Maternally Conflicted

Tristan still couldn't believe what he was seeing with his very own eyes.

Just a minute ago, he had been in his apartment talking with his girlfriend Catherine about wanting to take their relationship to the next level when suddenly, he somehow found himself inside a suburban home in the body of none other than a middle-aged woman who could have easily been the same age as his own mother.

To make matters even worse, his brain had become inundated with a flood of brand new memories that to his shock, felt exactly like his own: That his name was Cassandra Hayes, that he was a 46-year old administrator currently working at a nearby community college, and that his daughter Helena had just arrived yesterday after finishing her first year of college-

"OH MY GOD!" a high-pitched scream from upstairs suddenly broke the ominous silence. "OH. MY. FREAKING. GOD!"

Tristan immediately looked towards the stairs that led to the second floor if his house, not only certain that the person screaming upstairs was his own daughter, but also becoming worried about her out of pure maternal instinct.

His daughter then came running down the stairs with a frantic look on her face.

"I have absolutely no idea how I got here, but I somehow know that you're my mom and that this is your place!" His daughter started ranting as she failed to control her panic. "I swear, I'm not crazy! I just want to get back to my body!"

For a moment, Tristan was worried that his daughter was having another one of her regular, over-the-top reactions to something she read in social media, or if she was having an actual panic attack. But when he heard the word body, a new possibility arose.

It couldn't be.

Helena couldn't be his former girlfriend, right?

"Catherine?" Tristan asked, not sure if he was now going to be the one who sounded like being completely out of his mind. "Is that you?"

Yet upon seeing how his daughter's eyes opened in shock and her mouth turned agape, he knew that he was unfortunately right.

"Tristan?!" his daughter said with disbelief.

"Yes, Catherine," he responded while trying his best to remain calm. "It's me, Tristan."

Catherine remained paralyzed for a few seconds until she went on to scream again.

"Why are you my mom?!

"And why are you my daughter?! I'm just as lost as you are, sweetie," Tristan said as he instinctually couldn't help himself from treating Catherine like his own daughter. "All I know was that we were at my place talking with each other, only to end up here like this."

"God, this cannot be happening," Catherine vented as she began to walk back and forth. "Not only do I somehow know that we're mother and daughter now, but I now have so many new memories about my life as Helena! I don't know who I am anymore!"

"I know, sweetie, I know," Tristan tried soothing her down as he stopped her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I also feel as if I were a completely different person thanks to all the memories I have from my life as Cassandra, but at least we're together. All we have to do is find out why this happened to us, and from there we can start finding a way to get back to our original bodies."

"I guess so..." Catherine said as she began to calm down in great part because of the mom-speech he just gave her. "But do you at least have any idea of what caused this happened?"

"I'll be sincere with you, sweetie, but right now, I don't have much of a clue. Nonetheless, I think that what we should do is think carefully about what we did in the days leading up this and see if something pops up."

And once he finished, Catherine ended up hugging him.

"Thanks, Mom- I mean Tristan" Catherine corrected herself. "No matter how much I try, I can't help myself from thinking of you as my mom."

"It's all fine. I also can't help myself from thinking of you as my daughter and calling you sweetie," Tristan responded. "We just have to remain calm, and I promise that a solution will make itself appear sooner rather than later."

Catherine took a deep breath and at last broke up the hug.

"I think I'll go have a walk around the neighborhood. I feel that will help me soothe my mind and help me start thinking about a way to solve this."

"I think that is a wonderful idea, sweetie," Tristan said as he smiled. "I'll be here trying to map this place out and see if anything useful or worth noting comes to mind."

And just like that, Catherine said her goodbyes, opened the door, and walked out, leaving Tristan completely alone.

At last, Tristan could panic without nobody seeing him.

"What the hell are we going to do?!" Tristan started to vent as he placed his hands on the back of his head.

The reassuring mom-speech he had just given Catherine was simply meant to calm her down. In reality, Tristan had absolutely no idea how they were going to fix this or if this could even be fixed! But when he saw Catherine on the verge of panicking, his new maternal instincts simply sprung into action, somehow giving him the restraint and patience to soothe her.

If that weren't all, he was having an incredibly difficult time accepting that his daughter Helena was in fact his girlfriend Catherine. Just thinking that the young woman he remembered carryimg inside his womb, giving birth to, and raising up was just a few minutes ago in a romantic relationship with him before all of this happened simply filled him with dread and disgust.

In fact, if given the ability to get back to their former life as boyfriend and girlfriend, he wasn't even sure if he could convince himself to do it!

He was her mother! Of course he couldn't think about her in any other way!

He just hoped that Catherine would end up having a very, very long walk around the neighborhood because that would give him enough time to compose himself and come up with another reassuring speech for her.