Chapter 3

Thomas James was sitting next to his wife, Laurie, because the doctors informed him that she was in her last moments. It didn't look as if she would come out of her coma and he should spend whatever time he could before she passed on. Thomas was holding her hand and telling her how much he loved her and would miss her, when he felt Laurie's fingers move in his hand.

“Laurie, baby, can you hear me?” Thomas asked.

Laurie squeezed his hand even tighter, as Thomas pushed the call button that would summon a hospital staff member.

“Somebody? Come quick!” Thomas called out.

A hospital CNA was first to respond to the light and Thomas' pleas for help.

“Mr. James, I heard your cries. What can I do for you?” Janet, the CNA asked.

“Please get the doctor. My wife just squeezed my hand.” Thomas pleaded.

Janet went to get the doctor and within minutes, they were back in Laurie's room.

“Yes, Mr. James, what seems to be the matter?” Dr. Pike asks.

“My wife just squeezed my hand. I think she is coming out of her coma.” Thomas informs the Dr. Pike.

Dr. Pike examines Laurie's current condition, then replies, “I'm sorry, Mr. James, but there is still no chance of Laurie coming out of the coma.”

“But she squeezed my hand?” Thomas says, sounding confused.

“Mr. James, it was probably just a reflex reaction to whatever you were saying to her. She was probably just responding to you in the only way she could.” Dr. Pike tells him.

“No, you're wrong. Laurie is coming out of it. She's coming back to me and our family.” Thomas sounded hopeful.

“If that's what you need to believe, Mr. James. Laurie is brain dead. There isn't anything to keep her alive. She will die eventually. I don--------”

Dr. Pike is interrupted to Laurie suddenly overriding the machines and now breathing on her own.

“What? I don't understand? She had not activity whatsoever?” Dr. Pike asks in confusion. “Well, Mr. James, looks as if I may have been wrong.”

Laurie opens her eyes for the first time in months. As she is looking around the room, she is confused as to the different faces she doesn't recognize. She spies a gentleman sitting at her bedside holding her hand and another gentleman with a stethoscope around his neck listening to her vital signs, obviously looking bewildered.

The gentleman sitting next to her holding her hand must be her husband, Thomas that she has been hearing.

“Well, Mrs. James, welcome back!” Dr. Pike says to her.

The other gentleman gives her a hug, “Oh my dear Laurie, you've come back to me. God answered my prayers and brought you back to me.” Thomas sighs with relief.

“Why are they calling her Laurie?” Kendra asks herself.

Suddenly, it all comes back to her. She came back in another woman's body. Laurie James, Thomas James' wife. Now she has to function in this world as another man's wife? What about her beloved Bryan? She was supposed to marry him? What would happen to him? Then it hit her hard. She was not to interfere in Bryan's life in anyway or dire consequences would result. All she could do was resolve the issues with Bryan and her familmembers as Laurie James. No could know who she really was, Kendra Wallingford, fiancee of Bryan Welles. How would Kendra be able to accomplish all this in another woman's body?

That would be the issue Kendra would be dealing with as she learned to adjust to her life as Laurie James.