Your mom at your bedside

In one of the most surreal moments in your life, you found yourself wakening to look into the face of your old body, a look of weariness and concern mixed with relief that you were somehow able to recognize her (despite it all). "Hey..." she whispered, the voice playing different to both of your ears. "How are you feeling?"

"Like this is all one big fucked up mistake," you whispered back, the oddity of hearing her voice coming out from your mouth when you know the person it should have been coming from now looked down on you. "Can't imagine this is going to be any easier."

She nodded, still looking a bit uncomfortable at both being a teenager again as well as a male this time around (she was fidgeting in the chair, trying to adjust to the weirdness of being taller, physically bigger, and heavier than her old body which you were now in.) "Blessing that Don wasn't here to see this," she whispered, remembering that her husband, and Tim's father, had passed on several years after Tim was born, ironically in a car accident and dying at this very same hospital.

You nodded slowly, feeling the swish of her hair brushing your neck and you looked at her for a moment. "Did Saunders and Kerry talk with you about things?"

"You mean how we're going to have to live each other's lives? Yeah, they did that test thing where they were trying to see how much I knew about your life. They termed it 'assimilation factor', something about how our brains can pick up memories we had before switching...like I could recall your school schedule from last year without a thought." She scratched the back of her head, an old habit of yours when you had been puzzled by something, and you brought a hand up to cover the smile, something that she often did too. "See? We're doing it without thinking about it."

"So...about school?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm going back to school as you. I mean, I have to, right? You're 18, entering your senior year, this is a big one." She sighed and mumbled about school, studying, tests, and the like. "Not to mention hanging out with Randall and Allison." Your best friend, Randall, and your childhood crush, Allison, both now complete strangers to you. You supposed it only made sense, a 41 year-old woman can't exactly be friends with 17 and 18 year-olds now, could you? "Guess I'll be seeing what it means to be back in school again in this day and age."

You sighed and laughed a little. "Could be worse, I finally made varsity track this past year. You always liked to run but said these," you pointed down to the rack you were sporting, "always got in your way. Can't imagine that would be a problem now, would it?" You watched her quickly look down and then avert her eyes almost immediately. Interesting... you thought but decided to say nothing.

"Well, not like I wanted to be my son, back in school, having to deal with all this in a new body." She patted your hand gently and smiled, pausing as a nurse came in to check your vitals.

"How are you feeling, Mrs. Connors?" the girl asked, you looked up at her face and nodded you were doing fine. "Good, see your son finally got to see you awake, the young man's been something fierce the past few days."

"Hope HE hasn't been too much of a handful," you smirked and the older woman just gave her a reassuring pat before stepping out. "That was weird..."

"We're going to be released in a few days after they finish their tests. Louise brought some clothes for the two of us to change into. Might as well get used to it, Timbo. You're going to be wanting my clothes with that body you now have."

After another hour of chat, you watched your mom step out of the room as the nurse came back in and fetched her for more tests, leaving you looking at your reflection in the mirror.

"Hi, I'm Jennifer Connors..." you whispered, hearing the words, and wondering how long it would take before it didn't sound too fucking nuts.

****

Author's Note: Based on my reading, I pictured her to look like this. "Actress" is Georgie Lyall.