Abe's Antiques in Dimension Two ...

Henry and the other Abe were in the middle of enjoying their early lemon chicken dinner when the landline phone rang. Henry started to answer it but Abe waved him back down into his chair.

"Best you leave the phone answering to me," Abe advised him. He walked over and answered it.

"Hello?" He clutched the receiver with both hands and eyed Henry anxiously. "Uh, Jo. Nice to hear ... No, no, he's, uh, not here right now ... I'm not lying! He's not here." He wasn't lying, he told himself. The Henry that she wanted to speak to wasn't there. Where he was, exactly, was a mystery to him.

"Oh, you got a message for him?" He nodded and opened and closed his mouth a few times as he listened, then raised his eyebrows, then cringed his face into a painful-looking frown. "Okayyy," he drew out. "I'll, I'll be sure to tell him when he gets back." He nodded a couple of times, holding his breath, then hung up. He began to breathe normally again and rejoined Henry at the kitchen table.

"That was Jo, wasn't it?" Henry asked, amazed. Another Jo in another dimension. Amazing.

"Yeah," Abe wearily replied and picked up his tea cup. "Best that you steer clear of her while you're here."

"Sounded like she had a message for me," Henry stated.

"For him," Abe replied, "not you." He shuddered, bugging his eyes. "Believe me - you don't wanna hear that message."

"Why? All Lucas told me was that your Henry had 'majorly pissed her off'. What happened?" he asked.

"You don't need to know," Abe repeated, shuddering again. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with." He sipped his now lukewarm tea and frowned slightly as he set the cup back down into its saucer. "But it's bad."

"Alright, um, I don't mean to pry," he apologized. "Just curious. In case our paths should cross, I wanted to be prepared to deal with any wrath she may rain down upon me," he explained.

Abe studied him for a few moments and then told him, "I dunno. Feel like ... I'm airing our dirty laundry, you not actually being Dad and all." He sighed and rolled his eyes, lolling his head around. "And I don't know why I feel like I have to protect that lout."

"Don't worry yourself, Abraham," Henry told him. "Forget I asked. And you're right. As long as I'm a guest in your home, there's no reason for your Jo and me to meet. As soon as Lucas contacts me with a definite plan, I'll be out of your hair." He grinned and added, "Forever." They both laughed at the double meaning and enjoyed the rest of their meal, including raspberry scones for dessert.

"Hmmm. Interesting," Henry said as he partook of the dessert.

"Interesting?" Abe asked. "Your favorite!"

"His favorite."

"Oh, yeah," Abe said. "Well, what's yours? I'll fix it for you."

"Blueberry scones."

Abe laughed. "He's allergic to blueberries, ha ha!"

"Doubly interesting!" Henry exclaimed, laughing. He put down the scone and looked around. "Still can't believe that I'm actually here in another dimension." He shook his head and added, "Scientists would be overjoyed to learn that another dimension truly does exist. Skeptics would be silenced."

"And bloodthirsty moneymakers would find a way to sell vacations to another dimension or real estate in it. Criminals would find a way to use it to duck the law."

Henry laughed. "Abraham. All anyone would be doing is trading places with themselves and finding that their lives are only slightly different."

"Well, believe me," Abe warned him. "If there's a way to make money on something, blood-suckin' moneymakers will find it."

Henry smiled and shook his head at Abe's jaded thinking. And something told him that in spite of his being content to hide out in the shop, he and this other Jo Martinez would eventually meet.

The landline phone rang and Abe rose to answer it. "Busy day," he muttered and snatched the receiver up. "Hello?" He nodded, grinning, and said, "Yeah, he's here. One minute." He held the receiver out for Henry. "Lucas," he said. Henry quickly left his seat and took the receiver.

"Hello, Lucas. Do you have some news for me?"

("Sure do. You're at the shop and in one piece. Great. Abe didn't give you a beat down.")

Henry could see his grin through the phone. Eyeing Abe, he replied, "No. Abe did not give me a beat down." He chuckled softly at Abe's frown mixed with curiosity and amusement.

"Fantastic. See you then." He hung up the phone and walked back to the kitchen with a spring in his step and sat back down at the table.

"You look happy," Abe told him.

"Lucas has a plan," he replied with a wide grin. "I should be going home very soon!"

Abe raised his tea cup and Henry did likewise. "Here's to wishing you a clear path on that yellow brick road, Henry." They laughed and clinked their cups together, then frowned at the taste of the no-longer-hot tea.

vvvv

Lucas arrived at the shop 30 minutes later. He outlined his plan for getting Henry back to his own dimension. Based on scheduling information he'd received from a friend who worked for the city's subway system, Henry had boarded car #1814 that day he and the other Henry had switched dimensions. So, Lucas suggested that Henry should board car #1814 again at the same time as before.

"Lucas, are you certain that this will work?" Henry asked, frowning.

"To be honest - no," he responded. "But at this point, we have no choice but to give it a try. Recreating the scenario that brought you here might just work to get you out of here and back where you belong." Henry asked if he needed to be in the same seat and Lucas responded by asking if he was seated or standing when the train went through the strange light in the tunnel.

"Ummm, seated," Henry replied.

"Then, long as you're at least seated on the train in car #1814, it should work."

"Er, not to throw a damper on things," Abe interrupted, "but wouldn't my Henry also have to be in place for the switch?"

Lucas hesitated before answering. "It, uh, would be ideal if he were," he quietly admitted. Henry deflated at that admission. "Look, we can only hope that he figures things out himself or gets help from someone to get him into the right place for the switch." He looked from one to the other and reminded them, "Remember, he's no slouch at solving puzzles. And if each of our doppelgangers over there are as smart as all of us here - it'll work."

Abe scoffed. "Remember, though, what a pain in the rear he is. He's probably pissed everyone off over there just like - " He stopped himself at the sight of Henry's worried expression. "Sorry, there, uh, Henry. Don't mind me and my stupid cynicism." Abe reached up and patted him on the back as they sat next to each other on the sofa in the living area. "I ... I'm sure it'll work." He forced a smile as he patted his back.

Henry clasped his hands, nervously repositioning them, as he pursed his lips and moved his eyes back and forth. "Let's not assume too much. After all, he must be as eager as I am to return to his rightful place in the universe." At least, he hoped the man would be. But what if he decided to take his place permanently in order to truly escape the hostile attitudes of his son and colleagues? He did not want to live out this man's existence more broken than his own. His own fault, Henry told himself. For if the Jo here was the lovely lady like the Jo he knew, then the man had to be an insensitive cad of the highest order to have upset her. Henry cast a worried but resolved expression toward Lucas. "We proceed according to plan tomorrow night," he said.

"No," Lucas objected. "I think it's better that we try it on the same day. That would be this coming Wednesday evening."

Dismay gave way to acceptance on Henry's face and he nodded in agreement. "Alright. If you think that's best. Wednesday, then." He turned an apologetic face to Abe and said, "Not that you haven't been a most gracious host."

"Yeah, finally," Abe chortled and the other two joined him in laughter.

Lucas left with an advisement for Henry to avoid Jo Martinez at all costs. "It'll make your time here easier and it's his (the other Henry's) problem, anyway, since he created it."

'What vile treatment could this man have rendered to her?' he wondered again. Little did he know, he would soon find out after encountering the woman in question and it wasn't going to be pretty.

vvvv

It was a few minutes before 7:00 PM at the shop. For the past few hours, Henry and the other Abe had swapped stories about their lives and marveled at some interesting parallels and glaring differences. For instance, the circumstances surrounding his first death and that of the other Henry's first death varied somewhat, leaving them with different scars. But the ways in which he and the other Henry had met Abigail and baby Abe were identical down to the location, the year, month, day, and hour. Both Abigail's had kept diaries. When the other Abe had recounted the story to him, Henry pictured his Abigail's handwriting in her own diary.

"Astonishing," Henry said, his voice barely above a whisper. "And we fell in love with each other and made a family."

"Yeah," the other Abe replied, wistfully. "We were happy for a long time." He lowered his eyes to his half-empty glass of scotch. He gulped down what was left in the glass. "That is until Mom left him in '82."

"Same year my Abigail left me." He voiced the words softly, remembering that painful time.

"I ... I lost it. Looked for her but couldn't find her. So I drowned my sorrows in the bottom of a bottle," he added; the shame in his voice, clear.

"Henry, my dad, blamed me for Mom leaving him," his elderly host confided.

"But why?" Henry asked. "He had to realize that that was strictly between the two of them."

"Because I drove her to Tarrytown and wouldn't tell him where she was," he responded loudly as if it were a cathartic release. "She made me promise not to tell him. Said she just needed some time away from everyone and everything. Time to think things out. She even wrote me to tell me that she was coming back!" He poured himself another glass of scotch and continued.

"I've always wondered if I'd done the right thing. At the time, I told myself that it was how an obedient son would behave." He sighed and took a sip. "I finally told him where she was and you should have seen him move like quicksilver to go get her and bring her back home." He set his glass down on the small table next to his armchair and stared into the liquid.

"By the time we got there ... she'd already died." There was a hollowness in his tone as he recalled that time. "Car accident, we were told, when she'd swerved to avoid a motorcyclist but she wound up hitting him anyway. The car she was driving hit a tree and she was pretty banged up. The motorcyclist lay on the side of the road with a pretty bad head injury but he managed to get up and stumble over to see about Mom. When he realized that he couldn't help her, he made his way back up to the roadway and flagged down an approaching sheriff deputy's car. He then stumbled back over to Mom but he collapsed. Then he vanished right in front of her. By the time the deputy got to Mom, the motorcyclist was gone. When the deputy asked about him, Mom lied and said that she hadn't even seen him." Abe's gaze met Henry's as he continued. "Guess she felt it was better to keep his secret, too, just like she'd kept Dad's. Anyway, the deputy radioed for an ambulance and she was taken to St. Timothy's."

Abe's anguished account differed markedly from what had happened to his Abigail. But he pushed his own sadness aside and continued to listen.

"As I said, Mom was pretty banged up. Broken ribs, a collapsed lung, lacerated liver. They operated but she died four days later."

Henry hesitated before guardedly asking, "Whatever happened to the motorcyclist?"

"The motorcyclist," Abe began, "calls himself Adam but moves around in the regular world as a photographer named Lewis Farber. "Photographs bridges, landscapes, farms, sky, and sometimes people. His photos are used in travel brochures and on travel websites and TV shows."

"The man I know as Adam disguises himself as a psychotherapist," Henry interjected, surprised at the occupational differences of the two Adam's. "Dr. Lewis Farber," he clarified.

"Hmmm. Well, it turned out that he'd been a photographer for a very, very long time. In fact, he'd actually photographed Mom, Dad, and me back in 1945 but didn't realize it until after he'd visited Mom in the hospital." Abe smiled weakly at Henry and added, "He'd tracked her down to St. Timothy's and visited her the day that she died."

Abe paused with a pensive look on his face. "Since he had tried to help her, despite his own injuries, she gave him the photograph of the three of us. Our names, the date, and place that the photo was taken had been written on the back of the photo when it was first taken.

Henry frowned, comparing the two life-altering events for both their sameness and their differences. But instead of sharing his own account, he saw that the other Abe was now struggling to control his emotions. "You don't have to go any further, Abraham."

"No, no, it's, uh, it's okay." He swallowed and continued relating the events that followed their Abigail's death. "Ya see, the motorcyclist was an Immortal like Dad. Can you imagine the odds of that? Said he'd thought for a long time that he was the only one. Anyway, while visiting Mom, he said he tried to tell her that the medication had her believing that he'd vanished."

Henry smiled at the familiar ploy he'd also used on his Jo while she was in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound during their first case.

"Of course, Mom didn't buy it and let him know it. When she had him retrieve the photo from out of her coat pocket, she told him to look on the back, which he did. In that next moment ... she was gone."

Abe blinked rapidly as he continued. "I really think she thought that since he'd tried to help her in spite of his own mortal wounds, he must have been a pretty good guy and it was alright for him to find Dad." He looked at Henry again. "So they'd both have a friend. A real BFF," he said, laughing softly.

"Did they become friends?" Henry asked.

"No," Abe replied flatly. "Dad blamed him for Abigail's death."

"But it sounds like it was an accident," Henry said. And he couldn't believe that he was actually defending Adam. Even if it were this other Adam.

"Dad wanted to blame everyone, anyone. He never forgave me for having kept Mom's whereabouts from him. But Adam. Sheesh! Adam came looking for friendship but instead found the worst enemy anyone could ever have. Dad hates his guts. Says he's responsible for Mom's death. Says he should never have let her see him again after she'd seen him die and vanish." Abe sighed. "Dad says Adam showing up alive and well at the hospital sent her into shock and caused her to die of a heart attack."

"I see," Henry drew out.

They heard knocking at the shop's front door. Henry kept his seat while Abe went downstairs to see who it was. He topped off his glass of scotch and took a sip but quickly set the glass down when he heard raised voices coming from down in the shop. He stood up and began slowly walking over to the stairs, leaning his head forward, straining to hear the voices. At the sound of breaking glass and something hitting the floor with a thud, he rushed over to the stairs.

"Abraham! Are you all right?" he shouted as he flew down the stairs. He saw a woman crouched over Abe as he lay on the floor. "Get away from him!" he shouted at her. The woman looked up at him and he immediately recognized her. But fear and apprehension prevented him from saying her name: Jo. 'Just might get a beat down after all.'

"Forgive me for yelling; I was overexcited. What happened?" he asked, kneeling down beside her.

"He tripped and fell," she replied. "Did you just arrive?"

"Ah ... yes," he replied, cringing at the half-truth.

"Ohhhh, that was fun," Abe groaned. "Help me up, will ya?" He pushed Jo's hands away. "No, not you. You're already loaded down."

"I'm not helpless, Abe," she protested; but he continued to push her hands away, accepting only Henry's help. Once he stood up, Henry helped him into a chair near a small table resembling the one he and his son kept their chess game set up on. This one had a silver tea set on it.

"Just give me a minute, okay?" Abe asked as he rubbed his right elbow, wincing. "Hope I didn't scare you too much, kid."

"You'd better let me take a look at that, Abraham," Henry told him.

"Oh, I'm fine."

"I am a doctor. It's best that I examine you and I'll have no argument about it," Henry told him in a stern, parental tone. Then, remembering that he was not this Abe's father, he told him in a softer, but still concerned tone, "We just want to be sure that there are no broken bones or hidden injuries, Abraham."

"I'm fine," Abe told him with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Just clumsy and embarrassed," he chuckled, then winced in pain. "Okay, you win. C'mon, help me get upstairs." Henry helped him stand up and then over to the stairs. As they slowly ascended, Jo followed behind them. Once upstairs, Henry examined Abe as thoroughly as he could using the equipment in a medical bag he found at the top of a hall closet and a portable X-Ray machine from the basement laboratory. When he was finished and satisfied that Abe had merely been shaken up, he put everything away and they joined Jo in the kitchen where she'd patiently sat the entire time. But he was thoroughly enthralled with the portable X-Ray machine he'd just used. Small, compact, lightweight, and whisper quiet. It amazed him and he wished that he had one of his own.

"I've never seen anything like that machine before," he said, grinning. "There's nothing like it where I come from."

Jo frowned, confused. "What do you mean where you come from?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you, Jo," Abe said. "This is not Henry. He's a ... uh ... cousin of Henry's."

"A very distant cousin," Henry supplied.

"Visiting from - "

" - from Wales," Henry supplied again. Was there also a Wales here? "This is not hair color and I'm taller than the Henry you know because," he laughed nervously, "I'm simply not him." He could see that Jo was skeptical. "I can prove it," he told her, his features flattening into seriousness.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Okay. Prove it. But if this is another one of your stupid tricks, Henry ... "

"I can assure you. No tricks. Now, the Henry you know has a scar from a knife wound on the side of his neck, am I correct?" he asked. She sighed tiredly and nodded, still skeptical; her arms crossed and head tilted to the side to show her annoyance. He undid the two top buttons on his shirt and showed his neck to her devoid of any scars. Her reaction was the same as Abe's and Lucas' had been.

"Where ... ?" she reached out as if she were going to touch his neck where she'd expected to see the scar, but pulled her hand back. "What's going on?" she demanded, looking back and forth between the two men.

Henry performed the same semi-striptease for her as he'd done for Lucas. "Does the Henry Morgan you know have a scar like this?" He felt that for now it was best not to overwhelm her with too many supernatural things. One at a time, he told himself. Especially since he'd noticed that she was with child.

Jo stared at Henry, perplexed. Henry stared back at her out of curiosity and alarm. For she was at least six months on but who was the father? Lucas had said that she was 'majorly pissed off' at the other man. Could it be that he was the father and he had rejected her and the baby? A cad and a scoundrel, if he had!

"Okay. I see it now. Different hair and eye colors," Jo said, nodding and uncrossing her arms. "Sorry. But you still look a lot like him." She looked him up and down again and asked, "You're not the same vain jerk he is, are you?"

"Jo - ," Abe started before Henry interrupted him.

"No, no, no, it's alright, Abraham," Henry told him. "I'd like to think that a smidgen of vanity is a good thing for anyone to have. Helps one to adopt good grooming practices and healthy eating habits in order to always present themselves at their best. But as far as being a jerk? I suppose to some," he admitted, cocking his head to the side and raising his eyebrows. "However, I like to think that my good points outweigh my bad ones."

Abe chuckled. "Your responses drag a thesaurus along with them, too."

"Well, I hope that you treat your women better than he does," she tersely replied.

Henry's heart sank at the quiet coldness in her voice. This other him had managed to hurt her. What type of idiot was he?

"Detective, I'm genuinely sorry for whatever ... my cousin has done to you to make you so upset," he told her, feeling very strongly that she was owed an apology even if it came from him.

"Doesn't matter," Jo told him. "But thank you for the apology. That was ... nice," she told him, grimacing, for 'nice' hadn't seemed to go with anyone named Henry Morgan, to her, in a long time. She looked at Abe and said, "Sorry I accused you of lying to me about Henry not being here. It's just that ... "

"What, Jo?" Abe asked.

She took in a deep breath and sighed it out before responding. "He had finally agreed to a DNA test ... "

" ... to prove that he's the father of your unborn child," Henry finished for her. "Is that it? He had the audacity to deny being the father?" As much as he didn't want to, his dislike for his doppelganger was growing stronger. Probably wasn't too healthy to despise someone that was supposed to be your mirror image. Promoted bad cosmic energy, or something. Despite feeling that way, he told her, "Then he's a fool. Sorry, Abraham."

Abe raised his eyebrows and shrugged.

"He was supposed to have taken the test today but ... " She turned to Abe and asked when he would be back.

"Uh, uh, sorry, Jo, he didn't mention anything to me about it and - "

"It's my fault, actually," Henry interrupted with what he knew was a weak smile and, admittedly, an even weaker lie. "A practical joke. I ... sent him on a wild goose chase. Something we always did to each other when we were younger." The lie was only half a lie. The practical jokes were something that he and his younger brother, Thomas, had engaged in even up until his transformation when they were both in their 30's. "If I had known of this important commitment - "

"Henry avoids commitment," she interrupted; her tone dry, wearied. "Just tell him to call me when he gets back." She began to leave then paused, remembering something. Pulling something out of her purse, she held it out to Abe.

"Almost forgot. Could you see that he gets this? It's the DNA testing kit." Abe took it from her and smiled, nodding. "Nice meeting you, um ... ?" she asked, frowning at Henry.

"It's Henry. Henry Morgan, actually," he replied. At her look of amused surprise, he explained, "A popular name passed down in our family."

"And I heard you say that you're a doctor?"

"Yes. Yes. An ME, actually."

Her mouth hung open a couple of seconds and then she said, "You two are almost mirror images of each other, then." Henry slowly rolled his eyes toward Abe, who stifled his laughter. She bid them a final goodbye and left the shop.

"Well, that didn't go as badly as I thought it would," Abe said, sighing in relief.

"Yes," Henry replied, releasing his own relieved sigh. "At least I didn't get a 'beat down'." They both laughed and returned to the living area.