Chapter 2

James felt himself falling in the hallway. He saw the girl he had just bumped into. ‘Chris,’ he wanted to scream. But he was out cold before he hit the floor.

James awoke in an ambulance with a mask on his face and an IV in his arm. Some guy was waving a penlight in his eye as the ambulance rounded a bend in the road. He waved the light away from his face.

“Hey, take it easy there, kid. You’re in an ambulance, and we are taking you to the hospital.” The EMT said.

“Why?” James asked, trying to remove the mask.

“Here, here now, son! Leave that on. The two of you knocked yourselves out.” The EMT replied.

“No shit? Where’s Chris at?” James asked.

“Well, you must be feeling better, and she is in the other ambulance.” The EMT replied.

‘Okay,’ James thought, ‘it worked ... at least, it worked for me.’

James hoped it would work for Chris as well.

The ambulance pulled up to the emergency room at the hospital. Shortly, he found himself in a room with a catheter being stuck up his dick. Everyone was a blur around him, and he had too many questions to keep track of. The hospital staff was taking no chances, even though he was awake.

“It’s a good sign that you’re awake. We are going to get you an X-ray and get some shots of your head. I will see you back down here in a little bit. I have to see the other kid you were fighting with now,” the doctor said to James.

“No fight, Doc, we accidentally walked into each other,” James said.

The doc looked like he had heard it all before.

As he was examined for an X-ray, the doctor said, “It’s a girl.”

‘Well,’ James thought, ‘He didn’t believe me that it wasn’t a fight ... figures.’

It didn’t even occur to him to wonder how he knew the old doctor didn’t believe him.

After the x-ray, James was moved back into the main emergency room and behind some curtains to separate the patients. It wasn’t long before his dad showed up.

“Hey, sport, I hope the other guy looks worse.” His Dad said.

“I am not a guy,” came from behind the curtain next to us.

“Chris, are you okay?” James asked.

“Other than a tube in my arm and another shoved up ... Err somewhere else. I am fine, you?” Chris asked.

“I have the same problems over here, but yes, it seems to have worked,” James replied.

“What worked, son.” James’ Dad asked.

“Nothing, Dad, well, nothing worth going into,” James replied.

“Well, sport, there are better ways to meet girls, you know?” James’ Dad said

“How’s that, Dad?” James asked.

“Ask them out to dinner.” He said.

Chris said, “Oh, that will be expensive on your buster.”

James gulped as Chris’s parents entered her area.

“Are you all right, dear?” her mom was asking.

“Yes, Sweetie, what happened?” her dad asked.

“Mike? Is that you?” James’ father said from behind the curtain.

Mike stuck his head out around the curtain.

“Dale? What are you doing here?” Mike asked.

“It looks like our two kids finally ran into each other,” Dale said.

“How’s that? You mean it wasn’t a fight?” Mike asked.

“No, Dad. We walked into each other accidentally, and then we woke up here,” James said.

Chris said, “And it will cost him dinner at Boston Sea Food!”

The three parents were laughing. “Me and my poor pocketbook,” James said.

James’ mother walked in to see everyone laughing.

“Okay, you. I just drove through three red lights, not to mention the speeding, and I am greeted by you laughing,” she said as she went to James’ side.

James said, “Sorry, Mom. We just ran into each other in the hall. You could say we weren’t watching where we were going.”

The men were chuckling at that.

“Sounds like he better have lots of money.” Chris’s mom said.

“Why?” June asked, fearing a lawsuit.

“It seems the boy must take her to Boston Sea Food to say he is sorry.” Chris’s mom said.

The situation resolved into laughter, and everyone filled everyone else in. That’s when the old doctor came in.

“Hello. I am Dr. Barns. Do you people know each other?” He asked.

“Well, we men do,” said Dale. “The woman has never met, and it looks like the kids went a little ‘head over heels’ at their meeting.”

Dr. Barns said, “Oh, yes, the kids. I have looked over the X-rays, and there is nothing broken. We will keep them overnight for observation because they were both out cold from their little mishap.”

“Thanks, Doc,” the men said.

The doctor looked confused.

“So, how do you two know each other?” Dr. Barns asked.

“We work at the same place,” Mike said.

“Oh, so you’re co-workers. So why don’t the rest of them know each other?” he asked in confusion.

Dale said, “Well, you could say we are adversaries.”

The doctor raised his eyebrow.

“Mike, here is a defense attorney. And I am the deputy DA.” Dale said.

“Oh,” said the doctor in realization.

James and Chris were moved up to the pediatric floor but in different rooms. Their parents visited until the nurses chased them off so their respective kids could rest. Both were awake, and the catheters were removed by dinnertime.

James sat in bed eating a bowl of soup broth, Jell-O, and coffee. He marveled at how much better it tasted than he remembered the day before.

It finally hit him that he was really in his 16-year-old body. He wanted to shout out that it worked. He wanted to see Chris and see what she looked like now.

He wanted to do so many things, but he was stuck in this bed with orders to call the nurse if he even had to get up to go to the bathroom. Down the hall, only twelve rooms away, Chris was under the same orders and had the same ideas as he was.

James forgot a bit later when his bowels announced they needed to move, and he got up. His legs were wobbly; however, he reached the toilet and plopped down. His insides exploded with a force that sounded like a waterfall.

‘God, that burns,’ he thought as the piss flowed out of him.

Then he remembered he was supposed to call a nurse for help.

‘Shit, now what do I do?’ he thought.

After all, it was probably more than just wanting to help him be safe. They probably needed to check the amount of discharge from his bladder. They did think it was a head trauma case, even if they had no clue what kind of trauma to the head it was. James saw the pull cord beside him and decided it was time to face the music.

As the nurse entered the room, he said, “Sorry. I forgot to call before I came in here.”

The nurse followed his voice and found him sitting on the stool.

“I see. Well, at least you called instead of just hopping back in bed,” she said.

“Well, the burning reminded me why I was here,” James said.

“Burning?” The nurse asked and said, “Oh, yes, that’s right. You had a catheter in when you came upstairs. Don’t worry about the burning discomfort from having the catheter. It will be gone after you empty your bladder several times.”

“It still hurts,” James said.

The nurse said, “I am sure it does, young man, but at least you have it easier than the girl you came in with.”

“What? Is something wrong with Chris?” James asked, worried that her transfer may not have worked correctly.

“No, she’s a bit more confused, is all.” The nurse said.

“Confused?” James asked.

His nurse replied, “Well, I shouldn’t be saying this, but she tried to stand before the stool to relieve herself. I mean, that sounds silly, now doesn’t it.”

‘Great,’ James thought, ‘the floor gossip.’

Well, at least he could understand why Chris would try that. After all, she had been a man for most of her life.

“Can I see her?” James asked.

The nurse looked at him. It was the same question the girl had asked her a bit ago. She smiled.

“Maybe after lights out, the two of you might walk to the lounge before the nurse’s station. I will be watching you two, so you have to promise ... no hanky panky,” she said, looking at him thoughtfully.

James said, “We promise, no hanky panky.”

It had been so long since James had heard that term used.

“Well, your mother said she would return around seven this evening. She said she would bring you a robe, then, I think,” the nurse said as she helped him stand up.

As she skillfully guided him back to his bed, she noticed with some interest the overly large tenting in the front of his gown. Her eyes widened at the sight. After some quick mental arithmetic, she had to guess he was more significant than most, somewhere between 8 or 9 inches, she thought.

‘Lucky girl,’ the nurse thought with just a bit of jealousy.

“Well, it must wait until your mother gets here with a robe. We can’t have you wandering the halls like that,” his nurse said.

She barely stopped herself from pointing at what she was thinking about.

James had already seen where she was looking. And he could almost swear she had said, ‘Cock standing out like that.’

However, he asked in all innocence, “Like what?”

“With your bare bottom hanging out the back, there,” she said, pointing to his backside to make her point.

“Oh!” James said.

James hadn’t thought of that.

‘Well,’ he thought, at least she didn’t say what she was thinking.’

How had he known what she was thinking? James wondered as the nurse covered him with the blanket.

A loud screaming voice came down the hall,

“Get me out of this room! She is staring at me!”

The Nurse spoke, “Oh, brother! What is it with that girl this time?”

She finished covering James back up and then headed down the hall to try to solve the problem.

James could hear everything.

“She was staring at me again. I am not a lesbian!” the unidentified voice said.