A/N: I'd like to thank author NoOneReallyKnows for giving me permission to use Jon's middle name (Beckett) to tie Star Trek: Enterprise and Quantum Leap.

Cross posted on AO3

Reviews welcomed. Be kind. Peace and Love to all

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Jon laid with his hand resting on Trip's chest, watching his young husband playing with the ring around his finger. He wasn't sure why the gold band fascinated his young husband so much, or why he found it amusing to watch Trip fiddle with it, it was just one of those things they did together in the quiet moments of the night.

Jon looked at his husband's face and recognized the furrowed brows, far-off look and stillness of his mouth, that meant Trip was lost deeply in his own mind. "What are you thinking about, sweetheart?" Jon asked quietly.

Trip returned to the present as he looked at Jon. "Hmm? Oh, nothing really, just wondering…"

Jon smiled. "About what?"

Trip propped himself up with his elbow. "Beckett. That's not a very common name, so I was just curious where it came from. I mean, don't get me wrong, it does sound good… Jonathan Beckett Archer… just, I don't know, unusual."

Jon scowled for a second. "It comes from one of my ancestors on my dad's side. His name was Samuel Beckett. It's a little disturbing that my dad would pick that particular ancestor to name me after. More disturbing when I found pictures of the man and realized that I look like him."

Trip's brows knitted together. "Why do you say disturbing?"

Jon sighed. This was one thing he hoped his husband would never know about. "Because he was schizophrenic."

Trip fully sat up, his eyes grew wide. "Wait, isn't schizophrenia hereditary?"

Jon nodded. "They're not really sure what causes schizophrenia, but genetics is a factor. I get tested every so often… I'm not schizophrenic."

Trip mulled that around in his mind for a moment. "But aren't schizophrenic people dangerous, like going on wild rampages, hurting people for no reason or something?"

Jon sighed. He knew the stigma of schizophrenia and really wished more people were better informed about the disorder. "Not always. People with schizophrenia disassociate from reality, they live in their own fantasy world, not realizing it's not real. Most are able to function like you and me, hold jobs, have a family, all of that, but they do have times when they can't tell what's real and what's not. The people with schizophrenia that most believe are dangerous, are so severe and completely lost from reality, they always think they're in danger. That's what makes them do the things they do, they think someone is trying to hurt them and they react to the perceived threat."

Trip bit at his lip. "Was your ancestor… one of the dangerous ones?"

Jon shook his head. "No, his delusion was that he was a time traveler, able to inhabit the bodies of people from the past, living their lives and changing the future. He believed that he worked at a secret military base in New Mexico, conducting his time travel experiments with his holographic friend, Al Calavicci. Weird thing is, there actually was a Naval Admiral named Al Calavicci at the time, but it's believed that my ancestor might have seen him in the news or something and added the man to his delusion. Anyways, the story passed down was that Sam was so delusional, he would change his voice and demeanor to match the person he believed he was inhabiting at the moment. Sometimes, it was a foreigner, sometimes a child, women, people with other mental disorders, lawyer, doctor, magician, cab driver, what I've been told, one time he spent the day acting like he was a monkey… his family would never know who or what he would be next. They thought he might have had a multiple personality disorder as well, but the doctors could never confirm that. For the most part, he was harmless, but his family couldn't handle his delusions."

Trip looked at Jon for a moment, trying to picture what it was like to have a family history such as that. He couldn't blame his husband for keeping that part of his family's history a secret, since most likely he would do the same. "What happened to him?" Trip asked softly.

Jon looked down for a moment. "His family had him institutionalized. He spent years there, until one day he convinced a new orderly that he was one of the doctors, lost his badge, and the orderly used his badge to unlock the door. He simply walked out and disappeared for decades, he never got into any trouble, so he kind of stayed off of the radar that way. He was in his late 80's when he suffered a stroke and was rushed to the emergency room in Roswell, New Mexico. Without any identification on him, they thought he was homeless, but the doctor got his fingerprints and asked the police to see if they could help identify him so they could find any family to contact. Of course that's when they found out who he was, an escaped patient from a mental institution. By that time, his parents and older brother had long since passed, his younger sister was in poor health and couldn't take care of him, he didn't have any children, so the hospital had no other choice but to keep him there in the mental ward until he passed about 5 years later. Even in his final years, he still believed he was a time traveler, leaping from one life to another, putting right what once went wrong."

Trip laid his head on Jon's shoulder, holding his husband tight. After a few moments of silence, Trip grinned. "Y'know, that actually might make a good tv show."

=End=