Disclaimer:  Quantum Leap and all related characters are owned by Bellasarius Productions and Universal.  No profit has been made off of the writing or distribution of this piece of fiction.

Uncle Sam

by:  J.A. Moniz

January 1991

Sam stood in front of the refrigerator cradling the squalling infant in one arm while he reached in with the other moving items around hoping to find a bottle.

“Can’t you do something about that?” Al complained sleepily walking into the kitchen from the study.  He was clad only in a pair of blue and yellow polka-dotted boxer shorts.  His hair stuck out from his head in unruly tufts and his eyes were blinked blearily in the sudden light of the kitchen.

The baby’s cries seemed to escalate at the sound of Al’s voice.  Sam stopped rummaging in the fridge and started bouncing up and down trying to soothe the crying child.  “I’m tryin’,” he said.  “I think she wants Katie or something.”  He gave Al a look of helplessness.  “I don’t know what to do to get her to stop crying.”

“Yeah,” Al said joining Sam in front of the open refrigerator.  He reached in, moved a carton of milk and another juice, pulled out a baby bottle, and held it up to Sam.  “Why don’t you try sticking something in her mouth so she can’t make the sound anymore?”

“There’s a novel thought.”  Sam snatched the bottle from Al’s hand and went over the microwave oven with it.  He looked between the appliance, the bottle, and child cradled in his arm.  “Can I put this thing in a microwave?” he asked as the baby gave off a particularly loud cry.

Al was not a happy person.  Being ripped from sleep…and a really good dream…by the cries of a fussing baby was not high on his list of ways to spend the night.  Now if it were the cries of passion from a babe…well, that would be a different story.  Then again, he wouldn’t be asleep for that.  Pulling himself away from his thoughts, he answered Sam.  “I think you can but you need to take the top off of it.  I thought you knew all about babies.”

Realizing he couldn’t unscrew the cap off the bottle and hold the baby at the same time, Sam held the bottle back out to Al.  “Why would you think that?  Shannon’s the only baby I’ve ever really been around.  Well, besides Katie but I was only four when she was born.”

Al took the bottle back from Sam and unscrewed the cap from it before putting it in the microwave and hitting a few buttons.  “You’re a doctor,” he commented.  “Aren’t you supposed to know about these things?”

Sam looked at Al incredulously.  Why would the man think that just because he had an MD it automatically meant he knew what to do with babies?  “Yeah, I have my MD but I’m not a pediatrician.”

TO BE CONTINUED

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