"He's coming to."

"Thank God, I thought we'd lost him."

"How much time?"

"We've still got ten minutes."

Rembrandt's eyes focused and he could almost make out the three figures surrounding him. "Quinn? Maggie? Colin? That you guys?"

One of the figures helped Remmy out of bed.

"C'mon Doc, we gotta get you dressed. We slide in a few minutes."

Rembrandt spoke with confusion in his voice, "Doc? You guys okay? Maggie?"

"Doc . . . Rembrandt. Never call me Maggie. I think that accident jarred your head worse than we thought. It's me, Margaret . . . Meg to you three."

Rembrandt's eyes finally focused. He turned to his left expecting to see Quinn, but instead saw a face he had never seen before. "Who are you?"

"Doc, it's me, Jack."

Rembrandt pulled himself away from Jack and spoke, "What's going on here? Maggie?" Rembrandt turned in Maggie's direction and noticed something. Her hair was the orange-reddish- blonde shade it had been when he first met her on Pulsar World.

Maggie grabbed him by the arm and twisted it around. "Damn, woman! That hurts!"

"I told you once and I won't tell you again! Never call me Maggie! That's a slut's name!"

"Sorry . . . Meg." He replied.

The young blonde who had stayed to the side spoke, "It's time." She raised a strange looking device into the air and two bolts of blue electricity flowed from it. They coalesced at a single point and formed a large blue swirling vortex. She immediately dove in.

"C'mon Doc. It could be the slide home," Jack said.

"You've got the wrong guy!" Rembrandt screamed.

Meg shook her head. "I didn't want to do this." Meg hit Rembrandt in the back and knocked him unconscious. "Grab him Jack!"

Jack cracked a smile, "I love it when you do that!"

"Careful, or I'll have to tell Nel and Doc about those love poems you've been sending me." Meg cracked a smile and dove into the vortex.

"Geez! You should lose some weight Doc!" Jack lifted Rembrandt up, tossed him over his shoulder and dove into the vortex.

The swirling cylinder slowly collapsed and the door to the room opened. Maggie Beckett stuck her head into the door. "Remmy? You in here?" Silence was her answer. Maggie shrugged her shoulders and spoke, "Guess I better get back to Quinn and Colin. We've got to find Remmy before the slide."

"Geez Meg, did you have to hit him so hard?" Jack Drake leaned back in a chair and waited for what was coming.

"I do good work, Jack. How's the timer holding up, Nel?"

Penelope "Nel" Stewart sat at a desk in the hotel room. She was looking over the timer very carefully. "It seems fine. It's hard to get use to the new look Doc gave it."

"I know. Only the Doc would think of using a PalmPilot as the new casing when the old one was destroyed. Ever figure out those new features he added?"

"I'm starting too. I'll be glad when he's feeling better, though. I may have been his prize pupil back home, but his knowledge of sliding is still way beyond what I understand about it." Nel took off her glasses and laid the timer down. "Anyway, we've got a few days here. Might as well enjoy ourselves. Everything seems normal enough."

Jack rose out of the chair and spoke, "What about Doc?"

Meg smiled. "He should be coming around soon enough."

Remmy groaned at that moment. "Had the strangest dream guys. I was abducted by some other sliders who kept callin' me 'Doc.' It was freaky." Remmy looked around. He saw those unfamiliar faces around him. "It wasn't a dream."

"Easy there Doc. Everything's okay. You're back with us. You gave us quite a scare on that last world." Jack said.

"Doc?" Remmy looked from person to person..."What is going on?"

Nel turned to the others "After all that we got the wrong one?"

Meg's head sank. "I thought he was just disoriented . . . talking crazy. I mean what are the odds of two Rembrandt Browns being in the hospital."

"So you're not the Doc?" Jack asked.

"I've been called a lot of things in my life, but never Doc. I'm the Cryin' Man." Remmy said with a smile.

"You cry?" Jack cringed.

Remmy couldn't help but laugh. "No, I'm a musician." Remmy began to sing, "Cry Like A Man . . . Cry Like A Man."

All three Sliders stared at him in shock.

"He can carry a tune," Nel whispered.

"He's got moves," Meg gasped.

"Wow," Jack was his usual eloquent self.

Remmy couldn't help but laugh. "I see I have some new fans?"

It suddenly hit Nel and she hit the wall sliding down. "Ohmigod Ohmigod Ohmigod"

Concerned Jack squatted next to her, "What's up sweety?"

"I have to get us home. It's all on me now." Tears were starting to fall.

"Stop your cryin' there girl. It's okay. When your window opens here, you just put it that last world's coordinates and we sort everything out. I'm sure my friends will have figured out what happened and be waiting."

Nel looked up, "That's the problem."

"What?" Remmy almost shouted.

"We haven't finished incorporating that aspect of the timer." Jack folded his arms around her as she sobbed while he shot a "help me" look at Meg.

Remmy tried to keep calm. "It's okay. My friends can track wormholes. If they figured out what happened, they'll come looking for us."

Margaret Beckett gingerly sat on the edge of a double bed. "We need to calm down and think this through. Was the anti tracker activated?"

"Anti-tracker?" Remmy's voice suddenly fell to a whisper. His next hope was going up in smoke.

"The anti-tracker was Doc's protection against the Kromaggs." Meg looked at her friends. "No one can track us when it's enabled."

"Well? Was it?" Remmy was becoming agitated.

"Mmmhmmm" Nel burst into a fresh round of tears. Jack stroked her hair tenderly as she came to terms with her new role on the team.

Remmy's face went almost blank as the situation began to sink in. "Then . . . I'm stuck here."

"And we've lost Doc," Meg spat. She rose and began to pace. Can we still track quantum sigs? Or was that not enabled either?"

"Leave her alone," Jack warned.

"Why is it you always have to go into FBI bitch mode when things like this happen?" Nel blurted out.

"Shit Nel, I'm sorry I'm offending your Puritan sensibilities."

Nel rose and faced Meg. "Listen up Prima Donna. Remove the stick from your ass and get off my back! I will do everything I can, but I'm not Doc and I will not put up with any more of your shit." Nel's blue eyes sparked.

Meg's arm went back, but Jack grabbed before she could swing her fist. "Enough girls!" They had only heard that tone in Jack's voice once. And once had been enough.

Remmy had taken all he could. "Will you three stop it? Damn it! You two are almost as bad as Maggie and Wade were . . . Wade . . . how will I find her now?"

"Not Wade Welles?" Nel turned from Meg.

"You were married to Wade too?" Jack let go of Meg.

Meg thudded straight to the floor. Memories welled up. It was her turn to cry.

Nel was torn between Remmy and Meg. "Crap. Meg, I'm sorry. It wasn't your fault."

Jack stayed silent. He never could lie well. He would never forget what Meg had done to his ... half-sister.

Meg looked up. "I chose...and" she couldn't finish.

"We don't know she's dead Meg. She was preggers and fell through a vortex." The scene played out in Jack's mind. He had been holding Logan off, the first psycho Logan they'd met. Logan had gut checked him and wounded his family jewels...doubled over he watched as Meg let Wade fall back into the wormhole.

Rembrandt could scarcely believe what he was hearing. "Married? Without the love potion..." his voice trailed.

Jack scarcely heard Rembrandt as he saw Meg shove Logan in after Wade. He closed his eyes for a moment. For all her wonderful qualities, there would always be that moment.

The group was in shambles. The old wounds had reared their heads. Rembrandt tried to shake the shock from his mind. He had to do something. These people were falling apart in front of him. What could he do? He had lost his friends and been stranded here with this group of sliders, a group that seemed to be even more emotionally shaken then his own. Rembrandt didn't know it, but he would be their salvation.

"I'm just grabbing the gear. Let me take him while you grab the timer and your bag."

"Okay Wade."

RJ giggled at the vortex. He loved the colors.