7

Sam was lead by the jailer into the jail under the courthouse. He looked at Vicki in the cell reading the Bible he had given her under the cross on the wall and by the solitary light of her tiny window at street level. Both had been a ploy to dissuade the feelings of the community, but Trask reading that history of the future did a lot of damage. Sam looked into her eyes trying to get a feel of her feelings and innocence. Was she the same Victoria Winters that Al said lived at Collinwood in 1967? How could it be possible?

"Vicki," Sam started. "Where are you from? The truth."

"I told you, Peter." She replied. "Last week, remember..."

"Well, convince me again." Sam wasn't there when Victoria had confessed to Peter.

"I'm the governess for the Collins Family in 1967." Vicki admitted seriously with such a straight tone she couldn't have been lying to him.

"I told you, Sam." The invisible hologram of Admiral Al Calavicci now stood nearby. Sam was the only one to notice him.

"But how..." Sam looked briefly at him a second then back to Victoria. "Did you get here?"

"Sara's ghost was haunting the estate." Vicki held the Bible in her hands. "We wanted to know why she was not at rest, but there was a burst of wind, and the candles went out. I think I passed out, but when I woke up, I was here... in this time... wandering the grounds of the main house as it was being built."

"Sam," Al was checking her facts. "Ziggy found another parapsychological article on Collinwood. It seems that there's a legend in 1840 about a Quentin Collins allegedly created a stairway for traveling through time by using the quantum causality in Collinwood. Alledgedly, if it exists, according to the article, he could descend through it to other times, but none of the family could ever find it. She may have accidentally stumbled on it unwittingly if it actually exists."

"Peter," Vicki continued. "I have never been so scared in my whole life. I miss my own time, I miss Carolyn, Mrs. Stoddard and even little David, and now, I may never see them again!" She stood crying on Sam's shoulder. "Oh, Peter, you don't know what it's like to be away from your own time!!!" She broke up weeping.

"Actually, I do..." Sam started.

"No, Sam!" Al snapped to attention. "Don't you dare!!"

"Vicki," Sam took her and wiped her tears with his thumbs delicately. "I do understand..."

"Sam!!!!" Al tried to scold him.

"Who you're looking at is not Peter Bradford." Sam continued as Al sighed and gave up. "What you're looking at is actually a quantum phasic signature of Peter Bradford. My real name is Dr. Samuel Beckett, and I've been traveling through time myself, leaping in and of other people's life like this for years, changing things for the better...."

"Peter, you're scaring me!" Vicki's tearful eyes widened in fear. "You're making this up to tease me!!"

"I'm sorry," Sam pleaded. "But you're not alone! I was a boy when President Kennedy was shot, President Nixon resigning, the fall of the Wall in Berlin!!" He paused trying to figure out if that was the Eighties or the Nineties. "My god, I've even leaped into Willie Loomis, Carolyn's husband!" Vicki looked up. Carolyn and Willie get married in the future?!

"Vicki, I understand what you're living through." Sam continued. "My god, how many Eighteenth Century lawyers even know about quantum physics?"

"Peter?" Vicki was in shock as she backed from him. "This just can't be true." She started breaking up emotionally, losing her grip with reality.

"Vicki," Sam pleaded to her. "I'm from your future!!! I'm here to help you!" He looked at her. She looked at him as if he was mad.

"Sam," Al looked at the comlink and back. "I think you've lost her!" He looked back at Vicki as she suddenly found her support, grabbed Sam and started crying over his shoulder. He lost a few tears himself as he consoled her.

"You're not alone." Sam consoled her and spoke assuredly. "I'm here to help, and one way or another, I'm going to get you home!!!!" Vicki clung to him with tears of fear turning to tears of fearful joy. If she could come from the future, could Peter, or this Sam Beckett, come from her future??!!!