Subject: [gbp] Dr WHO 2
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 22:26:02 -0000
From: "David" <dewheatley@yahoo.com>

Dr WHO 2: Look After You Leap

***

Notes: This is the sequel to last year's Dr WHO @
http://www.geocities.com/dewheatley/DrWho.htm

The Doctor, TARDIS and related characters are copyright of the BBC, WHO and
related characters are copyright of Marvel, except for Sapphire Steel, who
is mine. Sam Beckett, Quantum Leap and related characetrs are copyright of
Universal Studios and Belisarius Productions. God knows I am not making any
money off this and He will back me up as a character witness...

***

Matrix Log - Time Travel Accidents #35274896904

The most famous of all of Earth's time travel experiments and subsequent
failures was that of noted American physicist Dr Samuel Beckett. Dr Beckett
theorised that time travel was possible for humanity if it was attempted
within the course of the traveller's own lifetime. His basic theory was
that time was akin to a piece of string, with your birth representing the
start of the string, and your death the end of the string. This string was
then tied to create a loop, which would be in line with the circular logic
of the universe. The string was then balled up to represent the chaos
elements of and therefore the string, once jumbled up, would touch specific
points allowing time travel to be possible and so that various points in
history could be observed.

With funding from the US government, Dr Beckett set out to prove his
theories and created a top-secret installation known as Project Quantum
Leap. In 1995, pressured to prove the theories or lose funding, Dr Beckett
stepped in to the time travel accelerator prematurely and vanished. He
awoke to find himself trapped in the past; facing a mirror image that was
not his own and guided by an as yet unknown force to change history for the
better. The damaging nature of time travel on an unprepared subject was
unknown to Dr Beckett and his mind has been damaged and affected with
selective amnesia, however the closer to his present he is, the more he
remembers. Unfortunately that was not the major flaw of the project because
the project was not yet ready for testing and the retrieval program Dr
Beckett had devised to bring him home failed.

Dr Beckett was lost in time, altering events in the past using guidance
from the future to put right what was wrong. The process of leaping means
that Dr Beckett's physical body actually swaps places with whomever he is
taking the place of in time. However there is a temporal aura about him
that distorts Dr Beckett so that he is only seen as the person he has
replaced; though it has been noted that children and animals can see
through the distortion. In his own time, the person who has been replaced
appears as Dr Beckett. In between leaps, Dr Beckett's physical form is
returned to the project; however his mind is still trapped in time, leaving
Dr Beckett a blank slate during these times.

Dr Beckett is kept abreast of his mission and the job he is there to do as
calculated by the super-compeer that allows the process to occur by Admiral
Albert Calavicci. The Admiral appears in the form of a hologram that only
Dr Beckett was thought to be able to see and hear; however this has been
disproved as young children, the psychologically disturbed and those with a
similar brain wave frequency to Dr Beckett can also see the Admiral. In Dr
Beckett's absence, the admiral is the driving force behind Project Quantum
Leap in the future, using his political and military position to keep the
project's funding going. He is also the main activist in trying to get Dr
Beckett home, even though he has no scientific qualifications.

Dr Beckett altered many events within his own lifetime in the process,
gaining a wife and daughter, as well as benefiting many of his friends and
family. In his first instance of altering the time line for his own
benefit, Dr Beckett influenced the mind of a young woman, Donna Elesse, he
would later know, who left him on the eve of their wedding due to problems
with commitment. Her perspective was changed that her fear of commitment
was faced and that she would be able to marry Dr Beckett. The flaw in his
logic at the time was that he was not the first person she fell in love
with, however his gamble paid off. They married and Dr Elesse became one of
the original theorists on the Project and has been at the Project ever
since, now acting as Project Director (Science) for the Project in Dr
Beckett's absence. On Dr Beckett's only return home to date, he was
reunited with the wife he never had where they were able to spend at least
one day together before Dr Beckett was forced to return to his journey. The
tragedy of this is that, during his journey, Dr Beckett only remembers her
as the woman who left him, if he remembers her at all. Dr Elesse has
decided this, using the guidelines set down for the project by Dr Beckett,
that in order for Dr Beckett to complete his tasks, knowledge of her
would be a hindrance instead of help.

The second instance of him altering the timeline for his own needs was when
he leapt into himself as a young man. Using his knowledge of the future,
he tried to ensure that his brother was not killed during the Vietnam War,
that his father did not die of a heart attack and that his sister did not
marry an abusive husband. His attempts to do this failed, as his family did
not believe that he could see the future, writing it off as stress. However
his failure was not total as on his next leap he appeared in the body of
one of his brother's squad in the war and was able to save his life, at the
cost of a young female photojournalist who was on the mission covering the
war. Her final photo won the literary award known as the Pulitzer Prize,
which was the event Dr Beckett was there to realise.

The third major change to Dr Beckett's life was when he was charged with
saving the life of a young woman not once but three times on consecutive
leaps. The actions he took over the course of these leaps ensured he fell
in love with the young woman he was looking after, Abigail Fuller, and she
eventually had his daughter. His daughter, Samantha Josephine Fuller, also
works at Project Quantum Leap, working on the team who are trying to bring
Dr Beckett home; however she is unaware of who her father really is,
believing him to be the man whom Dr Beckett was at that time. This has been
done for security reasons; however it is thought that she suspects the
truth and is keeping it to herself until the truth is revealed to her out
of respect for the beliefs behind the Project.

However, Dr Beckett's actions have not been totally with himself in mind.
During his early adventures, Admiral Calavicci attempted to use Dr Beckett
to convince his first wife, Beth, that her husband was alive. At the time
the Admiral was listed as missing in action, though he was actually a
prisoner in Vietnam. Dr Beckett however realised this was not his true goal
when he saw a photograph of the Admiral and went on to secure his true
mission, at the cost of the Admiral's marriage. Subsequently she remarried
and the Admiral returned to find he had lost his wife. He then married
again several times, trying elusively to recapture the love he had lost and
ultimately failing. Dr Beckett's failure to help his best friend was the
one thing that preyed on his conscience during his journey, though he
pushed it to the back of his mind. However an opportunity arose for him to
choose the next point of leaping, with the aid of a bartender who knew a
lot about Dr Beckett and the Project. The identity of this man is still
unknown; however it is possible that the man could have been a Time Lord,
but he conforms to none of the known Time Lords in the database. The
bartender known simply as 'Al' convinced Dr Beckett that his leaps were
his own choice and not random at all. This provided Dr Beckett with the
opportunity to go home; however he chose to leap to Beth Calavicci and
inform her about her husband, thus saving the first marriage of the
Admiral. However the problem was that Dr Beckett subsequently forgot the
advice given to him by Al and was unable to influence the location of his
leaps and was unable to return home.

This act of selflessness underlines the character of Dr Beckett, and if Al
was indeed a Time Lord as suspected there is no need for us to undo the
event that happened. If it were also possible we would attempt to send Dr
Beckett home again; however after studying the era, we have determined that
it is due to the radical alteration of the history that he knew that
prevents Dr Beckett from ever returning home. Of concern is the influence
involved in what is referred to as leaping that actively works to benefit
mankind. This outside influence also may or may not be a Time Lord and this
too has not been uncovered, however it has been noticed that there is also
a dark side to the project. A malevolent force has been at work and in the
near future, relative to the Quantum Leap Project, the technology will be
applied by an agency with more sinister goals. The person or persons behind
this project is - as yet - beyond our reach during their operations due to
high levels of temporal interference.

Dr Beckett's body died between leaps in the Earth Year 2012. His actual
location has never been discovered and it plausible to theorise that his
mind is forever lost in time without the ability to connect to another as 
he is now outside his lifetime. As yet Project Quantum Leap has not been
reactivated; however there will come a point where either it or a similar
project will activate and become the force that is altering history for the
aforementioned malevolent ends. As there is no record of this project other
than the changes it is making in time, it may exist outside of the
permitted boundaries of Time Lord capability.

END LOG

"Every time," muttered Alistaire Stuart as he made his way to the committee
meeting room. Every time there was a cabinet reshuffle, the new Home
Secretary wanted a review of the Weird Happenings Organisation and their
subsequent usefulness to the country and why were they spending a
significant proportion of the taxpayers money. They'd used to come under
the purview of the Foreign Minister, but they had been part of the
streamlining rationale that had come in under Labour's first term in office
and had been given to the Home Office to deal with. Considering that the
Home Office dealt with the police and other matters, they needed to justify
where they spent the money. Which was fair enough in Alistaire's opinion,
but WHO was always first up, and it had to be a committee meeting to
discuss what WHO's remit included and no doubt it would lead to another
budget cut.

"Don't worry," said Sapphire Steel as she walked with him. There was no way
she would have let him do this alone, because she knew how nervy he got
when dealing with elected officials. She was there as his number two and to
keep his mind at ease. "Dai's put in a good word for us. The Inter-Regional
Taskforce is highly respected by the Home Office and his word carries a lot
of weight."

"I know," said Alistaire. "And the business at New Year helped us a great
deal as well. Still, it was almost a year ago now and these politicians
have a very small memory."

"A week is a long time in politics," said Sapphire with a smile.

"Harold Wilson," said Alistaire with a sigh. "He was Labour as well. Maybe
it's their mindset."

"Who knows?" said Sapphire. "We've done this before, we'll do this again.
And..." she reached up and straightened Alistaire's tie. "That's better.
Now let's go."

"What if this time they close us down?"

"Every time," muttered Sapphire, knowing that Alistaire asked this question
every time they came out to these meetings. It was just the paranoia he had
after what had happened before. Others had used their political influence
to take over WHO and use it to their own ends -- such as Nigel
Orpington-Smythe, RCX, Black Air. It was not a pretty list of names, nor
were the actions that had their names attached to them. "They won't. After
the debacles that have occurred every time they've done so in the past,
they won't risk it."

"Sorry," said Alistaire, realising that he was being overly paranoid again,
and he flushed slightly. "It's just..."

"I know," she said and kissed him on the cheek. "Good luck, I'll be in the
gallery, watching." Alistaire nodded and went in to the white room, waiting
to be called before the committee. Sapphire watched the door close behind
him and shook her head. They'd prepared for this, they knew what was
coming, and Alistaire had all the answers for the questions they knew that
would be asked. That and his ability to think on his feet meant they'd be
okay, and she looked at her watch. The gallery opened in five minutes, the
meeting opened in fifteen. She had time to get a coffee before things
started.

***

"I think the problems of this planet will be resolved quite shortly," said
the stranger, with a smile, as he reached inside his pocket for the key he
needed to open his space-craft.

"Thank you, Doctor," said Gian. "You've saved us all."

"Think nothing of it, glad to help," said the Doctor. "At least you'll be
able to work things out. Empire's take a lifetime to build, and a mere
moment to topple. Remember that, and you'll be fine."

"Thanks again," said Gian and shook the man's hand, and they both looked as
the Emperor was carted away in handcuffs.

"You," he hissed, looking at the Doctor. "Who are you to say what is right
and wrong?"

"Corruption and the subjugation of your people is always wrong," said the
Doctor, sternly. "These people already knew that, they just needed a push
in the right direction."

"I should have killed you when you first arrived."

"And that's another reason why you're where you are." The Doctor turned to
Gian. "Good luck, Gian. I'll be back at some point. You and your people
have great potential."

He smiled, turned and opened the door of the TARDIS and entered the control
room, the door closing behind him. He smiled as he looked around. To think
he'd once thought there was very little for him to do anymore. Such a
foolish notion - just because his old enemies were gone, it didn't mean
there weren't other things in the universe to worry about. His hands moved
over the controls of the central chamber in the white room and the blue
police box dematerialised and vanished from the face of Ardjoo, leaving
it's inhabitants to start again, without a dictatorial emperor controlling
them. He wasn't sure where he was going next, so he decided to let the
TARDIS decide, and activated the randomiser he had created so long ago when
fleeing from a mighty enemy. It made things interesting these days, and
when you got to his age there were few things that were that anymore.

It had been a while since he'd regenerated and he'd done a lot since then,
familiarising himself with time after the strange events on Earth. Someone
had tried to manipulate time, to destroy the Weird Happenings Organisation.
He had yet to discover who was behind it, but they hadn't made a move 
since and he had been keeping an eye on Earth and its future. He hadn't
forgotten his confrontation with the mysterious Deacon, the murderous
creature that had seemingly known him. He had searched the records of
Gallifrey to see what he could find and had come up with nothing. That had
eventually bored him, so he'd wandered the universe again, seeing what he
could find and hoping that one day his invisible enemy would make another
move so that he would have some means of catching him, of stopping him. He
had obviously had a grudge against WHO for some reason and that made the
Doctor curious.

The Weird Happenings Organisation made no major impact on world events,
other than the solving of mysteries. Their association with some of the
superhero teams of the era had given them some status on world history but
not too much, they were more a footnote than anything else was. Who was
after WHO and why? He hadn't given it too much thought, occasionally
checking in to see what had happened in their months since he had left
them, popping by and surreptitiously watching Alistaire and Sapphire, when
he had chance. However he'd not done that in a while as after a few months
nothing had happened so therefore they were safe, but a little voice in the
back of his head was telling him something. He listened to the little
voice, because it was generally going to be one of eight people - all
himself. Sometimes it was others, but that wasn't the case now. Some part
of his subconscious was speaking to him, perhaps something triggered by
events on Ardjoo.

He scratched the side of his cheek as he left the main control room and
wandered through the corridors to the TARDIS until he got to the secondary
one. The familiar surroundings of his study awaited him. His library, his
workshop, his collections as well as his favourite chair all in the same
room as a control panel for the TARDIS so that he didn't have to got far if
a problem arose, or they landed. He wandered over to the library and ran
his finger over the various leather bound spines of the third shelf. The
book he was after wasn't there, so he wondered if he'd moved it, or filed
it in the wrong place. He quickly looked at the side of his chair but there
wasn't anything there, so he climbed up his ladder looking for the book.

"Now that's odd," he said as he looked at the spine of the book, and he
pulled it free of the others, tucked it under his arm and climbed down the
ladder. "Very odd, indeed." He sat down in his chair and looked at the
cover of the book. He'd read it before, several times in fact, but when
he'd read it then he'd read it by the author Sapphire Stuart. It was one of
the reasons he'd turned down Sapphire's request to join him because that
book told her future. If she'd seen it, if she'd read it, she'd know too
much and the book would be invalidated and then things would be wrong in
the timestream. That and he had thought he'd have found the person behind
the Deacon easier without having to keep an eye on her. Perhaps if he'd had
an assistant, he might have. "Never mind," he said as he traced the gold
embossed letters on the front of the book.

Sapphire Steele.

"She's not married him," the Doctor mused. "I don't understand that one."
He knew that eventually Alistaire and Sapphire had realised their feelings
for each other and after a time got married. Her autobiography was
interesting and had sold as a work of fiction because otherwise nobody
would have believed her. However what he definitely remembered was that she
had married Alistaire on the stroke of New Year, 2003. He knew that because
he'd put it in his diary, because he wanted to attend. This was not good
and he flicked through the book. According to the book, WHO had been
disbanded Christmas 2001, barely 11 months after he'd seen them. "This
isn't right," said the Doctor to anyone who was listening and he got out of
his chair and walked over to the console and placed the book on a small
glass panel. He pressed another button on the console and a small thin
light passed over the book. The light died and the Doctor removed the book
from the panel. After a moment light appeared on the panel, Gallifreyan
lettering appearing on the panel, telling him the results of the scan.
There was a distinct temporal anomaly about the book, one which was still
present, as if there were conflicting factors about the book that made the
name and the details within the book change.

"I wonder if I can pinpoint it," said the Doctor gently as he started to
twist some of the dials and soon a time and date appeared on the screen. It
was close to the disbanding date of WHO and the Doctor moved to the other
side of the console, and pulled the emergency stop lever. The TARDIS
wheezed and groaned at the stress that had been put upon the machine but it
wasn't the first time that something like this had happened and was well
capable of standing the strain. The TARDIS hung in space and time as the
Doctor programmed the new co-ordinates. He was going back to Earth.

***

"Bye, Sam," said Al, with a wave his cigar ash falling to the floor of the
Imaging Chamber, as Sam leapt out of the person he was currently inhabiting
and the holographic area that he had been in faded away to reveal the neon
blue walls of the Chamber. Al sighed, wondering how long it would be
between now and whenever Sam arrived in his next case. He sighed again as
he realised that in a few days that it would be the tenth anniversary since
the Project had gone live in 1995. It had started several years before that
with the construction work, but 1995 was acknowledged as the activation
date and there was a celebration planned, of course, but they all knew the
most important man would simply not be there in any real sense, because it
would soon be also ten years since Sam had been leaping as well.

Ten years, Al mused as his finger hovered over the button on the hand-link
that would open the door of the Imaging Chamber.

"Ziggy?" he asked.

"Yes, Admiral?" came the velvet female voice of Ziggy, the parallel hybrid
computer through which PQL operated. Al couldn't tell what kind of mood she
was in, though which was fair enough. Sometimes after Sam had leaped, she
would sulk because he did not return. However she had discarded that
annoying personality trait in recent years.

"Is he back?"

"I'm sorry, Admiral, Dr Beckett has not yet returned."

"Damn," said Al. After all these years it was becoming more and more of a
forlorn hope, but he had to ask. He'd been surprised several times though
and had almost collapse from the reworking of his memories as history
changed. For some reason he was unaware of the changes while he was with
Sam, but once the link was broken and Al was back in the real world, his
brain was reworked somehow, sharing the memories of the new history with
the old, though the old would fade with time, and there were moments when
Al wondered whether or not he dreamed it all. How Ziggy kept track was
beyond him, and he had often wondered if it was one of the reasons Sam
couldn't remember, as if Ziggy were borrowing Sam's memory. However that
kind of reasoning and theory were beyond him so he simply asked.

"Is she?"

"Yes, Admiral, Beth is still present in this reality. That fact seems to be
firmly entrenched in the timeline now."

"Thanks to Sam," said Al wearily and pressed the button to open the door so
he could go out. He stepped through and his wife was waiting for him.
"Hey," he said, putting his arms around her and Beth greeted him in return.
She knew what kind of stress was put on him. Even though he was 71 now, he
still pushed himself as if he were a younger man and it worried her. It had
worried her more when he had exited the chamber five years ago. He had seen
her and his eyes had gone wide. He had been unable to breathe and his face
had gone dark red and he almost collapsed. She had run to him and she had
asked how he was. When he said it can't be to her, it had almost broken her
heart, but Dr Beeks had treated him quickly. Later Al had told her the
truth, in the same way he had told her about Donna and Sammie Jo.

She shouldn't be here, but Sam had done something to time and she
remembered that the stranger who had appeared to her and told her that Al
was alive was indeed the man in the waiting room. It had taken some time to
recover from that, for she had believed them to have been married for 39
years and they had four children and she had memories that Al was only just
catching up with, however after the best part of 40 years, they had worked
the issues out, but Al knew the only way for Sam to have done that was to
have made a choice to go there because Sam had appeared as Sam, and that
meant he had given up his chance to go home for him. Al could never forgive
himself on some level for that, even though both Beth and Donna had told
him that it was Sam's choice to do so. That made it twice that Sam had
given up his home for Al, and Al had sworn to get his friend home somehow.

Five years ago. Al had aged visibly since then, as if the undeserved guilt
was making his age catch up with him.

"Where's Donna?" he asked as they let go of each other.

"She's with Sammie-Jo," answered Beth. "By the way, have you noticed?"

"That she and Adam are getting closer?" Al's youngest son, the third of the
four children was born the same year as Sammie Jo so they were both 33, and
in the last few years they had been getting closer with each other. Both
had their fair share of failed relationships behind them, but Sammie Jo had
been at the project a few years and that had been the cause of the break
ups in her life. The secrecy and unsociable hours at times played hell and
it took a certain amount of understanding which people didn't seem to have
these days.

Adam, on the other hand, just wasn't any good at holding on to girls. Al
knew it was a trait in himself that he had passed on to his son. Tom had
been married a few years now, and Lisa had been involved with her boyfriend
Mark since she'd left university, though she still decried marriage as a
dark force of entrapment. Al kept his opinions of agreement to himself. His
youngest child, Dana, was gay which had hurt Al at first, but he was still
getting used to the idea of having children at all and soon he didn't care
and it was enough that he had her. Gillian, her life partner or whatever
they were called these days, was suspicious of him and he kind of enjoyed
that. All of his children were happy, except for Adam. Adam just hadn't
found the right person and Al knew what that was like. He worked at PQL as
security and Al suspected that in Sammie-Jo he had finally found someone he
could open up to. He was glad.

"Yes, I've noticed," he said as he walked past Ziggy's main console, behind
which Irving 'Gooshie' Gushman and Tina Martinez-O'Farrell were making some
checks as the database updated itself. "Any joy?" he asked.

"Sorry, Al," said Tina with a smile. Her high-pitched voice, curvaceous
body and long red hair hid the fact she was a very impressive scientific
mind. She was a highly skilled computer programmer with degrees in
artificial intelligence. Gooshie was the head programmer, absent minded,
yet also quite brilliant. The two of them had been involved with each since
almost the day Sam leapt on his first leap all those years ago. Al also
knew that if he wasn't with Beth he'd be with Tina and he kept that little
factoid to himself. Only two other people knew this little piece of
information - Sam and Ziggy. The former was unable to tell, and the latter
unwilling to disrupt the intimacy between the two people who kept her in
prime condition in Sam's absence.

"Admiral, we're no closer to getting Dr Beckett back. Dr Fuller is working
on another idea. Her last one almost worked, but no progress since then."

"Keep at it," said Al and kept on walking until he came to the waiting
room. Donna was there.

"Are we wasting our time, Al?" she asked. This was the first place always
came after Sam had leaped, just to make sure.

"No," he said, "we're not. We'll get him back. Somehow."

"Every time," she said, turning and looking at him. "You say that every
time I ask, and we're no closer."

"And we keep trying because that's what we have to do," said Al. "Donna,
I'm not gettin' any younger, and neither is Sam. He's 52 now. How much
longer can he take the stresses of leaping? It scares the hell out of me."

"Me too," said Donna. "Me too." She nodded to Beth. "Let's go get something
to eat. It could be a few days before Sam reappears." Al nodded, wondering
if it was the whole tenth anniversary deal that was getting everyone down.
He'd ask Verbeena Beeks later. Maybe there was something she could suggest.

***

"Thank you, Doctor Stuart," said the Home Secretary, as he sat at the head
of the semi-circle. The meeting had been going on for about an hour and
Alistaire had given as much of the technical evidence he had been able to.
It had been exactly what they'd expected but they had been working from the
prepared script. Alistaire could see Saffy from where he sat, at the little
table before the select committee and she gave a wink. "One last thing,"
the Secretary said. Alistaire looked up. This was the curve ball they'd
expected and dreaded.

"Yes, sir?"

"While it is appreciated that the work you have done before is of great
importance to the defence and protection of the peoples of the country,
would you be able to summarise why we should keep the Weird Happenings
Organisation active, in days where weird is no longer an appropriate term?"

Alistaire thought for a moment, gathered his thoughts and then felt a
tingling sensation in his body. He could feel his body dissolving in some
kind of teleportation effect, and he had seen and been through enough to
know when it was happening. He was frozen in time as a blue white glow
sparkled around him cascading his body with light. Electricity danced
around his body and then his vision returned and he was in a blue room, 
a glass table in front of him. He felt the same, yet somehow different.

"Widget?" he asked, wondering if the former Excalibur member had returned,
but there was nobody there. He was alone and for the life of him he wasn't
sure what was happening.

Sapphire was concerned. Alistaire had seemed to go blank at the question
and to lose his footing when they had come so close to solving things was
unbelievably bad and she tried to get his attention somehow without
appearing to try and get his attention.

"Doctor Stuart?" asked the Secretary of State, as Alistaire blinked and
looked blankly at him, not even noticing her. "Would you kindly answer the
question."

"Erm..." replied Alistaire. Sapphire could see he was stalling for time, as
if he were somehow lost. "Could you repeat the question?" She knew that was
a definite stall. There was no way he could not have heard it.

The Secretary was getting impatient. He knew he'd been played all along
throughout the inquiry and this had been his trump card.

"Why we should keep the Weird Happenings Organisation active, in days where
weird is no longer an appropriate term?"

"Oh boy," muttered Alistaire. "I... I think... I think it's a matter of
judgement on the part of this committee?" he said, as if he were hazarding
a guess.

"So you can provide no actual testimony as to why we should keep the Weird
Happenings Organisation running and not redistribute the staff to say...
the Inter-Regional Taskforce?"

If Saffy could have shouted out she would have done but she couldn't, not
without being thrown out of the room.

"If you could give me a little time..." he began.

"Time is something that is not on your side, Doctor Stuart," said the Home
Secretary, then the Home Secretary was pulled to one side for a moment and
he nodded to his colleague. "However, in the fairness of things, we will
give you ten minutes to prepare."

With the recess declared, the room began to disperse, with Alistaire
looking perturbed and he was escorted back to the White Room. Sapphire
could see where this was going and there was very little she could do about
it. The mention of the IRT was unexpected and she reached in to her pocket
as she made her way out of the room and freed her mobile telephone. She
wanted to call Dai. She knew he was in the building somewhere, as had been
called as a witness and had done his best to help. If she knew him, he'd be
outside getting a cigarette. Then she looked down the corridor, closed the
flip on the handset and went down to the White Room. Alistaire needed her
help on this one.

Leaping from life to life wasn't without its disadvantages.

Being thrown in to a new place without a clue what was going on was one of
them. Sam had been before enough sub-committee's during Project Quantum
Leap to know that was what he was on, and he knew that was the kind of the
question that was designed to make or break someone. Except he wasn't sure
whether or not he was supposed to help the Weird Happenings Organisation or
to break it up. He needed Al, he needed information, he needed help
somehow, he needed... a cup of water. His throat was dry, and there were no
mirrors in the room to see what he looked like in this incarnation.

Sam sighed and went towards the door, where he bumped in to a young woman.
He'd seen her in the room, fidgeting in her seat.

"Hi," he said, uncertainly.

"What happened?" she asked. "We had it, we were there and you... froze. Do
you not see where they're going with this, Alistaire?" Sam now knew he had
a full name, not just 'Doctor Stuart'.

"I suddenly found I didn't know what to say," he replied, his answer
carefully guarded. "The question threw me."

"Really?" she said, with a frown. "What happened to the tells we devised?"

"I didn't feel comfortable using them?" he replied, looking for help and
wishing that Al would appear and give him a hand, though he did know even
if he had known the tells, the question was something he had to deal with
by himself. Or Alistaire Stuart had to deal with by himself. "Besides, I
wasn't sure how much help you'd be."

"Gee, thanks," she said. "If that's how you feel, you're on your own." She
turned and walked away.

"Wait," said Sam, and then realised he didn't know her name and he slammed
his fist on the doorframe in frustration. He tried to remember anything
about the Weird Happenings Organisation, if they'd played a part in
gathering information for the Project or it's predecessor of Star Bright.
However, he didn't remember a thing about them, either by ignorance or
design, as his memory was never quite reliable during a leap. He was glad
he could remember certain names and the basic gist if not the details of
them.

There was a water cooler just across the hallway and he grabbed a drink
before going back in to the room. He took a gulp and refreshed his throat,
then looked at the water. He could see his face in the ripples as he held
the plastic cup. So that was who he was this time and he considered things.
If the Weird Happenings Organisation was Dr Stuart's dream, then what right
did he have to stop the life's work of this man? Maybe he was here because
he'd been in similar situations and he knew exactly what he had to do to
sort this out. At least he thought he knew what to do.

But there was a suspicion in the back of his mind that what if he was here
to stop it, or to reshape it, or whatever the interviewer had in mind? He'd
never heard of the group, and they seemed to be quite a high profile unit,
unless... He gripped his wrist and found a watch. It told him the time,
date and year. 2001.

"Well, there goes that theory," said Sam. It was outside the Project's Time
Line, and he was struck by the thought that several thousand miles away,
someone else was in his body. Not him, as he was travelling through time
but he was physically there. He sighed, wondering what it was like over
there now and he turned his head as the door opened.

"It's time, Dr Stuart," said the clerk and Sam nodded. He had a judgement
call to make, and quickly.

***

"Admiral," purred the voice of Ziggy, "Dr Beckett has leaped."

"Thanks," said Al, and started to make his way to the imaging chamber,
looking in on his wife as he exited. She had fallen asleep in front of the
television set. She had become enamoured of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer
series and the series finale of the eight season, and it's follow on of
Angel had run quite late, as it was now tying in to the movie version of
it. He'd never quite gotten in to it himself, because he kind of found the
characters in the series annoying. They just didn't see that real to him,
or maybe it was their attempted realism in a world of fantasy that got to
him. He wasn't sure, but in either way, this was not his kind of show.

"Maybe I'm just getting' old," he muttered as he wandered down the
corridors of the complex, and stretched to revitalise his muscles. It was
very late, he mused as he wandered in to the status room, where Sammi Jo,
Donna and Verbeena Beeks were waiting. Donna smiled at him, and passed him
a coffee. "Thanks. So what have we got?"

"Sam's leaped," said Sammi Jo. "Temporal co-ordinates place him not too far
back. 2002." She waited as Al gave a little gasp. It had seemed that the
closer Sam had gotten back home, the more he had remembered about himself,
but this was the closest he had gotten so far. He was so close to touch,
and yet they hadn't because they didn't remember it. Then again, he thought
as he looked at Donna and Sammi Jo, that didn't mean a lot.

"Okay," said Al. "What else?" He looked to Verbeena.

"The man he's leapt in to seems highly cognisant of his surroundings, 
and is aware that something has happened to him, and he is theorising
that he has indeed travelled through time. He says his name is Alistaire
Stuart of the Weird Happenings Organisation, from the United Kingdom."

"Never heard of him, or them," said Al, who was pretty much up to date on
all the organisations over the world, thanks to his contacts in SHIELD.

"Ziggy is checking on them now; however they are not active these days, and
as far as we can tell, Dr Stuart died shortly after the start of 2002,
though the details are sketchy," said Donna.

"Why?" demanded Al, wondering what they would do if they couldn't get
information to Sam.

"There is no record in regards of the Weird Happenings Organisation at the
moment," said Ziggy. "However our guest was quite disturbed by the fact he
had exited his time frame at that point."

"According to Dr Stuart," said Verbeena, who had spoken with him and
obtained a lot of details in the few minutes they had talked, "he was at a
government inquiry in to his group, the results of which would determine
the future."

"And Sam leapt in at the big moment?" asked Al. "Oh, great. We're flying
blind here. Ziggy, start to get me odds on what Sam's there to do. Is it
save the Weird Happenings Organisation, Dr Stuart, or something else?"

"Admiral," reminded Ziggy. "With the little data we possess it will be hard
to gauge an accurate assessment."

"I have every faith in you," said Al, the irony not lost on the others in
the room, and he drained his cup. "Okay, I'll go find Sam." He walked from
the status room, in to the control chamber, where he collected the handlink
from Gooshie and wandered over to the Imaging Chamber. The door opened up
invitingly and he stepped in to the neon blue room. The door closed and the
holographic emitters began to sparkle as they built up an image around Al,
centring on Sam as they did so. It had never failed to impress Al how the
computer did this, though he would never admit it, and though Sam had
explained it to him once before he leapt and Tina and Gooshie had tried
since, he had never understood the principles behind it. How could they see
all this, if they didn't know it was there and were only able to work on
Sam's location. After ten years it impressed him still.

He glanced around and saw Sam at the back of the room.

"It's time, Dr Stuart," said the clerk and Sam nodded at the man who spoke,
not having heard Al enter as the door hadn't opened before Al stepped in to
the past.

"Sam," he said, and his friend turned slightly to indicate he'd heard him
as he clerk stood at the door, making the way forward clear.

"Give me a sec," said Sam, and leant down as if to tie his shoelace, and Al
came forward. "Thank God," said Sam, his voice low and through gritted
teeth. "Where've you been?"

"Getting info," said Al. "The problem is, we're not getting much at the
moment. You know who you are, and what's going on, and as far as we can
tell there's a..." he looked at the handlink readout and read the figures
"...forty two per cent possibility you're here to save the life of
Alistaire Stuart." Sam looked up. That wasn't very high. "Thirty one per
cent to save WHO, twenty eight it's something else."

"Thanks," said Sam and the clerk thought he was speaking to him, but Al
knew from long experience that was Sam's tone when Al hadn't been much
help.

"Sorry," said Al, walking with his friend. "Want me to stick around for
this? I've done this a lot more than you have." Sam gave a nod and Al
smiled. If he could make up for the lack of information, then he would be
feel a bit better about this.

***

The TARDIS whirred and wheezed as it began to materialise in the middle of
the corridor and the Doctor frowned at the landing spot for it was not
exactly inconspicuous. A police box from decades before arriving in 2001
was an anachronism that would be seen almost immediately, however it
couldn't be helped as he flipped the door switch and headed out in to the
corridor. Thankfully there was nobody about - not yet, anyway and the door
closed behind him. His research said that this was the place that caused
the demise of the Weird Happenings Organisation. Sapphire's biography of
the group was now a fiction in it's own right, not as autobiographical as
it had once been for the names and characters had all changed but the
Doctor had read between the lines and he knew that it was this hearing that
had ended it. Something here had gone badly wrong, and he wasn't going to
let that happen to his friends. For a start it altered time in a horrid way
entirely, and that just wasn't on.

"Excuse me," he said as he came across a man in a uniform. "Could you tell
me where I could find the hearing on the Weird Happenings Organisation?"

"I need to see some identification, sir," said the man.

"Certainly," said the Doctor, and reached in to his pocket and pulled out
an identification pass, made out to a Doctor John Smith of the United
Nations Intelligence Task Force. It was a version of his old pass from his
third and fourth lifetimes, updated with a new photograph and in the
current style. He'd made several for different eras because they always
came in handy.

"Thank you," said the man. "Take the stairs up to the next level, take the
left hand corridor and the public gallery is the third door on the right."

"Thank you," said the Doctor. "I hope I'm not late."

"I believe they're about to start the final session now, Dr Smith," said 
the man, helpfully and the Doctor started to hurry. One the one hand his
estimate had been very good as to where and when the hearing was, however
his guess at the actual times left something to be desired. It was almost
as if Time were working for someone else, and he chuckled at that thought
as he bounded up the stairs three at a time. He turned left and began to
run down to the door, but in his haste he bumped in to someone, and fell to
the floor.

"Drat," he said, as he picked himself up, with the person he had fallen
over helping him up. There was a breeze from an open window and the wisps
of cigarette smoke, and it annoyed him that he tripped over someone abusing
themselves like that. "I'm fine," he snapped, "I'm..."

"The Doctor?" said the person and he looked at the speaker.

"Sapphire," he said, calming immediately. "Now there's a coincidence. I was
just looking for you."

"For me?" she said, her memories of the affair a year ago coming back to
her straight away.

"Well, not for you personally, but for yourself and Alistaire. There is
grave trouble," he said. "I've come to help."

"But why?"

"There is a tangle in time," he said, not wanting to reveal everything 
he knew. "A tangle centred around yourselves and the Weird Happenings
Organisation."

"Your timing..." said Sapphire, with a grimace. "I'm about to go in to the
final hearing."

"Then it couldn't be better," said the Doctor. "After you, my dear," he
said and he opened the door. "And you really ought to stop smoking." There
were two free chairs adjacent to the door and they walked over to them

"After today, I may not be able to afford them," she said and they took
their seats. "Alistaire froze up earlier," she whispered. "Right when we
didn't need it. They're looking for an excuse to close us down, and he's
played right in to their hands. I was upset, and we argued..."

"I understand," said the Doctor. "It happens all the time, when we care
that deeply." He saw the door open and the clerk led Alistaire through the
door, though to the Doctor's eyes he seemed rather fuzzy, and he blinked a
couple of times to try and clear it.

"Are you okay?" Sapphire asked him.

"I'm not sure," said the Doctor, thinking about what he was seeing. It was
as if there were an image superimposed over Alistaire, and they were
co-existing. He didn't quite understand, but with the Earth's increasing
mutant population, some of whom had very anti-social tendencies, it wasn't
not outside the realms of possibility. "So is it really him?" he murmured.

"Yes," said Sapphire. "The door he came through has a scanner that detects
mutant signatures, and the room is also psionically dampened. After the
business with the Deacon, we ensured all the important buildings were
protected."

"Doctor Stuart," said the Secretary of State. "You have had some time to
consider your answer, so I ask for a third time - why we should keep the
Weird Happenings Organisation active, in days where weird is no longer an
appropriate term?"

"Sam..." said a voice. "There's been a development. I'll be right back."
The Doctor heard it come from Alistair's direction and then he heard a
noise as if there was machinery at work, and there seemed to be a look of
horro on Alistaire's face.

"Well," he said, "I've given it some consideration..." however the Doctor
wasn't listening to him. Something he had read sprang to mind, and he
believed he knew what was going on here.

"Sapphire," he said, "there's been a development. I'll be back as soon as I
can..." Without waiting for a reply, he was up and out of the door in a
heartbeat and running down and back to the TARDIS, where there was quite a
gathering of security at the police box, as well as a general muttering of
what the hell was this doing here and other such comments. "Excuse me, I
must get through," he said.

"I'm sorry, sir," said the man he had spoken to earlier. "There's been a
serious breach of security here, and I'm afraid until this is cleared up,
there's no access to the corridor."

"No, you don't understand," said the Doctor, an edge of frustration at the
delay and concern creasing his brow. "I must get past."

"I'm sorry, but I can't let you," said the man and the Doctor tried to
figure a way past them all, to unlock the door and get out. There just
wasn't time to do it all, there was too many of them.

"Let him past, gentlemen," said a voice with a Welsh lilt, a distinct
difference to the London twang. "Now."

"Inspector Thomas," the Doctor beamed as he turned to see the small, stocky
man standing there, Sapphire at his side. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard there was a police box in the area, and from what I gather when
that happens, there's trouble."

"I meant Miss Steele," said the Doctor.

"I want to help, this is my life we're playing with here."

"Very well," said the Doctor, with a sigh. "But touch nothing. Inspector,
could you stall the proceedings upstairs?"

"I'll see what I can do," said Dai, "but don't count on it."

"Fair enough," said the Doctor and moved to the TARDIS and opened it up as
the crowd parted before him. Sapphire followed him in and the door closed
and the police box closed, to the amazement of all concerned, bar one.

"Some days I hate my job," sighed Dai, and went to cause a distraction.
Somehow.

***

Doctor Donna Elesse sat at her desk at PQL, going over Sammi-Jo's latest
attempts at the retrieval program, reworking Sam's original design to get
him home, a design that had ultimately failed. Sam's plans had been so
meticulous with all the rules and guidelines he had put in place, however
the project had never been designed to alter time, only to observe it. If
that was where the problem was, in something that Sam had never foreseen,
then it could eb the whole program was wrong.

He'd worked at it one his single return home, and had altered the design of
it, but it had been to no avail. Now Sammi-Jo was working on it and her
theories were having no more success than Sam's. It was centred on the idea
that they needed to get a better lock on Sam and that the Swiss cheese
effect on his brain, as Al had termed it, needed to be lessened to such a
degree that they could create a proper mental connection, but the longer
the project went on, the less chance there seemed to be for getting him
home. He remembered certain details, but only of events from when he had
been leaping. Not before, and certainly little of the actual time he was
from. Though she would never admit it, she had started to believe she would
never have him home again, and that it was all over. Ten years was a long
time to believe.

Al was right. Sam was 52 now, and there was very little time left for them.
A tear trickled down her cheek as she looked at the photograph of the man
she loved, and wondered what she was going to do, and she knew her faith in
getting him back was gone. Then the alarms sounded.

"Ziggy?" she asked.

"We have an intruder," replied the computer. "They are in the waiting room
as we speak."

"How is that possible?" asked Donna.

"They simply appeared," said Ziggy. "I'm informing the Admiral now."

"Yes," said Donna, as she grabbed her coat. As project director she needed
to be there.

***

"We're here," said the Doctor.

"That didn't take long at all," said Sapphire.

"Just a different time zone, not a different planet," answered the Doctor,
as he opened the door. "Oh, and expect some trouble - this is a top secret
installation."

"What?"

"Welcome to Project Quantum Leap," he called as he headed out of the door
and Sapphire followed him.

"It is you!" said the man sitting on the table, looking at the TARDIS in
amazement. "Am I glad to see... Sapphire?" The Doctor grinned as it
confirmed his suspicions.

"Have we met?" asked Sapphire to the stranger.

"Oh, you don't see me as me," he said. "It's not just the reflection. It's
me - Alistaire."

"What?" she said, in amazement as several armed men entered the room.

"Gentlemen, please," said Alistaire, protesting at the guns.

"Doctor Stuart," said Donna as she entered the room, "while you are our
guest, you do not have authority to command our people like that."

"But they're not a threat," implored Alistaire.

"Indeed," said the Doctor, stepping forward. "I'm the Doctor, this is
Sapphire Steel, and you must be Doctor Donna Elesse. I'm hear to resolve a
terrible injustice."

"This better be good, Ziggy," said Al as he stepped in to the waiting room
and saw everyone standing around. "What in hell?"

"Al," said Donna, but Al looked at the strangers.

"You were in the hearing," he said, looking at them. "I saw you at the
back."

"Yes," said the Doctor. "Now, would your people stand down? I don't like
guns, they usually end up getting people hurt."

"Yeah," said the Admiral. "Stand down."

"Admiral" said Ziggy. "There is a situation in 2001."

"Define situation," said Al, growling and pulling a cigar from his pocket.

"The fire alarms for the building are going off."

"What?" asked the Admiral, in surprise. "Why was there no record of a fire?
Hearings may be confidential, but the fire department records won't be."

"Dai," said Sapphire, realising what the Inspector had done. "It's a false
alarm."

"Buying us time," said the Doctor. "Admiral, may I suggest you go and aid
Doctor Beckett?" Al's eyes opened wide at the mention of Sam's name. "Don't
ask," said the Doctor before he could say a word. Al shook his head and
went to help his friend. A room full of doctors was bad for his digestion.

"Okay," said the Doctor. "I believe we need to talk."

"I agree," said Donna. "Would you like to begin?"

"Certainly," said the Doctor, and sat down next to Alistaire. "My name is
the Doctor, and I am what you would define as an alien."

"Not uncommon," said Donna. "What race?"

"Gallifreyan, more specifically I am a Time Lord. I noticed that there was
an alteration to time that was wrong, and I traced it back to the arrival
of Sam Beckett in Alistaire Stuart's body, leading to the collapse of the
Weird Happenings Organisation."

"Is that the change that Sam is supposed to make before he can leap?" asked
Donna, pushing aside the burning questions of what a Time Lord could do.

"I believe so," said the Doctor, not looking at either Sapphire or
Alistaire, knowing that the collapse of the organisation split the two of
them up and pushed Alistaire to despair, which ended in tragedy. "However,
it is not the root cause of why he leaps."

"You travelled in time to get here from 2001," said Donna, understanding.
"Yes," the Doctor said. "I came because while the choice made is the 
choice that allows him to leap, it is the wrong choice because of the
consequences."

"Sam wouldn't let the consequences matter, he'd find a way," said Donna.

"Yes, but in this case, you would never have reached him in time. He would
have resolved it without having the opportunity to save lives."

"What is the effect of the closure of WHO?" asked Alistaire.

"There are three," said the Doctor. "The first is that your staff are
mostly reassigned. Some to the Inter Regional Task Force, some to UNIT.
However it saves money in the budgets of the government, which they then
use to develop the new international space program."

"Time fixing itself," said Alistaire, who was well aware of the details
from the affair with the Deacon and the damage done to the planet's space
program with the deaths caused.

"In one way," said the Doctor. "Space travel will allow for world peace in
a way that surprises everyone."

"How can we give that up?" asked Donna. "It hasn't happened yet, though."

"No, not quite," said the Doctor. "Dr Beckett hasn't changed history just
yet, but he will change it. I'm a Time Lord, so I know."

"The other consequences are?" asked Sapphire.

"The second," said the Doctor, "is that the current government bury the
details of what happened with WHO. It's an embarrassment to the government
and the files are closed and sealed, because there is enough out there
without needing to know what is going on. It's something that puts the
world on a more scientific level, and results in the absence of anything
outside the realms of science."

"It also explains why there's no record of WHO," said Donna.

"No, there's no record of WHO, because of the security protocols," said the
Doctor. "Time hasn't changed yet."

"You know about that?" asked Sapphire, and the Doctor nodded. "There was a
situation a year ago," she continued. "Someone from the future was trying
to alter history and we encrypted all our files so they wouldn't be able to
access them in the future and use the knowledge against us."

"Which is quite a sound tactic, but we never considered it would be needed
to save us," said Alistaire.

"Save or destroy," said Donna.

"The third?" asked Alistaire.

"You die," said the Doctor softly. "And I'm not about to let that happen."

"So what do we do?" asked Donna. "Sam has to leap."

"I agree," said the Doctor. "He can't stay as Doctor Stuart, and there
needs to be something done about this whole Project. Sam has done
incredible work in ten years, and has saved a lot of lives. Ten years is
long enough. We're going to bring him home."

"Can you do that?" asked Donna.

"I'm going to try," said the Doctor. "However, we first need to sort this
whole mess out. The Weird Happenings Organisation must be kept going, and
we still have to make a way for the space travel revolution.

"I think I know a way," said Alistaire. "If Dr Beckett is the same Dr
Beckett I remember."

"You met him?" asked the Doctor

"No, but I know about him. Project Star Bright."

"I see," said the Doctor. "Then we all have work to do. Could I speak with
Doctor Gushman, Doctor O'Farell, Doctor Fuller and, of course, Ziggy?"

"Certainly," replied Ziggy. "It will be nice to speak to someone more on my
level for a change."

"Where would you like to meet?" asked Donna, letting the Doctor lead them.
He seemed to know what he was doing.

"In my TARDIS," he said. "Where else?"

***

"Well," said Sam, wondering what the hell was going on back home, and
alarmed that he was suddenly alone again, though he had gotten used to it
over the years. "I've given it some consideration." At the back of the room
he could see two people suddenly leave, one of the young woman who had
confronted him earlier. Something was going on, and Sam wasn't sure what it
was. He figured his best bet was to bluff his way through things and he
focused his swiss-cheesed memory, thinking he remembered one committee
meeting where they needed the figures and they weren't ready yet. He hoped
that was what he remembered anyway.

"I cannot give you a reason to keep the Weird Happenings Organisation
going," he started, "because I don't believe that you're prepared to listen
to my reasons. I don't feel that you either understand what it is we're
trying to achieve, or that you even want to understand." Yes, it was all
there, and Sam fought back the urge to smile. "I've tried very hard to deal
with committees like this one time and again, and all you see are the
numbers of the bank balance and how much we cost you. It doesn't matter
what good we've done, or how we can benefit mankind, you just don't want
the responsibility of saying 'yes, let's spend x-million of dollars...
pounds" he corrected, catching his mistake.

"Doctor Stuart," said the Secretary. "May I remind you this is a hearing to
decided whether we continue the Weird Happenings Organisation, not a
soap-box for you political views? The fact of the matter is, weird is now
the norm for millions of people. You only have to open the newspapers and
read about the Avengers, or the Fantastic Four, or any other number of
discoveries and events than go outside the realms of what used to be
regarded as normal, and we have adjusted to that. My point is that, while
your expertise is valued, why not redeploy you in other areas, and yes in
the process save x-million of pounds a year - money that could be spent on
hospitals, transport, and put in a place where it can do more good."

"How can you say what we're doing is less good than the other causes?" said
Sam, remembering this argument. "Less worthy in the eyes of the public and
the voters, yes, but how many lives will be saved. How will we
revolutionise the planet if we don't keep an open mind. As for the problems
you mentioned, throwing money at the problem doesn't make it go away.
Managing it better, using the existing money wisely that's what gets things
done? How many projects has money been wasted on, whereas ours is doing
great."

"With no tangible results," said the Secretary. "We have nothing to
evaluate you against now, and if there is no process for benchmarking, how
can we justify the existence. Answer the question, Dr Stuart, or simply
tell me that there is no answer for it." Sam knew he'd stalled long enough,
and he had to make a decision, here and now. Then the room was filled with
alarms, deafening in the place and he put his hands over his ears, as
everyone began to make their way outside, Sam following everyone else. It
was rather fortuitous that it had happened and as he wandered with everyone
else outside he saw Al, who had his thumb and index finger at an angle at
his head, and Sam reached in to his pocket and fished out a mobile
telephone.

"What's going on, Al?" he asked.

"Huh," said Al. "Well, the alarm is a false alarm, designed to buy us some
time to figure this out."

"How'd you manage that?" asked Sam, wondering how the Project had pulled
that off.

"There's a couple of time travellers in the waiting room," said Al, taking
a puff on the cigar. "They left the hearing and arrived at the Project to
tell us what the problem was."

"How'd they know?"

"Not even going there," said Al. "You know this stuff gets me at the best
of times. I tell you, Sam, some days I think I'm getting too old for this."

"You and me both. So what's going on?"

"You got me. The Doctor's in charge?"

"The who?"

"The Doctor. One of the travellers. Ziggy's seeing if we can find some
details out, but she's in awe at the advanced technology..."

"Terrific," said Sam. "So what now?"

"We wait for the all clear and as hopefully they'll have an answer."

***

"Hmm," said the Doctor as he listened and heard about the project, and the
retrieval program and the reasons they thought it was failing, with the
various Doctor's telling him their theories, and Ziggy helping out as well.
"I suspect that's the problem," he mused after a moment.

"What?" asked Sammi-Jo.

"It's a relativity issue," said the Doctor. "Doctor Beckett is no longer
relative to the actual timeline. The jumbling of his memories is a side
effect of the time travel method, because there are times when his body
leaps, and sometimes just his mind, and in between leaps his body remains
where it is. His mind cannot lock on to his body as the leaping process
shunts him through time and he has to try and find his body, but because he
doesn't know where his body is when he leaps..."

"Hold on," said Sammi-Jo. "Why doesn't he know?"

"Because at the moment that he leaps, he is sucked back in to time again
and because he is travelling again at that moment, he is no longer relative
to where he was."

"How can we resolve it?" asked Gooshie. "The programming isn't capable of
tracking him in transit - only when he arrives."

"It is not my fault that my programmers cannot comprehend the complexities
of time," said Ziggy, indignantly.

"No, they're just human," said the Doctor. "It's the string theory. The
string is jumbled up, and as Sam leaps he creates knots. The string needs
to be in the right place when he leaps, otherwise he will never get home."

"And the right place would be?" asked Tina.

"The TARDIS suggests that the correct place for Sam to arrive home would be
from our current timeline," said Ziggy.

"Which is impossible to get to when leaping at random," said Tina, with a
sigh.

"Then, we'll have to alter the timeline slightly," said the Doctor.
"However, the first thing we need to do is resolve the reason Sam is there.
I need to borrow your guest."

"For what?"

"For a little journey," said the Doctor, with a grin. "With a bit of jury
rigging, and the help of Ziggy, I believe it's possible to transmit an
image of Dr Stuart to the past and he'll be able to tell these people what
they want to hear."

"We did that once before from the imaging," said Tina. "It took a lot of
work, and they couldn't communicate."

"I've been linked to Sam as well," said Gooshie. "I've had some of my
neural cells inputted on to Ziggy's system, but the connection was never as
stable as when Sam did it."

"Well, I won't be needing anything that drastic," said the Doctor. "Just
Alistaire and Ziggy to provide the frequency on which Sam's brain perceives
the holograms. I'll also need Ziggy to monitor the TARDIS systems, while
I'm working on something."

"What are you working on?" asked Sammi-Jo.

"A way to get Sam to leap," said the Doctor. "Ziggy, would you..."

"The details are being relayed to Dr Beckett via the Admiral now, and Dr
Stuart is on his way with Miss Steele."

"Good, thank you," said the Doctor, thinking that this was going to break
so many rules that he'd have to avoid Galifrey for quite some time.

***

"False alarm, ladies and gentlemen," said one of the police officers.
"Please make your way back inside the building. Thank you."

"Show time," said Al, and Sam nodded. "Ziggy, let the Doctor know what's
going on."

"Okay," said Sam, as his floor was allowed back in the building, and he
caught the glance from the Secretary. "This better work."

"We'll know soon enough," said the hologram and they went back and retook
their positions.

"Finally," said the Secretary, when the room was settled. "Let's put this
to bed once and for all. Dr Stuart, your answer please." There was a
warping noise and suddenly there was an image of Sam standing before him.
Sam held back the gasp as he saw his face again. It stunned him how old he
was now, that he was certainly not the man he had been. Then Alistaire
started to speak and as he spoke so did Sam, their voices working in
unison.

***

"What the hell?" said Al, seeing something was definitely wrong here. He
could see Alistaire as well as Sam could, thanks to some technical jiggery
from the Doctor, but this wasn't part of the plan as far as he knew.
"Ziggy."

"Doctor," said Ziggy, to the Time Lord who was looking through some of the
books on the library shelves, throwing a book to the floor as soon as he
scanned it's pages.

"What?" he said.

"There seems to be a connection forged between Doctor Beckett and Dr
Stuart. They seem to operate both at the same time."

"Yes, they will," said the Doctor. "Because of the merging of minds and the
frequency link between the two, it'll be as if they're the same person
right now. If I'm right, Alistaire spoke first and therefore became the
dominant personality as he was the one focused."

"I would like to discuss this further," said Ziggy.

"It will have to be later" replied the Time Lord as he flicked through the
pages of another tome and dropped it as well. "If we want Sam back, then
there's work to be done."

"Of course," said Ziggy. If she could get her creator back, then she would
have fulfilled her personal mission, and it would be that her creation was
indeed worthwhile.

***

"Mr Secretary," said Sam, "you ask me to summarise why we should still be
active. The reason is very simple - the weird is out there all the time.
Yes, there are extraordinary happenings, however these are not weird.
They're explainable quite easily. Mutants are evolution, heroes such as
Captain America are engineered to be that way. Heroes like Hawkeye are
normal men with incredible skill. It is not weird. Weird is the unearthly,
the bizarre, the things that cannot be explained with any degree of ease.
Alternate dimensions, time travel, magic and mystery, cult and occult. This
very country has legends based on things that do not make sense, cannot be
proved and yet are believed to be real. Today there are many, many
mysteries out there that defy explanation, that leave people baffled, and
that the regular agencies cannot deal with. Yes, you could reassign them,
but the reason that WHO works is because of the collective talents - not
just one person. The very fact that there are a lot of things that are now
categorised as normal, means there are less and less people specialised in
the things that cannot be explained. Great Britain leads the way in this
kind of work, and in all fairness to close us down would do not only
ourselves but also the world at large a great disservice. If you want to
save money, then we can find a way to ensure that WHO pays for itself,
which would also be a first for any other agency."

"That's a bit more eloquent than earlier," said the Secretary, "and there
is a certain degree of merit to what you say."

***

In the future, the Doctor found what he was after. "Excellent!" he said,
and smiled, and threw the book a little further than he had before. "Ziggy,
how is it going?"

"The future is altering," said Ziggy. "WHO still closes but in six months."

"Right," said the Doctor. "In which case we've bought some time to ensure
things happen. Thank you, Ziggy." He slid down the ladder and exited the
TARDIS and picked up the book on the way out. He looked about the waiting
room, where Sapphire was talking to Donna, and watching events in the
imaging chamber on a monitor. "You worked at UNIT, didn't you?" he said. "I
know they stay around for several decades to come, but what was the level
of activity when you were there?"

"It was a bit slow," admitted Sapphire. "There wasn't much going on, and in
fairness it did need to be revitalised somehow."

"Yes," said the Doctor. "This book here is the history of UNIT, and at the
start of 2001 they were scaled down to general peace keeping missions and
research for the United Nations itself, but when I saw them, it was an
active agency, with the full capabilities. The problem I had was that time
changed and so did the title of the book, but I suspect I've found our
solution."

"A merger with UNIT?"

"Not quite -- making WHO an international organisation is more along my
lines. All we need to get is backing from UNIT."

"So we've done it?" asked Donna.

"Not yet," said the Doctor. "I'll get Alistaire and then we're going to go
to see an old friend."

"Going?" asked Donna.

"I'll be back," said the Doctor. "Sam won't leap while we're still ensuring
the job gets done - because right now, we've only done half of the job. For
the moment."

***

The doorbell rang and Doris wiped her flour-covered hands on her apron and
went to get it. Alistair was at the bottom of the garden, tending to the
roses. He had long since retired from his teaching job, after finding it
wasn't quite what he wanted after all. He was used to the military where he
could command, and the children were not as willing to listen as his men
had been. He'd quit soon after they'd married and they were having a quite
life. She opened the door to see a two young people - a man and a woman.

"Yes?" she said. "Can I help you?"

"Yes," said the man. "I'm the Doctor, and this is Sapphire. We're here to
see the Brigadier."

"Yes," she said, knowing straight away who he was, for her husband had
often spoke of him. "Please come in, we don't get too many visitors these
days."

"Most kind," said the Doctor with a smile and Doris took them down to see
Alistair.

"Alistair," she called, and he looked up from the flowerbed. "You have
guests."

"Yes?" he said as the Doctor approached, and then he saw him up close, and
he gave a gasp. "Good Lord."

"Brigadier," said the Doctor and extended his hand. "Good to see you
again."

"Hello, Doctor," said the Brigadier, his suspicions confirmed. "You've
changed again."

"Several times since you last saw me," he said. "It's been quite a while,
I'm afraid."

"It has indeed," he said. "Can I get you anything? Tea?"

"No," said the Doctor. "I. I need your help, Brigadier."

"I thought you might," he said. "What can I do for you?"

"I need UNIT support in setting up an new international agency."

"Doctor, UNIT is not what it used to be."

"I know," said the Doctor. "However we can fix that. It will take time, but
it can be fixed. Allow me to explain."

"Is it urgent or shall I get tea anyway?"

"It is urgent," smiled the Doctor. "However, we do have plenty of time. We
have a couple of days, in fact." Sapphire realised what he'd done, bringing
them back in time before the hearing. There may be a chance to make things
right yet.

***

The TARDIS landed in the corridor again and Sapphire and the Doctor exited,
having left the Brigadier moments ago, but knowing he would be here anyway.
It turned out that Alistaire and Alistair were related in some way, a
generation back. The Stuart family was an offshoot of the
Lethbridge-Stewarts, and the brigadier had only been too delighted to aid
them in any way he could.

"Ah, Miss Steele," he said as he met them outside the chamber. "Just in
time, the hearing just ended. Doctor Stuart put forward a very good case in
the end, and I think it will have been enough, with the UNIT backing I'm
been proposing. I'm a special envoy on behalf of them. Give them a chance
they'll have me on active duty." The Doctor smiled, as if he knew something
they didn't, but he stayed quiet.

"Thank you, Brigadier," she said and kissed him on the cheek, and he
flushed slightly.

"Glad to oblige," he said. "I've got instructions from the Prime Minister's
office for the Secretary of State. This should be quite interesting."

"Yes," said the Doctor, as he looked at his watch. "However, I'll have to
ask you to give it to him in five minutes time. Not a moment before."

"Yes, Doctor," said the Brigadier, knowing that no matter what the doctor
looked like, there were certain aspects that were always going to be the
same.

"Thank you," said the Doctor. "I'll be back before you know."

"Doctor," said the Brigadier, "don't leave it so long next time, eh?"

The Doctor nodded and they went to get Alistaire, or rather Sam. If the
Doctor was right, then they needed to get him in the TARDIS and in to the
future before he leapt.

"Doctor Beckett?" said the Doctor as he saw Alistaire standing in the
corridor, and Sam looked up. "I'm the Doctor. I'm going to take you home."

"Trust him," said Al. "He knows what he's doing. Apparently. I'll see you
in a while." Sam nodded scarcely able to believe what was happening, and he
watched as the door of the imaging chamber opened and Al stepped in to the
white light, and the door shut behind him.

"I've not leapt yet," said Sam. "I thought I'd done what I had to do."

"You have and you will," said the Doctor and smiled. "Sapphire," you'll
have to stay this time, I'm afraid. Help the Brigadier."

"I will," she said. "Thank you."

"No need," he said. "Dr Beckett?" Sam nodded and the Doctor led the way to
the TARDIS. "Well," said the Doctor, as Sam stared in amazement at the
technology in the ship. "Time to go."

"Oh, boy," said Sam, and the Doctor chuckled as they went on there way.

***

"Admiral," said Ziggy. "The Doctor has returned."

"Okay," said Al, "let's get this show on the road." He walked in to the
waiting room, where he saw Sam and Alistaire in the same room, looking at
each other in amazement. Donna and Sammie-Jo were nowhere to be seen,
because that would have been too much for him just yet. They had to get him
home first, but he couldn't resist. "Sam?" he said, a waver in his voice,
and Sam turned to see his friend.

"Al?" he said, a smile echoing across his face and he ran towards the older
man and embraced him and the two men held each other. "Al." he couldn't
find any other words. There was so much to sum up - ten years of laughter,
tears, blood, sweat, sacrifice, love and loss. So much growth of between
the two of them and so much catching up to do.

"I know, kid," said Al. "I know." He broke the embrace. "Almost there.
Ziggy, where's the Doctor?"

"The Doctor is in the TARDIS," said Ziggy. "Leaping in five...four...three...
two...one." The blue white light swirled around Sam and Alistaire as they
began the leaping process.

"NOW!" said the Doctor and Sammi Jo activated the retrieval program.
"Ziggy?" said the Doctor.

"Nothing as yet," she said, and The Doctor moved around the console and
flipped a switch on the panel.

"Come on," he said, and crossed his fingers, then there was a cry.

"We've got him!" called Ziggy and Al looked up in surprise at the tone of
her voice. Her normally calm and regulated self, even when in a huff, was
ditched for a voice of sheer delight.

"Get Verbeena in here now," said Al, as he headed over to his friend who
had his hands placed on the waiting room table, steadying himself. Sam was
back home for the first time in a long, long time. More than that, he
didn't have to leave again. "Sam?" he said, looking at his friend, hoping
that he was home again and was whole in his mind.

"Al," he said, hearing his voice come from his lips, seeing his own face in
the mirror, breathing the air of home. "I made it."

"Yeah," said Al, smiling. "You made it." He placed his arm around the other
man's shoulder's. "Welcome home, Sam." The Doctor smiled at the scene, glad
he had been able to help. It had been touch and go for a moment, but he'd
managed to stabilise the time barrier between the two men and for a moment
straightened the string so it was almost a rod. He then looked at
Alistaire.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"That was very strange," said Alistaire. "So what happens now?"

"You'll find out later," said a voice behind them, and the Doctor and
Alistaire turned to see an older version of Alistaire and Sapphire standing
with Donna and Sammi-Jo.

"I said they ought to see this," said Donna, and then she looked at her
husband, who looked at her and remembered everything.

"Donna," he breathed, and ran over to her where they embraced and kissed
and held each other.

"What's happening?" asked Al. "What are you two doing here?"

"Temporal changes," said the Doctor. "The future's been tweaked a little
more than it should have. That's the problem with affecting the past, you
never quite know what you're going to get." He looked at Sam and Donna.
"Though, I suspect you know that." Al nodded and the Doctor looked at
Alistaire who was staring at his older self.

"I'm not sure I like the beard," he said.

"It'll grow on you," said the older version and gave a wink. "Doctor?"

"Yes, I think it's time to take you home," said the Doctor, grabbing
Alistaire by the arm. "Come along, young man."

"Doctor," said Sam, coming over to the Time Lord. "I just wanted to say
'thanks'. It doesn't seem enough, but thanks all the same."

"Think nothing of it," said the Doctor. "And next time."

"There won't be a next time," said Donna, with a smile.

"Of course. Well, goodbye," said the Doctor and opened the door to the
TARDIS, and both he and Alistaire went inside and they all watched as the
TARDIS moved and whirred and faded out of the waiting room, leaving the PQL
team to catch up and celebrate the return of their founder.

"So why were we there?" Alistaire asked the Doctor as they made their way
back to 2001.

"Because," said the Doctor, "there's a great many challenges and changes
ahead of you, Alistaire. More than that, I can't say." He turned around and
nodded. "Time will tell. It always does."