Turning Tail – April 29, 2005
TEASER: Fate decides one thing, but it's not the right thing – and help comes in the form of Dr. Sam Beckett. JAG-Quantum Leap crossover.
DISCLAIMER: Donald Bellisario owns it all except the plot, and even that he gets the lion's share of the credit for. Kudos to the actors who made these two series so beloved, particularly David James Elliot, Catherine Bell, Scott Bakula, and Dean Stockwell.
ARCHIVE: At my own site and with my permission (see my profile for e-mail).
FEEDBACK: …is a winning proposition, but no flames, please. It's hot enough with the pennant race between my beloved RED SOX and the ------ Yankees.
RATING: M
AUTHOR'S NOTE and SPOILERS: The idea popped into my head on vacation when I caught the tail end of an episode of QL – "The Last Door – July 28, 1978". What if the coin landed the wrong way up and changed the fate of not just Harm and Mac but the whole world? The entire JAG canon is at risk; I haven't watched enough QL recently to be comfortable asserting that everything here jives with what was revealed during the series, so please excuse any major gaffes. Many thanks to my brother Howard for being a reliable resource on QL.
Prologue
Dr. Sam Beckett felt the familiar nausea of a leap coming on as he cradled the crying girl in his arms. Johnny MacNeill would return to his life, a little confused but hopefully more attuned to the needs of his chronically ill wife and his four children, including little Chelsea, whose life Sam had successfully saved to trigger the leap.
Long practice told him to close his eyes until the nausea settled. When he opened them, he found himself in a bar held in the arms of a Navy captain in mess dress. The company surrounding them included a Marine major general in class A greens; a Navy commander, lieutenant commander, and petty officer, each in summer whites; and a blonde in civilian clothes. Sam looked down to find himself clothed in a shockingly sexy red dress and spike heels that would kill his feet if he had to walk in them.
The lieutenant commander smiled at him. "The bride-to-be will call it."
Sam realized after a heartbeat that everyone was looking at him. Without thinking, he blurted, "Tails."
"Always wanted to do this at the Superbowl," the lieutenant commander said, tossing the coin.
As the coin flipped, Sam wondered what exactly "heads" or "tails" would represent. Perhaps where to go on the honeymoon? Maybe where to have the wedding.
Everyone watched the coin land. The lieutenant commander leaned over and picked it up, careful to show that he hadn't changed its position. "Tails, ma'am, sir." Clearly, he didn't know what to say beyond that.
The man holding Sam sighed, but Sam couldn't tell if it was wistful, sad, resigned, or a bit of all three. "Well, Mac, San Diego, here we come. My mother will be thrilled."
The captain's arms tightened and Sam felt warm lips against his neck. He used to get completely freaked out when a man kissed him, but in the years he had been leaping – sixteen, according to Al, but Sam himself had lost count – he had learned to steel himself against his own reactions. After all, the man holding him didn't know that the woman in his arms wasn't a woman at the moment.
Time to say something. "You don't sound quite as happy."
"The reality of it all is just starting to sink in, Mac. I know that I am an incredibly lucky man to have figured out how to win the heart of the woman I've loved for the past nine years, but I just . . . I don't know. Given a choice between you and the Navy, you win hands down. But I'd like to have it all. I'll get over it."
Praying it was at least a somewhat logical thing to say, Sam replied, "I wish we both could have had it all. And I'd probably be feeling the same way if that coin had landed heads up. Will you excuse me for a moment?"
He released him with another kiss along his neck. "Sure. Hurry back."
"I will."
Sam heard the group alternately congratulating and commiserating with the captain as he made his way as carefully as he could to the ladies' room on the stilts women insisted on calling "sexy high heels." Typical of most bars, it was a single bathroom, but not so typically, at least in his limited experience with women's rooms in bars, it was clean and beautifully appointed with an ivy and lilac décor. He was thankful for the privacy as he closed and locked the door behind him. Then he turned and looked in the mirror.
The woman looking back at him had deep chocolate brown eyes and long brown hair that gleamed in the recessed lighting. She had well-defined arms, nice cleavage, and a figure that just didn't bear thinking about as a man without the proper body to appreciate it. "Oh, boy."