The bluish green wormhole opened and deposited four figures from it.  "Do these slides ever get any smoother?"  Rembrandt said.  "After almost five years, you'd think you'd be use to it Remmy." Maggie replied.  "How long are we here, Quinn" Quinn Mallory raised the timer to read the readout and spoke, "Two weeks and change."  "Maybe it'll be an uneventful world," Colin said.  "I doubt it.  Take a look at that!" Rembrandt said.  The four figures raised their heads to the sky to see a battalion of Manta Ships.  "Damn Maggs are everywhere!  Everyone knows the drill.  Run for it!" Quinn said.  The four figures begin to run away, but are suddenly met by a battalion of Kromaggs.  Maggie leaps forth to try to grab a gun, but is immediately gunned down by two other Maggs.  "Maggie!" Quinn screamed. "They . . . killed her!" Colin was in a state of shock.  Quinn held up his hands and spoke, "We surrender."  Remmy leapt forward and hit a Kromagg, "Like hell we do Q-Ball!"  Rembrandt is struck from behind by Colin's fist and he falls to the ground.  "Colin!"  "What's the matter Quinn?  Did you actually think I was your brother?  I'm with them.  I have been from the start."  Colin's form suddenly shifted to that of a Kromagg.  "And now I get to deliver the coup de gras to the biggest threat to the Kromagg Dynasty ever."  Kromagg Colin raises a gun and fires as Quinn screams, "NOOOOOOO!!!!"

 "I think he's moving."  Quinn heard voices.  They seemed familiar.  "Quick, go get the others."  Quinn's eyes began to flutter.  He was slowly able to see people standing above him.  "Thank God.  He's coming out of it."  Quinn's eyes finally focused and he saw Wade, Rembrandt and the Professor standing over him.  It looked like he was in a hospital.  "It's good to see you awake Mr. Mallory," Arturo said.  "Something's not right here." Quinn said groggily.  You can't be here.  Same for you Wade.  Rembrandt, your mustache?  When did you grow it back?"  Remmy looked at Quinn Strangely, "Q-Ball, you know as well as I do that nothing would ever make me shave my stache."  "What do you mean Miss Wells and myself shouldn't be here?"  It hit Quinn, these must have been a group of doubles that had mistaken him for their Quinn.  "I'm not your Quinn."  "That's preposterous my dear lad.  You've been sliding with us for almost a year and a half."  Quinn tried to shake his head, "I've been sliding for almost five years.  My Arturo died and my Wade was kidnaped by the Kromaggs."  Remmy tried not to laugh and spoke, "You mean these guys Q-Ball?"  He pointed to a tv with a show playing. [Captain.  The Kromaggs are closing in on us.  (Cut to the Kromagg ship) The Alliance fleet will not escape us now Kolitar.]
Quinn was very confused.  He just looked at the others and spoke, "Leave me alone.  I'm not your Quinn.  My sliders are dead.  The Maggs killed them.  Maggie, Rembrandt and Colin turned out to be a Kromagg himself."  Arturo looked at the others and spoke, "Let's leave him be for now.  He seems to be in a very confused state.  Of course being in a coma for three months will do that to a person."  The three of them left the room and a nurse entered.  Quinn looked up and it was Maggie.

 "Maggie!" he screamed.  "It's good to see you awake Mr. Mallory.  Your friends have been very worried about you and so have your mother and brother."  "Maggie, it's me Quinn."  "Right, you're Quinn Mallory.  You've been in a coma for three months.  I'm Maggie Beckett.  I've been your nurse.  Strange, how did you know my name you haven't regained consciousness since they brought you here.  Maybe people can hear things when they're in a coma."  She didn't know him.  Of course she wouldn't Maggie was dead.  This must be her double.  "Try to get comfortable Quinn. The doctor will be here shortly to run some tests on you."  She left the room and Quinn began to think, "Is this a Kromagg trick?  What's going on here?"

 Quinn was lying in bed when the doctor entered.  "Well Mr. Mallory, I see you've finally rejoined us."  "And you are?"  "Dr. Steven Jensen.  I'm in charge of your case.  Everything is looking good.  If your recovery keeps up we might be able to let you go home in a week or two."  Steven Jensen, Maggie's husband.  It gets weirder by the minute.

 Quinn couldn't sleep. He didn't understand what had happened.  He looked at the calendar next to the bed and nearly freaked.  It said it was August 13, 1995.  That couldn't be right?  Maybe it was a world where time moved slower, like the one where they'd met his younger self.  Or maybe, something was really screwed up here.

 Wade walked into his room and sat down in a chair.  She thought he was asleep, but he was just lying there.  He took a good look at her and realized something.  Her hair it was brown.  The last time he'd seen her it was red.  She has to be a double, it was the only thing that made sense.  Of course part of him didn't want her to be a double.  He missed Wade terribly.  Truth be told, he had made a silent vow that if he ever did find her he'd propose right then and there.  So much had happened though.  Finding out he was from another universe and had a brother and the Kromaggs and everything.  It really screwed things up.  Wait a second.  I'm from another universe?  My parents just happen to drop me off on a world where their doubles didn't have a Quinn Mallory.  Why wouldn't Mom have said something when I slid back the last time?  Something isn't right here.

 Quinn sat up and spoke, "Wade, I need to know some things."  She was startled.  "I thought you were asleep.  What is it?  Still think we're doubles?"  "I don't know.  What happened?  How did I get here?"  "You don't remember lottery world?"  "Where you won the lottery and they were going to kill you."  "Right.  You were shot right before you leapt into the vortex.  You lost a lot of blood.  When we finally got you here you were in a coma.  It's been three months and everyday I've sat here and waited fro you to wake up."  "But Wade.  I didn't slip into a coma.  Ryan removed the bullet and we slid to Sorcerer world."  "What's that?" she replied with a look of confusion.  "Where we met my double who was running things as the Sorcerer?"  "Quinn we didn't slide from this world.  This is the same world we landed on after lottery world."  "That can't be right.  Can it?"  "Quinn . . . you were in a coma.  We weren't going to leave you here.  I wasn't going to leave you here."  "Where are we then?  Is it home?  No, it can't be, Maggie said I had a brother."  "Oh her."  "What?"  "We never have seen eye to eye on you.  She thought I was wasting too much time waiting for you to come out of this."  Stranger and stranger.  "But this isn't home.  The Golden Gate Bridge is blue and you have a brother, Colin.  As far as we can tell, the Quinn of this world slid at about the same time we did and took this worlds Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo with him.  So, we've kind of borrowed their lives.  I mean my folks and yours know the truth, but as far as the rest of the world is concerned we belong here."  "So here comes the big question.  When do we slide?"  Wade turned away from him.  "Wade?  When do we slide?"  "It's not that easy Quinn.  We only had a week here.  We all decided we'd miss the slide if you didn't come out of it and when you did, try to use the timer with this Quinn's equipment, but something happened."  "What happened?"  "Ryan stole the timer and slid without us.  He tried to get me to go with him, but I told him I wouldn't leave you, that . . . oh crap.  I told him I loved you.  So he stole the timer and slid out.  Quinn.  We're stuck here."  Quinn just laid back down in the bed.  This wasn't getting any better was it.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Quinn was trying to rest.  His mind was flooded with the revelations of the last few days.  He had been in a coma for three months.  During that time, his coma induced mind had fabricated almost four years worth of memories.  Which the more he thought about it, the happier that made him.  The way things had been going in his "coma-life" were inconsistent and without meaning.  Quinn assumed if he hadn't come out of his coma that in his "coma-life" he would have merged with a double of himself that didn't look anything like him  and taken to using the name Mallory.  Nah, that was even too crazy for  a dream.  No, the truth was none of it had been real.  And as unbelievable as that had been at first, it all made perfect sense the more Quinn thought about it.  The worlds he and the others had began landing on had seemed like nothing more than bad rip-offs of movies, Quinn could only assume that after a certain amount of time his mind just ran out of ideas.

"Quinn!"  A voice screamed out.  Quinn raised his head to see "his mother" and someone who slightly resembled him, he could only assume this was "his" brother Colin.  Quinn laughed a little.  He almost expected Colin to look exactly like he did in the "coma-life", but he didn't.  As a matter of  fact, the only person who shared a name with someone from the "coma-life" that looked anything like the person from the "coma-life" was Maggie.  Quinn could only assume that was due to Wade going on and on about  how much she hated Nurse Beckett and pointing out everything she hated about her.  Right down to her physical attributes.

Quinn's "mother" and "brother" entered the room.  She threw her arms around Quinn and spoke, "I'm so glad you're awake!"  Quinn knew this was only a double of his mother, but it felt good to actually be able to hug his mother again.  He spoke, "You know I'm not-"  Colin cut him off, "Our Quinn.  Yeah, doesn't really matter though.  It's nice to have you back around."  "Besides," Quinn's mother replied, "if I wasn't this emotional, don't you think the people in the hospital might think something was wrong.  Especially after the fit I threw in the beginning."  Quinn was puzzled, "I thought the others told you we were sliders?"  "They did, but not before I found out you were here.  I assumed you were "my Quinn".  It wasn't until after I visited you that Professor Arturo set me straight."  "Anyway, I've been working in the basement with Professor Arturo.  We've been trying to build you guys a new timer, but we haven't had much luck.  Hopefully when you get out you'll be able to figure it out."  Colin said.  "So you're into physics?" Quinn asked.  "A little.  Truth be told, I wanted to go with Quinn on his first slide, but I was  out of town when he slid.  I guess it's a good thing.  I'd hate for both of us to have become lost out there.  I don't think she could have handled it."  "Quinn, I just want you to know that you can stay with us as long as you have to.  If worse comes to worse,  when my Quinn finds his way home, you  can use his timer to slide."  Quinn replied, "Thank you."
 

The days turned into weeks and Quinn was finally released from the hospital.  He and Arturo began  trying to rebuild the timer.  But it just wasn't working.  Quinn had created sliding by fluke the first time, it was a different story here.  Quinn was becoming frustrated, as were the others.  They had settled into their doubles lives, but this wasn't home.

Quinn was on the porch of the Mallory home.  Wade walked up behind him and spoke, "Penny for your thoughts."  Quinn turned around and spoke, "It's a lot of things."  For the first time since he had awakened from his coma, Quinn took a good look at Wade.  She was beautiful.  How could he have been so blind to that.  And he loved her.  He had been hiding  that since they had kissed on that world they thought was going to end.  At that moment  nothing else mattered.  "Wade, I love you."  "What-?"  "Marry me Wade."  "Quinn . . . what . . .?"  "Wade, I love you.  I don't want to lose you.  I could have died form that gunshot, or you could have left with Ryan or worse yet, you could have been abducted by killer apes from a parallel dimension ,altered and used for breeding purposes."  "Quinn . . . "   "No, listen.  I won't lose you.  I want to spend my life with you.  I'm going to get us home and then I want to spend the rest of my life by your side, so will you marry me?"  "Quinn . . . as I've been trying to say for the last five minutes . . . YES! YES! YES! I will marry you."  The two kissed and all seemed right with the world, well except for the fact it wasn't their world.

"Ahem," Quinn broke from the embrace to see Professor Arturo standing  on the porch.  "Sorry to interrupt you two."  "Quinn just asked me to marry him, Professor!"  Arturo was somewhat taken aback.  He smiled and spoke, "That's wonderful and I suppose what I'm about to show you will only make it better.  If the two of you would accompany me to the basement."

The three sliders walked down to the basement, what they saw was nearly overwhelming.  In the basement were doubles of Quinn, Wade, Arturo and Rembrandt.  And off to the side sat Rembrandt talking to another Quinn!  Rembrandt saw Quinn and the others and spoke, "Hey Q-Ball! You will never believe who this guy is!"  The smile on Remmy's face wasn't even a hint to the surprise Quinn was about to get.  The double spoke, "Didn't I tell you not to mess with the timer before your time is up.  It corrupts the program and you wander aimlessly."  Quinn's eyes grew large, "You.  You gave me the-" "Equation," his double finished, "And I've been looking for you almost ever since.  I slid back to your world after I figured out how to control the slid and found out from Bennish of all people that you'd been missing for about two months.  I've been looking for you ever since and along the way helping out he other nomads." He pointed at the doubles in the basement, "These guys are finally home."

Colin and his mother descended into the basement.  They ran to their Quinn and the three embraced.  Wade was talking to her double explaining everything that had happened . Arturo and his double were discussing  different worlds they had visited and both Rembrandts were singing a duet on "Cry Like A Man".

Time passed.  Smarter-Quinn gathered our sliders up and spoke, "You guys ready to go home?"  "Of course, me and Quinn are getting married," Wade said.  "I knew it would work," Smarter-Quinn said.  "What was that?" Quinn replied.  "I gave Wade that kiss back when I visited your world to get the ball rolling for you."  "Huh?" Quinn replied.  "Remember  I'm married."  Quinn face was puzzled,"Yeah"  "Who did you think I was married to?  As a matter of fact, we've got a child on the way, so let's get you guys home."

The sliders returned home.  Quinn and Wade were married three months later.  They now have two kids.  Quinn and Arturo worked all the bugs out of sliding and became filthy rich.  Both received the Nobel Prize for the advancements sliding was responsible for.  Beyond that, Arturo invested his time to his theories and helping Quinn make advancement after advancement in the quantum physics field.  He and Rembrandt were made "Godfathers" to Quinn and Wade's children. Rembrandt had an incredible comeback.  He recorded over 36 albums all of which topped the charts.  He became the biggest thing since Elvis, The Cryin Man had returned.
 

And they all lived happily ever after, because as we all know this is the only way we fans want it to end.

THE END