Chapter 7


	Sam raised his head at the sight of the Imaging Chamber door opening in
front of him. Shortly after Al had left, Sam had decided to leave work
early, having very little knowledge of the ins and outs of accounting.
He didn't know what to do at the office but he did know that he had a
mission to finish and he couldn't do that if he was too far from Susan.
	As Al returned to the past, Sam sat at a small bistro table, sipping at
a cup of coffee. He appeared to be waiting and Al could only guess for
whom.
	"Does she know you're out here waiting?" Al questioned as he approached
the physicist.
	Sam nodded. "Yeah, she knows. It's a busy time of day for her. She
asked me to wait for about twenty minutes."
	"And that was?"
	Sam gave a small smile. "Thirty minutes ago."
	Al laughed slightly. "Sounds familiar. So, what are you doing here?"
	Sam looked at him with question. "Trying to break it off between her
and Dick."
	Al nodded a bit. "Good. The guy's a complete wacko, Sam. Beeks says he
has a severe case of anti-social behavior and I can tell you from
experience that he has one hell of a temper. I don't think Susan knows
what she's getting into with this guy, Sam. If she ever saw his true
colors, it would disgust her." He raised an eyebrow. "Which might not be
a bad idea on how to keep them apart."
	Sam glared at him. "I'm not going to go into that, Al, even if I had
to."
	Al frowned slightly at Sam's words, confusion on his face. A moment
later, he realized what Sam meant.
	"Sam, I wouldn't dream of you doing such a thing. That's what you're
supposed to prevent. Right? Her being hurt? He's already abused her
emotionally and that's more than enough." He looked towards the woman
who was assisting other customers at the deli counter. "Hell, she
probably wants to get away from him herself but is too scared to do so."
	As he spoke, a woman entered the deli with a smile on her face and
walked directly towards the counter.
	"Hey, Suz!" she greeted, bending over the counter and giving Susan a
kiss on the cheek.
	Al watched her carefully, gaining Sam's attention by his actions.
	"Angela?" Sam questioned him, seeing the resemblance between Susan and
the other woman.
	Al nodded. "Angela Bea Cotton, Susan's fraternal twin sister. Just
seeing her now makes me realize something, though."
	"And that is?"
	"I had met her before yesterday morning. Only, at the time that I met
her, I was too drunk to realize she was actually there."
	Sam exhaled at his words before standing and going over to the counter,
giving the women a smile.
	"Need help?" he asked Susan.
	Susan looked at him with apology. "Oh, Dick! I'm so sorry! I didn't
mean to leave you hanging like that!" She looked around quickly. "I'll
get someone to take over for a while and then we can go in the back and
talk like you wanted." There was desperation in her voice as she spoke.
	Sam gave her a reassuring smile, not noticing the look Angela was
giving him - a look of confusion.
	"It's okay," he told Susan. "No hurry."
	Susan nonetheless hurried to do as she said while Sam sat at the
counter to wait.
	Al watched the scene with concern. "Sam, she's really scared. What
probably happened in the original history is she slipped up in some way
and Dick finally resorted to violence on her. The bastard." His eyes
turned towards Angela to find the latter was staring at him. Not through
him, as he would expect, but at him. The look she bore in her eyes was
almost creepy.
	"Umm… Sam. Maybe we should take care of this later," he said only to
find that the scientist was already following Susan into the back room.
	Angela also noticed his direction and immediately hurried to catch up.
"May I come along?" she asked as Al followed her, watching her with fear
and suspicion.
	Susan looked at Sam with concern, hoping he wouldn't object. Sam merely
nodded in response.
	"Sure," he finally said, seeing the look in Al's eyes and deciding to
hold off on his original plans until he had more information.
	The four of them moved together into a large office that obviously
doubled as a break room for the deli. Angela held back at the door and
closed it while Sam and Susan went further into the room.
	"I didn't keep you waiting for too long, I hope," Susan told Sam,
looking at him apologetically.
	Sam shook his head with a frown. "Not at all."
	She sighed in relief. "I'm sorry that took so long. It gets pretty busy
between classes here." She gave him a wide friendly smile and looked at
Angela. "Right, Angie?"
	Angela smiled in return and went to a chair. "Sure does," she said as
she sat down, looking at Sam curiously. "I don't think I've ever met
you."
	Susan looked at Angela, fear obvious on her face. "Oh, sure you have,
Angie. This is Dick. My fiancée. Remember?"
	Sam and Al looked at Angela carefully, Sam with confusion, Al with a
touch of fear.
	"Sam, I don't like the look of this."
	"Then why does he keep calling him Sam?" Angela questioned.
	Al took a step back, shock apparent on his face. "She can see us. What
the hell is going on here?"
	Susan took a startled breath, staring at Angela and covering her mouth.
It was obvious that she was terrified for her sister. "Why does who keep
calling him Sam, Angie?"
	"Who do you think I'm talking about?" She pointed at Al. "HIM him." The
look on her face turned from one of confusion to one of anger. "You've
taken him back, haven't you, Susie?" She stood up and took a couple of
menacing steps towards Al and Sam. "I'm never enough, am I? You have to
go for other guys. First him, then Dick, now back to him and this…
dweeb." She looked at Sam pointedly.
	Susan marched quickly to block her path, an obvious act of courage on
her part since it was obvious that Angela now frightened her more than
Dick ever did.
	"That's enough," she said as firmly as she could.
	Angela grabbed her wrist harshly. "It's never enough!" she shouted at
her. "You just don't seem to get it! You are MY girl! No one else's!"
	During the exchange, Sam and Al stared in shock at the scene before
them, seeming planted firmly in their spots. However, when Angela
grabbed Susan's wrist in a manner that was obviously painful for Susan,
Sam couldn't allow the abuse. He quickly pulled the two apart and pushed
Angela away from Susan.
	Susan glared at Sam angrily. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
	Sam looked at her with surprise at the anger she exhumed. "I'm trying
to help."
	"Help? By beating on my sister?" She went over to the fallen woman, who
was now curled into a small ball, crying.
	Sam looked at the scene with utter confusion. He looked at Al, hoping
for answers but finding the latter as confused as he was.
	Susan looked at him angrily. "Get out," she told him with tears.
"Please, just get out."
	Sam hesitated, taking a step towards her. "Susan…"
	She moved slightly away from him, obviously afraid of some kind of
retribution. At the sight of that, Sam took a step back with his hands
raised. "Okay. I'm leaving." Very slowly, he did just that, the sounds
of Angela crying trailing behind him.
	Once he and Al were out of the office, he turned on the Observer with
confusion. "Al, what the hell just happened?"
	"You're asking me? How the hell should I know?"
	Sam shook his head and started through the deli to exit the building.
He didn't speak until he was out on the street. Then, walking towards
Dick's apartment, he continued, having had a little time to think of the
situation.
	"What does Ziggy have on Angela?" he questioned.
	Al huffed at the question. "Sam, didn't you notice that she could see
us? You know what that means, don't you? Either she's psychic or she's
nuts!" He took a breath. "I'm voting for the latter."
	Sam looked at him pointedly. "What does Ziggy have on her?" he
paraphrased, this time with a firm demand in his voice.
	Al exhaled and lifted the handlink. "Other than the boring statistics
of where she lives, where she went to school, that sort of thing?"
	Sam nodded in affirmation.
	Al punched a few buttons on the handlink. "She didn't have a pleasant
childhood, if that's what you want to know. Both of her foster parents
were horrible to her but child services never got wind of it. We don't
have much on exactly what happened in that family but, when she finally
got out, whatever happened really seemed to effect the rest of her life.
She never did well in college - didn't even graduate. When her sister
died, she went even further into herself and became a recluse until she
eventually checked herself into a psychiatric hospital where she spent
eighteen years trying to cope with her sister's death."
	"And then she committed suicide," Sam finished.
	Al nodded slowly. "Yeah. Sam, what the hell just happened in there?
First she's calm and rational. Then, she acts like…"
	"Like a jealous boyfriend," Sam supplied, realization on his face.
	"Yeah," Al agreed, not seeing the look. "And then like…"
	"A helpless child," Sam supplied again.
	This time, Al did look at him, surprise on his face. "Am I missing
something or do you know more about what's happening than I do?"
	Sam rubbed his face. "It's only a theory right now but I want you to
see if you can't get into Angela's psychiatric record. If I'm right, it
might not have been Dick who killed Susan."
	Al frowned at him. "Well, if it isn't Dick, then who the hell is it?"
	Sam stopped walking and looked at Al firmly. "Angela."
	Al stared at Sam with shock at those words.