Two weeks have passed since I saw the doctor last, I have been missing my appointments, mostly due to the fact that I don't want them to continue to push their bullshit treatment on me. I've instead been enjoying my free time with my sister, and mother, especially since we finally heard back from the law firm that took the case for all of those that were afflicted by the accident. I'm supposed to meet with my lawyer today, some woman named Nicole.

    The drive there was long one, mostly due to the fact that Mom lived so far away from the city, and I was never particularly fond of car rides to begin with. As per my usual I slept through the majority of it, it never fails I sit, I get bored, I fall asleep. What kind of worried me though was when I awoke my clothes felt looser. Sweat covered my brow, but it doesn't look like mom had noticed it, so maybe I hadn't lost too much height yet?

    We eventually reached our destination, the building was rather plain, large gray stone slabs made up the walls of the square building. A single large sign embossed with golden letters sat on the neatly trimmed lawn read, “Law Offices of Charles and Raymond”

    When we walked inside, the atmosphere seemed stuffy, everything was neat, tidy, the floor was carpeted in green. The waiting room furniture was leather seats, with brass studs embroidering the outer edges, with red stained wooden arm rests. The coffee tables looked as if they were made of real stained wood, I couldn't help, but feel a little grungy, even as well off as I was, this place just seemed way above my pay grade.

    “Mr Smith, Miss O'Malley will see you now,” came the voice of the receptionist.

    The receptionist was a squat woman, a little taller than myself, with her salt and pepper hair done up in a semi beehive. She wore a pair of horn rimmed glasses, and a tweed jacket and matching skirt. She didn't appear to me much older than maybe fifty, but I was never good at guessing ages, so I could've been completely off.

    What I saw when I entered the office nearly blew my mind, behind a heavy black hard wood desk sat one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. She couldn't have been much older than me, her red hair was shoulder length, and she had the brightest greenest eyes I'd ever seen in my life. She stood up and was a head shorter than I am, an even though she was wearing a white blouse and coat over top of that, it couldn't hide her generous bosom, and her skirt fit her curves in just the right way that made me happy to be a man right now.

    I quickly snapped out of my observations of my lawyer when she reached out to shake my hand, she gave me a bright bubbly smile, her lips as red as her hair.

    “A pleasure tae meit ye Mr. Smith, aam Nicola O'Malley an' I'll be handlin' yer case,” she said her Scottish accent incredibly thick.

    “Nice to meet you too, Miss O'Malley,” I say sitting in one of the chairs she had indicated to me as she then took her own seat.

    “Sae, why dorn't ye teel me exactly whit happened?” she asked as she turned on a tape recorder, gave it my name and the date, and the reason for my being there.

    I sat there and told her everything that had happened up to my present situation, she listened intently as the recorder took in my every word, when I finished she stopped the tape.

    “How tall waur ye originally?” she asked me.

    “I was five foot eight inches,” I replied.

    “An yer current 'eight?”

    “The last time I was measured I was five foot six, but I may have lost an inch, or two within the past two weeks, as I haven't been to the doctors recently,” I said.

    “'Hoo come?” she asked me.

    “Well, I found out that the doctor that I had been sent to was a VitaCorp employee, and because of my background in viral research I knew that what he was prescribing for me wasn't the right thing,” I replied.

    “Weel Mr. Smith, I'd be happy tae tak' yer case,” she said smiling.

    “That's awesome, but Miss this is one of the biggest law firms in the state, there's no way I can afford you,” I say nervously.

    “Ah, du nah worry aboot, tha' the partnars are very intarested in yer case, an I 'ave somethin' of a personal stake in this mah self so I shall be representin' ye free of charge,” she said brightly.

    “B-But Miss,”

    “At, at, not another word from ye, nah get on home, and dunna be goin' to tha doctar any more lest ye shrink away ta nothing,” she said winking to me before she lead me out of her office.

    “I'll be seein' ye in two weeks, fer da firs' trial,” she said as she walked my mother and I to the door.

    What followed after that was relentless teasing from my mother the majority of the drive home. Mostly of her telling me I should hook up with my lawyer, while I wouldn't have minded taking her home, something told me that she wasn't the type that liked to date her clients. I did wonder what sort of stake she had in this trial that would get her to represent me for nothing, maybe the law firm just wanted the publicity, and decided to make the victims charity cases? I figured it would be best to not look a gift horse in the mouth, and just be glad that I wouldn't have to pay any out of pocket costs.

    The drive back home was just as boring as the drive out was, and once more I ended up falling asleep. As I slept I had something of a nightmare, I dreamed that I had shrunk down so small that nobody could see, me that I was practically invisible, then a roar, then I woke up just as a dark shadow had been cast over me. Once more sweat had covered my brow, and my clothes felt even looser than what they had when we entered the lawyer's office.

    The next couple of weeks are sort of jumbled together, it feels like it was all blurred into one big beating. Three weeks had gone by since I had gone to see that layer, and thankfully the shrinking actually didn't occur that day, it was all in my head due to the mental stress. The loose clothing was just because I had worn a larger shirt than I should have.

    The trial started today, so I had to pray that I could keep my stress levels down, Gwen suggested going on a run before then. While that would've probably helped wear me out I figured it would be a good idea to just keep myself as fresh as I can. So instead I just took a shower and tried to meditate, didn't help any, but it kept my mind off of things for a few seconds, okay it didn't help at all...

    I wore an old suit and tie of my dad's, thankfully he had been shorter than I was before he passed away. Mom didn't much care for me wearing my regular clothes, she watched too many t.v. shows where they always wore suits in court. I took in a deep breath as I sat in what could only be described as one of the most uncomfortable chairs imaginable.

    Mostly because the fact that it was all about whether, or not VitaCorp would pay for their crimes, and hopefully be shut down, permanently. I sat there sweat pouring profusely from every orifice of my body. I could hear the legal jargon, back and forth between the VitaCorp lawyer, and the thick Scottish accent of Miss O'Malley as she pleaded the case for our defense.

    One by one different people were called to the stand to testify, all of them were of varying sizes. The ones that were lucky enough to have been close to the blast, but were still large enough to be seen had to be handled by either loved ones, or family members, and held against the microphone. I could only feel sorry for the ones that were too small to be recovered.

    It was my turn before too long, I felt myself slowly walking up to the witness stand, I sat in the even less comfy hard wooden stool. I set the suitcase I had brought with me down beside the stool.The first one to speak was the VitaCorp lawyer.

    “Mr Smith, is it?” he asked

    “Yes sir,” I replied.

    “Mr. Smith, what was position while working at VitaCorp?” asked the Lawyer.

    “I was R&D for anti-viral, and antibiotic cures, and treatments,” I replied.

    “And were you among those that were afflicted?” asked the Lawyer.

    “Yes,”

    “But you don't seem like you've lost any height, or at least anything noticeable,” replied the Lawyer.

    “I was on the far side of the explosion so my exposure wasn't as severe,”

    “How much height have you lost since your exposure?”

    “Two inches,” I replied.

    “Two inches, Mr. Smith, who diagnosed you with the virus?” asked the Lawyer.

    “The company doctor, the one that I've been seeing since the accident,” I replied.

    “Interesting, because when I questioned the doctor he claims that you didn't show any traces of the virus in your system, and that you're being treated for a bacterial infection. He also stated that you refused treatment for the infection,” said the Lawyer going over his notes.

    “That's a lie, I did my own blood work separate from his, I have the virus,” I said trying to keep my temper in check.

    “Ah, yes given your background in the field it would only be natural for you to do so. So, you believe that your doctor has falsified your diagnosis?” asked the Lawyer.

    “Well it's pretty obvious that he did,” I answered back.

    “The evidence points to the contrary for you Mr. Smith, you claim to have only lost two inches, and haven't had any substantial height loss, and your given doctor claims that you have a bacterial infection, so how could you possibly have the virus?” asked the Lawyer.

    “Because it's not a bacterial infection, as I said I ran tests on my own blood, I have charts and lab reports to back it up,” I said as I began to pull some papers from my suitcase.

    “No, that will be quite alright I'm sure you did a very thorough job. However since you haven't had any substantial loss in height I don't see how your testimony could possibly be relevant to this case,” said the Lawyer.

    “Objection yur Honor! The defendant's records prior to the accident have shown him to originally be five feet, eight inches, and he now stands at five feet six inches, so while he may, or may not have the virus now is irrelevant he did at one point have the virus,” came Miss O'Malley's voice from the other side of the room.

    “Sustained, Mr. McCoy please keep the questioning to the incident,” replied the judge.

    The questioning went on, and on either repeating the same questions in a different way to catch me off guard, or getting me to say something that I didn't mean to. I did my best to answer each one, all the while praying that I could get out of the courtroom soon, as it was starting to make me sweat. When he finished his line of questioning it was Miss O'Malley's turn.

    “Okay, Mr. Smith..... are you feeling okay?” she asked as her green eyes scanned me as if she were a robot.

    “N-No miss.... I....” I never got to finish, because the next thing I did was let out a scream of pain.

    The muscles in my body felt like they were on fire once more, my bones ached, my head felt as if it were going to split. My teeth ground so hard into each other they were surely going to break, or crack. My heart raced, and pounded hard in my chest, I could hear a collective gasp from the people around me.

    When I came too I was in a hospital bed, a wet cloth on my head, the sounds of various machines, and people rung in my ears. I slowly blinked my eyes causing the room to come into focus, I felt something heavy on my chest, and looked down to realize it was my mother, sound asleep, but how long had I been out?

    A slight snore caused me to jump out of my skin for a moment till I realized it was just Gwen curled up on a chair with a blanket wrapped around her sleeping soundly. Her dark red hair hung over her face acting as something like a stringy mask. I tried to sit up, but I didn't want to disturb my mother, but eventually I didn't have much of a choice, as my bladder had decided that it was time for me to empty things out.

    I then started to rub my mom's blond hair covered head, she groaned a little at first, then when her brown eyes locked onto mine they were a look of shock and joy.

    “Oh my God David I thought for sure you weren't going to wake up this time!” she shouted hugging me tightly.

    As she hugged me and I hugged her back I couldn't help, but notice that she felt stronger, her grip on me seemed more powerful. How much had I shrunk this time? I thought to myself as I finally slid to the side of the bed, my legs couldn't even reach the floor now. I took a deep breath and slid off about a foot.

    When I stood up I found that I was still taller than my mom sitting down so that was a plus, but how much height had I lost?

    “If you're wondering, it's three inches this time,” came Gwen's voice as she too had woken up.

    “Well that puts me at an the same height as you sis,” I say smiling though in the back of my mind I can't help, but feel that I might be looking up at her soon.

    “Yes, it does dear, and after that little episode of yours the Lawyer lady said that the case was a slam dunk, there's no way VitaCorp is going to worm its way out of this now, she said that you should be very well compensated,” said mom smiling.

    “Hey, as long as they go under for what they did I don't care about the money,” I said hugging both my younger sibling and my mom tightly.

    “As long as I can find some way to cure you, and the Judge said you'll need to find a new doctor, since the one you were going to was on VitaCorp's payroll it's possible he might try and increase the rate of which you shrink down,” my mom said to me.

    “I think I'll just work on it myself, at least for as long as I can anyway, if I get shorter than Gwen then I'll need to get some outside help, after all I don't want to have to look up to my might midget sister,” I say teasingly.

    This earned me a punch in the arm, and a threat to keep me in one of her shoes if I didn't watch myself. Even with everything being as bad as it was, it was nice to know that I still had my family to fall back on no matter how tough things got for me.