"Mind if I sit with you?" The woman asking the question was lovely. No longer young, but she'd been a pretty young woman and age had matured her into beauty.
"Sure." The Doctor shrugged and moved his chair a little to make room for her. "I'm the Doctor and you are?"
She smiled. "I think everyone here knows you're the Doctor," she said. "I'm Donna Elisi, Sam's wife."
The Doctor's interest perked up. In some ways, her story was even more interesting than those of her husband or the Admiral. Left behind, forgotten by her husband, and she still had the strength of character to insist that he not be told, that if he didn't remember there was a reason for it. The Doctor didn't believe it; he'd never believed that some force, whether God, Time, Fate, or something else, was controlling Beckett's Leaps. It was either random chance or a bug in the programming. But that didn't make Donna Elisi any less interesting. He grinned and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you Penelope."
Her smile was more watery than the Doctor had hoped for. "Fortunately, I don't have a swarm of suitors determined to marry me." The smile faded. "I've had some trying to insist I have Sam declared dead. Thank God it hasn't been anyone with any kind of real relationship to him; if his family were to try, I wouldn't be able to fight them."
"I'll see if I can't just bring him home," the Doctor said. "You just keep unraveling that—" He stopped, unable to remember that part of the story.
"It was Odysseus's father's burial shroud," Donna said. Then she chuckled. "I said something about unweaving my father-in-law's burial shroud to Al once early on, and then had to explain what I meant. Al's many things, but a student of Greek literature isn't one of them."
"Oh, well," the Doctor shrugged. "Maybe you can help me, here. This bit of code here, it's pointing to a chip but I can't tell what kind of chip."
Donna leaned over to look. "That looks like the neural chip, the one that lets Al communicate with Sam. Why? What's it doing?"
The Doctor's expression didn't change, but he could feel the joy of solving a problem and saving lives start. If it just took long enough, he might be able to change something in Donna's life. Something for good. "Well, y'see, it looks like in addition to what it's supposed to do, it's set up an intentionality circuit." He waited; this woman was intelligent and she was intimately connected with the project.
"Intention—" She stared at the Doctor. "And the intention is?"
"Considerin' what I know about this little project of your husband's, I'd say the intention is to keep going until everything that's wrong is put right. Good heart, but he needed somebody who could understand it to debug his code." He grinned. "Good thing he's got me."
Donna looked at him. After a minute, she grabbed a pad of paper and a pen. "Good thing, but you're explaining everything you're doing."
It was a real shame he didn't have his TARDIS with him, the Doctor thought. Donna Elisi would have made a wonderful Companion.
*
Al stormed into the control room, looking for that damn alien. He was pouring over the circuitry, muttering about an "intentionality circuit", whatever that was. "What the hell--"
Before he could finish, the Doctor shouted, "Enough! Do you want Reapers here? Do you want to destroy the universe? Do you have any idea what forces you're playing with here?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You stupid apes are playing with timelines. Changing timelines." The Doctor took a deep breath. "Beckett's a genius and no two ways about it, but he's years, and you don't wanna know how many, ahead of his time. And you're good, but you're not a genius and you're not a Time Lord and you have no idea what you're playing with."
"And if someone gets inconvenient, you just leave them behind?" Al shouted.
"No," the Doctor stated, simply and quietly. "But when people travel with me, it happens. Sometimes, it's by accident and sometimes it's because that's what has to be. And we have to stop this conversation, now." He shook his head. "Can I help you without causing a paradox?"
"Probably not," Al sighed. "Stay out of trouble, would you? I have more research to do."
As he left the control room, he realized that Donna had been there with the Doctor and that, for the first time in what felt like forever, there was hope in her eyes. If that alien was raising false hope, Al would find him and make him pay. Donna was just barely hanging on; she wouldn't last too much longer.
He stormed into his office and collapsed into his chair. In front of him was the photograph of Beth and the girls. Because he was in the center of things here at Project Quantum Leap, he could remember a little of what his life had been before Sam had started Leaping. Before Sam had gone back to Beth and convinced her to wait, that Al was alive and would come back to her. That Al still loved her. He could still remember, dimly, what it had been like when she hadn't waited. And nothing Al could do would bring Sam back. All he could do was to keep Sam alive, and Leaping. And hoping. Al was real good at hoping.
He had Ziggy run the numbers every way he could think of. Somehow, they had to keep the kids off that alien ship, but get the anti-virus. Every time, the same numbers came back: if the kids weren't sent to the ship, they wouldn't get the anti-virus and millions of people would die. And the consequences of that were incalculable.
*
Hoping that Rose and Jack had gone back out again, Sam was disappointed to find both of them in the console room, clearly waiting for him. "Did you do it?" Rose asked as soon as he walked in. "Did you put it right?"
"It'll happen tomorrow night," Sam said.
Rose frowned. "What's wrong? We've got a whole day; we can figure it out."
"Al's working on it," Sam told her. "You can't."
"Are we crossing timelines?" Jack asked. His eyes were sharp and calculating. "Y'know, there's ways around that. This one time, my old partner--"
Sam shook his head. "I need to think," he said. "Could I get some paper and something to write with? I need to do some calculations."
Jack's eyebrows rose at that, but Rose ran to get Sam a stack of paper and half a dozen pens and pencils. Sam could see her disappointment when he closed the door on her, but he knew better than to let her stay with him. The temptation to tell her what was happening, what was going to happen, was too great, and from there, it would be a short step to telling Jack. Which he absolutely couldn't do.
He spent the day trying to figure a way out of the problem. Without enough information on the influenza, he couldn't even begin to think about the direction an anti-virus would take. Even when he'd been studying medicine, that was a difficult proposition at best, and frequently impossible at worst. And how could he force an alien to give up that anti-virus when they could kill by releasing their own viruses. Al had explained how they'd done that when the Torchwood operatives had tried to stop them the last time. Hundreds of people had died and nothing had been accomplished, not until later.
It was late when Sam heard the knock on the door. Rose smiled at him when he opened it. "Just cheese toasties and some tea," she said, bringing the tray into the room. Setting it down on the desk, she asked, "Is it always this tough, or is this just a bad one?"
"They're getting harder," Sam said. "I was warned that they would, but there's some times I'm not sure I can manage what has to be done. And I think I've given up on ever getting home."
"Don't," she said, grabbing his hand. "One thing I've found traveling with the Doctor is that you can't solve anything if you've given up." She shrugged. "If there's anything I can do to help, you just let me know, but don't you give up."
Sam smiled at her as he ate his dinner. "Thanks, Rose," he said. "You make a good friend."
"Get some rest," she said.
After another restless night with little sleep, and a breakfast that Sam couldn't taste, he turned to Rose and Jack as they saw him out. He gave Rose a hug and kissed her cheek. "It's been nice spending time with you," he said. "Take care of your Doctor, and let him take care of you."
Rose smiled up at him. "You're sure we can't help?" When Sam shook his head, she kissed his cheek again. "Safe trip."
"Safe landings," Jack said. Instead of shaking Sam's hand, like he'd been planning, Jack wrapped him up in a hug. "And if you don't know where you are, may you always know how to leave." That got a bark of laughter from Al, who had been standing silently next to him. "Don't worry. Rose and I had a long talk last night. We won't follow you but, if you need us, we'll be here. Until you Leap again that is." He straightened up and nodded. "Dr. Beckett, it's been an honor to meet and talk with you. And where's the Admiral?" When Sam pointed to Al, Jack stood to attention and saluted. "Admiral, sir!"
Al saluted back and said to Sam, "Come on, Sam; time to go."
At the hotel, Jack had packed and checked out of the hotel. "It's probably best if they don't see you," he said. "I'll stop a mile or so away; from what you've said, you'll have enough time to get into place. Any plans?"
Sam shook his head. "I'm hoping something will come to me when we get there."
They drove in silence. Sam didn't know what to say, and Jack was clearly thinking. They finally stopped. "We're close now," Jack said. "Come on, I packed you something to eat." He got out of the jeep with Sam and led him around to the back. Sam leaned in to look in the back, and everything went black.
*
Al stared at Harkness in shock. He'd knocked Sam out cleanly, with one blow. He moved away from the road, far enough that no one would see them, and tied Sam to a tree. Al started shouting when he realized what Harkness was going to do, but then Harkness started speaking and Al went quiet. "Admiral, I'm assuming you're there. I've been over this and over this and there's only one way I can see that this will work." He stood. "I'm guessing that Dr. Beckett was supposed to Leap into me. He'd have assumed that this was either a suicide mission or that I had another way out. It's both, you know. Just before they take the kids, I send them running and have them take me instead. Whatever they need those kids for, I should be able to do as well. That'll get us the anti-virus." He sighed. "I wish I could give you a message for the Doctor, but it's too soon in his timeline; it'd cause a paradox." The blue of his eyes was brighter than usual. "If this doesn't work . . . I don't know what to tell you to do; this is the only plan I've been able to come up with." He stood up. "Good luck." He walked to his jeep and left.
It took Sam over an hour to wake up. Al had followed Harkness, but kept bouncing back every few minutes to check on Sam. He heard the woman, Ellen Hunt, give Harkness his instructions. "Doesn't care." Why should he? Al thought. Looking at his handlink and thinking about the files he'd read, all of the suicide assignments Harkness had been given because he couldn't die. Why should he care?
When Sam finally woke up, it was several minutes before Al bounced back to him. "Good," he said, "you're awake. First, you've gotta get untied."
"What's going on?" Sam asked, bewildered, as he tried to get some movement within the ropes. After years of being tied up, by experts and amateurs, he could tell that Jack was one of the experts. "He agreed with us that something had to be done. Why--"
"He's got this crazy plan that he's going to get the aliens to take him," Al said. "Try moving your thumb under that loop. Ziggy gives it less than a ten percent chance of working but, because he can't see or hear me, I can't tell him that. So, I couldn't stop him."
"Where is he?" Sam asked. "And what's Ziggy saying about our chances?"
"That's the weird thing," Al said pounding on the handlink. "The possibility of success has been climbing since he knocked you out, but the chances of his plan working are just over nil. I don't get it."
"Check on him again." Sam said.
Al went back to bouncing between the two, advising Sam on how to undo his ropes and watching as Harkness got to the kids. "Kids," Harkness said when he was on the bus, "you're supposed to come with me. I'm supposed to take you and give you to a bunch of aliens and nobody knows what will happen next. Do you want to do that?"
The kids looked scared and confused. One boy kept shaking his head. "No. No. Don't make me go."
Harkness walked over and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Sshhh. That's not what we're going to do. Now, I need you to be really brave and come with me. You're going to go almost all the way, but when I tell you to run, you run like hell, got it? Run away from the bus, away from everybody. They're not going to kill scared kids. Are you with me?" He looked around at the kids, who were staring at him wide-eyed. "You're going to run and I'm going to let them take me." When none of the kids, even the boy who was still shaking his head, looked convinced, he said, "Look at my uniform; I'm in the RAF. This is my job; this is what I do. So, can you do that?"
The one boy had gone quiet, and he pulled a couple of the other kids near him and whispered. Al couldn't get close enough to hear them; neither could Harkness. He bounced back to Sam, who was starting to make some progress with the ropes. "Sam, you have to hurry. They're about to go and you're still over a mile away." He looked down at the handlink. "And Ziggy's saying we're up to 92 percent. What is she on?"
He bounced back to Harkness, who was leading the kids out of the bus. The kids followed him, just like they were supposed to. Knowing it was pointless, Al kept shouting at Harkness. None of the kids were young enough to hear him; no one could hear him and all Al could see was everything happening all over again.
They got to the edge of the light and Harkness said, "Run!" For a moment, everyone froze. Harkness looked around and singled out the one boy who'd spoken before. "Go on, go!" Still, none of the children moved.
There were soldiers standing nearby; Al could hear them readying their weapons, waiting for the order to shoot. Al held his breath as Harkness closed his eyes for a minute, and then opened them, took a deep breath and stepped into the light. He kept walking until he was in the center of it, but nothing happened. Glancing down at the handlink, Al saw the chance of success: 96 percent. He pounded on it, but it just went up: 96.3 percent. That they would get the anti-virus and that the aliens wouldn't come back. It made no sense.
The children slowly began to link hands. Harkness turned to them and shouted. "Run! Get out of here!" The children looked at each other. A few of them looked up at the light, and they all began to move toward the center. They got close to the center, and the one boy, the leader said something to Harkness. He stared for a moment, and sagged. Watching over his shoulder, he walked back toward the bus. Once he stepped completely out of the light, the children were gone.
"What did you think you were doing?" Hunt demanded as she walked up to Harkness. Out of the corner of his eye, Al saw Sam crouch behind a jeep to see what was going on. He was breathing hard, clearly having run hard to get here, but not quite in time. Still, the handlink was at 98.2 percent.
Harkness looked up at the sky over where the children had disappeared. "A source told me we were going to be double-crossed. It was too late to completely stop things--"
Hunt didn't let him finish. "We're just lucky you didn't queer things for us. We just got the formula for the anti-virus. Even if you were a fool, they kept their--"
There was a ball of fire in the sky, directly over where the children had disappeared. Everyone stared. As the fire faded, Hunt asked, "What do you think happened?"
Harkness was shaking his head, his eyes were wide. "No idea."
Al walked over to Sam. "They did it," he said. The handlink was giving him the new history. Harkness's personal history didn't change that much, but the 456 never returned. Steven Carter was still alive, a bright, happy child. Steven's mother, Alice Carter, hadn't shut her father, Jack Harkness, out of her life. Harkness's lover, the man who had died in the original history, was also still alive, and it looked like he might be trying to reconcile Alice with her father, just as he was doing the same with his own family. Somehow, it had all worked out.
Sam looked over at Al, and snuck into the back of Harkness's jeep. Everyone was still looking at where the ship had been.
Once the fire was gone, Harkness turned to Hunt. "Am I going to have any trouble over this? Or will we just write it off?"
Hunt looked down at the formula she was holding. "As long as this works, I'll write it up that this mission was a complete success." She looked up at Harkness and scowled. "And hope I never have to work with you again."
Harkness snorted. "Likewise, sweetheart." He got into his jeep and drove off.
He drove for nearly an hour before he pulled off the road and turned around. "Are you still Dr. Beckett?" he asked.
Sam stood up and stretched. "Yeah. Not quite sure why. Not really sure why I was here at all."
Harkness shrugged. "As a catalyst, I'd say. If you and Al hadn't been here to tell me what would happen in the future, I would have turned them over without a second thought. If you don't know what happens next, it doesn't sound like such a bad deal. Twelve kids for millions of lives? It's not a hard calculation. And I'd have had them doing exactly what I told them to, too."
"Except for Clement McDonald," Al said. "You didn't see him, Sam; he was so scared but, when he realized what was happening, he got those kids together. I'll bet he's the one who blew up the ship."
Sam repeated Al's words and Harkness nodded. "Probably." He shook his head. "What a waste. Come on, I'll drive you back to Edinburgh."
"Sam," Al said, "I'll be back. I'm going to try to get the Doctor back into the Waiting Room; tell him he's about to go home. If I don't get back before you Leap, I'll see you after."
Back in the control room, he met the Doctor, who was grinning manically at him. "They told me it worked," he said happily, "whatever it was. And I fixed that stupid circuit that your Dr. Beckett put in. No wonder he keeps Leaping; that intentionality circuit would keep someone like him trying to save the world. Y'can't, y'know. Just little pieces of it, sometimes."
Al led the alien back to the Waiting Room. "Little pieces are good enough for me." Just as they got back to the Waiting Room, Sam Leaped.