The knock on the door was as cruel as a bucket of ice water. Olivia jumped, turning to face the door just as the knob started to turn.

"Just a second!" Gregory called as he tried to detach himself from her arms. He didn't want to let go. Where had Caitlin learned her timing?

"Sorry mom." Caitlin called through the door. "I thought you'd still be sleeping, I just wanted to talk to daddy."

Olivia started to reply, but he jumped up and covered her mouth. "You have to respond to daddy now Liv." He ordered in a whisper.

"Can't we tell her the truth?" Olivia whispered back as she helped him with the strings on the back of his nightgown.

"She'll think we've both completely lost it." Gregory replied, surprised by the panic in his voice. "Do you think you can handle talking to my secretary? Carol will tease you about taking some time of but just tell her you and I want a little alone time. She's a hopeless romantic and she'll melt if you say you want to spend the day alone with me."

Olivia smiled in soft appreciation. "You tell her you want to spend the day alone with me often?"

He kissed her cheek, trying not to make a face when the stubble scratched his tender lips. "Not often enough. I'll try to talk to Cate, you head downstairs to call the office."

"You two ready yet?" She knocked again, terribly impatient for some reason this morning.

"In a moment darling-" Olivia replied without thinking.

Gregory had to cover his mouth to keep from giggling at her. It sounded like himself doing an impression of her as a joke. "No 'darlings'!" He corrected in a hurry. "Try to sound like a man Olivia."

She blew him off with a roll of her eyes. "At least I'm not the one who's giggling like a schoolgirl."

A fresh blush rushed into his face as Caitlin came in. She missed the rumpling of the bed and the way her mother's hair was a little messier than a typical morning.

Olivia rested her chin on her hand thoughtfully, trying to look serious did make her look more normal for her new body. "Good morning."

Gregory managed to send her a small nod of appreciation. Her attempt to sound more american really did help the illusion. Caitlin turned to him and he tried to concentrate on every memory he had of Olivia's accent. He could do this. If there was anyone in the world he knew best, it was her. "What do you need-" Olivia mouthed 'darling' behind Caitlin's head and he tried to remember to extend the 'a'. "-darling?"

Caitlin seemed to be buying it so far. "I just wanted to know if you needed me to do anything before the party tonight."

Gregory was immediately suspicious. What were she and that jewel thief planning now? His schedule was always recorded neatly in his datebook on the desk in the study. Caitlin knew that. He opened his mouth and shut it again in a hurry as Olivia interrupted to save him. 'Mother' couldn't interrogate Caitlin about her odd behavior. She was the good cop.

"Actually I just have a few errands to run before taking your mother on a trip up the shore. I was very busy with Elaine's trial and I don't want her to start feeling neglected. Rose likes us out of the house when she gets things ready anyway." She rested a hand patronizingly on his shoulder and Gregory's frustration that she hadn't picked up on Caitlin's suspicious behavior vanished in his appreciation of her impression of him. He almost believed it.

"Oh that's so sweet of you daddy." Caitlin hugged Olivia and she had to remind herself to hug back like a man. "Isn't that sweet of him mom?"

Gregory blinked before he realized he had to respond to 'mom'. "Yes-" He stood up and pulled on his robe. "It is very sweet of him."

Olivia buried a smirk. "I'm going to run down and call the office. Keep your mother company for me, won't you Caitlin?"

"Sure daddy." Caitlin offered with a bright smile that seemed rather forced. "Mom and I can go get some breakfast."

Gregory followed Caitlin downstairs as he tried to think of a way to find out what she was doing without making her suspicious. The last thing she wanted to do was have to explain that he wasn't who he appeared to be. Caitlin's banter consisted mostly of a shopping trip Cole had taken her on. Apparently this was the 'girl talk' Olivia mentioned sharing with Caitlin lately.

Gregory really had no taste for it. Between Caitlin's incessant babble about her new skirt she intended to wear to the party and how wonderful Cole was, the nausea he'd been struggling with since he woke up in Olivia's body was really starting to become a problem. Maybe it was a side affect of switching bodies but he had to scrap that theory because Olivia felt fine in his body. He didn't like the idea that he was going to have to suffer through Olivia's bout of the flu any more than he liked hearing about Cole's adventures with the clerk in the dress shop.

"Are you sure you're all right mom? I know you didn't want me to talk to daddy about you fainting-"

Gregory choked on his coffee. Olivia had fainted again and she didn't want him to know? He still felt nauseous, and he had been ready to write it off as the flu, but fainting wasn't usually a symptom of the ordinary flu. He thought the time she'd fainted at the police station was just stress. Olivia had always been delicate but this was more than that. He'd have to take her body down to the doctor as soon as possible because she couldn't be trusted to take care of herself.

Caitlin was looking at him with even more concern. "Mom?"

"Sorry." Gregory apologized in his best British accent. "My mind's been wandering lately." He added under his breath that it was wandering in his study in HIS body, but Caitlin didn't hear him. "I hope you weren't too upset when I asked you to lie to your father."

She obviously was. "You know I hate lying to him mom. He'd be so angry with me if I knew something was wrong and didn't tell him. Especially if something happened to you." Caitlin touched his hand, smiling and looking innocently worried. "I think you should talk to daddy about it. You've been so close and you'll only get closer if you're honest with him."

She withdrew her hand to take a bite of her toast. "And he loves you so much-"

Gregory smiled, at least Caitlin seemed to understand how important her parent's newly rekindled relationship was. Maybe there was a way to use that to his advantage. He could learn to use Olivia's body to his advantage. Especially if he was going to be stuck in it for awhile. After all, Caitlin was more open with her mother. "I think we're really starting to walk in each other's shoes so to speak. Having you back is wonderful. For both of us."

"I am sorry you worried about me so much when I was gone." She did seem apologetic and he was inclined to go easier on her until she continued.

"But Mom, you have to believe Cole will never hurt me."

Gregory was immediately nauseous. He reached for his forehead, as if he could stop the spinning of the room by holding on to the bridge of his nose. "How can you-" He began, but she interrupted with that deeply frustrating star-struck tone she only used for rambling about the wonders of Cole Deschanel.

"He's perfect and I love him. I want to marry him and have his babies."

Gregory pushed Caitlin's hand away as he hurried out of his chair. "I'm going to be sick." He clasped his hand over his mouth and nodded in answer to his own question as he ran towards the bathroom. He dropped to his knees on the fluffy blue rug. How did Olivia put up with this? She hadn't said a word to hiim about being ill yesterday, but here her body was, spilling the barely digested breakfast into the toilet. The orange juice stung. He wiped his hand across his mouth and pulled the little silver lever to vanish the mess into the plumbing. He hadn't thrown up since he was a little boy. He'd forgotten how decidedly unpleasant it was to have his stomach work against him.

Washing out his mouth, he tried to take control of her body. Force it to bend to his will. Without Caitlin spouting the many virtues of Cole he felt slightly better, but the lingering upset in his stomach made him reluctant to stray far from the bathroom. He rinsed out his mouth for the second time with water. Maybe he should just seek professional assistance. Certainly one of the doctors down at that damn clinic could give him a definite diagnosis on the flu. If that was indeed the problem.

"Bette!" Olivia saw her standing just inside the front doorway and waved her over to the study.

"I'm just here to see Livie." Bette bustled as she tucked her car keys into her purse. "But good morning to you Greggie. What legals wonders do you plan to pull off today?"

"Come here." Olivia begged gently. She could tell Bette the truth. She could get her advice. Bette might even believe her.

Bette looked at her in quiet confusion and Olivia realized Gregory never asked for anything.

She paused and then pointed at the floor inside the study. "Come here now Bette."

Bette jumped but obeyed without any further complaint. Olivia couldn't help giggling, an act that only drew a strange look from her friend. A look that got stranger as she shut the door. Bette retreated to the chair, settling down as Olivia circled to the desk. "I want you to listen to me. You're not going to believe me, but i need you to listen to me. Okay?"

"All right!" Bette agreed quickly, putting her hands up in a mockery of fragile defense.

"I'm not Gregory." Olivia began simply, dropping any attempt to hide her accent as she leaned against the desk. "I look like him. I may even sound like him, but I'm not."

The nervous laughter was a good response, as far as responses to that type of admission go. Bette settled more comfortably in her chair, as if she was waiting for a punchline to a joke. "Who are you?"

"It's me." Olivia offered shyly, trying to think of a way to prove her own existence in this strange reality. "Olivia."

Grinning in explosive glee, Bette's laughter rushed up from her chest. "I like that. You're Livie. It's a good one." She reached up to hit Olivia in the chest, thumping her through the robe she'd pulled on over her pajamas.

"I am." Olivia dropped to Bette's level, looking straight into her eyes. Hoping that Bette would see what Gregory did, what was unique to her even when she lived in a different form all together. "We switched. I'm him and he's in me. I know it sounds crazy-"

Bette stood up, pushing her aside as she paced towards the window. "Crazy?" She paced back, trying to find the right words. She failed and just repeated herself. "Crazy is my sixth husband's obsession with ankle bracelets. Crazy is a lot of things, but it's not this-"

"It's real Bette and I need you to believe me." Olivia insisted as she turned her friend back to her. "I'm me. I'm still me. Even if I look like him."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Bette tilted her head thoughtfully. "Okay, I'll play mind games with you if it'll, make you happy. You can be Olivia today if you want, God only knows what kind of kinky bedroom game you're playing but you have to prove it."

"Prove it?" Olivia repeated with a half smile. "What do you want me to do? Tell you something only Olivia would know?"

"Oh no, if this ends up being some kind of new-age marriage counseling thing and you finagle something out of me Olivia doesn't want you to know she'll never forgive me!" Bette looked him over, trying to find a hint of his insanity in his appearance. "Although, you have never answered the door in your pajamas before so I don't know what I think about that. Or if I even want to get into it at all."

Olivia raised an eyebrow and sighed, worn out by Bette's thinking. "What can I do to prove it to you?"

"I haven't the faintest idea." She touched Olivia's chin, turning it one way and then the next as she tried to figure out what was different in the face she knew as Gregory's. "There is something different about you. I'm not ready to jump on the crazy bandwagon, but you're certainly acting funny."

"Am I really?" Olivia wondered as she let Bette examine her face. "What's funny about me?"

Bette's face darkened in suspicion. "You're being too nice for starters. This is a joke isn't it? I admit you're not you and you catch me in something."

Crossing to behind the desk, Olivia flopped into Gregory's chair and put her feet over the arm. It was something he never, ever did, but she couldn't help enjoying it. There was a great deal of freedom in being Gregory. Caitlin, Bette, Rose, Sean- they all looked at her differently. Bette had come right into the study when she'd told her too. "So I should be meaner to you?"

"No, not at all." Frowning in thought, Bette snuck around the back of the desk with Olivia and put her hands on her shoulders. "Kiss me."

Now it was Olivia's turn to laugh. "What would that prove?"

Bette slapped her cheek lightly with the back of her hand. "Come now, no matter which half of the Richardses you happen to really be, you have to know that I've never forgotten a kiss in my life. I kissed Gregory last year at your, whoever you are, Christmas party and if you're him. I'll know."

"So you won't believe me, but you'll believe your sixth sense for kissing?" Olivia winked up at her, both intrigued and amused by the prospect.

"Shut up." Better order as she leaned down to the man she knew as her best friends husband. "I'd know an old shark like you anywhere."

Olivia found her second time kissing a woman as intriguing as the first. There was a softness in the way women allowed the kiss to happen to them without wasting time on the particulars. Breaking apart, she saw the shock and surprise in Bette's face and resolved to stop making fun of her powers of identification.

"My god Livie." Bette looked deeply into the brown eyes looking up at her and wondering if that spark could really be what she thought it was. "I don't know how you did it, but it's amazing. You look like him, you even kind of sound like him. of course the accent's all wrong-"

Olivia blew her off with a wave and a smile of relief. "I was hoping you'd be able to help us. Gregory and I don't have a clue how we got into this, nor do we have any idea how to get out of it."

Bette perched on the desk as she pinched Olivia's shoulder. Responding to her squeak of pain with a shrug, "Had to make sure you weren't dreaming, didn't I?" She gave Olivia her full attention. "So what should I do?"

"I'm going to get rid of Cole, once at for all." Olivia announced as she swung her feet down to the floor and rested her hands on the desk. "I've been thinking about it all morning. I'm Gregory, at least, everyone else thinks I am."

"And you're going to do what?" Bette asked with a curious lilt in her voice. "Gregory hasn't been able to get rid of Cole, no matter how hard he tries."

Wagging a finger thoughtfully Olivia pulled her closer. "But he doesn't know what I know. He doesn't know about my affair with Cole-"

"And you do." Bette finished as she started to figure out what Olivia planned to do. "And because of some insane twist of fate, you look like your satanic hubby, so you can pretend to know all about the torrid little affair that Cole had with your body, that the aforementioned hubby is now in without Gregory knowing anything about it." Clapping her hands together quickly, Bette expressed her delight. "That's not bad Livie, not bad at all."

Olivia sighed, closing her eyes for a moment as she thought about what losing her boyfriend would do to Caitlin. "I just can't risk Cole talking to Gregory while he thinks Gregory's me. What if he lets something slip?"

"Doesn't matter who's body you're in then, Gregory will still tear it apart." Grimly finishing Olivia's thought, Bette took her shoulders in hand, offeringher support. "But this is going to work. It's perfect, this little soul-switching mishap is going to work out beautifully."

Nodding as she started towards the door of the study, Olivia paused, "Not so perfect for Gregory I'm afraid."

"Oh?"

"My body's not treating him very well. Gregory said he was sick to my stomach earlier. I suppose I- he just has the flu..." Olivia didn't get to finish her thought. The door to the study opened inward just as she reached for the knob.

"Daddy?" Caitlin was barely in the door when she grabbed her father's hand. "I think you should go check on mom."

Olivia titled her head curiously and Bette had to knock the rather feminine placement of her hand off of her hip to preserve the illusion of manhood. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's throwing up in the bathroom." The note of quiet disgust mixed with the pity in Caitlin's voice made Bette smile sympathetically.

"Poor thing."

Olivia pushed them both aside with a hand on Bette's shoulder. "I'll go check on her."

"Good idea." Bette called after Olivia as she lead Caitlin out of the study and settled on the sofa. She wasn't going to miss the opportunity to see Gregory deal with Olivia's body. Not for all of her wedding rings.

Olivia found her husband huddled in a corner of the bathroom, arms crossed around his knees.

"Being you is hell." He complained simply as she slid down the wall to sit next to him.

Olivia touched his forehead, remembering how wretched she'd felt at the trial the previous day. "I'm sorry darling." He didn't have a fever, poking a rather large hole in her theory that it was just the flu. She didn't mention that fact to him. It really wouldn't do to have him worry about her body when he was the one in it. He'd probably just make it worse.

"I was all right," Gregory began as he realized resting his head on her shoulder kept the little bathroom from spinning. "Until she started going on about Cole being the only man for her, and Cole being the perfect boyfriend-" He clapped a hand over his mouth quickly and Olivia pulled the hair back from his face. Gregory shook it off. "Then I just lost it."

She kissed his cheek, realizing he was serious when he teased her about how cool her skin was. "I bet you'll be happy to get your nice, safe, reliable body back. Won't you?"

Gregory closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall behind his head. "Remind me to be nicer to you when I do."

"You're always sweet to me." Olivia argued as she rubbed his arm thoughtfully. "Why do you think I always get better when you come home?"

Laughing was one of a few things that still came naturally to both of them. "I need to come home sooner. This-" He lowered his eyes to his stomach. "Isn't worth suffering. no matter what nonsense I think I need to get done at the office."

"You'll feel better in the shower." She reasoned hopefully. "Besides, you're just spoiled." Olivia realized as she helped him to his feet. "Your body's nearly invulnerable. When was the last time you threw up anyway? Undergrad?"

"Grammar school." Stopping in the safety between her arms and the wall, Gregory caught her staring at him with a look he wasn't sure he recognized. It certainly wasn't one he saw in the mirror. "What?"

The look burst into a smile, a fairly sheepish one that Olivia tried to hide with a shake of her head. She even bit her lip as he continued to wait for her explanation. They were on their way upstairs when she finally sighed and gave in.

"I think I like you." Olivia admitted shyly as she lead him to the master bath and dug around in the linen closet for a towel.

"We've been married for twenty years-" He patronized as she pulled his robe from his shoulders. "I'd hope that it's more than 'like'."

She folded his robe and set it on the counter. "No no-" Olivia looked down at his chest, the thin ivory nightgown left little to the imagination. "I want you. I feel all tingly when I look at you."

Gregory stopped yanking on the complicated ties on the back of his nightgown and decided to pull it over his head. He stopped halfway as she made a neat line of toiletries on the counter to explain to him. "You're attracted to me?"

Olivia pushed his nightgown down and undid the ties with practiced ease. "I don't know why you sound so surprised."

"You do see "me" in the mirror every day." Gregory pointed out as he tried to decide what part of his body to cover with his hands as he snuck around her into the shower stall. He cupped his breasts and returned her shy smile.

"I'm seeing you through through new eyes." She closed the distance and kissed him, surpressing a giggle as the proximately of his naked body sent new sensations running down between her legs. "Hair." She ordered as she touched the first two bottles. "Face- body-" She continued down the line to her razor. "Legs, you have to get dressed up for that party you scheduled tonight. Be careful around your knees and your ankles."

She reached for the water and winked at him. "I'm going to use the other shower and head to the office to sign a couple things. Take good care of my body now."

Gregory reached for the first bottle she'd tapped for hair, but changed his mind and ran out of the shower to kiss her again. He wrapped wet arms around her neck and felt the water in his hair run snaking rivulets down his back. "I love you."

Olivia was severely tempted to forget Cole and try out the new side of lovemaking right then on the bedroom floor. Instead she tried to force her body to calm down. Cole first, fun later. It had to be that way. "I love you too darling."

She had the taste of him on her lips as she chased him back into the shower. "And be careful! Your ankles will bleed for hours if you cut them-"