Message-ID: <3256BE54.7C70@postoffice.worldnet.att.net> Date: Sat, 05 Oct 1996 16:00:20 -0400 From: Wai Wai Siak MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: Coma : part 5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Yes, finally, it's conclusion time! Thanks for hanging in there with me, through computer breakdowns, upset e-mail systems, and the works. I especially want to thank those of you out there that wrote me...your encouragement has made it all worthwhile. As always, constructive critism is welcome. If you enjoyed my tale, please go and see "Submit" a very nifty story written by a Christina Fraser. I'm sure you'll enjoy it! And without any further delay, here's the story.... * * * "This was harder than I thought, " Sam groaned as he walked away from the gate. Although his resolve to go back through the mist was firm enough, whether he would be able to get back there was another question. Each step had to be fought for, each inch brought a new burst of pain to his system. The farther he went from the light, the harder it was for him to move. His body became dragged down with the weight of the pain, which grew until he could stand it no more. "I thought I had a choice!" he yelled to the light. "You said I could decide! I want to go back!" the pain did not lessen, however. Sam felt himself slipping away and fought back the panic. "This is too much for me to handle! I can't go on like this!" Sam struggled. "No man can fight this alone!" As if he had found the correct password, a small voice echoed in his head. "If you need help,just ask" "Mary.....HEEEELLLLLLPPPPPPP." Sam gasped with his last breath. She was there before the cry could fade from the air. Touching him lightly, she drew him toward her. Sam let out a sigh as the pain decreased. "What? How?" he mumbled. "So many questions, Sam." she teased him lightly. "I am your guide, aren't I? C'mon, it's time we get back." "But I don't think I have the strength to go on." Sam told her weakly. "You don't need to. They'll have more than enough." she pointed at the figures who had gathered around them. "Who are they?" Sam wondered as he looked around. "How could you not remember me, Sam? You helped me break Mach 3 and saved Peg and my second son." one of the figures stepped forward."He's a fine grown man now, with kids of his own." "Tom Stratton?" "You weren't the best future boy I ever had, but you did try your best." another one told him quietly before fading away again. "Moe?" "You called me special, and you saved my nephew, Corey.You're pretty special yourself, Sam." "Jimmy?!? but you aren't dead...are you?" Sam asked bewilderedly. "They don't have to be dead. They all just want to help you, like you once helped them." Mary smiled. "You see, what goes around comes around, Sam. They're all the people you saved, all the lives you've ever touched. There's a bunch of them...they fill up even this big place." "Yeah, but you better quit yakking and start moving." Sam looked up at the familiar gravelly voice. "AL!" he yelped joyfully. "I prefer Bingo, but that's still my name. Go on kid...I'll be waiting for you in the future. We still have a lot of babes to conquer...you know bingo bango..." "Bongo. I know. But I don't know how Beth will like it." "Beth? Who's Beth?" Sam grinned at the younger Al's confusion. However, before they could get into a deep conversation, a new voice broke in. "I'm waiting for you too." "Donna?" Sam turned around slowly, afraid of what he might find. She was there, as beautiful as he remembered her. "Hurry back." She said softly. "Then we can look at the stars together." "I will come back to you Donna....I promise." "I know." she said simply before she parted way. Sam was about to protest her departure when he caught sight of the newest person to walk up. "Hi Sam." Sam stood there, mouth open in shock. "Are you just going to stand there with your mouth open like a fish or are you going to say hi back?" "Dad?!?" he ran to the figure and threw his arms around him. "I've missed you so much. I wish I could have spent more time with you, tried to change things so they were better....I wish..I wish I could have been at your ..." The man held up a hand for silence. Looking deep into the emerald eyes which were so like his own, Sam found his words melting away. "I'm so proud of you, son." those six little words seemed to fill his world. "You did good, real good. It doesn't matter what you didn't do, all that matters is what you did and what you will do. Now go. You'll see me again, someday." "I love you." Sam murmured through his tears. His father did not reply. Somehow, Sam knew that his father had always known. "Sam...there are many others who would like to speak to you, but it's time to go." Mary's voice broke in gently and led him forward. Sam braced himself for the pain, but when he felt himself slip, something pushed him forward. One by one, each of the lives he had helped lent him the strength to go back. They caught him when he faltered, and encouraged him when he felt that he could not go on. Slowly, steadily, the light began to dim as they walked toward the grey mists. At last, Sam stood at the edge of the light again. He hesitated as the others left him. They disappeared with regret clearly upon their faces. Mary hugged his leg reassuringly. "They cannot go into the region of the mist, but I can. You won't be alone on this last part of your journey." She stepped out first into the void. Sam followed her slowly. As they walked, Sam noticed a gradual change in the air. There was a soft breeze now, warm and comforting. It danced about them teasingly, urging them onwards. At length, Mary stopped and turned sadly to face Sam. "I must leave now. You're almost home. In a moment, you'll be in your world again." "Wait!" Sam called after her. "Thank you." he stopped, a memory slowly forming. "Mary!" he said frightened. "Sam?" "I..you...I had a leap for you, didn't I" "Yes." she looked away from him. "And I failed you.....it should be you here, not me....." "No." her voice was surprisingly strong. "You did your best, Sam. Some things are just meant to be. Live Sam, for me. Keep doing good. Remember me. That's all I ask. I love you, Sam. " with that, she ran back to him and threw her arms around him. Sam hugged her tightly as a new sensation seized his body. ############################# It was all over. The doctors walked away, shaking their heads as the nurse placed the cover over the patient's head. Soon the orderlies would be in to take the body away. But for now, all left the room, to leave the dead to the dead. One doctor turned back just once to looked at the body and shake his head thoughtfully. There would be no mourners this time and the state would probably have to pay for the burial, he reasoned. He was wrong in one aspect. Unbeknownst to him, the body on the bed had many mourners, all of whom he could not see. The people in the Imaging Chamber stood around in shocked silence. As the news began to sink in, many began to break down in tears. Only one figure stood unmoved. Admiral Albert Calavicci stood straight and tall over the body of his friend. He did not notice as all the others had filed quietly out of the room to spend their grief elsewhere. He paid no attention to Dr. Beeks as she reached out a hand, and pulled it back hesitantly, before succombing to her own tears and rushing out of the Chamber. He alone stood vigil over the silent body on the bed. He knew that soon the tears would come but fought hard against them and against the mounting wave of grief and anger. Quietly, but with a proud sense of dignity, he held his out hand and bent it in a final salute. "I'll miss you kid...." The admiral whispered, every word holding a deep ring of emotion. Slowly, Al turned away. "Mary!" suddenly, as if by magic, Sam's body sat straight up. "Mary?!? Where am I?" "Sam?!?" Al backpedaled away until he hit the Chamber wall. "What the .... Oh my lord." he clutched his chest in horror. "Al?" Sam stared at him "Are you having an heart attack? You look awful." "You're dead!" babbled the hologram."Ziggy was showing no life signs...." "Obviously, I'm not dead. That lame-brained computer must have a screw loose." Sam glanced around at his surroundings. "What happened here?" Trying to recover from his shock of losing Sam, then gaining him back again, Al gulped. In reflex, anger took over. "You nasty #$%^! You should be dead! You ARE dead! Go away!" "What did I do?" Sam asked puzzledly. "You died!" Al yelled. "Ziggy said so and I saw you! GO away! " he paled. "You must be a ghost!" Sam sighed patiently. "Did I miss something?" * * * "And if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I will personally nail your butt to the wall and leave you hanging there." Al finished, finally capping off his tirade which had lasted more than an hour. Sam tried not to smile. Al must have been really worried, he realized. Although the admiral's speech had been a rather harsh one, Sam could tell that his friend was relieved to have him back. It had took a little convincing, but Al finally had accepted that Sam was indeed alive and was not some sort of phantom come back to haunt him. Ziggy had been no help in this matter. She had insisted that Sam was dead and refused to believe otherwise. Between a stubborn computer and an superstitious Observer, Sam had his hands full. However, assuring the whole Project that he was still breathing was a cake walk compared to trying to explain to a whole team of doctors why a person they had declared legally dead could suddenly spring back to life. Sam had an uncomfortable feeling that Wesley was going to find himself in quite a number of medical journals, not to mention tabloid articles. "It wasn't exactly my choice, Al. Well, yes it was, in a way. Did it ever occur to you that if I had died, you would have lost contact with me, instead of staying around till' I woke up?" "I had other things on my mind, Sam." Sam grinned as a couple of nurses walked past his room."I bet you did." "Sam, I can't believe that you would even think that I would...." "Well, nothing's ever stopped you before." Sam put his hands up in surrender at Al's murderous stare. "I'm just kidding! Really, Al...thanks. I knew you were here all the time." "You could hear me?" "Yeah. You were the only thing that kept me tied to this world, reminding me I had a job to do. Without you, I would have gone sooner. I owe you one, especially for the memories." Al looked uncomfortable. "Just what do you remember?" "It comes and it goes. Mostly I remember things about light and mists. However, I do remember a certain voice telling me how much he admired my ever lasting quest for purity." "Figures. After all that trouble, the one thing you do recall is my one moment of weakness." grumbled Al. Sam sobered up. "Seriously, Al, thank you." "Aw, it was nothing." Al waved him off. "What was it like, the other side?" "Well, it had a lot of mists and light and stuff. I met a little girl there, called Mary." Al blanched at the name. "Mary?" "Yeah...the same one we went to save last time." "Uh...this is getting weird for me, Sam." "This whole leap's been weird. She's okay, Al." Sam said quietly. "She's fine. She helped me get back here, you know, along with my father and all the people I've ever leapt into. You were there, Al." "Me? Next thing you'll say is that Uncle Henry and Auntie Em showed up." Al was looking at Sam as if the physicist had sprung horns. Sam watched as he punched a few more codes in the handlink. Probably asking Ziggy for another readout of my brainwaves, Sam reasoned. He decided to change the subject. "So, when am I going to leap?" "Ziggy says that you need a little more time to recover, pal. Take it easy. You just got back for one heck of a flight. Give it some time before you go again ." Sam tried to hold back his impatience. He felt fine, although Al and others obviously thought differently. The observer still had yet to leave Sam's side, although it had been nearly eight hours since his "reawakening". Sam hoped that whoever was leaping him around would give the admiral a break before sending him off to tag along with Sam on another kooky assignment. From the look on his face and the state of his clothes, Al looked like he could use some time off. "What's the happens to this Wesley person?" "Hmm? Well, he's turns out alright, actually. Seems like his little stay with us made an impression on him." Sam could tell there was more behind Al's light tone, but decided not to probe. "He will have to go through about six years of intensive psychiatric help, but in the end, he is a decent citizen. Today, he is a human rights activist and is the head of a group fighting child abuse around the world. He gets married in 1994 to a nurse at this hospital and...well, this is interesting, he has three daughters. By the names of Verbena, Alberta, and Samantha. I guess the old nozzle remembers us after all." Al said thoughtfully. Sam just smiled. Already he could feel the icy fingers of the leap take hold. As the surroundings began to dissolve and melt away, he barely see a small figure as it waved goodbye to him. Sam waved back, and the light took him away. ________________________________________________________________________________________----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Well, what do you think? My e-mailbox is ready for any comments! Thanks again for reading. Oh, and to capp it off: "To leave the thread of all time, And let it make a dark line in hopes that I can still find, the way back to the moment. I took the turn and turned to begin a new beginning, still looking for the answer I cannot find the finish it's either this or that way its one way or the other it should be one direction, it could be on reflection The turn that I have taken, the turn that I was making... I might be just beginning I might be near the end." - The ending verse to Enya's "Anywhere Is" From the CD "In Memory of Trees." Keep on leaping! Wai Wai Siak All done now, bye bye! :)