BABY ON BOARD

A/N: One of the few stories where Sam leaps into a toddler, and his mission is to keep his host's older brother from getting hit and killed by a school bus.

"There's an old saying that goes, 'Yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why it's called the present.' Well, I've had some surprises in all my years of leaping—some wonderful, like being reunited with my former piano teacher; others, not so much, like leaping into a chimp, or when I find out that I'm supposed to keep someone from getting killed."

—Dr. Sam Beckett

CHAPTER 1

November 1, 1986

Oh, boy, never again, Dr. Sam Beckett thought to himself as he was enveloped by the familiar blue light. The last mission had him preventing a Laker Girl's murder, because according to the original history, her body wouldn't be found for six months. That wouldn't have been so bad if it weren't for the fact that he'd leaped into a Laker Girl himself. And it sure didn't help matters that Al Calavicci, the observer for Project Quantum Leap was basically like a Rottweiler in heat the entire time.

When the haze faded, the first thing Sam did was look at his surroundings. He was lying on a very narrow bed with bars on the sides and an opening on top. At first, he thought he was in a hospital, but when he saw a mobile with undersea animals dangling over his head, he knew it was a crib. He also heard a man's voice saying, "Maria? I think he's coming around."

Sam very quickly looked up and down his body. He was lying on his back and wearing a pair of dark blue feet pajamas with a picture of Eeyore on them. What the hell? he thought in alarm. Don't tell me I've leaped into another chimp!

If there was one leap Sam wished that he could forget, it was when he leaped into a chimp named Bobo. He didn't know which was worse, being a chimp, or getting mixed up in the space program. Think Project X, only with NASA instead of the Air Force.

"Shh, it's okay, Xavier," the woman said tenderly as she stroked Sam's hair. "You just had another fever-seizure."

That's when he looked in a little mirror attached to the railing of the crib. Staring back at him was a Hispanic toddler with jet-black hair, olive skin, and deep brown eyes, not to mention half a mouthful of teeth. Oh, my God, I'm a baby! he thought in dismay. I must be at least a year and a half old!

"Mama?" another little boy's voice interrupted. From the sound of it, Sam guessed that the other boy was about seven or eight years old. "I don't feel so good."

"Oh, boy," Sam murmured. He could tell that these parents would have their hands full dealing with not one but two sick kids—which, as he knew, sometimes came with the territory.

"Do you feel like you're about to throw up?" the mother asked as she approached the little boy to feel his forehead. Shaking his head, the boy sat down in the rocking chair next to the crib. When Sam got a good look at him, he saw that he was the spitting image of his mother, only his hair was much curlier than hers. He also had on Thunder-cats Underoos, which is why he was shivering.

"He feels warm, Luis," Maria told her husband as she stroked her older son's hair and ran her hands down his face while the boy curled up in a fetal position. "Can you stay with the boys while I get the thermometers from the bathroom?"

"All right," her husband agreed as he picked the boy up and held him on his lap. The boy laid his head on his father's shoulder as the man started rocking and stroking his hair and face, then paused to feel his forehead. "Shh, it's okay, Miguel."

Maria returned less than a minute later. "Here," she said, handing her husband one of the thermometers. While Luis took Miguel's temperature, Maria unzipped Sam's pajamas a little more and put the other thermometer under his arm. Three minutes later, she removed it and said, "Well, Xavier's temperature is 100. What about Miguel?"

"Same here," Luis answered as he took the thermometer out of Miguel's mouth and looked at it. "Why don't I put him back to bed, and you change the baby?"

Maria nodded as she brushed Miguel's hair off his forehead and felt it, then turned back to Sam as Luis picked up the now half-asleep Miguel and carried him out of the room.

Whoa! Sam thought in a mixture of shock, dread, and delight as Maria took off his pajamas and started removing the dirty diaper.

"No," he whimpered as he started kicking her away.

"Don't worry, baby, you'll be nice and clean in a few minutes," Maria said as she cleaned Sam up and put him in a fresh diaper and a pair of white pajamas with a picture of Cookie Monster on them. "There, you see? All better. Dulces suenos, bebe."

As soon as she left, Sam heard the portal door open, and Al stepped out, wearing a flower-print dress shirt in every color of the rainbow, tan khakis, white socks, dark brown penny loafers, and a wine-colored cardigan sweater, along with his trusty cigar. Normally, you should never smoke around babies, but since Al was a hologram, Sam decided it was okay.

"Aww, Sam, you look adorable," Al smiled lovingly.

"Al!" Sam exclaimed as he tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness came over him, so he ended up propping himself up on his elbows.

"Whoa, don't try to get up," Al told him. "When your counterpart first arrived in our waiting room, he was in the midst of a febrile seizure, but Dr. Beeks was able to get him cooled down. And no offense, but you don't look so hot yourself."

"So I've noticed."

"Okay, down to business," Al said as he put his cigar in his teeth, took out the handlink, and started pressing buttons. "You are Xavier Benitez, eighteen months old..."

"I know that!" Sam impatiently cut him off. "I saw how many teeth I had when I looked in the damn mirror!"

"Okay, just relax," Al went on. "You're in West Palm Beach, Florida, and it's 1:30 a.m. on November 1, 1986. Your parents are Maria and Luis Benitez, and you have an older brother named Miguel, who's in second grade at Poinciana Elementary School. Luis is a ped—pedia..." After shaking and smacking the handlink, he continued, "pediatric neurologist at Palm Beach Children's Hospital, and Maria's a substitute teacher for the West Palm Beach school system."

"Okay, now that we have that established, what's my mission?"

"Let's see here," Al said. "Uh-oh, not good, Sam. According to this, on Monday afternoon, Miguel is getting off the school bus when he goes back to get one of his papers that blew under there. He gets run over, and dies in the hospital the next morning."

"Oh, shit!" Sam exclaimed, smacking his forehead. "And what exactly am I supposed to do? In case you haven't noticed, I'm just a baby!"

"You've surprised people before, Sam. Hey, remember Jimmy LaMotta, the guy with Down's syndrome? Well, you performed CPR on your nephew when he almost drowned."

"True."

"And let's not forget how you beat the crap out of that sleazebag attorney when you were Dr. Ruth. That reminds me. I promised her a bridge game after she helped me with my abandonment issues."

"Since when do you play bridge?"

"Since I met Tina. She says her folks used to play it a lot. At any rate, I'll ask Ziggy if she has any ideas."

"Okay," Sam nodded as Al opened the portal door.

"Want me to sing you a lullaby before I go?"

"Not unless you want a handlink up your ass."

"Okay, okay, there's no need to bark at me," Al said defensively. Then as he walked through the portal door, he muttered, "Boy, I'm really starting to miss little Teresa right now."

As Sam drifted off to sleep, he knew he was in for a very stressful leap, mostly be-cause the person he'd leaped into couldn't do much of anything. It reminded him of when he'd leaped into Ron Miller, a Vietnam vet who'd lost both legs in combat, and somehow had to keep a fellow soldier from committing suicide. The only difference was, Ron was an adult, and Xavier was a baby.

They say that sometimes people with certain limitations can develop super-human abilities when they're up against it, and Sam had a gut-feeling that before this leap was over, he was going to have to do just that.

And like Al, he, too, was starting to miss little Teresa.

Back in the waiting room at Project Quantum Leap, Dr. Verbeena Beeks was sitting on the table and holding a very distraught Xavier on her lap. This poor kid was wearing a pair of spotlessly white feet pajamas and screaming his lungs out. No matter how much Dr. Beeks tried to console or distract him, she couldn't calm him down.

Just then, Tina came into the room with a large Easter basket wrapped in plastic. "Happy Easter," she grinned as she set the basket on the table and started unwrapping it. When Xavier saw what she was doing, he managed to pull himself together and looked curiously at the items she was taking out. There were chocolate bunnies, a few peanut butter eggs, jellybeans, M & M's, some pink and yellow marshmallow Peeps, and a small stuffed blue rabbit.

"Bunny!" Xavier exclaimed happily, clapping his hands.

"Oh, you want the bunny?" Dr. Beeks asked. Xavier nodded ecstatically, and she handed it to him. The next thing she knew, he was curled up on her lap with the rabbit in his arms and sucking his thumb. "That must be what he needed."

"How's the kid?" Al asked as he entered the room.

"Well, it was hard to calm him down, until Tina brought in the Easter basket and showed him the bunny," Dr. Beeks explained as she set Xavier on the table and put the basket off to the side.

"Well, he seems happy now," Al commented.

"How's Dr. Beckett?" Tina asked.

"A little cranky."

"I would be, too, if I were him. I'm just glad he didn't leap into another chimp."

"Exactly," Al agreed. "I can only imagine how pissed he'd be if he did."

Just then, Tina sniffed the air and said, "Say, do you smell something?"

"Yup," Dr. Beeks answered, after confirming it herself. "Dirty diaper. I raised three kids of my own, so I'd know that smell anywhere."

She ran to the cabinet at the end of the room, and after a quick search on the bottom shelf, found a package of diapers that looked like they'd fit someone Xavier's size, and a box of baby wipes. After a quick change, he fell asleep on the table. Tina petted his hair, then stopped to feel his forehead.

"He feels warm again," she reported as Dr. Beeks picked up the baby and sat on the table with Xavier in her arms. Tina took a Thermo-Scan out of her pocket and put it in his ear. A few seconds later, she had the reading: 100.2. "We need to keep an eye on him, in case he starts seizing again."

"Right," Dr. Beeks agreed as she ran her hand around Xavier's face before laying him back down. Xavier let out a light whimper as she did so. "It's okay, honey."

"I'll go check on Sam," Al spoke up.

"Good idea," Tina said. Al nodded and headed to the Imaging Chamber.

"Poor little guy's all tuckered out," Dr. Beeks commented before Al left the room.

"Hang in there, Sam," he whispered as he went up the steps to the chamber. "I'm on my way."