A/N I have no idea where this came from and I'm sure it will make even less sense when I'm sober.
Dr. Sam Beckett leaps in to find himself driving an old beat up truck down the dirt road to a rather secluded property barely able to adjust in time before driving straight into the trees surrounding the area, within a minute a little girl about maybe 6 or 7 years old is running up from a farmhouse yelling "daddy daddy are you ok?!" 'Oh boy I'm a daddy….' "Yeah yeah don't worry I'm fine…." Once he was lead inside the house he thought to himself 'leaping around in time I've often felt like a little kid suddenly finding himself behind the wheel of a car with no idea where I was or what to do but not usually is it quite as literal…' when he walked in the door there was al waiting for him. "Hey sam" startled he almost falls over "don't do that al!" "Wow someone's jumpy…." "I leaped in when driving! Al I almost crashed head on into a tree! Why am I here al?" As al takes a breath of his cigar and pulls out the handlink "Well let's find out. Let's see your name is Jack aarons, it's March 17th 1989,you're a farmer and work at a hardware store, you have 5 kids 4 daughters and one son and oh well ziggi says there's a 96.8 % chance that you're here to save your neighbor and friend to your uh I mean Jack's son. Her name is Leslie and in two days she drowns in a creek a few miles away, she was only 12" horrified Sam asked what happens "Well we don't really know, apparently she hit her head, fell in the creek and died. Her parents were so distraught they moved away and completely fell off the radar and jacks son Jesse blamed himself, he was so wracked with guilt and depression he drinks himself to death by the time he's 26 but what do you expect when the love of your life dies…" now Sam is more than a bit confused "love of his life what al they're only 12?" "So? By the time I was 12 I'd been in love dozens of times, I remember this one time in 4th grade me and a girl named Mary…. Or was it Martha.. Mary or Martha…? No wait it was Michelle sam! Her name was Michelle and….." Now frustrated as usual with als womanizing stories "al al! Can you focus here please!" "Huh oh right sorry look I'm gonna go back and see what else ziggi can find out in the meantime you keep Leslie away from that creek" al starts typing on the handlink opening the imaging chamber door and closing it behind him.
'It seems that this family didn't have money with way too many mouths to feed in it, besides the limited space and clear disdain Jesse had for his father I felt strangely at home here, I guess it reminded me of when I was a kid on the farm before tom left for Vietnam, even though I had just met Jesse and his family and had yet to meet Leslie I felt attached to them I couldn't let anything happen to them' just then there was a knock at the door from a tall man wearing glasses "Hey uh Leslie sent me over to thank you for letting her come along today…" "what… oh yeah sure… um no problem…. Uh…" just then al showed up "bill. His name is Bill burke, he's leslie's father and is a well known fiction and fantasy writer but after Leslie's death he disappeared from the lime….. Oh the limelight he disappeared from it." "It's no problem uh Bill really but I got work to do so I'll see you later ok?" After he left he went outside to talk to al "so what else did ziggy find out?" "Well apparently Jesse's little sister maybell published a children's book about a magic fantasy world, the dedication says she owes everything in it to her brother and his friend, apparently him and leslie used to make all this stuff up as if it was there across the creek, ziggy figures that lesslie was heading there when she drowned" "but al if they came up with it together why wasn't he with her?!" "Well he was at an art museum with his teacher all day, apparently he has a major crush on her Sam, it reminds me of my kindergarten teacher miss lamenty, you know Sam my third wife or was it the fourth… anyway she was actually in the class with of course I didn't know that I think I even poured paint all over her head once…." Sam angrily interrupts him in full view lesslie but to her it's just mister aarons screaming at himself and she hears everything he says as clear as day "al you mean to tell me that Jesse let's the girl he loves die in a few days to spend time with his teacher!? Al I don't want to hear another of your sleazy sex stories this is serious what am I gonna do? I can't just watch over her 24 7 besides it doesn't seem like too many people like this guy" he looks in the trucks side mirror "Oh course looking at him I can't say I'd blame them he looks like a jerk…" 'who is he yelling at? And what's with all this letting the girl he loves die in a few days' despite her better judgement her curiosity won as she approached the distressed man. "Do you have any idea how I'm going to save lesslie from drowning so I can leap out of here without scaring her or her dad and everybody else for that matter!? I mean I'd look like a pedofile or something al!"
Noticing her arrival al tried to warm him "what al! What is it!?" But with al pointing behind him Sam comes face to face with a young oddly dressed girl with blonde hair but compared to al I guess she wasn't so oddly dressed after all "you're lesslie aren't you….? Look I don't know what you heard but I'm just concerned for you is all" "tell her that you saw her and Jess by the creek and you don't think it's safe for you guys to be playing down there" said al. Sam repeated it But the look of fear in her eyes was far too apparent "you said you needed to save me from drowning so you can leap out of here….? What do you mean leap out of here…? Are you gonna leave your family mister aarons?" By now she was utterly horrified and discussed taking off down the road. "Sam! If you let her go she's gonna die!" "What!? I thought you said it doesn't happen for a few day" "you changed history now she and Jesse both die today! Sam you've gotta get down there! Gushi center me on Leslie!" He yelled upwards as he typed hysterically on the handlink before disappearing. When Sam was almost to the creek he heard Jesse screaming before a sudden splash "sam! Get over hear! They're both in the creek! Over hear! Leslie fell and Jesse dove in after her but their not gonna make it!" So Sam takes his jacket off and dives in bringing them both to the surrounding shore Jesse was fine but Leslie wasn't breathing and her head had a giant cut so he wraps his previously discarded jacket around it and yells for Jesse to go call for help, once he started running off "she's not breathing al!" "She needs mouth to mouth a CPR sam! An ambulance won't be here for 9 minutes and by then it will be to late" as he's doing everything he can he began to break down "no no no come on Leslie come on! Don't you die! Don't you die!" With jesse, Bill and likely his wife running over it looked as if he failed "come on lesslie come on I was supposed to help you two get your happy ending" he cried out while bashing his head into her chest causing her to violently vomit up the disgusting creek water, she was whining in pain and stirring all around but she was alive and ambulance could be heard down the street "I didn't think she was gonna make it al" everyone seemed to preoccupied to notice what he said though. A little later at the hospital waiting room Sam is noticeably frustrated "I saved her, nobody dies now right so why haven't I leaped?" "Well maybe you still need to help Jesse do what he needs to do…" "you mean….?" "Uh huh" he nodded. Sam Walked over to where Jesse was curled up in a ball on the chair slowly he began "jesse… you need to tell her. You can't just keep it in… after everything that happened today what do you have to lose by telling her how you feel…." He looked more than a little uneasy 'jack probably never talked to his son like this but it needs to be said' "what if she doesn't feel the same? I could lose her…" "Yeah but if she does you'd have a lot to gain. Look Jesse you both could have died today, you could have lost her right in that creak now are you really gonna let the what ifs keep you back? Or are you gonna be there for her, tell her you love her and never let her go?" His words seemed to ignite something in him as he then went into the hospital room where the blonde girl layed. "That was very well said sam" said the hologram "what happens al?" "Let's see lesslie goes on to become a beloved author of a series of children's book and Jesse becomes the artist behind them and oh this is interesting in 12 years they get married and oh wow they're gonna be busy they have 7 kids 4 boys and 3 girls and hey you're not gonna believe this Sam one of girls is a regular genius working on a secret government project…. Sam it's here she works for quantum leap." Before Sam could say anything else though he leaps.