Chapter 4
AN: Sorry about the delay, blame it on a slight mental block. Lol. But I think I'm back on track. One thing to note, this story is set basically in the time zone of season 9, Abby and Carter are dating (and assume they are living together) And if characters who don't exist till season 10 show up, I'm sorry, but I'm still not exactly sure where this is heading and who knows what my mind will come up with. Ha ha. Anyway, enjoy!
Carter yawned as he walked towards the fridge, grabbing a bottle of Abby's water. He smirked; if she realized there were now two bottles missing he would just blame Susan. He lifted his arm up, and pulled back his sleeve, glancing at his watch in hopes that his shift was almost over. He was surprised when he found his arm to be bare.
"Huh," he muttered, thinking back. He couldn't think of any suspicious patients who could have managed it off his wrist without his knowing, cause god knows that had happened to him enough. He opened his locker, in hopes he had taken it off that morning. He placed the bottle of water down on the top shelf and sifted through the mess of objects in a heap at the bottom of his locker; a fresh pair of clothes in case he got thrown-up on, spat on, bled on, peed on, etc, his runners, an old text book, and last weeks lunch that he never got around to eating. "Wow, I should really throw this out," he said to himself, lifting up the grocery bag of food. He was afraid to look into it, and simply dropped it into the garbage.
He closed his locker and traveled out towards the admin desk. He began sifting through the multiple piles of paper, forms and charts sitting, many in haphazardly high piles, on the desk.
"Hey!" Jerry called from his seat by the computer, no doubt playing solitaire. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm looking for my watch, have you seen it?" Carter asked, as he continued riffling through piles.
"No, and would you stop moving things, you're making a mess."
"This place is a mess, how can I make it any worse?"
"We have a system, and you're making a mess of it."
"Fine, fine, I'll stop." Carter said, holding his hands up. "It's not here anyway."
"Did you take it off in your trauma this morning?"
"Yes! Thank-you. It has to be there."
Carter turned and walked quickly down the hall towards trauma three. He noticed that all of the curtains were closed, but it didn't click in that this was not a natural occurrence. Without slowing, he pushed open the door just in time to see Susan and Abby, both with paddles in their hand, shocking a tray on a gurney they were both holding on to. Before he could say anything, they pressed the paddles and were both thrown backwards, onto the floor.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Carter yelled out.
He saw Abby immediately jump to her feet. "Hi Carter," she said meekly, tucking her hair behind her ear. "What's up?"
"What's up?" Carter asked, incredulously. "How can you ask me that? What are you doing? Are two trying to kill yourselves?"
"No, of course not." Abby said. "We were just…well it's a long story." She glanced at Susan who was now on her feet.
"A long story? Well, you better start explaining, cause I can't think of any reason why you would be alone in a trauma room, trying to shock yourselves!"
"John," Susan said, softly. "Just calm down. There's a very good explanation for this."
Since when did Susan call him John? Carter thought, but brushed it off quickly.
"You can't tell him," Abby hissed at her.
"Yes, we can." Susan said, her eyes on Carter.
"Do you wanna end up in the psych ward?"
"He wouldn't do that."
"Fine, whatever," Abby shouted at Susan. "If I'm gonna be stuck in your body for the rest of my life, I might as well be in the psych ward. Who knows, maybe I am crazy."
"What are you talking about?" Carter finally cut in.
"Okay, if we tell you this, you have to promise to hear us out, and you can't tell anyone."
"Okay." Carter said, calming down, Susan sounded really serious.
"There was an accident this morning. Susan and I were working with your med-student and there was an incident with the crash cart and we both got shocked. And it seems we switched bodies."
Carter had been concerned at first, but Susan's last sentence had thrown him. "You what?"
"We switched bodies," Susan said.
Carter opened his mouth a few times, not sure of what to say. "Is this some kind of joke?" He finally asked.
Both Abby and Susan shook their heads.
"You don't really expect me to believe this, do you?"
"See? I told you we shouldn't have told anyone," Abby said to Susan, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.. "I wouldn't believe it if someone told me they had switched bodies with someone else."
Susan ignored her, walking closer to Carter. "You told me I could tell you anything, and that you would never doubt me," she said. "I know it's hard to believe, John, but it's true. We switched bodies and we were trying to switch back."
"So, you're telling me that you," he said, motioning at Susan, "are Abby, and you are Susan," he said, motioning at Abby.
Both nodded.
He shook his head. He had to be dreaming, why else would they be telling him this.
"Ask me a question," Susan said, suddenly. "Something only I…uh, Abby would know."
"Like what?"
"Anything."
"Fine, how do I take my coffee?"
"Cream, two sugars."
"Okay, anyone here knows that. What's my favorite movie?"
"Independence Day, but that's another stupid question. Here, let me just talk. You're favorite ice cream flavor is mint chip, when you were nine, you fell down a flight of stairs and you have a scar on the back of you're head. You're shoe size is 11, you claim you're favorite meal is Fettuccini Alfredo, but it's actually burgers and fries, when you were little you wanted to be an astronaut."
Carter still appeared unconvinced.
"You sleep on the right side of the bed, when we got out of the hospital after the small pox scare you called me a tornado, after calling me chaos in general."
Carter looked surprised, and a little embarrassed, but seemed to be starting to entertain the thought that they might be telling the truth.
"You still have your childhood teddy bear, Zeddy, beside your bed, you take long showers in the morning, and even though you won't admit it, you use my shampoo more than you use yours. When you were a teenager, you decided to go for a new look and got a p…"
"Stop! I believe you." Carter exclaimed, cutting her off. "I believe you," he repeated.
(AN: I hate to interrupt, but now that Carter believes them, I'm going to go back to calling Abby and Susan who they really are, not whp they look like to Carter)
"What did you get?" Susan asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
"Never mind," Carter said.
"Oh, come on, you can't not tell me."
"Watch me."
"You're so mean."
"Fine, you wanna tell me what you were wearing this morning?"
"You know what? I don't need to know what you got when you were a teenager." Susan immediately said.
"Okay, so you two are in each other's bodies."
"Give the boy a prize," Susan said, sarcastically, "He figured it out."
Carter stared at her for a few seconds, still amazed at the forward, sarcastic character coming from Abby's usually quiet, protective form. "Shut up, Susan," he finally said. "Hey," he said suddenly. "That's why you slapped me."
"Oh, right, sorry about that. I hadn't realized we had switched yet, and I thought you were coming on to me, like the real me, and I was mad at you."
"That really hurt."
"Have you never been slapped before?"
Carter shook his head. "I've never had any reason to be."
Susan said nothing, only huffing slightly to herself.
Before anyone could say anymore, Chuni walked in, a stack of suture kits in her hands. "Hey, guys, what are you doing? Kerry's not here today, you don't have to hide." She continued, jokingly.
"We're looking for my watch," Carter said quickly. "I thought I might have left it in here after that trauma this morning."
"You mean the one sitting over there on the shelf?" Chuni asked, motioning towards it.
Carter glanced over at it and nodded. "Yes, there it is. Thank-you, Chuni. We've been looking for a while, and haven't been able to find it."
"You obviously haven't been looking very hard," Chuni added, placing the kits on the shelf and tossing Carter his watch.
"Thanks," Carter said, as he caught it with ease. He glanced at the time, almost 2:30. All three of them were off in the next hour and a half and made plans to meet at a coffee house down the road at four o'clock. It would give them a more private place to talk. There were to many prying ears at the hospital, as well as too many people with the power to send them to the psych ward should words of their talk reach the wrong ears.
* * * * *
Just after four, Carter entered the coffeehouse, quickly spotting Abby and Susan's forms sitting a small booth in the back corner of the restaurant. Susan had been scheduled to cover the shift change, but Carter had opted to take it, so as not to risk Abby having to take on something she couldn't handle should a trauma come in. Susan could no longer follow her around as Abby was scheduled off before the shift change.
He made his way to the booth, hesitating before taking a seat beside Abby. He watched Susan's features form a small smile at his hesitation, and his decision. She slid a cup of coffee towards him.
"We went ahead and ordered for you."
"Thanks," Carter said, accepting it, and opting to wrap his cold hands around the warm cup for the time being. "So, tell me the whole story."
"We were helping your med-student and she didn't say clear before she pressed the buttons on the paddles. We were both touching the patient and we felt the shock." Susan said, fighting to keep a lock of hair out of her face. "Haleh came and said a trauma had come in. I ran out to help."
"I got knocked out for a few seconds, and came to after Susan left. I didn't realize I wasn't me until Susan came and dragged me away from you in the hall to the bathroom. We decided to try to switch back by shocking ourselves again, but it obviously didn't work." Abby finished.
"Wow, I mean wow," Carter said. "This is really hard to believe. Like, this doesn't happen in real life."
"You think?" Susan said. "This is by far the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me. It feels so weird. I can't get used to the sound of my voice, and I feel really short."
"Hey!" Abby exclaimed. "I am not short."
Susan and Carter turned to face Abby, neither one agreeing with her, nor having the courage to disprove her.
Carter raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Well, you're not short anymore." He said, laughingly.
Abby glared at him and looked like she wanted to say something, but after a few moments of silence it was obvious she was could not think of anything to say. Instead, she simply huffed and pushed past Carter, mumbling something about needing to go to the bathroom.
Carter and Susan watched her stalked off towards the bathroom, both laughing. The bathroom door had barely closed behind her when she came walking back out.
Abby walked back over to the table, a blank look on her face. She took a seat, and said nothing, simply playing with the stir stick in her tea.
"That was fast," Susan joked. "I hope you washed your hands," she said sarcastically.
Abby looked up, glaring at her, but said nothing. " I can't do it," she finally muttered.
"Can't do what?" Susan asked.
"I can't go to the bathroom."
"Why not…OH! Because, you would… my body…oh this sucks." Susan said, realization dawning on her.
Both women were silent, but after a few moments of uncomfortable silence Carter began to laugh, both Susan and Abby turned to glare at him.
"I'm sorry, but it's really funny," Carter said. "Okay, maybe not that funny." They continued to glare. "Okay, it's not funny." He stopped laughing, covering his face with his hands to stop from laughing.
"What are we going to do?" Susan said, groaning. She knocked her head on the table a few times.
"Hey," Abby said. "I don't want to get my body back with a concussion."
Susan looked up at her, her hair falling back into her face. "Like that's something we have to worry about, we're never gonna get out bodies back." She went to tuck her hair behind her ears, but it fell back down again. "What is wrong with this Goddamn hair?!" She exclaimed. "It never stays where I want it to."
"Welcome to my world," Abby said.
Carter shrugged. "I think it's cute," he said.
"Carter, you're not helping," Susan said.
"Okay, it's not cute when you're being mean to me."
Susan chose to ignore him. "I want my body back!" She yelled, causing odd glances from a couple of tables near them.
"Keep your voice down," Abby told her. "We're trying to not attract attention."
"I'm sorry, but what are we going to do? Do you have any idea how to switch back?"
Abby shook her head.
"You could try seeing things from the other's perspective and practicing total unshelfishness," Carter offered.
Both women gave him a questioning look.
Carter continued. "Because that's what they had to do in the movie, where the mother and daughter switched bodies…not that I've seen it or anything." He trailed off.
"I guess it's worth a shot," Susan said. "So how do we do that?"
"I guess we switch lives for the time being."
Susan nodded. "I think I can handle that. How about we do that and then meet back here tomorrow morning?"
"Sure, are you on tomorrow?" Abby asked.
"Yeah, I got the night shift."
"Good, us to," Abby motioned at her and Carter.
They got up to leave, and walked out of the café.
"Well, I'll see you two tomorrow," Susan said, pulling her jacket around herself, preparing for the short walk over to the El.
"Where are you going?" Abby called.
"Home."
"You can't go home."
"Why not?"
"Cause if we have to live each other's lives, then we can't live our own, you know?"
"Riiiight," Susan said, as realization dawned. "So that means I have to your home…with Carter."
Susan and Carter exchanged a look.
Abby bit her lip lightly, and reached up to nervously twist a lock of hair in her fingers, only there was no hair straying for her to do so. "So, how do I get to your apartment?"
Susan gave her instructions; they exchanged keys and said their goodbyes, Carter and Susan walking awkwardly together towards the parking garage and Abby walking alone towards the El.
AN: So, how was it? Still making sense? I hope so. Also, I alluded to the movie 'Freaky Friday,' which I hadn't actually seen until I had already started this story, but just to say I do no own Freaky Friday. Next chappie up soon.