Rebecca Johnson walked into the break room on Mercy General’s 7th floor. The room was usually empty for her Diet Coke break, but today, she was somewhat surprised to find one of her fellow nurses sitting at the table. “Oh hey Milana” she said and recognizing that she looked very upset, added “Are you okay?”

Milana Sokolov had retreated to the break room after a very difficult patient had really set her over the edge. “Oh!” she said sitting up straight “You scared me Rebecca”. Milana was originally from Moscow and had only been living and working in the U.S. for a few years; her heavily accented voice was a constant concern for her working in middle America Columbus, Ohio.

“I didn’t mean to…but you look upset” Rebecca said as she sat down.

Milana gave a weary smile across the table “It is Mr. McCoy in room 704…He is always complaining that he cannot understand me” she said in her Russian accented voice.

“Oh don’t give that old geezer the time of day…he’s a crank” Rebecca said reassuringly.

“But it is not just him Rebecca. It is every one…all patients give me hard time about way I sound. I cannot help it” Milana was on the verge of tears.

“Hey…don’t worry about it.”

“No. I do not want to become issue…If I give order and someone does not hear me and does wrong thing…Someone is going to be hurting…because of me” She looked across at Rebecca “You do not understand how it is to not be understanding…you sound like regular American. I wish I was sounding like you…then…no problem”

“Yeah…no problems…I wish” Rebecca thought to herself. But she said “Look if I can do anything to help you; please ask. Don’t let it get to you”

“Yes. You could give me your voice and I take yours in return” Milana said with a laugh.

Rebecca laughed and said “If I could…I would”

“Then it is settled: We switch voices” Milana said as she stood up. “My break is over…I have to go…Thank You Rebecca”

Rebecca smiled and waved as Milana left.

Ten minutes later, Rebecca returned to the floor and went to the main desk. She grabbed the next chart and went down the hall to get a very reluctant and confused patient to try to take her medication.

“Good Evening Mrs. Silvers; it’s time to take your nightly pill” Rebecca said entering the room. “Now I need you to swallow this” The patient just stared and stuck the pill on the end of her tongue “Okay…swallow” Nothing happened and Rebecca was getting frustrated “You need to swallow...you know swallow, глотать” Rebecca’s hand flew to her mouth and confusion masked her face. “What did I just say?” She took a step back; luckily the patient hadn’t heard her or understood, but she did swallow the pill.

Rebecca looked around but the hall was pretty quiet tonight; only a few patients and one other nurse besides Milana. Rebecca walked back down the hall slowly to the nurses’ station. As she walked she thought “Am I having a stroke? What did I just say in there…that was сумасшедший” She stopped dead in her tracks, eyes widening.

Milana had realized that she had forgotten to record one of Mr. McCoy’s readings so she would have to go back in there. She dreaded the walk down to his room.

“Well if it isn’t Svetlana” Mr. McCoy said “How’s my favorite Commie now?”

Milana smiled unenthusiastically. “I am just fine, I just needed to get one more…” she said in her accented English <cough> “…reading from you” she said as she crinkled up her nose. A thought flashed through her mind “That didn’t sound like me”

Mr. McCoy even looked at her funny “Where’d you learn to talk like that Huh?”

“I…I am sorry” she continued, voice accented once more. “I must be coming down with cold” That was the only thing she could think of with that sudden flat sounding voice.

“That’s more like it Ruskie” the old man cackled.

Milana wrote down the reading and replaced his chart in the holder “Have a nice night sir” she said in the flattest of mid-western tones.

Milana’s eyes went wide open and she swallowed hard. Mr. McCoy was staring at her with a funny look on his face “What did you just say?”

Milana stuttered and stammered before saying in her accent once more “Excuse me please sir” She exited the room and scanned the hallway; at the other end she saw Rebecca walking slowly toward their central desk with a worried look on her face. Milana ducked into their locker room and went to the back to where there were a line of sinks and mirrors. Gripping the sink tightly, she stared at her face in the mirror and said “Hello” with her usual Russian accent “My name is…” still accented …”Milana” no accent.

Her hands shot to her mouth. She heard the door open and footsteps approaching her. She turned and gave a very scared and unconvincing smile as Rebecca strode up to her “What is going on now Milana!” Rebecca said in a Russian accent that was getting thicker by the word.

“Rebecca! I…I don’t know what’s going on” she said sounding like an Ohio native. They both had shocked expressions on their faces.

“You sound just like me Milana!” Rebecca said “How did you do this…you steal voice from me…you get in head… Я даже думаю на русском языке!”

More confusion crossed Milana’s face…she didn’t understand a word that Rebecca had finished her rant with; she didn’t know Russian all of a sudden.

Rebecca continued “You have to change us back…I cannot…I sound like cartoon now”

“Uh, excuse me…a cartoon?” Milana said upset. “That’s my voice you’re using I’ll have you know…”

“Yes yes and you are taking mine. I want back” Rebecca said with a stomp of her foot.

“But I don’t know what happened to us” Milana said flatly.

“It was in break room. You cry and cry about accent…I say to you…don’t worry and…and if I could I would give…you…my…” she looked up and said very softly “…Голос”

Milana pursed her lips tightly together and shrugged her shoulders “I don’t know what to do…I don’t know how to make this better”

Rebecca huffed for a moment and crossed her arms. She looked up to Milana and said “Well…if I get voice…then I should get body to match” she said with a laugh.

Milana was a strikingly beautiful woman: She was 23 years old; 5’10” with long straight blond hair and bright blue eyes. She had an athletic build from years of playing soccer in Russia and in college and long legs that her scrubs did not show off, while Rebecca was at 36, 5’2” and slightly overweight with short brown hair.

“Yeah right” Milana said laughing “At least you’re keeping your sense of humor about this”

“You know something” Rebecca said “I am thinking that I should… Что это? Почему моей обуви чувствовать туго?

“What?” Milana said “I’m sorry but Russian doesn’t make any sense to me anymore”

“I say…why does my shoes feel all tight… глупая девочка” “Ow” Rebecca said as she took a step back from Milana and stepped out of her shoes. She looked down at her sock covered feet. She wiggled her toes and cocked her head to the side; to Rebecca it looked like her sock was sliding a bit forward on her foot; her ankle and heel were now showing.

Milana took a step backwards as well and bumped her back into the sink. Her hand went back and grasped the side of the porcelain. When she had leaned against the sink every other time, it hit her in her butt, but now it was poking her in the back. She turned to the mirror and her eyes widened in shock once more; her hair was getting not only darker, but shorter “No!” she said in her flat voice and she spun back around to face Rebecca.

Rebecca was looking down but quickly pulled her eyes up as Milana spun in front of her. “Milana!” she squeaked “Вы сокращается …” but the confused look on Milana’s face told her that she was speaking Russian again. Her mind had to fight for the English word “сжатие …Shrinking. You are shrinking!”

It hit Milana that Rebecca was quickly coming up before her. “What?” she cried and her hands went to her receding hair as it pulled upward and out of her grasp. She lost hold of it as she and Rebecca matched each other in height briefly. But then, Milana had to adjust her gaze as Rebecca grew taller than her now. “Uh” was all she managed.

“Oh…now I am looking like you Milana as much as sound like you” Rebecca said as she continued to grow taller until Milana only came up to her chin. Rebecca could feel her legs changing. She pulled her scrub pants down and let them hit the floor. Stepping out of them, she watched as her legs lost fat and gained tone and muscle. Her calves were now strong and shapely and her thighs were trimmer and tighter. She felt her rear lift up and her stomach come in flat. She raised her scrub top and gave it a quick pat. Her arms lengthened and her breasts reduced in size from a 38D to a firm and perky 36C.

Milana watched in awe as Rebecca’s body turned into her body. She looked down at herself then and realized that her clothes weren’t fitting as well as before. Her feet slid in her too big shoes and the waistband of her pants had become tight. Her stomach was no longer flat and firm, but slightly flabby. Her ass had more flesh to it than ever before and her thighs were round and full, making her pants pinch the insides of her legs. Since her shirt was now longer on her, it kept her stomach in, but she couldn’t deny the new strain that she felt on her shoulders as her bra accommodated her expanded breasts. Her shirt pulled in at an awkward angle as she received Rebecca’s body.

Milana spun back to the mirror; with her hair already short and brown she now saw that her eyes were also brown. Her nose had become quite small and her lips were now thinner. She knew that if she could smile, she would have deep dimples in her round cheeks as she now looked just like Rebecca.

Rebecca looked over Milana’s head and into the mirror at her own face. Her hair was quickly growing long and straight as it changed to a silky blond. Her eyes flashed bright blue and her nose grew long and straight. That nose offset her full, pouty lips that could and would melt any man in combination with a flick of her eyebrow. “Я великолепный” She said to her reflection.

Milana stepped to the side, fully aware at how her body now moved “What just happened? Did you do this to us?”

Rebecca looked down at her old self. “I have no idea what has happened to us all night now!” she said in a voice that now matched the body again. “I am guessing that…now…I am you….and you are now me. What started has finished…we switch…not just voice…but…” she searched to speak in English once more “…everything”

“But” Milana stammered “But I didn’t really want to be you”

“And I was not looking to become you either…but look at us now” Rebecca said in reply.

“I just wanted to not get made fun of for how I sounded” Milana said quietly.

“Yes: and now you get it…never again do you get made fun of for how you sound. You do not sound like anything wrong or different now.” Rebecca said as she took of her top and her now too large bra. “Come now…we need change clothes…I know is weird, but we have to go work too”

“Uh” Milana said but nodded “We’ll talk about this later…I can’t get fired though” she added as she took off her top. The paleness and softness of her skin surprised her as she saw it before her. Her upper arms had a slight jiggle to them now, but she sighed as she released her bra and let her large breasts free. She stepped out of her shoes easily and stepped on her socks to peel them off; revealing her new smaller feet. No nail polish, she realized as she worked her pants and underwear off. She looked forward and saw just how strikingly beautiful Rebecca was now. She had never appreciated her body when it was her own, but presented to her before her eyes, she had had quite the body.

Rebecca waited for Milana to hand her over her clothes and she kicked the pile of clothes she had been wearing the few feet to Milana’s feet.

Milana slipped the bra over her round shoulders. She hefted her larger breasts into the cups and gave a quick shoulder wiggle to seat them properly. She picked up Rebecca’s larger panties and stepped into them before sliding the pants up her shorter and rounder legs. She quickly added the scrub top and sat down on the floor to put on her socks and shoes; standing up and brushing off her butt as she finished.

Rebecca took the clothes Milana had been wearing and quickly put them on. She felt the panties snap into place along her firm waist and slipped the bra on strapping down her pert and frankly perfect breasts. Rebecca slipped the shirt over her head and pulled the pants up her long legs. She didn’t sit, but simply raised each foot up and slipped her socks on and stepped into her large tennis shoes. She grabbed her mane of blond hair and quickly whipped it up into a high ponytail. Rebecca picked up her ID badge and clipped on to Milana’s shirt. “Until we figure out how to…” she smiled “…you are now Rebecca Johnson” She then took Milana’s badge and clipped to her own shirt “And I am now Milana Sokolov”

The door opened now and they heard a voice call out “Rebecca? Milana? Are you two in here?”

It was the other floor nurse, Jordan, calling for them.

Milana swallowed and said plain and shaking a bit “Yeah”

“Oh good Rebecca” Jordan replied as she came around the corner and saw the two of them both there “Oh…you too Milana. What are you two doing in here?”

“Um” Milana, now Rebecca said as she smiled awkwardly.

“I was my fault” Rebecca, now Milana said in her accent heavy English “I spill on us…Coca Cola…and we both have to come in and change”

“Well, whatever…but we’ve got a new patient on the way up and I didn’t want to be all by myself” Jordan said as she walked out.

Milana and Rebecca exchanged a nervous glance with each other, and then with a sigh and a smile, they started out of the locker room and onto the floor.