Chapter 9: Jason

"Perhaps I can answer that for you Miss O’Malley," boomed a man’s voice that turned all heads and got Kate’s attention. He was tall, handsome and had a killer smile. She recognized him immediately as Jason Bolt, the eldest of the three Bolt brothers.

"Now as to where you are," he waved his arms in the air. "You’re aboard the Shamus O’Flynn, why the finest ship we could secure for your safe passage."

"Jason you mean the only ship you could secure." Candy quipped as the other girls giggled.

Jason rolled his eyes but was undaunted. "Now as to why you're here ... well ... for the same reason as every other young lady aboard ... to build a new life in Seattle, to find a man to share that new life with and to grow as Seattle grows. Now does that answer your question Miss O’Malley?"

She nodded silently, noting the piece of the puzzle he had given her without knowing. He’d called her "Miss O’Malley", making her Maggie O’Malley, which was the pen name she’d adopted in secondary school and why the name seemed her own and yet not her own. It was yet another connection between the two worlds.

Jason moved closer to her bed and smiled, "I’m glad you’re feeling better now, because for a while there I thought I was only going to be bringing 99 brides to Seattle."

"I’m not so sure she is feeling better Jason." Candy’s voice was filled with concern, "She says her name's not Maggie and that nothing here is real ... not even us."

Jason, calm as she had always remembered him, seemed unfettered by these wild accusations. He rubbed his chin and smiled as he regarded her prone form. "I see ... well now Miss O’Malley, or whomever you are," he gently corrected himself as he tapped his chest. "Am I real?"

He gently took Biddie's hand in his, "What about Miss Kloom here? She certainly feels real.

He pounded his fist on a wooden beam, "Feels pretty real to me."

"And smells real too!" Biddie wrinkled her nose and giggled.

Jason gripped the footboard of her bed and shook it gently. "Can you feel that?

She managed a weak smile which brought a wider one from him, "Now ... do you honestly believe that everything and everyone you see and hear and feel is ... is some sort of illusion?"

His logic seemed inescapable, his charm certainly was, but she had to stand or at least sit on the truth. "I know I sound crazy and I know everything seems real ... and all of you are so ... so real, but ... I'm sorry, really sorry but ... you can’t possibly be real ... and if I told you why you’d never believe me. I’m not even sure if I believe me. Honestly, I’m ... I’m beginning to wonder if I’m even real."

Her voice trembled and tears threatened as the tug of war between reality and fantasy had her caught in an emotional taffy pull. "I’m sorry ... I’m so sorry. I just don’t understand any of this. I don’t know how I got here ... I don’t know who I am ... at least who I really am ... I ... I really must be going crazy."

Chapter 10: Dr Mike

"Now as the only physician on board ..." a woman’s voice caught everyone's attention and silenced the room, "don’t you think I should be the one making that diagnosis?"

She was smartly dressed and beautiful, just like all the women in attendance. She had a black medical bag in hand, a knowing smile on her lips and an empathy in her eyes that instilled trust and calmness in her patients.

Kate recognized her immediately but stared in stunned silence. The rest of the room has no such difficulties as the doctor was besieged by a chorus of "Doctor Mike!" from some, while others tried to offer their own nonmedical opinion.

Raising her hand in the air, she quieted the crowd. "Okay everyone. Calm down and let me examine my star patient."

She sat down gently, smiling, as she looked into her bag and made small talk bedside. "I'm so sorry Maggie that it took me so long to get here. I was dealing with an outbreak of seasickness among the crew, which greatly resembled someone suffering the ill effects of drink, and interestingly coincided with the missing case of whiskey from Captain Clancy's private stock."

The room laughed but her humor appeared lost on the stone faced Kate. The doctor's smile drained as she realized it was time to get to work. She took the hand of her lifeless patient and then felt her forehead with the other.

"Pulse is strong .. .fever’s broken ... aside from being a little pale I think the worse is over."

"I wouldn’t be so sure, Doctor Mike," Candy corrected her with a look of concern.

Up until this point, Kate had been a silent spectator. Finally she found her voice with something that was half question and half statement. "You're Doctor Quinn ... Doctor Michaela Quinn ... Doctor Michaela Quinn medicine woman?"

The doctor chuckled, "Well ... yes I guess you could call me a woman of medicine and my first name is Michaela but you girls have been calling me Dr. Mike since before we set sail. You do remember that, don't you Maggie?"

The confused expression on her patient's face said there was some doubt, and had her taking a closer look at her eyes. Kate recoiled immediately. "I do remember that, no ... I mean I don’t remember that but I remember you and ... and you don’t belong here. You don’t belong in this story, and if I told you why," her voice trailed off in exhaustion, "you’d never believe me either."

Kate knew an explanation was pointless and would only confirm her own diagnosis of insanity. How could she explain to the characters of one television show that a character of another television show was doing a cameo on their show? As impossible as it sounded, she knew it was the truth.

Like Here Comes the Brides ... Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman was another blast from television past. The program aired for six seasons in the mid 1990’s and centered around a woman doctor and her family from Boston who traveled west in the post-Civil War era. The show was another of Kate's classic favorites which is why she recognized the good doctor immediately, and why she was even more confused. She was already struggling with her appearance into one story universe, but with the addition of a character from another story universe she had absolutely no clue as to what to expect next.

Her wait was a short one as Doctor Mike asked the question of the day that she’d been avoiding, "Maggie, you say I don’t belong? Why don’t I belong?"

The pressure of trying to hold two worlds apart finally got the better of her. "Because there is no doctor yet! Jason doesn’t go to San Francisco to get a doctor until the second episode, and besides that ... you have your own show on a different network like 25 years later."

Kate slumped in her bed and thought, Well now I’ve done it. They're gonna put me overboard for sure. She closed her eyes in fear and embarrassment, afraid to face everyone after her tirade.

A gentle caress of her hand induced her to open her eyes to a room of friends who looked at her only with love and concern. "Maggie," Doctor Mike squeezed her hand. "Now even though I don’t understand most of what you just said, I don't think you’re crazy. In fact ... you remind me of someone who's been through a traumatic event, like a war or near death experience."

"Or a high fever for a long period of time?" Candy asked.

"Yes ... like a high fever for an extended period of time. In cases like this, people have often woke disoriented, distressed and in denial of the world around them. The mind, unable to cope with a traumatic event or under extreme stress in the real world, allows the imagination to create another world in which it can survive. When these people finally awake, they often find themselves having difficulty differentiating between the two worlds. Of course, I’ve only read about this in medical journals, and I can’t be sure that’s what's happened to you, but I think it could be."

"Doctor Mike?" Biddie jumped in. "Would somebody with a really good imagination be someone who could well ... you know ... sort of catch like what you're talking about? Because Maggie has a great imagination. I just love those stories she writes, especially the romances. Why, I don't know how I would've survived these last six months without some of her stories to keep me warm," she added with a blush and a giggle.

"Oh Biddie," Candy rolled her eyes and laughed with everyone else including the patient who thanked her shipmate for the compliment, a fact not escaping the doctor's attention.

"As a matter of fact your right Biddie, someone like Maggie who has great imagination and writing ability, could create a world so real in certain situations, that she might have great difficulty trying to separate fact from fiction once the crisis has passed."

Kate, having listened to the doctor's analysis quietly, finally ventured in. "Assuming that what you say is true, that all of this is from having a fever for so long, is there ... well is there some treatment for this?"

Doctor Mike smiled reassuringly. "Honestly it’s already begun."