Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1993 17:21:29 -0500 (CDT) From: 2EI5ZEMANP@vms.csd.mu.edu Subject: "In Your Eyes" - Part VIII Message-Id: <01H46SBWURIU90NLAT@vms.csd.mu.edu> IN YOUR EYES Part VIII By Philip Zeman 2ei5zemanp@vms.csd.mu.edu After spending a fitful night tossing and turning, Sam finally drifted off to sleep. About 2 minutes later, the alarm rang. "Urrrrrr!" Sam groaned, and slammed his fist onto the machine, effectively shutting it off, and probably ruining some delicate circuitry. He sat up, tried to stop his world from spinning. Failing that, he fell back down, covering his head with the pillow. "Come on, Neal! You have to get up for work!" Neal's mom called. Sam, not used to having any mother figure tell him to get up in a while, forgot about his head and sat up straight. Then he got his bearings, and rubbed his chin, trying to shake sleep from his brain and trying to soothe the psychosomatic pain he was feeling. Janet hadn't slapped him hard, but his soul was hurting even more. "My God, what's Neal going through?" After Al had left him at the door of Neal's house, Sam had not seen nor heard from his friend. He hoped that Neal would try to be understanding. But he sincerely doubted that. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Al too had a poor night's sleep. He couldn't face Neal last night, and he hoped the little sleep had made him more susceptible to seeing anybody connected with the Project. But he sincerely doubted that. He picked out something flashy and bright to wear, as though to hide his own inner darkness. It wasn't as though Sam failed before and then succeeded. Hell, most of the Leaps seemed to head that way. But this one was different. Failing Neal was more than failing a normal Leapee (`As if any Leapee is normal,' he thought.); he was failing Sam, in a way. The two independent people had become almost one person. And by not getting Janet and Neal back together, he was failing himself. He didn't want anybody to go through anything similar to what he did before he met Sam. Perhaps that's why he delayed going to the Waiting Room as much as he did. When he finally stirred up enough courage, he entered. But all the courage did him no good; the mood in the room was as sharp as a razor blade. "Thanks a lot Al!" were the first words out of Neal's mouth. "Neal, calm down, Sam's still there, we still have a chance to get you and Janet back together." Neal would not be soothed. "What were you thinking? Not all college students think below the belt! Seems to me that you and Ziggy need to do some more `analysis.'" The bitter sarcasm was not lost on neither Al nor Ziggy. I ASSUMED THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO SHOW YOUR LOVE FOR JANET IN THE MOST PASSIONATE WAY POSSIBLE, AND MAKING LOVE SEEMS TO BE THAT. "Check your Shakespeare again! True love is more than physical, it's mental! It's something of the soul, and damnit, what Janet and I have is -- it's -- well, I don't know what it is, but I could never get that close to her! I've even felt self-conscious kissing her! So spare me all your data and statistics and computer crap like that!" Neal turned to Al again. "And you, you say you and Sam could help, but all you could think about is how to get him and Janet in the sack. Some help!" "Neal, you misunderstand, I was only going by Ziggy's hypothesis!" "Which he got from watching you!" Gooshie's voice again came from the hidden speakers. "Admiral? Dr. Beckett is in need of your assistance immediately!" "We'll continue this later, Neal." As Al opened the door, he took one last look. The icy stare he received unnerved him completely. "Al, if you and Sam don't get things back straight -- and I don't give a damn about the years separating us -- I'll never forgive you. Never." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * There was one thing Sam liked about Leaping. Sometimes he and the original inhabitant shared some memories. And in this case, Neal's memories about how to work at Dairy Queen stuck in Sam's head. So he didn't look like a total fool, and could handle just about everything. Except being thought of as a kid. And being in charge seemed like a joke to some people. `God, Neal has it rough.' "There you go, that will be $.73. Thanks for coming, and have a nice day." Sam dropped the coins into the customers hand when he suddenly knew something was wrong. The customer seemed to be highly nervous. She was shaking and sweaty. "Ma'am? Are you all right?" The woman muttered something incomprehensible, but she tried to down the food in front of her like there was no tomorrow. As she raised her hand to her mouth, Sam was momentary blinded by her bracelet. He instantly recognized the symbol of a snake on a stick as being a sign of a medical disorder. But before he could ask her again what was wrong, she collapsed onto the floor. No sooner had she hit the ground, she went into a seizure. "Call 911!" Sam yelled to the nearest co-worker as he propelled himself over the counter. Kneeling next to the woman, he twisted the medic bracelet around so he could inspect the engraving. "Diabetic - Insulin Dependent. She's going into insulin shock!" he told the worker dialing the number. "Hello 911? We have a person going into insulin shock. Send an ambulance right away! The address is..." Sam rummaged through her purse and found what he was looking for. Opening the glucagon kit, he mixed the powder and liquid in the bottle together. Drawing the mixture into the syringe, he raised her sleeve and injected the life-saving solution into her. He then turned her over onto her side, so that is she vomited, she would not choke. The woman had stopped shaking, but she was still unconscious. "Get me something sugary! Soda, juice, sugar water - anything! And make it fast!" Another worker went to the back room and returned with a can of orange juice. Sam took the can into his hands, and waited. That's all he could do. Until she woke up, he could not give her anything, or she might choke on that instead. Al had chosen this moment to come through the Door, and he knew immediately what was going on. "Sam? She okay?" "Not yet! Come on! You can do it!" Sam urged the woman. Her eyes briefly fluttered, and then they opened, weakly. "Thank you," he sighed deeply. Then the sounds of sirens infiltrated the room which had become quiet during the ordeal. The paramedics attended to her, and then placed her on the stretcher. Sam followed them out to the ambulance. "She'll be okay, right?" "Thanks to you, kid. You saved her life." "Just trying to help." Sam waited until the ambulance was gone, then he went back inside. He was greeted by thunderous applause and cheers. He self-consciously waved, then he headed inside the office. Shutting the door to have some privacy, he sat down in the chair, running his hands through his hair. The door didn't hold Al from storming in, though. "Good work, Sam. That was nicely done." "Thanks Al. So, now what do we do about Neal and Janet? We have to --" He was cut off by a tingly sensation creeping up on him. "Al? Don't tell me that I've changed history severely!" Al furiously hit the handlink, and when he got the answer, he didn't look pleased. "Sam! That woman you saved? She's an inner city school teacher, and by saving her life, you've allowed her to help lots of kids. Ziggy says you're about to Leap!" "But what about Neal? And Janet?" "No, Sam! You weren't here to save them, you were here to stop this one death!" "But it's not fair, Al! I gotta save them!" "Gooshie, open the door! I gotta get to Neal before Sam --" Too late. Even as Al half left the past, Sam was covered in an electric field of blue, his last words being "Nooooooooo!!!!!!!"..... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * It had been hours since Sam had Leaped, and Al was not handling it well. Trying to get some sense of order, he changed into his Admiral's uniform, but it didn't work. "I failed him." YOU MEAN DOCTOR BECKETT? "Him too, but I meant Neal. We had a chance to help him, but we - _I_ screwed up. His future is even more shot to hell than when we entered his life. And now he's gone, and what could be a future Doctor Beckett is now a past Admiral Calavicci." Gooshie ran into the Control Room. "Admiral, I hate to bother you, but we have a real problem here." "What's wrong, Gooshie?" Al didn't think anything could be as bad as this. "Well, I was monitoring the Waiting Room and I measured a discharge of quantum energy, which usually signals the arrival of a new Leapee." "What do mean `usually'?" Al suddenly knew he would not want to hear the answer." "This time, no one materialized." "You mean, there's nobody in the Waiting Room?" Al was wide-eyed with horror. "Oh, boy..." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Sam found his world change again, and when the blue faded, he found himself standing outside of a bar. Feeling the heat, he removed his hat and wiped his brow. Needing to cool off, he entered the bar. "What's on tap?" he asked the slightly portly bartender. When given his choices, he replied, "Schlitz." The bartender stopped wiping the glasses. "Regular, or schooner?" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * NOT The End