Doctor Who/Quantum Leap: The Jumper and the Leaper

Chapter 1

Once Al's eyes adjusted to the small amount of light in the room ahead of him, he looked around for his friend. He had to be there somewhere; it was a small bedroom and he was centered on him. Using the small amount of light cascading through the blinds in a large window taking up a lot of the wall upon which the bedframe rested, he located his friend asleep in the twin bed.

"Rise and shine, Sam," Al said in a loud voice. The boy in the bed didn't stir, so he tried again. "Sam! Get up! It's Wednesday, April 17, 2002 and you have like an hour to get ready." When Al found that he was still being ignored, he leaned close to Sam's ear and barked, "SAM!"

No response.

"Ziggy, are you sure this is Sam?" Al asked into the air.

A familiar voice said, "Affirmative," in response.

"Okay, then." Al tried yet again to wake his friend from his sleep, shouting repeatedly in his ears, but to no avail. Sam continued to sleep soundly with no indication that he heard his friend.

Something began vibrating at an intimidating pace from under the sheets. Sam's eyes burst open and Al sighed in relief as his friend sat up and surveyed the buzzing watch on his wrist.

"I don't know why you have that, Sam, but I'm glad you do," Al said. "Okay, so you're Matthew Gavin and you go to a private school nearby because you got some scholarship from your school district for swimming, I think. Yep, your grades were good enough and you excel at the front crawl, so your previous coach wanted to send you somewhere great to get better."

Sam wasn't even looking at him, nor did he seem to be paying attention. He just stared at the watch and looked at his hands and the bed in front of him, mesmerized by something. Al walked in front of him through the bed and waved his hand in front of Sam's face.

"Hey, I was talkin' to you!" Sam jumped and finally looked Al in the eye. "Sam?" Al caught something strange in his friend's gaze; confusion. His mouth hung open like a dog's when it is told something that it doesn't understand, but it is listening. "Sam?"

He opened his mouth and rasped in an unusual voice, "What?"

Al furrowed his eyebrows in concern, staring at his friend with suspicious eyes. "Sam, can you understand me?" As expected, he just stared at his lips as he spoke and said nothing in response. "Sam, can you hear me?" he asked, moving his lips in exaggerated motions so his friend could see how they formed his words.

"No," Sam replied in the same strange tone.

An idea struck Al; he snapped his fingers next to Sam's ear repeatedly. Sam mimicked him as though testing himself, but after a number of attempts he stopped. His eyes widened as he came to a realization.

"Al," he said in a low and gruff voice, "I can't hear anything."

His eyebrows raised in surprise and confusion. "Ziggyyyyy," he moaned. "What do I do?" He waited for a few moments but got no response from Sam's hybrid computer. "Ziggy!" he shouted. "Okay, fine, if you've got nothing to say-" Al stopped talking and instead held up a hand to Sam and mouthed, "I'll be back," hoping his friend would know what he meant as he left the imaging chamber to find someone who could help him. Just before he exited, he put a finger to his lips and looked Sam in the eyes, holding his gaze for as long as it seemed to take him to understand. Sam nodded in comprehension and waved goodbye.

Sam was close to panicking after Al left him alone. Being unable to see was hard enough, but being deaf was even worse! Not only could he not hear instruction from his best friend, but he also had no idea how else to communicate. Apparently he could talk, which he discovered by touching his throat as he vocalized, but there was no way to know if he could be understood and he certainly knew he couldn't understand anyone else. Lipreading had never been his forte.