Real Life
by
Jason Gaston

Beta-read by Jayelle Carey
 

If Maggie should have learned anything from sliding, it was never ever jump into the vortex first. However, a natural soldier, she always was the first to leap in so that she would be the first to face whatever dangers awaited them on the other side. Unfortunately, being first through the wormhole also meant that the other sliders would be falling on top of you at any second.

Of course, being a natural soldier, Maggie also had the advantage of being in extraordinary shape. So, as the vortex flashed announcing the arrival of the next slider, Maggie rolled out of the way, narrowly escaping getting kicked in the head by Rembrandt.

Rembrandt, however, was not so lucky, for next out of the wormhole came Professor Maximillion Arturo who promptly flattened him.

Rembrandt groaned under Arturo's weight. "I must say, Mr. Brown," Arturo said, helping Rembrandt to his feet, "I was beginning to think that I was going to spend the rest of the slides constantly getting kicked and landed on by you. I guess turnabout is fair play. Wouldn't you agr-"

Arturo never finished his sentence. Instantly, he was thrown to the floor by the collision of both Quinn and Wade to his backside.

"You all right, Max?" Quinn asked as he helped Wade to her feet.

Arturo lay face down on the floor. "I'm fine, Mr. Mallory," he said with little hint of emotion on his face or in his voice.

As Arturo stood shakily to his feet, the brilliant blue vortex collapsed on itself, leaving the sliders in virtual darkness. "We must be backstage in some kind of a theater," Maggie said as she gauged her surroundings. "How long are we here?"

Quinn dug the timer out of his pocket and gazed at the LED display. "About six hours," he said, sighing. "Is anyone besides me hungry?"

"You joking?" Wade laughed as she put her hands on her hips. "Two weeks on diet world; I'm ready to eat a horse."

"You're ready to eat a horse!?" Arturo said in disbelief. "I could only eat one salad a day on that blasted world! I must say, if we ever encounter another world where it is mandatory to be thin, just shoot me!"

"Careful what you wish for around Maggie, Max!" Wade said, smiling.

Maggie raised an eyebrow. "I'm not a totally violent person, Wade," she said with a look that announced to all she was offended.

*Oh great,* Quinn thought to himself as Wade and Maggie glared at each other. *Here it comes. Wade's going to say something and Maggie's going to take it the wrong way and both of them are going to go at it.*

"I would wait for him to actually ask before I shot him," Maggie finally said as a broad grin appeared on her face.

Wade began laughing and was soon joined by Quinn and Rembrandt.

*Or maybe not,* Quinn mused as he laughed with his friends. *Maybe she's finally become one of the group. It's about time too... I was getting a little sick of the constant confrontations.*

"Excuse me," Arturo growled in a low voice, "if you don't mind, may we please find a place where I can satisfy my appetite?"

"Lead on, Professor," Rembrandt said chuckling, "lead on!"

Arturo lead the group out of the backstage area and onto a stage surrounded by hundreds of chairs. Beyond the chairs, people could be observed putting merchandise on tables and sweeping the floor. "We're in some kind of a convention center!" Wade surmised, "They must be getting ready to hold a Star Trek convention!"

"A what convention?" Maggie asked.

Wade cocked her head. "You've never heard of Star Trek?"

Maggie shook her head and looked puzzled.

"I guess you don't have it on your world," Wade said as she hopped off of the stage. "On our world, Star Trek was a show about a group of space explorers on a ship called the Enterprise. Very cool... very thought-provoking."

"And cheesy!" Rembrandt added. "You ever see that one where they steal Spock's Brain?"

"Cheese..." Arturo sighed. "Please, Mr. Brown, I ask you to restrain from mentioning any kind of food!"

The sliders made their way into the dealers tables. Maggie stared at the T-shirts and mugs and action figures that was stacked on them. "I don't see why some people can get so worked-up over a TV show."

Wade smiled and shrugged. "Well, to some people, it's not just a TV show. It's an obsession."

"Excuse me," one of the dealers called from behind his table.

Rembrandt put his hands at his side and whirled around. "Hey, friend, we didn't touch anything!"

The dealer smiled and shook his head. "That's perfectly all right!" he said, chuckling as though Rembrandt's defending remark was funny. "Could I ask you a favor?"

The sliders looked at each other with perplexed expressions and then made their way to the dealer.

"I hope you don't mind, but," the dealer pulled out a poster and began to unroll it, "could I have all of your autographs?"

Maggie, Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt, and Arturo gasped in unison as they stared at the poster that lay before them. It was a picture of Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt, and Arturo holding the timer. At the bottom of the poster, spelled out in futuristic lettering, it said Sliders. Fridays at 8:00, 7:00 central, on Fox. Below that it listed the stars of the program. Jerry O'Connell, Sabrina Lloyd, Cleavant Derricks, and John Rhys-Davies as "Arturo."

"Good lord!" Arturo bellowed.

"Yeah," the dealer sighed as he looked at the poster. "I admit the picture isn't the best in the world, but Sliders merchandise isn't easy to come by these days. Besides, I can probably get fifty dollars for this poster from one of those wacko, die-hard fans. So what do you say? Will you sign it for me?"

"I don't know," Quinn said concerned, confused, and unwilling to impersonate his double (if this Jerry O'Connell person truly was his double).

"Oh come on!" the dealer pleaded, "All of the profits from this sale go to the Make a Wish Foundation."

"I'll do it!" Wade said, grabbing the pen and signing 'Sabrina Lloyd' in large letters over her picture.

Arturo grabbed her by the arm and pulled her backwards a few steps. "Miss Wells," he whispered, "I do not believe it is a good idea to impersonate you double. For all we know, they may eat celebrities here!" Arturo's mouth clamped shut as the thought of eating made his stomach growl.

Wade shook her arm loose "Oh, come on, Max! It's for a good cause!"

Rembrandt sighed 'Cleavant Derricks' on his picture and handed the pen to Quinn. Quinn took a long look at the pen before he took it, still sure this wasn't a good idea, and sighed 'Jerry O'Connell' over his picture. Wade, Quinn, Rembrandt, and Maggie turned to Arturo.

Max took a deep breath and shut his eyes. "All right!" he said through clenched teeth, "All right!" Rudely, he snatched the pen from Quinn and scribbled his double's named over his picture.

The dealer raised an eyebrow. "You... uh... misspelled 'Rhys.'"

"Whatever!" Arturo bellowed.

"Would you like to sign too?" the dealer asked, holding the pen up to Maggie.

Maggie stared at the poster. Her picture wasn't on it and she had no idea what her double's name was. "I...uh... I don't..."

The dealer cleared his throat. "Yeah, I know what you mean, Miss Wuhrer," he said as he pinned the poster up on the wall behind him. "I could probably get more for it if it was just the original sliders. No offense."

Original Sliders. The comment hurt Maggie, but she wasn't about to show it. "None taken."

"So," the dealer said, turning around, "are you all here for the convention?"

"No!" Arturo bellowed.

"We, uh... We're just passing through," Quinn said, covering for Max.

The dealer smiled and nodded. "So, you guys are friends in real life? That's very cool!"

"We have to get going," Arturo said, interrupting. "We... uh... we just have to go. Don't we, Jerry?"

It took Quinn a second to realize that Arturo was addressing him. "Oh, yeah... we have to... uh, get going."

The sliders walked away from the dealer's table. "What a great bunch of people!" the dealer said, smiling. "It's a shame they've been canceled."

*****

What if there was a world where the Russians ruled America?
Or where the dinosaurs never died off?
Or where women were in control instead of men?

These worlds do exist.  Same planet, different universe.  My
friends and I have found the gateway to reach them.  Now all
we have to do... is find a way to get home....

SLIDERS... Infinite Slides....
Based On the Original "Sliders" TV Series
Created by Tracy Torme and Robert K. Weiss

*****
 

The sliders made their way into the lobby and stopped short of the exit. "Good lord!" Arturo yelled as he observed the hordes of cheering sci-fi fans through the glass doors of the convention center. He pushed the other sliders back into the dealer room. "We're trapped!"

"This is just like that world where I was a superstar!" Rembrandt reminisced, trying to steal a peak and the corner.

"And if we learned anything from that world," Wade said as she pulled Rembrandt back into the safety and relative obscurity of the dealer room, "it's that we never tangle with fans!"

-----

Outside the convention center, a long line of sci-fi fanatics had formed. Each member of the line hoping to be the first to see their idols. Of course, for two of them, their true idols weren't going to be there. They weren't going to be anywhere for that matter. Jason Donner (a.k.a. Donner) and Jesse Bates were standing near the front. They were the nameless few who still called themselves sliderfans. Not trekkies, not x-philes... sliderfans.

Donner was in his twenties. He was about six feet tall and had dark brown hair with, oddly enough, a few touches of gray in it, making him look older than he really was. He didn't mind the gray when it began appearing soon after his twentieth birthday. In fact, he often quoted Star Trek: The Next Generation's Data by saying that "a touch of gray adds a an air of distinction." He despised long waits and despised standing around and doing nothing even more. So, as he usually did, he had a pocket book with him and had his nose buried in it. If the line had moved, it was doubtful he would have even noticed.

Actually, he would have. Jesse would have told him. She was his best friend and had been for about three years. She once pondered getting involved romantically with him, but had quickly dismissed that notion. They were friends and she was unwilling to put that friendship in jeopardy. Maybe.... later. She wiped beads of sweat from her forehead and ran her fingers through her unmanaged, red hair. Blowing into the air with frustration, she jumped up and down a few times and mumbled something about the idiots at the convention center keeping the fans outside in one hundred degree heat. She stared longingly into the glass doors and the haven of air conditioning inside... and that's when she saw one of her idols walk into the lobby, take a quick look outside and head back into the dealer area with... my god, it was all of them! Even Maggie Beckett!

This brief appearance prompted a roar among the fans that were fortunate enough to see the sliders in the lobby. Donner had, of course, missed the whole thing entirely, immersed in his Harlon Ellison paperback. Rest assured though, Jesse would let him know what he missed.

"Don, look!" Jesse screamed as loudly as she could. "It's the sliders!"

He jumped and threw the book up to cover his ears. He made sure that his friend had stopped screaming before he finally put down his literary shielding. He then rubbed his head and waited for the ringing in his ear to subside. "Jesse, I'm standing right next to you; you don't have to yell!" He tugged on his earlobe and the ringing finally went away. "Now, what did you say?"

"The sliders!" Jesse yelled. "They're in the building! All of them! Even Maggie!"

Donner looked into the glass doors just as the last of the sliders disappeared from view. He shook his head and smiled. "None of those actors are supposed to be at this convention. We're here to see Johnathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis, remember?" He regarded the book in his hands. "You made me lose my place."

"Well," Jesse sighed, staring into the glass doors, "maybe they're here as special guests! You know, a reunion show or something!"

"I don't think so," Don said, thumbing through his book trying to find some hint of where he had been. "I heard somewhere that Cleavant's filming a TV pilot in LA and that John's playing a genie in some new movie and Jerry's got a part in Scream 2. Besides, why are you getting so excited about all the sliders being here? I thought you hated Maggie?" He sighed as he closed the book in vain.

"Look, Donner," Jesse said coldly. "I thought that you might enjoy the fact that cast members from our favorite TV show were probably in the building, but if you are going to act like you don't care, then you can just go straight to hell for all I care!"

Donner lowered his book and stared at her. "What!?" he asked in shock. "I can go to where!? Jesse, what's wrong with you?"

"Sorry," Jesse said apologetically. "I-I'm sorry, Donner. I-I don't know why I said that. I'm sorry!" She looked as if she was going to cry.

Donner tried to put the book in his back pocket so he could comfort his friend. She hadn't been well lately. Moody and emotional. She wasn't the person he had grown to love and respect. He dismissed it as a sickness or depression or even that time of the month, but he wasn't going to dismiss it anymore. "It's all right." He struggled with the book for a bit, then looked back at Jesse. "They call them 'POCKET BOOKS' for a reason. I would think that the reason they are called 'POCKET BOOKS' is that you can actually put the BOOK in your POCKET!"

Jesse laughed. Donner was one of the only people that could ever make her laugh at all. "Maybe you've got too much crap in your pockets."

"Maybe," Donner said as he fished some car keys and a small, gray, rectangular keychain from his back pocket. "Yep, that's why." The keychain came loose and he barley managed to catch it before it hit the ground. "Damn," he mumbled. "I've got to get that fixed."

Jesse took the keys and the book from him and put them in her purse. "What are you doing?" he asked as he pulled his hand back preventing Jesse from taking the rectangular keychain from him.

"I'm putting some of your crap in my purse," she explained. "I bet walking around with all that stuff in you pants is uncomfortable." She paused for a second. "DON'T say it!"

"Say what?" Donner asked innocently.

Jesse gave him a look as she stuffed his book into her purse.

"What!?" he asked again.

"I... uh, I'm going to find a ladies room," Jesse said finally. "Hold my place would you?"

"Sure," Donner said.

Jesse bounded off around the corner of the convention center, and Donner stood there for a few minutes. He checked his watch and then sighed. "Shouldn't have let her take my book."

-----

"There's got to be a back door to this place!" Wade said as her eyes shifted around the large room. "There, right behind the guy selling those action figures!"

Quinn walked behind the booth and pushed the door open. After a quick peek outside, he motioned for the other sliders to follow him. "It's clear!"

The sliders filtered outside into the sunlight. "How can the people in there know about us?" Wade asked. "Much less have a picture of us!?"

"As weird as it sounds," Quinn explained, "I'd say we've landed on a world were our lives are a TV show!"

Rembrandt snorted. "You're right, Q-Ball! That does sound weird. You're telling me that on this world, my double is an actor named Cleavant Derricks who just happens to star in a TV show called Sliders? I know we've seen a lot of weird things, but this one is a little hard to swallow!"

Quinn smiled and chuckled, "I wonder if we're a hit."

"Mr. Brown," Arturo said, looking over his shoulder as if he was afraid the screaming fans were coming to get him, "it is highly improbable but possible that on this world a writer has written a television series that follows almost exactly our adventures through the muti-verse and that television series stars our doubles who, on this world, carry different names than we do and, instead of becoming what we have, they are actors."

Rembrandt looked at him as if he was crazy. "Max, that's too big of a coincidence!"

"Okay," Arturo huffed, "look at it this way. You once told me you landed on a world that was lagging fourteen years behind in the timeline."

"Right," Quinn affirmed. "That's the world where I met a younger version of myself."

"Well," Max continued, "let's say that there is a world identical to your Earth Prime in almost every way except that it's ahead in the timeline by a few years. Now, your counterpart, Mr. Brown, along with Mr. Mallory's, Miss Wells, and your Arturo slid to this universe and encountered a television producer who, after they left, decided to make their adventures into a television series."

"I don't think so," Wade disagreed.

"Oh really?" Max said with his over inflated ego shining like a noon sun. "Well, by all means, Miss Wells, why don't you enlighten us about your theory?"

"Gladly," Wade said, grinning. "Have you ever heard of Robert Henlien?" She waited for a positive answer but only received blank looks. "Okay, he's a science fiction writer," she explained. "He once wrote that all fiction, no matter how bizarre, could be a reality in some parallel state of existence. Why can't the opposite be true? Why can't reality be fiction in some parallel state of existence?"

"You're telling me that in some parallel world we could encounter Alice and Wonderland or Dorothy and the land of Oz?" Arturo scoffed.

Wade put her hands on her hips and stared at him. "I don't have all the answers, Max, but you've got to admit that it's every bit as good of a theory as yours!"

"Maybe there is no reason," Maggie offered. "Maybe this is all just a great big coincidence."

"Well, I can tell you one thing I'm sure of," Rembrandt moaned. "I'm getting sick of trying to figure this damned world out!"

The sliders managed to get to the road without being noticed by anyone. "Perhaps we can fetch a cab from here and go to the Dominion Hotel where we can just wait out this slide in peace," Arturo suggested.

Before any of the group could agree with Max's idea, the air was shattered by the sound of a scream. "What was that?" Wade asked, frantically looking around.

"Sounds like it came from the parking lot!" Rembrandt said.

Wade's eyes went wide. "Oh, god! What if someone's getting mugged... or worse!"

Maggie took off at high speed toward the screaming.

"Maggie, wait!" Quinn yelled as he took off after her.

Maggie never heard him. She was on a mission to rescue whomever it was who was screaming. Being in excellent shape, of course, she had left Quinn far, far behind her. She rounded a few parked cars and finally found a girl lying on the ground. "Are you okay?" Maggie asked, kneeling by her and gasping for air.

"Yeah," Jesse smiled as she held up a handgun. "I am now."

And the last thing Maggie saw was a bottle slamming into her head.

-----

Quinn surveyed the parking lot. Maggie had long since outran him, and with the screaming silenced, he had nothing to follow. All he could do was yell for her. "Maggie!"

"Quinn!" Maggie screamed back. Actually, all she really had time to say was "Qui-" before she was cut off by the sound of glass shattering.

He scanned the lot frantically searching for her. "Maggie!" he yelled desperately.

Then he saw it. A red Ford Mustang barreling out of the parking lot. Maggie was in the front seat, her head bobbing up and down as the car accelerated. "Stop!" Quinn yelled as the car came closer to him. He stayed as long as he sanely could and then jumped out of the way as it swerved onto the road and disappeared from sight.

Quinn winced as he touched his knee; it was scraped up and bleeding slightly. He looked up and saw the other sliders running to him.

"Q-Ball," Rembrandt yelled to him. "Q-Ball, Maggie... she was in..."

"I know, Remmy," Quinn said, standing up. "I know."

"Did you get the license plate number?" Arturo asked.

Quinn shook his head. "I was kind of jumping for my life, Max. I guess I missed it."

"Great!" Wade said, throwing her arms into the air. "This is just great! We can't get a cab, and we can't go to the police because they'll look for Maggie's double! What are we supposed to do now!?"

"Stop! Jesse!" a voice yelled out from behind them. They turned to see a man in his early twenties running along side the road. "Bring my car back, you stupid... dammit!!!" He stopped running, deciding that to run further was useless.

"I'd say we just found an assistant," Arturo said as he walked over to where the man was standing, staring down the road. "Excuse me," Arturo said, "I was wondering if you could..."

The man shocked Arturo as he pushed him out of the way. "Not now! Can't you see I've got a crisis?" Donner took a few steps back to the convention center and then stopped as his brain registered what was going on. "Aren't you... John Rhys-Davies?"

Arturo shook his head. "No, my name is Professor Maximillion Arturo."

"Uh-huh...." Don smirked. "Sure it is. What is this? Candid Camera?"

Quinn, Wade, and Rembrandt approached from behind him. "He's telling the truth!" Wade said as she touched his shoulder. "I'm Wade, this is Quinn and Rembrandt."

Donner stared at the Sliders. "Oh, my god! Wow!" he exclaimed. "You guys are great! I really mean it and I'm not just saying that because your standing here!"

Quinn grabbed him by both of his arms to shut him up. "Listen, pal, we are NOT actors!!! My name is Quinn Mallory, not Jerry O'Connell!"

"Right, next thing you'll tell me is that your name is Vern Tesso and you wanna show me a dead body," Donner said with a half-cocked smile.

Quinn stared at him for a second unsure of what he was talking about. He then shook his head and muttered something unintelligible. Something about, "This is unbelievable." He then pulled the timer from his pocket and held it in front of Donner's face. "Okay, I assume you know what this is."

Donner's eyes lit up. "Wow! Is that the real timer? The one used in the show?"

"No!" Quinn said exasperated. "Yes... This is the real thing... but it's not a prop or anything. With it we slide from world to world. Take a look at it. It is made of metal and plastic. Not that resin stuff that's usually used. It is a fully functioning electronic device."

Don gingerly took the timer from Quinn and stared at it for a moment. He then lifted the back cover off of it and smiled. "I knew it!"

"Knew what?" Quinn asked.

"Double A's," Donner said, grinning. "There's been a debate going." He put the cover back on it and handed the timer back to Quinn. "My name's Jason Donner. But call me Donner. All my friends do."

"Mr. Donner," Arturo said softly, "I assure you that we are not actors. We are sliders and we are just visiting this world. You have nothing but my word to go on and I know it must be difficult to believe, but I swear it's true and we do need your help. The young woman who just stole your car also kidnapped a friend of ours."

"A friend?" Donner asked. "No, let me guess... Bennish?"

"Maggie Beckett," Quinn answered.

Donner nodded and then shook his head. "Wait a minute! Arturo and Maggie sliding together? When did that happen?"

Quinn shut his eyes and shook his head. "We don't have all the answers for you, Donner, but we need to find her before the timer expires in less than six hours!"

Donner wiped a few beads of sweat off of his brow. "Okay, okay... I'll help you." He pointed an angry finger at the sliders. "But if this is all a big joke and you just want to make fun of me..."

"It's not!" Wade said wearily, tired of trying to convince this new ally that they were real and not TV characters.

"Who was that woman in the car?" Rembrandt asked.

Donner smirked as he looked down the road in disgust. "Jessica Bates. She's a friend of mine. Or rather WAS a friend of mine until she decided to steal my car! She's been a long-time fan of you guys since the first episode. Even during the third season. But after Arturo died and was replaced by Maggie, she's been a little - shall we say - nuts. I was looking for her to get a book back because I hate standing around and doing nothing."

The sliders looked at him unsure as to what he was talking about.

Donner raised a hand to dismiss the whole thing. "Don't ask. Sufficed to say that when I saw her rocketing out of the parking lot in my car I was, as William Shakespeare once put it, pissed off royally."

Wade laughed a bit but then turned deadly serious. "Do you know where she could've gone to?"

"Her house, I guess, " Donner said, crossing his arms. "If I can get a cab, I can take you there."

"Good luck," Arturo, Quinn, and Rembrandt sighed simultaneously.

-----

Maggie groaned as she regained consciousness. What the hell was that? she asked herself as she tried to reach up and touch her head which was pounding with pain. To her surprise, she couldn't raise it more than a few inches before it was stopped by something. Looking down, Maggie realized that she had been tied to a chair, and just her luck, whoever did it knew how to tie some pretty good knots. Maggie craned her neck around to get a look at her surroundings. She was in an old building... a warehouse by the look of it. Long abandoned too, as the dust and cobwebs indicated. There was a car. A red Ford Mustang. It had obviously been driven through the huge cargo doors by whoever had kidnapped her and parked inside to keep their location secret. A rustle overhead caught her attention and she was surprised to see a couple of seagulls roosting on the support beams in the ceiling. Maggie scanned her general area, looking for glass shards... sharp sticks... anything that could be used to her advantage.

And then she saw her. It was that woman that had knocked her out. She was standing in the corner of the building, biting her nails and smiling a smile you might have seen on Linda Blaire if you'd watched The Exorcist.

"Who are you!?" Maggie demanded. "Where've you brought me!?"

"You must think you are hot stuff," the girl said as she breezed out of her little corner of the large room. "Don't you, dear?"

"What are you talking about?" Maggie demanded, struggling against her bonds. "Why have you kidnapped me?"

"My name's not important," the girl snapped. "That I have you... is." She took a long, deep breath as though she was savoring every minute of her victory. "I've kidnapped you to get Sliders back!"

"What!?" Maggie asked.

"Don't give me that 'what are you talking about?' act, Kari!" Jesse yelled. "Sliders is dead because of you! If I get rid of you, Sliders will come back! Understand?"

Maggie glared at Jesse with a look that made Jesse backstep a few feet. "Understand this... dear. I don't know who you are or what the hell you're talking about, and I don't care. I want you to untie me right now, or I swear you will be sorry." Maggie leaned foreword as much as she could with the ropes around her. "Very sorry."

Jesse recomposed herself and leaned up against the wall. "Huph!" she snorted as she rolled her eyes. "Give me a break, Kari, everybody knows your just a Hollywood cream puff. You couldn't hurt me if you tried."

"That's where you're wrong," Maggie whispered. "My name isn't Kari... It's Maggie Beckett. I am a trained soldier in the US Army and I promise you... you can't hold me forever."

"You think I'm stupid enough to fall for that?" Jesse said, smirking.

"You'll see," Maggie growled. "Quinn and the others will come find me and we'll slide."

Jesse smirked and responded in disbelief, "Well...Maggie... If you are Maggie Beckett, I don't have to hold you forever. Just until you miss the slide!"

-----

Donner had a key to Jesse's apartment and was able to get in with relative ease. "Jesse?" he called into the empty room. "Are you here? I've got some people who want to see you!" After a few seconds, he turned to the sliders. "I don't think she's here."

Rembrandt entered the apartment behind him and took a long look at the surroundings. There were posters of Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, and of course, a few Sliders posters, including the one they had fraudulently autographed a couple of hours before.

Arturo casually strolled into the living room area and began reading off the labels on the videos that littered the shelves and coffee table. "Let's see... Jerry on David Letterman... Jerry on Oddville... John Rhys-Davies on Carson..." He discarded that tape and picked up another that had SLIDERS written in big black letters on the front cover. "Invasion... As Time Goes By... Rules of the Game... Double Cross..." He made a curious grunt and popped the tape into Jesse's VCR. He sat down in front of the television as the picture tracking became clearer reveling Logan St. Clair waving a gun.

"Oh... my... god..." Rembrandt whispered completely mesmerized. "It's Logan St. Clair! You know, before she became the bionic woman."

"The bionic woman?" Donner asked, whirling around.

Rembrandt raised his hands. "I'll tell you later."

"I sure hope so," Donner responded.

The sliders crowded around the small television and watched in awe as the events unfolded before them. Logan telling Quinn she wanted him to come back with her, Quinn refusing and throwing the timer into her vortex, and finally that gut-wrenching moment when the bullet was heading straight for Wade's head.

"That's amazing," Wade whispered. "It's exactly how I remember."

"Hey, look at this," Rembrandt said as he held up the slipcase that had Quinn, a woman, and dozens of cockroaches on it, "Joe's Apartment: Sex, Bugs, and Rock-n-Roll."

"I wonder if you've got a nude scene," Wade said playfully.

Quinn wasn't amused. "The sooner we get off this world, the better! This could get embarrassing!"

"They're not here," Arturo said, stating the painfully obvious. "Where else could have Jesse have taken Captain Beckett?"

Donner shook his head. "I don't know," he said, taking a deep breath. "Maybe... if I checked her computer."

"Her computer?" Wade asked as she pulled up a chair.

Donner sat down and began typing on the keyboard. "Jesse's a computer geek," he explained. "Actually, I am too. That's how we met - in the Sliders chat room. When we found out we lived in the same area of the country, we met each other and became friends."

"How did a nut like this Jesse person get a gun in the first place?" Wade asked him as he navigated through Jesse's computer.

Donner's eyebrows angled. "Don't ask me," he said, rolling his eyes. "She won't go anywhere without that gun of hers. I've told her she doesn't need it, but she's convinced that she's weak."

"Not too weak," Wade sighed. "She managed to kidnap a trained soldier with no trouble."

"Maybe she could do well hearing that from you," he said, smiling as he gazed at Wade. Wade blushed slightly and Donner, obviously realizing that he was staring, swung his head back to the computer.

Arturo, by now, had begun rummaging though the kitchen.

"Max," Quinn called to him. "Max, we don't know this person and I don't think it's smart to go searching through her kitchen."

"I can't help it, Mr. Mallory," Arturo called back. "I am absolutely famished!" There was a brief silence and then Arturo whispered something softly. "Hello... what have we here?" Max walked to Donner, holding something in his hand. "Mr. Donner, are you aware of your friend's mental state?"

"Her what?" he asked confused.

"Do you know if Jesse Bates suffers from any mental disorders?"

Donner frowned. "Jesse? No, she's always been fairly sane. At least until you were killed off." His eyebrows shot up as if he had a revelation. "You know, Professor, now that you mention it, she has been a little... unpredictable lately. Moody, impulsive... just... not her. You know?"

"That would explain this," Arturo sighed as he held up a prescription bottle in his hand. "It appears to be an antidepressant. I'm not going to bother you with the name, but it appears that the bottle has been emptied almost a full week before the refill date."

"You mean she's overdosed!?" Donner said in alarm.

Arturo nodded. "It appears that the death of my counterpart affected Miss Bates more than you or anyone else could have imagined," he explained. "She has taken more of these antidepressants than needed and had thus regressed into a deranged state of mind."

"Is she in any danger?" Wade asked.

"Not if she gets help," Arturo answered. "A more pressing concern at the moment is the safe return of Captain Beckett."

"I think I've got something," Donner announced as he opened an e-mail message. "It seems Jesse was a member of the Beckett Foundation. A kind of a Maggie Hate Club."

"Maggie Hate Club!?" Wade exclaimed in disbelief. "What a horrible thing!"

"You've got to remember, Wade. Here, you guys are nothing but TV characters. I don't think anybody would hate Maggie if they knew she was a real, live person and not just a sexpot on FOX," he explained. He then bit his lower lip, sorry that he'd even said it in the first place.

"It's still wrong to hate anyone. Real or imagined," Wade whispered.

Don said nothing. He just nodded, a little ashamed. "Well," he said, "you're not going to like this, but Jesse posted a story to the SLFIC list about her taking Maggie to an abandoned warehouse and holding her hostage until FOX agreed to bring back Sliders with the professor and to fire Maggie."

"You think that's what's happened?" Rembrandt asked.

"I wouldn't put it past her," he said, shrugging. "Problem is... I don't know which abandoned warehouse she could've gone to!"

"Are there really that many abandoned warehouses in the area?" Wade asked.

"Not really," Donner realized. "There are three in this area of town and about four more that I know of."

"Then let's get to it," Rembrandt said, clapping his hands together. "You hear us, Q-Ball?"

Quinn was transfixed on the television, watching his double being tied to the floor by an army of talking cockroaches.

"Q-Ball?"

"This is so stupid!" Quinn exclaimed. "My double must not have much of a career!"

-----

Maggie struggled, trying to free herself from the bonds. Jesse had left her alone for a few minutes, and Maggie was determined to get away. She estimated that she had been in the warehouse for about two and a half hours... only three or so hours left until the slide. "Damn," she whispered as the ropes pinched her wrists. Her mouth was going dry from the gag she was forced to wear. *There's no way I can get out of this,* she realized. *God, I hope the others can find me!*

Maggie swung her head to face the door when she heard someone enter. "Well," Jesse said as she walked into the warehouse, "are we having a good time... Maggie?" Jesse sarcastically stressed Maggie's name. Maggie could tell that Jesse wasn't buying her story about being a real slider.

"What's wrong?" Jesse asked with feigned concern. "Oh! I forgot... I put a gag on you, didn't I? Well, gosh darnet! Let me just take that off of you! You're not going to scream, are you?"

Maggie shook her head and Jesse took the gag off. "Listen to me," Maggie gasped, trying to get the cloth taste out of her mouth. "I am NOT this Kari Wuhrer person you keep saying I am! I am Maggie Beckett. I am a slider!"

"You will never be a slider!" Jesse screamed. "Don't ever say that you are a slider again!"

Maggie eyes narrowed into slits. "Who the hell do you think you are? What right do you have telling me that I will never be a slider!?"

"I HAVE EVERY RIGHT!!!" Maggie's captor screamed. She took a deep breath and continued, a little more composed. "I wrote letters to FOX after Sliders was canceled after the first season, I wrote letters to FOX to get Sliders renewed for a third season! I am a fan and I love Sliders! How did they repay my love? They killed the professor and put YOU on the show! I deserved more than that!" She stabbed at her chest wildly with one finger. "We deserved better than that! I wrote anyway to get Sliders renewed for a fourth season... do you know what the FOX people said?" Jesse began to cry. Tears where running down her face and her lower lip was quivering. "They said that there was no way Sliders was going to get renewed on their network! Now I'll never learn if Wade and Rembrandt got home or Quinn and... and... you wound up in the future, and it's driving me crazy!"

"I think you're already crazy!" Maggie took a deep breath of air, remembering that she had to reason with this person and not match wits with her. She spoke again, more softly this time. "If it will help, we didn't end up in the future. We ended up on a technologically sophisticated world along with Wade and Rembrandt because Rickman erased the coordinates to their home world," Maggie explained.

"You're just saying that!" Jesse yelled.

"It's the truth!" Maggie asserted.

Jesse jumped to her feet. "It's not real!"

"If it's not real, let me go," Maggie said softly. "It's not worth throwing your life away over a TV show."

Jesse sank onto the floor and sobbed softly. "It's... It's not just a TV show. Not to me."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Maggie asked, exasperated that she couldn't reach some kind of an understanding.

Jesse was silent for a few minutes. Maggie began to wonder if she was even going to answer her question. Then finally, she spoke. "I... I've had problems in the past. My mom and dad and my only brother were killed in a car accident a few years ago."

Maggie felt as though she had been slapped in the face. "I'm... sorry."

Jesse ignored Maggie's sympathy. "I got depressed and wanted to kill myself. And then, about that time, Sliders premiered. I know it sounds stupid, but through that hard time when I just wanted to kill myself and get it all over with... I couldn't because I wanted to see what was going to happen to Quinn, and Wade, and Rembrandt, and the professor and suddenly... I didn't hurt as much as I did. I met other people who loved Sliders as much as I did... I met my best friend. Then everything changed... FOX canceled Sliders and I fought to keep it alive, and we succeeded." Jesse took a deep breath and her expression turned sour. "And then you come along and ruin it! Do you have any idea what it's like to lose everyone you ever cared about... and then lose more people you care about just when you are starting to live again?"

"I know... exactly... how it feels," Maggie said softly.

"You can't!" Jesse retorted forcefully.

"I do!" Maggie asserted. She took a deep raspy breath and looked down to the floor. "My father died years ago. I... I worshiped that man. He was everything to me." A tear rolled down Maggie's face as she remembered. "And then he was gone. I was depressed and I hated myself just like you said..." she smiled a bit, "...then I met Steve. And now he's gone along with my friends and everyone else I ever cared about. I've lost an entire world full of people." Maggie sniffled a bit and then stared back at Jesse. "Look," she said softly, "just give the pain and the anger some time, and sooner or later you will beat it! I have nothing but sympathy for what you're going through and what you went through. God knows I know what it's like, but that still gives you no right to condemn me for who I am! You don't even know me!"

"I know you enough," Jesse said as she walked to the far side of the warehouse. "I know you enough."

Maggie struggled with her bonds. "What are you going to do with me?"

"I don't know yet," she called from the far end of the warehouse, "but rest assured, Miss Wuhrer, I'll think of something."

"It's not worth throwing your life away! For God's sake, I'm trying to help you!!!" Maggie screamed.

But it was too late. Jesse was gone.

-----

Donner and the sliders made their way to the next abandoned warehouse. The first three had been a total bust and they had wasted three hours in traffic. Quinn began to feel that the whole warehouse thing was a shot in the dark. But, it was the only shot they had.

Donner shook the warehouse door. "Locked," he announced to the others.

"Give me a boost," Wade said. Donner and Quinn lifted Wade up and she peered through the dingy glass windows. "I see someone!"

"Who?" Rembrandt asked hopefully. "Maggie?"

"Jesse?" Donner asked.

Wade was silent for a few minutes, then she spoke, "No... It looks like a..."

She fell to the ground in a thud as the door swung open, knocking Quinn and Donner back a few paces. As she looked up, a broad-shouldered bear of a man was standing at the door. Hands on his hips and none too amused.

"This is private property," the man announced in a low and threatening voice. "I ougtta call the cops on the lot of you!"

Quinn took a few steps foreword, still remaining a ways away from the large man. "We... uh... we're sorry," he said. "We didn't think anyone was here."

"He's telling the truth," Arturo said, helping Wade to her feet. "We were not here to vandalize your property, sir."

The man squinted one eye at Arturo. "Do I know you?"

Max's face lit up as he devised a plan to get out of their predicament. "You might, sir. I am John Ryhs-Davidson of the television show Sliders."

The man shook his head. "Never heard of it. But I do recognize you." The man rubbed his chin and then snapped his fingers. "You're the guy on 'King Solomon's Mine!'"

"I... beg your pardon?" Arturo asked, confused.

"King Solomon's Mine!'" the man repeated in an enthused voice. "It's a classic!" The man then did a bad impression. "De record player is an old Turkish invention!"

Quinn, Rembrandt, Wade, and Donner exchanged uncomfortable glances as the man broke out into a fit of laughter.

"Yes," Arturo said, suppressing his disdain for the idiot that stood before him. "Well, it was a long time ago."

"Could I have your autograph?" the man asked, pulling an oily piece of paper and a pen from his shirt pocket.

Arturo grunted. "Well, if you promise not to tell a soul we were here."

The man nodded. "I promise!"

Arturo scribbled 'John Reese-Davidson' across the paper and handed the man back his pen. "Thank you, sir," he said as he and the sliders ran back to the awaiting cab.

"Thank YOU!" the man said as he turned and walked back into the warehouse, undoubtedly savoring his encounter with the famous actor, star of 'King Solomon's Mine,' John Reese-Davidson.

-----

Arturo slammed the door. "Blistering idiot," he mumbled as the cab began to roll.

"Where to now?" the cab driver asked. "Another one of San Francisco's fabulous abandoned warehouses?"

"Yeah," Donner answered, "and step on it!"

"Can I ask you a question?" the cabby asked after a few silent minutes. "What are a bunch of stars like yourselves doing driving around in a stinking cab like this and messing around a bunch of dirty warehouses?"

"We're scouting for..." Quinn searched for the word, "locations."

"Locations?" the cab driver repeated. "For what? Sliders?"

Quinn nodded. "Yeah, for Sliders!"

"But, I thought Sliders was canceled," the cabby said casually.

Quinn went silent, so Rembrandt decided to rescue him. "It was. We're just... working on an independent production... of Sliders."

"Interesting," the cabby said. "I think it's great that you guys are going back and fixing the show after FOX went and changed it into a cheap X-Files clone. And I'm also glad you're back, Mr. Davies. Don't get me wrong, I liked that Maggie girl. Great assets, know what I mean?" The cab driver broke into a fit of laughter at his crude joke. "Is she coming back too?"

"Hopefully," Wade said, smiling.

The cab driver glanced at Wade through the rear-view mirror. "She in other projects? Tied up with something else?"

Quinn leaned against the window. "Something like that."

The cab driver turned and faced foreword as another car honked at him. Then, deciding that paying attention to the traffic was more important than chatting with his famous passengers, he proceeded to shout various, four-letter words at the other cars on the road.

"This is taking too long!" Rembrandt said in a low voice. "We've got to narrow it down or else we'll never find Maggie before we slide."

"Agreed," Max answered, nodding. "Mr. Donner, can you give us any more clues from that piece of garbage your friend wrote?"

"I'll read over it again and see," he said as he pulled a printed copy of Jesse's SLFIC story from his back pocket. Donner unfolded it and began to read aloud, "I took the silicon based life-form to an abandoned warehouse and tied her to a chair. She squirmed like a worm in the beak of a crow, but was unable to use any of her so-called military expertise to escape."

"Like a worm in the beak of a crow?" Arturo repeated.

"I never said Jesse was much of a writer," Donner said. He cleared his throat and continued, "She pleaded with me to be released, but her cries fell on deaf ears. I slapped her a few times to erase that smug, superior look off her face and took satisfaction when she began to weep."

"That's horrible!" Wade said with a sour look on her face.

Donner continued to read, "Oh look, I had an audience now! I noticed as I looked up and saw several white birds perch in the frame of a broken window. Obviously, they are here to see..."

"Several white birds?" Quinn repeated. "Seagulls maybe?"

"Your right, Q-Ball," Rembrandt said, snapping his fingers. "Maybe they're in a warehouse by the ocean!"

"Look, even if we're on the right track with this story thing, which I'm not entirely sure we are... there are dozens of warehouses by the ocean!" Wade sighed.

"True," Donner said with a smirk, "but only one with a talking car!"

"A talking... what!?" Rembrandt said on the verge of hysterics. "We're not looking for someone from the cast of Knight Rider here!"

"No, no! Let me explain!" he said, shaking his head. He put the story on the seat and reached into his pocket. After a few seconds of searching, he pulled out the small, gray, rectangular keychain. "This is what I'm talking about."

"Yes! Of course THAT'S IT!!!" Arturo boomed. "What is it?" he added sarcastically.

"It's the trigger for my car alarm," Donner explained. "I've got a Bulldog system on my car. A talking alarm."

"I see where you're going with this, Don," Quinn said, sitting up in his seat. "We drive around the warehouses by the ocean with that car alarm thing there and you keep pressing the button until we hear your car alarm go off!"

"Exactly," he concurred. "Driver, do you know of any warehouses by the ocean that are abandoned?"

"Do I?" the cab driver answered. "Hell, I used to work over by the docks in a warehouse before they shut a bunch of 'em down!"

"Then take us to 'em!" Donner said, smiling. "As fast as you can!"

The driver took a quick turn that sent the un-seatbelted passengers flopping to one side of the cab. Donner looked down and noticed his hand was on Wade's thigh.

"Oh GOD!!!" he said as he pulled his hand back. "I am so sorry!"

Wade almost laughed at Donner's expression. She'd never had anyone have a crush on her before. Well, not recently.  It was kind of fun. "It's okay. Simple mistake."

Quinn leaned over and whispered in Wade's ear. "You like him or something?"

She turned to him and hysterically said, "I do not!" She looked around at the other passengers in the cab uncomfortably and then began whispering to him. "He's got a crush on me, but that's all." She then gave him a wicked look. "Are you jealous or something?"

"No!" Quinn said casually as he leaned back in his seat.

*Sure you're not,* Wade said to herself.

There was a moment of awkward silence. The only sound was the hum of the cab's engine and the low growl of Arturo's stomach.

Donner cleared his throat and picked up Jesse's story from the floorboard. "Quinn," he said shakily, trying to change the subject, "about the last part of this story..."

"What about it?" Quinn asked quizzically.

Donner raised an eyebrow as he read it again. "I think you ougtta know what happens." He paused and looked at him squarely. "Just in case."

-----

"You honestly expect me to believe that!?" Jesse huffed. "You were a tramp in 'The Breeder,' 'Slither,' and 'This Slide of Paradise' because..." she shook her head in disbelief and smiled, "...Rickman experimented on you?"

"Believe it because it's true," Maggie said softly. Through her calm demeanor, hate still burned in her eyes. "He injected something into my brain to try to find a cure for his disease... and by doing that he... he changed me."

Jesse stood up and kicked the chair she had been sitting in. "Bullshit! The producers would've given us some kind of a clue that something was wrong!"

"The same producers you think are idiots because I was brought on?" Maggie rebutted.

Jesse ran to the car and pulled the gun out of the front seat. She pointed it directly at Maggie's head, her hand shaking uncontrollably. "DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT!!!" Jesse took several deep breaths as though she was having trouble concentrating.

"Are you okay?" Maggie asked.

Jesse pointed the gun at her again. "You're the one you need to be worried about, dear!"

Maggie stayed calm. She thought back to her long hours of training and how to negotiate with terrorists. "You look like you are ill," she said finally. "If you put that gun down and untie me, I will take you to a hospital or wherever you want. Please, let me help."

"I said I'm fine!" Jesse yelled, still holding the gun at Maggie. "I should just kill you now to shut you up!"

Jesse took a few forced steps towards her captive, holding the gun up to her forehead. Maggie shut her eyes and took a deep breath. "Please..." she whispered, "don't throw your life away because of a TV show."

Jesse began to cry. She took a few steps back and finally threw the gun onto the floor, well out of Maggie's reach. "It's not working like it should!"

"What's not working!?" Maggie asked after she opened her eyes and made sure that she no longer had a gun to her forehead.

"ANYTHING!!!" Jesse screamed. "He should be here by now! I should be with him!"

Maggie was at a loss. "Who!?"

Jesse took more deep breaths and then snatched the gun off of the floor. She aimed at Maggie again, then she seemed to change her mind and lowered the weapon. Her face contorted and she held it up again.

Maggie shut her eyes. *So much for hostage negotiations,* she thought, and then waited for the worst.

But instead of the worst, the unexpected happened.

The red Ford Mustang began to cry for help.

-----

"That's it! I hear it!" Donner exclaimed as he hung out the window. "It's coming from that warehouse over there!"

"I hear it too!" Rembrandt yelled.

Donner got out and paid the cabby a handsome sum of money, and then he and Wade joined the other sliders who were already running for the faint cry for help. "A talking car alarm?" Wade asked, grinning.

"Yeah," Donner said, breathing heavily. "I saw it in Radio Shack and I just had to get it."

"What's it supposed to be saying?" Wade asked.

-----

"PLEASE HELP ME!!! PLEASE HELP ME!!!" the car alarm screeched over and over again in a strange, metallic, female voice. Jesse ran to the car and threw herself on the hood, trying in vain to silence the noise. Finally, she popped the hood and disconnected the battery. "PLEEEEEEEEEEEESSSssssseeeeee hhheeeeeeeelllllllllllll..." the car managed to blurt out one last time before the voice finally died.

Jesse held up the gun and walked over to Maggie again. "What did you do!?" she demanded. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

"I didn't do anything!" Maggie argued.

Jesse didn't even bother to say anything. She just pointed the gun and smiled wildly.

"Jesse stop!!!" Donner yelled from the doorway.

"Donner!" Jesse yelled in surprise. "W-What are you doing here!?"

He took a few cautious steps in. Wade, Rembrandt, Arturo, and Quinn stayed outside. "Jesse, listen to me... put the gun down."

The smile disappeared from Jesse's face. She began shaking her head wildly. "No!" she shrieked. "No! This... This is our chance to do it! I mean, really do it! We can get rid of her, Don! We can save Sliders together."

"We can't save Sliders like this!" he said softly. "Jesse, Sliders is gone."

"Don't say that," Jesse said fiercely.

"It's gone, Jess!"

"DON'T SAY THAT!!!" Jesse screamed, pointing the gun at Donner.

Donner took a short gasp of air and put his hands up. "So, are you going to shoot me, Jesse?" His voice was calm but he was visibly shaking as he wasn't used to having a weapon pointed at him. "Does Sliders mean that much to you?"

"I..." Jesse's face contorted under a rage of emotion. "I... don't..."

"Jesse," a sweet female voice called out. It was Wade and she was slowly walking into the warehouse. Calmly, with a demeanor that surprised Donner even though he had been watching her slide in and out of dangerous situations for three years, she stood in front of him, between him and Jesse. "Jesse, don't hurt anyone."

"Sabrina Lloyd?" Jesse gasped backing away towards Maggie.

Wade smiled and shook her head. "Wade Wells actually. That's Maggie Beckett, and Rembrandt and Professor Arturo are over there."

Jesse peered over Donner and Wade's heads and took a long, deep breath as she saw Max standing there at the door.

"He's alive?" Jesse said in awe.

"Yes!" Maggie said. "Professor Arturo is back... Isn't that what you wanted!?"

Jesse grinned. "Yes!" she said with satisfaction. "Now if I get rid of you, everything will be back to the way it was!"

Jesse pointed the gun straight at Maggie's head and put her finger to the trigger.

"NO!" Wade, Donner, Rembrandt, and Arturo yelled simultaneously.

"Why!?" Jesse demanded. "What the hell use could you have for this tramp!?"

"She's my friend!" Wade blurted.

Jesse and Maggie responded to that statement at the same time both in shock and disbelief. Maggie responded with, "I am?" Jesse responded with, "She is?" Put together it sounded something like, "Shy ims?"

"Yes!" Wade said hopefully. "Maggie may be a little rough around the edges, and yes, we do fight sometimes, but she's my friend and I don't want to see anything happen to her!"

Jesse regarded this for a minute and then took on a look of rage. "It's a trick!"

"Jesse, I--" Donner began, but was cut short when Jesse grabbed Maggie by the neck and put the gun to her temple. He took a deep breath and continued. "Jesse, you are holding a gun to the head of a living, breathing human being, not a character on a TV show." He took a step forward and held his hand out. "I know about the pills. Please, you need help." He raised one hand towards her in friendship. "Will you let me help you?"

Jesse stared at him, unblinking.

"Please," he begged. His eyes were quivering as if he was doing all he could to keep tears from forming.

Jesse's bottom lip was quivering. "I... don't... know what's... what's real anymore!"

"None of us do, Miss Bates," Arturo said softly. "That's part of life."

"Jesse!" a voice called out from the far end of the warehouse. It was Quinn and he was standing there without a shirt on. "I've come for you."

"I knew it!" Jesse sobbed as she released Maggie. "I knew you'd come." She began taking irregular steps toward him, each one a little more forced than the next.

"What the hell's going on?" Rembrandt whispered as Jesse stumbled towards Quinn.

Donner smiled slightly. "This was the end of Jesse's story," he explained. "Quinn comes to the warehouse to save Maggie, but sees Jesse and falls in love with her."

"Good lord," Arturo whispered, a little amused.

Jesse dropped the gun to the floor as she neared Quinn. "Have you come to save Maggie, Quinn?"

"I did," Quinn said, remembering his lines from Jesse's story. "But I don't need her anymore. Not after seeing a picture of beauty like you. I love you, Jesse Bates."

Donner and Wade, in the meantime, had untied Maggie and all were watching this bizarre story play out.

"I love you too..." Jesse sighed. "Quinn..." With that final word, Jesse collapsed into his arms. Either it was the adrenaline wearing off that had been keeping her going for the last six hours, or the shock of being so close to a real life incarnation of a heartthrob that she worshipped. Whatever it was, her body just stopped.

Quinn gently put her down on the dusty wooden floor and then walked over to his companions. "Are you okay?" he asked Maggie.

Maggie nodded as she rubbed her wrists. "I'm fine..." she said.

"A picture of beauty like you?" Wade repeated Quinn's words.

Quinn shrugged and smiled. He pulled his shirt back over his shoulders and laughed. "I didn't write it, I just read it."

"Thank you all," Maggie said. "Especially you, Wade. I really appreciate what you said about me, and I promise I'll stop being as big a pain in the ass as I usually am."

"We can only hope," Wade chuckled. "But don't thank me totally, it was Donner who helped us find you." Wade turned to introduce him to Maggie but he wasn't there. She finally spotted him kneeling by Jesse with Arturo.

"Is she okay?" Donner asked, finally allowing the tear to roll down his face.

Arturo smiled as he finished taking her pulse. "She's fine, Mr. Donner," he whispered as if he was afraid of waking her up. "She's asleep. The pills have been keeping her body at peak performance for the last six hours. I suppose they are now wearing off and she's simply collapsed from exhaustion."

Donner took Jesse's hand and squeezed it. "It's okay, Jess.... I'm going to get you some help. I promise."

Maggie walked over to them. Donner looked up at Maggie and with mock ferocity.  He stood up and faced her. "Don't!" he said forcefully. "Don't hurt her. She didn't know what she was doing."

Maggie shook her head and smiled. "I'm not going to hurt her. I knew she was suffering from some kind of disorder or overdose, that's why I didn't neutralize her while I had the chance."

"Chance?" Donner asked weakly.

"When she grabbed my neck and held the gun to my head," she explained, "all I had to do was hit her face with the back of my head and force the bones in her nose into her cerebellum. She would've been dead before she hit the floor."

"Oh..." Donner said, raising his eyebrows. He scratched the back of his head and cleared his throat. "Thank you?"

Maggie smiled. "You're welcome."

"What are you going to do now?" Rembrandt asked.

Donner shrugged. "I don't know. I'm going to get her some help... that much I do know. I don't know how or where, but she's going to get it. I'll make sure of that."

"She's very lucky..." Wade whispered.

"You're telling me," Donner chuckled as he picked her up and started towards his car. "She's lucky Maggie didn't kill her!"

"Actually," Wade said, smiling, "I was going to say that she's lucky to have a friend like you."

"Oh," he said, blushing. "Thanks."

"Now," Arturo sighed, "I don't suppose any of you would mind if we find a restaurant. Hell, as hungry as I am, I would settle for one of those monstrosities McDonald's passes off as food."

Quinn snapped to attention when the timer beeped in his back pocket. "No time!" he announced as he pointed the device to the floor and activated the vortex. Instantly, the ground where Jesse had fainted became a large, blue hole in the ground.

Arturo's expression was one of defeat as the wormhole formed. Finally, he turned to give his regards to those who would not be coming along. "Good-bye, Mr. Donner," Arturo said, patting him on the shoulder. "I hope you get your friend the help she needs."

"Thank you, Professor," Donner said as he pulled a candy bar out of his car and threw it to him.

He smiled broadly. "Please," Arturo said, running towards the vortex, "Call me Max!!!" And with a flash, he was gone.

Rembrandt and Donner exchanged handshakes. "Be cool, Crying Man!"

"Always have, always will!" he yelled as he followed Arturo into the wormhole.

Quinn shook Donner's hand after Rembrandt. "So long, Don."

"See you around, Q-Ball," he said, taking special delight in using Rembrandt's nickname. "Hey, I'm trying to make it as an actor... Maybe you and I will be teamed up in some incarnation or another someday."

"Maybe the sixth slider?" Quinn suggested.

Donner grinned. "Perhaps..."

Maggie began walking towards the wormhole without saying good-bye. "Captain Beckett," Donner yelled. "If it's any consolation to you, I think you are a fine slider. I really mean that too."

Maggie walked over to Donner hugged his neck and then, without saying a word, jumped into the wormhole. Quinn shrugged, saluted, and then jumped in after her.

"I, uh... I must seem like an idiot to you," Donner said as Wade came over to say her good-bye.

"No," she laughed, "I kind of like having a hopeless romantic admiring me."

"I just wish Sliders was still on here," Donner sighed. "I mean, I'm never going to know what happens to you guys from here on out."

"You're more than welcome to come with us," Wade suggested. "Become the sixth slider now."

Donner's eyes widened as he contemplated actually becoming a slider, but as usual, reality set in. "I can't... I have a friend who needs me."

"Somehow, I knew you where going to say that," Wade said as she kissed him on the cheek.

"You're, uh... going to miss your wormhole," Donner whispered.

Wade nodded and walked towards the vortex

"Wade," he called out after her. "If you're ever in this universe again... could you maybe... drop in and say hi?"

Wade smiled and nodded. "I wouldn't think of doing anything else! Good-bye!" And then, with a leap and a flash, she was gone. A few seconds later, with a strange sucking sound, the vortex closed.

Donner touched his cheek and sighed, "I'm never washing this face again."

-----

Wade skipped out of the vortex into Quinn's arms. It was the only thing that kept her from crashing to the floor. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to make it!" Quinn chuckled.

"You've got to admit, Quinn," she said as the vortex shut behind her leaving them in an abandoned alley, "that was one amazing world. If we're ever low on cash, we could always go back and do a convention or something!"

"Not me," Maggie sighed, shaking her head. "I don't think I was very welcome in that world."

"You'll always be welcome in ours, Captain," Rembrandt said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks, Rembrandt," she answered.

The sliders walked onto the sidewalk and past what appeared to be a large museum. "I recognize this place," Arturo said in awe. "This museum has been closed for ages."

"Looks like it's doing fairly well here," Maggie said as they observed an elderly gentlemen with an eyepatch sitting on the front steps with a large group of children. He smiled every now and then and the children would chuckle at the things he said. "That guy must be a curator or something."

The old man said something and the group of children began laughing out loud. After a few seconds, the group dispersed and the children ran into the museum. The old man with the eyepatch smiled slightly to himself, and then - with a bit of difficulty - he stood up and walked slowly down the large step and past the sliders.

But when he passed Arturo, he stopped and stared.

Max realized that the old man was staring and finally asked, "Can I help you, sir?"

"Do... Do I know you?" the old man inquired.

"I'm sorry, sir," Arturo said, smiling and continuing on his way. "I'm afraid you do not."

The sliders made their way down the street and the old man watched them go. He stood there until a young girl, one of the children he had been telling stories to, skipped to his side. "The rest of the class is wanting you to go through the exhibits with us."

He stood there, watching the sliders disappear from sight. "Julia," he whispered, "I could have sworn I knew whom that man was."

Julia looked at him in confusion. "Maybe he just looks like someone you met during one of your adventures, Dr. Jones."

Dr. Indiana Jones smiled back at her. "Yes... I'm sure that's it."

-----

Donner sat in his apartment typing away on his computer when he heard his doorbell ring. It had been a few days since his encounter with Wade and the Sliders, and he still wasn't sure if any of it had actually happened. The only proof he had was that his best friend was in a hospital. He sighed, typed a few more lines, and then got up and answered the door.

"Jesse!" he exclaimed as she jumped up and hugged him. "Wha... What are you doing here?"

"I got out of the hospital a few hours ago and I thought I'd come over here and say thanks for coming after me," she explained. "It turns out that the pills in that bottle were way over the dosage I was supposed to taking." She paused. "Do you know what this means!?"

"You'rrrrrrrrrrrre... going to sue the pharmacy?" Donner suggested.

"Besides that."

He shrugged.

"I'm not a junkie!" she answered. "I beat it! I beat the depression and everything!" She paused for a minute and then jumped up and down. "I won! Just like Maggie said I would!"

Donner smirked. "Am I hearing this correctly? You are actually giving Maggie credit for something?"

"Yes!" she said as if she was a little annoyed. "She was actually a lot nicer and more professional than I expected. I guess we never really saw the real Maggie on Sliders." She plopped down in a chair. "You know, she mentioned to me that the reason why she was such a slut was because Rickman was experimenting on her."

Donner nodded without really understanding. "Do you know that Logan St. Clair is now the bionic woman?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know, I forgot to ask..." He shrugged his shoulders and continued writing.

She pulled her chair to his computer. "So, what's been happening here?"

"Oh, Captain Kirk and a landing party beamed in and borrowed a cup of sugar. It was great... too bad you missed it," Donner replied deadpan.

Jesse laughed. It was good to hear her laugh again. "I, uh... I didn't tell anyone about the sliders," she finally added softly.

"Good!" he said, twirling around to face her. "We can't tell anyone! Ever! People will think we're...um..." He paused.

"Nuts?" Jesse asked.

He nodded. "Exactly!"

"What are you writing?" she asked, staring at the computer. "If Maggie should have learned anything from sliding, it was never ever jump into the vortex first. However, a natural soldier, she always was the first to leap in so that she would be the first to face whatever dangers that awaited on the other side. Unfortunately, being first through also meant that the other sliders would be falling on top of you at any second," she whispered, reading Donner's words. "What is this?"

"I'm writing about the little adventure we had. I mean, I couldn't just keep it between you and me," he explained. "Don't worry, I'm changing our names and a few details so it will just look like a regular fanfic." He hit the save button and turned to her. "I guess you heard about Sliders being picked up by the Sci-Fi Channel?"

"Yeah! Twenty-two new episodes starting next summer!" Jesse said, smiling. "Isn't that great?"

"A couple of weeks ago, I would've said yes, but now..." he hesitated a bit. "Will the fourth season bring back Professor Arturo? Will Maggie and Arturo be sliding together on the TV show like we saw here, or will the show skew off and take a completely different path?" He stopped and stared at Jesse. "Is this making any sense?"

"No," Jesse answered. "But that's okay. I got a better question for you."

"What?"

"If the television show does, as you say, skew from the sliders we saw, where are you going to post a story about Maggie and Arturo sliding together?"

Donner smiled. "I'm glad you asked." He leaned foreword and whispered, "Have you ever heard of something called Infinite Slides?"
 

THE END