The life of a physicist can be troubling, at times, as the universe doesn't always play well with others.

But even the universe can't break a true promise.

Light started returning again.

I opened my eyes.

I'm still in the hospital room. Other than the time of day it doesn't seem like this dream has changed any. I still look like I have Tara's body.

I was beginning to worry that maybe this wasn't actually a dream.

"But... this has to be a dream." I said to myself. I still have Tara's voice, too.

At just that moment, the Doctor walked back into the room. "I wish more of my patients would say that when I walked into their room. Could use a bit of an ego boost some days."

I just rolled my eyes at that. He laughed a little bit as he watched me do it.

"Now Tara, when you came in you were a bit bruised up and had a nasty head wound. So, I'm afraid I have to ask some of these questions first."

Oh, great, interrogation, one of my favorite parts of trips to the hospital. I eyed the building across the street again. I remember watching the demolition on the news. That building shouldn't be there.

He continued. "First, can you tell me the rest of your name?"

My name? I'm not even sure of my body at the moment. He was staring at me, and I began to panic a bit. "Uh... um, Smith."

If it was good enough for The Doctor, it would work for me.

"Can you give us any details about how you ended up in the middle of the road outside Star City?"

"I'm not sure of very much at all right now, it's all very confusing." Something the military types taught me over the last few years, don't give anything away until you're certain of your situation, though I doubt they expected something like this.

The doctor shined a light into my eyes, checked the bandages on my head and settled into the chair next to my bed.

"Okay, Ms. Smith, I'm not going to pressure you too hard, cases of amnesia aren't unheard of after nasty cranial trauma, but if you do think of anything which may be useful in finding out if you have any family we can contact or anyone that may be looking for you. You're going to be here for a while yet until we're certain you're fully healed and we'd much prefer to have you leave either fully restored or in the care of family or friends who can look after you once you leave."

I gave a small sigh of relief, knowing that I had a bit more time to figure out exactly what was going on. "Thank you doctor, it's just... everything in my head feels wrong at the moment, like things have all shifted and I can't quite figure out how yet."

He smiled. "Well, I'm going to go check on some of my other patients, if you need assistance or start putting some of the pieces back together and need to share it with someone, please don't hesitate to use the nurse call button."

And then I was alone. I peeked under the sheets at my new body. Tara was always very fit, and had a body which was second only to my wife in it's ability to turn me on, if I'm being honest. I never cheated on my wife, and Tara was always an excellent friend, but I would be lying to myself if I said I never admired Tara's body.

However, it was a very different thing to be admiring it from this perspective. Under the sheets I was covered by your standard hospital gown, this one in very light pink, but the thin material was enough to get me rather acquainted with the curves that the sheets were hiding. I moved my legs a bit under the sheets and marveled at how smooth the legs felt against each other.

Now, I'm a scientist, sometimes you just need to verify the data, so I reached down and felt my chest. I gave my left breast a bit of a caress and lightly brushed my fingers over the nipple. The feeling I got surprised me a bit, the nipple became erect and tented the gown a bit, but it also seemed to give me a bit of a sensation in my crotch. I slowly moved my hand down towards it and confirmed a couple of things.

The first, I'm clearly female, the little bit of hair with nothing bulging out leading down further into the groin was rather unmistakable as being female. The second, however, should have been rather obvious, but managed to completely negate any sensual feelings I may have had exploring, a catheter. Nobody who's ever had one can say that they are comfortable or desirable.

After admiring my now smaller feet for a bit, I decided to turn on the television.

"Plans for the demolition of the Brightman building are continuing, several teams of engineers are still working out the best way to protect the nearby Star City Memorial Hospital from the effects of dust from the demolition. Sources suggest that the demolition should be complete late next year. In other news, Police investigators still don't have any leads regarding the massive electrical surge that occurred 2 weeks ago, knocking out several city blocks for up to a day."

I thought about that. According to the doctor it had been about 2 weeks since I was brought in. Perhaps that surge was related to my arriving here? I could imagine a cloud of free electrons wreaking havoc on a city grid if they were suddenly to appear without the standard sources like lightning.

Let's think about this. I appear to be in the past, which, while extremely unlikely, does have bearing within theory, as tachyons are supposed to travel faster than the speed of light. Once the light barrier has been broken there are versions of theory which would allow for time travel. Now that I think about it, TRIIP could be considered to use a very small form of time travel to send and receive data instantaneously, but the very idea that a whole person could be sent back is fantasy.

Then there's the other problem. Even if I allow myself to believe that the fantasy is reality, the other issue has seemingly no basis in anything even remotely reasonable.

How did I get in Tara's body?

Not that this is a bad body, just about everything about it, beyond the fact that it's not the one I've spent my life using nor the correct gender, feels amazing. Softer, more sensitive skin, for instance. I never thought I'd describe hospital sheets as an interesting experience but now I guess I have to.

Someone else enters the room. "Hi, I was told you were awake, we thought we'd give you a hair wash a couple of days early as a bit of a gift."

"Sure, go ahead." How odd, never really considered hair-washing as part of the hospital experience, either.

She makes some small talk, but I wasn't really listening. While she was careful not to disturb the bandaged portion of my head she washed the rest of my hair, and I have to admit that it took me by surprise. The feel of this woman running her hands through my hair was extremely pleasant, enough that I ended up falling asleep while she worked.

I woke later with a bit of dinner. Apparently they were a bit liquid heavy considering I haven't eaten any solid food in a couple of weeks, so I got a hearty portion of soup and some juice. Just as I was finishing my soup, while watching the news, I realized I had finally accepted that I was back in the past. Rather too much of a put on to have a farce on this scale. It's not like I'm some weapons developer that would be hauled away by a foreign government or something.

I woke up in the morning, in a bit of a sweat. I had been dreaming of the night Tara went over the bridge. I've had nightmares in the past about that night, but this time, I was... I was in Tara's viewpoint. It was uniquely creepy, but given how I now seem to be in her body I think I could understand how that happened.

I began thinking of how I could get myself out of this hospital. I had no identification, I had no transportation or money. It's not as if I could call myself. Carol wouldn't work either. My wife and I would both consider me to be absolutely crazy.

As an aside, time travel makes language difficult. I'm stuck remembering a passage from Douglas Adams about people giving up on it. How does one describe something that's already happened, but hasn't happened yet? I have trouble wrapping my head around this stuff without sitting with a few beers chatting with Brett...

That's it! I'll call Brett, we've been friends for a long time so maybe I can come up with some way to convince him.

I tried to remember where Brett would be at this time. It's hard to try and remember the schedule of someone from years ago? I had a slight hunch that he might be home. I picked up the phone. Then I hesitated. How am I going to get him into a position where I can try to confirm who I am to him?

I dialed. It ringed 3 times and then someone picked up. "Hello, Brett Thompson speaking."

"Ummm, Hi. My name is Tara, and... uhhh, Tedd told me if I ever got into serious trouble and I couldn't get a hold of him, to call this number. He said you were one of his best friends and that you could be trusted with anything."

He replied. "Well, I admit, that does sound like something Tedd might say, but I don't think I've ever heard him mention a girl named Tara."

"Umm, well, it's a bit hard to explain. Look, can you come to Star City Memorial? I'm in the hospital and they can't release me until some things are taken care of."

"Well, this is a bit sudden, but I guess I can come down there. Are you in any danger? Should I call the police?" he asked.

"No, I'm not in danger, it's just... complicated. There's no need for police." That was very Brett, worried about the details like that. He's always been a good match for me.

"Alright, I'll be there in about 45 minutes, I just need to take care of a couple of things before I leave." he replied.

"Thank you. And could you not call Tedd about this? It's a... umm, bit embarrassing and I don't want him knowing yet."

He gave a bit of a chuckle. "Sure, no problem, I'll be there soon."

***

Brett Thompson arrived just under an hour later, and we escorted to my room. I assured the nurse that I did know him from a little bit of memory and I was safe with him.

"Hi. You must be Tara. I hope everything is on up and up because Carol will be mighty upset if Tedd is being unfaithful, especially with a lovely woman like yourself."

I couldn't help it, I gave a bit of a blush.

"It's nothing like that. It's far worse and far better at the same time. Do you mind taking a seat?"

He sat down in the chair next to the bed. "Okay, I guess you weren't kidding when you said things were 'complicated', then?"

"You could say that. Brett.... I'm Tedd."

He laughed. "This is a bit far to go for prank, isn't it?"

"This isn't a prank. Look, how many people know that you had to have 3 different copies of your master's degree made because the first one misprinted 'Brenda' and the second one 'Brent'?"

"Look, several of my friends could've told you that."

"How about the scar on the inside of your left thigh from the time in the bar when an angry man almost stabbed you in the groin with a broken beer bottle."

"That's a bit creepy that you know it, but there's still several people who know that story. Who put you up to this?" He started getting a bit defensive.

I sighed. "Okay, how about this. After your wife died, you had a small bit of her hair preserved and placed in a small chamber that you had added to your wedding band. So that you'd always have a small piece of her near you. Who else could know that you always keep a small piece of Summer close?"

He wiped at a small tear that had begun forming. "... Tedd?"

"Yes!" I gave a small cheer.

He then gave me a quizzical look. "But... I just saw Tedd yesterday, the nurse said you've been here for 2 weeks. Is he an imposter?"

"I told you... it's complicated. He's Tedd. I'm Tedd. Both are true."

"But that doesn't make any sense. There can't be two Tedds." He's getting real confused now.

"I... look, maybe I could explain this with a limerick you've always been fond of."

"There once was a young lady of Wight.
 Who traveled much faster than light.
 She departed one day,
 In a relative way,
 And arrived on the previous night."

He thought for a second. "But, time travel isn't possible!"

"I know, yet here I am. With no ID, no money, and now 1 person who knows the truth."

He stared at me for a second. "So you're asking me to believe that time travel is both possible, and that you've somehow ended up in this woman's body?"

"Her name is Tara, and yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to make you believe."

"But this is all impossible!"

"Look, I need you to get me some sort of ID and get me out of here. Pull a few strings with your contacts at the DOD if you have to."

He slumped into the chair some more. "Alright, it'll take me a few days."

***

A few days later Brett brought me back to his house. I now had an identity as Tara Smith with some records giving me an education similar to what I had actually had as Tedd. We spent a few weeks going over some of the details I could fill him in on without spoiling too much of the future. He rather did fancy my telling him to take the underdog in the Super Bowl. Sports is an excellent way to prove time travel to the casual observer. There's also something special about the bond between 2 best friends.

I spent a lot of time getting used to this body. It's so much more flexible and fit than my old body. Tara had really kept herself in shape. Of course, there were downsides to it too, but I highly doubt anyone is interested in details about a woman's monthly visitor.

I was, however, occasionally getting a bit worried. Brett was always such a gentleman, but there were times I felt myself feeling a bit strange around him. It wasn't until one evening that I realized what the problem was. I caught myself in the middle of one of these strange spells staring at his butt. It was then I realized that while I had done some personal sampling of the parts, that I had a full set of female hormones running around my body. I wasn't exactly sure how to deal with this as I was still very easily turned on by women.

One night, while we were discussing a bit of trouble he'd been having at work with an electron microscope, there was a ring at the doorbell. He got up to answer it and I decided to accompany him to the door. When he opened the door I saw something that completely blew my mind.

Me. And my wife.

Brett seemed to sense a bit of the panic. "Uhh, I didn't know you guys were coming."

I... uhh, I mean, Tedd said "We thought we'd come over and share a bottle of wine and some chinese with you. We haven't done that in a long while."

He tried to smile. "Uhh, yeah. Umm, let me introduce you. Tedd, Carol, this is Tara, a friend of mine who's staying here for a while, she ran into some tough times and needed a place to stay."

"Pleased to meet you!" I... I mean Tedd reached out and took my hand to shake.

And then the universe didn't explode.