Disclaimer: I don't own Sam or Al, all legal rights belong to Universal and Donald P. Bellisario. I do however own the other characters. All events, and simularities to actual people is purly coincidental.
Author's Note: Ok...this is my second try on a QL story...hopefully I can finish this one. I've tried to work on Character Connection but...I've recently moved back home and am no longer working for Disney so...I dunno...all my ideas stayed back in Florida I guess. But, we'll try this one.
Sam leaps into 18 year-old Alex Albright whose best friend was kidnapped when they were 8 years old. It's up to him to help his friends' mother to continue living and to find his friend before it's too late.
Theorizing that one could time travel within their own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished. He awoke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap home.
Shabbona, Illinois
June 13, 1998
Dr. Samuel Beckett had been leaping through time for longer than he could remember by now. He knew it had to be quite a few years now since his friend and observer Al was starting to show the sure signs of age and fatigue. He had been changing other people's lives for the better and yet God, time, fate, or whatever still didn't feel it was time for him to leap home.
As the roar of the space-time continuum started to subside and the electric like tingle began to surge through him, the bright blue light that would encompass him died down and he found himself standing on the porch of a house dressed in a hunter green army dress uniform. Looking up into the glass of the storm door, he saw the face of a young man with dark gray/blue eyes. Unable to get a good look at the man he leapt into, the brown wooden door opened and suddenly he was looking into the face of a middle-aged woman.
"Alex?" She asked, unsure if what she was seeing was real or not. Sam put on a smile and nodded.
"Uh…yeah." He said, holding his arms out some. The woman behind the storm door broke into tears as she threw open the obstructing door to get at her son.
"Oh my baby! Oh I wanted to come and see you graduate so much but…well…you understand. Oh why didn't you tell me you were coming home already? I thought you said you were gonna do a little bit of a road trip before you came home?" She cried, holding him tightly. Sam knitted his eyebrows together as he stammered to think of something to say.
"I uh, I wanted to surprise you and dad?" He said, hoping there was a dad to the boy he had leapt into. Megan Albright pulled back and smiled at her 18 year-old son as she ran her hands over his cheeks. She was a very pretty lady with bright, loving brown eyes and shoulder length brownish/blonde hair.
"Oh your father is gonna be so happy to see you when he gets home from work. Oh Alex…come in, come in! Get out of the rain." She said, holding open the door. It was only then that Sam noticed the rain dripping off the downspouts and onto the bright purple violets planted around the porch. Grabbing up his bag, he walked into the entry way of the house and looked around.
The entryway was painted a very soothing shade of yellow with very light pink ceramic tile for the floor. A mirror hung on the wall next to a coat rack on Sam's left and, after taking off his hat, he finally got a good look at himself. Alex had dark gray/blue eyes that showed a hidden pain deep down inside and had nicely combed blonde hair that had slightly taken the shape of his hat.
To Sam's immediate right was a flight of smooth and polished oak wood stairs that had a matching oak railing leading up to the second floor of the house. Along the pale yellow wall to the stairs were pictures hanging in frames of all shapes and sizes; some frames were home made while the others were clearly store bought. Moving past the stairs and continuing down the short entryway hall, Sam noted an archway leading into a dark tan living room on his left. The tan leather couch was with its back to the archway, facing an entertainment center that contained a TV, VCR, and CD player. Also in the living room was a matching tan leather chair and love seat with a table in between.
"Alex honey? Are you hungry?" his mother called from the kitchen at the end of the hall.
"Um…no, no not really." Called back Sam as he tried to soak in everything around him.
"Where is everyone?" He asked, noticing the family picture hanging on the wall in the living room. Sam could tell that the picture was taken some time ago and that everyone in the picture was smiling brightly at the camera. It wasn't a formal picture but instead looked as if it were taken in a backyard during a summer BBQ. There were three young boys in the picture, two looking very similar in age, weight, and build, the third boy looked a year or two younger than the others did and was slightly thin and frail boned. Along with the boys were two little girls, both looking the same age but one with striking blonde hair, the other with more brownish hair. Standing behind the children was a young couple. Sam recognized the woman right away as being the one who opened the door, the man he didn't know though. The man had short cut light brown hair with a slightly receding hairline and the same gray/blue eyes as Alex had.
"Well, Randy is God only knows where. Landon went to a computer convention in Chicago with Addie. And as for your sisters; Emily might be up at the Fox Valley mall, I really have no clue and Annie said she was going to the skate park in Waterman but, I doubt that. Oh Alex, it's so good to have you home again. I know that it was your choice to go to military school to get away from everything that reminded you of Bash, but, for the past eight years things just haven't been the same." Mrs. Albright paused for a moment and forced a smile on her face. "Come on, you must be anxious to see your old room again and get thing unpacked and all."
"Um, yeah…" Al where are you?
Mrs. Albright led Sam up the stairs and as they climbed Sam couldn't help but look at the pictures. There were class pictures of all five kids from all twelve years of school along with a few candid shots of the siblings with other kids he didn't know. There was one picture that stuck out to him for some reason though at the top of the stairs that made him stop and actually look it over very carefully. It was a picture of two young boys, both dressed in dirty, holey blue jeans, one was wearing a red T-shirt while the other had on a blue one. The one in the red shirt Sam figured must have been Alex when he was seven or eight and that the boy with shaggy brown hair and deep brown innocent eyes must have been his best friend. Both were looking at the camera, the young Alex with a big cheesy grin on his face and his arm around the other little boys' shoulder, and his friend with a shy, almost bashful, smile and a look that showed just how innocent the boy was.
"It's not healthy to try and bury the past, Alex. I thought after you went off to military school I'd put it back up as a reminder of happier times. You know as well as I do that Bash never liked seeing you sad, just like you never liked seeing him sad. He would have wanted you to keep that picture up. I know that it was the last time you two were together and happy, that's why I thought I'd put it back up. I know that it's been a long ten years and, even ten years is probably not enough time to get over what happened to you and him, but, at least it's given you time to try." Mrs. Albright said, standing behind Sam as she looked at the picture also. Sam had no idea what had happened to Alex and his best friend Bash ten years earlier but he hoped soon Al would arrive and fill him in. Turning back to the upstairs hallway, Mrs. Albright moved down to the last door on the right and opened it.
"Here you go sweetheart. I've tried to keep it cleaned up for you but, after so many times it's hard to clean what's already been cleaned." She said looking around the dark blue room. Sam stepped in and set the bag down next to the door. The room looked like it belonged to a ten year old boy which made sense to Sam when he realized Alex had left for military school at the age of ten.
"It looks great mom. Just like I remember, thanks." He said, moving over to his bed and then to the dresser.
"Your closet and dresser are empty. I figured I'd get rid of all your old clothes since you grew out of them. But everything else is still here, I didn't want to get rid of any of your toys or things because I didn't wanna throw out something you still wanted so…you can decide."
"Great. Um, I'm actually pretty tired so, I think I'm just gonna get changed and lay down for awhile." He said, moving back over to give her a hug. Smiling, Mrs. Albright hugged him back and took in a deep breath.
"That sounds like a good idea, sweetie. When you get up, why don't you head next door and say hi to Lyss and Eric? I know Lyss would love to see you again."
"Sure, no problem." Sam said, pressing his lips together in a small smile as he nodded. Kissing his cheek, Mrs. Albright left the room, closing the door behind her.
"Wow, talk about your twilight zones. This room never changed in the eight years this kid was gone." A raspy voice said from behind Sam. Giving a small smirk, Sam turned and looked at his friend Al who was puffing away on his cigar and wandering around the room.
"Hi Al." He said simply.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, hi Sam." Al said, sounding slightly out of it as he moved over to the dresser where another framed picture of young Alex and the boy named Bash sat with a single red Hot Wheels® next to it. Al had a slight distant look in his eyes as he looked at the picture before he shook his head and looked back down at his flashing hand link.
"What's going on, Al?" Sam questioned, not liking how quiet the Italian was.
"What? Uh, nothing, nothing don't worry about it. Your name is Alex Albright, you're eighteen and you just got back from military school. You're in a little speck on the map town called Sha…bbon…what?" Al grumbled as he smacked the hand link a few times to get it to work right again. "Oh, Shabbona, Illinois and it's June 13th, 1998. Your mother is Megan but you call her ma, and your dad is, heh, his name is Sam too but you call him Pops. You're the oldest of five and are 5 minutes older than your twin brother Randy." Al said as he continued to wander the room reading straight from the hand link. Sam looked at the framed picture and Hot Wheel® for a minute before looking back at Al.
"Ok, so what am I here to do?"
"Uhh…well…Ziggy says it could be a number of things like, uh…well…for one keeping your next door neighbor from overdosing on anti-depressants. And the other thing could be to help your twin brother break the news to your parents that him and his girlfriend are gonna have a baby. Ziggy's not sure." He said, shrugging some as he glanced back at the picture on the dresser again.
"Is there maybe something else Ziggy says I may be able to do?" Asked Sam as he noticed Al's actions and stepped up next to him.
"Uhh…no, nothing right now."
"Ok, then let me ask you something. What happened ten years ago to these two kids?"
Al was silent for a long and awkward moment before punching the buttons in on the hand link. Lights flashed from it and it gave a small squeal in protest which caused Al to remove his cigar from his mouth and look up into thin air.
"I don't care if she's still working on it, just send me everything you've got, Gooshie." He grumbled, loud enough for the invisible person back at the project center to hear and obey. Soon Al was taking a deep breath and looking at Sam with the same hatred and anger in his eyes that was there when he talked about what happened with his sister Trudy.
"'On Wednesday, June 18th, 1988 at 9:07pm two eight year old boys were abducted by a 49 year old male driving a white 1986 Monte Carlo. The boys were last seen crossing the railroad tracks heading south and were reported to be heading to the local grocery store for some candy. They were wearing at the time blue holey jeans, one with a red shirt the other with a blue one.' That's what the local newspaper wrote. Gooshie's pushing Ziggy to her max to find more info for us, but, right now that's all we've got." Al said, glaring off at an unseen force, an inner demon still plaguing the poor man's mind about his sister's death at such a young age. Sam looked at the picture and realized that the description Al had just given him was exactly what the two boys were wearing in the picture.
"They got kidnapped? Well…obviously they were found or released or something if I'm standing here and his mother knows him."
"No…Alex escaped. Haven't you noticed there aren't any new pictures of this boy anywhere? They never found him. And Alex, young Alex was too traumatized to even remember where they were when he managed to get away. And the Alex sitting in the waiting room claims to not remember any of it. Beeks is in there with him now trying to get his memory to open up and give us some info but the kid isn't budging. All he'll say is that Wednesday, June 18th, 1988 was Bash's birthday, he turned eight, and when he woke up the next morning Bash was gone. He has absolutely no memory of being kidnapped or of what ever it was that that sicko did to them." Al explained, clenching one fist together while his other hand held both his cigar and the hand link, his voice tight with pent up anger.
"God, that just really gets to me, ya know? Why would someone abduct two little kids like that? If I could find him I'd…"
"Al, I know, I feel the same way. Does Ziggy know if this Bash is still out there?" Sam asked as he sat down on the small, twin sized bed with red fire trucks driving all over the blue bed sheets.
"No cuz all we can get from Alex is that his name was Bash. Beeks asked him what his last name was and he just looked at her and said he was just Bash. So, we're getting nowhere on that one. We'll keep trying though. Although according to police records the second 'victim' of the kidnapping was presumed deceased in the year 2000." Sam could tell that the subject was really starting to get to Al and he wished for the hundredth time he could reach out and put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder.
"The sooner this one's done with, the better." Al muttered around his now stubby cigar before opening the Imagining Chamber door and stepping through it.
"I'm gonna go see what Ziggy's got for us, if anything yet." He said softly.
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Sam answered as the door whooshed shut and it left him in total silence.
"Well mom told me you were home, but she didn't tell me you had cracked up and started talking to yourself." A voice said from the doorway. Sam's head popped up and he looked at the place from which the voice came from. There, leaning against the doorframe was a boy no more than 16 or 17 with shaggy blondish/brown hair and a very youthful face, but with a pair of very nicely fashioned sunglasses on.
"Uh, what?" Sam asked, a common response for him when caught off guard by someone he didn't know in a leap.
"Mom. She told me that you had come home but she didn't tell me anything about you talking to yourself. I don't think that's something they taught you at school, bro. It's also not healthy. Of course I suppose it's even worse when the air starts talking back, so…as long as it's not doing that yet, I guess you're in the clear. Oh wait, you aren't arguing with yourself are you? Cuz that'd be bad too."
"No, I was just uh, thinking out loud to myself that maybe it'd be a good idea to head next door and see Lyss and Eric. You wanna come?" Sam asked, hoping they would so they could lead the way and maybe he could find out their name.
"Sure, but don't I get a hug first? I mean, hell, last time I saw you I was only 8 years-old." The boy answered as he gave an impish smile and held his arms out for a hug.
"Oh, yeah, sure, of course. Sorry, I'm just trying to get use to everything again. I gotta remember that I'm home and not at school, nothing's that formal here." Sam answered, getting up and hugging the boy who seemed much too short for 16. Smiling, the other boy pulled back and looked at him.
"It's good to have you home, big bro. Now come on, maybe you can brighten up Aunt Lyss' day." The boy said as they started off down the stairs and for the front door.
"We're heading over to Aunt Lyss and Uncle Eric's, mom! Be back later!"
"K, Landon. I'll have dinner ready for you when you get back so make sure you aren't gone too late. Tell anyone over there that who ever is interested is more than welcome to come over for dinner." Mrs. Albright called back from the kitchen as Landon tugged his baseball cap on and smiled at Sam.
"No prob. Latah. C'mon, Alex." Said Landon, opening the door and bounding down the porch steps. Sam nodded as he closed the door and watched for a moment while Landon took a right and headed down the sidewalk towards the medium gray, two story farm house style, home. As Sam followed Landon, he looked the place over closely. There was a nice wrap around porch, stretching from one side of the house, around the front, and straight on to the back with a nice white two person swing in front of the large picture window. To the left of the window was the dark gray door with tiled glass window in the middle of it. Landon stood on the porch in front of the door waiting for Sam before he turned and knocked.
"Lyss always told us not to knock but, I never feel right just walking in." Landon said, shoving his hands in his pockets. Sam nodded and looked around, trying to take everything in just as the door opened and a girl about the same age as Landon stood there smiling and shaking her head.
"Ya know Landon, you should just install a tunnel system between your basement and ours so that…" The girl trailed off and looked at Sam in mild confusion.
"Alex? Is it really you? Oh my God, Alex!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around him in a warm hug. Landon laughed as he stepped into the house.
"Take it easy on him Addie; he's been gone so long now he's talking to himself." Landon joked as he reached out for the girls hand and pulled her away from his brother. Addie smiled and slightly blushed as she looked down at their hands and then up into the face of her new boyfriend.
"Sorry Alex. I just haven't seen you in so long. Ever since…well…you know since when. Boy is my mom gonna be happy to see you! At least, I hope she will be. C'mon, I'll take ya to see her. She's been spending a lot of time in Bash's room lately. More than she usually does." Said Addie as she led them up a flight of stairs that were just to the left of the front door. Unlike at Alex's house, there were no pictures hanging on the wall leading to the second floor, just bare navy blue painted walls. At the very top of the slightly winding staircase was a door that was partly open, and the sounds of soft lullaby music was coming from it. Addie took a deep breath as they reached the door and turned to look at her followers.
"Ok…she's in here. God I hope she doesn't start crying or something weird like that."
"Good luck bro. If you need anything," Landon said, point to a door, just down the hall and immediately on the right, "We'll be right in there, just call."
"Uh…right…ok." Sam said, unsure of what all of that was suppose to mean. Placing a hand on the door, he slowly pushed it open the rest of the way and was shocked to see a room that looked like it belonged to a little child. It was painted a dark blue/gray color with a maroon colored ceiling. Along the top of the room, just below the ceiling was a papered boarder of blue, red, green, and yellow race cars along with checkered flags. In the middle of the floor was a play-mat carpet of a town with building and roads all over it. Along the left wall was a modified bunk bed; where the bottom bunk should have been was instead a table stretching the length of the bed with an electric car racetrack set up on it, the top bunk was as it should have been and was covered in race car sheets and blankets. In the corner on the left hand side was a small wooden dresser that on it sat a picture frame holding the same photo as in Alex's room, a small CD player, and a rather new looking remote controlled car. In the right corner of the room, next to what Sam assumed was a closest, was a rocking chair that was slowly rocking back and forth as a lullaby continued to play on the CD player. Stepping into the room more, Sam could hear words being muttered along with the song and wondered what they could be.
"And even though I know how very far apart we are, it helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star, and when the night wind starts to sing it's lonesome lullaby, it helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky. Some where, out there, if love can see us through, then we'll be together, some where out there, out where dreams, come true."
Sam paused behind the rocking chair and hesitantly placed a hand on the top of it. The chair instantly stopped rocking, and the singing ceased. Gulping some, he slowly stepped around in front of the rocker and looked down at the lady in front of him. The woman was dressed in a pair of baggy light yellow and blue pajama's that had Disney's Chip-n-Dale all over them. Her straggly medium brown hair was dashed with gray streaks and was a tossled mess. Sam could tell by the worry lines on her face and deep and heavy bags under her dull brown eyes, that the kidnapping of her child, and the worry over him, had aged her far beyond her years and had given her many of sleepless nights. In her small, frail looking arms, were two stuffed animals; one was a very well loved tan horse that nearly had all it's stuffing loved out of it and the other was a well taken care of teddy bear dressed in an outfit worn by fighter pilots during WWI.
Alyssa Biondo wasn't actually Alex or Landon's aunt, she was an honorary aunt to them, just as Megan Albright was honorary aunt to her children. She had been, at one point in time, a very happy-go-lucky kind of woman, always smiling and playing with her children. Sebastian, or Bash as everyone called him, was her oldest child and had been born with a slight mental handicap which left him unable to catch on to things as fast as the others and also shy and quiet. Though at the time she would have never admitted it, Bash was always her "favorite" child, mostly due to the fact of how innocent he always was to the world around him.
Alyssa always felt it was her fault her son and Alex had been kidnapped that day in June nearly ten years ago. Both families had been celebrating Bash and his twin sister Melanie-Jean's, MJ for short, 8th birthday at the Biondo residence and it had been Alyssa's idea to let Alex and Sebastian go to the local convenience store by themselves to get some soda's and candy while the other kids played games Bash didn't want to. She thought it would be a nice way to show both boys that she trusted them enough to let them walk the few blocks and back alone. Before that night, if anyone would have asked her if that sleepy little speck on the road town was safe or not, she would have laughed and commented on how nothing ever happens in that town. Since that night though, she constantly kicked herself for being so arrogant in the safeness of their town to let her son, along with her best friend's son, wander the streets alone after dark. When neither boy returned home from what should have been a fifteen minute journey, and Alyssa learned that they had been kidnapped, she had crumbled to the floor sobbing. She sat up for days next to the phone, waiting to hear some word, any word, from either Bash or the kidnapper. When a week passed and Alex finally showed up on his own front porch looking cold, hungry, and exhausted, Alyssa had what many considered a nervous breakdown. Many doctors tried to commit her to the psycho ward for treatment, but her husband Eric wouldn't allow it, saying the best way to treat her was to let her stay at home where all of Sebastian's things were.
As time went on, Alyssa did improve some. She began taking care of herself somewhat more and even went out from time to time. But now that it was nearing not only the tenth anniversary of Bash being gone, it was also going to be his golden birthday, Alyssa seemed to be slipping back into her old ways with only her Zoloft to keep her on the good side of sanity.
Sam, as Alex, looked at the frail middle aged woman and gave the best smile he could.
"Hi, uh, Aunt Lyss." He said, hoping it sounded like something the real Alex would have said. Alyssa looked at him in strange confusion for a moment before her eyes brightened some and a weak smile appeared on her face.
"Alex? Little Alex Albright? It…it can't be…where's Bash? Is he ok? Where is he Alex?" She said, her eyes suddenly becoming dark and a frantic look spread across her face. Unsure of what else to do, Sam grasped her shoulders and gave her a gentle shake to snap her out of it.
"It's me, Aunt Lyss. Alex…I'm 18, I just got back from military school. It's 1998. I don't know where Bash is." He said in a soft and calming voice. Sam could feel the mother trembling under his hands and watched as the darkness faded from her eyes and tears quickly rimmed them. Shakily reaching her hands out, Alyssa wrapped her arms around him and began to cry into his shoulder.
"Oh Alex! Alex…I…it's all my fault! I'm sorry! Oh God…I…I miss him…so…so much! I should have gone with you! I should have gone with…" she sobbed. Sam held her close and allowed her to cry for a few minutes before he heard footsteps coming up the stairs and stopping in the doorway.
"Alex? Go on home…I'll get her." A soft and low voice said from behind him. Sam turned to see a man a few inches shorter than he standing there. The man was roughly the same age as Alyssa, maybe a year or two older, and was about the same skinny build as Al, perhaps a little smaller. Dressed in a pair of blue jeans and black T-shirt, one would easily mistake him for a teenager if it weren't for the same deep worry lines that embedded themselves in his face as in his wife's.
"You sure? I could help, I mean." Sam said as he gently pried himself away from the still crying mother. Sighing heavily and running a weary hand thru his shaggy mop of dark brown hair, the other man nodded and looked at his wife.
"I'm sure. Not much you could help with anyways…not much I can help."
"He's gone, Eric! He's gone! He's gone…"
"I know, Lyss…I know he is, it's ok, I've got'cha. It's ok…" Eric answered as he knelt down and wrapped his arms around his still crying wife. Sam looked at the couple and couldn't help but feel a lump form in his throat as he saw the pain and suffering the two had been through. After a moment, Alyssa's sobs subsided and Eric gave a sigh as he stood, scooping the now sleeping woman up in his arms and looking back at Sam.
"Help me get her into our room." Said Eric as he carefully moved out of the room and down the few feet to next door on the left side of the hall. Motioning to it, Sam quickly opened it and let Eric go through first so that he could lay Alyssa down on the bed. Eric gently placed her on the bed and stared down at her sadly as he placed a stubborn lock of hair behind her ear. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, he glanced back at Sam and gave a slight smile.
"Let's go downstairs; I think we might still have some soda. We can have a drink and we can talk." He said, trying to sound like nothing was wrong as he slid past the boy he thought was his best friend's son to head to the stairs. Taking one last glance at Alyssa, Sam turned and quickly followed down to the kitchen where Eric was moving to the refrigerator to find a couple of soda pops for them both. Sam stepped up next to the table and observed his surroundings carefully.
"So how have you been, Alex?" Eric asked, handing him a can of Dr. Pepper as he closed the refrigerator door.
"Um, good, real good."
"That's good to hear. Wish I could say the same about things around here. Lyssa still blames everything that happened on herself. No one can tell her any different either, she won't let them. I think I keep losing her more and more every year." Eric said, shaking his head sadly, gulping down some of his soda before sighing heavily. Sam took a drink of his soda and looked at him in slight confusion.
"I don't really remember what happened that she's blaming herself for." He said hoping that he'd be able to find out some information. Instead he received a sympathetic look and shake of the head from Eric.
"You're lucky, then Alex. You're the only one out of the two families who was able to block it out of your memory. The younger ones kind of remember it, but it's more like a bad dream kind of feeling to them, they were too little to really fully remember it. But ask MJ, Randy, or either set of twins and they could go into full detail of it all. If I were you, I wouldn't do it though. Especially not MJ, she's having a hard enough time right now, she doesn't need that."
"I wish I could remember, even some of it. Maybe he's still out there." Sam said, finding himself racking his brain to think of something, anything, that could help them find their son. Eric gave another sympathetic smile and patted his shoulder.
"Don't hurt yourself, buddy. Everyone but Lyssa has pretty much come to terms with the fact that he's never coming back and that he's probably not even alive anymore. We'd love to think that he is, but, somewhere in our minds we know it's probably not true. Hey, you better get home. Don't need your mom worrying about you again. It's good to have you back home again, Alex. I only wish Bashy were here to welcome you home also. I know he would have loved to have seen you." Eric said, tossing his now empty can of soda into the garbage before heading off towards a door at the far end of the kitchen. Sam watched as he disappeared down a flight of stairs before he got up and headed out back towards his house. He had just reached the front porch of Alyssa and Eric's house when he heard the Imagining Chamber door open and close next to him. Scanning the area quickly to make sure no one was in hearing distance, Sam turned towards Al and froze when he saw the look on his friends face. The look was a cross between disgust and hatred, with a small hint of sympathy in his eyes.
"What's wrong, Al? What did you find out?" Sam asked, automatically knowing that something was not right. Al looked at with a slight glare before pacing across the porch.
"Beeks got Alex to crack some. His best friend's name was Sebastian 'Bash' Biondo. They'd been best friends since birth and Alex had always been his protector from everything that could have harmed him. Sebastian was born with a slight mental handicap and it made him real quiet and shy." Al said, the hatred and disgust boiling up inside him once again. Knowing that this leap now hit a very personal note with Al made it all the more important to Sam and he know that he had to try and find some way of proving Bash was either still alive some where or finally put his soul and Alyssa's mind to rest and prove that he's dead.
"Did you have Ziggy run a search on his last name? Try to have her find some sort of records on it?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. The only thing she could find was a death certificate. It was dated June 18th, 1998."
"June 18th, 1998? That's only five days from now. Who was it for?" Sam questioned, his eyebrows knitted together, knowing that it was the date of Bash's birthday and his abduction.
"Alyssa Marie Biondo, Bash's mother." Al answered solemnly. The color drained from Sam's face when he heard that, and he had to turn away from Al to keep his friend from seeing the pain in his eyes. Putting a hand over his mouth, Sam quickly racked his brain before turning back to Al who was staring down at his hand link.
"Get me any and all the information you can about the Biondo's and Albright's before June 18th. I don't know why but, I just have this feeling that Sebastian is still alive out there. And if we can find a way of proving that before the 18th then we can probably save his mother's life and his. I'm gonna see if I can get Alex's parents talking about the kidnapping, or even just Bash. Maybe that can give me some idea of what to do." Sam said, knowing that Sebastian was the real reason for the leap. Al took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Don't worry Al, if Bash is still out there, I won't let him suffer the same fate as Trudy. I'll find him." Looking at Sam with hurt and sorrow in his eyes, Al silently pushed the right combination of buttons to reopen the chamber door and exited without saying a word. Sam could tell that Al was still fighting with his inner demons about what happened to his sister Trudy, and he know that Al swore if he had the power never to let that happen to anyone again.
Heading back to Alex's house, Sam silently climbed the stairs and walked into Alex's room. He moved to the faded photo of the smiling young boys and felt a lump form in his throat. Picking it up and holding onto it carefully, he took a deep breath.
"Don't you worry, Bash. We'll find you."