Quantum Leap: My Bones May Break but the Law Never Will (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter 4

The rest of the day passed without incident. Sam enjoyed his dinner, Yun picked him up right on time, and he slept soundly from all the activity of the day. He nearly fell into bed that night, his muscles desperate for relief.

When Sam awoke, he almost forgot he was in a leap. Standing proved a startlingly simple task, so simple that he nearly fell over in surprise. Nothing had been this easy in days.

Carefully, Sam took a few steps. Unlike yesterday, no pain met his joints nor his muscles as his foot touched the ground. He didn't even reach for his cane this morning; there was no need. Sam felt that he could jump for joy, but he didn't dare. He wasn't about to ruin what could be his best day in a long time.

To celebrate, Sam decided to make breakfast. He prepared pancakes and eggs by himself and without any mental or physical cost to him, to his great relief. The feeling was amazing. He finally felt normal again for the first time in weeks! He wasn't blind and he wasn't feeling terrible like he had for the last few days; in a word, he just felt normal.

With a buzz and the sliding of an automatic door, Al appeared on Sam's left. He looked around for a second, disoriented as usual, and then he spotted his friend.

"Sam? What are you doing?" He asked, confused. "What's all this?"

"Breakfast," Sam replied.

"Breakfast?" he exclaimed.

"Yes, breakfast!"

"Uh, well, good job, I suppose." He raised his eyebrows, then seemed to allow himself to go back to his point. "But how are you doing that? You don't even look like you're having trouble!"

"I'm not!" Sam smiled and held up his arms. "I feel good as new, Al!"

Al continued to stare at his friend, inspecting him. "That's weeeiiirrd," he thought aloud. "Maybe today's just a really good day."

"Maybe," he agreed, "but I'd like to use it for all it's worth. What am I supposed to do today?"

"Uh... you have work from four until eight again and you have some studying to do with Kamal but other than that nothing is set in stone."

"Great." Sam beamed. For the first time in a long time, he was excited for the day ahead. "I wanna hang out with Kamal and Yun."

His friend walked around a little bit, almost concerned for Sam since he was magically so much better, but he agreed that they should take advantage of this and have some fun. "Kamal's in your phone book over there, so give him a call if you have plans for the day, I guess."

Sam continued his cooking, making enough for himself and Yun, while also thinking about what he could do before four. "Are there any good movies out, Al?"

"Movies? Well yeah, Sam! Back to the Future just came out earlier this month!"

"Yeah, we can go see that!" That was one movie Sam did see when it came out. Though he wasn't very up to date on popular culture once he got into Project Quantum Leap, he thought he might be able to learn a thing or two from the movie, even though he knew they weren't exactly quantum physicists.

"I'll see if there are any showings nearby," Al told him. "There's.... a theater in town, then another one a bit further away-" His face broke out into a huge grin and he announced, "There's a drive-in over here! Ha! Rim would love this."

"I don't know if I've ever been to one of those."

"You haven't? Geez, Sam, did you live under a rock? Or maybe under a stack of textbooks?" Al poked in his direction, but obviously he couldn't literally poke his friend humorously.