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'Hi', greeted Sam/Nicholas as he approached Lucy. She just nodded vaguely.
'Uh, you know, if anything's wrong, you can talk to me...'.
'Yes, Nick, I know. You've told me a thousand times, and I've told you, I'm fine. I just want to slow things down a bit. Surely you can survive without me hanging onto your every word every minute. Don't take it so personal. I just need some time by myself'.
'Are you sure that's all it is. We're supposed to be going out, you shouldn't be keeping things from me.'
'Nicholas, everything's OK. If you can't respect my wishes regarding this so-called relationship, maybe we should forget it altogether'.
'OK, ok. I get the message'. He paused and decided to try changing tact.
'So, what have you been up to anyway, since you're no longer hanging off my every word every minute', he asked casually.
'You don't give up, do you', Lucy replied, seeing right through his plan. 'God', she continued, 'you're just like your father!'
'My father!' Sam exclaimed, thinking of John Beckett, sadly deceased for some time now.
'What's my father got to do with anything?' he continued.
'You know, Mr. high and mighty Project Director'. Sam realised with a start that it wasn't John Beckett she was talking about, but him himself. It was certainly confusing being his own son!
'He's at least 80, he's stuck back in the last century. All the work we're trying to do here with Ziggy, he just doesn't understand it. Yet he's always there, trying to do everything himself, trying to help everyone. Now you're being just the same.'
'The white knight complex', remarked Sam.
'The what?'
'Just something Al used to say about doing everything and helping everyone.'
'Who's Al?'
'Who's..! He's my..my father's best friend. Was his best friend'.
'Guess he was before my time, huh. Was he at the project?'.
Sam nodded.
'Well, seeing as I've only been here 2 years...'.
'Anyway, I just wish your father would let us get on with our work. And that Sammy-Jo, she's just as bad. Who does she think she is, trying to run everything around here. And she's the only one who's allowed to leap! Well, her and now her daughter'.
'His daughter. And SHE has a daughter?', Sam excalimed, remembering Sammy-Jo, as a long-empty hole in his swiss-chessed mind suddenly filled. He was a grandfather!
'Huh? And of course Sammy-Jo's got a daughter Where have you been the last 20 years?'.
'Sammy-Jo's my, er, sister. Half sister anyway. Sam Beckett's daughter.'
'You're kidding!'.
'No. I, er, thought you knew'.
'Well, you've never told me, how would I know?' she replied, looking at him strangely.
"So, er, Sammy-Jo's the problem, is she?" he asked, trying to get back to the issue at hand. "You want me to have a word with her?"
"No, don't bother. I can take care of my own problems, thanks."
Sam nodded again.
Lucy left, leaving Sam sitting, shaking his head. He didn't Lucy as she turned the corner out of the canteen, didn't see her have her own conversation with thin air which was really a hologram, didn't see that she was really Zoe, one-time hologram to Alia, an evil leaper, and now an evil leaper herself! And she still had only one objective. This time though, it wasn't to kill Sam Beckett, it was to destroy the life of his son, Nicholas.