Chapter 17:
Michael sat squirming in a chair as he was strapped into it and a woman in a lab coat sat down in front of him.
"Now Michael, please calm down." she said.
"Let me go! You have to believe me! I'm from another Earth!" Michael shouted.
"I know that you believe this story, but it's just not true." she said.
"I get it. All the documentation on this Earth says that I am certifiably insane, but I'm not this Earth's Michael! He's somewhere else!" Michael shouted.
"We're just going to give you something to calm you down and put you back in your room, okay?" she asked.
"It's not my room!" Michael shouted. "This is not my Earth!"
Two doctors walked in the room with surgical masks on. The woman stood up and turned to them.
"He's a writher, so you'll have to hold him down." she said.
"We've got this handled, we've done worse." the first doctor said.
"Good. I'll leave you to it." the woman said, leaving the room.
"I'll warn you guys. I'm a biter." Michael said.
"Calm down, we're only going to prescribe one dose of sliding to cure your insanity." the second doctor said as they both revealed their masks, revealing the doctors to be Sam and Rebecca, respectively.
"Oh thank god." Michael said.
"You know, you're cutting it really close." Sam said, untying Michael.
"Not my fault, how was I supposed to know that my double was criminally insane, and an escaped mental patient?" Michael asked.
"Whatever, we have to go now." Rebecca said, aiming the timer at the wall. The portal opened and they leaped through.
The trio slid out of the portal, landed on the ground and stood up and brushed themselves off.
"Let's hope this world doesn't have any insane doubles or weird taboos." Rebecca said.
"As long as we can ride out the, how much time do we have?" Michael asked.
"Ten hours." Sam said.
"Ten hours in peace, I'll be happy." Michael said.
"We all will." Rebecca said. "Where do you want to go? We don't really need the hotel for a ten hour layover."
"We can always go check out the college, see if our doubles go there and hang out in their rooms." Sam said, laughing.
"Actually, we haven't checked up at the university since the world with the evil Arturo." Michael said. "Not a bad idea."
"Let's go then!" Sam said.
The sliders walked through the gates of the university and walked to the residence hall. Michael checked the room listing.
"Hey, check this out, this world must have co-ed dorms. Cause our names are all listed for the same room." Michael said.
"Let's go check this out." Sam said.
They walked into the door and walked to the dorm room. Michael knocked on the door as Sam and Rebecca stood behind the corridor. The door opened revealing Rebecca, wearing clunky glasses and a baggy sweatshirt.
"Oh hey, Michael. Forget your key again?" Rebecca's double asked.
"Yeah," Michael said and walked into the room and shut the door.
"So, are we going to talk about what happened yesterday?" she asked.
"What's there to talk about?" Michael replied.
"Don't play stupid. We kissed, and then you left and I haven't seen you since. That's what happened." she said.
"Uh, right. I just came back to get the key, and I have to go meet Sam." Michael said.
"Sam?" Rebecca's double asked. "He left to go visit his family two days ago."
"Right..." Michael said. "I meant, one of my professors."
"Just go. Come back when you're ready to talk." she said.
Michael nervously smiled and walked out. He ran to where Sam and Rebecca were standing.
"That was awkward." Michael said.
"Why? Cause she looked like crap?" Sam asked.
"Shut up! I didn't look like crap!" Rebecca said.
"Why'd you have those glasses?" Sam asked.
"I used to wear glasses in like, my freshman year of high school, but I got contacts. I guess this version of me didn't." Rebecca said. "And the sweatshirt, well, maybe she had a bad day."
"She did." Michael said. "Apparently our doubles shared a kiss yesterday."
"Oh boy." Rebecca said. "Did she get angry at you?"
"She was pissed that I was acting clueless, but what are you gonna do?" Michael asked.
"Yeah, let's get out of here before your double shows up." Sam said.
"Good idea." Rebecca said and they walked out of the building.
"No sliding equipment in there?" Sam asked.
"Didn't see any." Michael replied.
"So we're just going to hang and hide from our doubles." Sam said.
"Good idea." Rebecca said. "We need some rest anyway."
They walked to the front of the college and saw a car speeding up from the opposite direction of traffic. A man is walking in the crosswalk, absentmindedly staring at his phone, as he goes toward the college.
"Watch out!" Michael shouted.
"Huh?" the man asked as the car hits him, and keeps going.
"Oh god." Sam said as they ran toward the man and dragged him out of the street.
"Sam, call 911." Rebecca said.
"Got it." Sam said, taking out his phone.
They turned the man over, and Michael stood up abruptly. He started to stutter as he scratched his head.
"That's me." Michael said.
"It's your double. Looks like he had... flowers." Rebecca said.
"Oh no..." Michael said. "He was going to go back to your double with these."
"They're on their way." Sam said.
The trio stood in the waiting room as Michael paced around the room. A doctor walked into the room and stopped in front of Michael.
"Are you his family?" he asked.
"I'm his, brother." Michael said.
"Well then, I don't have good news. He's taken quite a beating, that car did a number on him. Fortunately, we have the technology here that can save him. The only problem is, we don't have enough blood that matches his type to perform a surgery." the doctor said.
"Take it from me. I'm a definite match." Michael said.
"Good. We'll need some, about a pint." the doctor said. "If you can."
"Of course. I know that we're a match since we both have the rare blood type, being brothers and all." Michael said.
"Fantastic, come with me and we'll take the blood." the doctor said and led Michael into a room.
Rebecca's double ran in and Rebecca covered her face with a magazine. She ran to Sam and hugged him.
"I came as soon as I heard." she said.
"Yeah, so did I." Sam said. "I heard it was pretty bad."
"Can they save him?" she asked.
"Yeah, but they need to get blood, cause he has a rare type. But luckily a donor with the same type was in the waiting room as he asked for it." Sam said.
"That's great." she said. "I'm so worried about him. Did he tell you what happened?"
"The kiss?" Sam asked.
"So he did." she replied. "What did he say?"
"Just that it happened." Sam said,
"Okay, good." she said. "I'm going to go down to the cafeteria to get some coffee, you want?"
"No, that's fine." Sam said.
"Okay." she said and walked away.
Michael walked out grabbing his arm.
"Ow..." he said.
"All donated?" Sam asked.
"Yep, so they can save his life, and we can get out of here." Michael replied.
"Sam!" Rebecca's double shouted.
"Shit!" Michael said and ran down the hall.
"They said we can go check up on him, want to come?" she asked.
"Sure..." Sam said and they walked out. Rebecca followed behind, covering her face.
Michael ran into a room and saw his double laying in the bed. He ducked under the bed when he heard the door open.
"Oh my god." Rebecca's double said as she walked over to the bed.
"Yikes." Sam said.
"Oh, Michael. I wish I hadn't kicked you out. I hope you can hear me right now." she said.
"I can." Michael said. "And it's okay."
"What?" she asked. "Sam, did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Sam asked, feigning ignorance.
"Call this an out of body experience, but it's the only way to say it. I care about you, and none of the petty fights we have, won't change it."
"I love you too."
Suddenly a doctor burst into the room. A stretcher and nurses followed behind him.
"We need to prep the patient, you have to leave." the doctor said.
"Okay, let's go Sam." she said.
"I have to check something." Sam said.
"Okay." Rebecca's double said walking out.
Rebecca walked in and Michael rolled out from under the bed when the doctors and nurses left.
"Okay, how much time do we have?" Michael asked.
"A little under a minute." Rebecca said.
"Let's get ready." Sam said.
"Let's go." Michael said and aimed the timer at the wall as the portal appeared. They jumped through.
The door swung open and Rebecca's double ran into the room. She ran to the window.
"Sam!" she shouted. "Where is he?"
"Rebecca?" Sam's double shouted, running into the room. "I came as soon as I could, is he okay?"
"I think I'm losing my mind, Sam." Rebecca's double said.
To Be Continued...