The six of them were still seated in a circle in a nearly empty park. They all looked around but only Gwen and Rose were confused.
"You! You did this on purpose!" shouted Rose looking at Alex.
Both of Rose's hands curled into fists as she stood up. She raised one arm and her hand glowed as she ran towards Alex. Alex stood up quickly ready to defend herself but Liz reacted faster and stopped Rose by grabbing her.
Liz explained, "It had to be this way. It was the only way to get us home."
Rose tried to pull away from Liz to reach Alex. Peter had gotten up while Liz had been talking and grabbed Rose's arm with the non-glowing hand.
Peter said, "You need to calm down. Hitting Alex won't help anything. We all more or less agreed to this."
"It will help! It was all her! She knew..." Rose's shouting became softer. "How are you doing that? Stop that!" Rose's fist stopped glowing and unclenched.
Peter replied, "I didn't know that I was doing anything. I was just trying to help."
Alex asked Rose, "Are we good now?"
Rose responded, "Hell no! Just 'cause I'm no longer mad enough to hit you doesn't mean anything."
Rose began to walk away from the group.
"Where are you going?" asked Sam.
Rose answered, "Leaving. We're home now. Who cares where I'm going."
Gwen was going to respond but Sam beat her to it. "We might not be. David said this would get us closer to home with a small chance of us actually landing in our own world. You need to stay with us. ... We'll find out if we're home and if we are, you can walk off and do whatever you want."
Rose was still mad but didn't want to wander around an unknown dimension alone so she stayed with them.
As they walked out of the park, Rose lagged behind the others. It was her way of pretending that she wasn't with them. Gwen wasn't happy with them either but wasn't sure how she felt exactly. She walked beside Peter because she knew that he was the least involved in the plan. Across the street was a small store that resembled a convenience store.
Sam said, "Alex and I will go in and see if we can find a map. It should be enough to tell us if we're in the right world. All we know is we're definitely not in our city."
The two of them went inside the store while the others waited outside in silence. Liz and Peter would have preferred speaking but there was too much tension among the group.
Alex and Sam came out within five minutes. Sam looked disappointed.
Sam told the others, "According to the map, our city doesn't exist and neither does our nation. And our money doesn't resemble theirs."
Liz commented, "It's doubtful we could get a hotel that compares to our last one anyway."
Sam smiled and responded, "Ya, that was an awesome hotel. We can look for something decent and free here... unless the two of you aren't too upset to make another portal."
Rose didn't answer and Gwen muttered, "We can make one."
Liz said, "Let's go find somewhere more private then."
Liz led them away from the park and the people walking around.
They walked for ten minutes before finding an empty path to use. The path extended between two buildings that appeared abandoned and behind the one to their left. There was also a tall black wooden fence behind the buildings. It seemed like a good place to not be noticed.
As they walked on the path between the buildings, someone shouted, "Gn! Gn!"
It was the Greg from that dimension. He was running towards them.
He added, "Wat ya dng! Soppd be has! Go bk!"
Gwen didn't understand him. Hoping that it would make him go away, she answered, "Yeah, give me five minutes."
"No! Go bk nk!" shouted the other Greg as he reached Gwen and grabbed her arm.
When he tugged at her arm, Gwen punched him in the face. It knocked him unconscious.
Sam said, "Let's hurry up before someone else who thinks they know us shows up."
Sam hurried to the back of the building. The others quickly followed her. The back of the structure had a garage door but no vehicles nor people were in sight. Gwen and Rose hurried to make a portal, then the six of them walked through it.

Splash, splash, splash, splash, splash, splash.
They had each stepped into air and fallen into the body of cold water below them. Fortunately for them, they all knew how to swim and the shore was close.
On the shore, Sam said disappointedly, "If this is the right city, we're still not home."
Liz commented, "All I see is farm land and some cabins. I don't think we'll find a hotel here. I could really use a bath."
Alex suggested, "We might be able to find a bed and breakfast if this city attracts tourists."
Sam joked, "Or we can offer to crop someone's land for shelter and food."
Peter took the bag off his back to wring the bottom half of his shirt. When he was done, he opened the bag. "Wow. Everything is still dry. When that world tells you their stuff is waterproof, they really mean it."
Liz replied, "That's good. It's also a good thing it's warm outside or I might be more tempted to change right here."
The six of them walked away from the lake on ground composed of sand and dirt until they found a dirt road to follow. Again, Rose walked behind the rest of them.
On the road, a couple of cabins appeared every few minutes. Some of them had vehicles nearby and most had lights on inside.
While walking, Liz went up to Gwen and apologized, "I'm sorry about my comment about you during the drinking game. I only said it for the plan to work. I don't think there's anything wrong with feeling or not feeling that way by now."
Gwen replied, "Yeah." She didn't want to talk about it and ended the conversation there.
After half an hour of walking, they found a cabin with a "for sale" sign which had no illuminated lights inside nor any vehicles nearby. The lawn appeared to have been neglected for months. They assumed that the place was abandoned.
Sam said, "It's not a bed and breakfast but I think this is as good as it gets. Or do you all want to keep looking?"
Liz commented, "It looks better than the last abandoned building we were in."
No one objected to staying there so they went inside.
The wooden walls holding up the small house were deteriorating. The structure had one medium-sized open space to the right, a small kitchen in the back, and a small room and bathroom to the left past the front entrance. There was little furniture. There were only a bed, which took up all of the space in the small bedroom, and a chair in the kitchen. Liz and Peter called dibs on the bed. There was no running water so the six of them changed into dry clothes without washing themselves and drank from their water bottles. The kitchen had a door leading outside where they found a smaller cabin and clothes lines, which they used to dry their clothes. Rose wanted to separate herself from the others so she went to sleep in the smaller cabin. It was clean for an area that had been abandoned. It was a large empty space with a stack of hay in one of the back corners. Rose spread out the seemingly clean hay to make a bed for herself.
Inside the bigger cabin, Liz and Peter went to bed while Alex, Gwen and Sam gathered in the main room. Peter was tired due to all of the stress from the past few days and Liz was still regaining her strength from the stab wound. The others weren't as tired and stayed awake after taking out the sleeping bag. Only Alex and Sam spoke while Gwen stared crossly at Sam.
Eventually, Sam asked Gwen, "What? What is it?"
"I can't believe you. That was your plan? Was it worth it? We're not even home!" answered Gwen.
"It was definitely worth a try. 'Sides, I believed David. I still do. I feel we're closer to home than before. I won't apologize like Liz. The plan only worked because of how you acted. That's not on me."
"I'm sure there was another way. But what do you care. You only think a relationship can mean anything with sex."
"That's not true. Other things matter too. But sex matters more. Don't take your issues out on me."
"You're the one who tried to ruin what I have. How can you tell me it didn't affect your decision when I'm not sure you even enjoy being with Alex or any other of your girlfriends when you're not having sex?"
"We enjoy each other plenty. Alex and I are good. We care about each other AND have lots of sex. Nothing wrong with that."
Alex said, "We also play a lot of video games." When Gwen glared at her, Alex added, "... Aanndd I'll stay out of this."
Gwen didn't reply to either of them. She left the room and went out the back door.
Rose was half-asleep when the cabin door opened. It was Gwen.
"Are you still mad?" asked Gwen.
"Is there a reason that I shouldn't be?" answered Rose.
"Yes." Gwen walked over to the stack of hay and lay beside Rose.
Rose put her arm around her. "Go on."
"About what?"
"The reason that I shouldn't be mad. Like maybe you were in on the plan. Or you were too shy to admit anything because everyone else was around."
"Neither of those are true."
"Then why shouldn't I be upset?"
"Because there's no reason to be upset. I never said I didn't feel anything."
"So I don't get anything more than just 'you made that up. It's not true'?"
In a tone that implied that there was more to say but she couldn't get herself to say it, Gwen replied, "Yup."
Rose removed her arm from Gwen's body to turn over to her side away from Gwen. Gwen reached out to take Rose's arm but wasn't fast enough.
Rose said, "I'll be over on this side making things up while you keep what I need to know to yourself."
Gwen didn't respond.

Rose woke up alone the following day. She exited the small cabin and noticed that the clothes lines were empty. She also noticed the yellow suns above her in the blue sky indicating that they weren't in their dimension. She entered the other structure through the kitchen door. Everyone else was awake and prepared to leave.
Liz said, "Here." She threw a snack bar at Rose. "We're going to try to catch a ride to a bigger city. There, we'll find somewhere more comfortable to sleep until we leave this dimension. I found some money left behind by the previous owners. Our money looks almost the same so we should be ok. I also took their money but it's not much."
As Liz and Rose walked to the front door, Gwen said to Rose, "You have hay on you."
Rose replied, "I like it that way. It's sexy."
When Gwen turned around, Rose removed the remaining hay from her hair and her pants.
Alex grabbed their bag before the six of them left the house and walked on the same dirt road that they had followed the previous day. It took several minutes before a vehicle was seen. It was a sedan. It wasn't big enough for all of them so they let it pass. Another five minutes went by before they saw another vehicle. That time, it was a pick-up truck so Sam waved it down. The vehicle stopped and Sam went to speak with the driver. Less than a minute later, Sam waved to the others to get into the back of the pick-up truck.
The ride into the city felt like an hour to them. It actually took closer to half an hour but none of them had spoken much during the trip so it seemed longer. The driver dropped them off in front of a noodle restaurant before continuing their drive.
Peter exclaimed, "It's like the driver read my mind. Is anyone else hungry?"
Sam agreed, "Ya, let's go." She wasn't hungry but there was enough tension between one another and she didn't want to disagree with something as small as a request to eat.
Inside the restaurant, they sat themselves at a table near a diamond-shaped window near the front door. There were forty tables laid out in the room, which was illuminated by the sunlight coming through the dozen small windows. Four of the larger tables in the back were filled with people. Two women were opening the kitchen doors to serve their new customers when they were pulled back into the kitchen. They both gave their father, who had grabbed them, a confused stare.
Pointing at the camera screen, he told them, "Look."
Two of their soon to be customers looked exactly like them.
"How is that possible?" exclaimed one of the daughters.
"What do we do?" asked the other daughter assuming that her father hadn't pulled them back merely to point out their doubles.
Their father answered, "We do what we always do: take advantage of the situation. I'll serve them. One of the two is bound to separate themselves from the group. That's when one of you will replace her. Otherwise, we'll follow them later and take it from there."
One of the daughters pointed out, "You're assuming they have gifts. For all we know, they only happen to look like us and that's it."
The father replied, "No, I can sense they're not from here. People don't travel across the universe without having gifts of some kind."
"Travel across the universe? What?" asked one of the daughters.
Her father didn't answer her. He stepped out of the kitchen and approached his new customers.
Before their meals arrived, Gwen went to the bathroom, which was at the other end of the restaurant. On her way out, she was snatched by the daughters. They covered her mouth with a cloth to block her screams. Gwen tried to get into their minds to cause them to seizure but something blocked her ability. The sisters dragged Gwen into the restaurant's stone basement. The basement had three wooden cells on its left side and a cracked stone wall on its right side. One of the daughters threw Gwen into the third cell.
When the door was locked behind Gwen, Sam's double told Gwen's double, "Go to the table. I'll see what information I can get out of her before you leave."
The alternate Gwen went back upstairs and joined the other five at the table. Rose watched her sit down and continued to stare at her.
"What?" said Gwen's double afraid that she had already blown her cover.
Rose responded, "Nothing."
The father brought them their meals and they ate the noodles and soup in their bowls.

In the basement, the alternate Sam tried to read Gwen's mind.
"So it's the reverse here? You can read minds and I can make fireballs?" asked Gwen trying to distract Sam's double from reading her mind.
"Fireballs? No. We can steal people's gifts. Since I already have one similar to yours, I'll let Gwen have it. That does explain why it's hard to read you."
While the alternate Sam spoke, Gwen tried to communicate with the others upstairs.
Sam's double said, "Don't bother. For some reason, telepathic signals don't cross properly between here and there. I think it has to do with our equipment in the kitchen."
"Why didn't she take my abilities while she was down here?" asked Gwen. She was grateful that it gave her more time to find a way out but was curious and assumed that she was safe for the moment.
A little annoyed, Sam's double replied, "Everyone thinks it's so easy. There's a whole process to it. It takes hours. It took me four hours to get this mind reading gift. Another three hours to recover. Which is why we have the cells. We need you to stay in the same spot." The alternate Sam smiled. "You might be hard to read but I think I have enough information to get us two of your friends."
When the others finished their meals and asked for the bill, the alternate Sam returned upstairs to telepathically tell her sibling what she had learnt.
The alternate Sam told the alternate Gwen telepathically, - At least three of them have gifts, including the one that looks like me. She's her sister or her roommate. The one to your left also has gifts. The one downstairs is dating her.
Gwen's double thought, - Dating her? Like how I date men? How am I supposed to pretend to be into her? The plan is already ruined.
- Calm down. Don't focus on it. Pretend she's a man if you have to. It's the same thing. We should be able to complete the plan in a couple of hours. Calm down. You can do it.
- Aight. I can do this. Flirting is flirting and kissing is kissing, right? I can figure out the rest if I need to. I got this.
- Good. And be careful. I couldn't read their gifts. They might be much stronger than you. They seem to all be friends, therefore, you should be able to get a couple of them back here by doing the same thing we did to the teleporters.

The group paid the bill, then left the restaurant with Gwen's double. Outside, the alternate Gwen took Rose's hand but Rose pulled away.
Gwen's double was confused and asked, "What's wrong... sweetie?"
Rose gave her a look as if she said something wrong but only responded, "The same clearly unimportant thing as last night."
Before the alternate Gwen could reply, Rose stepped away from her and walked around Peter to put him in between the two of them.
Two blocks away, they found a small hotel. Alex and Sam went inside to check the price. For the next couple of minutes, Rose stared at the Gwen in front of her while the others spoke to one another.
"Something you want to tell me?" asked the alternate Gwen.
"Something YOU want to tell me?" asked Rose not quite sure what she meant by her own words.
The alternate Gwen replied, "No. If you want to ask me something, go ahead. I'll answer."
"You'll answer my questions?" asked Rose becoming suspicious.
"Of course."
Alex and Sam returned and interrupted the conversation.
Sam said, "Good news. They have two connecting rooms for a hundred."
Speaking to Rose, Alex added, "We already took your wallet and paid for it."
Rose checked her pockets not believing that they had taken her wallet without her noticing it. Her pockets had only her keys.
Sam handed Rose back her wallet. "It's one of my fingers' many skills."
Alex said, "We'll take one room and you can take the other." She turned around and took Sam's arm.
"Wait," said Liz, "it's Gwen and Rose's turn to have a room to themselves."
"What are they going to do with it?" replied Sam.
"We can do plenty!" exclaimed the alternate Gwen. The others assumed that she meant it only as a comeback to get the room.
Sam felt bad about having hurt Gwen the previous night so she let her have the second room.

In the restaurant's basement, the alternate Sam kept trying to get information from Gwen. She hoped to discover who had which abilities. That way, if she spoke to her sibling before the second part of their plan, they could capture the strongest in the group.
Sam's double said, "I figure your girlfriend will be the easiest to get back here. Which leaves who out of the others should we take. You mentioned the other me having a fire-related gift but those aren't rare here."
Gwen replied, "What makes you think your plan will work? I'm not the kind of person who goes around saying 'follow me'."
"Same way you convince many people to do many things: sex." She analyzed Gwen's reaction. "You two haven't had sex yet? The first time will make this work even easier. Gwen's never had it this easy."
"If you're so happy with your plan, why did you just feel bad for me?"
"I know what it's like to be in your position but I don't feel bad enough to stop my sister. A few years ago, I dated someone who was also seeing someone else. We both knew about each other and were fine with it. I wanted to be the first one he slept with. She beat me to it. It really got to me. ... Anyway, I have customers waiting. Whoever we get back here and whatever gift we get will have to be a surprise."

The six of them entered the same hotel room. It was big enough to have two twin beds but it had only one single bed at the end of the room behind a red recliner chair on a oval pink carpet. The walls were painted dark yellow and the small window at the end of the room had thin bright yellow curtains.
Rose opened the door joining the two rooms and while entering the other room, she said, "I'm going back to bed."
Rose went to lie down on the bed. The alternate Gwen went into the same room and closed the door behind her. The alternate Gwen walked over to the bed and lay next to Rose.
The other Gwen said, "I have a better idea than sleeping." She tried to kiss Rose but Rose gently pushed her away.
Rose responded, "Not unless you give me a reason to not be mad."
"Oh, come on. Whatever I said, I didn't mean it." The alternate Gwen slid her hand down Rose's abdomen to her pants.
Rose pushed that Gwen's hand away from her body and got off the bed. "What are you doing? And which part didn't you mean? That you didn't intentionally not drink or that it's not true that I only inferred I don't mean anything?"
"Is that what you want to hear? You mean something? I care about you."
"I'm not sure what I want to hear but I know I want more than just 'I care'."
"What? I love you? I love you." The alternate Gwen got off the bed, approached Rose and put her hands on the top of Rose's pants.
"Would you stop touching my pants!"
"Come on, I admit I was wrong and I take it back. I'm trying to show you how I feel."
"How? By taking off my pants to have sex or something? That doesn't prove anything."
"Of course, it does. You're refusing to see it because you prefer to be mad."
"Not believing that sex proves you feel something real doesn't mean I enjoy being mad."
"You're over-reacting. Go ask your friend what she thinks and when you feel better, I'll be right here." Gwen's double sounded confident even though she had no idea whose side Rose's friend would take.
Rose went into the other room and made sure to close the door between the two rooms.
Rose declared, "I think she's been replaced."
"What? Why?" responded Alex not taking the claim seriously. She was sitting on the recliner chair with Sam on her lap. Her hands were at the edge of Sam's skirt.
Rose answered, "She's talking differently. She keeps trying to take off my pants."
Alex said, "I get it. You're nervous about your first time."
Rose replied, "No! She's not her."
Sam said, "It's ok to be nervous. We all get nervous the first time. Don't worry about screwing up. The beauty of sex in relationships is you get a second chance to make up for it. Here's a tip that always helps me: don't over-think it."
Rose replied, "I'm not nervous! It's not her. Didn't you see her freckles? They're not in the same place."
"Okay, buddy, you're being ridiculous. Stop being scared and go back in there. Everything will be fine." Alex used her telekinesis to carry Rose back into the other room.
In the second room, the alternate Gwen moved towards Rose. Rose stepped away and exited through the main door. In the hallway, Liz stood by the other room's door.
"Where are you going?" asked Rose.
Liz answered, "Wherever you are."
Rose looked confused.
Liz added, "Maybe you didn't notice but I was in the room too. I believe you. Well, not entirely. Your reasoning sounds a little crazy but it would be stupid to dismiss it. After all, we have doubles in these dimensions. I think it's a sign we're close to home. I told Peter to keep Gwen busy. He must be glad you chose fear. He would have been uncomfortable walking in on that. Even more so than staying in this room here."
"I'm not scared. She can't just try to do that after what happened... and I have a thing with my pants. I'm not scared."
"Do you want to find out if you're crazy or do you want to keep trying to convince me you're not scared? I'm thinking she was switched at the restaurant."
Rose agreed, "Yeah, that makes sense."
The two of them returned to the restaurant without telling the others.

In the second hotel room, Peter sat on the corner of the bed and Gwen's double was on the mattress' edge.
Peter lied, "Don't worry. With everything going on, Rose just needs some air to deal with all of her mixed emotions. It's better to deal with them before taking the next step with you." He too found that Gwen's recent behaviour was odd but figured that it was as likely a reaction to what had happened the previous day as Gwen having been switched for another.
"Yes, I suppose. Because I wouldn't want to rush her... because I care." The alternate Gwen had difficulty thinking of what to say next. She had never imagined that Rose would walk away. No one had ever declined her offer to have sex. She could only think of how it ruined the plan.
"Liz is talking to her now. She should be back soon. Liz can be very convincing."
"Right. Thank you."
They sat in silence for two minutes. The alternate Gwen realized that she must have screwed up. There could have easily been something important that she should have known and she had proven to Rose that she had no idea what that was. She was convinced that the others suspected something. The alternate Gwen got off the bed and opened the main door to see if anyone was in the hallway. When she saw that it was empty, she walked up to Peter, forcefully grabbed his arm and pulled him off the bed. Peter tried to pull his arm back but her touch became cold. Very cold. An icy feeling crept throughout his arm as Gwen's double hauled him into the other room.
The opening of the door between the two rooms caught Alex and Sam by surprise. They both jumped out of the bed in which they had been lying. Alex quickly took one of the sheets to cover herself while Sam stood there naked. Peter quickly shut his eyes and turned his head away.
"Can you please hold me hostage in the other room?" asked Peter uncomfortable.
"What are you doing?" asked Sam. "... She was right. I noticed a difference, I —"
Peter screamed in pain as ice formed over the alternate Gwen's fingers and around his arm.
"Let him go! Take me if you need a hostage!" yelled Sam.
Sam looked at Alex as if she were asking her to do something about the situation.
Alex whispered, "I can't. Not without moving both of them. I tried."
The alternate Gwen shouted pointing at Alex with her free hand. "I want you! I feel you have the greater gift. Come with me!"
Not taking the situation seriously, Alex replied, "All right, I'm coming. Though Rose is probably on her way to find the real Gwen. She was already mad before you came along. I can only imagine now. I'm glad I had nothing to do with this part."
The alternate Gwen responded, "My family can defend themselves."
"Against Rose and Liz?" replied Sam with a tone of doubt. She wasn't sure where Liz had gone but hoped to convince the Gwen in front of her that the two were together. "They have lethal abilities. Mix what we did to her yesterday and you taking her girlfriend. Someone is going to get hurt. Bad!"
Gwen's double looked at Sam to determine if she was telling the truth. If it were true, then her father and her sister might not be strong enough to protect themselves. She couldn't take that chance. She let go of Peter and ran out of the room.
The cold that Peter felt faded.
Sam said, "It's ok, Peter. She's gone. It's safe now."
Peter opened his eyes. When he saw Sam, he quickly closed them again feeling uneasy. "You're still naked."
Sam responded, "What's the big deal? Ok, I'll get dressed."
As Alex and Sam got dressed, Sam added, "We better go after her to find Rose, Liz and the real Gwen."
When she was dressed, Sam assured Peter that it was safe to open his eyes. Peter opened them slowly unsure if she was trying to trick him. He was glad to see her with clothes on. The three of them ran out of the hotel hoping to see the alternate Gwen in order to follow her. None of them knew where she went. When they couldn't see her, Sam suggested that they retrace their steps so the three of them headed to the restaurant.

Liz and Rose walked to the restaurant in silence. Liz wanted to apologize for their plan and to ask Rose how she was handling it and Gwen possibly being taken since Rose's mood affected the portals. However, Liz didn't want to push the conversation unless Rose started it and Rose wouldn't say a word.
At the restaurant, Rose broke the silence. "Now what? Do we search the whole place?"
Liz suggested, "Gwen was only alone when she went to the bathroom. Let's check there."
As they made their way to the other end of the building, the father of the women came out of the kitchen and asked, "Where's your other friend?"
Liz wasn't sure to whom he was referring but assumed that it meant something significant to him. "She's on her way."
The father replied, "Good. Good."
He returned to the kitchen. Liz and Rose reached the bathroom door and noticed another door beside it with the writing "staff only".
Liz suggested, "Maybe here."
Rose replied, "You can check but I assume that it's just another bathroom."
Liz opened the door and a small hallway was revealed. To their left was a doorway to the kitchen and in front of them were stairs, which the father was descending. The man turned around raising his arm with his hand palm up. A small ball of yellow fire appeared above his hand so Rose blasted him. The white ball of energy threw him down the remaining steps knocking him unconscious. Liz and Rose approached the stairs and saw Sam's double looking at them from the basement.
"Do you want this one?" offered Rose.
"I can't —" Liz was interrupted by the alternate Sam suddenly appearing right in front of them.
Rose was caught off guard by the alternate Sam and shot a large blast at her. Sam's double fell straight down to the basement and passed out beside her father.
Liz continued her sentence as she and Rose walked down the ten steps. "As I was trying to say, I can't aim indoors without a window in sight. I could easily hit one of us."
In the basement, they saw a long wooden wall on the left side. The wall was divided into three parts and each portion had a doorway with a hole in its upper half allowing others to see inside the cell. Through the third door, Liz and Rose saw Gwen on the other side. Rose blasted the lock on the door, then swung the door open.
"Are you okay?" asked Rose.
Happy to be free, Gwen answered, "Yeah."
Before Gwen could say anything else, Rose started to walk back to the staircase. Gwen exited the cell. She looked down the hall and saw the alternate Sam and her father lying near the steps.
"Where's the other me?" Gwen asked Liz.
Liz answered, "She's at the hotel with the others."
At the mention of the word "hotel", Gwen seemed hurt.
Glancing at Rose, who was still close enough to hear her, Gwen asked, "Did you... you..." but she couldn't finish her sentence.
Rose ignored her.
Liz answered, "She didn't."
Gwen was relieved.
"In fact," continued Liz, "she freaked out when the other you tried to have sex with her."
Gwen smiled.
"I didn't freak out! I'm not scared!" exclaimed Rose.
Liz nodded her head at Gwen.
Rose had taken a few steps up the staircase when the alternate Gwen appeared on the top step.
"Are they aight? What did you do?" shouted the alternate Gwen. "No, no, no!"
Gwen's double ran down the steps. She pushed Rose aside and went right to her father and her sister. Gwen, Liz and Rose went upstairs. If the alternate Gwen didn't want to fight, there was no need to attack her.
When they were back in the main area of the restaurant, Liz said, "I have an idea but it depends if you want to stay in this city until we make another portal or if you want to leave when we meet up with the others."
Rose responded, "What? I don't want to travel more in this dimension."
Gwen added, "I want to relax."
Liz explained, "They're probably going to come after us when they regain consciousness. I could trap them in the basement for a couple of days."
"How?" asked Rose. She continued before anyone could answer, "Doesn't matter. It's not like they're good people."
Liz brought down a lightning bolt and struck it at the doorway leading to the basement. The walls around and above the staircase collapsed blocking the stairway.
At the sound of the walls breaking down, several workers exited the kitchen. Some were concerned while others were confused.
"Is he down there?" one of them asked no one in particular.
Liz told the worker, "Him and two women."
The workers cheered, threw off their aprons and ran out of the restaurant. Gwen, Liz and Rose followed them outside at a slower pace.
Alex, Peter and Sam were less than one short block away from the noodle restaurant when they saw people running out of the building.
When they rejoined the others, Gwen said, "You're late."
Sam replied, "I know. I'm sorry. I swear I noticed a difference. I thought you were acting different because of last night. I'm sorry."
A little irritated, Gwen argued, "You should be. The difference was obvious enough for Rose."
Defending her pride, Sam said, "Obvious? She went on about your freckles. You barely even have any."
"My freckles?" repeated Gwen looking for Rose so that she could respond but Rose had already begun to walk back to the hotel.
Alex said, "Yeah, she's still mad. The other you didn't help."
Sam added, "Neither did our reaction to her suspicion earlier. We assumed it was nervousness."
Peter interrupted, "Where's the other Gwen? Is there someone else who we should be worried about?"
Liz answered, "I took care of it. We're good now."
"Took care of it?" Peter hesitated when he added, "Did you..."
"No! I trapped them in the basement. They'll probably be down there for a day or two. I can't believe you'd think that."
"It's not like I think that you're a murderer. I just know that if you felt that you had to, you just might."
Liz didn't respond to his remark.
Eager to venture, Sam suggested, "Let's forget about all this and find something to do in this town."
Gwen replied, "I'm not going to forget this. But I'm good with walking around. What about Rose? Doesn't the other me know where the hotel is? What if they get out early?"
Liz responded, "Peter and I will go back to the hotel. She'll have backup if need be. We need to talk anyway."
Peter looked worried. "We do? Is it because of what I said? I take it back. I could never imagine you killing anyone. You're the most gentlest, most wonderful, caring, most beautiful —"
Liz interrupted, "Relax, Peter. If we want to have a proper more-than-friends relationship, we need to talk about certain things."
Peter relaxed. "Oh, okay. Yeah."
As Liz and Peter started to walk away from the others, Alex said smiling, "Yeah, like the talk Sam and I had earlier."
Peter exclaimed, "Don't remind me." He grabbed Liz' hand and jogged away with her.
Gwen commented, "I'm glad my kidnapping didn't get in the way of you having sex."
Sam joked, "That's makes two of us. C'mon, there must be something to do here besides save you."
They walked around the town for about an hour but didn't find anything interesting. The most exciting thing that the city had to offer was a grill-type restaurant with a terrace.

Alex, Gwen and Sam returned to the hotel room where they found Liz and Peter playing the card game War.
Liz said, "Welcome back. Buying this deck of cards in the other dimension came in handy. I only bought it because I liked the design on the back."
"Where's Rose?" asked Gwen.
Liz answered, "In the other room. She won't come out. Maybe you can talk to her and join us after this round. Talk to her not only for you but for our next portal."
Gwen stepped into the other room and asked, "Are you coming to play cards with us?"
Rose responded, "Fine."
Even though Rose couldn't hear her, Liz commented, "Sure, when she says it, you agree to it."
When Liz and Peter finished their game, the six of them played together for the next couple of hours. They played various types of poker. Liz and Sam won most of the games. At one point, Rose was tired of losing so she cheated by stealing Gwen's cards. She still lost. Afterwards, they went out to eat. They ate at the restaurant with the terrace for their last meal in that dimension. Although the restaurant's terrace didn't impress them, the taste of the food did. They ordered three large plates of different meats and shared it in order to spend less money. After a satisfying meal of bull, goose and lamb, they walked back to the hotel while debating which meat tasted the best.
At the hotel, Sam suggested to Gwen and Rose, "You two should get some rest in case we need three portals."
"Three?" repeated Gwen. "Why three?"
Sam explained, "In case we end up in a bad situation. If we're not home after two, I'm not going to push it if we're in a safe place. But look at the record with worlds with our doubles. One of them uses us as soldiers, this one wants to steal our abilities, then there are people who think they recognize us. Running into that other Greg, we were lucky. Next time, things could get worse."
Gwen unhappily agreed, "That's true."
Gwen and Rose entered the second room while Peter started a conversation with the others. "How many worlds do you think are out there with other versions of us? I wonder what the other mes are like."
Gwen and Rose lay on the bed planning to sleep but Gwen asked, "Were you tempted?"
"Was I tempted to what?" replied Rose.
"To sleep with the other me."
"Well, she was nicer to me. ... Not really. Mostly because of timing and suspicions. Had I not suspected anything or had it actually been you and it was before our little drinking game, yes, I would have been tempted. Would anything have happened? I don't know."
"The drinking game didn't mean anything. You can't decide how I feel because I didn't drink."
"That's the point of the game. If what the person says is false for you, you drink. Okay, maybe I over-reacted because it was in front of everyone but not drinking still means something. It implies you feel a whole lot less for me than I do for you."
"Yeah, IMPLIES. I never said that."
"You never corrected me. I need an amount or something. Not just 'but that's not true'. I don't get to read your mind back so you need to tell me these things."
"I'm not sure what I feel. Whenever I think about it, I get this flashback from when I was a kid and decide to think of something else."
Rose looked at Gwen expecting her to continue.
Gwen added, "I have this one memory of when I was young, back when I was with my birth parents. They were telling me to be good and that my uncle would be here soon. They were going out. I was shouting 'I love you, k, bye, I love you.' I heard my father telling me he loved me back and a mumble from my mother. The two walked out the door and I never saw them again."
Rose put her arm around Gwen and asked, "What happened to them?"
"I don't know. No one ever told me. Or if they did, I don't remember."
"So what? Now, you refuse to talk or think about love or anything close to it?"
"Something like that." Gwen waited to see if Rose would say something. When she didn't, Gwen asked, "You're not going to make a joke?"
"That would make me sound like a jerk right now. I'm going to save it for a better time. It would help if you could tell me 'if I were still that infant, I would also say "I love you, k, bye, I love you" to you.'"
"You're a jerk." Gwen lightly punched Rose's upper body.
"So I deserve to be hit?" said Rose gently hitting her back.
"Yup."
Eventually one of them started a new conversation but neither of them got the rest that they had intended to get.

Less than an hour later, Sam entered the second room asking, "Are you two ready?"
They both groaned, "Yeah."
They wanted to return to their own dimension as much as the others. Since the others depended on them to make each portal, Gwen and Rose felt guilty every time that they ended up in a foreign dimension. Now that they were closer to home, they felt more pressure to create the right portal.
While walking into the other room, Gwen said, "Think of the park. Maybe it'll work this time."
Rose agreed, "Okay."
The six of them gathered in the room where Peter anxiously waited with the bag on his back. They stepped through the dark blue oval once Gwen and Rose finished creating it.