Gateway to Life
-:Book 1:-
Through Death, Rebirth
by Faeriemage

Sometimes, it is what you do that matters. Sometimes, it is who you are. Usually it is just being in the proper place at the proper moment in time with the will to act.

Chapter 4:
It was the two armed man

While Helen₂ called Detective Richard on her personal phone. . .

'It's a cell phone.'

'Am I telling this story, or are you, Jams.'

'You are, of course, Sis.'

While Helen₂ was calling Detective Richard on her cell phone, I went into the living room and called Mary₁. There was more static on the line than last time.

"Jamie?"

"It's taking longer than I thought it would." Mary₁ chuckled at this. "You knew this would happen, didn't you?"

"I thought there might be some complications."

"Well, I collapsed after going through the portal, Jamie₂ got us to her house safely, but we slept until the next morning."

"You're ok now?"

"Yes, Mary. Both of us are ok. Oh, yeah, we found out that Jamie₂ can share my dreams with me."

"Ok. . ."

Mary₁ was like that. She would never ask me questions when she wanted me to open up. She would say things like 'ok' and then wait for me to respond. I told her about what happened, and about the police wanting me for questioning. I told her about dressing up, and the makeup. Since I wasn't going to be back for a bit, we talked about my decision to become a girl as well, and what helped me make up my mind.

"Remember that you need to do all of this for yourself. You can't sideline your own desires to make someone else happy."

"This is what I want, Mary. I was surprised when I saw myself in makeup, but it also felt right. It was as if I was seeing myself the way I was meant to be. I really missed my nails when they were gone in the next dream I had."

"Then you should try growing them out a bit. Remember, though, that nails in real life have to be taken care of, and even then they sometimes break."

I giggled a bit at that. "I know that."

"A girl for a whole day, and already an expert. You must be a teenager."

I blushed. "Sorry, Mary. I know you're only trying to help." I looked up and saw Helen₂ standing in the doorway. "Gotta go. I will call you again when I can."

"Take care, Jamie," she said, and I hung up the phone.

"I called Detective Paxton, and asked him to come over."

I felt a little scared at the prospect of talking to the police about what had happened. It must have showed to Helen₂ because she hugged me. My own Mom never hugged me. I began to cry, and hugged her back.

"It's okay, Honey. You don't have to worry about Richard. He's a good man, and a good cop as well."

"But, but, what if they don't believe me."

"Everything will be alright. Trust me on this. We will get you through this."

After I stopped crying, I went back upstairs and watched while Jamie fixed my makeup. It would take some practice, but I didn't think it would be too hard to get the hang of. I had applied stage makeup for some school plays I had been in and a lot of the concepts were the same.

We went downstairs and sat on the couch. I did my best to sit in a ladylike manner while we waited for Detective Paxton.

I don't think the name really dawned on me before he walked into the room. I liked him better in his civilian clothing. I think his shield was the same, though. He stopped dead on the threshold. He took one look at me and put his hand on his gun holster. "Helen, I know who you think this person is, but that's just not the case."

"What are you doing, Richard? I know this isn't my Jamie, but she explained that."

"I heard what you said over the phone, and it's just too much to believe. I need for him to come downtown with me."

"She looks just like Jamie."

"He killed my Jamie."

I felt shocked at this revelation. His Jamie? What's going on here.

'Jams, do you know what he's talking about? You weren't dating him as well, were you.'

'Ewe. He's old. Sure, he's not bad looking, but yuck.'

'I totally agree with you. Of course I wouldn't have ever dated Brian₂..."

'Be nice, Sis.' She said while sticking her tongue

This interchange took only a moment, but I had already missed something. Helen₂ had said something to Detective Paxton, and he was looking embarrassed. Then he nodded at her and she turned toward me.

"What's going on, Helen?" I was really beginning to get worried. She looked so sad.

"Jamie was Richard's daughter."

"Then that means. . ." My world reeled. Connections started coming together. Parts of conversations and statements that my father, no, not my father, that Allen had made while he was beating me. I was a constant reminder to him of my Mother's cheating. It must be. Just like Helen₂ had an affair with Richard₂, my own mother must have had an affair with Richard₁.

But why didn't Richard₁ recognize me then?

'Because your mother never told him, Sis.'

Parallel but different. I'm not sure I would ever get used to this. The similarities seemed destined to screw up my ability to cope. I must have been a bit in shock, because the next thing I knew, Richard₂ was helping me to my feet and leading me toward the car. He put me into the back seat.

"We need to contact your parents. What is your real name?"

I thought about giving a smart-ass reply for a moment, but then decided that the truth might work a bit better. "My name is Jamie Patrice. My guardian has Jamie₂'s cell phone. You can reach her there."

"Jamie 2?"

I rolled my eyes at him. I hoped that my Dad wasn't as slow as this guy was. "Jamie Patriche's cell phone."

Helen₂ came out of the house before he could shut the door. "Jamie, both of you, I have an appointment to close on a house that I just can't reschedule. I will be at the station as soon as I can so that we can sort this out."

Richard₂ shut the door and got into the front seat. I couldn't open the door from the inside, and there was a plastic barrier between the front and back seats. Luckily I am small so the tight confines of the back seat didn't cause me any problems. I entertained myself by looking out the window at all of the differences between our two worlds. Close to the point where I crossed over, the differences were minor. A tree here or there, but the hills and other ground formations were the same. Jamie₂'s house was in almost the same place as mine, and had virtually the same floor plan. The paint colors were different.

The land changed the further away we got from her house. The freeway was nothing like in my world and I marveled at the ribbon of concrete. We only stayed on the freeway for a couple of exits and then we were back on city streets. Something a little strange seemed to happen as we got closer to the police station.

I had been to the police station a number of times in the past on Earth₁, for school field trips and the like. The police station, barring a light difference in color scheme, was in exactly the same place, and had the same landscaping. Well, as far as I could tell.

'Don't you dare even think about it, Sis. We need to try to resolve this, not make it even worse.'

'Think what? I'm not thinking anything.'

'Don't give me that. I'm in here, remember?'

I blushed, but I knew she was right. I had been thinking that if I had crossed over to this world in a place that was close to my own physically, then I might be able to cross again here. 'I will save that for if we get into real trouble, ok?

I could feel her quizzical look, but I ignored it. I couldn't stay here to resolve her murder. The police would be able to get it fixed up. . .eventually.

'You promised we could say goodbye.'

'And if it is at all possible, we will.'

'A promise is a promise. You have to keep it for me.'

I suddenly felt an emptiness in my head. I knew Jamie₂ wasn't gone, but I'm not sure she could still hear me. I tried to talk to her a couple of times as I was led into a small room with a mirror on one wall. She never responded.

They let me sit in the room for a while. It was white and boring. I figured that they were watching me from behind the mirror, but I didn't really care at this point. Jamie₂ was disappointed with me. I was locked in a room, yes, I checked, without any windows. I walked over to the mirror and examined myself in it. I looked like millions of pre-teen girls around the country, despite my dirty blonde hair being in a very boyish haircut. No real hip development to speak of, and flat as a board of course. This made me smile. The makeup job that Jamie₂ had done for me still looked good. I looked a little young to be wearing makeup, but at least it wasn't heavy. I looked at my eyes and was a bit startled. The center seemed to be a sort of orange color, which seemed to be pushing into the green that my eyes normally were. I wouldn't call the green outside a ring, since it didn't have a regular thickness.

I looked at my eyes a bit more, making sure that it wasn't just a trick of the light. I then realized that more time was passing, and no one had come in to talk to me yet. 'Ok, this is about enough of this,' I thought to myself. I rapped on the mirror with my knuckles. "Can we get on with this, please?"

I'm not sure if that had anything to do with them getting off their butts and talking to me, but it was only about thirty seconds later that they came in the door. Richard₂ was of course one of them, but there was uniformed officer with him as well. "Have a seat, please. Have you ever seen this before?"

Richard₂ tossed my Journal on the table. I wanted to do nothing more than snatch it from the table, but I restrained myself. "That's my therapy journal. I write my thoughts and feelings in there as a means of working through issues. Mostly I wrote about the glimpses I had into your daughter's life."

I figured that it was a little strange that Richard₂ was still working on a case that involved his daughter, so I thought I would get that out there. I've watched cop shows, you know.

The door opened. "A word please, Detective Paxton."

I smiled at this. It seems they didn't know. Well, this would be interesting to see, but I knew that they would leave me here where the action wasn't. I picked up the bag that they had put my journal in. My blood spotted the front of the white book. It almost seemed like a badge of honor there.

The officer that was still in the room took this moment to speak up, "I don't think you should be touching that."

"It's my book."

"It's evidence in a crime."

I was getting tired of all of this. I put my hand on the book and began to concentrate. I had taken my clothing with me, and this book, as I switched worlds. Maybe I could simply push the book across to the other world. The light started to get a little dim, or maybe I was just blacking out, but I could feel a connection of some sort. I remembered then that this is where Richard₁ worked. I tried to focus on the part of me that came from him, to focus on our connection as Father and daughter. I felt the book start to pull away from me, so I let it go. It disappeared before it hit the table.

"What did you do with the book?" The officer walked over to me. He seemed to be a little agitated.

"Search me. . ." I said jokingly, but the officer did just that. It should have been obvious that I wasn't hiding anything in the shirt, and that the skirt couldn't hide anything at all, but he went ahead and frisked me anyway. He didn't find it, of course.

"Stand over there, by the wall, and don't move."

I figured I had pushed my luck enough for one day so I went to stand by the wall. Suddenly I felt myself begin to fall, and I couldn't stop myself. I felt the concrete floor hit me, but I couldn't even put my hands out to catch myself. I hit my head and blacked out.
---
"Queen Guinevere, we need to rally the troops. Mordred is bringing his army to attack Arthur and he only has Lancelot and Gawain to protect him."

I was about to answer the page, when I realized I wasn't on the throne. I was in a Lady-in-waiting dress. Jamie₂ was on the throne, as I had promised her she would be. "Send for my armor, and sound the battle cry. We will save my husband from the treachery of foul Mordred."

Not the lines I had used last time, but not bad for all that. "Your Highness, you can't lead our troops into battle," I said trying to get Jamie₂'s attention. "Sir Galahad is fully prepared to protect your honor on the field of battle."

I don't know where I got this idea, but I had always felt that you should let the best person for the job do that job. In this dream, the best person to save Arthur was Galahad.

"Sis!! I am so happy to see you. I came in here to get away from you and I got stuck."

"Huh?"

"Apparently I can only get out of your dreams if you are here to let me out. Apparently you come to this one fairly frequently, so I was able to get out of the first dream into this one fairly easily."

"I'm so sorry that I made you mad, Jams. Can you forgive me?"

"Of course I can, Sis. Provided that you can get me out of here."

I giggled at her response. "I don't think either of us are getting out of here for the time being. I hit my head when I fell and I seem to be unconscious right now."

"Why did you fall?"

"Um, well, I figured that if I couldn't go home right now, at least I could send my Journal there."

"You opened a portal and put your journal through?"

"Not exactly."

I told her what happened and her eyes widened. "You seem to have one versatile power there."

"Now, if only I could stop passing out when I use it. I passed through a couple of times without issues. Why so many problems now?"

"I don't know. Maybe you had reserves when you started that both of us have been using up. You know, when I ran around while you were asleep and unconscious, and the number of times you hopped back and forth."

"You're probably right, although I think that it was more you using up my reserves more than crossing over." I smiled and stuck my tongue out at her after saying this. "Suddenly, I don't feel very good."

I felt like someone was trying to pull me through myself. "Jams, grab my hand. I think they are trying to revive me." I stretched my hand out to Jams as she reached for me. I grabbed her hand just as I felt one final yank. I opened my eyes.

I was in a different room than the one I'd been in before. I was lying on a couch, and I had a scratchy blanket over me. Someone was removing a vial of vile smelling. . .something. . .from under my nose. It was another plainclothes officer. I carefully sat up. I put my hand to my head. There was a bump on the side of it.

"I need to ask you some questions, Miss."

I smiled at him. He was the first person I didn't know who took me for a girl. "How can I help you?"

"What did you do with the book?"

"It was my journal. I picked it up because I wanted it back. I'm not sure how to tell you what I did next, other than to say I sort of pushed it back home."

"You did a magic trick?"

"Isn't it on the video? You have cameras in the room, don't you?"

"On the cameras, the book began to glow the instant before you let it go, and then there was a bright flash and the book was gone."

"There wasn't any flash. It just disappeared."

"That's what Sergeant Ames and Detective Torres said as well."

"Then why won't you believe me?"

"I do believe you, honey. I really need to know why."

"It didn't belong here. It was mine. It needed to be on Earth₁ to help prosecute Allen Patrice for abusing me."

"Earth₁?"

I goggled at him a moment. No one had ever gotten the emphasis right the first time. I shook myself and responded, "I am from Earth₁. This is Earth₂. It is how I name things to keep them straight. Like the difference between Helen₂ and my Mom."

The detective was about to say something else when I heard Helen₂'s voice. "I demand to be brought to the young lady this instant. If she's under arrest, then I demand she have a lawyer present during any interrogation."

'Your Mom is a lot more outgoing than mine, Sis.'

'I know,' she thought as she beamed a smile.

"Over here, Helen₂," I said as I stood and waved to her.

"Are you okay, Sweetie?"
"Yes, Helen₂. I'm ok."

"That's good. What's this?" She reached up and touched the bump on my head.

"I collapsed and hit my head."

She looked concerned at this. "Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm really fine. I was pushing myself further than I should have. Could you find out if they tried to call Mary₁ on Jamie₂'s phone? I want to call her and tell her I'm fine if they did."

Helen₂ looked over at the detective next to me, who shook his head. "We're not sure what Detective Paxton was trying to pull, but he is on suspension. He decided to question you without even trying to contact your guardian."

Helen₂ looked like she was getting angry, but I spoke up. "Helen₂, He's Jamie₂'s Dad. He shouldn't have been working her case, but I don't think he should be punished for trying to help her."

"I need to have some words with him, anyway." Helen₂ got up and walked off.

I turned to the detective. "Brian₂'s prints should be on the knife. Why did you let him go?"

"The prints were smudged."

"But I saw him kill her."

"You witnessed the crime? Why didn't you say so before?"

"Well, because, I thought I wouldn't have to be involved. I thought subduing him and calling the police would be enough."

"How did this happen?"

I told him the whole tale again, including crossing worlds to try to save Jamie₂, and getting there much too late. I described how I subdued Brian₂ and how I tied him up with her belt.

"That explains a couple of things. I'll get you a piece of paper so you can write your witness statement. One note. I know what happened, and so do you. I saw the footage of the book, and know that Sergeant Ames and Detective Torres are honest men. Unfortunately a Jury will not have the same luxury."

"Ok. . ." I had no idea where he was going with this.

"I have never told a witness to lie in a statement. I never will. Just make sure that your statement is truthful and believable."

I think I understood what he wanted, so I nodded.

He got me a legal pad and a pen and I wrote out a statement and signed it. I finished and sat for a while waiting for someone to tell me what to do. I saw them bringing in Brian₂ in hand cuffs.

He looked up and saw me from across the room. A look of horror crossed his face. "I killed you, you fucking faggot. I saw you bleed to death. There's no fucking way you're still fucking alive. I'll finish the job I started." He tried to run at me, but the officers restrained him.

The detective walked over, looked over my statement, and then tore it up. "Looks like we won't need this anymore. Thank you for your cooperation, Jamie, and I'm sorry for the trouble that Detective Paxton put you through.

"It's alright, Detective. . ."

"Patrice. I'm Detective Allen Patrice."