ALL characters in this story are over 18: they may portray characters of a younger age, but they are due to circumstances that will be explained if you read on…!

Sarah slowly came back to consciousness, lying in a hospital bed.

“She’s waking up!”, someone next to her cried.

With a groan, she tried to sit up. Her limbs felt like lead…

“I would say where am I, but it obviously looks like hospital”, she said, weakly. “I guess the better question is, why?”

“You were hit by a car, kiddo”, the woman said. “What the hell were you doing?”

“I honestly can’t remember”, she said. She then looked around at the walls. The bright colours and posters really surprised her. Then she saw the sheets were also brightly coloured…

“Why am I in the children’s ward?”, she asked.

“There’s something the doctor needs to tell you…”

Dr Gill came in, dressed in the children’s ward uniform.

“Hello Sarah, how are you?”, she asked.

“Really tired”, Sarah said. “Also, I’m really confused. What am I doing here?”

“What, in hospital?”

“No, mum told me why I was in hospital. Why am I in the children’s ward?”

“Because you’re a child, sweetie. I guess the only way to explain this is to show you…!”

With a nurse’s help, Dr Gill gently rolled back Sarah’s sheets. She then held up a mirror…

Sarah shrieked. She didn’t recognise the figure lying in the bed at all…

She had been a 26-year-old Caucasian woman, with long blonde hair. What she was now couldn’t have been more different. She was a very dark-skinned young girl, with short curly brunette hair. The hair at the moment was really short, and only just starting to grow back. The scars from an operation on her head were clearly visible…

“What have you done to me!!”, she wailed, sobbing.

“I’m sorry”, said Dr Gill. “It was the only way to save you. We’ve had to carry out a brain transplant. The nerves are still re-meshing; that’s why all your limbs feel so sluggish. It’s an experimental technique that this hospital has only just pioneered. Sorry about the body, but it was the only donor to hand with the correct blood and other types that was compatible.”

“But… I’m a college student. An African one, at that! I can’t live like this! What is my wife going to say!?”

“We’ll cope, somehow”, came a voice from the door. Sarah’s wife Jenice walked in…

“Please, Sarah”, she said, “anything was better than losing you! Don’t be angry with me; I gave them permission to try it.”

“How could you?”, cried Sarah. “You should have let me die.”

She turned away from everyone, sobbing. Her mother and Jenice tried to talk to her, but she just ignored them, and Dr Gill…

Nobody was able to get through to Sarah. Then something even more heartbreaking happened…

Sarah’s donors mother saw her at the hospital.

She knew her daughter had passed away; she’d signed the forms allowing her body to be used as a donor. She had expected it to be used for organ transplants, not as a ‘whole body’ donor…

She burst into tears, raced into Sarah’s room before anyone could stop her and hugged Sarah.

“Michaela! You’re alive! They told me you were dead…!”

She stopped and stared into Sarah’s eyes. She then looked at the scars on her head…

She started crying uncontrollably and had to be sedated. She ended up being a resident for a while in A&E. Dr Gill managed eventually to calm her, and explained everything to her…

“So, that’s not my Michaela anymore…?”

“No, I’m afraid not. You know your Michaela is no longer with us…”

When she had recovered somewhat, the two mothers met in the hospital café.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m finding this incredibly confusing and stressful”, said Sarah’s mother.

“Me too”, said Michaela’s. “I was sure my daughter was still alive, to start with. It was such a shock. If I’d known that they were going to use her whole body like that, I would have never signed the paperwork.”

“Then my daughter would have really died!”, Sarah’s mother said. “You do realise that by signing it you saved her life, don’t you?”

“She doesn’t seem too happy about it.”

“Her wife is more than a bit confused as well, but she’s sticking by her.”

“Sarah was married?”

“Yes. They were thinking of adopting. Now Jenice has a child, but never in the way she imagined…!”

Sarah was still ignoring everyone. Finally, Jenice had had enough.

“Hey!”, she yelled. “Stop acting like the spoiled brat you look like and talk to me!”

“That’s not fair. You can’t understand what I’m going through”, said Sarah, still looking away from Jenice.

“You’re still alive. I’d call that a win. It is, for me”, said Jenice.

“You should have let me die…”, said Sarah. “Did you see the look on that other mother’s face? She thought her daughter was still alive! We’ve no right to put her through that…!”

Sarah started crying again.

“Also, say we go back home together. How are you ever going to show your face in public with me again? You’ll get accused of cradle snatching, or worse!”

She then turned round, and stared Jenice straight in the eyes.

“Get out. I never want to see you again. As far as I’m concerned, Sarah Harris is dead. My name is Michaela Wilson.”

Jenice shook as if she’d been shot.

“You don’t mean that…!”, she cried. “You’re not thinking clearly…!”

“Yes, I do. Sod off!”

Crying, Jenice ran out of the door. Sarah turned back against the wall and cried herself to sleep…

Jenice frantically went to find Dr Gill.

“There’s something wrong with Sarah”, she said. “She told me to ‘get lost’, but not quite in those terms, and told me she was dead, and her name was Michaela Wilson.”

Dr Gill came back with her to Sarah’s room. Sarah still stuck to her story.

“The operation went fine”, Dr Gill said. “The experimental nerve ‘joiner’ that we developed worked perfectly. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be Sarah. You can’t be Michaela; her body was donated because she was brain dead.”

“Fine. Prove me wrong”, said Sarah. “Any tests you run will show my identity as Michaela Wilson. A Michaela Wilson who has amnesia from her brain injury. As far as I’m concerned, that’s what I’m sticking to.”

“You obstinate bitch!”, cried Jenice. “You’re doing this to get back at me, because you want to have died!”

“Prove it”, said Sarah, smiling.

“You know I can’t”, said Jenice, infuriated.

“Anyway, can you all get out? I’m tired and want to rest”, said Sarah.

Jenice and Dr Gill went to the café. The two mothers were still there, so they sat with them and told them about the problem with Sarah.

Michaela’s mother took a strong interest in the conversation.

“Doctor is there any way that she could be telling the truth?”, she asked. “Could my daughter actually still be alive?”

“There’s a miniscule chance”, Dr Gill admitted. “But she recognised you”, she said, pointing at Sarah’s mother, “and you”, she said, pointing at Jenice. “She didn’t recognise you.”

“Even an amnesiac Michaela is better than losing her completely”, Michaela’s mother said.

“No, that young woman is definitely my Sarah”, said Sarah’s mother.

Jenice, unable to cope any longer, got up.

“I’m going out to get some air”, she said. “After all, it’s not every day you get disowned by your own wife.”

She stomped off…

Meanwhile Sarah, back in her room, was sleeping lightly, tossing and turning. A nurse that wasn’t aware of the case had come on duty.

“Hello!”, she said, “I haven’t seen you here before. Wow, that scar goes right round…”

Amazed, she started reading the notes. She then looked closer.

“Hang on, I know you, don’t I? You go to my college. Funny, I thought your name was Michaela, but the sheet says Sarah…?”

She sat on the chair by the bed. At the same time, Sarah awoke…

“Kim? Is that you?”, she said.

“Yes, Michaela, it’s me. I work here now.”

Somehow, Sarah had recognised her. She also felt comfortable with her…

When Dr Gill got back with Jenice, Kim and Sarah were laughing and joking like old friends.

Jenice’s mouth dropped open in astonishment, as did Dr Gill’s…

“Sarah, do you know this woman?”, asked Jenice.

“Of course I do”, Sarah answered. “She’s my best friend from college.”

“No, she’s not. She’s Michaela’s best friend from college, not yours. You’ve never met her before…!”

“Then how did she know me when I walked in?”, asked Kim. “She also remembers everything from last term.”

Somehow, Sarah was gaining Michaela’s memories. This was something nobody had expected…

The changes continued, quite quickly.

Kim was the one to notice them; ‘Sarah’ was asking her questions about things that only Michaela should know. Then came the real shock

“I need to tell you something”, said Sarah. “But I don’t want anyone else to hear me. Can you lean over?”

Kim, intrigued, leaned over.

“I still love you”, she whispered in Kim’s ear. Then she kissed her…

Kim, in a state of absolute shock, then went to find the two mothers. They were still in the café, talking…

Kim hurried in and sat down with them.

“I don’t know how, but that is still Michaela”, she said, shakily. “There’s no doubt in my mind at all.”

“Why? How could you know?”, both mothers asked together.

“By the way she kissed me”, said Kim…

There was a shriek from the doorway. Jenice had walked in and heard the conversation.

“You bitch! You’re snogging my wife!”, she cried. “Talk about unethical!”

“She came on to me!”, cried Kim.

Jenice was having none of it. She strode over and slapped Kim as hard as she could. She then stormed out…

“Oh, God!”, Kim cried. “She’s gone to confront Sarah. If she slaps her, she could do some real damage…!”

The three got up and rushed out of the café…

They could already hear the row from the ward as they came down the corridor. A nurse was frantically trying to calm Jenice down and failing completely.

“You skank! You whore! Tell me to fuck off, then kiss the first attractive nurse that comes along! That operation must have really messed with your brain!”

Kim dived forward and grabbed Jenice’s hand, just before it connected with Sarah.

“You’re actually right, but you don’t know it!”, she cried. “That’s not Sarah anymore. That’s Michaela!”

“Er… I hate to correct you”, said Sarah, “but I’m still Sarah, at least partly. I’m just getting more and more of Michaela’s memories as time goes on. As I’m in Michaela’s body, I prefer to be her.”

“I said it to protect you!”, she cried to Jenice. “I didn’t want you to be looked on as a child molester! Kim is much more my age now; she’s a volunteer cadet on ‘day release’ as a nurse, and I have feelings for her.”

“You’ve got what!?” shrieked Jenice.

“I’m sorry, but it’s true!”, said Sarah. “I’m going to have a lot better life as Michaela now than I ever would have as Sarah. As Sarah, I’ll always be an outcast, a freak; an adult in a teenager’s body. As Michaela, I’ll fit in. Please…”

The two mothers, Jenice and Kim adjourned back to the café, leaving Sarah in the care of another nurse that was also Kim’s friend.

“So, what do we do?”, Sarah’s mother asked. “Obviously, I only want what’s best for Sarah. Unfortunately, Jenice, I think she’s right. She wouldn’t fit in in our world anymore.”

“But I can’t lose her! I love her!”, cried Jenice.

“If you really love her, you’d respect her wishes”, said Kim.

“When they carried out the operation, no-one considered the consequences”, Sarah’s mother said. The others all nodded. “Only problem is, if they hadn’t done it, Sarah would have definitely died, as would Michaela’s body. This way, they are both still around, after a fashion.”

“Perhaps that’s the answer…”, Jenice said, thinking before acting for a change.

“What do you mean?”, Michaela’s mother asked.

“How about this; Sarah lives as Michaela, as she wants. You act as her mother but listen to Sarah’s mother and I for anything life threatening. You treat both of us as, say, aunts.”

“And me?”, asked Kim.

“You stay as her girlfriend, and maybe more than that. I can tell you care about her; it’s pure jealousy on my part, I’m afraid, that’s made me act the way I have. I’m so sorry…”

“I understand completely”, said Kim, being surprisingly mature for her age. “As far as you are concerned, you’ve just lost your wife…!”

Kim held Jenice as she cried her eyes out. Swallowing, she then agreed with the others that this was how things were going to go from then forward…

In the end, the hospital paperwork was updated to show Sarah as having died in the accident, and her having donated an unspecified organ to allow for Michaela to recover. The records were updated to show the patients name as Michaela, and she was allowed to get on with Michaela’s life as an amnesiac version of herself; however, the memories were still returning.

She was still affectionate toward Aunt Jenice, and her ‘original’ mother, as well as her current one; however, her main love interest was now Kim, which Kim was delighted about…