Title: "Your Shoes"

Series: "Foreign Bodies II"

Author: Anna Rousseau <annadelamico@yahoo.co.uk>

Genre: SL/JC Drama/Humour

Rating: PG-13

Set: S3 (The day after 'No Brain, No Gain')

Archive: Yes, just tell me where.

Previous Parts: 1) 'One Hundred and Forty Volts'

Summary: Carter and Susan try to adjust to swapping bodies. Read carefully, so as to not get confused!

Disclaimer: Repeat after me. No ownership. No Profit. No law suit.

Notes: Thanks for all the feedback, I hope enjoy the next part!

"FOREIGN BODIES II - YOUR SHOES"

================================

Susan watched Mark turn towards the door as she tried as best she could to stop swaying due to Carter's height.

Mark pushed open the door and turned around to addree who he thought was Susan, "You've got the rest of your shift off, go home and take care of yourself, OK?"

Carter nodded, "What about Carter?"

"Well, I'll have a word with Peter," Mark replied, winking at Susan.

Carter smirked, "Don't be so sure, Dr. Benton's not that easy."

Mark froze and stared at who he thought was Susan, "Hey, let's not give Peter the satisfaction of thinking that he's something to be marvelled at!"

Carter blushed and tried to think what he had said wrong, luckily Susan kindly intervened.

"I wish I could call him Benton around him," 'Carter' fumed. "It's always 'Carter this', 'Carter that', 'what the hell have you done now Carter?'."

'Susan' and Mark laughed as the real Susan finished her amusing impression of the surgical resident.

"OK, see you later." Mark said with a smile and walked out into the ER.

The silence he left behind in the examination room was only broken by the muffled cries of a pysch patient next door who was being restrained onto a gurney by Lily, Malik and Doug.

They both ambled over to one of the gurneys and sat down on it, defeated.

"So," Carter said, still struggling to come to turns with the change in the pitch of his voice. "What are we going to do?"

Susan sat for a while, looking at her hairy legs with a sigh, "I don't know Carter, I really don't know."

***

Dennis Gant looked up from the surgical text he was studying when he heard the door open. His curiosity was piqued when he heard two sets of feet enter the apartment, accompanied by hushed voices.

"Hi, Dennis!"

The first year resident looked quizzically at the light haired woman who was with Carter while he got to his feet. How did she know his name? Dennis raised his eyebrow and looked at his roomate and fellow surgical intern, "Why, hello. Carter, I don't think we've been introduced."

Carter blushed, "Uh, Dennis this is Susan Lewis, she's a resident in the ER."

Susan nodded, "Dennis...right, you've covered the ER a few times."

"More than a few times," Dennis chuckled, shaking the resident's out stretched hand. "What's Carter gonna do with you, Dr. Lewis?"

She made a face, "Nothing scandalous, just picking up some data on aneurisms for a study I'm doing."

"I thought you were leaving," Dennis said in a suspicious manner.

"So where did I say I put those files?" Carter asked the pretty physician. Obviously, Dennis thought, they were exercising some selective deafness. His eyebrow darted upwards in an amused manner.

"In my- your room," Susan replied, stammering slightly.

Dennis looked amused as Carter nodded in response and crossed over to the other side of the lounge. "Carter, that's my room."

His friend look flustered as he opened the correct door and led Susan in, muttering, "Yeah, right."

Gant laughed to himself and whistled under his breath, "He's got it bad."

***

Susan breathed a sigh of relief as she shut the door and turned to Carter, "Sorry, I didn't know where to go."

Carter shook his head and started to rifle through his closet, pulling out various items of clothing and thowing them hapharzardly into a sports bag. "No, don't worry. I don't think Dennis noticed."

Throwing herself down on Carter's bed, she moaned as the difficulty of the situation became apparent to her once more. Susan moaned and rubbed her eyes (well Carter's eyes) with the back of 'her' hands.

"So," she started, her voice hushed as she recapped their situation so it was straight in her head. "So, until we find a way to...to get back, we'll have to act like we're each other." Susan groaned once more, "This is so absurd, I - I keep thinking I'll wake up and it'll all be a dream. A horrible, sick, twisted dream."

Susan buried her head under one of the pillows and banged her fists on the mattress.

Carter's spirits were equally dampened. The possibility of having to live as a member of the opposite sex blew his mind. It was impossible! It was hard enough if this problem was only short term, but what if the switch had been permanent? He had no idea how he was going to cope with pretending to be a ER medical physician with over four years of residency under her belt. Surely his lack of expertise in Susan's specialty could endanger her career and reputatation, not to mention the dozens of patients she treated in every shift. The only way the matter was made marginaly easier was the fact that he was covering the ER most of the time during the next week. But that wouldn't be the case all the time. What about his relationship with Abby?

They would have to tell someone sooner or later. It was only a matter of time before something went drastically wrong.

Susan's mind was equally challenged with thousands of problems they would probably encounter. She mentally counted them off, one by one.

'A', the last time she had stepped into an OR as a student was over five years ago.

'B', how was she going to keep an eye on Carter all the time?

'C', how was she supposed to cope with being a man?

'D', what would Mark think about her spending so much time with an intern?

'E', she was supposed to be moving to Phoenix in a matter of weeks. That was the most fustrating thing she could think of. Not being able to take care of Little Suzie. God, she felt like killing David Spencer.

She worked her way down the alphabet in a matter of seconds until she got to 'Z'.

"Zee," she thought out loud. "I am never going to be able to take any orders from Benton."

Carter was at that moment zipping up the sports bag and grabbing a few manilla folders from his desk, "That's one I've gotten used to, but against my free will."

"Oh, God." Susan gave a last sigh and jumped off the bed, her eyes surveying Carter. It still looked like her, but the facial expressions were totally alien to her face. "Right, let's go."

She grabbed the bag and let Carter out of the door, "Ladies first."

Carter grunted in an exasperated tone he'd only just used yesterday with Dennis, "Please."

***

Susan reached into her soft leather purse, which Carter was carrying, and pulled out a set of keys. She quickly placed unlocked the door and pushed it open, heading straight for the kitchen that connected her bedroom with the lounge.

"I've got some limp salad, salami and some Gouda." Susan called, listing the contents of her fridge. She looked across to see her eyes scrutinising the apartment, now crowded with packing boxes for her move to Pheonix, in a very Carter-ish way.

Susan lifted her head up and moaned as it connected sharply with a cabinet door she had neglected to close this morning, "Carter, do you want take-away or pizza?"

He watched 'Carter' pull open the door of another cabinet and look down various food delivery ads, which were taped to the melomine. He answered quickly, "Take-away sounds good."

"Chinese?"

"Sure," Carter walked over to the couch and sat down, legs apart.

Susan looked at him, "Carter, if this is going to work, you've gotta start acting like me, right?"

Carter looked at his slim legs, and quickly pulled them together. "Sorry, Dr. Lewis."

Susan laughed softly, "You're in my body, Carter, I think we can be on first-name terms."

"Sorry Susan," he replied, watching as she picked up the receiver and started to talk into the phone.

"Hi, this is Su-," she stopped and mentally reprimanded herself for the slip-up, "John Carter."

***

"So, tomorrow." Susan started as she finished her bowl of vanilla ice cream. "I'm on 12 hours, seven till seven and I'm on call for the night shift. No meetings, so that's OK."

Susan mentally reviewed the surgical intern's time table, planning out ways to make the body-swap as smooth as possible.

"Um, Susan." Carter nervously tore at a paper napkin. "Uh, don't be surprised if Abby - Dr. Keaton, tries to...uh- how can I explain this."

A smile started to twitch at his lips. Susan's mouth broke in to an astonished grin. "You're doing 'it' with your resident's boss?"

He blushed, "It just happened. She was fixing my nose after Edson punch me, and-"

"You had sex." Susan stated it so simply that he felt stupid for making such a big deal out of it.

"No!" Carter looked at Susan who was watching him intently. "Well, yeah- I guess..."

"You guess?" Susan laughed. "Well, I'll beware of any advances from Dr. Keaton."

Carter reached across the table and spooned more Rocky Road ice cream into his bowl. Susan quickly grabbed the dish and started to eat it herself.

"Hey!" Carter protested, his spoon frozen half-way inbetween his mouth and the non-existant bowl of cold dessert.

Susan stopped half way through her mouth-full of heaven, "As long as you're in my body, you eat as much as I say. I swear I'll kill you if I spot any sign of cellulite on those thighs."

"That's already happened," retorted Carter, snatching the carton of ice-cream and eating it with his spoon.

Susan's mouth hung open as fire spurted from her eyes, "Oh yeah!"

"Yeah!" Carter said, staring her straight back.

She glared at him, her eyes narrowing, "What were you doing looking at my legs?"

"Well, I have a pulse," he replied, swallowing another spoonful. "And, it is my body."

"No it's not!" Susan squealed, flinging her desert spoon of Rocky Road directly between 'Susan's' eyes.

Carter's mouth hung open. Susan giggled (which was an absurd noise to come out of a male mouth) as the giant blob of ice cream slid slowly, and precisely down his face and fell down her tank top.

Carter yelped as the ice-cold Rocky Road landed against his skin, "Oh, God! Susan!"

"Oh, just put it to wash," she stood up and led the way to the bathroom.

Carter glanced around the neatly tiled room and watched as Susan turned on the shower, adjusting to thermostat to around 35 degrees. Her hand tested the water and pulled the door shut.

"OK, give me the shirt and I'll get the stain out." Susan held out her hand for the blue ribbed garment.

"I-," Carter stammered, finding the the moment awkward.

Susan sighed, placing her hands on her hips...well her sides, seeing as Carter had no curves to speak of. "I've seen it all before, Carter, just take your clothes off."

Carter quickly pulled the shirt over his head and gave it to Susan, who came over and scooped out the remnants of the ice-cream from inside her push-up bra with her hands. Soon he was standing in front of her, in her underwear, not sure of what to do next.

"Agh, man!" Susan wailed as she looked at the cream satin bra. "I need to wash this too, or the chocolate'll stain it."

Carter stood like an animal in a the blinding light of a camper van's head lamps. Susan reached around his back and unhooked the bra, extricating it from 'Susan's' body in moments.

Susan stood for a second and gasped, the stained bra dropping to the tiled floor. She exclaimed with a certain amount of shock and disgust, "Carter!"

He stood there and gave her questioning look, "What?"

She motioned angrily to the lower part of 'Carter's' torso, "What the hell is going on?"

"Uh," Carter blushed as he side stepping into the shower, not wanting to get caught up in making excuses for his hormones.

Susan took a deep breath, and shouted above the water spurting out of the shower head, "And don't you dare look at my body!"

***

"Susan!"

Carter whirled around to see David Morgernstern running behind him, trying to catch up with what he thought was Dr. Susan Lewis. The surgical intern now realised that the Chief of the ER must've been trying to attract his attention for a while.

"Dr. Morgernstern," Carter said, turning carefully on his high heels, even though they only adjusted Susan's height by a couple of inches, they could prove to cause some very embarrassing moments if not handled with care.

Morgernstern slowed down and took a breath, repaying the oxygen debt he had inflicted on himself by running across the ER. "Susan."

Carter looked at the sandy haired man. "Dr. Morgernstern."

"Susan..."

"Dr. Morgernstern," Carter smiled sweetly. The other man obviously was trying to remember something he had forgotten, and this type of repetition was something that he acreditted to Susan.

"Don't mock," Morgernstern said, wagging a finger in a menacing way in 'Susan's' face. "Susan, I've been thinking."

"Good for you," Carter replied, personally thanking God for giving him the chance to be on an evener keel with the higher-ranked staff in County.

He received a mock-serious 'look' from the Chief before Morgernstern continued, "It's never too late to stay at County."

Carter's smile dropped. He didn't really want Susan to go either, none of them did. She'd been there since the beginning of his training: she'd given him some advice; helped him into the OR when Benton didn't give him the time of day; talked with him on the roof and shared his bottle of champagne that he had earned from a clear LP.

But the real Susan Lewis wanted to live in the Pheonix.

"Thanks," Carter said slowly, "but I've made up my mind."

Morgernstern nodded, then stared at Carter's face, "Susan...interesting lipstick."

Carter stood puzzled as the surgeon walked off.

***

"Carter!" 'Carter' hissed loudly, grabbing 'Susan' by the arm.

Carter was being dragged into the Women's Room abruptly. "What is it Dr. Lewis?"

Susan sighed, as she looked Carter up and down, an exasperated look on her face.

"What?" Carter asked, looking down at the perfectly reasonable outfit that he had chosen to wear. Skirt, blouse, hose, heels...what dire mistake had he made?

"Look in the mirror." Susan barked, her hands tugging at the short chestnut hair that now covered her head.

Carter looked in the mirror and saw Susan's reflection, which was still rather startling. "What?"

Susan ennuciated her words clearly. "I look like a whore."

"No you don't," Carter replyed. He had felt proud of his first attempt at applying make-up, and couldn't really see what her problem was.

"Carter." She sighed. "Carter...let's get this gunk off my face."

She opened up the cosmetics bag she had 'liberated' from Lydia's locker and started to clean off the foundation and rouge.

"OK," Susan started, a brush poised in her hand. "The blusher accents the cheekbones, if used correctly you shouldn't look like Raggerty-Ann."

"OK." Carter replied, as Susan began to apply the make-up.

Without warning the door swung open, and Carol strode in. The nurse stopped and stared at Carter and Susan with a shake of the head,

then whirled on her heel, mumbling something over her shoulder.

"MVA, 3 minutes."

Susan dropped her brush, "Oops."

Carter stared at her, dumb-struck, "Oops...is that all you can say, someone's gonna out us now."

She shook her head with a sigh, "Who'd believe her anyway? Would you?"

Carter shut his mouth and rolled his eyes, "No, I guess not."

"There you go," Susan smiled grimly, "no-one would ever believe us."

***

"So, what'ya gonna do?"

"I don't know." Mark replied, banging his head on the admit desk.

Susan looked up from the printer, where she was waiting for some lab rsults to be printed off for one of Benton's patients. She was tired. Very tired. Benton treated her (well, Carter) like dirt, and she couldn't talk back to him. But it appeared that probably Mark was having a worse day than her.

Doug patted Mark on the shoulder good-naturedly. "Tell her, Mark."

"I can't." Mark replied shaking his head rapidly from side-to-side .

Doug rubbed his eyes, warily, "It's gonna eat ya up for the rest of your life, Mark."

Susan listened in curiously, but very discreetly, as she pretended to check on some blood alcohol levels.

"Like it would work Doug," Mark said, picking up a chart, "like telling her I love her will stop her from moving to Arizona."

Susan's mouth dropped wide open and she clapped a hand to her face in suprise, her head spinning.

***

Got any idea to what happens next.

Feedback would be great.

annadelamico@yahoo.co.uk