Chapter 10Through Each Other’s Eyes   Jonah woke up slowly, sliding back into the waking world. The first thing he noticed was that his leg no longer hurt but he did have a pounding headache instead. He opened his eyes briefly before quickly squeezing them shut again due to the lights in the room making the pounding worse. He raised his hands to his head, rubbing his eyes and forehead gently. An intercom crackled and popped next his ear.

  “Pain response detected, if in pain, nod.” The voice said loudly, causing Jonah’s head to ache even more as he nodded. “Pain suspected to be normal, when awakened quickly, as you both have been. Pass it will, within a few minutes.”

  Both? Jonah wondered as he tried to stay as still as possible in order to prevent the pounding in his head from dominating his world. Lying still as he was, he began to notice that despite the ck of pain in the rest of his body, it felt strange, almost unfamiliar to him. There was an uncomfortable weight sitting on his chest, but at least it didn't seem to restrict his breathing. He could tell that his body was unclothed, so he figured that was the reason he felt so strange and uncomfortable, after all, who wouldn’t feel weird left lying naked in a room.

  Soon the pain in his head started to subside and he moved his hands down folding them on his stomach. Where his hands touched the skin of his stomach, it felt oddly soft and smooth, for that matter his hands felt soft as well.

  Cautiously he opened an eye and when the light didn't send waves of pain to his head, he opened the other one began to look around. He was inside of a tube that appeared to be made of gss and there was someone in a tube that was next to him, but he couldn’t quite get his eyes to focus correctly in order to make out what the other person looked like. He reached up and rubbed his eyes trying to get them to focus better. He looked at the other tube again and noticed that it was a man in the tube next to him. The other man was also naked, which only made Jonah’s desire to cover his naked form even stronger. The other man turned his head to look at him and that’s when Jonahs noticed the other man had his face and it was his own face looking back at him.

  In the other room Thak and the doctor watched the two humans as they awoke and the effects of the drugs wore off. Doctor Sliss made a comment wondering out loud if the PEBS had worked, and then noted while looking at the male, that the physiological responses to a naked mate seemed to be the same as they would have been prior. Thak realized that this meant that regardless of the PEBS being used; the physiological responses of the body remained the same. This expined why, in testing the system on small animals, test subjects would begin to act normal after a very brief period of apparent confusion, they were just following the instincts that their body dictated. Thak told the doctor to ask for the male by name and instruct him to raise his hand just to confirm that the PEBS did indeed preform as expected.

  Jonah, thinking it was just a mirror he was looking into sighed and turned away to look to the other side of the room to see if his roommate was over there. He only saw a bnk wall. He turned to look at his reflection again. It wore a confused look on its face when the intercom crackled once more.

  “Jonah, please, raise your hand.”

  Jonah complied, noticing his refection did not follow suit.

  “Good. Your hand, you may now put down.” The voice followed up.

  “What in the-” Jonah started to say, but stopped suddenly realizing his voice was not his own. He raised a hand to his throat only to find that it was not covered it the soft stubble from not shaving that it normally had, instead his neck felt soft and delicate beneath his fingers. A myriad of thoughts churned through his mind. A feeling of dread gripped him and it felt as though the walls of the tube were closing in on him. As he was about to start pounding on the gss, there was an audible pop, and the surface he was lying on rose up. It slid out of the now open tube, exposing his nakedness to the cool air of the room. He quickly swung up into a sitting position, almost losing his bance and toppling over in the process. Feeling the weight on his chest shift, he looked down and was surprised to see a decently sized pair of breasts on his chest. His gaze went further down he received another shock, he was a she!

  Looking toward the person that had emerged from the other tube, he/she saw them sit up examining what he had known as his body curiously while wincing in pain.

  Just as Jonah was about to get up to approach the person who occupied his body, the double doors to the room opened and two Ibians entered. One was the Ibian, Thak, that had brought her/him to the hospital and the other she/he did not recognize. Thak walked to Jonah's body and while the other one approached her/him.

  “Worry not, Jonah.” Thak said looking back toward Jonah. “Questions we have, of which, answers are needed. Doctor Sliss, this is.” Thak motioned to the Ibian approaching Jonah.

  Thak turned back to the person that looked like Jonah while the other Ibian, Doctor Sliss, started barraging Jonah with questions about how she felt. The doctor asked her how different sensations were perceived in her new body while poking and prodding her. Thak on the other hand was content to just have a conversation with the person wearing Jonah’s skin and Jonah listened in as best as he could.

  “Alissa?” Thak asked

  “Yes, Thak?” Jonah heard the other person respond in his old voice.

  Jonah now knew whose body she was in and blushed, knowing she had now seen Alissa's body at its most intimate. Thak asked Alissa if he was pleased with the results of the PEBS. Alissa responded saying that he was pleased knowing that Jonah would not have to suffer from the pain that was now fring in his leg though, the results were not quite what he had in mind. Thak nodded apologizing that she had not expined it better when telling him about the procedure, but that in participating in the test, both him and Jonah had provided massive amounts of new information on the PEBS. The PEBS, which was an odd device that the Ibians had found recently while excavating some nearby ruins, still being studied to try and understand its purpose.

  When Doctor Sliss was done with her questioning and physical examination of Jonah, she indicated to the discarded clothing folded on the floor, telling Jonah she might want to get dressed. Alissa was also getting dressed with the help of Thak. Soon Alissa was partially dressed with the exception of his shoes which were left off for ease when they started the treatment for the injured leg. The pant leg where the injury was, had been cut off just above the knee. Jonah on the other hand was having trouble getting dressed and soon sat down again, frustrated that something so simple was being so difficult. Alissa called her over, offering to assist.

  Jonah did as she was told and soon Alissa had her fully dressed, even cing her corset for her, though Jonah thought it was a bit tight, as it made breathing harder. She was amazed at the amount of work it took to get a woman dressed, all the yers and little bits that were cleverly worn that added fvor and style to the outfit seemed like obstacles in what she felt should have been a simple task.

  When he finished dressing her, Alissa pulled her down to his lips. He was surprisingly strong, Jonah thought to herself as she was pulled down. Alissa kissed her deeply, his stubble tickling her lips as they kissed and Jonah felt a warming sensation throughout her body. Jonah sat down and partially leaned over toward Alissa, pushing the kiss deeper as their tongues entwined. Wherever her body was pushed against his, the heat grew stronger and she could tell that there was defiantly a physical reaction for Alissa as well that was brushing lightly against her hip. Jonah pulled back, fighting the urges that her body was calling for.

  Doctor Sliss was taking notes as her and Thak watched Jonah and Alissa with interest, wondering how far their hormones would take them since they were new to their body’s physiological reactions to one another. When the two stopped and pulled apart, Thak was somewhat disappointed. She had hoped a combination of hormones and natural physiology would be powerful enough to overcome conscious thought.

  Alissa and Jonah were moved then out of the room and down the hallway to another room with some strange more equipment in it. Doctor Sliss informed Alissa that yes, the leg was broken, but it had been set right and would not need to be re-broken in order to heal correctly. She told him that most of the major damage to the leg was actually damage done to the muscle tissue. Luckily infection appeared to be minimal, so it would only take about twenty to twenty five days to be good as new.

  Alissa looked doubtful and asked how the extensive damage to his leg could heal that fast in that short of an amount of time. The doctor showed them a strange device that she said would be fitted over his leg and, over the given period of time mentioned, it would repair the damage done.

  Jonah asked Thak when she would be able to get her old body back and was told that since Alissa had requested the PEBS to prevent Jonah from experiencing the pain of the injury, she would be remaining as she was until the leg was healed. Alissa apologized to Jonah and expined that she did not understand what she was asking for or agreeing to before the PEBS was used. She told him that she forgave him but was not happy that she had not been told about the procedure or given a choice. The Ibians stepped in and offered sincere apologies. They had not considered that using the PEBS would have upset Jonah, that they had, in fact, expected him to be happy since she would not be the one to undergo the treatment to heal the leg. According to them, the treatment was going to be very painful for at least the first forty eight hours.

  The two Ibian team helped Alissa to lie down on an examination table that was in the center of the room and, once he was as comfortable as could be expected, lifted his leg up sliding the bottom half of the device under his leg. Once in pce, they pushed a few cleverly concealed buttons that were on the side of the bottom half of the device.

  Alissa screamed in pain as dozens of needles and tubes plunged into his calf. The Ibians gave Alissa a little time to calm down and adjust to the pain before Doctor Sliss started poking at the toes on Alissa's foot while asking him if he could feel it. When Alissa told her that yes, he could, the doctor pced the top half of the device onto his leg and pressed a few more buttons that were on the top half, locking it into pce and injecting more needles. Alissa could only whimper at that point and Jonah felt tears coming to her eyes as she watched Alissa suffer. She felt that it should have been her in the table receiving this punishment, but knew that Alissa had chosen to take it upon himself for her sake.

  The doctor moved back to the side of the device after confirming that Alissa still had feeling all the way down to his toes and pressed a couple more buttons. Alissa's pain visibly receded within a few minutes and he asked the doctor why they didn't they numb the leg before pcing the device on it. He was told that the nerves needed to be active in order to make sure the device was put on correctly so that it would heal the correctly. It was also a way to make sure that the device did not damage any nerves when put in pce.

  With the device in pce Jonah and Alissa were free to leave. Alissa stood carefully up with some help from Jonah and Thak told him that he should be able to support his weight on the leg, but to be careful with it. Walking at a slow pace would be fine but there should be no brisk walking or running until the leg was completely healed, no matter what. Alissa asked about getting the device wet during activities such as bathing and Thak informed him that the device should be waterproof, but if it happened to get submerged in water, it could dey the healing process. Thak also informed them that they would need to return daily to have the settings on the device readjusted and that it would be appreciated if they would share the experiences that they had while viewing the world from each other’s eyes.

  Alissa walked around the room slowly, tenderly, testing his leg out and found that when his weight was on the leg it could hold it, but it was extremely tender.

  Thak offered to drive Alissa and Jonah to the hotel where she had been informed that Alissa's family had booked a couple of rooms. They accepted the offer and soon were on their way to meet up with Alissa’s family.