Chapter 38: A Full Plate

"Are you okay?" Allison asked.

"I don't..." Jamie answered. "Suddenly I feel weak ... can't seem to focus..." She almost sounded drunk.

"Jimmy," Lizzy said urgently, "touch her."

I reached out and took her other arm and it seemed to steady her a little more but it could have just been the extra support. Jamie was starting to shake her head as if she were trying to wake herself up.

"Not enough," Lizzy said. She stepped in front of Jamie, took her by the shoulders, shook her to get her attention and said, "Jamie? Jamie, listen to me. You have to go back into Jimmy, right now. Do you understand me?"

It was plain she wasn't hearing what Lizzy said. I could feel her confusion and as it grew I could feel myself starting to get weak as well.

"Jimmy, you have to merge with her," Lizzy said. "Now, quickly."

"But I don't know how," I said. "She did it before."

She snapped her fingers, "Kiss her, just like in the dream; kiss her." She turned Jamie toward me as she spoke and pushed her toward me.

As I pulled her forward she collapsed in my arms, her body limp and the sudden weight pulling us both to the ground. I turned her body and gently lay her on the ground, then pressed my lips to hers. Immediately, I could feel the difference, my own strength was returning and she seemed to be regaining control as well. I broke the kiss and looked into her eyes. The movement was accompanied by a stretching sensation, like our flesh hadn't wanted to let go.

"Are you all right?"

"No," she said tiredly. "Better ... but ... Jimmy what's wrong with me?"

"I think maybe there is a limit to how long we can be apart. Jamie, I don't know how to merge with you? You have to do it."

She smiled, "You're silly, kiss me." She put her arms around my neck and pulled me down to her. As our lips met I felt a rush and suddenly I was falling as she disappeared. I managed to catch myself before my face met the ground, but only barely.

"Sorry about that," she said.

"Better now?" I asked.

"Yes, thanks."

"I'm just glad you were here when it happened. Now we just need to figure out why it happened and see that it doesn't happen again."

"I think Lizzy is right, I've never been away from you that long before."

"That was close," Lizzy said. I could tell from her voice just how concerned she was.

"What happened?" Allison asked. "One second she was fine, and then suddenly it was like she was drunk or something."

"She wasn't drunk," Lizzy said.

"She was dying, wasn't she?" I asked.

"Do you really think so?"

I didn't need to answer, Lizzy answered for me, she didn't even have to say anything, her body said it all. She wouldn't meet my eyes, just stood staring at the ground, and then she nodded. I knew she just didn't want me to see the tears in her eyes.

"I'm glad you were here," I said, folding my arms around her and pulling her close. As I did her arms came up around my neck and she cried softly against my neck. Allison quickly moved beside us, hugging us both and adding her tears as well.

"Me too," Jamie said. "Jimmy, I'm scared."

"You need to be very careful Jimmy." Allison said.

I answered them both, "I know. We're going to be a lot more careful from now on. We need to find out what the limits are and make sure we don't ever go that far again." I stepped over to the mirror and Jamie's reflection stared back at me. "How do you feel?"

"Okay," she answered, her voice seeming to come from the glass. "I don't think I want to come out again for a while though."

"That's okay, I want to try something else right now, see if it will work and if it makes a difference. Trade places with me."

"What?"

I didn't answer, just stepped into the mirror, as I did I could feel her being forced out behind me, or through me, either way, I was suddenly somewhere else staring out of a hole in space at the three of them. I didn't really feel any different, but it wasn't me I was worried about. "How do you feel now? Any weakness?"

She did that thing people do when you ask questions like that, kind of patting and touching herself carefully, "No, I'm okay."

"Need any help?" Allison asked.

Jamie grinned at her and answered, "Maybe."

I said the next part so only Lizzy would hear me, "Push her into the mirror." Jamie was still standing right in front of the mirror, looking at me with Lizzy behind her; she never even saw it coming. Suddenly Lizzy shoved her hard and she kind of fell through the glass. As she did I felt myself forced back out again.

"Good," I said. "Sorry about that, Jamie. First chance we get I want to see if we can set it up so you can do that from a remote location."

"You mean just walk back into you from Jasmine's or someplace?"

"No, I already know you can do that. If we're apart for some reason I want to be able to send someone to you and have them shove you through to me. It's a worst case thing and I don't know if it can actually be done, but I want to find out. And if it won't work then I want to find something else that will. Jamie, I don't want to take a chance of something happening to you like that. Until we find out what the limits are, I think it would be best if you stay with me as much as possible. Short trips like Mikkelson and the thing with Jasmine last night are apparently fine, but when you come back, you come back to me, okay? Promise me."

"Jimmy, you're over-thinking this," Allison said.

"What do you mean?"

"If she is away and something happens you can go in from wherever you are. I don't think it matters which one is 'out' just as long as you are together. It's kind of weird to try and figure out the dynamics, I mean, we can still see you both and it's weird to think that even though I'm seeing you both you are actually merged. I think the mirror is just a symbol for you. Something your mind will recognize and accept. You say you don't know how to merge so you create a ... an interface ... that you can accept. The mirror is like a special doorway, allowing you to do something without consciously understanding what it is you are doing."

I could see Lizzy suppressing a smile, "Go ahead, say it; A window to my soul?"

She nodded, "Yeah."

"What?" Allison asked.

"Lizzy has been thinking about all the clichès that apply to Jamie and me."

"You can tell me about it later, for now I think the important thing is that you two need to experiment and practice merging so that no matter what happens, this won't happen again." She stepped forward and stroked her hand over the mirror's surface. "I finally got the sister I've always wanted, I don't want to lose her."

Jamie didn't answer, but she placed her hand on the inside of the glass opposite Allison's, I could see her eyes start to tear and then she faded away and the mirror vanished.

"I love her so much," she said.

"Yeah, I know. Me too."

My phone chose that moment to ring. It was Rebecca and she didn't bother with pleasantries, "They're looking for Roxy. Pastor Keen called this morning and said that there was a detective at the church asking about her. He was there interviewing the staff before Keen arrived. Several of them confirmed that they had seen her at Sunday services for a few weeks but that they hadn't spoken to her. I suspect he'll be back this weekend looking for her and asking some of the parishioners if they know anything about her."

"I don't see that being a problem," I answered. "We've never been there before so even though I'm sure they'll remember us sitting with her, nobody will know who we are. Keen was the only one with any information and he gave that back. If we don't go back no one will be able to point us out, the trail ends there. All they can assume is that she found a way to move on somewhere else or something happened to her."

"I was thinking the same thing. I just wanted to warn you not to go back there for a while. If we play this right it could easily work out in our favor."

"Anything else going on we need to know about?"

"I got a call from Amy's doctor. Something happened over the weekend and for a second they weren't sure if she was going to wake up or drop dead. Scared the bejesus out of them, but then she settled down again."

That caught my attention but I didn't think I wanted to tell her what I thought might have caused it. "Well, hopefully it was the former. We had a thought here as well. When I get in to see Kurtz again, I'm going to talk to him about how he would go about stopping the killer if it was a case he was working. We're hoping that maybe he can give us some help in that area."

"Well, at this point I'll take all the help I can get. We know he's still in the area but for all intents and purposes he might as well be in Tahiti. Also, the lawyer for our friend in Palm Springs is making noise about our methods; wants to know where the tip came from. Also, he's challenging for a reduction in bail. We knew the no bail was a long shot; most judges won't keep a guy locked up that long. They had him at half a million; the attorney is arguing that it's unreasonable. The DA is arguing that he's a flight risk because he has no real ties to the community; no family, that kind of thing. He's afraid we'll lose him if gets out."

"Ha! Rebecca, no way are you going to lose him. I guarantee it."

"Ah ... I see."

"He can't run far enough, fast enough. I don't care where he goes; I'll still be able to find him."

"You going to add bounty hunter to secret witness?"

"Well, the money might be nice but I don't think so. More like I'd make sure he turned himself in. He's got a much better chance with the court than he will ever have with me. I already know he's guilty." The rest of what she had said finally registered, "What were you saying about them questioning the tip?"

"Just that. They want to know why we seemed to have the girl staked out. We told them the truth, we got an anonymous tip telling us that he was targeting girls in big families, and someone noticed that all of the girls' family vehicles had those stick figures with the names on them. He's going to flip when he finds out we've got audio on the guy. I'm not sure how I'm going to justify the transmitter."

"Why would you need to?" I asked. "I mean, won't they be more worried about the jury hearing what it picked up than how it got there."

"Welcome to the judicial system. If the attorney thinks he's got a shot at getting a judge to throw it out he'll push, and if the judge tosses it then none of the audio would be admissible in court. I don't think it will hurt the case that much; after all, we caught him in the act of kidnapping her. The torn clothes and the connection to the previous rapes should be plenty. I think if nothing else the DA will keep it as a threat for ammo in the plea-bargaining. The attorney is much more likely to roll over than risk the audio coming out in front of a jury. Little girls screaming have a way of making you look bad."

"I'm still not comfortable with the idea of plea bargaining." I said.

"I understand, its only saving grace is the amount of money it saves the government. If it weren't for the number of cases that are bargained, we would be losing cases because we couldn't bring them to trial in a reasonable time. Unfortunately it does mean that a lot more bad guys seem to get off with a slap on the wrist, but sometimes you have to take what you can get."

I bit my tongue and didn't say any more. "Okay, well, keep me posted on all that and I'll keep you up to date on anything I can get out of Kurtz." As I was putting my phone away I caught the time.

"Wow, I didn't realize it was so late. She must have really been busy if she is just now getting to bed..." I stopped as I suddenly realized what I was saying. Lizzy and Allison were both doing their best not to burst out laughing.

I was doing my best not to blush too much. Then a familiar voice said, "Boys!" and I felt myself go darker. Finally Allison took pity and rescued me by changing the subject.

"So what's the latest news from Fed-Town? You were talking about Roxy, weren't you?"

"Yeah, the police were at the church today asking about her. As long as we don't go back we should be fine. The good news is that no one even has to lie about her. All they know is that they saw her around a couple weekends. No one really talked to her, and no one knows us either so they can't tell them who she was sitting with. We're hoping they will think she moved on. I'll have to talk to Susan about it, I'm sure Roxy will want to go to church, but I think Susan better find some place away from here if she's going to take her."

Since I'd already seen Bob and just talked to Rebecca I was a little surprised when my phone rang again. I was even more surprised when I saw it was Jasmine calling. I had added kind of the ultimate caller ID system to my phone. It actually shows me who is calling.

"My Lady, this is an unexpected pleasure, how may I help you?"

"You flatter me. May I speak with you?"

"Certainly, I will be along shortly." I closed the phone and put it away again.

"Jasmine needs to talk to me, you two want to stay here or should I drop you some place?"