A Unique Point of View
By: Christina Campbell

Chapter 5

"Rachel, Dr. Beckett has Leaped."

"Tell me about it, Ziggy."

"He's still in Lee Harvey Oswald!  This is very odd!  He's never Leaped 
into the same person twice!"

Rachel put her head in her hands.  "Well, now he has.  Arrange a 
meeting for me with Al, sometime in the next couple weeks and at a time 
when Sam doesn't need him."

Sammy-Jo looked at her curiously, but didn't ask.

-----

"Ziggy said you wanted to see me."

"Yeah.  I wanted to request a vacation."

"A vacation?  What about the retrieval program?"

"I'm starting to get a little burnt out." Rachel rubbed her nose a bit.  
"I can't go at this non-stop, unlike Sammy-Jo, and I need a break."

"How long are we talking about here?"

"A fair amount of time, say a month or so." His eyebrows went up, and 
she continued.  "I want to be able to spend some real time with my 
family.  I've been alternating Christmases between my mom and dad for 
years.  I also need the time to see my brother again.  He's got two-
year-old twins that I haven't seen since they were real little."

"When?"

"Oh, not right now.  I am still in the middle of all this string-
mapping, but soon.  A couple weeks from now?  That would get me home 
for Easter."

Al looked at her carefully.  "That's not all, is it?  Why now?  Why all 
at once?"

"No, Al, that's not all. If I do it now I can get into Disneyworld 
during the best time of the year."

Al didn't laugh.  "Something's going to happen here."

Rachel closed her eyes.  "Yes.  But I can't tell you what it is, I 
can't tell you when, and I can't be here when it happens.  Actually, 
I'm not sure exactly when.  It depends on how long the times between 
the next few Leaps are and how many Leaps there are that I don't know 
about.  Once I've left, I'm going to stay gone until it happens."

"How will we know?"

Her mouth quirked up in a smile.  "Believe me, you'll know. I'll leave 
an itinerary so you can contact me when it happens."

Al watched her go with thoughtful eyes.

-----

Rachel smiled at her brother's twins--April and Susan.  She had 
definitely approved when Alan and his wife, Lisa, had not given their 
twins names that rhymed.  These two were little monsters at this age 
and had just gotten into the constant "Why?" stage.  Their parents were 
a little tired of it, because half the time they didn't know the 
answer.

Rachel did.  When they asked her 'Why?' they could expect a meaningful 
answer.  It was obviously a little disconcerting to them.  They never 
got a 'Because,' or an 'I don't know,' from their Aunt Rachel.  Their 
parents were also a little flustered at her ability to tell the twins 
exactly how water boiled in ways they could understand.  She was 
shaking her body to imitate molecules vibrating, then she took off 
toward the outside to demonstrate that they couldn't stand still any 
longer, and couldn't stay in the pot.  The two girls followed her out, 
and the questions devolved into a game of tag.

Later, when the twins were taking a nap, exhausted from the romp 
outside, Rachel was flopped on the couch.  Alan walked up and sat down 
next to her.  "You're very good with them.  I've been going out of my 
mind trying to answer all those 'Why?'s."

Rachel smiled tiredly.  "All it takes is a little patience and actually 
knowing why.  'Why?'s should be encouraged.  They are the fundamentals 
of science.  Someone a long time ago wondered why certain stars moved 
from night to night, and that's how we know about the planets.  'Why?'s 
are marvelous things, along with 'What if?'s."

The phone rang, and Alan got up to get it.  "Hello?"

"Is Rachel Thorton there?"  The man on the other end sounded kind of 
frantic.

"Yes.  I'll go get her.  May I tell her who's calling?"

"Gooshie."

He put his hand over the phone.  [Gooshie!?  As in the guy on Quantum 
Leap? This guy has got to be kidding.] "Rachel, it's for you.  He says 
his name's Gooshie."

It got her immediate attention.  She got up and took it from him.  
"Hello?"

Alan went into the other room and tried to pretend he wasn't listening.

She was quiet for a long time as she listened to the voice on the other 
end.  "OK, OK.  I get the picture.  You know as well as I do that I 
can't be there before everything hits the fan.  Right now, you need to 
get a message to him."  There was a pause.  "Yes, I know that he's not 
there.  Surely you can fix it so that he can see you."  Rachel started 
pacing.  "Right now, they need you to be calm and to figure it out.  
Yes, I know she doesn't like to be messed with, but remind her that he 
needs that information.  You are the only one currently available to 
send it. No, I'm not coming down.  You have only about an hour and a 
half, and there's no way I can get there in time to help.  When you 
figure it out, talk to him then call me again.  Goodbye, and good 
luck."

She put the phone down with a sigh.  "GTFW, why me?"

Alan frowned at this, trying to puzzle it out.  Then he realized that 
she hadn't used a single name during the entire phone conversation.  
"Gooshie?  His name is Gooshie?"

She smiled at him.  "Well, his nickname is Gooshie.  But, believe it or 
not, he's never even watched Quantum Leap."

-----

When the phone rang again half an hour later, Rachel took it.  "Harris 
residence. This is she. Yes, I knew you could do it.  Don't worry, if 
anyone can bring that guy back, he can.  It'll come out all right, I 
promise.  Why don't you run some more scenarios, and wait for him to 
return.  Call me back when it's over."  Rachel hung up the phone with a 
sigh.

"Rachel, you're scaring me."

Rachel blinked.  "What?"

"'Run some scenarios'!?"

Rachel gave a short laugh.  "Alan, you are putting way, _way_ to much 
significance on the coincidence of an odd nickname."

Alan gave her a strange look, but subsided.  [It's just a television 
show.  She's right. You're reading too much into a simple phone 
conversation.]

-----

Rachel collapsed on the bed in her room at the Project.  Al hadn't 
understood--not that she'd really expected him to.  She had _known_ 
that the 'guest' was going to get out, that Al wouldn't be able to talk 
to Sam, and that Gooshie was going to spend an enormous amount of power 
giving Sam the information he needed.  She hadn't told anyone.  She had 
left.

Al had given her a royal chewing out.  She had just taken it.  From his 
point of view, she had deserved it.  From her point of view, there was 
nothing else she could have done.  She would go back and talk to him in 
a little later, when he had calmed down a bit.  She grabbed a book and 
curled up.

He surprised her, however, by showing up at her door a couple hours 
later.

"Rachel?"  He sounded hesitant.

She got up and showed him to a seat.  "Yeah?"

"I won't apologize for what I said.  I still think you deserved it, but 
I would like to know--"

"Why I left?  Why I didn't say anything?"

"Yeah."

Rachel ran a hand through her hair.  "I told you when you came out of 
there after that Leap into Alan that I was going to keep my mouth shut.  
To me, that applies to everything.  I've known for _years_ about that 
Simo-leap.  I knew the specific time a week before it happened.  The 
thing is, if we had actually managed to perfect a retrieval program 
that would have kept him here, so many things he's fixed since then 
would still be broken.  Everything from those San Francisco Chinatown 
murders to Jackie Kennedy.  _All_ the things he's done since then.  
Don't get me wrong, I'm going all out to get him home.  If we had a 
workable retrieval program right now, he would be here.  No matter the 
Leaps still ahead that haven't happened.  But that's not a choice that 
I have to make right now.

"All the episodes are accurate.  That statement is based on the reports 
that you and Ziggy have filed.  The episode that documents this Leap 
made no mention of me being an alternate Observer.  Either I wasn't 
going to be here, or something was going to happen to me to make me 
ineligible.  I chose not to be here.

"So now you know why I didn't speak up, and why I left.  Can you trust 
me, Al?  Just as I knew that that man was going to break out of here, I 
knew that you and Gooshie could take care of it and that Sam would Leap 
out.  I knew that this would end OK if I didn't say anything, and if I 
left.  I didn't know what would happen if I spoke up, and I didn't want 
to risk it.  Can you trust me to make those judgement calls?"

Al considered her for a long while before answering.  "I think . . . I 
have to.  You're right.  It came all right in the end.  A lot of 
trouble in the middle, but a good ending.  Are you willing to show me 
that episode?  I'd like to see what happened to Sam while we couldn't 
contact him."

Rachel appeared rather startled.  "I don't see why not.  Are there any 
other episodes that you would like to see?"

"I don't have time for more than one right now, but is the Leap where 
Sam was flying a plane over the Bermuda Triangle an episode?"

Rachel laughed.  "Yes it is.  We'll see that one another time then.  
Just a second."

She got up and went over to her bag, as she still hadn't unpacked.  She 
pulled out several videotapes, stared at the labels, then put them back 
in.  She picked one and brought it over.  "This one."

Al was trying to keep from smiling.  "You have them all?"

Rachel looked up from where she was putting the tape into her TV.  "As 
of my trip to my mother's, yes.  Some of them are out of order, 
though."

"How many?"

"How many what?  Episodes?  Leaps?  Tapes?"

"Hmm...Tapes."

"More than ten and less than twenty.  If I tell you any more than that, 
you'll lose the edge that gets Sam in and out of Leaps quickly."

"What's that?"

"Wondering whether or not he'll be home next time he Leaps."  She fast-
forwarded for a while, then pressed play.

Al had to reflect that she had a point.  Sometimes the only thing 
keeping him going was the thought that maybe _this_ time Sam would come 
home--and the knowledge that he wouldn't ever be home if he didn't Leap 
again.


*****************
Feedback requested!  What do you think of my story?

Christina C.
christina.l.campbell@vanderbilt.edu