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 15:
Idyll of the Storm

I woke up with thick bracelets on my hands and feet. I was able to move around the bed, but the second I tried to pass and arm or a leg beyond the edge of the bed, I met with resistance. I was trapped within the confines of this single bed.

Looking around me, it was obvious that I was in a hospital of some sort. Sure, the decor didn't say hospital, but there were certain things that did. You know, the little things you would normally overlook. The oxygen connections on the walls, and the piglet tree hanging from the ceiling for bags of this or that.

The door wide enough to fit my bed through. The wheels on said bed. And, of course, the most obvious, the nurse call button on the TV remote that was connected by a thick cable to the wall. Did all hospitals get these from some inter-dimensional supply warehouse?

I pushed the button to call the nurse.

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but the word nurse always conjures a specific image for me. I'm not talking Sexy Nurse, since that isn't even in the same ballpark for me. No, I think of a rounded, motherly woman, possibly grandmotherly, with short curly hair, any color, and usually a smile on her plump face.

I've never actually met a nurse like that, but it is my stereotypical nurse.

The person who walked in took my breath away, and made me question my sexuality. Ok, so I had been raised as a boy. I was thirteen and hadn't really noticed anyone in that way before. I just assumed that when all was said or done I would find myself with a girl, no matter what I looked like.

He was the most handsome man I have ever seen in my life. He also was masculine in a sort of indefinable way.

He wasn't some muscle bound freak like win weightlifting in the Olympics. I can't really explain. You could just look at him and see Man. And he had incredibly blue eyes. What got me down in that moment of euphoria was the fact that not only was he probably twice my age, but I looked like a boy.

"You're awake. If you wait a moment I can get the doctor for you?" I knew it wasn't really a question he was asking, but he phrased it to make me feel relaxed. Made it a question. . .why am I analyzing this to death.

I was truly and deeply twiterpated, as certain Disney characters would say. He smiled and turned to leave, and I shook myself out of my shock for a moment.

"Where am I?" was what I planned to say, in an eloquent and most adult manner.

I think I squeaked something out, but it wasn't recognizable to my ears. "Do you need a drink of water? You've been out for quite a while.
I cleared my throat and tried again, "Where am I?"

"Well, that all depends on the nature of the question. Locally, you are in the St. Agnes Hospital, Hargrave, Arizona. Globally that would be the Republic of Free States of Columbia. Galactically it is Earth or Sol III. Inter-dimensionally. . .well, none of the established contacted realities can decide on a single nomenclature. I think they all want to be considered Prime, and won't let anyone else have the honor."

"That's easy, you're the fifth world I've visited or become aware of, so you are Earth₅"

"How do you even say that. . ."

"It takes practice," I said with a giggle.

"I take it your home is Earth₁ then?"

"No one ever said I wasn't ego-centric."

He laughed aloud at this. I smiled at him and giggled. Yay. A laugh.

"Ok, Earth₁ I think I can agree to that, since you are the only person I know who has visited so many. I paged the doctor when you buzzed, so he should be in here shortly."

A man who looked like an older version of the nurse walked in. He wasn't wearing the white scrubs that the nurse did. He wore more traditional green scrubs with a lab coat over them. "Are all medical staff cloned from the same perfect man."

The both looked at me, and I realized I had said this aloud. I blushed bright red.

The older one looked at the younger one, "I would like to get a full psychological workup done on him within the next couple of hours. Do that for me will you, Brian?"

Ok, now this was all just getting too weird for me. I can handle Brian the bully, and Brian the killer, but Brian the gorgeous male nurse?

I think I fainted because I was looking into those amazing blue eyes again. I looked carefully at his face, and there were traces of the Brian that I knew. It made me feel a little sick.

"What's wrong?"

I looked at his name plate and vomited. He was Brian Jensen. Sure, he was Brian₅ and not the Brian₁ or Brian₂ that I knew. I had flirted with him. I vomited again.

"You killed Jamie₂, I mean Brian₂ did."

"I think we need to move up that workup."

"Dad, I told you, she came out of nowhere. She is a Traveler."

"There are no confirmed reports of Travelers, Brian. At the present time we can only communicate with people in other realities."

"Then you explain a single chromosome difference between this kid and a 24 year old mother of two."

"Cloning?" He said it, but even his tone sounded unsure.

"You know as well as I do that more minor changes to the genetic code result in failed fetuses. Heck, direct cloning fails still."

"You have work. Let me check out my patient." He turned to me and the younger Jensen left the room. "Other than being sick there a little, how are you feeling?"

"The Jamie in this world is a mother?"

"How. . ."

"My name is Jamie."

"Neither of us said the individuals name." He got a bit of a thoughtful look on his face. "You've already been checked for Telepathy and Precognition, both negative."

"I'm right here, Dr. Jensen. I like to be talked to, not talked about."

"I'm sorry, Young Lady," he said absently, and then started and blushed, "I meant young man."

"It's alright, Dr. Jensen. I don't mind if you think of me as a girl," I blushed a bit as I said this. I wasn't as conflicted about the father, he was just too old, but I preferred for them to think of me as a girl.

At that moment, Dr. Jensen touched his right thumb to his right index finger. "Dr. Jensen here," he said as he turned a bit away from me. He looked as though he were listening to something for a few moments, every once in a while saying "uh-huh" or "ok". He finished with, "Ok, send her on up here. . .in five minutes? Ok, thanks." He touched his right thumb to his right pinkie and turned back to me.

"We're going to have our resident psychologist down here, a Mary Pierce-Keller, to talk to you for a bit. Would that be ok?"

I think my smile gave me away. He checked my body a bit more, making sure that I was healthy, and then he left the room just as Mary₅ came into the room.

"Hi, Mary. I'm Jamie"

"Hello, Jamie." She seemed a little off her stride, so I thought I'd just go with it.

"Your last name's Keller, so I assume your Husband's name is Frank, right?"

"Yes. . ."

"And you have a print of one of the van Gogh Sunflowers in your office."

She looked down at her clip board quickly, and then mused, "It says you aren't a telepath or precog. . .interesting. I take it someone here put you up to this?"

"Nope, but how bout I tell you that you have always preferred working with kids to grownups. there can't be many people you've told that to."

A little look of fear entered her eye. She quickly hid it. I hurried to continue, "Brian₅ called me a Traveler."

"Brian 5?"

"Of, oops. I have to do something to keep everyone straight. This is the 5th earth I have personal knowledge of."

She blinked a couple of times, looked at me shrewdly, and said, "Why don't you start at the beginning."

So I did. It's getting to be quite a tale at this point, and I figured since she was supposed to be evaluating me, I might as well leave nothing out. I cried a few times, and I could tell she wanted to comfort me, but couldn't really do so.

I told her about my Father, and Jamie₂'s father. I told her about the murder, and about feeling more comfortable being recognized as a girl.

She did ask me a question about having children at this point. I told her about my accident. She probed the source of my feelings about sex and gender.

I had never had a conversation like this with anyone before. It was me doing all the talking, but I could feel her drawing all of my emotions out toward her and sifting through them.

I stopped at one point and looked at her. Something she had just staid triggered a spark in my mind. "You have Empathy, don't you. No more than that, something else. . .something a little more."

"We call them Sifters here. I can't influence your emotions, but I can see them like a tapestry, and feel the pattern of them."

"Like reading my mind?"

"All that a telepath can ever get is the surface thoughts, like an empath can only get your current emotion. A sifter can read your core emotions. The source of your thoughts. They sift through the emotions you feel, and can follow the threads to the root cause. It makes us a lot better at counseling and advising than most people."

"So, you can tell I'm telling the truth?"

"And why you tell the truth, or lie."

"So, you believe I'm a Traveler?"

"I know that you believe it."

"How can I prove it to you?"

"For right now, you can't. Your abilities have been nullified to allow you time to rest."

I wondered. Was my ability limited by four dimensions? I wondered.

I'd been wanting to write in my journal for days now. It would be as good a test as any. I found my journal. I tried to pull it, and felt my energy going to no effect. I stopped for a moment to think. Ok, every time I have been able to open a gate, I have connected to something alive. The apple tree, Jamie₂ and Jamie₄, Brian₅. . .

I reached for my dad, my real one, Richard. I then pulled the book along the connection between us. It took a lot more energy than sending the book to him had done, but there it was in my hand. I lay back on the bed exhausted.

I turned to look at Mary, and saw her look of shock. "How is that for proof."

Well, I think I said that, because I passed out about the same time.
---
There was something shining in my eyes, so I tried to pull away. "Back with us, huh?"

"Hi, Dr. Jensen."

"I'm going to have to ask that you don't try to do that again for a while. Your body has used up most of its reserves and you are in real danger right now."

"Ok, Dr. Jensen."

I sat up, and felt something pull against my head. I reached a hand up. My hair was long. "How long was I out. . ."

"Not that long," he said with a smile. "Mary thought you would appreciate this."

"Is it a wig?"

"No, it's your hair. We just helped it along a little."

"A little?" My hair was long enough to get caught beneath me when I sat up.

"Your body reacted a little better to the drug than we were expecting. We monitored you to make sure it wasn't affecting your recovery. You've been out about sixteen hours this time, so all together you were out for about four days."

I didn't know what to say about that.

A man in a suit knocked on the open door and walked in. "How is our patient, Doctor."

From the look on Dr. Jensen's face, I could tell he didn't like the man in the suit very well. "She's fine."

"Good. Now Jamie, it has come to our attention that you are currently without legal guardianship. It is also apparent that you are from another dimension. So, you are to be transferred to the care of your closest genetic relative of age, a Jamie Kreis. Won't that be so nice for you, Jamie. She even has your same name. She will be here later to fill out the necessary paperwork, Doctor. Have a good day."

He turned and left without another word. The Doctor and I sat there for a moment looking at each other and then burst out laughing. Just then Brian poked his head into the room, "I hear my favorite patient is awake."

I blushed. I needed to stop doing that.

"Hi Jamie, I have someone here to see you."

Apparently the lawyers people skills were only outdistanced by his sense of timing for their complete lack of capability. I had seen myself dead once, a girl my age once, and now a mature female version of me entered the room.

I really hoped I could grow up to look like her, because she was gorgeous.

"You're blonde!" I couldn't help the outburst.

"It's dyed. I thought it looked better this way. So, you're me?"

"Sorta. I guess. I'm the us from another world."

She came over to the bedside and gave me a hug, "Pleased to meet me, Jamie," she said with an infectious giggle. I giggled back.

"So, how much longer does she need to stay here?"

"Well, we can probably discharge her today. She will be going back to her own dimension eventually, but it will likely be a couple of weeks before she is well enough to travel. So, she has to avoid any use of her power, and since it is completely controlled by her conscious mind, and we can't actively prevent it, she might as well spend her time out in the real world."

"Ok, sounds good to me. My husband is anxious to meet her, I have to warn you though, Jamie, he's all mine."

I giggled at this and replied, "Don't worry, I like someone else." I couldn't help it and flicked a glance at Brian₅. She glanced at him herself, "I have to admit, if I weren't married. . ." We both giggled at this.

"What was that," asked the subject of our humor, and we completely broke down into a laughing fit.

"There's one more thing that we need to discuss," Dr. Jensen said getting a little more serious.

"What's that," the older me inquired.

"Our staff sifter has determined that little Jamie is transgendered and uncomfortable with her body image as it currently is. We would like to implant a synthetic hormone gland."

Wait, what? Ok, so I knew a little about how hormones changed the body during puberty. I also knew that there was a lot of hoops to jump through in both Earth₁ and Earth₂ and in Earth₄ it had just been illegal for a teen to consider it.

But this easy? There had to be a catch somewhere. Why would they be so cavalier about it.

"Isn't Jamie a bit young for that," asked biggie-me

"Normally, yes, but most of the age concern was over informed consent of the patient regarding loss of all potential offspring. It is felt that anyone under the age of 25 does not fully understand the ramifications of their actions in this regard."

I cocked my head at this. What a really skewed perspective. Eunuchs like me could change their gender at will, but people still in the gene-pool had to wait 'til they were 25 to even start. . .

Biggie-me got a sad look on her face, "Jamie can't have kids? Ever?"

Before Dr. Jensen could respond, I answered for myself, "I got in a really stupid accident when I was younger and had to have my testes removed."

"I'm sorry, sweetie." She hugged me and I got a little teary eyed.

"It's ok, biggie-me."

"Huh?"

I spent the next twenty minutes trying to explain, second hand from Jamie₂ about mini-me. They were a little confused, but finally got it, sort of.

"How about you just call me Claire, like my husband does."

"Claire?"

"He is European, and doesn't like how Jamie sounds as a girl's name, so he started calling me Claire in college when we met, because he said it fit me better. It stuck, and I have a number of friends who only know me by that name."

"Oh, how sweet." I said. It was a romantic little story and made me happy.

"So, Jamie, do you want this? Do you want to start looking more like a girl?"

"I don't know. This is all so sudden. I wouldn't have to even consider it for another few years at home."

"Crap. Jamie, Claire, I need you to hold your decision for a bit." He touched his right thumb to his middle finger and then said, "Leland Farnsworth." turning a bit away from us again.

"What's he doing?" Claire turned to me at my question. "Talking on the phone," was her matter of fact reply.

"Leland. . .yes, I need you back in Jamie's room for a bit. . .no, the guardian arrived, but there is another matter we need to discuss. . .ok, see you then."

He touched his right pinky again, and turned back to us. "We didn't even consider the legal ramifications of a medical procedure on an inter-dimensional traveler. Your laws have to be different from ours."

Irrationally, I had gone from unsure whether I wanted this to sure I wanted it, or maybe just sure I wanted the choice. I hated to have the possibility of developing like my peers dangled in front of me, and then casually snatched away.

"The lawyer will be here in a couple of hours. We can go down to the cafeteria to eat, if you want Claire? Jamie?"

"In this?" I said, gesturing to my hospital gown.

"No, actually. We had a dress made for you by the nano-tailors. I'll leave you girls while you change, Jamie."

I would like to say that it was the most perfect dress in the world, but apparently nano machines are a little utilitarian in their designs. If you have someone directing them every moment, you can get some really pretty designs. These had been left on autopilot. It was a nice cream yellow color with inch wide shoulder straps. That is about all that you can say for it. It kind of looked like a sack on the hangar. It didn't look too bad on me, and it fit, so I was a little thankful there.

We went down and ate in the cafeteria. The food was pretty good actually, since the last thing I remember eating was an almost tasteless protein brick in the sanitarium. We finished up our meals and walked back to the room. I was really starting to like Claire a lot. She was like me in a lot of respects, but we weren't the same. I guess it was a lot like having a twin sister ten years older than you.

The lawyer was waiting for us in the room when we arrived.