Quantum Leap:
Vertical Herizon
By Heather Samantha Beckett
Disclaimer: I do not own the concept of Quantum Leap or Higher Ground or their characters, those solely belong to Don Belisario (Quantum Leap) and whoever wrote Higher Ground
Chapter 1: Vertigo
Author's Note: Please read or the first part of this story won't make sense to you.The beginning of this story starts off in the classic Quantum Leap tv show show style where the last few minuets of the last leap (episode) is recapped and transitions into the current leap (episode) In keeping with that style I have posted part of the last chapter of my first Quantum Leap crossover fanfic titled a Leap on Jump Street which crosses over Quantum Leap with the TV show 21 Jump Street. If you want to read this story it is located in the 21 Jump Street section.
It seemed to Sam like life time before Judy opened her eyes after being wheeled in her room as soon as the surgery to repair her esophogus was over. She looked around the room. She noticed 2 men she had never seen before sitting in chairs next to her bed staring at her.The last thing she knew she took a bullet for her partner. Was she dead? "Who are you 2?" she asked confused, fear etched in her pretty born eyes.
Sam and Al looked at each other. "Um I'm Hanson who did you expect?" asked Sam nervously.
"You aren't Hanson. What do you take me for a fool? and what's up with your friend and that sorry excuse for an outfit?" Judy said pointing to Al. Al had on a bright yellow zoot suit with a purple vest a yellow fedora topped his head. "And if you don't mind," Judy continued hotly, "I'd appriciate it if you put out that nasy cigar."
"Hey I resent that. This outfit is a real lady killer", said Al looking at Judy as if she knew nothing about fashion. He put out his cigar and put what was left of it in his suit pocket so he could save it for another time.
Sam rolled his eyes and ignored his holographic friend. "My name is Dr Sam Beckett and this is Admiral Al Calavicci. I run a project called Quantum Leap. I leap back and fourth in time and I leap into people's bodies. I know it sounds like invasions of the body snatchers," said Sam laughing nervously when he saw Judy's eyes widen. "When I leap into these people, people around them still see the person I leap into as themselves. It's like I'm a spirit invading a body and their spirit trades places with mine and they are transported into the future and all of my friends and colleagues see them as me."
"Why do you do this?" Judy asked sitting up wanting to hear more, she was intrigued.
"I'm there to put right what once went wrong."
"And what does ' "I don't know how to dress myself" ' do?" Judy asked pointing to Al.
Al rolled his eyes and gave Judy a half dirty half amused look.
"He comes to me I mean the person I leap into from the future in the form of a hologram to help me figure out what wrong to put right so I can leap," said Sam. "He is tuned into my brainwaves so only I can see him."
"So you are helping people making their lives better and they don't even know it?"
"Something like that," answered Sam.
"I'm all for that," said Judy suddenly getting up and walking over towards Sam with an I just realized something expression on her face. "So you leaped into Tom Hanson? I knew there was something off about him. How come I can see you as you and not as Tom then?"
Sam didn't answer for a moment. The truth of the matter was he hadn't the slightest idea how judy could see himand Al. This was a little too weird for him. He had never experienced something like this before. The closest thing he could think of was the one time he leaped into a cabby and a woman saw him as Sam and Al as Al and it turned out she was an angel. Sam's heart skipped a beat. Was Judy dead and now he was talking to her spirit? Had he botched up extracting the bullet form her esophagus and killed her? No it couldn't be the doctor told him his quick thinking saved her lif and quantum leaping didn't work like that he couldn't talk to dead people.
"This is freaky Sam," sid Al.
"You're telling me" said Judy who had just seen Al walk through Sam. "So tell me what wrong did you set right for me?"
Sam and Al exchanged nervous glances. "I can't really tell you. Its the laws of quantum pysics and the space time continuum," said Sam. He thought back to the many times he had wanted to tell people who he was but just couldn't. It agonized him at times.
"Does something happen to Tom? Is he going to be ok?" Judy asked suddenly. When neither Sam or Al answered her she continued, "I couldn't bear something happening to Tom and never getting to chance to tell him how I felt. I've loved him for a long time but I don't think he feels the same way so I've never said anything. He goes through so many girlfriends I'm afraid if we went out and things didn't work out our friendship would be ruined and I could never let that happen and now I come ot find out he hasn't been himself lately and he won't know how I feel about him or that I took a bullet for him if that doesn't show someone you love them I don't know what does."
For the first tim ein his life Sam felt suddenly stupid when he questioned Al if Judy felt the same way about Tom as Tom felt for Judy. She had taken a bullet for him how would he have not realized that She loved Tom? But if she loved Tom and Tom loved him why hadn't he leaped?
Tears started appearing in the comers of Al's eyes. "You know even though we can't tell you anything I will let you in on a little secrete. I lost the love of my life because she thought I had died in Vietnam. I was a prisoner of war and when I finally got to come back to the US I had found out my wife had moved on and married someone else. I was devastated she was the one and only woman I ever truly loved and it felt like someone took a claw and ripped out my heart. I never told her I was back She still thinks I'm dead. I let her live with that pain. Since I felt like I could never love again I ended up marrying and divorcing 8 woman. None of them could live up to Beth. I may be a sex obsessed pervert but just because I sleep with a lot of woman doesn't mean I'm a very loved man or a very happy man. It's very very sad. Right now I've been in a realtionship with a woman at my job who I think I'm actually in love with but we've had a friends with benefits realtionship for so long I don't know If I can come to bring myself to tell her how I really feel. If Tom thinks you are not worthy of him, and you are the only person he truly loves he will have a lot of meaningless relationships and go from one woman to another because none of them will live up to his expectations. They will never live up to you. It is obvious he is either A doesn't have those feelings for you or B he does and he's to scared to admit it. It is up to you to say something because if you never tell him how you feel you will spend your life wondering what if. Don't let that happen to you."
Before Judy could say anything Sam and Al saw her lift up from the ground and float back to her unconscious body lying in the bed and spirit and body reconnected.
"Ok now that was freaky," said Al shaking a bit.
"More creepy than freaky if you ask me," said Sam shaking as well.
Sam jerked his head and jumped up out of his seat suddenly. Al was nowhere to be found and Judy's bed was empty. She must not be back from surgery yet Sam thought. "Oh I have been draming. Thank goodness," Sam breathed a sigh of relief. He went in Judy's bathroom and looked in the mirror just to make sure. Tom's reflection stared back at him. Sam was never so happy to see someone elses reflection stare back him. Oh boy what a weird dream that was, thought Sam.
He retunred to his seat in Judy's room ans closed his eyes.
"Tom is that you? Hello?" Sam was suddenly brought back to reality. He sat up suddenly and rushed to Judy's side "I'm here," he said stroking Judy's arm.
"What happened where am I?"
"You are at Mercy General", said the orderly who had wheeled her into her room. "You just came out of surgery."
Judy looked around in confusion.
"Bailey shot you," Sam clued her in.
Fear spread across Judy's face and Sam could feel the muscles in Judy's body tighten up.
"Relax, Relax. Don't worry. After he shot you I shot his leg and then I did my best to stop the bleeding in your neck and I knew the bullet was lodged in your esophagus. Your breaths were shallow you were in shock and then you didn't breath at all. I gave you mouth to mouth and put some breath in your lungs and then I had the kids get me a first aid kit and some medical supplies and I extracted the bullet from your esophagus and the paramedics arrived and took care of the rest. You just came out of surgery," Sam looked at Tom's watch. "about 5 hours ago. Bailey cmae clean and confessed to having affairs with minor and beating up those girls. He will be put away a long time and he won't be bothering you anymore." Sam Continued.
Judy started to cry. "You did that for me? You saved my life? I didn't even know you knew basic first aid let alone know enough to extract a bullet from me."
Sam stroked Judy's cheek wiping some tears away. "Don't cry Judy."
"I'm sorry I can't help it. It's just you have been there for me so much lately and I, I, I had the strangest dream just now. I don't remember that much of it except that some strangely dressed man shared a story with me of how he lost the love of his life and something about being married and divorced 8 times and being a sex obsessed pervert because since he lost the love of his life no one could live up to his lost love, and he sounded so unhappy and there was another guy who said you weren't really you. Funny huh?"
Sam gave Judy a look of you must be out of your mind but was really thinking, "So we both had the same dream?" The idea of that sent a shiver up Sam's spine.
"I don't want to loose the love of my life Tom. "
Sam knew who Judy was talking about and he hadn't leaped before when Judy expressed her feelings for Tom the first time because it had been a dream and Sam obviously knew Tom felt the same way because Al told him that Tom had told Al in the waiting room that he loved he was in love Judy but he didn't know of she felt the same way. Tom loved Judy and Judy loved Tom. So the question was, why was Sam still here? Sam knew something was missing. He suddenly knew what he had to do.
"I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you," said Sam and thinking to himself I'm going out on a limb here I hope I am saying the right thing and not ruining Tom's love life. "Marry me," Sam finished and he felt that familiar tickle of electricity as he leapt out of love.
By now Dr Sam Beckett was quite used to the feeling of electricity flowing through his body. You would think that this would be quite painful, but in the blink of an eye the feeling of electricity flowing through his body subsides and feels to Sam like nothing more than a tickle. For the last 5 years Dr Sam Beckett has been leaping back in fourth in time putting right what once went wrong and touching many lives in the process. This process was known as quantum leaping. In 1995 Dr Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists in the middle of the desert to develop Project Quantum Leap. Sam was faced with loosing funding because no one believed his theory of life being like a piece of string, one end of the string represented a person's life the other end their death and in between both ends would be the person's lifespan. Sam theorized that if you were to ball up the string and different parts of the string were touching each other this would give a person the ability to leap back and fourth in their own lifetime. Sam was desperate to prove his theory, so he prematurely stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. With each leap Sam's memory becomes Swiss Cheese and he looses different parts of his memory while gaining new memories at the same time. About the only thing that stays the same for Sam with each leap is his ability to communicate with Admiral Al Calavicci, the projects observer. Since Al is living in the year 2000 and is at the projects site in the middle of the desert, he appears to Sam as a hologram, and since he is tuned into Sam's brainwaves, Sam is the only one who can see and hear him which gets Sam in some amusing situations.
Al, with the help of the super computer that Sam built named Ziggy, and Al's helper Gushie, he is able to help Sam figure out what wrong to put right in order for Sam to leap. Sam and Al hope that one of these leaps will bring Sam back to his own time. For now Sam is like a space traveling Lone ranger with Al as his Tonto. Sam never knows who he will leap into or what year it will be. He was once leaped into an astronaut Chimp. For the most part with the occasional leap into a woman, Sam gets used to being in another's body.
A feeling of dread over came Sam's body like going for a ride on the merry- go -round after eating too many chili corn dogs. He looked down and saw that he was at least 50 feet in the air. He also noticed that he was holding onto some kind of plastic hand hold and his feet were resting on two plastic foot holds that were attached to a wall he also was attached to a rope system that was strapped to his body. Even though it seemed like the rope system was holding him securely he still remained frozen. Sam was highly terrified of heights he had seen the movie Vertigo.
"Come on Jules what are you waiting for you?" Sam could hear someone say below. Sam looked down to see who was talking to him. He saw a group of young people looking up at him. Sam could tell they were teenagers and with them was a man and a woman who appeared to be in their early thirties.
"Come one quit being such a drama queen, Queenie," a thin girl with long straight blond hair said.
"Queenie?" Sam said to himself. He wished he had a mirror close by but he had a bad sinking feeling in his gut.
"Come om Juliette all you have to do is reach up and hit the bell," Sam could hear the man say below.
"Great I knew it," Sam sighed to himself. "I'm a girl and I think I'm a teenage girl. Oh boy."