Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

P aige wiped her clammy hand against her pant leg before she slid her fingers through her moms again. It had barely been an hour, but so far, there was no change.

Her eyes burned from having already shed tears over not seeing a miraculous recovery. With a lick of her lips, she squeezed her mom's hand. "Come on, Mom. Just open your eyes."

"Paige," Ronnie's voice called softly.

She twisted to find the women in the doorway. "Eyva is here. She'd like to take a look at you both and see if she can get you fixed up."

Paige bobbed her head, her eyes returning to her mother.

"I can sit with her," Ronnie said, patting Paige on the shoulder.

"Thanks. I just…don't want to leave her. I mean, the serum could work at any minute to wake her up and– "

"You don't want her waking up alone. That's fair," Ronnie said. "I won't leave her."

"Thanks, Ronnie." Paige shifted her weight from foot to foot as her fingers lingered on her mother's. "Probably better if you're here anyway."

"What do you mean?" Ronnie asked.

"She knows you. She'll recognize you. If she wakes up when I'm here…she wouldn't even know me."

Tears filled her eyes as she tried to think of how to explain to her mother that she was her thirty-something daughter.

"Aw, Paige, I think she'll know who you are…oh, well, I mean…after you're not in Drucinda's body. She'll also know Drucinda, so there's an upside to your current situation."

Paige huffed out a weak laugh. "Yeah, true. Except she'd be disappointed that her tough friend wasn't so tough inside anymore."

"I'm sure she's going to love you, Paige," Ronnie said. "She was so excited to have you. It's a shame you lost all that time together."

Paige heaved a sigh. "Well, we can't change it now, but hopefully we'll have a fresh start going forward."

Ronnie nodded as she eased into the chair next to Reed's bed.

"Well, I guess I'll get going and see if I can get my body back."

"Good luck," Ronnie said as Paige shuffled from the room.

Her heart pounded against her ribs as she made her way down to the lab. She knew it was still early, but there had been no sign of change with her mother's condition. Would the serum work?

At least she'd have some time to get swapped back into her real body. She couldn't imagine her mother's confusion waking up to find her daughter trapped inside her best friend's body .

She pushed through the door into the lab with a sigh, finding Drucinda, Eyva, Devon, and Dewey inside.

"There she is," Dewey said from his perch on Eyva's shoulder. "Now we can get to work."

"Yes. Oh, yes, I see, it's a perfect body swap, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Paige asked.

"I mean you've retained nothing of your own selves. No lingering eye color or freckles out of place."

"Thankfully," Drucinda answered as she crossed her arms. "My skin is flawless. I don't need it marred with your freckles."

"Oh, don't be a snob, Drucinda," Eyva said with a dismissive wave. "Her freckles are darling."

"Well, they can be darling with her stuck in this body and me in my own."

"All right, all right. Don't get your knickers into a twist, dear. I'll have you patched up in no time."

"Thank heavens. I cannot wait to have my muscle tone back. I've managed to hurt myself simply sitting in a chair."

"Oh, those chairs are killers," Paige answered. "There's no comfortable position."

"I have never had any trouble until now. Apparently, your body isn't accustomed to chairs."

Dewey clapped his paws together, rubbing them. "Now, you tell me what to do, Eyva, and I'll get it done. This is amazing to learn from a master."

"Don't mess it up and turn us into tigers," Paige warned.

Eyva's eyes went wide.

"Yes, he's done it before. Dewey manages to mess up his potions at every turn and do something insane to me like turn me into a puddle or a panther."

Evya chuckled. "Oh, that's incredible. We'll need to swap stories. Once, I turned a young man into a toad. He didn't take kindly to it. "

"How's your mom?" Devon asked as Dewey and Eyva set to work on a potion.

"No change," Paige answered with a frown.

"Well, the doctor said it would take a few hours before anything happened, right?"

Paige let her gaze fall to the floor. "Yep. Still…I was hoping for some instantaneous thing to happen like in the movies."

Devon rubbed her arm. "Well, this isn't the movies. Plus, it gives us a chance to get you fixed."

"Yeah, I'm sure that would have been confusing. She wakes up thirty years in the future and finds her best friend in her daughter's body and vice-versa."

"Definitely," Drucinda answered. "I'd rather make this transition as easy as possible for her."

Paige bobbed her head, struggling to control the emotions whirling inside her.

"If it's any consolation," Drucinda said, "I, too, hoped for a miraculous change from the serum."

Paige offered her a weak smile, reaching for her arm to rub it.

"There's no need to get sentimental." Drucinda shrugged her off with a wrinkled nose.

"Sorry, I just…thought maybe we could be friends."

The woman shot her a narrow-eyed glance. "No."

"That's sort of harsh, Dru. I mean…we're friends, and you're friends with Paige's mom, so it feels like you two should be friends, too, by extension."

Drucinda arched an eyebrow. "I'll consider it. After Reed wakes up."

Paige heaved a sigh, sinking into the plastic chair against the wall. Her forehead creased. "Wow, this chair isn't nearly as uncomfortable in this body as it was in my normal one. "

"I told you. There is something wrong with your body. It's…odd."

"There's nothing wrong with Paige's body," Devon answered with a wag of his finger. "That's body-shaming and it's not okay."

"What is this? An after-school special?" Drucinda asked.

"I'm just saying…"

Drucinda rolled her eyes before returning her gaze to Dewey and Eyva as they continued to work.

Dewey poured a heaping cup of purple powder into a green liquid. It exploded, sending a massive cloud into the air.

"Whoops," Eyva said. "I think I meant Delirium powder not Elirium powder. I never can keep those straight."

Paige's stomach twisted into a tight knot as she wondered what problem would befall her with those two creating the solution.

"Please don't mess this up," Drucinda said with a shake of her head. "I want to be normal again. I miss my form."

"Also, I don't want to be turned into something weird like a dog or a squirrel because I'd like to be normal when my mom wakes up."

"No way for that to happen, Paige," Dewey said with a shake of his head. "You're decidedly not normal."

Paige narrowed her eyes at him as Eyva chuckled. "It's not very fun to be normal," she said. "But we'll do our best not to turn you into any creatures."

"Thanks. I really appreciate that."

Devon patted her on the shoulder. "It'll be okay, Paige."

Dewey and Eyva continued their work as Paige drummed her fingers against her thigh, shifting around in seat as the minutes ticked by.

Her heart thudded dully against her ribs as she waited for the serum to be ready .

After twenty minutes, she popped up from her seat and paced the floor.

"You okay, Paige?"

"Yep, just…wondering how my mom is doing."

Devon checked his watch. "Well, probably not awake yet. The doctor said a few hours."

She nodded, her gaze stuck on the floor. "Yeah. Probably."

"This is nearly ready, Paige, so just give us a few more minutes and we'll have you back in your normal body."

"I don't understand how this is going to work," Paige said with a shake of her head. "We're both going to drink this and magically know which body to go into? I mean…should we clear the room so there's no confusion?"

Eyva slapped the counter with a laugh. "No, of course not. There's magic in there to make it work."

"Yeah…I'm not sure I trust magic."

"We put in a sample of your hair. The potion will know then," Eyva explained.

Paige's eyes went wide. "Wait…hair? Are you sure you got mine and Drucinda's? I saw this on Harry Potter once and that's how Hermione got turned into a cat."

Dewey rolled his eyes. "Lies. All lies. Why do you continue to believe this nonsense that you read in books?"

Paige crinkled her nose. "Because it makes just as much sense as believing that a magical potion is going to put me back in my body because of a strand of hair."

"I didn't get cat hair in the stupid potion, okay? It's fine. I didn't get her hair, my hair, or Devon's hair."

"Fine, fine. It's just that…your potion-making skills– "

"Are top-notch," Dewey interrupted with a glare. "Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about."

"Right, of course. You have saved my life before…with a few hiccups, but still…saved my life. "

"Those hiccups were not my fault," Dewey shouted, flinging a paw toward her. A giant swath of green goo spattered across her clothes from the spatula he held. "Oops."

Paige shot him an unimpressed stare. "Thanks, Dewey."

"Oh, quiet. Let me finish mixing this so you can both ingest it and be fixed."

Paige grabbed a wad of paper towels and wiped at the mixture. "Sorry, your shirt is stained," she said to Drucinda.

"Please try not to do any more damage to me, will you?" Drucinda shot back.

"Okay, ladies," Dewey said with a grin as he buzzed toward them, "it's ready!"

He held a beaker out to each of them. "Bottoms up."

Paige wrapped her fingers around the glass, her nose wrinkling as she stared at the green goop.

"It's watermelon flavored," Dewey said. "Oh, also, you need to start drinking and finish drinking at precisely the exact same time, or this won't work."

Paige's jaw fell open. "What? That's going to be virtually impossible."

Dewey's lips shook as he tried to hold back a laugh before it burst from him.

Eyva joined in before raising a hand in the air for a high five. "Good one."

Dewey wiped a tear from his cheek before he waved a hand in the air. "Oh, I'm kidding. It doesn't matter. Just drink it and within like two minutes, you'll be back to your normal bodies."

Paige sucked in a deep breath before she clinked her glass against Drucinda's. "To being back in our own bodies."

"Can't happen soon enough." Drucinda pressed the beaker to her lips and chugged down the liquid.

Paige took a few swallows. "Okay, the texture is weird, but the taste isn't bad. "

"I told you. I worked hard on that," Dewey said.

She polished off the serum and wiped at her lips. "Okay. Well, anytime now."

Dewey puckered his lips as they waited. Two minutes passed with nothing happening. Paige shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Okay, uhhh, it's been two minutes."

"Patience, Paige." Dewey shot her an irritated glance.

"Well, you said two minutes."

"It was a figure of speech, not an exact measurement." Dewey shook his head at her. "Humans."

"Hey, I can't help it. I'm still learning, but I'm–Whoa." Her lips tugged back into a frown as she reached out to grab onto the edge of the counter.

"What's happening?" Devon asked.

"Ohhhh, I feel…" Paige moaned.

"Like someone is ripping out my insides," Drucinda finished for her. "Uhhhh."

"That's about right," Eyva said. "This is very painful."

"Why didn't you warn us?" Drucinda croaked out before she dropped to her knees. "Ohhhh."

"Well, I didn't feel it was necessary," Eyva said. "It had to be done. There is nothing gained by telling you ahead of time so one or both of you could pitch a fit and refuse to drink it."

A pained groan escaped Paige as she hit the floor, too, curling into the fetal position. "Warning would have been nice."

"This is awful," Drucinda cried.

"Reminds me of the time I ate too much Mexican," Paige choked out.

She gritted her teeth as the pain ratcheted higher, blurring her vision.

"Try to breathe through it, Paige," Devon said.

"You breathe through it!" she snapped back .

"Wow, he's going to be really supportive during childbirth," Dewey said.

Eyva crossed her arms and shook her head as Paige writhed on the floor. "You know, in my day, women had their babies with a midwife and a handmaiden. There were no fathers holding their hands and whispering words of encouragement."

"You lived in the Stone Age, Eyva," Dewey said with a shrug. "Today, it's expected. Devon's going to have to step up his support system if he wants to be seen as a really supportive spouse and father."

Devon winced as he knelt next to Paige and rubbed her back, twisting his hands into fists. "Okay, Paige, I'm right here with you. I'm…trying my best to be supportive."

He flicked his gaze to Dewey.

"Better," Dewey said with a nod, "room for improvement."

"Shut up!" Paige shouted as she dug her fingers into her hair. Pain wracked her body as her vision began to darken on the edges.

She sucked in a deep breath, her chest tight. Her head swam, and the room spun. She squeezed her eyes closed before all her senses shut down entirely and she slipped away to unconsciousness.