Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 22:38:28 -0600 (MDT) From: "Katherine R. Freymuth" Subject: Mirror - part 22 Message-ID: Quantum Leap Mirror of Deception by Katherine Freymuth and Gary Marsh Copyright 1998 Part 22 "If Keith is safe, then why am I still here?" He hesitated a moment. "Nothing happens to Renee, does it?" Gushie frowned slightly at Sam's question. "No. Ziggy isn't sure why you're here. History's resumed it's normal course. Terry and Renee go through counseling and remain married and Keith goes into law and becomes a Senator." He looked at Sam with confusion. "Ziggy says there's a ninety-two percent chance you should be leaping." Sam exhaled. "What about the other leaper?" "Well, Ziggy isn't sure but she thinks that, whoever he was, he had leaped into someone named Adam Studdard. Kirk named him as the person who told him to rob the store; Kirk owed him a large amount of money. Both Kirk and Mr. Studdard went to prison. Kirk was released early as part of his plea bargain." "So the other leaper's gone," Sam concluded. "Ziggy gives that a ninety-eight percent probability," Gushie replied. "What does she say about what happened in the store?" Sam questioned. "Does she have any theories?" Gushie hesitated. "Are you sure you actually heard Zoe speaking?" Sam looked firmly at him. "I'm positive. But it wasn't really like hearing her. It was more like knowing what she was saying without actually hearing her." He paused. "Why?" Gushie took a breath. "Well, Ziggy insists that the only way you could possibly know she was there, much less hear her, would be if you and she were somehow neurologically linked, which she insists is absolutely impossible." Sam exhaled, thinking about what Gushie had told him. As he did so, the handlink in Gushie's hand chirped. Sam looked at him with questioning. "The odds of your leaping just went up. Apparently, you didn't leap because Dr. Beeks had to convince Terry to tell Renee everything about his affair." "Terry?" Sam turned his head towards Renee, who was slowly entering the bedroom. "How's Keith?" Sam asked with concern. "He's fine," she replied, sitting beside him on the bed. "A bit shaken up but he'll be okay." Sam smiled. "I'm glad." He paused and took a breath, giving Gushie a slight glance. "And us?" Renee didn't answer right away. "I don't know, Terry," she said softly. She looked at him with indecision. "I honestly don't know." Sam exhaled. "Neither do I. But I'm willing to give it another try, if you'll let me." He waited patiently as Renee considered his proposition. "Okay," she finally said after a long silence. "I'll give you a chance." She smiled at him. "Just don't disappoint me." Sam returned the smile and hugged her. "I won't disappoint you. I promise." Then, with those words, he leaped. Al awoke in pain, curled up into a fetal position. He still couldn't believe what they could do to him. He couldn't believe they could inflict so much pain on his frail human body. All he knew was that there was no escape from them. "You're finally awake, I see," a female voice broke into his thoughts of helplessness. He looked up at the source of the voice to see a very familiar woman. Her dark red hair was accented with a black fedora and black dress suit. Her lipstick and nail polish were black as well, giving a definite statement about the fashion world. He found her somehow alluring, certain that the look wouldn't fit anyone other than her. "Who are you?" he questioned, allowing himself to relax a bit. "Albert, darling, have you forgotten me already?" she replied to the question. She walked over to him and offered her hand. "Come. Let me fill in the holed in your Swiss-cheese memory. It really isn't much of a surprise, though, that you cannot remember, given how long you've been on assignment." Al didn't accept her hand. "On assignment?" he questioned. "Leaping, darling," she replied. "I'm afraid your last leap wasn't much of a success. And you know how Lothos reacts to failure." Al took a slow breath, trying to gather what little he did remember. "I remember Lothos. He's a computer. Right?" he questioned. She nodded in response. "And you, you're Zoe," he added. She smiled. "So, you do remember me. That pleases me." She sat on the floor beside him. "What else do you remember, Albert?" Al hesitated. "I remember a beautiful woman - Beth, I think - and a little girl with a round face." Zoe seemed saddened by his words. "Your wife and your sister," she explained. Al looked at her with concern. "What's wrong?" Zoe raised her head slightly so that she was looking into his eyes. "They're both dead, Albert. They were murdered by a very self-centered man whom you once called a friend: Dr. Samuel Beckett." The name was familiar to Al but he didn't know why. It didn't matter to him, though. Being told this horrible news made his heart heavy with anguish. "If this Dr. Beckett was my friend, why did...." He couldn't finish the question. Zoe took a breath. "Who knows what drives men's souls to such evil? He believed their deaths would improve his own future by creating an emotional chain around your neck with him pulling you to do his bidding, to ruin your life while improving his. He saved his brother from death in Vietnam but you paid the price with an extra two years as a prisoner of war." There were tears in Al's eyes but he wouldn't let them flow. He didn't want to believe what she was telling him but, for some reason, he did. It made sense to him, given all the hardships he had endured in his life, hardships enough for three lifetimes. Hardships he was now convinced were never to have happened if his personal history had not been changed. He stood up quickly and began to pace viciously. He had to find some way to control this rage that was growing in him, this urge to find this Samuel Beckett and make him pay for Beth and Trudy - *Yes, that was her name* - and for two years of torture in the hands of the Vietcong. "You almost had him that last leap," Zoe told him, still seated and watching him pace. "Have no fear, dear Albert. You will have your revenge." Al stopped pacing and looked at Zoe. "That was why I was punished: because I failed to kill this Beckett?" Zoe looked at him softly. "As I said, Lothos doesn't react well to failure, no matter if it really wasn't our fault." "Our fault?" Al questioned her choice of words. Zoe stood. "I was punished as well," she told him, walking slowly towards him. "After all, I am your partner. And your lover." She kissed him passionately, gently pushing him down onto his knees. She pulled her lips gently away, leaving a small black smear on Al's bottom lip. Al looked up at her from his kneeling position. There was something about this woman in front of him that made him want to doubt her. Yet, he still believed her. What she told him fit what little he could remember of his life and, judging by the way she kissed him, there could be no doubt in his mind that they were more than friends. "I love you," he told her genuinely. She smiled at him seductively. "I know you do." She knelt so that she was face to face with him and kissed him.