"God bless, Sam," the bartender said, almost cooing with pride at Sam's sacrifice.
Then he leaped. He didn't really have to think about where he was headed. Sure, he knew now that he was in control of his Leaps, and he could go anywhere -- any when -- that he wanted to. It was no longer something that he could just blame on God, or Time, or Whoever. He was in the driver's seat now, and it was high time he made Project Quantum Leap work for him.
Still, right and wrong were things that were best left up to someone else. Or Someone else, rather. He may be the one deciding where to Leap, but he still had a job to do when he got there. And for the first time since he started this crazy ride, he knew what his job would be before he even Leaped. It wasn't something he even had to think about. He just knew.
The world shifted. Reality shifted. The cool breeze fading as the world around him altered, a dark room replacing the falling night. Ray Charles played in the background, softly crooning Georgia On My Mind.
"Beth," Sam whispered.
The brunette gasped, her lonely dance forgotten. The song played on uninterrupted. "Who are you?" she asked, her fright apparent in her voice. "How did you get in here?"
"I'm not gonna harm you," Sam assured her. "I'm here to help you." He paused for breath. "Help you and help Al."
"Al?" she said, the name seeming almost alien to her, yet so dear. Sam could only nod in response. "You... you're a friend of Al's?"
A friend? What kind of friend have I been, Sam wondered. The one person who's been there for me all these years. The one who never gave up on me. The one who's been the only lifeline I have to my own time. And I'm only now setting his life to right? What kind of friend am I?
Sam choked back the tears that threatened to fill his eyes. "Yeah," he finally said with conviction. "I'm a friend of Al's." Thankfully, Beth took him at his word, and relaxed a bit. "Do you think we could sit?"
Beth nodded, and she sat. Sam took a place on the floor in front of her.
"I'm gonna tell you a story, Beth," he began. "A story with a happy ending. But only if you believe me."
"And if I don't?" she asked. The casual look in her eye couldn't hide the hope that was pounding inside her.
"You will," Sam answered. "I swear you will. But instead of starting with 'once upon a time', let's start with the happy ending." The tears welled in his eyes again, but this time he let them come, softened by a wide smile. "Al's alive. And he's coming home."
Beth answered with tears of her own. She lost her breath, and was unable to say anything. Not that there was any need to. Sam knew. Knowing Al this long, he knew. He had done his penance. He had put right what had once went wrong.
Al's alive. And he's coming home.
Those words seemed to bring such joy to her.
Her who? He knew her name, just as surely as he knew why he'd spoken those words. But for one reason or another, he couldn't recall it just now. Becky? Bess? Well, maybe it wasn't important. Apparently, what he'd said was enough to make this Leap worth while.
Al's alive. And he's coming home.
Who's Al? Why hadn't he come home before?
Sam started to worry. This was something that he should know! He knew Al. Didn't he? Frantically, he cast about is mind, desperate to hold on to Al as history changed around him. Memories returned, very sluggishly at first, and then solidifying as Sam lost other memories in their place.
Sam's eyes panned around the room for some glimpse of something, anything, that would help him to keep his memory of Al from swiss-cheesing on him. He caught sight of a photo. Yeah, it looked familiar, but even that was fading. As he watched blue lightning cascade down the face in the picture, it began to dawn on him that something was terribly wrong.
He felt that long-familiar sensation of weightlessness steal over him as the past fade and a new life began to unfold before him, as was always the case when he Leaped. To put right what once went wrong. That's how someone had put it once. That's what Sam did. He put something right. But in doing so, something in his life had gone terribly wrong. If only he knew how wrong, or how to put it right again.
He was at a loss. He felt his memories being stolen away; not bits and pieces, as was normal during a Leap. Whole segments of his life were lost to him now, and more being ripped away. It was like he was Leaping again for the first time, that time when Admiral Calavicci... Al...
That name again. Gotta hold on to that name.
Sam poured all his concentration into remembering Al. But the memories were slippery. The more he tried to retain them, the more they would resist. He started to panic, although he wasn't sure why.
He forced himself to focus, to calm down. In this void, this in-between world he crossed between Leaps, memories fled while new ones were born. The past would reshape itself, and his mind would have to play catch-up in here, creating a swiss-cheese effect in his memory. He realized he had to get out of here, and fast. He had to talk to Jacob, the Project Overseer, and find out what Alpha (Ziggy?) knew about what was going on.
But how? Sam willed his movement through the void to stop. He couldn't enter another life without figuring this out first. Too much was at stake.
Sam thought back to his previous Leap, one where he found himself walking into a bar (Al's) at the precise moment he was born. Remarkable, to say the least. He remembered that... the Project Overseer... was very excited about the implications of Leaping into the moment of his own birth. Sam remembered saving those miners. He remembered saving the life of Szhtapos... and watching Szhtapos Leap right before his eyes. Something else... something important...
He remembered Al the Bartender telling him that he was controlling his Leaps!
Remember that. For God's sake, remember that.
He remembered Leaping (physically, in his own body) into that woman's home, and giving her a message. Al's alive. And he's coming home. He remembered her crying and laughing at the same time... and that's where his memories started going haywire!
That's the key!
But what to do about it?
Sam couldn't go back to that woman's home, that much was certain. Even if he could find a way back there, he could possibly nullify the good he'd done on that Leap.
So where else could he find his answers?
He considered Leaping back to the bar, but part of him told him that it was a one-time deal, that the bar hadn't actually been there, that it was just a way that God or Time or Whoever had been Leaping him around could meet Sam face to face, for once. So that was out.
Could he Leap home? Into himself back at the Project? Hoping against hope, Sam willed himself home, into his own body. He willed that his Leaping was over. He willed that he could just be Sam Beckett again.
But what about Al?
Sam felt himself being pulled away, speeding towards his next destination. Somehow, he knew even before he opened his eyes that he wasn't home yet. Maybe it was the smell...
The mixed smells of rotting garbage and body odor fought for domination of Sam's senses, as if trying to determine which one would make him throw up first. Sam's body felt wrapped in sticky rags, grit and grime rubbing against his body beneath them.
Sam opened his eyes tentatively, hoping to see the metallic walls of the Acceleration Chamber, but instead finding the brick walls of an alley. A cloudy sky overhead rained freezing drizzle down on him. Old moldy newspapers covered him from the neck down. Sam grimaced, and pushed the makeshift blanket back from his body, knowing what he would find. Sure enough.
"Oh, boy," Sam groaned. "I'm a bum!"