Still don't own QL or DW.
Sam sat up and the girl helped him to his feet. He almost collapsed immediately.
"Whoa." She helped him support himself. "C'mon. Let's get back to the Tardis."
"Wha?" Sam's head was still spinning. This wasn't like any other leap he'd had before. At least he had felt normal. Maybe the gunshots…
Sam remembered he was supposed to be injured, and reeled over, clutching his chest.
"Hey!" The girl knelt down beside him. "Are you alright? Is it the regeneration cycle?"
"Uh… yeah. That must be it. That and the fact I was just shot."
"Wait, shouldn't the bullet wounds have healed?" The girl began undoing his suit and before Sam could resist, she was examining his chest.
"No, nothing. They've healed fine." She stopped suddenly, and flushed, embarrassed. Maybe this was inappropriate for her. She helped him to his feet, and Sam began buttoning up his jacket.
"Thanks Rose." He said without thinking.
"Well, at least you remember me." Rose smiled.
"Wait… I do remember you." Sam breathed. Suddenly, his head was filled with information. Images, faces, voices, all racing around in his mind. It was too much for him to cope. He clutched his head with his hands.
"Doctor!" Rose grabbed his arm. "Doctor, what is it?"
"Too… much… information!" Sam said through gritted teeth. I… can't cope!" With a huge mental shove, he pushed the information racing around in his head away. He stood there panting for a while, Rose still clutching his arm. He turned to her slowly.
"Rose…" He muttered, and fainted.
Sam opened his eyes to a green-blue blur. He blinked, and the world around him sank into a room. But it was a room he recognized. Sam Beckett didn't recognize a thing, but there was something else in the back of his mind, another set of memories.
He sat up, and saw Rose standing near a control panel – the Tardis control panel – looking worriedly at him.
"Good, you're awake." She came a knelt down beside him.
"How long have I been out?" Sam asked
"About an hour." She replied, and Sam noticed for the first time that she had a Cockney accent. "I'd better get you a cup of tea. Worked wonders last time, remember?"
"Yeah." Sam vaguely remembered waking up to the smell of freshly brewed tea – but it wasn't his memories. What was going on?
Rose went of to get the tea through a door to the side of the huge control room.
Sam got to his feet and began pacing the room. He had memories of this place. The Tardis. His ship. The Doctor's ship.
"So I'm the Doctor." Sam said to himself. "But Doctor Who?"
"Boy, do you look a sight for sore eyes." Sam span around, and saw Al, dressed in a red suit a clutching a cigar in his right hand.
"Al! What is going on here, I was just out there, and I was shot, and now I'm here and what's going on?"
"Don't ask me! We had a hell of a time tracking you down at all! There's no information on you. So far as Ziggy knows, you don't exist."
"Well, that's helpful." Sam huffed. "I can tell you stuff though. I'm the Doctor, I've just regenerated into my 11th form and I'm standing in the control room of my Tardis. Whoa!" Sam reeled back; afraid he was going to be overwhelmed by information again. But he was fine.
"Sam… How can you know all this stuff?"
"I don't know, I just don't know! I've got so many memories…"
"Of this guy? The Doctor?"
"Yes. Well, no. Well, not this Doctor. Well…" Suddenly a new memory hit Sam like a bullet.
"Oh my God." He turned to Al. "The Doctor is a Time Lord, from the planet Gallefrey. He travels around in space and Time in the Tardis… his spaceship. Al, I've leaped into an alien."
At that moment, Rose walked back in with the tea.
"Whoa, if only I was a little younger." Al breathed.
"And not 15 years in the future." Sam reminded him.
"Hey, a guy can dream, can't he? I mean you don't come across a body like that every decade."
"Hey, you're gonna get a smack in a minute!" Rose said, speaking directly to Al, who did a double take as he realised who she was talking to.
"Uh… who're you talking to?" Sam asked.
"That guy right there! Doctor, are you sure you're alright?"
"Uh… Sam I'd betta get back and see if we can get this sorted out." Al said, nervously.
"Don't bother, Al." Sam stopped him. "You won't be able to modify the holographic emitter at all. The Tardis translates all frequencies, languages and whatever. Its also telepathic, linked into the Doctor's brainwaves, and now mine. That means it picks up the signals your holographic emitter sends out. That means she can see you." Sam turned to face Rose. "And she can see me, too."
"Oh boy." Al said.
"Gushie! Gushie what the hell's going on here?" The man in the red suit said, seemingly to the ceiling. He spoke in an American accent, and now, she noticed for the first time, so did the Doctor.
"Gushie can't help, Al." The Doctor interrupted. "The Tardis computers are too complex for us to interfere with. They work on a lever of psychic contact with the Doctor, and so only he can work it."
"And how the hell do you know that?" Al retorted, not calming down one bit.
"The Doctor is a Time Lord, and Time Lords can regenerate themselves. Somehow I absorbed the memories of all his former selves."
"Oh, I don't believe this! It was had enough when you leaped into that chimp, and now you say you're an alien?"
"Doctor, please tell me what's going on." Rose felt like she was about to burst with frustration. The Doctor and Al looked at each other.
"I suppose the Quantum rules don't apply here." Al said.
"Right." The Doctor turned to Rose. "You'd better sit down. And I think you'll need that tea more than I do."
Al walked back through the door of the imaging chamber. Sam had begun to explain everything to Rose, and all the techno-babble was giving him a headache. He still couldn't quite figure out how Quantum Leaping worked.
"Is he alright?" Gushie hurried up to him. "We're picking up major interference from where he is."
"He's in a spaceship. It's a long story." He stopped Gushie before he could ask how. "How's the real Doctor, anyway?"
"Not so good. He has bullet wounds puncturing his ribs and a couple in his stomach. He's in surgery right now."
"Make sure he recovers." Al pressured. "If he's gone then Sam'll never leap."
"So, you're not really the Doctor, but a human who learnt to Time Travel in the '90s." Rose summarized. She wasn't altogether surprised. Since she met the Doctor, nothing seemed to surprise her anymore."
"That's right. I'm from the year 1999, six years in your past."
"That's the bit I don't get, though. I was alive in 1999, and it was nothing like you describe it."
"Your 1999 wasn't, but mine was. I'm from a separate universe, one that split apart from yours at a certain point in time. The theory is complicated, but the Tardis is able to travel between these parallel universes. When it was pulled off course it didn't just go to 1985, but it went to the 1985 of my universe. Are you with me?"
"Sort of." Rose's head was spinning. It was enough of a concept to grasp that the Tardis travelled in time, but parallel universes? "So, this experiment, Quantum Leap." She changed the subject. "You can't ever get home?"
There was a pause. "We don't know." Sam replied finally. "Maybe after one leap I'll just wake up as myself again."
Rose felt sorry for Sam. He had left his whole life behind him and was randomly becoming other people. At least she could go home when she wanted to. She didn't think she could bear a life like Sam's, to never be able to see her family again.
"So, where is the Doctor? When you leaped into him, where did he go?"
"He leaped into my body, back at the Quantum Leap Project Base." Sam explained. He should be fine. He was regenerating when I leaped, so the bullet wounds should have healed too."
"So when you do what you came here to do, you'll leap and I'll get the Doctor back?"
"Yeah. Hold on… yes. Yes it would work!" Sam leapt up and ran to the control station. His hands flew around the controls and the Tardis engines started up.
"C'mon. C'mon. This has to work!" Sam coaxed the Tardis on as it dematerialized.
Outside, one of the gunmen watched the space machine disappear. His mistress would not be happy. Yet he must report it to her. The gunman turned and hurried towards the meeting point. His mistress would not be happy at all.
"What do you mean you can't find Sam?"
"I don't know, he's just… gone!" Gushie was hurrying around checking monitors. "He hasn't leaped, but he isn't in 1985 anymore."
"Well find him again!" Al yelled. Sam said the Tardis could travel through time. They could only find him if he had gone into the past. If he had gone into the future they would never find him.
Al paced up and down, taking a deep breath of his cigar. What if Sam had accidentally pressed the wrong control and blown himself up? What if he changed history? What if…
His thoughts were interrupted by a sharp grating noise that filled the room. He spun round to find himself face to face with an old Police Public Call Box.
"What the hell…" Gushie joined him staring at the large blue box. The doors opened… and Sam stepped out, still dressed in the bloodstained suit.
"Hi Al. I'm back." He grinned.
