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Admiral Al Callavicci was speechless. This was not a usual state of affairs for him. Then again, nothing about this leap had been usual so far, and it had only going for an hour!
'Nicholas B, B, Beckett', Al stammered. 'You mean...?'
'Yes. Sam Beckett is my father.'
Al went pale. 'B, b, but Sam doesn't have a s, s, s...'. He couldn't get the words out. It was just too much. Al could feel the last pieces of control he had on the situation slowly slipping away.
'No, he doesn't have a son. But he will, about five years from now. I'm from the year 2035'.
'Oh my God, no wonder Ziggy couldn't find Sam. That's way out of the normal parameters. Ziggy', he asked, addressing the computer, 'did you hear that?'
'Yes, admiral. I did'. The computer's voice was unsteady and very quite. If she didn't keep reminding him that she was a computer and therefore not subject to the annoying and confusing emotions that humans suffered from, Al would have sworn that she was just as shaken as he was. Al, trying not to think about the news he had just been given, focused on something constructive and more normal instead - going to see Sam. 'Ziggy, search the year 2035 for Dr. Beckett'.
'I have already found him Admiral. He is...'
'I don't think you should do this, Al', interrupted Nicholas.
'I have to go to him. Even if he is where I suspect he is', Al replied, and left the waiting room.
'...In Stallion's Gate, New Mexico' stated Ziggy, to no-one in particular.
June 20th, Stallion's Gate, New Mexico:
Sam leaped in to find himself sitting at a computer terminal. The screen was showing a database of statistics and dates. The date May 11th, 2003 was highlighted. He wondered whether that was when he was. He had no idea of the date in the 'present', where Al and Goosie and the others were, but he guessed it could be sometime a bit later than 2003. After all, he had been leaping a long time. He looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps.
'Nicholas, have you got a copy of those stats we were working on earlier? I, like, need to go through them', a very familiar looking red-headed women asked him.
'I... Tina?' he asked, surprised, as he recognised the women.
'Yeah?'
'Oh. Erm, the stats are here,' he replied, not knowing what else to say.
'Oh, great', Tina replied, for Sam as now sure that it was her. He looked around him. The place sure looked like Project Quantum Leap. There was the canteen door, the lift down to the personal quarters. And here was Tina, and at another computer he suddenly recognised Goosie. Could he really be home, was he back? But what had Tina called him? And there was something strange as well. Tina and Goosie looked different. The place had changed a bit, appeared a bit more modern. Then he realised what was wrong with Tina and Goosie. They looked older, a lot older. Just how long had he been away? But Tina and Goosie faded to the back of his mind as he remembered about... 'Al'.
'What?' asked Tina, who thought that Sam had spoken to her, not to himself.
If he had returned home, why hadn't Al been told, and why was Tina acting like he had been home for ages? Was it another time-line, he suddenly wondered, one where he had been home for some time? The thought filled him with joy. But why couldn't he remember the new time-line?
'Tina, where's Al?' Sam asked.
A frightened look swept over Tina's face for a second. 'Oh, Nicholas', she replied gently, looking sad, 'Not again. Nicky, dear, Al's gone. Remember. Oh, you're not well are you, love. Nicky, Al died six years ago'.
Sam went very white.