Erin stared at the stick shift in Penelope's car. It had been years since she had driven a manual vehicle, and she prayed that she didn't ruin the car. That would add just another indignity to the list. Releasing a short breath, she wiped away the tears that still clung to her cheeks and started the car, slowly easing it into gear.
It took her a while to grow accustomed to the gears shifting and acclimate herself to her surroundings, but once she was under way, she let her thoughts spin. It wasn't possible. She had to have fallen down some strange rabbit hole of a dream that seemed completely and utterly real. If she pinched herself hard enough she would wake up and be sleeping comfortably in her bed, she had to believe that or else she would have to acknowledge the fact that she was going insane.
Finally, she was pulling into her driveway and she reached for her garage door opener. It wasn't there, and she sighed as she got out of the car and walked up to her front door, pressing the doorbell for a long time. "I'm coming!" she heard her voice call out and it was then that she pinched herself hard, hoping that she would wake up from this nightmare.
And then, she was opening the door, looking out at her with wild eyes. "Oh my god," she murmured, taking in what she really looked like to others. She had grown accustomed to just viewing parts of herself in the mirror, never taking in the whole. The picture startled her a little, and she reached out to touch her cheek, feeling the dampness of tears that lingered there.
"So, this is really real. I wonder how it happened? Come in, come in." Penelope beckoned her inside her own home and Erin followed, feeling like an outsider. Once more, she began to cry and then Penelope was enveloping her in a hug. "Don't worry, we'll get everything figured out. You don't need to be scared."
She sniffled a little, trying to nod. "But I do. What if we don't go back to normal? And how can you be so, so okay with this already?"
"I've consumed enough science fiction and fantasy in my life to know about body swaps. I just never thought it was possible in the real world. Reid will have a field day examining us, you know. We could totally be the basis of a revolutionary new thesis."
Penelope's words, pouring from her mouth, with her voice, just caused Erin to sob all the harder and she shrank away from the woman, pulling in on herself. "No. No one can know about this. We have to find a way to change us back. I don't want to live in this body for the rest of my life."
Penelope recoiled from her words, like Erin had physically slapped her and she felt her brow furrow. "I can't believe you find being heavy that hideous, Erin. Besides, I've been losing weight recently."
"Oh, that's not what I meant at all. I know my body, I've lived in it for fifty years. I don't want to be anyone other than me. And we are screwed, you know. I don't drink, you can. If this lasts, I'll be expected to go out with the team, drink with them. I cannot do that. I cannot do your job. You cannot do mine. This needs to be fixed now!" Hot, bitter, tears began to flow and she buried her borrowed face in her hands.
Hesitantly, Penelope reached out to her and she pulled away, not wanting to be comforted in that moment. All she wanted was to lash out at a world that had been so cruel as to play this trick on her. "Erin, I don't know how we can fix this."
Erin looked at the coffee table and sneered at the fruit basket sitting there. Penelope followed her gaze and gasped, leaning forward to pluck the card out of it. "What are you doing? That note is private, from David to me. Don't read it!"
"I got the same fruit basket from Reid. Did you eat anything from it?"
Erin sucked in a shallow breath as she nodded. "There were these little purple fruits that left my mouth blue. They were so delicious."
"That may be our common factor. Maybe we just have to eat them once more and everything will go back to normal."
Erin knew it wouldn't be as simple as that. She could feel it in her bones. "I wish I was that optimistic, Penelope."
It was odd to see her face contort into sympathy, to see her reaching out to hug her tightly. "I know your optimism compass isn't working the best right now. But we have to keep hope alive. Did you have an odd dream that woke you right before you called?"
"Now that you mention it, yes. I dreamt that you were hugging me, trying to get me to melt into you. And then we were blurring together, as if we were one person."
"That's almost the same as my dream. I wonder if that had anything to do with this as well. And I don't know how to dream lucidly, I've never been able to get the hang of it no matter how much I practiced."
Erin nodded, hugging her arms around her new body. "And what if we never change back? My children will know something is up. They're quite perceptive."
"We'll cross those bridges when they come, Erin. But, just in case eating the fruits doesn't work, we should probably pick a place to stay for the weekend and cram as much as possible for Monday. That will be the first true test of our ability to pull this off."
She thought for a moment. "It would probably be easiest if we did it in your home. I can help you pack up some clothes for the office and then you can help me pick out what to wear on a daily basis. Our styles are so disparate."
"This is why you became a Section Chief, isn't it? You're able to make decisions so quickly and know that they're the right ones. It must be nice to be so analytical."
Erin sighed. "One would think. It leads to a lot of heartache," she said lowly, staring at the fruit basket. "I'm sorry I've been so awful lately. I know I haven't been the easiest person to deal with." Her earlier anger had fled, replaced by the confusion and fear of having to learn how to live a new life as a new person.
"And I'm sorry I didn't push harder for you to open up to me. I knew you were hurting, that you didn't have many friends. Maybe this will help us start anew."
"Perhaps." Erin forced a small smile on her lips and then reached out for the rest of the fruits she had eaten earlier in the evening. "Here, you take half and I'll take half, and then we'll go back to sleep. And pray that in the morning, everything is back as it should be."
The woman nodded and they split the remaining fruit, eating it quickly. Then they stood and Erin instinctively made a beeline for her bedroom, needing the comfort of her bed. Penelope stood awkwardly in the doorway and she sighed. "Where am I supposed to sleep?"
"There's a guest room across the hall." She nodded and disappeared, and Erin sank down on her bed, quickly falling back into a deep and dreamless sleep.
