• • •

"Well, I guess that was why I was here. So Al, do you think theres a chance I can get back home, or will my life revolve around leaping from life to life"

"Those of us back home, are trying our best to bring you home. We just are having problems trying to lock onto you, without being careful, we could lock onto someone else from the past to take your place in the future, which would disrupt the timeline"

William's body is soon covered in a light blue haze, and soon vanishes. The vortex opens, tossing the group out, but there is a problem, Quinn, Doug and Maggie are no where to be found, but William, along with 2 others are in the places of the ones missing.

"So Quinn, when do we slide out" William, containing the timer in his hand, is shocked about it, Geena looks to the man taking Quinn's place; "Well, give us the readout" Joe heads over to William, believing he's Quinn and smacks him in the head, then looks at the timer himself, "88 hours, 5 minutes. This place looks dull" William a little shocked, watches the others start walking away from him, "Oh boy"

-Maggie is resting in a bed, when she's woken up by a child climbing onto her, "Mom wake up, its morning!" Maggie opens her eyes, to find a girl sitting on her stomach, "Who the hell are you?"

"Mom, its me, Sydney, don't joke around, I'm late for school, help me dress" a man enters the room, "Now let mommy sleep, she's ill. Come to papa, and I'll assist you and get you off to school"

"But don't you have to run the country?" the man takes the girl out of the room, when Maggie wipes her eyes, shocked of where she was at, "This can't be happening. Quinn where are you!" Maggie gets out of the bed, to notice she was pregnant, then the man from before enters, "Joan, what are you doing. The doctor told you to stay in bed"

"Joan? Who the hell is that. I'm Maggie, Maggie Beckett"

"Joan, I think your running a fever" the man helps Maggie back into the bed, covering her with a blanket, "I will have Martha bring breakfast in for you. Now if you need me, just call the oval office, okay?"

"Fine, but I think we should talk"

"Fine dear, we can do that later, just rest. You know, I can't believe this is our second child, and its going to be a boy"

"Your kidding right. I'm not pregnant"

"Joan, just relax, I know how you get sometimes" the man exits, closing the door. Maggie is frustrated, then falls back, hitting her head on the pillow and quickly falls asleep.

Over in a prison, Quinn awakens, to find a guard over him, yelling, calling Quinn, Robert. Quinn slowly awakens, "About time boy. Now lets get up and move!" Quinn is forced up, and led out of a cell, then taken to an elevator, with a few other inmates, and then taken to the mess hall.

Doug finds himself in a hospital bed, when a nurse enters, telling him she had to give him an injection for his treatment. Doug liked the idea of the attractive nurse, but she forces him to turn on his side and she puts a suringe into his ass, where it began hurting, "Now, if the pain increases in a while, push the button, and I'll be here in seconds"

"Okay, I will do so" Doug turns back over, to watch the nurse leave, but his butt hurts, so he turns on his side, staring at the wall.

At the Concord Hotel, the group enters, with Geena and Joe heading to check in, while the others remain in the lobby, sitting in chairs. William soon notices Al by the bar counter, so he heads to him, "Al, whats the verdict. I'm stuck in a body of a traveler between worlds"

"We noticed that back hom. It seems your here to stop the death of Geena Lequa, the woman your traveling with, and there is something else; Ziggy states that the 2 sitting in chairs have taken the places of 2 members of the sliding group"

"You mean there are other leapers? I thought I was the only one"

"Seems not. I guess they could be here too, to help Geena too, but who knows"

"What about the other 2, who are really existing with the group?"

"My guess is that they ended up as other people too. Meaning the 2 took on lives as you do, which ziggy can't explain, even though I figure the other leapers have a few problems to work out, since I have no one in the waiting room back home, which usually happens to people you take over"

"You better do something soon, since the group leaves in about 4 days" Al disappears in a door of light, returning to his time, with William returning to the group, which Joe and Geena already met up with, "We've decided to split up the group into 3 rooms, me and Maggie, Quinn, your with Ryan, and Doug and Geena with stay together, since on this world, the Concord only allows 2 people to each room which is a law throughout the state to any hotel"

By 11 a.m., Maggie has gotten around, to dress herself, with the help of Martha, the maid, and manages to make it to the oval office, with some man who supposedly is her husband, who is on the phone. She stands by his desk, with him soon hanging it up, "I told you to stay in bed Joan"

"Sorry to say, but I think I still can manage to walk, even when I'm pregnant. Now I need to know if we have plans later, since I'm thinking of doing something"

"Well, theres a dinner tonight at the Concord Hotel, but I told the host, that I would be coming solo"

"Your kidding, I'm still your wife in a way, and I need to prove to the american public, that I am a woman of prestige"

"Fine with me, but I think you better rest up, before leaving, which will be in 8 hours" Maggie exits the office, to pass a mirror, but Maggie backs up, to stare at another woman's image that made Maggie unsure if she wanted to be a president's wife for long, or even deliver a child, but still needed to learn of how this situation came about.

With returning to her room, she picks up, with a woman operator on the other end of the line, aksing what she could do for her. Maggie asks to make an outside call, to a Concord Hotel, to see if a friend was staying there. The woman asks for the name, calling for her; Maggie agitates, but then states the name of Quinn Mallory. The woman puts Maggie on hold with music playing on the line, while she waited. After a minute, the woman comes back on the line to Maggie, telling her Quinn Mallory was registered there, and wanting to know if she wanted to send him a message; Maggie tells the woman no, and hangs up, telling herself, she now had a chance to get back to the others.

In the mess hall, Quinn is given food, and takes a seat at a table, where a black male joins him, sitting across from him, commenting to himself about the lunch lines being so long, he could die while waiting in line. "Hey Robert, do you plan on lifting weights today, or are you going to play basketball?" Quinn looks up to see the man staring at him, wondering why he was named Robert, but would play along, "I might do a little of both, but I really need to think about things for awhile"

"Well don't worry about running out of time, your going to be here for quite awhile"

Outside one of the hotel rooms, Ryan, and William who is now pretending to be Quinn, enters it, with Ryan taking a seat on the bed closest to the door and William shutting it, "Hey Quinn, what was with you earlier, I mean you seemed out of it"

"I just lost my barrings, I guess I need to relax, I'm taking too much time thinking"

"Well you should stop before one of these slides is over a bottomless pit and you don't pay attention, leading to your death"

"Say Ryan, I know this seems odd to ask, but what do you think of this journey?"

"Its interesting, but I know this is getting to you and the rest of the group, with trying to find Colin, Wade and Brandon, then getting home. I know when this situation is over, I'm unsure whether to keep sliding, or find a world to live on"

"Do you think the others want to eat out, or just order food from room service?"

"Well, I'll go to them and find out, be right back" Ryan exits the room, with Al showing back up by William, "Al, have you found anything yet?"

"Yes I have, and ziggy too. It seems the other leapers are here to help with keeping Geena alive, and it seems back in our time, another time travel program was created to search for you, I guess I haven't been checking my mail or phone calls. I think it would be a good idea to get the 2 others alone, and chat about the situation"

"What about the others who leaped into other people?"

"We're still working on that, I'll be back" Al disappears in a door of light, and Ryan enters back into the room, "Quinn, when I was with Geena and Doug, their phone rang, and the man stated everyone has to remain in the hotel, due to the president and company showing, and no one is allowed to leave"

"Fine, we'll just get a menu and we can decide"

Doug reawakens, to find himself in the hospital still, and realizes the group wasn't there. He questions what was going on, then gets up, to look in the mirror, to see someone else, "This is freaky, I'm not me anymore" The same nurse from before enters, "Mr. Cale, what are you doing out of bed?"

"Mr. Cale? I'm Doug-" the nurse cuts him off, forcing him back into bed, "Mr. Cale, its important you remain laying down. Surgery was successful, but you need to rest, until Thursday, which is when you can leave"

Doug does as the nurse says, then as she exits the room, Doug talks to himself, "There is no possible way this could of happened. Maybe I had plastic surgery done and I'm a new person, but I don't remember any reason for its purpose"

Quinn sat on a bench, watching a group of inmates play ball, he was given paper and a pencil, as he had drawn equations of possible solutions to what happened to him, believing that he may have been spun off as a new person with technology unknown to him, and had to find a way to exit the prison, to find the others. The black man from earlier, joins Quinn, "Hey, are you ready to be the leader of the court?" Quinn looks up, "Sure, lets do it!" Quinn places the pad and pencil on the bench, heading to join the others, and Quinn is given the ball, but he misses the net and hits another inmate, with the man heading to Quinn, punching him, then a fight starts.

Joe is laying on the bed of his room, when the woman who replaced Maggie exits the bathroom, with a towel around her, and asking Joe to rub her shoulders, "I was thinking we could go to a movie tonight, then get back here for a little fun in bed"

"That would be nice, but shouldn't we relax for a couple of nights. I mean I don't want to get pregnant if we aren't careful"

"Maggie, we've experienced it three times, I'll get protection and we'll be set" a knock at the door is heard, and Joe heads to open it, with Geena and the man whose pretending to be Doug, "We just wanted to know if you both wanted to share a pizza in our room?"

"Sure, just knock on our door when you have it"

"Okay, we'll be back" with closing the door, another knock is heard, and this time, its William as Quinn, wanting to speak to Maggie alone; the woman gets dressed and exits with William, with the 2 joining up with the person replacing Doug, to talk in his room. William states he knows the 2 were time travelers; both looked shocked, then the woman states, "Are you William Beckett?"

"Yeah, who are the both of you?"

"I'm Sheila, and this is Matt. We only have 12 more hours in these bodies, before the originals return. But we've returned to stop the death of Geena Lequa"

"Me too. My advisor, Al, has been trying to get information on the situation" a door of light is seen, and out steps Al, where all 3 can see him, "I see you've all met. Well I have more to say. It seems Geena was running from the law, and was struck by a semi, the situation involves with secret service, who are looking for an unknown person, which we haven't discovered yet, and this person shows up around this area by the 3 rooms" Matt tells the others they should go someplace else, before the person shows, so Geena wouldn't die.

A few hours later, the hotel was closed off by the public, and the presidential limousine shows up, with the president and his wife, who happens to be Maggie. The 2 are escorted with the vice president and his wife into the building, with the public watching from a far. The group is led into a dining hall on the top level of the hotel, where servers are there to serve the guests their meals. President Austin assists with seating Maggie, then takes a seat. "Victor, do you think I could use the bathroom?"

"Now? Its almost time to eat"

"Sorry, just start without me. I'll be fine"

"Have Mrs. VanHesser take you, I mean she is the vice president's wife, or take a secret service agent with you" Maggie gets up, heading for the entrance, with asking an agent to follow her, so the 2 exit the dining hall, heading to the elevator, "We probably could use the main restroom on the first floor"

"The president wouldn't like that at all. We'll use the restroom on this floor, this way, please" The agent points down the hall, so the 2 head that way. The agent enters first to see if anyone was in there, but it was safe, so Maggie was left alone, to use one of the stalls. Maggie still looks around to find a possible escape, to find Quinn and the others. Maggie notices the ceiling, and figures she could crawl through the ceiling tile, to get off the floor. Maggie looks around to find something to stand on, but has no luck, so she decides to stand in a sink, hoping she can make it up in there. Maggie just barely slips as she leaps up above, but now had the chance to find the other sliders.

Matt tells the others it would be better to go to the pizza place downstairs, since pizza quickly gets cold, and its better to it, right out of the pan its cooked in. The others agree, but Ryan and Joe need to get ready, so everyone must wait. Maggie has gotten to a floor below her, as she manages to take a ceiling tile out, to see her surroudings below, and with it being clear of people, she quickly jumps down, falling to the carpeted floor, but seems fine with standing up; Maggie pulls out a shawl and big dark glasses to wear and takes off for the front desk, asking for her friend's room.

With finding the room, and knocking, there is no response, so she starts yelling, "Quinn, are you in there, its me, Maggie!"

The group that is next door, hear the woman yelling and Ryan stating, "Quinn, I think someone is looking for you, she could be someone who saw you in the hotel lobby" Matt and Sheila laugh, then William opens the door, to look toward a woman still in disguise, Maggie looks to Quinn, "My god, I've found you. Quinn, its me, its Maggie, I somehow got melded or been replaced by another person"

"I think I understand, you better get in here with us" As Maggie follows Quinn, the same secret service agent caught up to her, pulling out a weapon, pointing it at William, "Mrs. Austin, stop where your at!" Maggie quickly shoves William into the room, but not before the agent fires and hits William in the shoulder; Ryan rushes to lock the door while Maggie looks at the others with surprised faces, "I think I've gotten all of us into trouble" the agent starts pounding on the door, as the group all continue to look at Maggie, who then puts a chair up against the door handle.

To Be Continued.....