rembrandt found himself free of the cuffs that restricted his hands. Maggie didn’t know why she’d just done this. She supposed she was… free now, right? There was no further need for her friends.
Friends?
As everyone got out of the car, Maggie remained, just staring forward, white-knuckling the steering wheel.
Rembrandt leaned into the car before he left, and snatched the timer from her lap. She didn’t even try to retain control of it. Somehow, she felt relieved that he had it now.
“I think we’re in San Fran, so if you need our help, we’ll be at the Dominion Hotel. If not… have a nice life, I guess.”
His voice was cold. Colder than it had been when he’d been holding out hope of his Maggie returning.
But…
Sam had appeared by her side, just by the door.
“Maggie…”
She looked up at him, terrified.
“I feel… weird…”
She turned and watched Quinn, Rembrandt, and Colin walking away. A panic gripped her, watching them go.
Don’t leave me behind…
She jumped out of the car, and ran full pelt towards them, leaving Sam to run after her.
“Wait!”
The sliders turned to see her pursuit, and looked at her, each one of them regarding her with a level of contempt.
“Please… let me come with you…”
Why was she grovelling at their feet? She was free, wasn’t she? And yet…
Quinn exchanged glances with the other two, then crossed his arms. “Why should we help you after all you’ve done?”
For some reason, this hit her even harder than Remy’s harsh words, and the feeling of absolute heartache surprised her. But what came out of her mouth next surprised her even more.
“Because I don’t want to be left behind like Wade…”
Who?
She stopped and looked, bewildered, at the sidewalk beneath her.
“I… don’t know why I said that…”
She glanced back up at Quinn, who was glaring at her with an apprehensive furrowed brow. Her gaze drifted to Rembrandt and Colin, who were both just as astonished.
She sensed Sam approaching from behind. She stepped back into him and leaned on him, her legs feeling weak.
“Are you okay?” asked Sam. She shook her head.
“My head hurts and my heart is beating a mile a minute…”
Quinn’s frosty demeanour melted away, and he pulled her arm over his shoulder.
“Come on…”
He helped her to a seat at a nearby bus stop. She collapsed into it, feeling her head swimming.
“What’s happening to me?”
Quinn looked her up and down, studying, then grabbed the wand of the device he still had strapped to his body.
“I have a theory… and I hope I’m wrong.”
He switched on the detector, and moved the wand towards her. The clicking was like a jackhammer, and Maggie felt the urge to jump away from it.
“Well that’s discouraging…” Quinn said under his breath, and made eye contact with Sam, who was equally alarmed.
“What? What is it?” Maggie demanded.
Quinn, a deep sadness in his eyes, sat down beside her and held her hand.
“The only way you could have known about Wade is if… some part of you is the Maggie we know.”
“She… may be occupying the same body as you,” Sam added, with an expression that matched Quinn’s in pity.
“Oh…” was all Maggie could say.