They had just finished checking out and were now leaving the store when the professor approached them.
"Excuse me....Mr. Mallory?"
Quinn looked up surprised.
"Y-yes?" Quinn said still trying to get over the shock.
"Sorry to bother you, but I am in rather an unusual sort of predicament you see and I could really use your help."
"My help?" Quinn said still trying to absorb what was going on.
"Yes, you see your daughter informed me that you are rather good at this sort of thing and seeing as how you're here--I don't doubt that you are," he finished knowing full well that the Quinn of this world was out sliding around the multi-universe.
The professor noticed with a frown that Quinn seemed rather uneasy and wouldn't look him in the eye.
"Are you alright, my boy?"
He noticed that Quinn got slightly paler at this. Quinn took a deep breath, "I'm fine," he said. "What is it exactly that you needed my help on?" he asked.
"A sliding machine. I can't get the blasted thing to work!"
Quinn sighed. It seemed like a lot of people needed help with sliding machines--himself included. After a few experiences he had learned to be very catious when dealing with trying to help others with thier sliding machines. But somehow though, he felt that he didn't need to be suspicous this time...which was why he agreed.
"You what?!" Wade asked.
"I ah, told someone that I'd help them with thier sliding machine," Quinn said looking rather uncomfortable.
"What about our timer?! That still needs fixed too!" Maggie pointed out.
"I thought I'd work on both," he explained.
"No offense, Q-ball, but how do you know we can trust this person?" Remmy asked.
Quinn sighed. How did he know he could trust him? Because he looked like the professor that's why which wasn't really a very good reason he had to admit.
"I already told him that I would," he finally said.
"Does this person have a name?" Wade asked noticing that Quinn had avoided meantioning it.
"Yes, he has a name...it's..." Quinn mumbled the last part.
"It's what?" Remmy asked looking at him funny.
Quinn took a deep breath.
"It's the professor's double," he reluctantly said.
Rembrandt and Wade were stunned--Colin and Maggie were unaffected by the meantion of the professor--as neither of them had known him.
"The professor?" Wade whispered.
"His double," Quinn gently reminded her.
"Quinn, are you sure you want to do this?" Rembrandt asked concerned.
"Yeah, I'm sure...I mean how could I not? Quinn answered with a shrug.
"Where are you going to work on it?" Colin asked.
"He said he had kind of a lab set up at his house."
"We're coming too," Wade said firmly.
They arrived at the professor's house two hours later. Quinn nervously took a deep breath and knocked on the door. The professor opened the door immediately.
"I hope you don't mind...but I brought my friends with me," Quinn said.
"No, not at all, come on in," the professor said gestring them in.
The professor's eyes widened as he saw who they were--in particular who two of them were.
"This is Wade, Rembrandt, Maggie, my brother, Colin, and you've already met my daughter, Katie," Quinn introduced.
"It is a pleasure to meet you all," the professor said.
"Wade, are you alright?" Quinn asked concerned. Wade had turned awfully pale.
"Yea, it's just...I'm fine," Wade whispered blinking back tears.
"We knew your double from our world," Rembrandt explained.
"Knew...?"
"He died," Maggie said rather bluntly.
Wade and Rembrandt glared at her.
"What?" Maggie asked.
"Shouldn't we get started?" Quinn interrupted quickly changing the subject.
They all headed down to the basement and Quinn Colin, and the professor gathered around the equipment.
"It looks like you have a pretty good start here," Quinn commented.
"Well, it should--I've been working on this blasted thing for years now."
The three got to work on the sliding machine while the others looked around the basement.
"Hey, check this out--on this world the Golden Gate bridge is blue!" Maggie said flipping through a magazine.
Quinn dropped the part that he hand been working on in suprize. He, Wade, and Rambrandt looked at each other. Wade gasped.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Q-ball"
"I think..." Quinn said slowly, "we may have been here before..." .
They cast uneasy glances at the professor.
"Mind filling the rest of us in here?" Maggie asked.
"It was about our second year sliding..." Quinn began.
The professor gave him a startled look.
"Yeah, and we thought we were home too," Rembrandt continued.
"Wait a second, it didn't happen to be just four of you sliding then?" the professor asked.
"Yeah," Rembrandt said slowly.
"I don't believe this...didn't you realize you had the wrong one?!"
"The wrong one?" Wade asked curiously.
"And you're saying that you're the right one?" Rembrandt asked not believing him.
"Of course I'm the right one you blistering idiot!"
"I guess there's only one way to find out for sure," Quinn said slowly after taking it all in.
"Mind filling the rest of us in on what's going on here?" Maggie repeated impatiently.
The three quickly filled her in on what happened the last time they had been on this Earth.
"...And now we're going to check his quantum signiture to see if it matches Wade and Rembrandt's." Quinn finished.
"What about yours?" the professor asked confused.
"That...is a very long story," Quinn said with a slight smile.
After checking his quantum signiture they found that he was indeed their professor. Obvoiusly this revelation brought about alotof excitement and they took turns filling the professor in on all that had transpired since they had been separated. It looked like this would be a Christmas to remember.
up above
She smiled. It looked like her work here was done. They were now all together and more importantly they were all happy. After all, tomorrow was Christmas...what could go wrong?
THE END
Please review, any and all feedback is welcome.
(yes, I know this story was a little on the sappy side--but it was the first fanfic that I had ever written...)
(thank you very much to hunter3 who has already reviewed :) )