Lockwood and Co. One Shot. We're just going to see where this'll go. (This will switch between Lucy and Lockwood's point of view) Also, this wonderful idea was created by "ligersrcool." I just put it into action. Go check her out! Happy reading! ~Annie

Switched: A Oneshot

Lucy POV: It was one of those days. The days where Lockwood and I went off on a one night case, Holly did another one of her deep cleanings, and George stayed at home doing paperwork and what not. It's not that I don't like going off on a case alone with Lockwood, I just like having a backup plan if something goes wrong. In this instance, we hadn't researched the case. The client had just said it was a simple ghost and that it wouldn't take more than a one night's legwork. Lockwood immediately agreed due to the amount of money that we'd be paid. Our client was having guests over the next week, and was anxious to have the ghost gone. We arrived at 15 Browning Street just a little after sunset. Lockwood was relaxed and at ease. I had brought along the skull, and we were all set for a (hopefully) uneventful and successful evening.

"Ready, Luce?" Lockwood asked as we stepped out of the cab.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," I replied.

He smiled at me. See Lockwood has a variety of smiles. There's one that he uses solely for the papers. That's the gigawatt smile that makes girls go crazy. Yes, I'm one to talk about that. Whenever I go out in public with Lockwood, females give me the fisheye. Jealous? Of me? Yes. And I love the feeling. Back to the story. Another smile that Lockwood has is the friendly, companionable grin which he uses for George, Holly, and me when we're all together. I've seen him give George a quite ominous smirk in the past, which, believe me, is sometimes quite distressing. Especially if something happened between Lockwood and me that today. Also, a wolfish grin presents itself on Lockwood's façade whenever Quill Kipps or any of the Fittes crowd is around. I find that one mysteriously exciting. It typically means that Lockwood is about to verbally or physically whip some Fittes butt. That is ALWAYS satisfying to watch. Lastly, Lockwood has the smile that he uses only for me. It ranges between shy and confident, friendly and a teeny bit romantic. That one is definitely my favorite. Following that smile, something both exciting and surprising happens.

This time, Lockwood used the companionable grin. I could tell that he was excited, whatever the case might be. We walked side-by-side up to the front porch and turned the key that our client had given us in the lock. The door silently swung open as Lockwood and I crossed the threshold.

"Smells…clean," he said.

I, too, noticed the smell of fresh polish and cleaner. I nodded, "Someone's done a lot of work in making this appear cleaner than it typically is."

I walked deeper into the front hall. Everything seemed normal. I decided to invoke a little help from the skull. "What are you picking up, Skull?" I asked.

Surprisingly, nothing. I'm picking up no traces, no ghosts, no presences, zilch.

"Nice language there," I said. "Improving your vocab?"

Ha-ha. So funny. See me laugh. I'm going to assume you were being genuine.

I told Lockwood what the skull had said. "You sure we're in the right house, Lockwood?"

"Yes. How else would the key have worked?" he asked.

I shrugged. I was absolutely stumped. "Tea? We can wait a little while. See if anything stirs."

"Yeah, Luce. Tea sounds great." There it was. My smile. The special one from Lockwood. I felt my body warm up, and when I surfaced from the feeling, Lockwood was already leading me to the kitchen. I set the kettle to boil and sat down beside Lockwood.

"How ya feeling?" I casually asked.

"I don't know. Slightly worried. There's a feeling in my gut that I can't describe." He glanced over at me, a look of concern washed across his face.

"I know what you mean. I don't sense danger, but something's definitely not right."

The tea kettle whistled, and I poured the water into our thermoses.

"How about this?" he said. "While our tea steeps, let's take a look around."

"Sounds good," I replied while turning off the burner. Lockwood and I walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs. We stopped on the landing. "Lucy," he said. "We should set up a circle of chains as a defense just in case."

"Good idea. Then, if anything happens, we can retreat back here."

We whipped out our chains and set up a thick circle with a lantern glowing inside. "I'm going to go look over here," I said, pointing to my right.
"Okay," Lockwood said in return. "I'll be in this room over here."

I looked around the room. It was a master bedroom, complete with a small bathroom. I hadn't been in the room long when I heard a voice call my name.

"Lucy!"

"Yeah? You need something?" I called back. No answer.

"Lucy!" It sounded urgent.

I ran out of the room. And directly into Lockwood.

My eyes fluttered open. My entire body felt numb. What on earth had happened? I eyed my surroundings. I was in an iron circle. A lantern flickered close by. I saw a death glow in the room to my left. I had never seen one before, and it stunned me. I'd never had the Sight in my life. Why now? And there, next to me, lay…my body. I was watching myself. Was I dead? Alive? It was almost like I was in an alternate universe. I shook myself. My body I mean. The one lying unconscious on the floor beside me. Other me sat up and her eyes stared at me.

Lockwood POV: "Good god," I said. I stared at myself, sitting beside me in the iron chains.

Looky here. Hello, Lockwood. I have a good mind to say some things to you, but since you're in the middle of something, I can wait until later.

"What?!" I cried. "Who's there?!" My other body jumped back in surprise.

Me…the Skull.

I swore loudly. What was happening?

Other me stared in my direction. "Lockwood?" he asked. His voice was soft and higher-pitched. That wasn't my voice. It was the voice of my close associate, Lucy Carlyle.

"Lucy?" I asked in return.

"What the hell's happening?" she asked me. The one thing that stunned me was that she was in my body. Why? Was I in, oh no. I looked down at myself. I wore a wool skirt and a sweater. My work boots were narrow and small. I was Lucy.

Ha-ha! You idiots! You were laying there for quite a while until Lucy woke up.

"Shut up!" I yelled at the skull.

Lucy stared at me in shock.

"Not you," I mumbled. "The Skull. I can hear it."

"And I can see death glows!" she whispered. "It's like we…switched bodies."

I shuddered. Shuddered? I never did that. It must've been Lucy's body shuddering and me feeling the repercussions.

"Lockwood. How do we fix this?" she asked me. "I don't know about you, but I feel very confused and scared."

I nodded.

Lucy POV: I felt my face go red. For some reason, looking at myself made me feel warm and fuzzy. It was weird. "Luce, err, you're blushing," Lockwood said.

"I know! And I don't know how to stop it!"

"Well, typically when that happens to me, I just look away. It'll fade soon."
"What?" I asked. "When what typically happens?"

"When I look at you. I'm assuming that since you're me and I'm you. We're getting each other's feelings and subconscious thoughts," Lockwood replied. Suddenly, he doubled over in pain. He grasped at his abdomen. "Oww!" he shouted. "My stomach just started hurting."

Each other's thoughts. Each other's feelings. If this meant what I thought it meant, we needed to sort out the situation immediately.

"Luce," Lockwood painfully gasped, "What is this?"

"Let's just say…it doesn't happen to boys," I replied. I was steadily growing anxious.

His face, or my face in actuality, blanched white.

"No way," he said. "I feel so bad for you. And this happens…?" he trailed off.

"Every month," I said, getting to my feet. I was so tall. So, tall and thin. Lockwood tried to stand, but fell back against the wall. Without even meaning to, my arm shot out and helped him. Another one of Lockwood's characteristics. He smiled weakly at me.

"We need to leave," I said. "Get help. Specifically, George."

"No," Lockwood squeaked. "I'll be fine."

"Trust me, Lockwood. Very soon, you will NOT be fine. We need to go, now. And I don't think that you need to be the one to endure that or…try to help it," I said.

He knew exactly what I meant. "I guess you're right. Let's go."

I packed up all of our work items while Lockwood sat downstairs drinking tea. I was much more concerned about him than getting attacked by a ghost. Plus, I was acting as Lockwood would. I tried to take all of the heftier jobs so Lockwood didn't have to pitch in much. I hoped that we could make it out without disturbing anything, but I had no such luck. Just as Lockwood and I were taking the bags out of the house, an apparition formed. I couldn't tell what type it was, but it's physical clarity was ridiculous. I could see every bone, muscle, pore, anything. It's safe to say that I didn't look very hard at it.

"Lucy," Lockwood managed to get out. "We need to leave."

But it was too late, the ghost had moved between us and the door. It lunged at Lockwood. We both cried out in unison. A clang of iron. I had drawn my rapier. And then, what happened next was probably the best thing that I have ever done. I stepped in between Lockwood and the Visitor. My wrist gently swished the rapier back and forth. I drew a complicated ward knot in the air. I didn't even know what it was called. Then, the apparition vanished.

I scooted Lockwood out the door and into the nighttime air. He was grinning dumbly at me. Oh lord, did I look like that when I grinned at him? I felt my face flush and smiled back. His smile filled my body, or technically Lockwood's body, with warmth and happiness. Lockwood felt like this? I'd remember that. "Nice Kiashian ward know, Luce."

"Thanks," I said, smiling back. We slipped into the night cab that had just pulled up. Lockwood sat beside me in the back seat. The driver eagerly tried to talk to us, but we were not in the mood. Before I could say anything, Lockwood gave a nice statement to the driver and shut him up. It was something that I would do. I stared at Lockwood, and he shrugged. I slid closer to Lockwood. Oh no. I knew what was about to happen. And then, I slipped my fingers in between his. He squeezed my hand. Realizing what I had done, I started to pull away, but Lockwood's hand held firm.

"It's okay, Luce. I would've done the same," he said.

I nodded shyly and looked away. Lockwood laid his head on my thin shoulder, and we rode the rest of the way home, blanketed in a comfortable silence.

Lockwood POV: I swung open the door to Portland Row. The hall light was on, which was a good sign. George was still up. It was surprising, even to me, when Lucy, in my body, stormed into the library and began begging George for help. I couldn't make out a word she said and neither could George.

"Blimey, Lockwood," he said. "What's up?"

"I'm not Lockwood!" Lucy yelled. "I'm Lucy!"

George laughed. "This is strange he said, even for you."

I walked over to George and whispered in his ear something that only he and I knew.

"Hello George. This is Lockwood. You remember last month when we were playing truth-or-dare? And you asked me if I would kiss Luce for a hundred pounds?"

His eyes widened. George stared at me. "I believe you."

I nodded with relief. If anyone could help, it'd be him. Lucy hovered in the corner above everyone else. Her height made me smile. She glanced around. "Where's Holly?" she asked.

"She's out getting something. She'll be back here soon," George said. "In the meantime, how on earth did you manage this?"

"We were looking around the house and neither of us saw anything out of the ordinary," I said.

"Then Lockwood called my name, so I went to go find him," Lucy added.

"Mm, I think you have that wrong, Luce. I didn't call you," I stated.

"Yes, you did. That's the whole reason I went to find you."

"No," I said. "You called me, Lucy."

She shook her head. My dark hair fell in her eyes, and she brushed the bangs back. "How on earth can you stand these, Lockwood?"

George interrupted me, "So what you're telling me is that you both heard someone or something calling your names?"

"Exactly," Lucy and I said at the same time. I met her eyes. It was odd looking up at her, but in them, I could see the same emotion that I saw in normal circumstances when I looked at her. Anytime that she was unsure what was going to happen next, her eyes would fill with fear and uncertainty. The look worried me. I felt horrible that we were in such a situation.

"I think I know what to do," George said. "And you said you ran into each other?"

"Yes."
"Okay. Both of you come here."

I walked over to beside Lucy. She took my hand, and in doing so, I could feel her shaking. George put his hands on the right side of my head and on the left side of Lucy's.

"One. Two. Three."

Lucy POV: Suddenly, I woke up. My head ached for a second time in the past few hours. With some bit of a struggle, I opened my eyes and looked up. Directly above me was…Lockwood. His hair was tightly packed against his forehead because of a bandage. Around his head was a white strip of medical tape. I could see a bruise forming underneath it. I made all of these observations in a matter of seconds because, after seeing me awake, Lockwood relaxed.
"How are you?" he asked. His face was filled with worry.

"Alright. I have a pounding headache," I replied.

"Me too, Luce. Me too." He smiled at me.

I sat up, but remained leaning against him. I don't think that I could have held up without his support. I surveyed myself. I was back in my skirt and sweater. My boots had never felt better. Lockwood pressed against me. He sat his arm around me and swept me up in a tight hug. When Lockwood released me, I could sense the relief that he felt. I felt it too.
"So," I said. "How did George fix it?"
Someone cleared their throat. I looked up. Over in the corner of the library stood George. Perched on a chair was Holly. I waved to her. "How are you, Lucy? I was quite concerned about that bump that George gave you both."

"What?" I asked. "That was on purpose?"

George spoke. "As a matter of fact, yes. I wondered if since there was another presence when you two collided, if it had any impact on what happened, so I tried it again."

"It worked," I said. "But what presence is here?"

"Oh, you have your Skull-friend to thank for that." George glanced over to the coffee table where the ghost-jar sat. It wore a sardonic grin as it swirled around.

"Of course! I should've asked the ghost-jar."

"You have no idea how much it was talking when we got here. It told me a few of your secrets, too," Lockwood said.

"What?!" I glared at the Skull. I gained control of myself. "Which ones?"

"Ooh. So, there are more. It implied that there were, but didn't go into detail. It said that they could 'ruin my existence.'" Lockwood made a face. Then he grinned. "Anyway, it told me that you sing in the shower, you already bought me a tie for Christmas, and, my personal favorite, that you like me." He smiled at me, but that did nothing. I felt my face flush, and I was wildly embarrassed. Holly and George watched us intently.

"Well, you know that the skull can be untrustworthy…" I mumbled.

"Not untrustworthy," Lockwood said. "It just doesn't tell the whole truth."

"So, I guess you're wanting the whole truth?" I asked.

"No," he said. "I was you for a few hours. I felt what you feel. I'm sure you did the same for me." He smiled again, and this time, it was brighter. It pushed my worries away. I shyly smiled back. Lockwood pulled me over to him. "Don't worry about it, Luce." He squeezed my arm.

"Who's hungry?" George asked.

"Me!" Lockwood and I said in unison. We all stood up and walked towards the door. Lockwood slipped his hand through mine as we walked into the bright kitchen.