A Leap Into Destiny
Faith and Good Works Part 1
By the time the blue aura cleared up, Sam Beckett found himself in a familiar situation once more.
Looking down at the clothes he was wearing, Sam once again noticed that he was in priestly garments. It had been years ago that he leaped into a religious figure in order to help out another priest, Father McRoberts, who had been ailing from alcoholism and his desire to avenge the death of a young boy.
But was he back in the exact same parish?
"Father Pistano, how are you doing?" a kind voice behind Sam alerted him.
"Uh yeah, I'm doing alright," Sam turned around.
Right in front of him was Father McRoberts, the one and only.
"Father Mac!" Sam said in surprise.
"What's wrong, Frank?" asked Father Mac. "You look like you've seen a ghost. In fact, you're looking at me like I'm a ghost."
"I'm… a little woozy," Sam replied, making up something on the spot. "I woke up with a bit of a headache earlier and just about anything that comes out of nowhere will surprise me!"
It was not the best of excuses but it appeared to be a passable one as Father Mac nodded, accepting it.
"I hope you'll be ready for Immaculate Conception Day a few short days from now," Father Mac told him. "It's going to be a busy day and I'll need as much help as I can with the services."
"I'm, uh, always ready to help out," Sam agreed. "Hang on for a second… I have to go use the restroom."
Excusing himself, Sam sped off to the men's restroom. Closing the door behind him, he looked around.
"Al, you there?"
No reply.
"C'mon Al!" Sam tried again. "I'm back in one of my old leaps!"
Finally, the hologram of Al appeared from out of a glowing door.
"Geez Sam," Al commented. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Al, I'm back in a previous leap!" Sam told him. "You remember the Catholic Diocese I was in?"
"I remember, Sam," Al nodded. "And I can imagine why…"
"I never get sent back on the same leap twice," Sam finished. "Unless…"
"Oh great," Al put a hand on his forehead. "Those other leapers are back."
It had been years since Sam or Al had encountered the other leapers. For simply lack of a better term, 'evil leapers' was the moniker they had used for Alia, Zoey, and the others who travelled across time, undermining the good works of Sam's leaping.
"So what am I here for?" asked Sam.
Al typed in some coordinates on his device.
"Oh boy," Al's eyes narrowed. "This ain't good."
"What happens?" demanded Sam.
"History is changing, Sam," Al frowned. "Father McRoberts is going to die tonight."
"What?!" Sam was shocked.
"I don't know all the details," Al continued. "But it appears that Father McRoberts will die tonight from a fall."
"A fall?" Sam was shocked. "Was he murdered?"
"We don't know," Al said uncertainly. "It could've been a murder. It also could've been a suicide."
"A suicide?" Sam shook his head. "Come on… Father Mac isn't in that state of mind anymore."
"Hey, you never know," Al said, not completely ruling out the scenario.
"In the original timeline, Father Mac went on to have a good ending," Sam turned around to look at Father Pistano's image in the mirror. "This means I'm going to work double-time. Keep a close eye on Father Mac… and find the evil leaper who's causing this."
For what it was worth, he did not believe it was Alia. She had redeemed herself and leaped into safety after his adventure with her was over. There was also the woman Zoey but hadn't he finished her off when he shot her?
Suddenly, a look of shock came over Al's face.
"Sam, I hear gunshots outside the imaging chamber," Al looked concerned.
"Gunshots?!" Sam was shocked. Had somebody infiltrated Project Quantum Leap?
"Hang in tight, Sam," Al told his friend. "I'll be back!"
oooo
"What's going on here?!" Al Calavicci stepped outside of the imaging chamber and into the main room.
"This is going on."
As soon as Al took his first step outside, he felt a gun pointed at his temple.
Turning around, he saw an entire squadron of masked soldiers inside the room, holding every Project Quantum Leap worker hostage at gunpoint.
"Who are you people?" Al demanded.
"You don't get to ask questions," the masked soldier replied to Al in a British accent.
"Hey Constance!" a soldier near the main computer tried to install a small piece of hard drive inside the computer. "Is this how I install Lothos?"
The man holding Al hostage bristled.
"Ramirez, you idiot!" Constance yelled. "Don't give away my name!"
"But… you just gave away my name too," Ramirez sounded upset.
"Nevermind that," Constance growled. "We have a job to do."
Constance walked over towards the main computer that housed Ziggy, helping Ramirez properly place the hard drive in.
"There, now Lothos should be able to install itself into Project Quantum Leap just fine," Constance smiled through his mask.
"Just who are you?" Dr. Donna Eleese-Beckett stepped forward.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Constance sneered at her.
Donna stared at the masked man without a hint of fear.
"What do you want with us?" she demanded.
"Simple," Constance replied. "We're taking over this project. Soon, Lothos will download himself into your core systems and take over this whole facility."
"Lothos?" Al got up, knowing full well that it was potentially a bad idea. "You people are working with those evil leapers."
"Evil leapers?" Constance looked incredulous. "Is that what you've labeled us? I'll have you know that Project Chr—"
"I thought we weren't going to give away anymore names… or secrets," Ramirez interrupted Constance.
Embarrassed, Constance collected himself once more.
"Right," the black ops leader nodded. "We will share no more secrets with you. Soon, Lothos will take control… not that any of you will live to tell about it."
"You plan on killing all of us, don't you?" Gooshie, the head programmer, asked.
"Way to ask the obvious," Ramirez smiled, as the other soldiers in the room began chuckling.
"How did you people find out about us?" demanded Al.
"It was simple," Constance leaned against the wall. "When our project became aware of other time travelers out there, we realized that they had to have a source somewhere. And because we discovered this Sam Beckett had an American accent, it was only a matter of time before we realized that his base of operations was somewhere within the United States."
"So how'd you find out about our location exactly?" Al pressed on.
"You'd be amazed what government bureaucrats and politicians will reveal with the right financial incentive," revealed Constance.
"So a bunch of no-good big wigs sold us out for thirty pieces of silver," Al muttered.
"Naturally," Constance sneered. "What can a bunch of scientists do to defend themselves? You people never saw this coming."
"Then I'll have you know that I've already alerted security while you weren't looking," Donna stared down Constance. "They should be here soon."
"You're bluffing," Constance pointed his gun at her.
"Am I?" Donna Eleese-Beckett stepped aside, revealing a red emergency button that had been pressed down.
"You're taking a real risk calling for backup," Constance pointed his gun directly under her chin. "What's to say we won't go down in a blaze of glory without taking you down with us?"
"Hey boss," Ramirez said in a shaky tone. "Something's wrong here."
"What?!" demanded Constance.
"Lothos… it's not downloading into Project Quantum Leap!" Ramirez looked on in shock.
"Why?" Constance fumed. "Lothos was recently upgraded to be able to hack into advanced government systems like this!"
"I don't know!" Ramirez was panicking now. "It's like they've uploaded some crazy anti-virus system!"
Without warning, the front door opened up, revealing one of the black ops soldiers.
"Sir, there's a convoy of government soldiers headed our way," the soldier told Constance.
It was then that Constance realized that Donna was not bluffing.
"Bloody Hell!" Constance swore. "Is Lothos being downloaded into the systems yet?"
"No sir…" Ramirez looked at the hard drive frantically.
"Abort the mission!" Constance ordered his soldiers. "We leave now!"
Taking hold of the hard drive that contained Lothos, Ramirez yanked it out and put it inside one of his pockets.
"You can't just come in and threaten us like this!" Gooshie got in front of Constance.
"What's going to stop us?" Constance grimaced and pushed Gooshie down. "Your halitosis?"
As quickly as they had appeared, the masked soldiers disappeared through the doors. As Constance walked out, Gooshie quickly grabbed his shoes.
"We have a right to know who you are and why you held us hostage!" Gooshie demanded.
"No… you don't!" Constance planted his foot on Gooshie's shoulder and pushed him off roughly.
By the time all of them were gone, Gooshie breathed a sigh of relief.
"We do now!" Gooshie smiled.
"What do you mean?" Al got up and walked up towards the programmer.
"I got a tracer on his boot," Gooshie replied gleefully. "Now we can track them back to wherever they came from!"
"Gooshie, you're a genius!" Al smiled.
"If that's true, I'm not the only one today," Gooshie looked over at Donna Eleese-Beckett.
"Yeah, that was some good quick thinking calling in security," Al told her. "We may not be standing here right now if you hadn't kept your cool and handled the situation with grace."
The front door slid open to reveal several government soldiers.
"We got your emergency signal," the head officer told them. "Is everything alright?"
"Several masked men with guns barged in and tried to take control of Project Quantum Leap," Gooshie informed the officer. "Here, let me go get the security tape for you."
As Gooshie walked off with the security officer, Al walked off towards the Imaging Chamber with Donna.
"Are you alright?" Al asked Donna.
"Honestly?" she looked at the former naval officer. "I was terrified."
"Well, you did a good job not looking the part," Al complimented. "Not many people can keep cool under fire like that."
Most of the time, it was Sam who was in harm's way. But on the rare occasion, the staff of Project Quantum Leap also came under fire. One notorious case was when Sam had leaped into a serial killer. The deranged criminal managed to escape the waiting room and proceeded to cause havoc before being brought back to his own timeline.
"A part of me wanted to scream, cower in fear, and even give up," confessed Donna. "But then I remembered that I was doing this for Sam. I have to stay strong for him."
"Sam's a lucky man, Donna," Al smiled.
"Are you two alright?" a female technician came up to them.
She had light brown hair that was tied into a ponytail. Glasses adorned her face as she chewed on a pen nervously.
"We're okay now, Sammy Jo," confirmed Donna. "Thank you."
"More importantly, thank you for monitoring the situation with the attempted download," Al told her. "If we hadn't placed you in a separate facility to monitor our computers, then Lothos would've infected our entire system."
Sammy Jo Fuller was the daughter of Sam Beckett during one of his leaps. Normally, Sam had the moral values of a boy scout and rarely engaged in anything extramarital. It was even more uncommon for him to sleep with a woman who had been intended for another man.
However, on that night, Sam gave in to his passions and spent the evening with Abigail Fuller despite that fact that he was not her fiancé, Will Kinman. And Sammy Jo was the product of that union between Sam Beckett and Abigail.
"From my location I noticed a disturbance in the systems of our mainframe computer," Sammy Jo told Donna and Al. "I was able to find it in time and prevent it from corrupting the systems."
"I don't know what we'd do without you," smiled Donna.
"Unfortunately, there are still traces of this virus left in our databanks," Sammy Jo told them. "I'm going to have to analyze it and come up a better anti-virus just in case another cyber-attack like this happens."
"Agreed," nodded Al. "The sooner we make a Lothos repellant for Ziggy, the better."
"Lothos?" asked Sammy Jo. "Is that the name of the program that tried to take over?"
"It's a long and complicated story but yes," Al confirmed. "Let me fill you in on what I know."
oooo
"Hey Father Mac," Sam asked. "You've been feeling alright lately?"
The two of them stood toe to toe in the boxing ring. Already, Father Mac was moving on the offensive.
"That's a bit of an odd question," Father Mac replied, "but recently, yes. I was once an angry and vengeful man. But it's the kind of man I strive to grow out of daily."
"That's good to hear," Sam ducked a few jabs from Father Mac.
"I'm only human," Father Mac punched at Sam's arms for a while. "I try my best to do the Lord's work but there will always be times when I falter. But I know in those times, He will be there to pick me back up again and put me back on my feet."
The two traded punches for a while before backing away from each other again.
"Sometimes, the Lord sends people into our lives to help us," continued Father McRoberts, "people who aid us in our darkest hours and enable us to grow. Like the way you helped me cope with Sunny's death and not give in to murdering Tony Pronti and staining my hands with blood."
"Hey, anything to help out a fellow priest," Sam smiled.
At that moment, he got punched in the jaw. Sam stumbled back slightly before regaining his composure.
"Remember to keep your arms up," Father Mac reminded him. "I may be a priest but I still swing one mean left hook."
"Right… right," Sam raised them up again.
Suddenly, one of the bells in the church rang, alerting both Sam and Father Mac.
"Hmm, I wonder who that could be," Father Mac stopped what he was doing.
As Sam went with Father Mac, he noticed a cat with light brown hair lying down next to the ring.
"Is that a stray?" asked Sam.
"I found him just last night," Father Mac admitted. "He was famished and I decided to take him in."
"Hey, I'm sure no good deed goes unrewarded," smiled Sam.
Father McRoberts put on his jogging jacket to look a bit more presentable as Sam did the same before heading to the door.
As Father Mac opened up, he saw a blonde haired businessman with slicked back hair and a fashionably dressed business suit. Next to him was a taller bodyguard with darker hair and a hint of Italian to his facial features.
"Good evening, you must be Father McRoberts, am I right?" the blonde businessman asked.
"I am," Father Mac shook his head. "And you are…?"
"I'm Carl Rory," he announced. "And the person next to me is my friend and bodyguard, Lorenzo. I admit, I wasn't expecting to see you out of uniform."
"Oh, my church has a gym in the back," Father Mac admitted. "On our off hours, Father Pistano and I work out there."
Sam smiled and waved hello to Carl and his bodyguard Lorenzo. Right now he was not getting a good vibe from either of the two men but for the moment, he still had to remain polite and cordial since they hadn't done anything yet.
"Having a gym in the back is a good idea," Lorenzo flashed a smile. "You gotta be strong in order to be a man of God."
"So how may I help you gentlemen today?" asked Father Mac.
"I grew up in these streets," Carl looked up at the ceiling. "By the time I was in high school, this neighborhood was already falling apart and I was just a punk kid who didn't do anything to help with the problem. After high school was over, I went to college elsewhere and made something of myself."
Carl then looked at Father Mac in the eyes.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to help this whole neighborhood," he smiled. "I'm buying out a lot of buildings on this street and there's always room for improvement."
Father Mac frowned slightly.
"How much would you like for Saint Mary's?" asked Carl. "Name your price… whatever you want!"
"I'm sorry sir," Father Mac said without hesitation. "But selling St Mary's is something we cannot do. This church provides hope to believers and there's still much we need to do in order to help people ourselves. This church cannot be sold."
For a moment, Carl Rory looked like he was about to say something but then decided against it. Instead, he flashed a smile and offered his hand to Father Mac.
"No offense taken," Carl shook the priest's hand. "You're a man of God who's doing good work here. I was the one out of line for suggesting such a thing. Have a nice evening, father."
Carl then walked over to Sam and offered a hand.
"Nice meeting you as well, Father…?" Carl smiled.
"Pistano," Sam answered.
For cordiality's sake, Sam decided to shake Carl's hand. But as soon as their hands touched, a bright light consumed both of them, blinding each other.
As Sam looked up again, he found himself staring into the face of a leaper he had encountered a long time ago.
"You…" Sam growled.
"Yes… me," Zoey sneered, now recognizing Sam as well.
Whenever two leapers touched each other, they would instantly recognize one another, as Sam had experienced long ago.
"I'm sorry, but do you two know each other?" asked Father Mac.
"I do now," Sam replied with an edge to his voice. "I thought I didn't recognize this person at first… but now it's all coming back to me."
"Yes, the memories are returning to me as well," Zoey replied. "In any case, have a nice day, both of you."
At that, Zoey walked off with Carl Rory's bodyguard.
"Well, I'm going to retire to my studies," Father Mac patted Sam on the back. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Of course," Sam nodded. "I'll see you later."
As soon as Father Mac left, Sam turned around only to bump into the hologram of Al.
"Al, good thing you're here!" Sam said with relief in his voice.
"Sorry I couldn't make it back sooner," Al replied. "But there were these masked soldiers that broke into our compound and tried to take over."
"Who are those people?" asked Sam.
"They revealed that they were trying to download Lothos' program into our core system," Al informed his friend. "They were working for those evil leapers, without a doubt."
"Is everything okay over there?" Sam looked concerned.
"It is now," Al told him. "All of our staff showed courage in the face of danger and your daughter in particular managed to create this nifty anti-virus program to prevent Lothos from infecting all of our software."
"That's good," Sam breathed a sigh of relief as the stray cat Father Mac took in came by to rub against his leg.
"I stayed behind a little longer with Sammy Jo," Al mentioned. "There were traces of Lothos left behind from the cyber-attack but your daughter managed to upgrade Ziggy, making her frequencies incompatible with Lothos, and shielding her from any future attempts at a hostile takeover."
"That Sammy Jo really is a genius," Sam smiled.
"Hey, we know where she gets it from!" Al grinned.
"In any case, remember that Carl Rory guy who stopped by?" asked Sam.
"I caught a glimpse of him just as he left," Al replied. "He had a smile like a shark, that one."
"Carl has been replaced with the leaper Zoey," Sam informed him.
"What?" Al looked surprised. "Are you serious?"
"Yeah, in the original timeline Father Mac would go on to have a happier ending," Sam looked at the horizon seriously. "And we both know I never return to an old leap unless one of those other leapers is causing trouble."
"We're in a rough spot," admitted Al.
"I agree," Sam placed an arm against the wall, "which is why I need to keep a careful eye on 'Carl' and watch over Father Mac at the same time."
oooo
"So you just let them keep their property?" Lorenzo asked as he and 'Carl' got into their limo.
As Lorenzo got on the wheel, Zoey sat down and buckled her seatbelt.
"Don't worry," she told Lorenzo. "In situations like this, one must always keep up appearances. Father McRoberts had to think I was backing off."
"So what next?" Lorenzo glanced back.
"Well, you know what they say," Zoey smiled. "Accidents happen."
"Name the time," Lorenzo grinned. "I'll make it happen."
"Tonight," confirmed Zoey. "After all, Father McRoberts is an older gentleman. And sometimes, unfortunate accidents tend to befall older gentlemen more…"
To be continued.