Please consider the following as an advertisement for both the wonderful TV series Quantum Leap and the wonderful book series and movie K-PAX. If you like this story more of prot and rob's adventures can be found under books, K-PAX and of course buy the wonderful books by Gene Brewer and rent or buy the movie K-PAX from Universal Studios.

K-PAX: Quantum Beam of Light

by liz hensley <><

&

madam foogie 8-)

written with love for both gene brewers

the real

and the unreal.

Al and Dr. Beeks watched the man in the waiting room with the hidden camera. They were puzzled.

His behavior was unusual. He acted like suddenly finding himself in a strange place had happened to him before. The usual panic was missing. He did look around and study his surroundings intently but he acted like he was used to having to figure out sudden new environments quickly. He went over and tried the door, and of course it was locked, but the look of terror this usually caused, was simply missing. He just frowned and nodded knowingly and went over to the book shelf where a nice collection of old classics was kept for the benefit of all "guests" of the waiting room, none of them published after the 1950's, of course. He glanced at the place where the camera was hidden and gave a little smile and a wave. The man knew he was being observed!

Then he sat down quietly on the bed and started reading "The Time Traveler" by H.G. Wells. Al grinned at Dr. Beeks. "He picked the right one to read, didn't he? I wonder if he realizes he just traveled through time."

Dr Beeks gave Al a puzzled look. "This one is not acting normal, Al. Where's the panic?"

Al nodded, "I don't need a degree in psychiatry to notice that. I'll go check him out."

This was standard operating procedure at project Quantum Leap. Al would go talk to the new guest while Verbena Beeks observed and listened to their interaction. She could learn more that way than talking to the guest herself.

Al entered the room.

The man stared at Al with some surprise, and said, "Usually they send staff to check on me. But I surmise from your clothing you are a fellow patient. I would suspect you were going to be my roommate but there is only one bed in here. So what is going on? How long was another in control of my body? Was it Harry or Paul? What did he do? I want you to know I'll take full responsibility for whatever he or they did, but I would just like to know what it was he did. Can you tell me?"

"Ulp!" Al said, "Can you hold that thought? I'll be right back with a friend of mine."

Al backed away from the man and rushed out the door.

The man in the waiting room just shrugged and went back to his reading.

Al gazed at Dr. Beeks. "Did you hear that? We have a nut case in there!"

Dr Beeks stared at the man. "I heard! I guess I had better go talk to him myself!"

Al watched and listened as Dr. Beeks went in and spoke with their new guest.

"Hello." She said. "May I speak with you?"

Before she could say more, the man smiled, "Sure, doctor. I am always cooperative. Help orient me. I need to know. How long was I gone? Was it Harry or Paul, And what did he do? And say, where is prot?"

This was the first time the man showed any sign of panicking. "I mean it? Where is my alien?"

Dr Beeks stared at the man, "Alien?"

"Oh don't get cute with me. I know this must be a psychiatric hospital. I don't think its MPI because the doorknob is different. Doorknobs tend to stay consistent throughout any facility. therefore I have been out for some time. This is a hospital bed. There is obviously a camera hidden behind that AC panel. Or at least that is the most likely spot. I can deduce if I am locked in a room I am being professionally observed. Plus you have all the look about you of a trained mental health professional. I may be crazy but I am not stupid! Another clue. I don't recognize you, or the fellow patient that was in here. MPI only has about 100 or so inmates and less than a dozen doctors. I don't recognize him or you, thus I must have been out of it for quite some time. How long. What is the date? And I repeat, what has happened to prot?"

Dr. Beeks said soothingly, "I am afraid I am not allowed to tell you the date."

The man stared at her in surprise. "Usually you guys are more helpful than that! You are supposed to orient your patients. I am asking for you to! I'm cooperating but YOU are not cooperating!"

"Please remain calm."

"I am trying to, but I admit I am terrified! I ask again, what has happened to prot?"

The man looked positively grief stricken. "I can't feel him in my head any more. I am totally alone in my skull, or at least it feels that way. Somebody else must be in here obviously or I wouldn't have had a missing time period, but prot is gone! What happened to him?" He stared at Dr. Beeks suspiciously. "Have you cured me? Please tell me you haven't because I feel terrible right now! Is this what it feels to be a mono? I don't like it. It's lonely!"

"Easy, sir! I don't think we cured you. Do you mind me asking just what is supposed to be wrong with you?"

The man stared at Dr. Beeks, "You mean you don't know? Oh boy!" Dr. Beeks thought for a minute they had Sam back again, but no, it was just a similar use of the same expletive.

"If you don't know what is wrong with me. That means Paul or Harry must really have done something bad. I've been brought in to a psychiatric facility totally on the merits of whatever he or they did, and not because of mutual agreement between me and the hospital. I'll start at the beginning. I'll try to explain. First off let me say I am harmless. I don't know about Harry or Paul, but I am harmless and so is prot. Do you understand that?" The man was speaking soothingly to the doctor! He gave a gentle rueful smile.

She nodded. "You are harmless. Got it. As far as I know Harry or Paul haven't done anything bad, and you haven't either."

"That's a relief! But if they haven't what am I doing here?"

"Would you tell me about Harry and Paul, and prot?"

Robert grinned ruefully, "I thought Dr. Brewer had managed to integrate them into me. I was doing ok with Giselle. Which brings up another question. Where is Giselle? I would think if I had another breakdown or whatever she would be here for me."

Dr. Beeks said soothingly. "I don't know right now, but we will try and reunite you with her and all your loved ones. May I ask you your name?"

"Oh, it's Robert Porter. And you?"

"I am Doctor Vanessa Beeks."

The man smiled, "Pleased to meet you! I am sorry! I should have introduced myself when you first came in the room, but I thought you had access to my records. Anyway we are even. You didn't introduce yourself either."

"You never gave me a chance! You just started talking!"

"True. But you see I'm used to this now. I need to know. How long was I gone?"

"Gone?"

"Oh that's right. You don't have my records. I am a multiple, Doctor Beeks. There were four of us. Dr. Brewer got us down to two. Or at least I thought he had. I still have prot, or at least I did! I know whatever my body did, it wasn't prot that did it. Prot and I share self awareness, just not our minds. When he is out, I am still aware of things. When I am out, he is still aware. I only lose consciousness when Harry or Paul are out but they were supposed to be integrated into me. The man frowned, "Don't tell me there is a fifth persona we didn't know about. Oh darn!"

"Easy! No, Robert, may I call you Robert? There is to my knowledge no fifth entity. You didn't lose consciousness. The explanation for why you are here is more complicated than that, but its not because you or anyone else in your body did anything wrong. Please believe me. I can't tell you everything but you can trust us."

Robert nodded, "Oh I know that. I'm not paranoid. Are you going to give me the little introductory speech now? 'You can trust us. We are trying to help you. We are all on the same side.' Don't bother. I've heard it before. I already know it. I will cooperate with whatever treatment you give me, up to a reasonable point. I ask again, Where is prot?"

Dr. Beeks shrugged, "I don't know. Why don't you tell me about prot?"

Robert stared at her like she was the crazy one. "You don't know about prot? I thought the whole world did. You mean to tell me you never read Dr. Brewer's book, "K-PAX?"

"K-PAX?" Suddenly it made sense to Dr. Beeks. "Oh so you are Robert Porter!"

"I just said that!"

"Yes, Robert now I remember! Now I know who prot is. That explains a lot! I don't know where he is right now, Robert but I am sure he is safe. We didn't cure you. It is more complicated than that. But I can assure you, you and him will be back in the same brain together very shortly."

Robert stared at her. "Now YOU are starting to scare me! What is going on?"

Dr. Beeks said, "I will tell you very soon, but now I have to go consult with somebody about you. She pointed at the AC duct. You are right, Robert. There is a camera hidden there. I hope you don't mind."

Robert shrugged "Thanks, doctor, for telling me. I don't mind being observed. I just want to know what is going on, that's all. And please tell me what happened to prot! Please!"

"I'll tell you more soon. Goodby for now." Dr. Beeks left the room.

Robert shrugged and looked very worried, but the minute she left the room he went back to reading.

Dr. Beek's grin went all the way from ear to ear. "Al, we have one of the most famous mental patients in history in our waiting room right now! The man whose brain contained an alien!"

Al stared at Dr Beeks "Oh oh! A real scitzo! I guess you will have to break out the major tranquilizers."

She shook her head, "Oh no. He's not schizophrenic."

Al stared at her, "He thinks he has an alien in his brain and he's not schizophrenic?"

Dr. Beeks grinned. "No he has Disassositive identity disorder. In laymen's terms he's a multiple personality!"

"How is that different from schizophrenia?"

"Schizophrenics are unable to function. Multiples often function quite well, better than normal quite often. Schizophrenics are often though not always out of touch with reality. They often can't carry on normal conversations. Multiples are always in touch with reality, and when they speak they always make sense. Only their memories are confabulated. We could let this man out of the waiting room and within a few days he would adapt to our future time period, possibly better than we could to his. A schizophrenic couldn't even adapt to his own time period. Or if they do they are managing in spite of their illness. Schizophrenia is maladaptive. Multiples are often too adaptive. They create a separate personality to fit perfectly whatever situation they are in. In fact if we are not careful that is what Robert will do for us. He will form for us a time traveling personality to go with his alien who comforts him, the one who handles violence and the one who was having sex with his wife!"

Al was horror stricken. "The poor guy has a personality that has his sex for him!"

Dr Beeks shrugged, "Well he did, but he mentioned that Doctor Brewer cured him of that one already."

"I sure bet he wanted to be cured!"

She nodded, "He sure did, and that's going to work in our favor handling him. I remember reading that both Robert and prot were always very cooperative with any therapy they were given."

"So how do YOU treat him?"

Dr. Beeks shrugged, "We are not in the business of treating people here Al, remember? We only need to keep them calm and stabilized until Sam fixes whatever is wrong with their life and we sent them back. Soon Robert Porter will be back with his alien and he will be happy again. So will prot."

"Who is prot?"

Dr. Beeks grinned, "The alien."

Al stared at her," You are acting like the alien in his brain is real!"

Dr. Beeks grinned, "Prot is real!"

Al stared at her, "The man has a real alien in his brain?"

"Yes, or another personality that is totally convinced he is an alien! Remember what I said about them confabulating memories? All prot's memories are as real to him as yours are to you. He doesn't realize he made them up, IF he made them up. He confabulated that he was from outer space because that's what Robert wanted prot to be when he was creating him. Prot was very convincing. He had a lot of people completely sure that Robert really was a host for a real alien symbiont and not just a multiple. I'll take it you never read K-PAX?"

"What is that?" Al wanted to know.

A book by Robert Porter's psychiatrist, Dr. Gene Brewer. For once we are not working in the dark. We know everything about our waiting room guest!"

Ziggy suddenly spoke. "Yes, this is a pleasant change. I already know what Sam needs to do. There is a 99 percent chance Sam is supposed to save the life of robert porter's future wife, a lady named Giselle Griffin."

Dr. Beeks went on. "I know how we are going to handle this one, Al. One of the most remarkable things about prot and Robert that Dr. Gene Brewer mentioned in his books was their eagerness to comply and follow to the spirit and the letter any therapy they were prescribed. These two wanted very much to get well! So because they are so cooperative we will have an easy time of it. His confinement in the waiting room, for instance. See the lack of panic, or resentment? Robert is used to being locked up. It doesn't bother him, and he trusts me already. We know most of what we need to know already, but Robert is perfectly willing to tell us anything we don't know. He doesn't think he has been abducted by aliens like some of our guests. Heck, he just misses the one he had! He doesn't think we are CIA or Russian spies. He just thinks he's been confined in another mental hospital. He has already informed me he plans to cooperate with any therapy we choose to give him."

Al laughed, "In other words the mad man is acting with more calm and with more common sense than the normal people we get in here!"

Dr. Beeks grinned, "That sums it up perfectly. I'll give him a minor tranquilizer later both because it will calm him further and because I am sure he expects some kind of medication. I'll make sure it is one that was around in his time because he will recognize it. He has probably read the relevant parts of the PDR with more attention to detail than I have. If we don't give him some kind of treatment he will start getting resentful of being confined, and I can't blame him for that. He would have the law on his side too if this really were a mental hospital. You can't confine someone in a psychiatric facility without giving them some kind of treatment. He is well read, intelligent, and rational. I am sure he knows his legal rights better than we do."

"So, how do we convince him this is a nuthouse, er, a mental hospital?"

Dr Beeks smiled, "We tell him this is a special experimental mental hospital with just two patients, him and you! He already thinks you are a fellow patient." She grinned impishly, "I can't begin to imagine why! You are now his roommate. We will move in another bed. You will leave periodically for therapy, that is, to go about your job in the imaging chamber. In the meantime your task is to question Robert about anything we need to find out from him that we can't find out from all those books, and also just to keep him company! This one should not be alone for any length of time. If he has real companionship he is less likely to form himself another confidant."

"Now how am I supposed to pass for a mental patient!" Al growled.

Dr Beeks started laughing. "All that has to happen to raise your anxiety levels up to a sufficiently convincing level is to prevent you from smoking! Which you will have to anyway. It's the law in this state. Mental patients can't smoke in their rooms!"

Al was horrified, "What am I going to tell him? I was confined in a mental hospital because it's the only way I can be kept from smoking?"

Dr. Beeks giggled, "All you have to tell him is the truth, and he'll know you belong in a mental hospital!"

Al got the picture, "That I am sometimes a hologram and that this is the future, and I have to ask him some questions about his life so I can help change the past?"

The doctor grinned, "You got it."

Al groaned, "Oh boy!"

Al grinned, "I'll go tell Sam!"

Dr. Beeks said, "Warn him not to speak to you out loud. The last thing Sam and Robert Porter need in a mental hospital is to be thought to be hallucinating."

It was Al's turn to say, " Oh boy! Here we go again. Another mental hospital!"

*********************************

It was pleasantly, soothingly dark. The wind brought the familiar pleasant smells of yort blossoms, ozone, and kropin growing in ap manure. In his sleep prot licked his lips, breakfast soon!

Prot opened his eyes. Oh mot shit! It had just been a dream! He was still stuck on EARTH!

Well at least it was good old mpi. He wasn't homeless, and he had good friends at the manhattan psychiatric hospital.

At the last split second prot remembered not to make Robert's body stretch or yawn. His eyes hurt. He wished his friend would wear their dark glasses but of course he was supposed to be hiding, playing possum by mutual agreement so Robert could get out of the hospital.

Prot liked being institutionalized. His host didn't. Well, a good symbiont always bowed to the will of his host. Robert wanted out. Prot would do everything to make that possible, including never coming out to play until they were free! It was just after years of having to be in what Dr. Brewer so cutely called, "dominant position,' it took some getting used to and some practice not to automatically do for their common body whatever needed doing.

Prot sighed in contentment and snuggled down in the back of robert's brain. His little robin was getting well! He no longer had to be rob's "puppet master!"

He could still talk to the big lug though, as long as they did it internally without attracting the attention of the staff. They didn't want to look schizophrenic.

Everyone was noticing that they had been unusually introspective and quiet the past few weeks. Prot knew that dr. brewer and giselle thought he was "dying," that is reintegrating back into Robert. Prot grinned, "Fat chance!" Actually they were just making up for lost time, carrying on conversations that prot had longed to have with his human friend for almost five years!

He mentally nudged his friend and grinned internally at him. "Hey robin I'm wake."

IT WASN'T ROB!

"WHO ARE YOU?

"WHERE IS ROBERT?

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?"

One minute Samuel Becket was on the bridge of Enterprise, staring out at velvet space, with a dog in his lap, and the next second, complete confusion, a sense of existing outside of everything but God, and then

suddenly he was in another place and time.

Cautiously Sam looked around. There were people sitting around playing games. White coated attendants stood around and watched. There were a few nurses. Most of the game players were too young to be nursing home residents. Sam knew immediately. Another mental hospital. "Oh boy!" he groaned.

Suddenly he realized he had "company" in his brain. Angry frightened company.

"WHO ARE YOU?

"WHERE IS ROBERT?

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?"

Oh boy! He was in a mental hospital and he was schizophrenic! Well maybe he could ask his hallucination for more information! "Where am I?" He asked.

The VOICE hissed, "Don't talk to me out loud! Talk internally! Or they will think we are crazy!"

Sam complied, talking internally, "And we are not?"

"No of course not. I am an alien symbiont. I am supposed to be in rob's brain. I have permission, have had since he was six. But unless it happened while I was asleep, YOU don't! So WHERE IS ROB?"

Sam felt himself panicking. Before he could react, the VOICE said, "NO don't!" Suddenly the VOICE took control of the body Sam was in.

Now Sam was terrified! But he had no way to show it. It was like being a prisoner in one's own body while another operated it. Now he was used to being leaped from body to body but before he had always had control of it. It was weird, no, HORRIFYING, to be in a body that was being controlled by another!

He felt "his" right arm moving. It was reaching in a pants pocket, grabbing sunglasses and putting them on "their" face. Terrifying! Where was Al?

Suddenly Al was there, dressed rather conservatively for him. The suit would have passed for a normal male attire accept it was lime green. Sam felt his lips moving. "Who are you?"

The lime green gentlemen said, "I'm Al. Relax prot. Relax Sam."

The body controller asked, "How do you know my name?"

Al said, "No prot. No Sam! Don't speak out loud and don't look at me. No one else can see me but the two of you and a few of these other patients. Since this is only ward 1 some of them might not be able to see me either."

The VOICE said, "Mot shit!" Now Sam knew! His brain was swiss cheesed but not THAT swiss cheesed. K-PAX! He thought to himself, and he relaxed a bit. This leap was going to be fun!

Al said soothingly, "No, prot, it's true, and you keep talking to me out loud and the staff will think you and Robert have developed a new psychosis. They will demote you back up to ward 2."

Prot said sadly but quietly."Well maybe that is where rob and I need to be. Do you know how long and hard I worked to get us in this fine facility? I am not letting robert walk out the door until he and I are completely well! This could be our only chance. Mental hospitals like this one and shrinks like dr. gene brewer do not grow on trees, not even back on K-PAX where we have a LOT more trees!"

"AND WHERE IS ROB!"

Prot shouted this last bit, and sure enough it attracted the attention of the staff. A plump and gentle looking nurse came over to prot/Sam. "Mot shit!" Said prot again, deciding at the last minute he didn't want staff attention until he knew more about the situation.

Betty walked right though Al.

Sam felt their collective body go into surprise mode.

"Are you all right, prot?" the lady asked sympathetically.

Prot managed to close his mouth and he nodded sheepishly, "I'm all right. I just had a really weird dream, that's all, and I forgot for a moment where I was!"

Betty nodded, "Sorry, prot, but you know you aren't supposed to be out. Go back inside. It's Robert's body now."

"Yes maam," said prot sheepishly, his mannerisms like a meek little boy who knew he deserved a scolding. "The dream just startled me for a moment that's all, and I forgot I was no longer in control of rob's body. I'm be good I promise! Sam felt their body grin from ear to ear.

Their hand took the glasses off and the body gazed at the nurse and continued, "See I'm Robert again!"

But their eyes were on fire!

Their body said, "I think I'm going to take a nap."

The gentle looking nurse said, "Ok, Robert I'm glad to see you were able to take control again so easily."

The body said, "Oh yes. Prot is trying very hard to integrate with me just like Dr. Brewer and everyone wants him to. We both are trying very hard!"

Internally prot said, "Ok. come along you two! We'll have a tiny bit more privacy in our room, though we still may be under observation, but at least I can close my eyes!"

In their room Prot burrowed under the covers of his electric blanket 'Baby Boo,' and said internally, "All right. WHAT is going on?!"

Al had followed them, of course. "Sam, don't speak! Prot is right. The room is bugged, not by MPI though. It's more complicated than that. Never mind! Prot, you are always writing. Use that to communicate with me. You too, Sam. The staff and others won't know you are talking to me that way. Just be careful to flush what you write down the toilet in case they check your writings later. I'll try to explain everything to both of you."

First, don't ever look at me directly or make eye contact. Sam knows this already, but prot, you need to know it too. The staff can't see me."

Prot reached their arm out from under the blanket and grabbed his notebook off the night stand. Under the blanket he wrote, "No problemo. No eye contact. Like without my SUN glasses I would be looking, anyway?"

Al stuck his head through the cloth so he could see what prot wrote.

Prot startled, "I think now I really AM crazy!"

Al said, "No, prot. Write! Remember? Not out loud! You haven't gone crazy, well at least not more than you usually are. You don't want to mention me or Sam to Doctor Brewer or anyone else except Robert when he gets back. I'm real. I'm not a hallucination. I'm just not here in this time. I'm a hologram from the future and Sam is a time traveler."

Prot wrote, "Sam is the new being that has taken Robert's place? What did you do with Rob?!!!!"

Al said, "He's safe. He and Sam just switched places temporarily, that is all. You'll have him back safe and sound very shortly. It is just Sam has to do something to help you and Robert so your lives will stay on track. When that is done Sam will leave and Robert will be back. I promise!"

Prot wrote, "Sam is stuck here now. Traveling forward in time is not possible."

It was Al's turn to give prot a Cheshire cat grin! "Oh yes it is!"

The look of surprise on prot's face needed no written interpretation! But he wrote, "You found a way to go forward?"

Al nodded happily, "Yes, prot, but only our consciousness travels. Like you, we borrow bodies. But yes, Sam can go back and forth. We just can't steer! We are working on it."

Prot was amazed, "How far in the future are you from?"

Al grinned, "Far enough to invent quantum computers and we have run scenario after scenario. The Human race SURVIVES, prot! Your pessimistic predictions did not come true!"

"Ah, Quantum Computers!" prot wrote. We know about those but we never bothered much with them. So THAT is how you survive! You've made artificial intelligence psychiatrists and orderlies for yourselves! Computers will control you insanity. You've got keepers!" Prot grinned broadly.

Al laughed nervously, "Well, in my time they haven't taken over yet. We just invented one, Ziggy. Sam invented him."

Prot wrote, "sam is the new being in our brain?"

Al grinned, "Yes, prot. Let me introduce you. Prot, meet Sam, Sam, meet prot. Now, prot I need to speak with Sam. Can you let me do that?"

Sam said internally, "I promise not to keep control! I can't anyway. You are too strong for me!"

Sam felt their collective body fall under his control. Clumsily he took the pencil, and wrote, "Al, I've leaped into Robert Porter's body haven't I, as in K-PAX, A Beam of Light, The Worlds of Prot, An Alien Among us? And "The Alien Within me."

Al nodded, "Well your swiss cheesed brain remembers something for a change!"

Sam wrote, "Prot, Robert and Dr. Brewer and their incredible 3 way friendship that bridged sanity and solar systems is a little hard to forget!"

Al nodded, grinning, "And for once we know everything, even what you have to do. Ziggy says there is a 95 percent chance you are here to save Giselle."

"Giselle!" prot took control and spoke out loud. Then he wrote, "Sorry sam I apologize! It is just I have intense feelings for giselle. Then he turned the body back over to Sam.

So Sam wrote, "For once we are having an easy leap!"

Al shook his head, "No, Sam. You are not. Your saving Giselle takes place 8 days from now. In the meantime you are stuck in Robert Porter's body in Ward 1 of a mental hospital, and so for 8 days you or prot have to act like Rob, talk like Rob, and BE Rob. And you have to do this well enough to fool people who are used to telling multiple personas apart from one another and if you don't succeed in doing this well enough and they suspect Rob has developed another persona which is what they will think if they suspect you exist, Rob will lose his chance to be free for a few hours when Giselle needs you to save her. She will die and Robert will be devastated. He will spend the rest of his life hiding in his own body with prot in complete control except for his occasional vacations back on K-PAX or into catatonia whichever it is, prot, sorry but we are still not sure which.

Prot wrote, "Mot shit!"

Sam wrote, "Oh boy!"

*********************

Rob had just finished The Time Traveler and started on "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" when the door opened and the green suited guy and Dr. Beeks rolled in another hospital bed.

The green guy said, "I'm your new roomy kid. I'm getting the psycho treatment too."

Rob grinned, "I knew you had to be a patient! Welcome to my humble abode. Rob swung his arms around, "No TV but the books are certainly interesting!"

Dr. Beeks smiled, "I'll leave the two of you to get acquainted."

So they sat down and studied one another. Al said, "I'm Al, by the way."

"Robert Porter." He grinned. "I'll tell you mine if you'll tell me yours. I'll even go first. Basically, most of the time, though not now for some strange reason, I have an alien named prot living in my brain. Or at least that's my viewpoint. My official diagnosis is Multiple Personality Disorder also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder. I don't object to the diagnosis except I think they should call it a syndrome not a disorder. I don't feel disordered. I like having prot around, and I really wish I knew where he is right now! Ok now it's your turn."

Al nodded and smiled, "I'll tell you, but you won't believe me. I'm really not delusional."

Robert said soothingly, "Of course not!"

Al grinned, "I'm not really a mental patient and this really isn't a mental hospital. I'm just here to keep you company, that's all, and to prevent you from splitting off another personality!"

Robert raised his eyebrows. "This isn't a mental hospital?"

"No." Al stated calmly, "Quantum Leap is really a secret government facility where we perform experiments with temporal dislocation, in other words time travel. Kid, you've traveled through time. You ain't in Kansas anymore, Toto! This is your future!"

Robert laughed, "Ok, YOU get the golden bull goose looney award. Your story is weirder than mine!"

Al nodded, "There's more. While you are here, my good friend Sam is back in your time, being you!"

Robert scratched his chin. "I bet that's giving prot a scary time. He is going to wonder what happened to me!"

"Oh no he doesn't. I told him you were ok."

"Oh ho ho, so you time travel, too! Robert started laughing, "Forgive me for laughing, but really!"

Al nodded, "Yep it's hilarious but true. I don't time travel physically any more than Sam does. I go into a holographic room called an imaging chamber. There I am connected to Sam's mind in a way I can't go into. He can see me and hear me but no one else can, except for kids, animals, mental patients and apparently prot."

Robert shuddered, "If he can see you I sure hope he doesn't tell any of this to Dr. Brewer! I'll never get out of there! But am I glad I don't believe you! Robert giggled nervously. If I believed you I would be in a panic right now!"

They both laughed at that nervously. Each was a little scared of the other."

Time passed, Al started to feel the need for nicotine. He automatically reached into his shirt pocket but the usual cigar wasn't there. He had left them in his office since Dr. Beeks had told him he couldn't smoke in his "hospital" room.

Al smiled at Robert. "I'm experiencing nicotine withdrawal symptoms, but hey, it isn't so bad."

Robert smiled, "I'm glad."

Al grinned, "You know I went all the way through the military and didn't smoke. I took up cigar smoking and dressing fancy after I retired. I smoked my first cigar when Sam informed me that the government was funding Quantum Leap and I've been hooked ever since. I didn't think just one would get me addicted, but it did, and I loved it. I guess what my fourth grade teacher said was true, "If you don't take drink number one, drug number one, or smoke number one in the first place you don't have to worry about quitting later. I should have listened!"

Robert nodded, "I have heard of that happening. Some people have the genes to be addicted. I tried cigarettes when I was in high school and didn't become addicted. But I had a friend who became addicted from the first one he smoked also. Later on he got in trouble with alcohol also."

Al frowned, "I wish I didn't have those genes!"

Robert nodded, "And I'm glad I don't, but I was part of the reason my friend smoked his first cigarette. If I hadn't dared him, he might not have become a nicotine addict at all. I guess my Mother is right. We all are each others keeper's.

Al nodded, "I guess so, kid. And both of us are beyond keepers into commitment!'

Robert laughed, "Who says we men aren't into commitment!"

More time passed and Al realized he was in trouble.

His hands were shaking. He couldn't think clearly. He couldn't stop pacing, "Robert, I need a cigar!"

No you don't!" Robert said firmly, "What you need is a nice long walk, but neither of us are getting one.

"That's what YOU need." Al insisted, "I need a cigar!"

Robert said firmly, "Tobacco has over 200 toxins in it. Plus they spray the stuff with dangerous pesticides and these pesticides are not washed off before they are made into cigars, cigarettes or chewing tobacco."

"Kid, don't lecture me!" Al growled "I'm going nuts here!"

Robert laughed, "Welcome to the club!"

Al glared at Robert. He went over to the door and pounded on it. He shouted, "Let me out, I need nicotine!"

Robert smiled tolerantly and nodded at the door. "If my internal clock is even half working right. They ought to be coming at us with our evening medication soon. So relax! I am sure it will be something that will help calm you down!"

Al tried not to pace. "I'm sorry Pal. It's just it's been years since I've gone this long without nicotine in my system."

"Obviously!" Robert said ruefully. "Dr. Beeks says Quantum Leap is an experimental hospital. I wonder what we are going to get? I wonder if she believes in full disclosure about things to her patients, or if I'm expected to pop whatever little wonder pill they bring me, completely on blind faith. I like to know what I'm taking."

Al was pacing and pacing and pacing.

Robert sighed, "Maybe nicotine withdrawal syndrome is the biggest part of your pathology. It is certainly the part that has you most agitated!" Then he added soothingly. "Why don't you try to read something? There's no TV here. I wonder why? But we do have an extensive collection of books. What a selection! 'The Time Machine' by H.G. Wells, 'A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court' by Mark Twain, 'The Tempest' by Willy Shakespeare. The complete works of Coleridge, Keats, Tennyson, Longfellow and Frost. The Bible. The Koran. The Apocrypha! The Book of Gilgamish! The Egyptian Book of the Dead! The Gospel of Thomas! I didn't even know there was a Gospel of Thomas. I'm reading that one next. My mother was a Christian. She never told me about that one. 'From the Earth to the Moon,' and 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,' by Verne! And it's sequel "The Mysterious Island, which prot called 'Gilligan's Island for intellectuals.' And so forth! What a weird collection!"

"What's so weird about it?" Al wanted to know. "They are all good books." Al knew the waiting room selection had actually been picked very carefully, to encourage their "guests" to think in a fantastic way. That helped their mental acceptance on those occasions when Al and Verbena felt it was necessary to tell their guests the truth.

Robert explained, "We are mental patients, remember? Many of us, you, obviously, and to a lesser degree, me, are already far, far, far, much too deep into our fantasies So why do our therapists stock a bookshelf with books that actually encourage these kind of fantastic thoughts? Why isn't it stocked with self help books, books that will help ground us to reality, and books that help us understand our condition? Dr. Brewer gave me several books to read about Multiple Personality Disorder and they were most helpful in helping me to gain insight into my condition. They didn't work too well for prot. He just grinned at them, but they helped me understand myselves enormously."

"Also notice that there are no contemporary publications. No magazines, no Time, No Life, No U.S.A. Today, No Reader's Digest. No Scientific American. No Guideposts. No Discovery. No magazines at all except really old issues of science fiction zines that have been out of print for decades. Again, it as if the staff wants us to get lost in our fantasies and NOT get in contact with present day reality! Dr. Beeks won't even tell me the date! Do you know it by chance?"

Al sputtered, "Ah yes, but you won't believe me. It's the future."

Robert nodded sadly, "I really envy you right now. Your psychosis is in full bloom but mine seems to have gone dormant. I really miss having my alien in my brain."

Al stared at him, "You liked being body snatched?"

Robert glared at him, "Don't ever use that term! It is very offensive to prot, and to me. Prot didn't body snatch me. I volunteered, or else I created him to be just what he is, my good friend, protector, and confidant. He's like having your personal therapist right in you head and heart at all times. If I did create him, I'm my own best friend!" Robert grinned.

"Believe you me, if you could experience him the way I do, you'd want your own alien in your brain. Everybody would, and everybody that meets prot wants to know him better."

"You liked having a hallucination in your brain?" Al was amazed

"You really don't understand multiple personality syndrome do you? Notice I call it a syndrome and not a disorder. Personas are not hallucinations per se. They have their own self awareness and can take over the body and be seen and heard and experienced by other people. Hallucinations can't do that. Ask Dr. Beeks to explain it to you." Robert grinned, "I don't want you to just think that I am crazy!"

The door opened and it was Dr. Beeks.

"What is going on here?" Robert asked. I know I am starting to sound a little paranoid, but it is just your collection of books is a little weird, to say the least. Is that it? Am I supposed to notice that? Are they really some kind of a psychological test to determine if I can even notice they are weird?"

Dr. Beeks smiled mysteriously, "You will understand it all in time, Robert. In the meantime I brought you both your meds."

Robert was amazed, "It must REALLY be a pretty small hospital when the psychiatrist does her own medication distribution. So what have you got for me?"

Dr. Beeks handed Robert a Valium pill.

Robert's eyebrows went up, "That's it? That's what this experimental hospital is dealing out, a minor tranquilizer!? Oh don't get me wrong! See I'm taking it!" Robert popped it in his mouth, and noisily swallowed a huge glass of water. See? Nothing under my tongue! Nothing up my sleeves! I really swallowed it like a good widdle mental patient, but why, I ask did you even bother to give it to me?"

Dr. Beeks smiled, "We will explain it to you in time. Now Al it is your turn."

He was insulted, He growled,"I don't need any medication!"

Dr. Beeks and Robert said it together, "Oh yes you do!"

"Dr. Beeks, you know I am not really crazy! I agreed to go along with this charade to help Robert but I am not taking any medication!"

Dr. Beeks gave him a firm look, "Do I have to call for the orderly?"

Al growled, "We don't have any orderlies!"

"You would be surprised how quick Gushy learned. He knows karate, jujitsu, several others. Want him to demonstrate on you? All he has to do is get you pinned and this drug does come in injectable form you know!" Dr. Beeks was bluffing but Al didn't know that.

"Dr, I could have you fired from the project!"

The Dr looked at Robert and grinned, "Notice the patient's megalomania, Robert? He thinks he runs this place. Now be a good widdle mental patient and take your meds. Even if you could fire me, you wouldn't. To look at it from the point of view of your delusional structure, I KNOW too much about Quantum Leap! And you need me too badly!"

"What is it?" Al wanted to know.

"It's Zyban."

Al said a colorful metaphor. "You are giving me a stop smoking drug?"

Dr. Beeks nodded, "It is actually a mild antidepressant but it works beautifully to cut down on nicotine cravings. Come on Al. You are going to be spending a lot of time in this room. For Robert's sake if not your own you shouldn't be spending that time pacing like a caged animal."

"I feel like a caged animal! I didn't realize what we were doing to our guests by making them stay in this damn room. Once I get out, that will be changed, let me assure you!"

"Yes, yes, Al. In time you will get out. In the meantime take your meds." Dr. Beeks gave Robert a wink and Al a firm stare.

Al stared back, but all he saw in Dr. Beek's face was cold determination. She obviously wasn't kidding about getting "orderly" Gushy in to make him take it!

Al swallowed the pill. "Antismokers! He growled, "They are everywhere! They are taking over the world!"

Robert laughed, "Yes, There are antismoking we-like-fresh-air-pods growing in everyone's basement! But you are out of luck. I've already been assimilated! Oh, weee oh! I'm one of them!"

Dr. Beeks tried to give Robert a withering stare but it came out more like a wry grin, "Don't encourage his paranoia, Robert! Please! He's bad enough already! To Al she said, " There now! Swallowing that wasn't so hard, was it?"

She left.

Al turned to Robert and asked, "You have any idea what this stuff will do to my head?"

Robert smiled, "Happy pills are wonderful to take. Like warm soothing comfortable chemical sweaters. It's the major tranks that no one wants. She is treating you like your major problem IS the nicotine addiction, instead of your wild delusions. Interesting! I would have sworn she would have given you Haldol or even good old Thorazine."

"How long till I get high?"

"You won't. That's the beauty of it. You will just feel gently content. You won't even feel sedated. But it takes a few days even weeks before it starts to take effect. But you might be a quick responder. Try this. Lie back in your bed and pay attention to your brain. Don't fight it. Let it help you."

Al did so. "How long til I hit la la land?"

"You won't hit la la land! Whoa! It looks like I just did though. Gotta follow my own advice." Robert lay on his bed. But why is she giving us the meds she is? I didn't need this Valium. You sure need the Zyban but you need more than that."

Al pointed out. "Maybe Dr. Beeks believes in treating one problem at a time. I can't tell the difference. I still feel like me."

Robert grinned, "Of course you still feel like you. You are you, and you will always be you, but you will be you with less of a compulsion to smoke. It probably hasn't even hit you yet. It takes a few days for an antidepressant to take effect. Now lets turn off the lights, and get some shut eye! Surely by tomorrow they will let us out of our room for awhile. I don't understand why the door is locked either. Neither of us are violent. We've made no threats. We aren't agitated, at least I'm not. We took our meds without much of a fuss. Even you were pretty good for a first timer. They should let us out into the harmless ward."

Al felt very worried. Robert had a point. How long could they keep him in the waiting room before IT was driving Robert bonkers maybe to the point of splitting again? Al shuddered. He really did not want to be locked in with Robert if Harry showed up, or a completely brand new one!

The next morning came with no way to tell it came. The room had no clocks either. But Al and Robert both eventually woke up. "Good morning!" Robert said to Al, "You know you talk in your sleep? Who is Tina?"

Al grinned, "She's my on again off again girl friend. She has the biggest hooters of any lady I have ever seen."

Robert made a face. "I would have preferred to know other information about her than the size of her mammary glands. Why is she your on again off again girlfriend?"

Al explained, "Because sometimes when Sam changes things he changes the future too. So sometimes I am her boyfriend. Sometimes she isn't even in the project. Sometimes she is going out with Gushy instead of me and sometimes, shudder, I am married to her!

Robert laughed, "How do you keep all the changing time lines straight?"

Al said, "I depend on Ziggy to keep me informed."

Robert grinned, "Ziggy? Fat little guy with a bald head?"

Al laughed, "No, she's a computer."

Robert stared at her, "The computer keeps you informed about social situations. She must be some machine!"

Al nodded, "She is, kid. She's the best."

Robert grinned, "You don't just talk in your sleep. You snore too."

Al said, "I do not!"

Robert grinned, "Yes you do!"

Al shook his head, "I do not! I stayed up once all night to see if I snored, and I didn't!"

Rob stared at him, "That made no sense."

Al started laughing, "Gotcha, kid."

Robert laughed too. "I wonder when breakfast arrives?"

It came a few minutes later.

Al had bacon and eggs. Robert was pleased to see a bowl of oatmeal and cinnamon. The hospital obviously had taken note of his vegetarianism.

They ate their breakfast and then Al started pacing again. Robert sighed.

Suddenly the door opened up. Dr Beeks said, "Ok Al. Time for your therapy."

Rob said, "When do I get my turn? I like therapy too, you know!"

Dr. Beeks said, "Soon Robert."

Al left with her.

Rob stared forlornly at the locked door. He was getting dreadfully tired of reading!

As Al walked with Verbena past Ziggy and the quantum accelerator he commented, "Verbena, you have bitten off a tiger by the tail! Robert is asking good sane questions. He doesn't understand why he isn't allowed out of the waiting room into what he calls the 'harmless ward.' "

Al passed his office. He went in and came out with a cigar defiantly clenched between his teeth. He lit up.

Verbena smiled, "Don't fight the medication! Besides you've only had one dose!"

Al said, "You know the time may come when we may have to tell Robert the truth."

Verbena nodded, "Yes. He's intelligent. If we don't he will figure it out soon anyway. Its only a matter of time. I don't think it would cause him to panic. The beauty of it is we have in our waiting room, a man who is used to sharing his brain with another so Sam being in his brain won't bother him. He is used to aliens so time travel won't be so hard for him to accept either. In fact he already thinks prot can travel through time, or at least prot does. I am not sure how much of prot's delusion Robert shares at this present time. It will be interesting to find out! Later on Robert became convinced that prot was alien to the point where he was threatened with confinement again. There was quite a sanity trial!

How did he get out of that?

Prot popped out and convinced the judge he really was from K-PAX!

Al picked up the com link and went into the imaging chamber.

Verbena went back towards the waiting room. Ziggy said, "Cover me up."

"Huh?" asked Verbena.

Ziggy explained, "Put a big box over me, or a sheet. Put one over the quantum accelerator and all the other computers too. Then walk Rob right past what he will think are just some big boxes. Take him to your office and do whatever you do with humans during psychotherapy."

Verbena smiled, "Why didn't we organics think of that?!"

Ziggy was never modest. "You were looking for complicated solutions. Only my mind was complex enough to think of something so ridiculously simple!"

++++++++++++

They did just exactly what Ziggy suggested. Verbena walked Rob right past Ziggy who was covered under a tarp. Rob asked what it was. Dr. Verbena lied smoothly, "It's our new pet scanner. It hasn't been installed yet. In her office Robert poured out his troubles, "I don't like being cooped up, Verbena! It was bad enough at MPI but at least there we had the run of the hospital and the grounds, what everyone calls 'The Back Forty.' You are keeping me locked up in one room and I don't understand why. If I haven't done anything bad and none of my other personas have, as you keep reassuring me, then I deserve more freedom! I NEED more freedom! Your treatment of me is driving me crazy!" He frowned.

"You want more medication?" Verbena asked.

"No!" Robert shouted, "Valium is useless here! A good long walk or jog would do me much better!"

He stared at her suspiciously, "If what you are giving me really is Valium. Since being here I can't feel prot's presence. Is that some kind of experimental drug that gets rid of multiple personas? If it is, I should be informed of this, and I should choose whether I wish to take it or not!"

He went on, "I hate to be so uncooperative but you aren't being honest with me. You are evasive about many things that a mental patient, indeed ANYONE has a right and a need to know. What is the date?"

Verbena shrugged helplessly.

Rob frowned at her, "Al claims we are in the future. He is very crazy obviously, but I can tell by his mannerisms that he BELIEVES this. He is deluded but he is the only one leveling with me. You certainly aren't!"

Robert glared at the doctor.

Verbena said, "It really is just Valium Robert. You can quit taking it if you want."

Robert stared at her, "So what else are you going to put me on?"

Dr. Beeks shrugged, "Quite frankly Robert we don't know what to do with you. We are trying to think of something."

"Well why not let me go then? I was about ready to be released. Or at least that is my last memory before coming here. I can't even feel prot anymore. It looks like he is gone. So for all intents and purposes I'm cured. I'm not happy about it, but I'm cured. So you COULD just let me go!"

Verbena frowned, "We can't do that."

"Why the hell not!"

"Please don't get agitated!"

"Do you blame me?"

Dr. Beeks gazed into Robert's eyes and said, "Honestly, no. But it won't do any good."

"At least let me out of what Al keeps calling the waiting room. Let that orderly you talked about, (Gushy wasn't it?) take me jogging! Or for a walk or something! I promise I won't try to escape!"

Verbena nodded, "That is a very good idea. I'll arrange it. Now I must take you back to your room."

Robert shuddered, "I'm going quietly but its hard! I feel like a trapped animal!"

Dr Beeks nodded sympathetically. "I will talk to Gushy about going jogging with you. That is if you promise not to try to escape."

Rob smiled, "Oh I give you my word!"

Dr. Beeks smiled, "And I know your word is good."

Latter when Verbena asked Gushy to do this, he was not happy, "I don't like runing or jogging! you know that, and now you want me to go jogging with a mental patient? He can probably out run me! Plus he's a wrestler! So he probably could outfight me too.

Al laughed, "What about that karate and all those other martial art stuff Verbena threatened me with?"

Greatly exederated Al. It is true I can slice a board in half with my hand, so if I ever get attached in a dark ally by a board I will be fine, but Robert is alive. I don't know if I would have the heart to hit him."

Al grinned, "Just breathe on him. That'll knock him out for sure."

Gushy glared at Al, "I'm not kidding Al. He will have the physical advantage. I could lose him, and what if he gets loose in our time? He could see things that will change the past in a bad way, if we ever even manage to catch him and get him back!

Al nodded, "I don't doubt he could outrun you. He's been doing calisthenics in the waiting room. He tries to get me to join him but I can't keep up with him. He says it because I have smoker-lungs, but really, he's just in great physical shape. But what I don't think, is that he will try to escape if he gives his word that he won't. I like the guy, Gushy. He's friendly and calm. If he hadn't admitted to me he thinks an alien lives in his head, I would even call him normal."

Verbena giggled, "He's more normal than you Al! He doesn't have a nicotine addiction problem, or a sex obsession, or a thing for weird looking clothes! We shrinks don't even have a name for whatever it is you are!"

_______________________________________

In their hospital room Prot and Sam conferred with Al. "How are we going to convince dr b that sam is robert?"

Prot wrote, "It has to be you, sam. I can't pass for rob for any length of time because I can't stand the eye-pain. Dr b used to dim the lights for me so I could take my glasses off. It was wonderful! He made me feel so at home! But since he got rob to talking he doesn't do that any more. He wants it to be rob all the time now, never me. I don't even get much fruit. He just wants me to intergrate with rob now, or go back to K-PAX, or just leave for any where! It kind of hurts!"

Sam felt tears welling up in their collective bodies eyes. Sam wrote, "Prot you need to tell him that."

Prot wrote, "What?"

Al said, "Sam just solved our little problem. Prot you are upset because your shrink is not paying you enough attention anymore. Sounds like a psychiatric problem to me! You need to tell Dr. Brewer how much his sudden rejection is hurting you!"

Sam felt prot grin, He wrote, "Ah ha! Use the shrink to solve the emotional problem the shrink caused. Interesting. You humans have a clever saying that fits here, 'Fighting fire with fire.'"

Prot wrote, "I will set robert back a little bit. Dr. be won't be pleased that I won't 'let' robert out, and there is a risk it might delay his furlough but it gives us a better chance than having me try to pass for robert, or sam for robert!"

*****************

One day as Verbena was escorting Robert back to his room he suddenly stopped and said, "You hear that?"

Verbena looked at him curiously, "You hearing prot or someone else?"

Robert sighed, "No, unfortunately I don't. All I am hearing is the sound of a toilet running and running and running. Ours used to do that back in my childhood home in Montana until I found a ridiculously easy way to fix it. Want me to try and fix yours?"

Verbena smiled, "Oh why not? It's the ladies room toilet and it is costing us a fortune in water bills!"

Robert nodded, "I bet." His eyes twinkled. "You trust this male mental patient in the ladies room alone?"

Verbena laughed and signaled with her hands, "Go right on in. Tina's off today. I'm the only women around."

Robert grinned, "So here I go, going where no man has gone before!"

Verbena thought to herself, "Robert if you only knew how OLD that joke is!"

The ladies room had two stalls. It was the second one from the door that was running. Robert stared at the toilet. The thing had two flush handles. He opened up the tank lid. Sure enough it had two rubber bulbs and two rubber flaps. How ingenious! The reason was obvious. The one handle flushed just a little water for urine only flushes. The other handle flushed much more water for poop flushes. It was a very clever way to save water, except in the manner of toilets since John Crapper himself, the little chain had wrapped itself around the poop flush flap and this was preventing it from sealing correctly.

Robert untangled the chain and then bent the inside-the-tank wire part of the flush handle upwards a bit to make the chain more taunt, which would prevent it from tangling so easily. Robert flushed it a few times to make sure he had it adjusted correctly. He picked up the tank lid to put it back on. Then he noticed a small aluminum plaque attached to the porcelain. He read to himself, "Double Flush Water Saver Incorporated. Patent pending......ah, 2010! Holy Toledo! Al was telling the truth!"

Robert remembered what Al had said about him and Sam switching places. Still holding the toilet tank lid he rushed to the mirror over the sink. 'Verbena forgot about the mirror!" he thought to himself. He stared at the reflection in the mirror. It was someone else's reflection, Sam's, no doubt.

He walked out of the rest room with the toilet tank lid, and a somewhat frightened grin on his face."

Verbena stared at him in alarm, "What's wrong?"

Robert showed her the tank lid.

"Oops!" said Dr. Beeks.

"Double oops!" said Rob with more calm than he felt. "You forgot about the bathroom mirror, too. Al was telling the truth! Weird as it is, Al was telling the truth! I am in the future, and this Sam of yours really is back in time with my girl friend and my alien!"

8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)8-) 8-) 8-)

Roman was surprised when he went to escort Robert to his session and it was prot again, sunglasses and all. The alien was grinning. He explained, "I have some unfinished business with gino, Roman. Anyway Robert is all over the hospital now, all the time. Sometimes I gotta be me!

Roman grinned, "Well I'm happy to see you prot. You've always been one of my favorite inmates.

Prot grinned, "And you are my favorite orderly." Race ya to the docs! Prot took off running to the stairs which he then preceded to bound up two at a time.

'Hey!" Roman shouted as he chased after prot, "The whole point of having an escort is to be escorted, not to race."

But prot kept running, "I need the exercise."

Roman puffed after him, "Well I don't. I have been chasing after reluctant patients all day. You at least are headed in the right direction! But please slow down!"

At this prot slowed down and gently waited for Roman. Roman grabbed him firmly by the arm determined not to let him bolt again. Prot relaxed into his arms and started chanting, "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!"

Roman sighed but then he couldn't help grinning. When you can't beat em, join em. He started chanting "lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" too and in that vein they approached Dr Brewer's office.

Dr Brewer knew immediately that it was prot and not Robert. The sunglasses weren't the only tip off. Prot's body language was completely different from Robert's Both were graceful men but prot moved like the whole WORLD didn't matter and Robert moved like it very definitely did matter. Besides that prot was grinning ear to ear just like he usually did. Prot was amused that "narr" thought him crazy. Robert just agreed with his doctor. He had been pretty much aware most of his life that most people did not have aliens in their brains.

Prot looked around the room expectantly. Then he glared at Dr. Brewer, "No fruit! AGAIN!"

Dr. Brewer stared at prot in surprise and then swallowed, "I'm sorry prot, I was expecting it to be Robert. He got up and turned down the lights. Then he reached into his own lunch sack and pulled out a fruit juice box. "You can at least have this."

Prot took his glasses off and stared at it, "Ten percent real fruit juice. Corn syrup, dextrose, artificial flavorings, artificial colorings. Weee! Such quality! No wonder your little rug rats can't sit still! How do YOU manage too?"

Dr. Brewer sighed, "Age and mileage."

Prot said "Humph! I'm hundreds of years older than you and I wouldn't sit very still very long if I drank much of this stuff, but for now I will make an exception. I'm hungry and it's the only fruit in town."

Dr Brewer nodded, "I'm sorry about that, but I was really expecting Robert today. Last week I saw him washing his best coat, you know the one you never wear, but look, you've got it on now! Doesn't that tell you something?"

"What?" prot grinned mischievously, "That robert and I are the same person? Fat chance of making me believe that!"

Dr. Brewer said, "Robert knows it."

Prot grinned a loopy grin, "Robert knows how to humor his doctor. He wants out of here. I don't. I like it here."

Dr Brewer said playfully, "If you like it here so much you have my permission to stay after Robert leaves. Let's see if you can do it! I would be pleased if you could. I don't think you can, but if you could, I would be pleased."

Prot grinned, "You know I went to russell's funeral while Robert was having his blood drawn."

"I know the other patients believe that!" Dr. Brewer insisted, "But none of the staff saw you there!"

"They weren't expecting me." prot explained simply. "The other patients did. That opened their eyes to the possibilities I can't prove to you even by mirror beaming on national television right in front of you."

"It had to be a trick." Dr. Brewer growled, "But to change the subject. Robert was looking forward to his furlough this weekend. You aren't planning to hang around and get in his way with Giselle are you?"

Prot shook his head, "Oh no! I promise with everything serious with in me that I want robert and giselle to have the time of their lives this weekend. I don't plan to be anywhere near them unless I absolutely have to."

"What would make you absolutely have to?"

Prot gave Dr. Brewer an unusually toothy grin, "I have been known to come in handy, a fact robert will acknowledge to me, but not to you, since he wants OUT of here."

Dr. Brewer smiled at his patient, "In what way?"

"We are going to have a blackout tonight." prot said calmly.

"How do you know that?" Dr. Brewer wanted to know. "Alien precognition?"

"Yes, from MY point of view it IS alien precognition. I asked Casey." Inside of prot, Sam grinned. He knew darn well prot had got that information from Al, but no way was prot telling his psychiatrist about Al! Prot went on, "I have absolutely NO idea how Casey does it, and you don't either."

Dr. Brewer nodded, "If we could just get her to show an interest in taking care of herself we could release her. We certainly can't call a patient delusional who claims to be able to tell the future but then keeps really doing it accurately. You sure you have no idea how she does it?"

Prot gazed curiously at his doctor, "You know you asked me that like you really believe I am in alien. Thank you."

Dr. Brewer shrugged, "You may be, prot. I have considered that possibility many many times, but I do know this: Robert isn't."

Prot gazed at his doctor, and nodded in firm agreement. The goal of helping Robert was a mutual one that both shrink and "lunatic" could agree on. Prot continued, "I will do everything in my power to let Robert and Giselle have a fun time this weekend. I will do nothing in my power to booby trap them. Are you convinced now?"

The doctor nodded, "All right. I'll let him go even though I thought you were gone already. Prot, why did you show up today?"

Prot frowned, "doctor, you are awful dense for a psychiatrist. It should be as plain to you as black words on white paper. I miss you!"

"Oh!" Dr. Brewer looked embarrassed, "I'm sorry. You are right. I should have realized that."

"And I miss having my freedom." prot continued, "Robert is all over the hospital now, and soon he will be all over his WORLD. I can't leave yet, not until I have my hundred beings gathered, and Robert's increasing prominence is making that difficult sometimes."

Dr. Brewer tapped his pencil on his yellow pad, "As you just got through telling me, you can travel and function without Robert. So how is his increasing prominence making that difficult?"

"I have to watch out for the kid." prot explained. He gets in trouble sometimes. Look what happened when I left him alone ten years ago. Do you think things would have been the same if I had been there for him just a few hours earlier than I was?"

Dr. Brewer nodded, "So you kind of think of yourself as Robert's guardian angel?"

Prot snorted, "More like his keeper!"

Dr. Brewer grinned, "That's supposed to be my job."

Prot shook his head, "Not for very much longer. Plus as you have pointed out to me, you have other patients. On the other hand, MY other hand, Robert is my only concern."

Dr. Brewer gazed at prot, "And why is that exactly, prot? If you really are an alien being from a distant star system, why are you so interested in humans, and this one human in particular?"

Prot shook his head, "Ah doc, the heart has a logic and a wisdom all its own. The head doesn't always have to understand, just to tolerate."

Dr. Brewer nodded, "Very wisely spoken, prot. You have a lot of insight for a patient who has so little insight."

Prot grinned, "And you are pretty bright for such a dim shrink!"

The Doctor laughed and prot grinned some more. Prot seldom laughed but he did grin a lot.

The Doctor glanced at the clock. "Well, prot, since we have a few minutes left. For the heck of it I would like to ask you some more questions about K-PAX. You know I miss you, too. The other staff members were right in the fact that having you in my office every week was like taking a vacation to another planet. Since Rob showed up I haven't had much chance to just chat with you. So, do you want to answer some questions?"

Prot grinned, "I would love to."

The Doctor asked, "You mentioned to me that K-PAX has no rain and no above ground water except for one small pond. Yet you urinate and you mentioned you have fruit juices. So where do you get your water?"

Prot grinned, "A good question narr. You are getting better! The fauna gets its water from the plants and the plants get their water from underground water much like your oil is here on EARTH. The roots go down a LONG way. In fact we used to use them for ropes during our ballooning era."

"Hmmm" said Doctor Brewer. You do have an answer for everything. Ok, here's another one for you. If no one raises the kids how do you stop the really little ones from being killed by falls off cliffs and that sort of thing?"

Prot grinned, "We keep track of em pretty good with our fop wa, though I admit that has happened in our history at least three times. It won't happen again though. We have built fences along all the dangerous places.

Ok. Here's one. You admit you let the animals into your libraries. How do you stop them from damaging valuable equipment?

Prot sighed, "Oh doc you are thinking like a Homo Sapiens. Our animals are usually better behaved than that. They do poop once in a while where they shouldn't and we have to clean up after them, but that's about it. We have a saying on K-PAX and FLORA. "The bigger they are the gentler they are," and that seems to hold true for most beings in the known galaxy, even on carnivorous WORLDS like yours."

How many carnivorous worlds are there prot that you know of?"

Prot shrugged, "I don't have a particular number since we keep discovering new WORLDS all the time. There are a few, but three tiered eco-systems are rare in number compared with two tiered ecosystems. The ones that do exist are usually much younger than the two tiered WORLDS. We don't know if that means three tiered WORLDS evolve into two tiered WORLDS or if something happened to the UNIVERSE to make three tiered eco systems more prominent. Many of the three tiered WORLDS have legends and myths about a fall, even your WORLD. Maybe something did happen, though what I have no idea.

"Do any dremers have an idea about what happened?" the doctor asked.

Prot shrugged, "We don't speculate much. That's a human habit, one of your most endearing and your most irritating and dangerous. It is part of the reason you naked apes have nuclear power when you should just be getting what you call gunpowder. Your ability to imagine impossible things makes you try for them, and sometimes you succeed. We are billions of years ahead of you in evolution but our pace of advancement is not anywhere near so frantic."

The doctor asked, "Do your people have gunpowder?"

Prot smiled, "We know how to make it but we have little use for it. We never called it gunpowder because we never invented guns. We call it boom aka. No kidding. Aka means powder and you can figure out why it is called boom. Boom is one of those rare words that means the same in pax-o and english.

The doctor smiled, "Any more like that?"

Prot nodded, "Yes, and in all cases it is because the word was named after the sound it makes. The laws of physics are the same on K-PAX as EARTH of course. Our name for a bell for instance is Kling, which is what you call the sound they make on EARTH in German. Prot started to sing very off key, "Kling gretchen tra la la la la. Kling gretchun kling!"

The doc put his hands over his ears, "Ok, prot. I get the idea!" Then Doctor Brewer asked. "What do dremers use bells for? You don't have churches, schools, or factories, and your beasts do not pull sleighs and with your fop wa you wouldn't need them for signal devices even if you did."

Prot nodded, "True but they sound pretty, Doc. That is reason enough to have them. "

Prot grinned mischievously at his doctor and added "We also have a small fox-like herbivore that makes a barking noise. We say he goes boof boof boof. That is close to your english, 'woof woof woof.'

What is this being called?"

Prot grinned, "A boof."

The Doctor sighed, "Well our time is, most regrettably, up. Go give Roman a break and go back to ward 2 on your own since you ran him ragged on the way up.

Prot grinned, "Ran him ragged. Another colorful EARTH term. I like it!"

Prot grinned, "Maybe that's why your runners don't wear much clothing." He added, "The Greeks used to run naked. I guess that kept them from being run ragged."

"Bye prot," Doctor Brewer said firmly, but he couldn't help grinning. "Skedaddle. Vamoose, arrivederci, chow! Nanu Nanu! Live long and Prosper. Scram!"

Prot grinned and ran out the door.

The doctor put his pad and pencil down and smiled to himself. "I'm going to miss him." he thought. "It's almost a shame to cure Robert."

As prot ran down the stairs back to ward 2, sam said, "You and him apparently have a lot of fun together."

Prot nodded, "I do need him you know, at first because of my homesickness and also to help Robert, but he needs me almost as much as I need him. He sees depressed hurting patients all day long and I come in and I am in good spirits and it cheers him up too.

San grinned internally, "Somehow I have a feeling you and him are going to be together in one way or another for years to come."

Prot grinned, "I hope so. Robert hopes not. I like being a mental patient. He doesn't.

*****************************

Al and Verbena stared at Robert as he pounded on his bed, "Darn Darn Darn!" Sam is with my girlfriend and I am stuck here while HE is out having fun with my future wife!"

Al tried to comfort him, "Hey Rob let me assure you Sam is the perfect gentlemen. He won't do anything to Giselle you wouldn't want another man to do to her."

Robert groaned, "But she thinks he's me! That is unless prot and Sam have told her, which would be suicide to our relationship I am sure. I've seldom minded having an Alien in my body with me, but now I have a Time Traveler too! Wasn't the Alien enough? Haven't I paid my taxes to the state of weirdness already? Is there no justice in the Universe? How would Giselle take that news? Not very well I am sure! She likes prot, but if I'm not there for the 'honey moon' our relationship is doomed!"

Al put his hand on Robert's shoulder, "Easy there! Think how Sam feels. At least your body is your own. He's been leaping from body to body for decades now. Its really bad for him especially now that he has to share a body with prot.

Robert shook his head, "That is probably the best thing about this particular, what did you call it? 'Leap.' That, and getting to go out with Giselle. MY Giselle. Grrrrr! Darn Darn Darn! Al I have been in Manhattan Psychiatric Institute for almost six years and only for several weeks have I been in possession of my faculties. And I've waited weeks for a pass out of the mental hospital, and what happens, another man gets to take it with MY GIRLFRIEND AND MY ALIEN! EEEEERRRRRRG!"

Al looked at Verbena. She shrugged, "What do you expect me to do? Of course he's upset about this. That's normal!"

Suddenly Gushy rushed into the waiting room. He exclaimed, "Something's happened to Ziggy!"

Al howled, "That's all we need!" Al and Verbena went rushing out of the waiting room and since they forgot to lock it behind them, Robert followed them.

Gushy had pulled the sheet off of their A. I. friend. But Ziggy stood motionless and depressingly silent. Even her colorful screen saver was dark. Al said, "Ziggy can you hear me?"

Nothing.

Gushy exclaimed sadly, "Al I already tried that. I even tried imputing stuff with her dusty old keyboard. That didn't work either. She's gone to wherever good computers go when they die."

Gushy, Al and Verbena stood there staring at the dead console with forlorn looks on their faces."

Robert stared at them. "Now you know how I feel about losing prot and Giselle! She must have been some computer!"

'She was," Al said quietly. We will miss her like a part of our own soul died, but it is even worse than that. Without Ziggy the imaging chamber won't work. I can't communicate with Sam. Neither can we leap him again. He never had a very good chance of getting home, and now he has no chance at all, zippo, nada. It's kaput!"

Why would Ziggy suddenly die?" Robert wanted to know. Surely you have devices in this time period that prevent power surges, and what else can completely kill a computer that quickly? Hard drive failure? Wouldn't there be some warning if that were going to occur? I don't know much about computers since I've been catatonic during most of the PC revolution, but I have been reading lots of things about them since my awakening, trying to catch up."

Gushy shrugged, "No it isn't hard drive failure or a power surge. Its more like she winked out of existence. This happened once before. It happened because Sam had failed to do something during a Leap that caused a time line change that would have resulted in Ziggy not being invented. Then when Sam changed the time line again, Ziggy started working again, except she changed gender from male to female. Now Sam may change it again, or not. Since we can't communicate with him now the whole project is in jeopardy!"

Robert stared at him, "So somehow we have to let Sam know that he needs to do something that he didn't?"

Al nodded, "Kid, that's about the size of it, but we can't communicate with him without the imaging chamber and Ziggy controls that."

Robert gave Gushy a worried look, Does your time machine still work. What did you call it? Your Quantum Accelerator? Can you send ME back?"

Al looked at Gushy.

Gushy shrugged, "Maybe. But it wouldn't do any good. We still couldn't leap Sam out of there because we can't lock on to him.

"It would get ME home!" Robert pointed out, "Plus I can tell Sam what the problem is. I can communicate with him for you."

Gushy shook his head, "We can't do that. It might damage your mental health. If we sent you back and Sam was still in the same brain with you, that could drive you mad."

Robert grinned, "I can't be driven mad by that, remember? I am already there! You can't drive anyone somewhere they already are!"

Gushy stared at Robert open mouthed.

Robert grinned, "I have lived with a self professed Alien in my brain since I was 6 years old. How could having a Time Traveler in there with us, hurt me much worse? I am crazy, I know it, but I function just fine because I am USED to it. I can pass for normal even if I am not normal. Sam would just be persona number 5. I can cope. I promise you!

Al grinned, "Kid, you have a point!"

Robert looked at him. "My choice seems to be adapt to a future I was never educated for, or adapt to keeping company with a Time Traveler back in my own time, which I was educated for. I'll take choice number two, thank you very much." Al looked at Verbena, "Well, Dr?"

Verbena shrugged, "Robert can certainly handle Sam better than Sam can handle Robert. He's used to sharing his body."

Robert added, "And even if all three of us are stuck together indefinitely, I would probably be a help to Sam's adjustment. I am used to prot. I can handle him a lot better than Sam can.

Robert grinned, "After all, one thinks he is a Time Traveler and the other thinks he is an Alien. Babes in the woods, both of them. Somebody in my body ought to be normal!"

Al nodded, "Verbena, he's right about that, too. Prot thinks the world of Robert and he isn't too happy AT ALL with Sam's presence. If he had Rob back it would calm him down. He wouldn't resent Sam's presence so much with his friend back."

"And," Rob pointed out, "If he isn't calm, we'll never get my body out of the psych ward!' Sam can't pass for me if prot is upset with him, if at all."

Verbena looked at Gushy. "Can you even get the quantum accelerator working without Ziggy?"

Gushy nodded, "It was programmed to automatically track Sam's consciousness and so that is where it is pointed. So we could send one person back to that one point in the space time continuum, in other words, just where Robert wants to go, back into his own body."

Al nodded, "Great! Then let's try it!"

But their timing was off. Prot and Giselle were already out on rob's furlough for hours before Robert managed to arrive.

  ***************

The minute MPI's gate clanged behind them prot closed his eyes and started snoopy dancing, "I'm free for a little while! He exclaimed, grinning. Then he reached in his pocket and put on his glasses.

"Prot!" Giselle was delighted, "I thought you were gone!"

Prot gave her his usual loopy affectionate grin, "That's what we want everybody to believe cause Robin wants out of the hoosegow big time. But you really didn't think I would leave before I collected my one hundred beings to take back to K-PAX now did you?" He gave her a hug.

There were stars in Giselle's eyes, "Am I on the list?"

Oh yes abso LUTE ly! You and Robert are the only two that are on there that are written in stone!"

Inside of prot Sam shuddered. It was obvious to him that this Giselle believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that prot was indeed an Alien. After sharing a brain with prot for 8 days he was about ready to believe it too! However cheerful and friendly prot was he was very definitely alien in his thought patterns! But then it was hard to tell, Sam had never had to share a brain with anyone before. Maybe all Humans were this weird internally and he just hadn't realized it.

Giselle asked, "Will Robert be along any time tonight?"

Prot nodded, "I hope so."

Giselle frowned, "He was looking forward to spending time out of the hospital. He isn't turning chicken on me, is he?"

"Oh no!" prot reassured her, "Its just these last few weeks I've had much less freedom than Robin has. He's been in dominant position and I've been cooped up inside of him, watching everything but not allowed to say much or do anything. Now I have a chance to stretch our collective legs for a few hours and I'm going to take it. Don't worry. When the time comes for you humans to do what humans like to do, he'll be there!" Internally prot said to sam, "And he'd better be!"

Prot grinned at giselle. "There is no way you are keeping me out for what you and rob want to do and no way I'm keeping robin in!"

She leaned her head against prot's shoulder and relaxed, "It is going to be a strange romance you know. Obviously I'm going to have both of you. You sure you aren't going to be jealous of each other?"

Prot grinned, "Oh no! Neither one of us is that crazy, you know! I root for my host! And he roots for me! We've been like brothers since he was six and I was sixty-two. We were both young whippersnappers when we met."

Inside of prot Sam grimaced.

Suddenly Robert was back.

ROBERT! Prot exclaimed internally, "You are back!"

"Robert?" Sam was still inside of them. "How could you be here if I'm still here?"

Robert said, "Don't ask me! You two are the practiced body snatchers, ah, prot don't be offended, I didn't mean it that way."

"No offense taken." prot chirped, "I know exactly what you mean. And right now you could accuse me of gurgling weeches with low life foobs and I would still be happy to see ya!"

"But why haven't I leaped?" Sam exclaimed frustrated. "Usually when the main persona comes back, I leap, but I'm still here! Why?"

Prot was delirious with joy. He started snoopy dancing some more. Giselle laughed. "Whatever your mental problems we can't accuse you of being depressed!"

Robert said, "Sam, and prot be ready. The mugger Al told you about is just around the corner. You are walking right into his trap, and a blackout is about to hit.

Prot tensed.

Giselle felt that, "What is it, prot?"

Prot tried to relax but the anticipatory anxiety was hard on him, "I don't know giselle, I just had a premonition."

"Do dremers get those?"

Prot shrugged, "No, not usually, but maybe I've been on EARTH too long and you guys are starting to corrupt me."

Suddenly all the lights went out.

"Right on cue." said prot.

"You knew this was coming?" Giselle asked, "What is this, a replay of The Day the Earth Stood Still?"

"What?" asked prot. "Oh that movie! No, really, giselle I had nothing to do with this."

"But you knew it was coming."

Ah....... cassy told me." prot stated, trying to sound sincere.

Giselle looked at prot, "I can't see a thing. But I bet you can, can't you?"

"Just fine giselle. There is enough ultraviolet light coming from the stars for me to see just fine."

Giselle looked up, "Look at he stars, prot! We shouldn't be unhappy about this. We can see them now. Point out Lyra to me!"

Grinning broadly, prot did so.

Robert said, "Hurry up, you two. You could be changing things again. The mugger is waiting around the corner, remember? By delaying things with your little Astronomy lesson prot, he may pick another victim, and that would change history too, maybe not for the better. Hurry up and get mugged."

Prot internally gazed at Robert and thought for a moment. Giselle looked at him puzzled, "What do you see, prot? I know you can see something but I can't see a thing."

Finally prot said, "There is trouble around the corner. I must go see what it is."

Giselle said, "All right. but the Human thing would be to go in the other direction."

Prot grinned, "But not for us, you are a reporter, and I am an alien. Lets go see what's going on."

Robert shouted, "Be careful, Sam!"

Prot/Sam/Robert and Giselle went around the corner and sure enough within seconds there was a knife at Giselle's throat. The mugger hissed, "Hand over all your money or I cut her throat!"

Sam took over but he the minute he did so, he was blind. "I can't see!" he complained internally to prot.

"Neither can I," said Robert. "Prot, I know you don't like violence, but DO something!"

Prot exclaimed. "He is using Giselle as a shield."

Sam said, "I can't defend her if I can't see!"

"Neither can I!" moaned Robert. "Prot, DO something!"

"Hey Sam!" prot exclaimed know what I can do to help you see. Ever watch Star Trek?"

Sam said "religiously. "

Prot grinned, "I hate to confess it but I do, too. I even watched it with other ET's on FLORA. Sam and Robert you are about to do a K-PAXian mind meld, not as dramatic as a VULCAN mind meld but we don't have to try for higher ratings. Suddenly Sam could see! In fact the landscape was a brilliant blaze of weird purple light! The mugger was as clear to him as he would have been at high noon at Ok Corral!

The mugger tried to move Giselle but she resisted just enough and suddenly Sam had his chance. He kicked hard. And the knife went flying out of the mugger's hands.

Then Sam tackled the mugger! Pow, the man was out like a light!

"Prot you saved me!" Giselle Exclaimed.

"Nope, not prot! I did!" Robert exclaimed happily.

Robert, you are back, and you saved my life!" Giselle melted into Robert's strong arms.

Sam/prot/Robert hugged her close. Robert felt his hormones rising up. Prot separated from him, "Yuck! You humans and your sex drive!" The mind meld was over as suddenly as it started.

Robert said, "And you K-PAXias and your food drive! Are you always thinking about food even when you are out on a date with a pretty lady?"

Prot said ,"Yep"

. "Yep," to what? Giselle asked, Suddenly the mugger stirred and started to get up.

Prot/Robert/Sam tackled him. Sam was in dominant position but the mugger was strong and started to get away.

Robert said, You fight well but you don't know how to hold a man down, do you?

"Not very well." Sam admitted.

Prot said, "Not at all. "

Robert said, "Well I do!"

Robert took control of their body and sure enough he had no difficulty holding down the mugger. All the wrestling holds he had learned as a high schooler worked perfectly well for him now. Then he wrested the guy up to a standing position and said, "Now we find a policeman."

Prot said, "I hear one coming."

Giselle asked, "How can you tell it's a cop?"

Prot grinned, "Cop cars go emmmmmm ememememme emmmmmmm.

Sam was amazed, "you can hear a siren?"

Suddenly they all heard it. But they watched as it rushed past them.

"Ah but prot," Robert pointed out, "that cop car is already going somewhere! We need an unbusy cop."

Prot said, "Oh."

Giselle said, "Hey prot and robert there is a cop shop just around the corner from here. Lets just drag the guy to his fate."

The mugger was giving rob/sam/prot a hard time, but he was no match for all three of them, four counting Giselle. One of the advantages Multiples have over Monos is they can switch personalities at will. When one gets tired the other can take over. So for the next five blocks Sam and Rob rotated holding on to the mugger. Prot didn't take a turn. They didn't dare let him try either.

Prot admitted, "I'm no good at that sort of thing, physical force. Just let me tell you where to go."

Sam said, "Ah, prot, aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" prot asked internally.

Sam laughed, "All this time you've had that flashlight of your's in your hip pocket!"

Prot suddenly laughed. "Mama Mia! I'm catching an EARTH mental disorder, absentmindedness! Hang on Giselle and Robert! He took his flashlight out and flipped it on. "Surprise!" he grinned! "It works as a flashlight too!"

Giselle started giggling. "An absentminded Alien!"

They arrived at the police station and Giselle did all the talking. Robert was perfectly willing to let her. He was busy enough trying to hold their struggling mugger.

It was very late by the time they got out from the police station but the blackout was still on.

Robert said internally, Sam, there is something that I have to tell you. Ziggy is gone."

Sam said internally, "What do you mean, 'gone?' "

Robert sighed, "I mean she is dead. She is broke. She does not work any more.

"Oh no!" Sam moaned.

"What?" Giselle asked.

"Ah, I just had a bad thought." Robert said quickly out loud. Internally he said, "Gushy says something you do back here, keeps Ziggy from being invented, and so you have to do something else instead, but we aren't sure what!"

The minute they were out of the police station prot had turned on his flashlight again, but suddenly it started to flicker.

"Damn EARTH technology!" prot growled. "I wish apple hadn't broke my original K-PAXian flashlight!" Internally prot explained to sam that apple was robert's childhood dog.

Robert laughed, "Oh come on, prot, its more romantic in the dark anyway. He took dominant position and gave Giselle a smooch that let her know in no uncertain terms that Robert was not the least bit SHY in the area where it most counted! She was indeed DEFINITELY going to have both of them!

Sam said, "I see candles flickering in that window up ahead."

"Its a restaurant." prot said. He told Robert, "tell our main squeeze to head for those candle flickers ahead of you, I know you can see that. Its a restaurant and I'm hungry."

Robert said out loud, "prot, you are the only one I know who can have a beautiful woman in your arms and all you think about is food!"

Prot said out loud, "And only humans can have a beautiful pile of food in front of them and all they think about is sex!"

Sam moaned internally, "And only the two of your can think about food or sex when I am about to be marooned in time!"

"Shut up!" Prot and Robert said it internally together.

Robert made the peace, "Sam, since we don't know what you do or don't do, you might as well relax. And as for our needs, restaurants are dark for sex and full of good food for tummies, so lets go feed both our carnal urges!" Out loud he explained to Giselle what he had just said but of course did not say it in such a way as to let Giselle know Sam existed.

The restaurant had a long waiting line due to the fact other people also noticed it had candles. While they waited for a table prot was fidgeting but Robert was in seventh heaven.

Internally Sam rolled his eyes. Depending on who was dominant, which was varying back and forth from one second to the next their collective body was either horny or hungry. All the switching back and forth was making Sam dizzy. Somehow though, Giselle didn't mind! Not only was she going to have both of them but she could handle it!

Sam wanted to order meatballs and spaghetti. To his not unexpected disappointment Robert ordered spaghetti without meat balls or meat sauce.

Robert grinned at Giselle, "Wanna eat it like Lady and the Tramp?

So, to Sam's amusement and prot's puzzlement, they did.

Giselle said, "But you don't have a meat ball to nose towards me."

Robert grinned, "I don't need a meat ball to kiss you my dear or one long strand of spaghetti either!"

Prot suddenly started singing, "That's Amore." But he added his own verses, "He tells joke's he's a ham and his name's Amsterdam. He's a Maury!"

When you bake in the sun and you do it again that's some more rays!

They live in the sea and they'd chew on your knee. They're called Morays!"

Robert forced himself back into dominant position, ah sorry about that little interruption, Giselle!

She grinned, "You CAN force prot down when you have to, can't you?"

Robert grinned, "I guess I can! Funny I never could those four and half years where he wandered all over the Earth. You and Dr. Brewer must be making me stronger."

Internally prot grinned and snuggled in the back of Robert's brain. "Into the briar patch for both of us!"

Suddenly the lights came back on. People in the restaurant groaned, and blinked at the suddenly blaze of electric light. Then they laughed as the waiters very quickly turned the lights off again.

As Giselle was paying Robert said, "It's good the lights came back on for our trip to the hotel anyway. And for there too. I don't see why people like to have sex in the dark, it's more fun if I can see you smile, Giselle."

She smiled and leaned against Robert's side.

Sam said internally, "prot what are we going to do while they, ahhh ahhhh."

Prot said quickly, "We take a nap!"

Sam was incredulous. "How do you fall asleep under THAT circumstance!?"

Prot said, "Carefully!"

Traffic was a mess. It always was in New York but after a blackout where people had been stalled at street lights for over an hour, it was really a mess. Robert wished that prot really had a body of his own. It would have been nice if prot could have driven them while he snuggled with Giselle in the back seat. As it was Giselle drove and Robert did the best he could to snuggle with her without messing up her driving safely.

Two hours later they finally reached the hotel.

The lobby was full of other tired arrivals, including a mother and her young son. Sam stared at the mother. "Prot! he exclaimed, "That's my Mother!"

"What?" prot and robert asked. One of them must have asked it out loud.

"Huh?" said Giselle.

Prot said, "Oh, sorry, giselle, I just saw someone I thought I recognized. My mistake." Internally prot said, "Your mother is in a hotel in new york? I thought you were from indiana."

Sam said, "I have a vague memory of a trip to New York as a kid, a trip that involved a long wait in a car at a turned off traffic light because of a blackout."

Still holding Giselle's hand Robert casually inched over towards the lady for Sam's sake.

As they did so Giselle asked, "Prot what do you think caused the blackout?"

Prot shrugged, "giselle I don't know why you think I'd know. Just guessing I'd say human error."

"Why human error, prot?"

Prot said sarcastically, "Do many squirrels own hydroelectric plants? You guys ought to make computer keepers for yourself!"

Giselle asked, "Computer keepers?"

The little boy that was with Sam's mother said, "Computer keepers, Mr.?"

Prot bent down to the child's eye level and said, "Yep, Kid. that's what you homo sapiens need. Computer keepers. Make a computer smarter than your pitiful species and maybe THEY can keep you out of trouble! You'd better not be expecting us aliens to do so because we won't bother!"

Sam's mother gave prot a startled look and grabbed the young sam by the arm and pulled him quickly away, "Stay away from him." she whispered (loud enough for everyone to hear.) "That man is crazy!"

"But Mama." the young Sam said, "He has a very good idea there."

Al suddenly appeared. "Prot, Sam, Robert, I don't know what you did, but Ziggy is fixed, sort of, except now she has gone back to being a he again!"

Prot started laughing.

Al looked like a lit up Christmas tree, both because of the loud red and green shirt he was wearing, the purple tie and his dark blue trousers and because the imaging chamber was lit with the usual white fluorescent lightning humans liked so much. Everything else in the lobby was being lit with natural Ott sunlight bulbs which for prot included a lot of UV which looked considerably different than white lighting. The contrast between the two looked weird, not to mention his attire!

Giselle looked at him, thinking it was the mother's comment that had set him off. "Prot, you have got to watch what you say in public, or you are going to get Rob committed again! If you do that, I'll be very mad at you!"

"Sorry!" said prot contritely.

Sam said sadly, "I am still here, prot. What is it that I'm supposed to do? I've rescued giselle, and you have just given my young self an idea that obviously got Ziggy back on track but I'm still here!

Al said, "Sam, prot, Robert, excuse yourself and go to the rest room for a few minutes. I need to talk to all three of you."

Prot/Robert/Sam gave Al a questioning look that said, "all three of us?"

Robert said out loud, "Ah excuse me G