The waiting room bustled.
As Chris watched the steady stream of injured and distressed people flowing through the hospital doors, he couldn't believe how selfish he had been. True, there was no way he could have known that everyone in town would soon be switching places; he should have at least considered what had happened to Sarah, though. But no, the thought that Sarah might have been in his body had never crossed his mind. Chris had been far too occupied with his own situation--first the shock of finding himself living Sarah McMillan's life, then the opportunity to date Biff Meadows, then the heartbreak when Biff had rejected him, then the possibilities that being a beautiful girl presented him--he had been far too concerned with his own fate to even consider Sarah's.
Now, not only was Sarah gravely wounded, but so was much of the town. Chris had driven Sarah's car to the hospital. He'd hesitated before taking her car--after all, it felt bit like stealing--but he had already lived several hours of Sarah's life. He'd already been carrying her purse, wearing her clothes... her underwear, for that matter. He'd talked to her friends, talked to her parents, lain in her bed, snooped through her room, used up her makeup. He'd seen her naked, completely naked. At that point taking Sarah's car had seemed like the least of intrusions... so he'd decided to jump in and turn the ignition.
Driving to the hospital, he'd had a chance to see the unrest in town firsthand. And he'd listened to the radio on the way to the hospital... to one of the few stations that were still on the air. The switching plague... it had become vividly real during the slow fifteen-minute drive to the hospital. The last time Chris had been outside--when Gabby had dropped him off at Sarah's house--the world had still looked relatively sane, aside from the skimpy cheerleading outfit he had been wearing. Two hours later... madness.
When he'd arrived at the hospital, Chris had asked the little girl at the receptionist desk if she knew anything about a Hispanic teenager who had been shot in the arm. The girl--who was clealy overwhelmed with everything that was going on--had done some digging and said yes, that there was a boy who fit that description in surgery, that the boy was stable and awake and alert, that the wound was not serious, and that he might never be able to play sports again, but otherwise he would walk away from the injury without any serious, permanent damage. Chris had been relieved, not just because his body was safe, but because Sarah herself was safe. So Chris had taken a seat in the waiting room with the intent of catching Sarah when she came out of surgery. And since then, Chris had spent a couple of hours engrossed in some of the most fascinating people-watching that he had ever done.
It was the constant mismatch between how people appeared and how they behaved that Chris found so fascinating. He saw children leading adults by the hand; he saw elderly people with the energy of teenagers; he saw people pushing adult in strollers or carrying them in their arms; he saw men kissing men and women kissing women; he saw adults playing with toys; he saw unattractive people who seemed to believe they were much better-looking than they were, and beautiful people dressed modestly and sitting uncomfortable and alone in the corner; he saw distinguished-looking adults swearing and speaking in slang he normally only heard at school or among his friends. Most of all, he saw men behaving as women or vice versa; and though most people were wearing clothes that were appropriate for their apparent gender, Chris had seen a few men dressed in what was clearly women's clothing, and vice versa. And several people among the hospital staff appeared to be too young, or in a couple of cases far too old and frail, to be doing what they were doing.
Chris, for his own part, had attracted more than a little attention. Sarah's cheerleading uniform being less than ideal for street wear, he had changed into the dress he had picked out for himself before he had heard the gunshot from Sarah's living room... though under the circumstances he had opted to wear flat shoes rather than the heels he'd been planning to wear. He had checked his reflection before leaving Sarah's room, and had been pleased with what he'd seen; as Sarah, he looked beautiful. Absolutely stunning. And he felt beautiful, too. He had turned a great number of heads in the time he'd been sitting in the waiting room... he'd caught men, women, and children alike looking at him. A few people had come over to flirt with him, and Chris had happily flirted back... or, at least, he flirted with the guys. He had no interest in the women, and flirting with chilren was simply too creepy, even though he knew that the children w were attempting to flirt with him were really grown-ups on the inside. Chris had even gotten phone numbers from a couple of guys, and if he found out he was in Sarah's body for good, he fully intended to follow up.
A large part of Chris still hoped that his switch would prove to be permanent. He was concerned for Sarah, yes; and Chris knew that it was selfish to want everyone else to have to be stuck in bodies they didn't like just so that he could have a body he did like. But he was truly enjoying life as Sarah McMillan, and he knew that his life would be much simpler and much more pleasant as a girl than it could ever be as a guy. So far he hadn't confessed to anyone that he was really a boy; when people had come up to talk with him and asked him if he was really the person he appeared to be, Chris said that yes, his name was Sarah and he was still in his original body, and that he was there waitng for his brother. Chris didn't want anyone--especially the guys who were interested in him--to know that he was really a boy.
At last Chris spotted a very familiar figure enter through a pair of swinging doors on the far side of the waiting room. It was himself, or rather someone who looked like him. His body was dressed in a dirty sleeveless shirt, and its shoulder was heavily bandaged... but it was on its feet, it was walking, it was awake, it was lucid, and most importantly, it was alive. Chris stood and waved; and at last his body spotted him and stopped in its tracks. Chris began walking toward his body, until they met, face to face.
"Sarah?" Chris asked.
His body blinked in amazement, then nodded. "Benitez?"
"Chris," Chris said. "Chris Benitez. Yes."
Sarah continued to stare in astonishment for a moment... then she leapt on Chris and the two of them tumbled to the floor. "Bastard!" she screamed, slapping Chris with her good arm. "Give me back my body!" She began pounding on him with significantly less force than Chris knew his body should have been able to muster, and though Chris tried to get out from under her, he was afraid to struggle too hard for fear of hurting her arm even more.
People all over the room leapt to their feet and crowded around Chris and Sarah, and at last two people--one of them a woman in a large, ill-fitting secuirty uniform and the other a young boy--pulled Chris and Sarah apart. By this point Sarah was waving her fist around Chris's head; at first, Chris wasn't sure what she was doing, but then he realized that she was trying to pull his hair, which from her perspective would have looked considerably longer than his own short hair. Sarah struggled as she was pulled away from him, but the boy and the woman were too strong for her, and at last Sarah relented as the two of them carried her off.
"Are you okay?" a teenage girl in nurse's scrubs said, helping Chris to his feet.
"Yeah, I think so," Chris said. He was a bit sore, but Sarah hadn't hurt him any more than he would normally get hurt during football practice. "What are they going to do with her? Are they going to arrest her?"
"No," the girl said. "They're just hospital security, so they don't have the authority to arrest him... her. And, um, I'm guessing you're in her body?"
Chris nodded.
"Then yeah," the girl went on, "she's too young to be arrested anyway. They're just going restrain her until she calms down and have a therapist come in and talk to her." She sighed. "We've seen a lot of this today, unfortunately."
"Things must be pretty crazy here," Chris said. "The town's a mess."
"Yeah," the girl said. "You have no idea."
Chris watched as Sarah and the security guards disappeared down a hallway. Then he turned to the girl. "Say," he said, "is there anything I can do to help? You know, like, as a volunteer?"
"Actually," the girl said, smiling, "that woud be wonderful."
