Transplanted Life
Thursday, April 15, 2004
 
Didn't feel comfortable posting the last few days.
I didn't want to post anything that might screw the case against Dmitri. It should be open-and-shut; I'm not the only witness and the forensic evidence is pretty conclusive about who shot the gun. But, this blog certainly won't look good if I'm called to testify. If he finds it, Dmitri's lawyer could easily use it to paint me as nuts, and not a credible witness. Heck, "my" lawyer (an old boyfriend of Kate's who agreed to give me a little advice) probably thinks I'm crazy, but I also get the impression he thinks I'm hot, so he didn't bolt when I told him why Dmitri shot Carter.

It comes down to this: Dmitri is the next link up the chain from Carter. Except it's not Carter, and hasn't been for a couple months.

Let me start from the beginning. I know this, but I gather anyone else reading this would be pretty confused. That's probably why it took me up until Monday night's phone call for me to put it all together; trying to figure out which mind is in which body is like trying to follow a shell game with more than the usual number of shells, each of which has a ball under it, and you've got to remember the color. But I'll try.

I'm not sure how Dmitri got hold of the mechanism to switch the contents of brains around, but last July, he switched his father (who has been in a coma for the past five years) with the original Michelle Garber. Maybe it was only meant as a pitstop, or maybe Alexei just couldn't hack being an Alexis. So, after a couple weeks, they find someone with minimal connections - an only child who's moving clear across the country the next day, and I wake up like this. The smart thing to do would probably be to stick "me" into Alexei's body, just leaving Michelle with a gap in her memory. But maybe Alexei was telling the truth when I called him New Year's Day, and he felt he owed me. So I start making connections, it's no longer safe to switch us up, and I become Michelle.

And maybe I'd never have had a name to hang on the person in my original body, but someone gets greedy. This thing would be the perfect way to smuggle illegal aliens into the country. Dmitri spots Samantha, this barely-legal runaway girl, takes her in, figuring no-one would know if she disappeared or became someone else. Except she's terrified of flying, and there's no way he can bring her to Europe. But "Shelley", the original Michelle, might not have so many qualms.

I don't even know the name of the person who came back from Europe with Dmitri; I just assumed it was Shelley inside. God, I wonder if I made such a good impression that day that that's when he decided he wanted me for a girlfriend. One more switch, and this nameless person is in Carter's body and Carter's in Sam's.

And I knew it! Not consciously, but I'll bet that's when thing started to go wrong between me and "Carter" the first time, and then he goes for the "love potion", and I think everything's fine until I get a cold. And even then, I don't glom on to Carter not being Carter until Sam somehow escapes and calls me.

Yeah - escapes. I don't know where Dmitri had her (him) but she did not look good when she got to my place. The girl who showed up must have been barefoot before getting to Carter's apartment (I recognized the too-large sneakers on her tiny feet), she looked underfed, and Carlos tells me that the bruises on her arms and legs come from restraints. Carter must have been running on adrenaline to break into the apartment, find his old sidearm, and call me. Then fake-Carter shows up, and he must have called Dmitri, and they almost got to my building before she did.

She was ready to collapse when I saw "Sam" coming down the street. I ran out to meet him/her, Dmitri and Carter are there, he/she draws the gun but is too weak to keep hold of it. I'm just getting there when Dmitri picks the gun up, says something in Russian, gets a response in what I assume is the same language from "Carter", says something more insistent, then points the gun at me... or Sam/Carter. In our general direction. I thought I was going to die right then. I'm not ashamed to say I pissed my panties.

And then... I don't know why the guy in Carter's body does it. Maybe he thinks us loose ends can be talked to. Maybe he really likes me, but he tries to wrestle the gun out of of Dmitri's hands.

It goes off and the bullet catches Carter's body right between the eyes.

Well, the girl I'm trying to hold on to screams. Dmitri just stands there, just stunned, and it seems like an eternity (but can't be more than a few seconds) before I hear Carlos screaming at Dmitri to put the gun down, and he and his partner cuff Dmitri, call in Homicide, and also call for an ambulance because "Sam" looks like complete shit.

The detectives question me that night at the hospital; I don't tell them the whole story I'd just figured out - just that I had just broken up with "the victim" and I thought "Sam" had been going out with Dmitri up until about a month ago. They say it looks pretty straightforward. I stay with Carter at the hospital; the doctors say she's in shock, and malnourished, and it was pretty cold so she might be suffering from exposure. Around midnight, Jen shows up; Carlos must have called her.

Carter doesn't wake up until late yesterday afternoon. The police don't get much from him/her, although I just get what I'd pretty much already pieced together. By then, I've called Maggie and Kate's come by; she asks if I need a lawyer and I say I don't need one, but there are some things I'd like to know. I feel terrible leaving Carter to see this guy - Douglas Hastings, his name is - and I feel even worse coming home, but the nurses say I've got to get some sleep. I make Maggie promise to call me if Carter wants me.

Gads, those nurses are right. I really do need to get some sleep. Maybe tomorrow things will start looking up.

-Marta
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Note: This blog is a work of fantasy; all characters are either ficticious or used ficticiously. The author may be contacted at JaySeaver@comcast.net