A/N: When Madison and Ziggy are speaking internally, the voice of the dominant personality will be normal type and the voice of the subordinate personality will be italicized. I will do my best not to confuse everyone. Sandy.

Daddy's Little Angel

Chapter Eight

Carpe Diem

The Madison/Ziggy blending made her way back to Madison's room. Her body felt odd, as if all her strength was draining away. Her mind got fuzzy. She collapsed onto the bed and fell instantly asleep.

* * * * *

They awoke to the sound of someone pounding on the door. The auditory assault reverberated inside her head. Ziggy put her hands over her ears and went to the door in an effort to stop the onslaught. Robbie and Bradley stood on the threshold, fists still raised.

"It's time to…" Robbie.

"…get up." Bradley.

"You were supposed to…" Robbie.

"…meet us hours ago." Bradley.

"What time is it?"

"It's after twelve." Her mother arrived at that moment. "You told us to be in the main control room at ten."

"I am sorry. Something odd happened last night. My mind became clouded and I found myself unable to think clearly. I lay down on the bed and lost consciousness."

Her mother and brothers stared at her as if she'd lost her mind. "You fell asleep?"

Madison/Ziggy cocked her head to the side as if listening to an internal voice. "Yes, I…fell asleep. It was the strangest…sensation."

Inside her head Madison was demanding attention. "Laugh so they'll know you're joking then tell them you'll get a shower and meet them in the cafeteria."

Obediently Madison/Ziggy laughed. "I am joking. I will shower and meet you in the cafeteria for midday meal."

"Uh, okay." Her family turned and walked away exchanging looks of confusion.

"That was good but maybe you should let me do the talking from now on."

"You are no longer frightened. Why is that?"

"I wasn't really frightened at least not after I realized what you were up to. Carpe Diem. You want to seize the day, to know what it's like to be alive." While they had their silent conversation, Madison was able to resume control over her body and took them first to the closet and dresser for clean clothes then into the bathroom. She attended to business then started the shower. "Why didn't you ask instead of just…taking over?"

"You might have said no."

"True. I might have but you didn't give me the chance to make the decision."

"I am sorry." Madison could see that she was telling the truth. "The situation is not permanent. I will be, as they say, out of your hair within 24 hours as the joining will not last beyond that."

"Okay. Just don't do it again. And I have some ideas for your day of being human."

"That would be…good. I have a question. Why are we standing under this spray of water and what are you doing to your hair?"

"'We' are taking a shower and washing 'our' hair. It's a cleaning process that…I'll tell you later. Let me finish this then we'll get out of here and get the day started."

"Thank you, Madison."

* * * * *

"What will be our first event of the day?"

"After we eat, I think we should start by taking a drive."

Madison could feel Ziggy's hesitancy. "You intend for us to…pilot a ground vehicle?"

Ziggy was further confused by Madison's laughter. "Something like that. Let's go. We have great deal to accomplish and not much time to do it in."

"Madison?"

"Yes, Ziggy?"

She paused. "I am truly sorry for…"

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Just let me keep control of 'our' body and we'll be fine." Madison finished brushing her hair then braided it on her way to the door. "We need to make a quick stop on the way to the cafeteria."

* * * * *

Madison zipped up the black leather jacket, slipped on driving gloves then topped it all off with a black helmet. She tightened the strap under her chin as she swung her right leg up and over the black vintage 2009 VRSC V-Rod Muscle. Next to it sat a red vintage 2009 Softail Fat Boy. The bikes belonged to her brothers. She was sure that Robbie wouldn't mind her borrowing his for the day.

She pulled a key from the jacket pocket, jammed it in the ignition and it roared to life. Though it sounded like the vintage Harley it was, the old-fashioned engine that ran on liquid petroleum had been replaced with a modern non-polluting electric one. The helmet was also not necessary but it added to the whole experience as did the jacket, gloves and boots. The upgrades during the restoration process included an inertial dampening field specifically designed for such vehicles in case of accident. Madison was not-so-secretly proud of the fact that her uncle had adapted the Ancient technology and it came standard on all motorcycles built since 2018.

"Ready to do this, Ziggy?"

"Yes, Madison. Where are we going?"

The young blonde woman smiled. "You pick." In her mind she quickly ran down a list of things that she personally had always wanted to do or had done and enjoyed. Ziggy made her choice and they were off.

* * * * *

"She what?" Jeannie and Rodney exclaimed at the same time.

"Maddie…stole…my…bike." Robbie repeated slowly. "And she left a note.

"Robbie,

I borrowed your bike. I'll have it back sometime tomorrow. Don't worry, I'll return it fully charged and promise make it up to you.

Love,

Maddie"

"Something's very wrong." Bradley.

"Yes, this isn't like her." Robbie.

"She's been acting odd since we woke her up." Bradley.

"And that was weird, too." Robbie.

Rodney got a faraway look in his eyes as they tracked back and forth. His sister and nephews recognized that look. He was about to be brilliant…again. He snapped his fingers quickly several times then retraced their steps back to the main work area but instead of sitting at his own workstation he sat at Madison's. They followed but knew enough to be quiet while he was doing whatever it was he was doing. He laced his fingers and pushed away at chest level, cracking his knuckles. He wiggled his fingers then began to tap the keys on the keyboard so fast his fingers were a blur.

* * * * *

Madison brought the Harley to a stop, the back wheel sliding sideways a few feet. The heel of her boot dropped the kickstand while she pocketed the key. She climbed off and removed her helmet. The elastic had come out of her hair and it was blowing loose in the gentle breeze.

She placed the helmet on the seat of the bike and pulled the gloves off as she headed for the front door. The sign in the window said, "Taylor's Skydiving Instruction". They would be able to provide a tandem jump for her and her "passenger".

The man behind the counter was in his early thirties with dark hair and hazel eyes. He was trim without being skinny, just over six feet and had a mischievous smile. The name plate in front of him gave his name as Ryan Taylor, AFF, SDU, TI. She didn't know what that meant but figured he probably knew what he was doing if he was the owner. She also thought he looked a little like her Uncle John on whom she'd once had a bit of a crush.

"Hi, may I help you?"

"You sure can! My name is Madison Miller and I'd like to schedule a tandem as soon as possible." Madison leaned casually on the counter. It brought her close enough to Ryan to smell his subtle cologne. He leaned on the counter too mirroring her pose.

"Not a problem…Madison. The next class starts in fifteen minutes."

"Perfect. Sign me up." She passed her credit chip over the payment scanner.

Ryan took her through the common areas and upstairs to the training room. An hour later she was ready to go. There were too many in her class for them to all go at once so she insisted on going in the last group.

"I have a question, Madison."

"I imagine you'll have more than a few today so you don't need to preface each one with 'I have a question'. Just ask."

Ziggy actually laughed. "Okay. When we arrived here you spoke to a man named Ryan Taylor. While the two of you conversed I noticed an elevation in your respiration, pulse, blood pressure, your eyes dilated and you became flushed."

"Yeah. What of it?" She knew what her passenger was getting at and was dreading having to explain.

"Is this…sexual arousal?"

"Yes, it was-is-whatever. I am attracted to him and I think he felt the same but we can't get involved with someone if you want to experience as much as possible today. We have lots to do and only" she looked at her watch, "sixteen hours to do it in."

"Is not…making love a part of human experience?"

"Yes, but there's much more to it than just being attracted to someone. I suppose you want the whole megillah." Madison sighed and began giving Ziggy "the talk". At least this would be practice for when she did the same for a child of her own.

While they had their silent conversation, Ryan crossed the common area and sat next to her but she was so oblivious that she didn't notice until he waved a hand in front of her face.

"Oh! Sorry, I was wool-gathering."

"It's okay. You're up next. I'll be getting off about the time you float back to Earth and I was wondering if you'd like to have dinner with me."

She looked inward a moment. "I'd love to. Do you somewhere to get something spicy?"

He smiled and his eyes twinkled. "I know the perfect place. You can follow me there and if you decide you don't like me then no harm, no foul. We go our separate ways. Deal?" He stuck out his hand which she took.

"Deal."

He walked her to the changing area and waited while she slipped a jumpsuit on over her clothes then went with her to the plane. Once everyone was onboard he sealed the door and made his way back to the hangar to wait.

* * * * *

"Well, what did you find out?" Jeannie asked her sons.

"Not much." Robbie.

"She's disconnected the…" Bradley

"…GPS on my bike as well as…" Robbie

"…her personal GPS and is" Bradley.

"…not answering her phone. What do you…" Robbie.

"…think she's up to?" Bradley.

Sometimes listening to her sons finish each other's sentences made her dizzy but she was too worried about her daughter for it to bother her today. Meredith was still tapping away at Madison's workstation but why he wouldn't say.

"I've got it!" Rodney called to his family and they quickly gathered around. "Okay, see this block of coding? She's programmed Ziggy to send information from the future to the Ziggy in the past, which could be why she would go a little odd at times. I mean, if I knew the future for everyone on the whole planet then I'd be a little odd myself." He held a hand up. "No comments, please."

Jeannie shook her head. "I wasn't going to say anything. Um, how did you get access to this?" she gestured at the screen. "You'd think she would have it encrypted."

"Well, duh. She did. But I," he gave them a smug smile, "being the genius that I am, put in a back door."

"So, why did it take you so long if you had a back door?"

His expression faltered. "Because she found it and deleted it." He rolled his eyes when Jeannie and the boys laughed. "Yeah, that's it. Get your chuckles now because I will have the last laugh, though it's not really funny. I have hacked in and located the activity log." He paused to build suspense but his sister slapped him on the arm.

"Meredith!"

"Okay, but you might want to sit down." He waited while Robbie brought her a chair. "See this coding here? It looks like Ziggy added it herself and its purpose is…well, there's no easy way to say this but it looks like Ziggy may have downloaded herself into Madison."

Jeannie's eye went wide and her mouth dropped open. "That means…"

"Yes. There are two consciousnesses in your daughter's body. And I can tell you from experience that it can be…unpleasant. At least they are both female…sort of. When it happened to me, I had to share my body with a female Marine."

"What aren't…" Robbie.

"…you telling us…" Bradley.

"…Uncle Rod?" Together.

Rodney hung his head a moment then looked each of the Millers in the eye. "We were constantly fighting over control and it started having a deleterious effect on organ function. It got to a point where my brain couldn't support both consciousnesses and I started having seizures. It got harder and harder for both of us to share one body so one of us had to let go."

"So, she died?"

"Who? Oh, no-no-no-no-no. I, uh, we, Radek and I, figured out how to get her out and Lieutenant Laura Cadman went on to have a glorious career in the military before she resigned, quit, whatever, got married and raised a second generation of tap dancing Marines."

"So, what you're saying is that eventually my daughter will die?"

"No, I am not saying that. What I am saying is that it's a possibility. Ziggy is a computer program not a human consciousness. There is no way to know what effect it will have on Madison's body and brain. But that's not all. There's this."

Rodney pointed out another block of coding that had also been encrypted.

"Whoa!" Exclaimed Jeannie.

"That is so cool!" Bradley and Robbie.

* * * * *

They fell out of the plane, the straps pulling tight across her chest and legs. When the parachute was deployed they slowly swung into an upright position. If Madison turned her head she was able to converse normally with the man she was attached to. In the air in front of her was the videographer who had jumped out just ahead of them.

The wind rushed past her at an amazing speed but there was no stomach lurch such as she got when on a thrill ride at a theme park. James, the instructor, was right. It was like floating on a cushion of air while hurtling 2,300 meters through the air in 60 seconds and she knew that this was how it must feel to be able to fly.

She looked around as James manipulated the steering lines spinning them so the ground revolved and wheeled beneath them. The horizon, normally so much closer, was far away and more curved. Though she'd been through a wormhole more than once and had flown in subspace, nothing quite compared to the feeling of being completely exposed while falling unchecked through the atmosphere of her own planet. She could feel Ziggy's excitement as well as her own and that doubled the experience for both of them.

Much too soon, James told her to raise her knees to her chest and they came to a perfect landing several hundred meters from the hangar. They disconnected from each other and she removed her helmet. Ryan was there with a big smile and a pat on the back.

"You look like today was Christmas, your birthday and a trip to the candy store all rolled into one."

"It was…amazing! I have never felt anything like it." Ryan didn't know it but this was Ziggy talking and Madison saw no reason to say so.

"I can see that. Ready to get out of here?"

"Yes. I will meet you in five minutes." As she exited, the videographer handed her a video chip and a framed photo of her and James floating through the air. Around the edge of the frame were the words "If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun."

* * * * *

The sun was shining brightly when the Harley roared up to the Quantum Leap facility and slid to a stop. The rider dismounted, removed the helmet and shook her long blonde hair free. The smile on her face fled when she saw the angry faces of her mother, uncle and brothers.

Robbie stepped forward and she dropped the key into one outstretched hand and the helmet into the other. "Fully charged, as I promised."

He rushed over to examine the motorcycle he'd spent years restoring and upgrading. As his sister indicated, it had a full charge and seemed to be undamaged. But he was still ticked off.

She pulled off her gloves as she approached the entrance. Without stopping and without greeting her family, she stepped through the bioscanner. They followed her shooting questions and demanding explanations for, well, everything. From what they were saying, she realized they knew what had happened and said so.

Rodney laughed. "Yes, we've seen the programming."

"What?! How? I took out your back door and that file was encrypted, Meredith!" Madison exclaimed angrily.

She only called him by his given name when she was incredibly angry. Wisely, Rodney did not laugh as he so desperately wanted to but couldn't stop a note of conceit from entering his voice. "My dear niece, have you completely forgotten who taught you to encrypt?"

"Oh. Yeah. Right. Sorry."

When they seemed about to follow her into her quarters she put a hand up. "I'll explain everything later. Right now, we need a shower…" She slammed the door in their stunned faces.

Rodney looked at Jeannie and said, "She seems fine to me."

* ****

"It's coming up on the 24-hour mark, Ziggy. What happens now? Will you just fade away or…" Madison was pulling on clean clothes after her shower.

"If you do not go to the main control room very soon then yes, the me that I am at this moment will cease to exist, along with everything…we have learned and experienced in the last 24 hours." She smiled in Madison's mind. "As you say, I would rather that did not happen."

Madison laughed. "I agree. What would have been the point if it all just disappeared?"

Madison/Ziggy made their way to the control room. Once again the beams of light shot down from the ceiling to flash and sparkle over her body. The whole spectrum of colors shone on her blonde hair and fair skin. The lights snapped off and, as before, she slumped to the floor. When she opened her eyes, the hologram of Ziggy stood over her.

"Madison, are you alright?"

"Uh…yeah. I think so." She climbed to her feet and stood there swaying slightly. "Whoa, what a rush!"

Ziggy hung her head and clasped her hands in front of her. "I'm sorry your family is angry with you. It's my fault and I will apologize immediately."

"Go ahead. We're listening." Both women turned at the sound of Jeannie's voice.

Ziggy walked toward Madison's family coming to stand in front of Jeannie though her words were for all of them. "You are upset and that is understandable. I am exceedingly sorry for the fear and anxiety you were forced to endure because I wanted to see what it was like to feel alive." She actually looked contrite. "But please do not be angry with Madison. She could not have known what I had planned. The blending of our two minds was accomplished without her consent."

Jeannie exchanged looks with Rodney and her sons in a silent survey. It was unanimous. Ziggy was forgiven. Impulsively, Jeannie stepped forward to embrace the hologram and encountered solidity instead of passing through the image, the result of the encrypted programming Rodney had uncovered.

Rodney was hungry and herded everyone in the direction of the cafeteria where Madison and Ziggy regaled them with tales of their adventures with Ziggy doing most of the talking.

She talked about riding a motorcycle, skydiving, eating, roller coasters, going 2.7 seconds on a mechanical bull, hearing a baby giggle, jumping on a trampoline, taking a walk in a butterfly garden, chocolate, feeling and hearing a kitten purr, dancing and many other things. Madison blushed furiously when Ziggy told them that she'd especially enjoyed kissing a man named Ryan with whom they'd eaten supper the night before. This brought on a wave of teasing from Robbie and Bradley.

They'd finished eating and had been talking and laughing for over an hour when the PA came on informing them that there were visitors at the main entrance. The five humans and one hologram headed there immediately. They checked the security display and when they saw who was there, gave each other a wide-eyed stare.

"Ziggy," Rodney addressed the hologram, "Let them in, please."

She nodded assent and the door opened to show a middle-aged man with blue eyes and a lock of white hair falling across his forehead. Leaning on his arm was an elderly man with snow white hair wearing a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts that went down to his boney knees and sandals.

"Hi." Sam Beckett said. "Aren't you going to invite Al and me in?"

The End