September, 2000
Santa Fe, NM

  The phone rang, disrupting the growing tension in the car. Sam stopped his
narration abruptly, struggling for breath and Al dug into his coat pocket
with one hand to pull out his cellular phone. "What?" Worry and impatience
gave his tone a hard edge.
  "Al?" Tina. "Al, Sam's leaped in. 'Bena said you were out. So...we need you
back here."
  Al looked at the form slumped back in a breathless expression of pain
beside him with vague confusion. "Sam?"
  "Yeah. Are you coming back or not?"
  Then Al realized what should have been obvious had he not had other things
to worry about that were slightly more pressing. "Into San Diego. 1989," he
concluded miserably.
  He could feel the surprise through the phone. "Al, how did you know that?"
  "I...." He looked down at Sam and the hand he had clapsed firmly in his
own. He pulled the reciever away from his mouth. "Sam?" he prodded gently.
  He opened his eyes slowly and shook his head; a slight side-to-side motion
that the admiral barely picked up on. "You were late the first time, too, Al.
Nothing happened because of that."
  Al nodded and pulled the phone back up. If he was going to suffer a heart
attack as a result of the phone call from McBride, it was a wonder he was
still coherant in this timeline. But, he suppossed, it was because Sam needed
him. That had to count for something. Perhaps Sam was able to prevent it, but
he wasn't inclined to devote any great degree of attention to figuring it out
at the moment. "Don't expect me any time soon, honey. Sam'll be okay for a
little while. Trust me," he added before she could protest.
  He turned heavily back towards his friend and his struggle for life. He
wanted to tell him to stop talking, that he didn't want to hear how things
had been the first time around. They had been pulled over for almost twenty
minutes and Al still didn't know what exactly he had to fix.
  Slight pressure on his hand brought his attention back to Sam. He seemed to
be getting worse. Al had torn his own shirt to try and stop the flow of blood
from Sam's chest. It seemed to be slowing, finally, but Al knew he was not of
this world for long. And it made him mad. He was so filled with rage towards
whoever had done this that he could barely see straight.
  "Al, you have to understand - I didn't leap into this man from your future.
I never leaped _out_ of Jacob. I've been him for over eleven years."
  "Oh, Sam," Al breathed, and he watched Sam's resolve strengthen. He should
have figured that out himself. "Tell me. Tell me how to stop it."

^----^----^----^----^
February, 1989 - Original History
San Diego, CA

  Wednesday morning came far too early for Sam. Normally an early riser, he
became extremely frusturated that he was having trouble getting out of bed.
But he had to go to Jacob's job. Part of the reason for his exhaustion lay in
his total inability to fall asleep the night before. He had laid in the dark
trying to figure out what to say to someone with such a problem as Amber. Or
Jacob, for that matter. Sam Beckett had never been exposed to drugs, rape, or
anything else even remotely as vile when he was young. And he certainly
hadn't been sleeping with his girlfriend at age seventeen. Which, he found
out rather quickly the night before, was what Amber and Rick were still
doing, even now. Perhaps Amber didn't know after all. But Sam doubted that,
not after what she said yesterday; maybe she just thought the damage was
already done.
  Sam, finally surrendering to the inevitable, swung his legs over the edge
of the bed and stood up slowly. Pulling on a robe, he padded into the hallway
and turned to go to the bathroom. A slight noise from the kitchen attracted
his attention and he changed course to investigate.
  Amber was sitting at the kitchen table. She looked as if she hadn't had
much sleep - certainly less than him. Her back was to him and he wasn't
certain if she knew he was there or not.
  "Come to check up on me?" she asked suddenly and Sam felt an embarassed
flush rise to his cheeks for watching her.
  "I'm your big brother. Can you think of anything else I should be doing?"
he asked lightly, trying to push out the disturbing image of Katie, purple
welts evident on pale skin, sobbing at the kitchen table after she had
finally pushed aside her shame and returned home to her family. Home. Sam
smothered a sigh.
  "Yeah. You should be getting ready for work." Her voice was flat and
unfeeling and Sam put a comforting hand on her shoulder from behind. That's
when he saw it. Lying on the table, within easy reach for Amber, but not him,
was a steak knife. He looked around in vain for a reason to have a clean
knife out on the table.
  "Amber?" Sam moved to sit beside her. "What's that?"
  She looked dully at him. "A knife." She picked it up, fingering the blade
lightly, examining the creases the teeth left in her skin with exaggerated
care.
  Sam quelled the urge to snatch it out of her hand. "I can see that. Why is
it out?"
  She shrugged noncommitedly and allowed Sam to take it gently from her,
watching his relieved sigh with a mixture of indifference and annoyance. "You
_are_ checking up on me," she murmured, as if she couldn't believe it.
  "Do you want to talk about it?"
  "Nothin' to talk about." She flicked at an invisible speck on the table
top. "Almost had to call 911 on mom again last night. Came home drunk as a
dog."
  He tried not to let his reaction show. "Is that why you're upset?"
  She shrugged again and gave a little sigh. "Why should that bother me? Last
time it got her six months and if she can't dry out in six months, what's the
use? I lied last night; she doesn't care."
  Recalling how serious Amber had been the night before, Sam doubted that was
true. Not entirely, anyhow. "You know that's not true."
  She pushed her hair back behind her ear. It hadn't been brushed yet and it
fell back over her face. "She doesn't want me to go to college."
  If anything, Sam had an even harder time hiding his reaction to this.
Wasn't a parent supposed to want more for their children then they had for
themselves? He could never figure out why people would voluntarily stay in
this viscious cycle. "Why not?"
  "She wants me to work and earn money, not waste it on classes."
  "I see." He didn't, but he said it anyhow. "So, is _that_ what you're upset
about?"
  "Who, me?" She still wouldn't look up at him, even for an instant.
  Prodding hadn't worked, so he waited. The moments passed without comment
and finally, she looked him in the eye. "Jake, I'm pregnant."
  He nodded slowly, but didn't comment.
  "Well?"
  What could he say? "Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?" he asked
tentatively.
  "Depends on who you talk to. Rick is estatic. He hopes it's a boy. I don't
think he realizes how much work a kid could be."
  "Maybe you should talk to someone," Sam suggested, squeezing her hand
gently.
  "Right. I'll pull from my secret savings account and hire a shrink." Sam
grimaced. "What does it matter?" she demanded. Of who, Sam couldn't say. She
shoved the chair violently back and walked quickly down the hall into her
room. Sam heard the lock click. This one was going to have to be more than a
quick fix, for certain. He rubbed his face with a hand and went off in search
of a hot shower.

^----^----^----^----^
September, 2000 - Original History
Stallion's Gate, NM

  The phone reciever went down so hard that the entire phone slid off the
corner of the desk and fell into the wastebasket. "Good!" Al yelled, as if he
was still conversing with the person he had hung up on, if it could have been
called conversing. "That's where you belong anyway you stupid excuse
for....." He fumbled for a moment. "For a human being." For lack of
vocabulary, Al cut loose a long stream of profanity that was supposed to make
him feel better but didn't.
  He sat still for a full moment and then shot out of his chair as if a
spring had been released. Technicians and scientists parted before him like
the Red Sea as he stalked all the way to the Control Room. "Will somebody
tell me WHY the voting members of this country cannot find anyone more
suitable to run the place??" he demanded, rounding on Verbena as she looked
up at him.
  "Glad to see you're keeping calm and relaxed," she commented, raising an
eyebrow. "No luck?"
  "Luck? _Luck_?" He was about to launch into another tirade, but she cut him
off with a wave of her hand.
  "Forget I asked. So how much trouble are we in?"
  Al shook his head and slumped uncharasterically into the chair she
provided. "Big trouble. I was hoping something Sam was doing might help us
out here, like last time, you know?" He paused. "Of course you don't. Never
mind. Regardless of what you do or don't remember, Ziggy's come up with
nada."
  Verbena fingered the edge of one of the contols. She had long since given
up trying to understand how Project Quantum Leap worked. And sometimes, she
found Admiral Calavicci just as complicated and uncomprehensible, but other
times, he was as clear as glass. Now all she saw was a drive to find some way
to get the funding he needed to contact Sam. He was going to kill himself for
certain this time. "Al, if you end up in the hospital over this or worse,
Sam's not going to have anyone to observe for him anyway."
  "We can get someone else to observe," Al said absently.
  The psychiatrist almost gaped at how easily he dismissed his heath. He had
never been really concerned about how little sleep he got or those cigars he
smoked, but this was his _life_. And no matter how hard she tried, she
couldn't seem to get that across to him. "Al, can't you get someone else to
gather this information for you?"
  "I've got some friends who owe me a few favors ferreting out stuff at
Washington, but let me tell you, this project goes on much longer and I'm
gonna run out of favors." He looked up at her, finally, noting immediately
what he had deemed the "mother hen" look. "I know what you're thinking,
Beeks, and I understand that. But it's not my life I'm thinking about here."
He turned to Gooshie before she could reply. "How's Sam?"
  The scientist, who had been doing his best to keep a low profile, seemed
upset that the admiral had even noticed he was in the room. "He's probably at
work by now. We hope."
  Al nodded and stood up. He stopped, closed his eyes, and sat slowly back
down again, face pale and breath shaking. Verbena put a hand on his shoulder
and knelt down in front of him. "Al? Are you all right?"
  He was still a moment longer and then he opened his eyes and forced out a
wry grin. "Yeah, great."
  She groaned in frusturation and removed her hand. "Now will you listen to
me?"
  "Sure. Later." He stood up again and walked towards the Imaging Chamber.
"Gooshie, get Weitzman on the phone and let me know when you get a hold of
him." Before Verbena could say another word, he disappeared into the Chamber.