The strange swap of Dr Hyde and Mr Jekyll

Queen of hearts

Jekyll stared at the words he had just written for a while. "This is very interesting."
He smiled and swung back and forth on his chair. Something about his manners seemed to have changed during the last weeks. Henry looked extremely carefree, content and, occasionally, he let his lips curl into a serene smile; not a grin or a sadistic smirk, but a sincere smile. If it wasn't physically impossible, he would have sworn to be lighter than air itself. The journal was supposed to be a way for him to take note of all major events concerning his experiment, and thus concerning Hyde, but he had just realized how much he had changed since all that started.
Henry tapped with his index finger on the desk, as is he was trying to replicate the beat of a melody only he could hear. Jekyll closed his eyes and sighed, relaxing against his chair.

A loud knock on the door made Henry turn around abruptly, his inner peace slowly fading away. "Sir, there's Mr-" "tell them to go away." Jekyll bluntly interrupted Jasper before even giving him the chance to continue his sentence.
How dared someone interrupt his peace of mind?
The servant hesitated for a second, before letting a few more words slip away from his mouth. "Sir, it's your wife."
On Henry's face there wasn't even the slightest sign of a smile; he was clearly displeased by that. "What does she want?" He murmured, sounding somewhat tired and annoyed. "I'm not sure. She said she just wanted to have a word with you." A grunt came out of the room. "Fine, I'll be downstairs in a bit." He said in defeat.

A black haired woman was in the living room, sitting on the couch with her pale hands gently placed on her lap; her black hair were carefully braided and all fell behind his back, with the exception of a couple of wavy strands which, like a dark frame, laid at the sides or her face. Instead of eyes, she had two bright roses, of the same intense color of her fancy dress.
Her face turned in the direction of the corridor from which Jekyll came in. She stood up, with a little complacent smirk on her pink lips. Her expression was the definition of pure politeness, although the stiffness in her movements betrayed her inner struggle to maintain her gentle manners.
"Henry." she said to begin the convention in the most civil way possible. "Lucinda." Replied Henry, raising a brow and mimicking her fake politeness. "It is very nice to see y-" "please get to the point." He spat out, his hands diving deep in his pockets.
Lucinda didn't even bat an eyelid at that. She was used to Henry's bluntness. Plus, she was glad he interrupted her blatant lies. "With pleasure. On Thursday me and my father will have the pleasure to host a dinner party."
"I hope you're not here to force me to come with." Henry murmured lowly, failing to understand what her intentions were.
Lucinda smiled. "Au contraire. I am here to formally ask you not to come. My father has already sent invitations and he sent one to you too, in what I suppose is a desperate attempt to save what is left of our marriage."
"I think we can both agree that's not happening." Henry said.
"Good, I see we're on the same page." She replied containing a smirk. "And while we're at it," she continued, taking a step closer to Jekyll and lowering her voice a bit. "Even If my father were to beg you on his knees and offer you money, don't you dare show your face in my house, or I'll gladly rip that white streak of yours away form your head." Lucinda then took a step back and didn't even bother to put on a false smile as she spoke.
"I'll be on my way now. Have a good day Henry Jekyll."
"You too, Lucy."
She stopped for a second, and before leaving the house for good, she spat out "it's Lucinda Carrew for you."

A few moments later, Jekyll returned to his cabinet, locking himself away from the world once again. But there was someone that he couldn't lock away.
"What did you do to her?" Edward asked, appearing in the reflection of the glass Henry just grabbed. Henry raised a brow. "Pardon?"
"What did you do to Lucinda? Why's she so mad at you?"
The brown haired man widened his eyes. "You're literally me yet you're so quick to side with a girl you just saw. I'm almost offended."
Now it was Hyde the one to raise a brow. He didn't need to say add anything else to that.
Jekyll sighed. "Do you remember anything about our marriage?"  "Bits and pieces..." Henry put down the glass with a little toc.
"It was arranged by our fathers when we were 17. We had never met before and we were not in love, or at least I wasn't. I believe that, at the time, she still hoped we could be happy together. Maybe she was even in love with me.
For a while after our engagement I tried to act, to play the part of the happy husband, but... after my- our.." Henry paused for a second. It hurt him to continue with that phrase, but he needed to do it. He couldn't stay a slave to his own feelings. "...after our father.. passed away, I.. I lost my will to keep on with that charade. I just spoke the truth, but uhm, maybe not in the most polite way possible. I could've been more tactful."
"Could you please elaborate on that?"
"...I uh, I may have yelled that I didn't and I never would have loved her.. that love was just a pretty fairytale, and if she still believed in it then she was just a childish fool who needed to grow up-" he muttered, speeding up on the last part.
Edward widened his mouth in disbelief.
"Look, I got carried away th-" before Jekyll could finish his phrase, his own hand raised up in the air and slapped him on the face. "What the-!"
"I'm sorry, but that was just plain rude! How could you have said such things?" Hyde said as he tried to catch his breath. Keeping control even for such a short amount of time without the potion was draining. "Did you at least apologize?" Henry glanced away.

Edward thought for a second, then he looked back at Jekyll, straightening his back to appear taller.
"We're going to her dinner party. We're gonna apologize to her."
Henry waited for a second, speechless. "You heard Lucy, I can't show my face there."
"That's why," Hyde continued with a determined smile. "I'll show mine instead."

Days flew by quicker than Henry wanted them to, and soon it was Thursday. Edward had prepared himself for the occasion very carefully: he bought a bright grey suit just for the occasion, a matching waistcoat with a flowery pattern and carefully combed his hair, in an attempt to keep his messy mane in order.
As he discovered just a couple of days after Lucinda's visit, Utterson too had been invited.
"I'm awfully famous within the scientific community," he explained to Hyde. "Mostly because of that time I passed out during a demonstration in Manchester, but still!"

So they decided that they would go together. That Thursday Edward went to Gabriel's house, where they planned to meet before walking to Carrew's house. Hyde was wearing a grey, silvery suit. Simple yet very elegant and soft. Utterson wore instead a dark blue suit, with fancy red decorations on the sleeves and pockets. Flashy, just like him.
After just a couple of minutes they were standing behind the dark wooden door of Lucinda Carrew. Everything was ready.
Edward took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

(Note from the author: Hey hello long time no see uh? Sorry for the unannounced and long hiatus... I really didn't plan to take this long, and also I didn't plan to cut the chapter off like this. Yeah I originally intended it to be all in one part but I guess I'm gonna split it in two... because 1. I didn't want to keep y'all waiting any longer and 2. I don't know when/if I'll be finishing this. Sorry but, even though I'd love to just write all day long and finally finish this story I love so much, I really can't. But, I still hope you enjoy this Smol chapter. <3)