A/N: This story takes place in season 7 of the closer. Originally, it was supposed to take place in season 5, but it developed in a way that made it impossible. It will be easier to understand it in future chapters.

The blast thrust them twenty feet backward. Both of them landed on the road. Sharon was thrown against a police car, while Brenda was tossed like a rag doll on top of her. They drew one painful breath in unison before both women felt themselves being yanked out of their bodies. Without acknowledging or being aware of the other's presence, both spirits watched as their fellow officers rushed over to their side and tried to bring them to life; Lieutenant Flynn was performing a CPR on Sharon, while Detective Gabriel was doing the same on Brenda. It was Sharon who was pulled back into her still body first, and Brenda followed a few moments later. It would only be after several weeks on unconsciousness when both women woke up. Neither figured out right away that something went seriously wrong.

Sharon stretched in bed. All her muscles still hurt, even though she was already at home. She was half asleep when she was brought home last night, and she wasn't quite sure who has picked her up from the hospital and how she ended up in her bed. She definitely couldn't remember driving home or crawling into bed herself. Maybe Andy picked her up and brought her home. She knew for sure it wasn't any of her children because neither of them even visited her. She wasn't angry at them, but it did seem curious.

"Good morning, Babe," she heard a familiar voice, but it wasn't Andy. Babe? She would never allow anyone to call her that. Anyone but…

"Jack?" she asked, confused. He was the only one who dared using this pet name on her. Her eyes flew open. What she saw was worse than she could have imagined. Agent Fritz Howard was standing in front of her in his boxers and was carrying a breakfast tray to bed.

"Who's Jack?" he asked as he placed the tray on the bed.

"Ugh…" she brought her hand to her forehead and rubbed it. Something wasn't right. The room around her looked different than she remembered. The bedsheets that covered her were a different quality than what she was used to. "Where am I?" she asked.

"Home," Agent Howard responded. "Don't you remember?" Sharon shook her head before she realized it was a bad idea. "The doctor said that you might experience temporary memory loss." Well, that made sense; she did suffer a head injury after all. What didn't make sense was her new surrounding and Agent Howard in boxers serving her breakfast in bed. She started considering the option that she might still be unconscious. If this were a weird dream, that would make complete sense to her.

Brenda wasn't sure who the two twenty-something-year-old people were, but the fact that they kept referring to her as 'Mom' did not seem logical at all. Everyone who ever knew Brenda would know that she did not have a single maternal bone in her body. She never gave birth and never wanted to have children. And these two young adults looked nothing like her or Fritz. Did he have a niece or a nephew? She was pretty sure he did not. But these two were with her ever since she woke up in the hospital. The doctor who treated her wasn't surprised by what he called 'memory loss'. He explained it was normal after a head injury.

As she pushed herself out of bed, she was surprised to find that her room looked different. The décor was luxurious and very tasteful, and although she preferred a simpler design, the current décor did not lack a homey and warm feeling, but her southern touch was missing.

She approached the door that according to her detective skills was supposed to lead to the bathroom, and pushed it open. Walking inside, she encountered a particularly neat toilet and shower room, with little decorations here and there that seemed a bit out of place in a bathroom. She walked over to the sink and found only one toothbrush, which she assumed must be hers. Only this was an electric toothbrush and not the simple one she normally used. She tried to use an electric toothbrush in the past, but didn't like it and quickly ditched it. She couldn't remember when she started using it again, but it seemed that there was a lot of things she couldn't remember and she decided not to let herself be bothered by it. She put toothpaste on the head of the brush and turned it on before shoving it into her mouth. As she brushed her teeth, she inspected her surroundings, finding some expensive creams and makeup in the drawers. When she raised her gaze to the mirror, what she saw made her jump back and swear under her breath.

"Oh, no, no, no!" she stared at her reflection with disbelief. "This can't be real." She pinched herself, but that did not get the desired effect. Staring back at her from the mirror was a woman she knew well, but did not like at all. Glancing down her own body, she suddenly noticed the differences; she was taller, her hair was darker, her skin seemed to be a paler tone than usual. When she tried to wonder out loud about what was happening, the voice that left her mouth was not her own. When she dared to sneak another gaze at her reflection, she looked at herself in shock. "Fuck!" she swore. The woman who looked back at her from the mirror was the thorn in her side, the leader of the rat squad, the wicked witch, Captain Sharon Raydor.

After eating the delicious breakfast Agent Howard has prepared for her, Sharon felt well enough to get out bed. She still couldn't recognize her surroundings or understand why Agent Howard was there, but she was sure that it would make sense at some point. In her life, she always found that there was a logical explanation for everything, and she was sure this would have one as well.

"Agent Howard?" she addressed the half-naked man who seemed pleased to see her eating.

"Fritz," he corrected her.

"Yes, Fritz," she said his name tentatively. This would take getting used to. "Where is the bathroom?"

"You're not nauseous, are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine. I just feel like a shower would be good for me," she replied.

"Are you sure?" Fritz wondered. "Aren't you dizzy?"

"No, I'm fine."

"Maybe I should go in with you, to make sure you don't fall or anything," he suggested.

"I'm good, I swear," she assured him, and he pointed in the direction of the bathroom. Sharon knew that she should question her unfamiliar surroundings and Agent Howard's presence, but she also acknowledged the fact that a head injury could cause problems with a person's perception of reality and memory.

The shower was simpler than she imagined. As far as she could recall, her bathroom had both a bathtub and a glass-encased walk-in shower. Fritz's bathroom only had a walk-in shower that was surrounded by an ugly yellow, green and brown floral shower curtain. She couldn't imagine how anyone could find such a tasteless shower curtain. She shrugged and removed her clothes, and then pulled the elastic that gathered her hair into a ponytail. That was also odd because she normally clipped her hair up rather than using a hair tie. As she turned to place the elastic on the bathroom counter, she found herself facing the mirror, and the person who was reflecting back to her made her scream in horror.

"Brenda?" Fritz came running into the bathroom, a worried expression on his face. Realizing that she was naked, Sharon covered her bare breasts and loins. "What happened?" he walked towards her.

"Get out! I'm not dressed!" she called in a panicky voice.

"I've seen you naked countless times," he replied with a grin but didn't come any closer. He pulled a towel off its hanger and handed it to her. Sharon covered herself with it. "Why did you scream?" he asked.

"Why do I look like that?" she asked and pointed at her reflection in the mirror.

"Oh, honey, it's just a bruise," Fritz gently touched her hairline and tucked a long blond strand behind her ear. "You can cover it with makeup if it bothers you." He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to the crown of her head. "It will be gone in a couple of weeks." Sharon let out a deep sigh. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you," she replied, and Fritz left the bathroom. Sharon put the towel down on the counter and inspected her body in the mirror. Brenda's body was slightly thinner than hers, and her complexion had a different tone. The texture of her hair was smoother than hers. The harder thing for her to look at was her eyes. Her green eyes were gone, replaced by chocolate brown orbs that seemed worried and sad. As she took a step back from the mirror and turned to hang the towel, she noticed a big tattoo on her lower back. "Oh, my God!" she groaned. Sharon didn't have anything against tattoos, but she knew that it wasn't for her, and never even considered getting one. After another moment of inspection, she realized that Brenda's tattoo wasn't ugly and could easily be concealed. Maybe she just needed to ignore its existence and focus on other body parts, such as Brenda's breasts that were a bit perkier than hers, and the lack of stretch marks that was the result of two pregnancies. She didn't dare to look downwards and inspect Brenda's private parts, even if technically they were part of her body now. That would just be too weird and quite invasive. She wasn't sure how she got into Brenda's body, but she still wasn't comfortable in her skin, or rather, Brenda's skin, to get acquainted with these unfamiliar territories.

Brenda stared at her reflection for a long time before she put the toothbrush down and spat in contempt, realizing just how disgusting the idea of brushing her teeth with someone else's toothbrush was.

"Eww," she mumbled and filled her mouth with water, to cleanse it. Why was she even in Captain Raydor's body? What happened to her own body? Quickly, she removed her clothes and inspected her new habitat. She knew it was a silly thought, but she needed to make sure that the wicked witch didn't have anything weird going on. Except for a small and round scar on her thigh and innumerable freckles all over her creamy skin, there didn't seem to be anything abnormal. No third nipple, nor an extra toe. Surprisingly, her skin wasn't green either. Who knew? If she was honest with herself, Brenda had to admit that Sharon's body was quite attractive. And the body also came with absolutely no hair whatsoever, nowhere. It was smoother than a shave, and because she was just released from a hospital after nearly six weeks, she knew it couldn't be the result of waxing; therefore Brenda could only assume the hair removal was permanent. How comfortable! She never took Sharon as the kind of women who removed her entire pubic hair. She never really cared much for it. She hated waxing, and only removed hair in areas that she could reach with a razor. Everything else could grow wild, as far as she cared. Well, if Sharon was in a similar situation as hers, and was stuck inside Brenda's body, then she might flip out upon that discovery. Regardless of what might be going on with the Captain, Brenda couldn't complain about the body she got in return, plus she was a few inches taller than she used to be in her older body. She threw another glance at her reflection and sighed. No matter how she turned it in her head, this wasn't an ideal situation. She wasn't sure what had happened that caused her to inhabit a body that wasn't her own. She knew that there was an incident, and even remembered some of it. If she tried very hard, she could even remember the moment before the bomb went off; she was standing right in front of Captain Raydor when they heard a click sound and were flung backward. Everything went black after that, and when she woke up she was already stuck in the Captain's body. Maybe she died, she suddenly realized. Maybe she was a ghost who possessed the Captain's body. But if that was the case, shouldn't the Captain be inside of that body, too? Brenda never believed in ghosts or any other paranormal phenomenon. Even her belief in God was indistinct, almost non-existent. But of course, that did not mean that ghosts did not exist. Her investigative nature kicked in and she made a mental note to find an expert who could help her figure it out; an exorcist, maybe? That would require her to contact the church. She hated that idea with a passion. Maybe before jumping to conclusions, she needed to read the case files of the investigation; maybe something in there would shed some light on what was happening to her. But how would she access these files as Captain Raydor? The investigation belonged to Major Crimes, and she was still on sick leave. If only Fritz was here to help her. As she thought of him, she felt a painful pinch in her heart. If she was dead, what would happen to Fritz? Would he remarry? Did she want him to move on with his life?

Sharon stared at the television screen blindly. She was not interested in what she was watching but merely looking for a distraction from her thoughts. Of course, if she expected relief, that did not help her at all. The thoughts kept racing in her head and the questions began piling. No matter how hard she thought about it, she still couldn't think of any logical reason why she would wake up in another person's body. A small and soft presence settled on her lap. Sharon lowered her gaze and found a ginger kitten sitting in her lap. She smiled to herself and petted it. The kitten purred softly.

"I see you met Joel," Fritz came in and handed her a cup of tea.

"He's cute," she responded. She's never had a pet before, even though Emily and Ricky have been trying to convince her that a dog or a cat would keep her company while they were away at college. Back then, she told them that she would be fine on her own, and the matter was never discussed again. Now, having a kitten in her lap, she felt her maternal instincts kicking in. Fritz hummed and took a seat next to her.

"I'm glad to see you resting," he said. Sharon let out a soft hum in response. They sat in silence for a few moments.

"Fritz," she said after a short while. "Did anyone die in the explosion?" Fritz shook his head. "And Captain Raydor, is she okay?" she wondered.

"She was released from the hospital the same day as you. She seemed very out of it when I saw her. Her children were with her." At the mention of her children, Sharon felt a deep need to wrap her arms around them. Emily and Ricky must have been terrified when they heard what had happened to her. "Are you okay?" Fritz noticed her pensive state.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just glad she is well," Sharon replied. If she ended up in Brenda's body, and her original body was still alive, then Brenda must have been occupying her body. She didn't remember much of the explosion, but she did remember watching Andy trying to resuscitate her. She didn't believe in out-of-body experiences, but she couldn't deny that she went through one that day. If that happened to her, maybe it happened to Brenda too. And what if instead of returning to her own body, she accidentally went into Brenda's? It sounded completely insane and it definitely defied logic, but it didn't mean it was impossible. In order to find out more information, she needed to talk to Brenda. Removing the purring kitten from her lap and placing her mug on the coffee table, she got up off the couch and went to the bedroom, to look for Brenda's phone. She quickly found it charging by the bed and began looking at the other woman's contact list. She found her number listed under "The Wicked Witch". The name made her grin. She was aware of the unflattering nickname coined by her colleagues. In her current situation, the name was almost comforting, she thought. Still with a smile on her face, she dialed her mobile number and put the phone to her ear.

The sound of some classical music ringtone came from the bedroom and Brenda left the bathroom and tried to find where the ringing came from. She quickly located Sharon's phone on the bedside table and picked it up. The screen indicated that Deputy Chief Johnson was calling her. She accepted the call.

"Yes?" she said tentatively.

"Bren… I mean, Sharon?" she heard her own voice from the other side of the line. She hummed quickly. "We need to talk."

-To be continued-

While I'm working on the next chapters, I would love to know your thoughts about this story, so feel free to leave a review or send me a PM.