Date: Fri, 16 Apr 1999 15:41:56 -0600 (MDT) From: "Katherine R. Freymuth" Subject: Mirror - part 28 Message-ID: Quantum Leap Mirror of Deception By Katherine Freymuth and Gary Marsh Copyright 1998, 1999 Part 28 "Oh, bravo, darling!" Zoe cooed. "What a wonderful performance! Lothos says they suspected Pole! Can you believe that?" "Your Observer is pretty pathetic, Dr. Beckett," Al told Sam, tightening his grip on him, ready to snap his neck. When Sam had heard Janet's shocked exclamation, he didn't want to believe it. But the raspy voice convinced him. "Al?" he rasped out in shock. Zoe laughed. "Surprise!" Janet was frantically pushing buttons on her handlink. "Ziggy! What the hell is happening?! How can it be Al?!" Sam tried to get some leeway from Al's strong grip. "Al, please!" he pleaded with fear and shock. He had no idea what was happening, why he best friend was trying to kill him, was going to kill him if he didn't do something quickly. "Go ahead, darling!" Zoe said with obvious glee. "Break his neck." "Oh, gawd, Al! Don't!" Janet pleaded, seeing the evil in Al's eyes. "Please, let him go." Sam was growing limp in Al's grip, desperately gasping for air. "Al," he pleaded again, his voice now a mere whisper. Al could feel Sam getting weaker and weaker in his arms and, for some reason unknown to him, it frightened him greatly. Although he tried to fight the urge, he nonetheless quickly released the scientist, taking a couple of steps away from him. "What the hell are you doing?" Zoe exclaimed. "Kill him!" Sam panted for strength as he slwoly turned around on the floor. He looked up at the face he knew he would see but still refused to believe was there. Al glared down at Sam, more confused than angry. The face was more than a little familiar to him and yet it completely contradicted how he imagined it would react. The man looking up at him appeared confused, frightened, and, to Al's surprise, concerned. Zoe took a few steps closer to him, obviously angry. "Albert, what are you doing? Kill him!" Sam and Janet looked carefully at Al, waiting and watching. Although Janet hadn't heard what Zoe had said, she could almost feel the implications of her order as Al and Sam stared into each other's eyes. After a moment, Al started to slowly back away from Sam, fear creeping into his eyes. "You're just going to let him get away with murder?!" Zoe shouted at him in shock. When he felt he was a safe distance from Sam, Al quickly turned and left the house, Zoe following him with fury. Sam sat on the floor of the living room, not moving an inch, trying to comprehend what had just happened. "Please," he said after a long moment. "Tell me that was all just my imagination." He didn't look at Janet as he spoke. She took a slow breath, not wanting to respond to Sam's request. "I'm afraid it wasn't. Ziggy's just confirmed it." She paused. "That was Al." Sam shivered at the mixed emotions that flooded him. "Why?" he pleaded. Janet slowly shook her head. "I don't know. But it probably has to do with that woman he ran off with. We found out a few things about her and it doesn't look good. Right now, I'd say it's a pretty good assumption that she was working for THEM." Sam looked at her with a frown. "But, Al... why would he... He would never..." He exhaled and closed his eyes. "Why?" Janet hesitated. "I'm afraid you'd have to ask him that." Sam looked at her again upon her words before standing up slowly. As he did so, an unpleasant realization came to him. "This isn't his first leap with them," he said in a whisper. Janet frowned at his words. "What?" Sam turned his head towards her. "Zoe is Al's Observer. I could hear her. I heard her during my previous leap, I remember that." "Because she's neurologically linked to Al and Al's neurologically linked to you," the Observer stated for confirmation. "Which means Al had to be the other leaper during your previous leap." She closed her eyes and sighed sorrowfully. "Who knows how long he's been leaping for them?" Sam said painfully. "I have to save him, Janet. I can't let them do this to him." Janet gave him a sad smile. "I agree. But how?" Al marched out of the house - or rather fled from it. Something was wrong. His mind was telling him one thing whereas his heart was telling him something else. He couldn't face the problem of the contradiction while looking at that so familiar yet unfamiliar face. He needed to get where he could be alone, someplace where he could think. "Albert, I demand an explanation!" Zoe bellowed at him, floating beside him as he marched. Neither of them noticed that the blue sedan which was there earlier was now gone. Al stopped abruptly. "Do me a favor, Zoe. Don't talk to me right now." Zoe frowned at him. "If you won't talk to me then perhaps you'd prefer to talk to Lothos or the Director." Al glared at her before he finished his march to Derek's car and unlocked it. "I don't know what you think about him but that man in that house is incapable of murder," he told her firmly before he slipped into the driver's seat. She gave a small glower. "Then who killed your family, Albert? A ghost?" She laughed sarcastically. "You're letting him get away with murder!" Al closed the car door, forcing Zoe to recenter herself so that she was in the car with him. "You're not seriously considering him to be innocent?" Zoe questioned with a raised eyebrow. Al closed his eyes as he gripped the steering wheel with frustration. "I don't know what to believe anymore, Zoe," he said in a low voice. "Nothing makes sense anymore." He looked at her with a glare. "And don't you dare say you understand because I know you don't." He was beginning to feel a little ill, beginning to shake ever so slightly. He quickly pulled out a cigarette from a pack he had bought that afternoon. "I just need a little time to think," he finished as he lit a cigarette and exhaled. Zoe smiled slightly at Al's actions. *That won't stop the shaking or the queasiness, darling.* "Think about what?" she asked firmly. "There's nothing to think about, albert. Besides, the fact that you could miss your last chance to take revenge for your wife's and your sister's murders, if you don't kill him, you'll be punished." She paused and mentally smiled at Al's wince. "Now, you don't want that to happen, do you?" Al cringed at the thought of what being punished entailed. No, he couldn't go through that again. He would do anything to prevent being tortured so horribly. "No," he whispered to Zoe. "I don't want that to happen." "Then, kill him," Zoe ordered firmly. Al nodded slowly. "I will." He looked at Zoe weakly. "Tomorrow." Zoe looked at him with surprise. "You only have until five forty-three tomorrow evening, Albert!" "His defenses are up now," he told her as firmly as he could. "I need a new plan of attack." He turned the ignition key. "Don't worry, Zoe. One way or the other, you'll have a dead body at you feet tomorrow."