Rating: PG (rating will change for later chapters)
Warning: fluff abounds!
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyright material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual. I only own my original characters.
Author's Note: Please R/R!
The green turned kaleidoscopic coloured portal then closed and the people groaned in much pain. "That's what I'm talkin' about! Soft landing!" Rembrandt exclaimed from his landed position on the couch but then thought, "That was the longest slide ever. Q-Ball what happened…" Rembrandt said; however, he stopped when he looked to his left and saw someone he dearly missed. Professor Maximillian Arturo.
Standing near a window in utter shock, the Englishman couldn't help but stare at them in utter happiness.
"Professor? Is that really you?" the musician asked.
At his question, the others faced the Englishman with great speed. Even Quinn, from his position in a heap of broken wood from the table he crashed into, shot up as fast as he could and stared at his mentor.
"Yes Mr. Brown, it's me," Arturo answered.
The others moved toward him in shock, while Wade asked, "But how?"
"Is...is Breana here with you?" Naomi asked anxiously. The former attorney tried to calm her racing heart as she waited for the elder physicist's answer.
"Yes Naomi, Ms. Breana is with me. She's currently at a local school. I'll be more than happy to take you to her," Arturo said as he grabbed his suit jacket and redirected his newly found friends out of the apartment and toward the Truman Bay School.
As they made their way down the sidewalk, Arturo explained, "And to answer your question Ms. Welles, I built a device that was able to lock onto both of our unique and specific quantum signatures. From there, I designed it to identify if and when your portal opened and it forcibly redirected you through me. It is more complicated than that; however, that is the overarching idea though."
At that moment, they arrived at the Truman Bay School and Arturo then immediately went to the front desk.
She was talking with Principal Ford; however, Arturo interrupted their conversation.
"I beg your pardon but Mrs. Cole, I would like for you to pull Breana LaLache out of class please," Arturo asked.
"Oh Professor Arturo, is something wrong?" asked Principal Ford.
"Not at all my good man. In fact, her mother has just come back and as you can imagine she desperately wants to see her daughter," Arturo said as Naomi came forward.
Eyes wide, both school officials nodded but then Principal Ford said enthusiastically, "You know, let's make this surprise even bigger! Why don't you all go hide in our conference room while I go get her from class."
Liking this idea, Tara Cole added, "Ooh that's good! She'll just think she's going to your office for something!"
"Exactly!" Principal Ford said.
"Folks, why don't you follow me." Tara said.
~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~
The large group of sliders waited anxiously for five long minutes in a huge conference room off to the side of the principal's office. Some were pacing, some sat while bouncing their knees, even Jason looked anxious to see the lost little girl again.
The only seemingly indifferent to the reunion was Maggie Beckett. The former captain sat in the farthest corner of the conference room with an unreadable expression.
However no one paid her any attention because suddenly Adira shot up from her seat and said, "I can see her! She's just rounding the corner!"
"Okay everyone just keep quiet until," Zoe began; however, she couldn't finish because Adira and Jett and Dorian ran out of the room. Looking at their retreating backs, Zoe said in response, "Or maybe not."
No sooner than that, Breana came into view as she was walking beside Principal Ford.
The three ecstatic children bodily collided with their long lost baby sister.
"Oh Breana we thought we'd never see you again!" Dorian cried.
Shocked, Breana could only lay in shock under the loving dog pile. After a moment though, she got her bearings about her and hugged them back.
Principal Ford, although shocked the surprise didn't go as planned, could only laugh at the reunion.
In the conference room the other Sliders stood in shock for a moment, until Naomi also ran out of the room and toward her Prodigal Daughter.
As she approached the pile of children, the others noticed the woman and helped Breana up so that Naomi could hold the little girl.
Naomi, unable to contain herself, scooped her youngest into her arms. Then both mother and daughter started to cry tears of relief and joy now that they've been reunited.
In seeing this, the other kids formed a group hug around their mother and sister.
A few moments later, Naomi released Breana and said, "Well baby, we can't hog you from the others. Let's go see them!"
"T-they're here?" Breana asked.
Her family was quite surprised to hear Breana speak with such confidence and with very minimal stuttering.
Adira was the first to recover and answered, "Everyone's waiting for you!"
Breana smiled at that and her smile got even bigger as they escorted her into the conference room.
Looking around, Breana was moved to tears again as she got individual hugs from everyone.
Professor Arturo couldn't help but smiling the entire time as he witnessed the long awaited reunion between the group and Breana. At one point though, as Breana was hugging Harold, Arturo's eyes met Breana's and her eyes reflected her gratitude so much so that Arturo felt tears prick the corners of his own eyes.
To gather his own emotions, the Englishman excused himself and left the conference room.
Seeing his father figure leave the room, Quinn followed and asked, "Professor? Where are you going?"
Clearing his throat forcibly and blinked the tears away, Arturo answered his protégée in a grandiose tone of voice, "Of course my boy! I simply wanted to talk with Principal Ford for a moment."
Quinn looked at the elder man strangely and then recognized that Arturo simply didn't want to display his emotions in front of the others.
Smiling Quinn respected the man's wishes and went along with him saying, "What do you want to talk with him about?"
Before Arturo could answer, Principal Ford approached them and asked, "I couldn't help but overhear you wanted to discuss something with me?"
Looking at the other man, Arturo answered, "Yes kind sir, I want to take Breana out of class for the rest of the day."
Smiling and nodding, Principal Ford said, "I thought as much. Luckily, she only had two other classes for today. I will immediately inform her teachers of this and they'll send her homework."
Arturo then shook the principal's hand and thanked him once again.
As Quinn and Arturo were just turning around, they saw Breana and their friends standing in the doorway of the conference room waiting for them.
"Ready to go, Professor?" asked Quinn.
Smiling at his student, whom he saw as a son, Arturo clapped a hand onto the young man's shoulder, saying, "Indeed. Let's go son."
~|S|L|I|D|E|R|S|~
Three days later, on a Sunday, the large group of Sliders were walking through the Golden Gate Park so they could find a secluded enough area to slide out.
"It's too bad the Professor's device got destroyed," commented Harold.
Nodding, Rembrandt answered, "Yeah. It could've gotten us to our respective worlds."
"But the good thing is that he said that he knew how to build it now so he'll try to duplicate it whenever he can." said Harold.
"Yeah man! And it'll be even easier for him since he and Q-Ball are back together," Rembrandt said with a smile and looked over his shoulder to see Arturo talking with Quinn.
But then his smile got even bigger as he heard the shrieks of happiness and laughter wafted to his ears. Looking ahead, Rembrandt saw Dorian, Adira, Jett, Breana, Lisa, Malcolm, Joon, and Sokka chasing each other having the time of their lives.
At one point, Sokka launched himself at Breana; however, Breana saw this coming and jumped into the air, half twisted her body into a backflip and landed on the ground into a front tuck.
Everyone was very impressed with Breana's instinctive moves. "Breana! Who taught you that?" asked her brother Jett.
Blushing slightly, Breana said, "A-at the school."
"Well can you teach Sokka some moves? Cause his fighting skills suck," Adira said with a smirk. Which got bigger as Sokka spit out the residue grass from his mouth and glared at her.
Naomi couldn't help but laugh and said to her nephew, "Sokka, I think something's wrong with your salad."
"Hardy, har, har Auntie," Sokka said, as he tried to repress his giant smile.
The rest of the adults surrounded them at this point and Wade asked, "Is that the Arabian parkour front flip?"
Looking at the woman with a smile, Breana nodded and answered, "Y-yeah! How did you know?"
Before Wade could answer, Rembrandt smiled and said, "'Cause she got skills."
Laughing at him Wade said instead, "Thanks Remmy, but I took a self defense class and they taught us some parkour moves there."
"Could you show me some m-more moves?" asked Breana with a big smile.
Smiling at the little girl, Wade said, "Of course!"
"Are we ready to go?" asked Zoe, still smiling at her little niece.
Wade pulled out the timer from her pocket and said, "Looks like we got about a minute left."
"Why don't we go just a little further to be sure we're far enough away from other people," said Quinn.
The others nodded and went further into the park. As they walked Breana approached Arturo and whispered to him, "Professor. W-we're not going to be separated again right?"
"No my dear. Quinn and I fixed the timer and put safety precautions into its system," the rotund physicist answered.
Breana smiled and then asked, "C-can I ask you something else?"
Raising an eyebrow, Arturo locked his hands behind his back and said, "I will never turn away any question, little one. I don't believe that it's in me."
Breana giggled at his faux grumpy expression and said, "Okay. Well, can you still read me stories even w-when we slide?"
The little girl's question warmed the eldest slider's heart and said, "Of course. You just make sure it's in the Obtaining Backpack. Understood?"
"Yes sir!" said Breana.
Smiling, Arturo then said, "Now cut along to the others Ms Breana. Go have fun."
Looking up at the Englishman, Breana then tapped her pointer finger and middle finger over her heart. Chuckling gently, Arturo repeated this motion, which made Breana smile broadly and she then ran back toward her friends.
Naomi, who saw this from a distance, approached Professor Arturo and said, "I want to thank you."
Startled by her sudden presence, Arturo jumped slightly and said, "My goodness woman! You're so very quiet." He then registered what the lawyer said and asked, "What would you need to thank me for?"
"For everything you did for Breana. She's back to the little girl I once knew. But she's also blossomed beautifully," Naomi said with tears glittering in her eyes.
"Madam, there is no need for thanks," Arturo said, "Ms. Breana takes very much after you. She's very bright and very strong for her age."
"That may be true, but she's still a child...one with PTSD. I can't imagine how difficult it was for the two of you," said Naomi.
Nodding, Arturo said, "We had our ups and downs; however, as you can see we were able to get past the fears about me that once haunted her."
Before they could continue their conversation, Wade opened the portal with their timer and yelled, "Come on everyone! Let's go!"
"It would appear Naomi, our next adventure beckons us," said Arturo as he watched their friends leap into the waiting portal.
Smiling at the Englishman next to her, Naomi swiftly kissed him on the cheek before she jogged over to her children. Once she was next to them, they all jumped in stood hand in hand before they collectively jumped into the portal.
As they jumped inside, Rembrandt saw Arturo was a very impressive shade of red and approached asking, "Hey, are you okay there Professor?"
Shaking himself out of it, Arturo noticed that only Rembrandt was standing next to him. Clearing his throat harshly, Arturo said gruffly, "Of course I am alright."
"Really? Because that shade of red you're turning says you just got pecked by a stone cold major league fox," Rembrandt said with a knowing smirk.
The glare the musician got in return made Rembrandt's smirk grow into a wide smile. Rembrandt then barked his infamous laugh as he ran toward the portal.
Seeing he was the last one, Arturo grumbled, "Watch out Mr. Brown...today is the day that I aim for you!"
With that said, Arturo dove into the waiting portal to follow his friends.
The portal then closed, leaving behind the swirling Autumn leaves.
The End!