Project Quantum Leap

November 2, 2007

2230 hours/11:30 pm

Shawn and Tina Catlin's quarters

Tina closed the door of Jeffrey's room, as quietly as she could, then made her way down the hall into the living room. When she entered, she found Shawn sitting on the sofa, watching the tv. She came over to sit down beside him. He smiled and put an arm around her. "So how's Jeffrey?" he asked.

"He's gone back to sleep. Finally." she said with a wry smile. "Now he'll be fine, at least for a couple of hours until I have to feed him again." she chuckled. "Don't worry, it'll only be for a few months, you know that. I got AJ through that stage, and we managed with the twins, we'll get through this with Jeffy." She snuggled up against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "What're you watching?" she asked.

"Oh, some movie..." he said, trailing off as he stared at the screen. "Oh damn it no."

"What?" Tina asked.

"Would you look at that?" he said, indicating the screen. "what they're doing?"

The TV showed a group of teenage boys, sitting in a circle in a rather rundown looking room. They were passing around a pipe and what looked like some bags of white powder, which each boy stuffed some of into the pipe before taking a whiff.

"Looks like they're on drugs," Tina said.

Shawn nodded. "Yes." he said, "that's so damn...stupid." He said the last word with an intensity, a level of anger, that shocked Tina. There weren't too many things that got Shawn that riled up.

"It's just a movie," she said, trying to relax him.

"This is, yes," he said, in a softer tone. "I'm sorry, but this just takes me back..." he shook his head.

"To what?" she asked, uncertainly. "I know you never would've done anything like that."

"I didn't, no. I knew that stuff was no good, even when I was a teenager." Shawn replied. "But I saw what that stuff did to other kids. I remember once..." he swallowed. "I never told you about this," he continued, "but I knew someone who...died...that way. A kid I used to go to school with."

Tina's mouth opened, then closed again. That had to be the boy Sam was trying to help on the current leap, as a teenaged Shawn. She couldn't tell the Shawn sitting beside her that, though, so all she said was, "go on."

"It was a month or so after I turned 13." Shawn said. "I'd just found out I could do magic,,and..." he sighed. "Mother told me how it was I'd gotten it. That I'd inherited it from Tompkins" He spat out the name as if it were poison. "And ...and how she'd had me." He shook his head.

"Shawn..." Tina said, putting her hand on his.

"It's taken me quite a few years to get past that," he said quietly. "But back then, the only thing I could think was that having me around kept reminding Mother of that bastard and what he did to her. That she'd be better off without me." Shawn sighed. "I didn't want to stay on the street, though, that wasn't safe. Even then I knew that much. So I asked this kid from school if I could stay with him. Kyle, his name was." He took a deep breath. "That's all I remember of that time. I woke up in a hospital a week later, and they told me he was dead. OD'd on crap like that." he pointed at the movie, which again showed the boys smoking the white powder. "The police got a tip there were drug sales going on in some old rat,trap of a building. They raided the place, and that's when they found Kyle...dead...and at the same time, they found me passed out next to him. The doctors said they didn't think I'd taken any drugs, they'd checked for that, but they were never able to explain why I was out cold. They said I might've found him dead and the shock was what did it."

"That must've been terrible," Tina said softly, not knowing what else she could say. She realized she was going to have to talk to Al about this in the morning, since it had to do with the current leap. She wished she could tell Shawn, but she knew the rules; plus, she'd promised Al that she wouldn't tell Shawn about this, and she was going to keep that promise.

Shawn sighed again. "I can't watch any more of this," he said and clicked the tv off. The memories it was stirring up were just too painful, even after all the years that had gone by since he'd been that thirteen year old boy.

Tina gave Shawn's hand a gentle squeeze. "Shawn, why don't you come on back to bed then, please?" Tina asked, hoping to distract him. "I think I can find something a lot happier for you to think about." she made herself smile, and for good measure winked at him meaningfully.

"That sounds like a very good idea." he said, catching her wink and finding himself responding with a grin. Keeping his arm around her waist, they stood up and walked together back to their bedroom.

The next morning, Al Calavicci's office...

Al had taken time at home to have breakfast with Mary and the kids, then returned to his office to take care of some paperwork. He was trying to get as much done as he could before he had to go and check on Sam again. He hated the endless stream of reports, but if he didn't keep up with them, it would be one more excuse for those nozzles on the Committee to hassle him about. That was a source of frustration he definitely did not need to deal with; not on top of the constant worry about Sam, especially when he was in the middle of a leap, as he was now.

Just as he was finishing up with the motor-pool fuel consumption report for the month of October, which he considered to be one of the most time wasting of the stuff he was forced to wade through, the door chime sounded. "Come in," he called, welcoming the interruption as a way to avoid falling asleep from sheer boredom.

Tina entered and took a seat on the side of the desk opposite Al's. "Al, there's something I need to tell you." She took a deep breath. "Now I know that I said I wouldn't tell Shawn about this leap, and I didn't. But it just so happens that he brought something up on his own last night, something that I realized has to do with this, so I thought you should know."

"What was it?"

"Some movie that he saw part of, while I was taking care of Jeffy." Tina replied. "The bit I saw showed some kids doing drugs. Shawn told me it reminded him about a friend of his who'd died that way, and I recognized the name from what Ziggy told us earlier; it's the boy Sam's trying to save right now."

Al nodded. "Thanks for telling me," he said.

"It wasn't at all easy keeping quiet about this, Al. You know how I feel about keeping secrets from Shawn." Tina said sadly. "We've always been able to be honest and open with each other, and this feels like I'm going against that."

"I know, but it's necessary." Al said firmly.

Tina shook her head. "I know that, Al, but it's still hard." She sighed. "Anyway, that's what I wanted to say, I'll see you in the Control Room."

With that Tina left, and Al resumed working on the pile of reports. For about five minutes, anyway; then the door chime sounded again.

This time, it was Verbena Beeks who entered. "Al, the guards are getting Shawn, the Visitor Shawn, some breakfast. After I've gotten something to eat myself, I'll go in and try to talk to him again. I stopped in to fill you in about yesterday, though. He did talk to me, somewhat."

"Well that's good." Al replied. "But I heard from the guards, and Ziggy, about what happened yesterday afternoon. Damn it, Beeks! If he'd gotten loose, like that other one did, there'd have been hell to pay!"

"He didn't." Verbena said firmly. "That's what's really important here. Al, remember, he's just a kid. not an adult like most of our Visitors have been. That's one of the reasons he lost it, I'm sure. However," she said, determined to reassure Al, "I did manage to get him settled down, and I really don't think he'll go hysterical on us again." She paused. "There is, though, something else you should know. I'd asked Shawn if there was anything we could bring in for him. He'd asked for some music, and a guitar. I've already made arrangements for that last. But when I was asking Shawn about what music he would like..." She paused and looked meaningfully upwards. "Let me put it this way; a certain someone decided to, shall we say, put their two cents in."

"Really, Doctor," came the voice of Ziggy. "Such pettiness does not become you. I was merely trying to help."

Al groaned. "You know the rules better than that!"

"As I informed Doctor Beeks," Ziggy replied prissily, "the musical selections and any other data with which I am supplying Mr. Catlin are all from 1988. I am programmed to ensure the Visitor's comfort as well as making certain no temporal contamination takes place."

Al shook his head. Sometimes there was no arguing with her. He turned back to Verbena. "Keep working on the kid, all right? We've got to have more information for Sam. Anything you can find out may be the one thing he'll need to put it all together."

Verbena nodded. "I know, and I'll let you know as soon as I have anything." With that, she left the office.

Al took a sip of his coffee, then had to fight the urge not to spit it out. Damn, the stuff was vile! He'd have to make a note to talk to Denise again about exactly how she was managing to ruin what should have been perfectly good Colombian coffee! He put the cup aside and picked up one of his cigars. He'd promised not to smoke them in his quarters, around the kids, but here in his own office was all right, since the kids did not come in here.

With a sigh, he settled back to dealing with the mountain of paperwork on his desk. The time seemed to slip away as he waded through the mass, and the next time he paused to look at his watch, he realized that it was almost lunchtime. Damn, all these stupid forms and reports the nozzles on the Committee wanted in triplicate, or in some cases quadruplicate, with every i dotted, every t crossed, had taken him a lot longer than he'd thought they would! Besides that, Beeks hadn't yet reported back to him, which could only mean she didn't have any new information for him yet. That, in its turn, meant that he'd have to wait a little while longer before going back into the Imaging Chamber to check on Sam. There wasn't much point in doing that, short of some emergency, unless he could bring Sam some new information that would be helpful in dealing with the situation in 1988. And Al knew that if there was some emergency, Ziggy would alert him immediately.

"Ziggy, let me know the exact minute that anything changes with Sam, all right? And if Beeks calls, I want you to put her through to me asap. I'm going home to have lunch with the family." Al said, walking out of the office.

"Oh, that's very kind of you. Turn me into a messenger service." Ziggy snorted huffily.

Al shook his head. "Cut that out, you assembly of transistor rejects! Keep that up and I'll be talking to Gooshie about an upgrade for your circuits!" he growled.

"I most certainly do not contain anything as antiquated as transistors, Admiral, and even if I did, they would most certainly not be rejects. My father would not have used anything but the best components available in my construction. Also, I will have you know that every single one of my circuits tested 100 percent at the last diagnostic." Ziggy purred. "I can assure you I am functioning at optimum parameters."

"Just tell Doctor Beeks what I said, damn it!"

"Very well, Admiral, since you insist, I will inform her." Ziggy replied prissily, her tone making it quite clear she considered such a task beneath her. Well, that was just too damn bad, Al thought to himself. If Ziggy didn't like it she could just stuff it up a node somewhere.

Then Al hurried through the corridors and levels of the Project back to his quarters. The next hour or so was wonderfully relaxing, as he spent it chatting with Mary, and was even able to get in some time to play with Trudy, and Sammy, and Austin. It was a much needed, if too brief, break from worrying about Sam and what was going on with him.

However, all too soon, the time had passed, and he had to be getting back to work. Hopefully by now, he thought, Verbena would have gotten some more information out of the teenaged Shawn, and he would be able to pass that information along to Sam. With a round of hugs and kisses for his family, and promises to be back that evening for dinner unless there was some real emergency, some crisis, with Sam, he hurried back to the Control Room.

At that same time, elsewhere in the Project, in the present, Tina had also taken a break for lunch. She'd stopped by to check on the children, who were being taken care of by their babysitter. This was Cathy, a friend of Tina's who wasn't actually a member of the Project staff, but someone that she and Shawn, as well as Al, had known for several years now, since AJ had been a baby. In fact, next to herself, Shawn, and Shawn's mother Shirlee, Cathy was AJ's favorite grownup. As for Shawn himself, he wouldn't be home until that evening, Tina knew, because he was rehearsing with his band for their next show.

Once she'd fed Jeffy and made sure the older children were okay, all playing happily with their toys, while Cathy watched the children as she worked on her lesson plans--she was an elementary school teacher when she wasn't babysitting--Tina hurried to the Project cafeteria to get a bite to eat before she had to return to work. There, she found Verbena, who'd also stopped in for a bite.

"Bena, how's it going?" Tina asked.

"All right, I think, as well as it can under these circumstances anyway." Verbena replied. "You know how it usually is with the Visitors. Most of them, they're frightened, confused about where they are and what's happened to them. That's when they're adults, too. This Shawn's just turned thirteen, but then you know that; anyway, his being so young is making it harder. You also know what Shawn's history is."

"Right." Tina chuckled. "It's not every day that Sam leaps into the teenaged version of someone we know here. I think that's only happened once that I can remember."

"Right. There was that time Sam leaped into a younger version of Al." Verbena said.

Tina nodded. "I remember that was hard on Al, and now I sort of know how he must have felt. That is Shawn in there, at least the teen version." She sighed. "I hope I didn't make too much of a mess of things by blundering in on you two."

"It's okay. I told him simply that he might have reminded you of someone you know. Which isn't exactly a lie, though it isn't quite what he probably thinks I meant."

"You've got that right."

"Though there's something," Verbena smiled. "Right after you left, he said, 'She's cute for an old lady.'"

Tina burst into laughter. "Oh, that darling!"

Verbena laughed too, as the two women made their meal selections. They sat down to eat at the same table so that they could continue to chat. The time passed quickly, as quite often happens when one is having fun, and all too soon, both had to return to work.