AN: Sorry about the delay, but my computer wasn't working and I had some parts replaced, and then couldn't get back onto the internet through the network. Sometimes I hate technology. lol. Anyway I hope you enjoy. On a more personal note, this is dedicated to two of my close friends and their families who are both going through a really hard time.
Susan stood in front of the mirror in horror as Abby's face stared back at her. She was hallucinating, she had to be.
"Abby, are you okay?" Chuni's voice called from the door.
Susan spun around. "What?"
"Are you okay? I thought I heard a scream."
Chuni called her Abby. 'Oh God, this isn't happening,' Susan muttered. "I'm fine. I-I didn't scream."
"Okay," Chuni gave her a second look before leaving. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Susan nodded. "I'm fine."
"Okay, as long as you're sure." And with that, Chuni was gone.
Susan turned back to the mirror. This wasn't happening. It couldn't, but suddenly things were making sense; Carter trying to kiss her, suddenly feeling shorter, and her voice had sounded funny since. That was it! They must have switched bodies when they were both shocked. She had to find Abby, uh, Susan, uh Abby. How was she going to explain this? Susan took a breath before turning and walking out of the bathroom.
* * * *
Abby was ready for her lunch break and went in search of Carter. She spotted him down the hallway, and made her way towards him.
"Hey," she called out. "Do you wanna go grab a bite to eat?"
Carter gave her a smile. "Thanks, but not today, I need to talk to Abby. Have you seen her anywhere?"
Abby laughed. "Is this a game?" She asked.
Carter gave her a weird look. "What do you mean?"
Abby laughed again. "Wow, you're really good at this. You should have been an actor."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, oh, there she is," he said, looking past her.
Abby glanced behind her, confused by Carter's actions. She gasped at what she saw. She was approaching herself. She opened and closed her mouth a couple times. What the hell was going on? She watched her own form motion not to say anything.
"Abby," Carter said. "I've been looking for you. Do you have time to get some lunch?"
"Uh, not right now," Susan said. She was having trouble dealing with watching her own body staring at her in shock, and talking to the boyfriend of the person she knew was inside the body.
"Abby, I-we need to talk about earlier. I don't know why you were upset, but."
"Never mind about earlier," Susan said. "Forget about it. It was my fault. I'll explain later."
Carter opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off.
"I'll talk to you later," Susan repeated. "Right now I really need to talk to Ab.uh, Susan. I need to talk to Susan." With that Susan grabbed Abby and dragged her down the hall to the bathroom.
Once inside Abby turned to Susan. "What to hell is going on? And who are you?"
"I'm Susan and I have no idea what's going on. We must have switched bodies or something."
"Switched bodies? Come on, that doesn't happen in real life. Who are you really?"
"If you believe that, then turn around and take a look in the mirror."
"What?"
Susan grabbed her shoulders and turned he so she was looking in the mirror. Abby gasped.
"Now do you believe me?"
Abby nodded slightly as she started into the mirror in shock. She put a hand up to her face. "How did this happen?"
Susan shook her head. "I'm not sure, but I'm thinking it happened when we got that shock earlier, when we were still touching the patient."
Abby nodded. "That makes sense." She turned to Susan, "what are we gonna do?"
Susan shook her head. "I have no idea."
"It's a dream. It has to be. This doesn't happen in real life."
"I don't think it's a dream, Abby. It seems pretty real to me."
Abby sighed. "Okay, we have to fix this. How are we gonna do that?"
"I guess we could try getting shocked again," Susan offered.
Abby nodded. "I guess we could try that."
"Okay, we'll wait until it dies down a bit and we'll sneak into a trauma room and get our bodies back."
Abby nodded. "Sounds good. But what do we do until then?"
Susan shrugged. "Go on as if everything is normal."
Abby gave her a look. "How are we supposed to do that, well how am I supposed to do that?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you being a nurse for a couple hours isn't that big of a deal, but I can't pretend to be an attending. I could kill someone!"
"Good point," Susan said thoughtfully. "We could tell someone? They could help."
"Susan, if we go up and tell someone that we switched bodies, we'll be up in the psych ward before you can say 'crazy'."
"Another good point," Susan said. "We'll just be careful. You just have to stay away from any trauma's that come in, and I'll try to stay near you."
"Okay, I guess we don't have any other choice."
"We could offer to chaperone Julie. Then Carter would have to take all the trauma's," Susan said.
Abby nodded. "Good idea. I guess I'll go offer."
* * * *
Abby rolled her eyes as she went from patient to patient, Julie tailing her all the way. Carter had been greatly thankful when she had offered to take on Julie for the rest of the day. So far she had spent two hours trying to sound like she knew what she was talking about to Julie, with Susan falling not to far behind, confirming her orders. So far Abby had been right about all of her orders. It was funny to her that she was in charge of teaching this student when she only had one more year of med-school than Julie did.
Abby was actually beginning to have fun being a doctor. Susan, on the other hand, hadn't realized just what nurses really did. She had been asked to do a sponge bath on a homeless man, and had trouble finding the simplest objects, such as suture trays and extra sheets. She kept apologizing to Abby, knowing Kerry was probably going to have a talk with her in the future.
It was a quiet afternoon, and at 2, Susan and Abby decided it was now or never, they were going to sneak into trauma three, and get their bodies back. They agreed to meet in five minutes and sent Julie on a nice long break.
Abby headed to the lounge to get a bottle of water before meeting Susan. She found Carter going over a chart.
"Hey," he said, looking up when she entered. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine, why?" Abby asked.
Carter gave her a questioning look, "cause you were a little hung over this morning."
"Oh, right, well I'm feeling a lot better. I guess I just forgot about earlier. Alcohol kills brain cells you know." She laughed nervously.
Carter tilted his head slightly. "Are you sure you're okay? You're acting funny."
"I'm fine," Abby said, a little too loudly. She had to get it together. Carter was her biggest weakness, he always seemed to know when something was wrong, and he always seemed to figure out what it was.
"O-kay," Carter answered, still unsure. "If you're sure, but if you need to talk to someone, about anything, you know I'm here."
Abby smiled. "Thanks, I'll let.uh, I'll be sure to remember that." With that she marched over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.
"You know Abby'll kill you if she finds out you stole a bottle of her water."
Abby cringed. She hadn't even thought about this. "Oh, Abby said I could have a bottle."
"Even though you have some of your own left in the fridge?"
Abby glanced in the still open fridge. Sure enough there were three full bottles with Susan's name marked clearly on the side with black marker. Damn Susan for being so neurotic, she thought. "Right, well my water.went bad. It's been in there for a while."
Carter looked unconvinced. "I wasn't aware water went bad," he said, somewhat sarcastically.
"Well, it does, okay?" Abby said, a little too strongly then she had meant to.
Carter held up his hands in mock defeat. "Sorry," he said.
Abby sighed. "No, I'm sorry. I've just had a really long day."
"I know the feeling, he what did you do with my med-student?"
"Sent her on an extended lunch break."
Carter laughed. "Good."
Abby couldn't resist. "So, what's making your day seem so long?" She asked. "Loads and loads of paperwork?"
Carter shook his head, "I wish."
"Then what?"
Carter sighed. "It's Abby."
Abby cringed, slightly. This could be a very interesting conversation.
"Has she talked to you at all?"
Abby shook her head. "What do you mean?"
"Something happened this morning, I don't really know what. She seemed really.off, or something. She wouldn't tell me what was wrong and she took off. I only saw her again that one other time and she won't talk to me."
Abby wasn't sure what to say, but Carter continued.
"All I did was touch her. She said she felt short and I told her she was short, jokingly of course. We were joking around, and then she seemed to get really mad and took off. I just wish she'd tell me what was wrong. She likes to keep things to herself, she doesn't like to be a burden, but I really do want to be there for her. She'd never be a burden."
Abby felt a blush rise in her cheeks. She had to get out of there. "Look, I'll talk to her, okay? I'll see if I can get her to tell me what's wrong."
"Thanks, Susan." Carter said, looking right at her. He seemed to pause, staring straight into her eyes.
Abby got uncomfortable. "What?"
After a moment, Carter seemed to snap out of his trance. "Uh, nothing, sorry, guess I'm just tired. You just .looked different for a second."
Abby smiled to herself. He had no idea. "I gotta go meet Su.uh, Abby. I'll talk to you later."
Abby checked to make sure no one was watching before she snuck into trauma three. Susan was already there, covering all the windows.
"It looks like we're just gonna have to hope no one opens the door, I forgot there's no lock on the door."
Abby nodded in agreement. "We've been pretty slow today, unless there's a trauma, no one should come in."
"Good, cause that would be a really hard thing to explain," Susan said, laughing.
Abby laughed too, nodding her head. "Hey, quick question. What happened between you and Carter this morning?"
Susan blushed. "Well, it was before I knew that I was you, you know? He came on to me."
Abby laughed. "And you yelled at him?"
Susan nodded. "And I, uh, slapped him," she added, quietly.
"You slapped him!"
Susan nodded, blushing a deeper shade of red. "I thought he was coming on to me. I was mad at him."
Abby laughed. "And how am I going to explain this to him when he brings it up?"
Susan shrugged. "Let me know when you figure it out."
"Hey, you need to help me come up with an excuse," Abby said, helping Susan prepare the paddles.
"Give me one good reason."
"Cause this is your fault."
"Hey, I was standing up for you, I didn't know he thought I was you."
"Not just that, it's your fault we switched bodies."
"No it's not, it's that crazy Smart girl's fault."
"Who you agreed to take from Carter."
"You are not turning this one me," Susan said, laughing.
"Well, it's not my fault." Abby said, also laughing.
"Let's discuss this later. Right now I want my body back."
"Agreed."
"So, how do you want to do this?" Susan asked.
"Set it low, hold hands and each shock ourselves?" Abby suggested.
Susan nodded in agreement. "Sounds good." She charged the paddles. "You ready?" She asked, spreading jell on the paddles.
Abby nodded, nervously. She took one of the paddles, and proceeded to hold it against her arm, just like Susan. "On three?" she asked.
Susan nodded. "One."
"Two," Abby said.
"Three!" Both said, pressing the paddles.
Abby felt a jolt shoot through her arm and body, throwing her backwards. She managed to stay on her feet. She counted to three and opened her eyes, to see her own face staring back at her.
"Damn it!" Abby shouted.
"I guess it didn't work," Susan stated.
"You guess?" Abby asked sarcastically.
"Now what do we do?"
"I don't know. We could try setting the paddles higher. When Julie shocked the patient, they were set for three hundred."
Susan winced. "I see what you're saying, but that's really strong."
Abby nodded in agreement. "We could lay a tray on top of a gurney and hold onto the railing."
"Okay, but this had better work." Susan said, charging the paddles to three hundred.
"I agree." Abby said, fetching a tray and preparing it on the bed.
Susan handed her a paddle. "You ready?"
Abby nodded, wrapping her fingers tightly around the railing, and laying the paddle on the tray. Susan did the same.
"One."
"Two."
"Three!" They shouted together, pressing the paddles, unaware of the door to the trauma room being opened. They were also unaware of the shocked expression on the surprised doctor's face as they were both thrown backwards towards the floor.
AN: I didn't want to put this at the top, but just incase you didn't get it at first, I'm referring to Abby and Susan as themselves, not their body, so Abby is Abby in Susan's body. Does that make sense to anyone? Did the chapter make sense? I hope so. Next chappie will be up as soon as I write it. Thanx for reading.