To Put Right What Once Went Wrong
Disclaimer: I do not own and did not invent Max, Michael, Isabel, Sam, or Al.
Summary: When Max, Michael and Isabel come out of their pods into the New
Mexico desert, Dr. Sam Beckett leaps into the year 1989 to put right what
once went wrong.
Author's Note: If you do not watch Quantum Leap, you will probably not
understand this story. So read at your own risk. Don't come complaining to
me. :)
The moon shimmered on the New Mexico desert. Two young children, a boy and a girl, wandered aimlessly, looking for something, or someone, they knew not what or whom. They looked about six years old, but they had come into the world only a few hours ago. All they knew was that they belonged together.
Not too far away, a boy, the same age, was hiding behind a rock watching them. He recognized them, but did not know why. Part of him wanted to go to them, but he was scared. He sat down and wondered what he should do.
As the blue-white energy faded away, Dr. Sam Beckett gained awareness of his surroundings. He had leaped into many different people in many different situations in many different places. This time he found himself in the body of a child, and he was huddled against a big rock in the desert. What was he doing out here in the middle of the night? He looked around for Al, hoping the hologram would be able to provide him with some answers.
The door to the Imaging Chamber appeared, and Al Calavicci stepped through, smoking a cigar, and studying his handlink. He punched a few buttons, frowned and then looked at Sam. "Hey, Sam, a kid your age should be in bed at this hour," he snickered.
"Al!" Sam complained. "Who am I and what am I doing here?"
"This is a wierd one, Sam. You're Michael Guerin, and this is 1989, just outside of Roswell, New Mexico--."
"Don't tell me I'm an alien," Sam joked.
"Uh, Ziggy doesn't know who you are, actually. On this day three kids were found wandering around out here. There's no record of where they came from."
"Three kids? Where are the others?"
"Thataway, they're names are Max and Isabel Evans. But they're discovered separately from Michael. Ziggy thinks that's why you're here."
"Al, who are these kids?"
"Ziggy says that no one ever found out where they came from. Max and Isabel were picked up by Diane and Philip Evans and adopted by them. Michael, on the other hand, gets found by some rancher and ends up in a foster home with a no good drunk named Hank who beats up on him. There's a 98.7 percent chance you're here to keep Max, Michael, and Isabel together."
Sam sighed. "Why does Ziggy think they belong together?"
Al shrugged. "She won't say. Just keeps saying something about destiny."
Sam got up and started climbing up onto the rock to have a look around and see if he could find the other two kids.
The boy and the girl saw the other boy standing on the rock. It was him. He was one of them. They went toward him and he came down from the rock, and they took his hands and together the three of them silently started walking.
Al walked along beside them, unseen to the boy and girl who would someday be known as Max and Isabel Evans. "Good, Sam," he encouraged. "The chance of Michael ending up in that trailer park is down to 42 percent."
Sam said nothing, just kept walking with the other two kids. He was just sort of playing this by ear, like he did with all Leaps. All three of them stopped walking when they saw headlights in the distance.
"Uh oh, Sam, the odds just jumped up again that Michael is going to be separated from Max and Isabel."
Sam swallowed hard. He had a sudden strong impulse to bolt. This sometimes happened on Leaps. His host's personalities and emotions would sometimes leak into him.
"In the original history, Michael ran off," Al confirmed after punching some buttons on the handlink. "You're here to make sure he stays with Max and Isabel. Just stay with them, Sam, and you can Leap out of here."
Max reached a hand out to him, as the headlights came closer. Sam fought against the urge ro run. He stepped forward and took his hand, and Isabel took his other hand, and the three of them turned to face the approaching car, together. As the car pulled over to the side of the road, Sam felt that things were right, and then he Leaped.
As Philip drove the car toward town, Diane Evans turned and looked at the three children asleep in the back seat. Who were they? What were they doing out here in the desert in the middle of the night? They looked so contented back there, sleeping, leaning on each other. And she suddenly knew that she would do all in her power to keep them together, to keep them a family.
The boy who would become Michael, sat in the back seat, with the other two children on each side of him. They were asleep, leaning on him. He was pretending to be asleep. He didn't know what had just happened to him. He had been in the desert, then he had been somewhere else, and then he was back in the desert, with this boy and girl, and they were all getting into a car. He was afraid of the unknown, but he somehow knew he was safe with these people. Now sitting between them in the backseat of the Evans' car, he felt that things were right, and then he fell asleep.