“Haha, hell yeah! This thing is awesome!” said Joe, standing in front of a full body mirror. He had dawned the suit and was now admiring it. He had created the design years ago, back when he was fourteen or fifteen, yet he still thought it was the coolest. Dr. Fisher smiled and stood next to Joe.

“It definitely suits you,” he said, and Joe rolled his eyes.

“Ha ha, so punny,” he said, catching on to Dr. Fisher’s rather lame pun.

“Now you really DO look like an action figure,” said Jake, pulling out his cell phone. Joe gave him an amused grin.

“Ah, you’re just jealous,” said Joe, and Jake laughed, scrolling through the apps on his phone until he found the camera icon.

“Smile!” he said, and Joe did, while also giving his friend the middle finger. Jake looked at the photo and burst out laughing, turning it around to show Joe. He and Dr. Fisher started to laugh too, and Joe asked Jake to send it to his phone.

As the men all talked and joked, Dr. Cale cracked a smile from her corner of the room, though she did her best to hide it. She as Dr. Fisher slapped Joe on the back, and Joe returning the favor, and couldn’t help remember back when Joe first shrank, right here in this room, all those years ago.

********************************************************************************

“I’m scared,” cried Joe, his knees huddled up to his chest, tears in his eyes, and his voice no louder than a whisper. Dr. Cale looked down at the poor, and terrified child. How scary it must all be to him. She did her best to move with slow and careful movements, but the child flinched in fright.

“Hey, it’s ok, Joe, I’m not going to hurt you. It’s still me, Dr. Cale,” she said, and Joe continued to hug his legs and whimper. This was the first time Joe had shrunk for her, as during all their previous appointments, he had stayed big. Mostly, it had been because he was still unaware of his condition, thinking that the pills and doctors appointments were all routine and normal. Eventually, though, Joe had an accident causing him to shrink, thus revealing to him his unique genetic disorder. Ever since then, they had been doing the best they could to prepare Joe for the day when he would purposely shrink at MuGenTek so that they could run some tests. Today was that day.

His parent’s had been asked to stay in the waiting room, for the tests that would follow needed to be done without there influence, no matter how subtle. They were very much against it, and fought for a while with Dr. Cale and her staff. Eventually, Dr. Cale convinced them that it needed to be done, for it was all to benefit Joe in the long run.

Joe was only eight years old, and shrinking was still horrifyingly new to him. As far as he could tell, it was even scarier then the monsters under his bed. Everything was so much bigger than him. His mom, dad, sisters, all his favorite toys, and his clothes too. Joe’s eyes filled with more tears, and he hugged his knees up to his chest even more at the thought of it all. He felt so alone. Alone in a world much to big for him.

“I wanna go home, I wanna go home,” he sobbed, rocking himself back and forth, burying his head in his arms, not wanting to see anything. Realizing that Joe was no longer watching her, Dr. Cale, being as slow and gentle as possible, reached her hand towards the crying child and began stroking his back with her index finger. He flinched at first, his instincts telling him to get out of there. But after a few seconds, he began to stop rocking, though he kept his legs tightly against his chest. His crying went from full on sobbing to a slight sniffle.

“There, there, Joe, everything’s gonna be alright,” Dr. Cale said in her softest voice. She glanced at her watch, slightly annoyed. Where was Dr. Fisher? He was a scientist who was the most qualified to deal with patients that had Minonia, the genetic disorder Joe dealt with. She didn’t know much about him, other than he was in his late thirties and a very much-respected scientist. He was being moved to this MuGenTek to personally see to the testing Joe would go through today. He was almost an hour late, and Dr. Cale had been forced to start the tests without him, or at least attempt to.

At this point, Joe had ceased crying, and was now staring straight ahead. As he sat there on the cold hard top, Dr. Cale could tell that he was cold, both from the goose bumps that covered his back and his shaking. She slowed her stroking and spoke to Joe, making her voice as soft as possible.

“If you’re cold, Joe, I could hold you in my hands, like we talked about,” she said, and Joe shook his head from side to side very quickly. He only let his parents and Lisa do that, and although Dr. Cale was very nice, he was still very nervous. But at the same time, he was really cold, and his past experience with being held was that it was very warm.

He stopped shaking his head and looked into Dr. Cale’s young face. He had been seeing her for years now, and she was becoming somewhat of an aunt to Joe. But at his reduced size, she was a towering giant that scared him. However, at that moment, her smile comforted Joe, and his head began to nod slowly. He wiped some tears from his eyes and spoke carefully.

“O-ok,” he said, and Dr. Cale smiled. With very slow movements, she wrapped her fingers around him, feeling him shake even more violently. With the utmost care, she lifted him up and settled him in the palm of her hand, keeping her other one around him.

After Joe’s initial fears of being held vanished, he began to stop shaking and felt his body warm up. With a sigh, he leaned his head against Dr. Cale’s hand and closed his eyes.

“Thank you,” he whispered, and Dr. Cale set he hands on the table carefully. At this point, maybe today wasn’t such a good day for testing. Joe was content now, but there was no way of telling how he’d be once Dr. Fisher arrived.

“Joe, I’ve been thinking-,” she started, than the door burst open. The sound of the door caught both Dr. Cale and her little patient by surprise. Joe’s eyes flew open and he looked around the room in fright. Dr. Cale instinctively held Joe tighter and more protectively, as a young scientist entered the room. She was a woman in her early twenties, and looked nothing like Dr. Cale thought Dr. Fisher would look like. Mostly because Dr. Fisher was supposed to be a man.

“Dr. Fisher?” asked Dr. Cale, confused. The woman, panting, stumbled over to the table and leaned on it, completely out of breath. It took her a moment to catch her breath before she spoke.

“What? No, no I’m not Dr. Fisher, just his assistant. Hold on I’ll grab him,” she said, reaching into her lab coat pocket. She fished around until her hand came up holding what at fist looked like a small doll. Dr. Cale’s eyes grew wide as she realized the doll was a small middle-aged man who was swearing and swinging around wildly in anger.

“What the hell, Jenny?! I said shoulder! Not pocket! SHOULDER! Shoulder I say!” he was red faced and very upset as Jenny set him on the table. He looked up at the gigantic woman, hands crossed across his chest.

“Sorry, Dr. Fisher, but we were running late, and you would have fallen off if I didn’t put you in my pocket,” she said, shifting uneasily. Though the diminutive Doctor was much smaller than her, he still had the authority to fire her on the spot. Dr. Fisher took a deep breath and sighed.

“That’s… a reasonable answer,” he said through his teeth. He was still angry, but at the same time, he realized Jenny was only doing her job. Running his hands over his face he waved a hand.

“Thank you Jenny. You may go now,” he said, and Jenny ran off, relief washing over her. She had been sure Dr. Fisher was going to fire her. She almost felt like jumping in the air as she exited the room. Dr. Fisher turned around to face Dr. Cale.

“Ah, you must be Dr. Beverly Cale. Allow me to properly introduce myself, I’m Dr. Royce Fisher,” he said, and Dr. Cale nodded, still to stunned to answer. As she looked at him now, she realized he looked just like she thought he would, save for the height. His dark brown hair was a bit messy, but his face was clean-shaven and he seemed in good health. He wore a lab coat, kaki’s, and dark brown shoes, all made perfectly for him. Dr. Fisher gave a confused look up at Dr. Cale.

“You ok? You seem surprised. Did Jenny not send you the email telling of my arrival?” he said, regretting letting his assistant leave. Dr. Cale shook her head.

“Oh, ah, no, no, I-I did get it. I’m just, well… I wasn’t expecting…” she trailed on, and Dr. Fisher laughed.

“Oh, I see. They didn’t inform you of the accident, did they?” he said, and Dr. Cale shook her head. The tiny doctor shrugged.

“Genetic experimentation is dangerous, as you very well know. I was working with some genetic splicing equipment, seeing if the mutated gene, Minonia, could be passed on to animals as than humans. Low and behold, there was an accident, and now, here I am,” he said, gesturing to himself. It was a very short and concise version of the story, but he was so late already, he thought he would tell Dr. Cale more about it later.

“Oh, I see… Well, care to explain why you’re running so late?” she asked, taking on a more professional tone. Dr. Fisher rubbed his neck.

“Right sorry about that. There was a serious traffic jam, and both Jenny and I hadn’t charged our phones, so there was no way to call. I sincerely apologize. I see the patient isn’t here yet, though, so that’s-,” he started to say, then stopped when his eyes rested on Dr. Cale’s hands. Joe was poking his head out from her protective grasp, a look of wonder in his eyes.

“Ok, never mind then,” he muttered. Smiling, he walked over towards the small boy, who quickly ducked back down into the fist of Dr. Cale. He stopped walking, looking up at Dr. Cale.

“Ah, a shy one, is he?” he asked, and Dr. Cale smiled.

“Well, not usually. But at this height, he tends to be a little shy… and a bit emotional,” she said, feeling the small child huddle in her grasp. Dr. Fisher laughed and then sat down, cross-legged.

“Well, I can wait as long as he needs,” said Dr. Fisher, making himself comfortable as well as speaking loudly and clearly to be sure Joe heard him. Silence filled the room, and Dr. Cale felt Joe’s small form stop moving. He was still for a moment, than she felt him moving around again, and he popped his little head out and stared at the other Doctor. They were both small, though Dr. Fisher was definitely taller, about twice Joe’s size. But to Joe, that was normal, since he was only eight, and all adults were taller than him. Hesitantly, he nudged Dr. Cale’s fingers, and she let him pass through, until he was sitting on the edge of her palm. He waved his little feet over the edge, gaining courage, then hopped down to the ground and walked towards Dr. Fisher, who smiled warmly at him.

“Hello there,” said Dr. Fisher, giving a friendly wave to the little boy. Dr. Fisher was a bit overwhelmed himself. Though he had dealt multiple times with the Minonia gene, he had not yet met any other human being who was affected by it. Though many people carried it, only a small percentage is truly affected by it, causing them to shrink when dealt with pain.

Joe made his way closer to the tiny Doctor, and Dr. Fisher noticed he was not wearing any shoes or socks, only a red T-shirt and jean shorts. The boy finally arrived in front of the Doctor, eye level with him. Joe looked the man up and down, than spoke, cocking his head slightly to the left.

“Where’s your boo-boo?” he asked, and Dr. Fisher raised an eyebrow, smiling.

“My boo-boo? What boo-boo?” he asked, and Joe kept staring.

“The boo-boo that made you tiny,” he said, moving his feet up and down, from tip toes to flat feet. Dr. Fisher shook his head.

“Oh, I don’t have one. I got my boo-boo a while ago, and now I can’t grow anymore,” he said, and Joe’s eyes grew wide.

“Really? Even in you’re happy place?” he said, and Dr. Fisher nodded.

“Yup. Trust me, I already tried. But, it seems I can’t find a happy enough place. Oh well, it’s not so bad being small,” he said, and Joe sat down in front of the Doctor.

“But, aren’t you… aren’t you scared?” he asked, his legs crisscrossed, mimicking Dr. Fisher’s sitting pattern. The Doctor put his finger to his chin and looked up at the ceiling, seeming to think about it.

“Well, a little at first. I mean, everything was all big so suddenly,” he said, and Joe nodded.

“Yeah, it does get big all-a-sudden,” said Joe, and Dr. Cale smiled. Hearing Joe try and say all of a sudden made her almost laugh, though she allowed herself only a smile.

“But, I had friends there to help me,” said Dr. Fisher, and he looked up at Dr. Cale.

“Just like Dr. Cale over there,” he said, pointing up. Joe looked back at Dr. Cale and then back to Dr. Fisher.

“Oh,” he said, and Joe began to think. Dr. Fisher smiled.

“You see, Joe, things get scary sometimes,” he said, and he placed a hand on the small boys shoulder, and Joe looked up at him.

“But you have to remember, as long as you’re with the people who love and care for you, you don’t have any reasons to be scared,” he finished, and Joe nodded his head.

“Are… are you my friend now too?” he asked, and Dr. Fisher thought for a moment.

“Weeeelll, I don’t know, can I be you’re friend?” he asked, and Joe’s eyes lit up. He nodded his head vigorously.

“Oh yeah! You can be my friend!” he said, jumping up to a standing position. He looked over at Dr. Cale and smiled for the first time since being shrunk. He felt something different now. He was still a little nervous, but the fear that had overwhelmed him before was gone, and Dr. Cale saw that.

“We can all be friends! Together!” said Joe, grabbing Dr. Fisher’s arm and pulling him towards Dr. Cale. The two Doctors laughed at Joe’s newfound happiness, and proceeded with the tests.

********************************************************************************

‘You’ve grown up quite a bit since then,’ Dr. Cale thought to herself, as Jake lifted Joe from his position on the table and deposited him onto his shoulder.

“You up for a ride too, Doc?” asked Jake, and Dr. Fisher shook his head.

“Nah, this old timer is all set. You boys get out of here Dr. Cale and I have a few things to put together. Stay in the lobby though, we’ll be out in a minute,” he said, and Jake shrugged.

“Hey, watch it ass hole! You have a passenger, so keep the shoulder wiggling to a minimum!” Joe snapped, and Jake rolled his yes.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he said, moving his shoulder again, causing Joe to almost lose his balance.

“I swear to god, Jake,” said Joe, half angry and half joking, and Jake laughed.

“Relax Joe, I’m not gonna let anything happen to you. I’m your friend, dude,” he said, and Joe smiled.

“Yeah, I know,” he said, and he looked over at Dr. Cale and Dr. Fisher. They smiled at him, and he smiled back.

“And friends look out for you,” he said in a low voice.