Summary: Nell Winthrop had always gotten whatever she wanted, except the one thing she desired most. Now, on her eighteenth birthday, her father has recruited a young scientist to help her finally grow taller.
They'll succeed beyond her wildest dreams.
Categories: Giantess,
Young Adult 20-29,
Growing/Shrinking out of clothes,
Slow Size Change Characters: None
Growth: Mini GTS (16-30ft)
Shrink: None
Size Roles: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 7
Completed: No
Word count: 25482
Read: 83947
Published: October 27 2010
Updated: March 24 2014
1. Chapter 1 by NFalc
2. Chapter 2 by NFalc
3. Chapter 3 by NFalc
4. Chapter 4 by NFalc
5. Chapter 5 by NFalc
6. Chapter 6 by NFalc
7. Chapter 7 by NFalc
Author's Notes:
Mostly exposition in this part, but still a smidge of fetish content.
Nell sighed and stretched, slipping out of her pink satin sheets. The dream had felt so real it ached. Like if she only wished hard enough, the world would conform itself to the dream, and she'd be able to live it.
The fact was, most things in the world conformed to Nell's wishes. As far back as she could remember her family had been wealthy. Her father had always had enough money to give her most anything she desired -- and now he had considerably more than that. They'd moved into the mansion when she was six, she'd begun private home schooling soon after, and spent her free time as she wished.
Whole rooms of the mansion were devoted to hobbies Nell had picked up and dropped on a whim. The flight simulator. The raquetball court. A warehouse's worth of priceless musical instruments. Another room decorated with lavish furniture dating back from her antiques phase.
But Bill Winthrop had never been able to give his daughter the one thing she truly desired.
Standing barefoot, Nell was just four and a half feet tall. She'd grown to that height at the age of ten, and while she'd developed in every other regard and was now unquestionably a beautiful young adult, she never grew any taller.
With a nearly unlimited supply of custom-made high heels, she was able to look most other girls of her age in the eye. But she wanted to truly tower over others, have them look up at her in awe and admiration, leave them standing in her shadow. And while she'd idly considered surrounding herself with midgets, that just wouldn't cut it.
So her father searched for an alternative. But as of today, Nell's eighteenth birthday, he still hadn't found anything.
Nell struggled to hold on to the details of the dream, but they floated away like feathers hit with a swift breeze. She remembered walking around the mansion, then the ground suddenly shifting away as she sprung upwards, the mansion dwindling beneath her until it was the size of the scale-model dollhouse in her room. As she loomed over the mansion, she felt powerful, comfortable -- ready to take on the world. Winston and her father had come rushing out the front door. They stood no taller than her ankles. Her father had made quite the fuss, kept telling her to stay still, and she had just laughed... Then she had promptly remembered she was dreaming, and woke up.
As Nell yawned and stumbled toward the bathroom, it struck her as odd; normally on her birthday, Winston would arrive early and wait until she woke to serve her breakfast in bed - to mark the special occasion. She found it a little chilling to wake up alone on her birthday, but soon figured that everyone was probably waiting downstairs. She quickly finished brushing her teeth, combed her corn blond hair into something more passable than bed-tangle in case her Dad wanted to take photos, then rushed downstairs, still in her silk pyjamas.
Sure enough, the light was on in the kitchen. Nell rounded the corner and saw her Dad and Winston standing behind the granite counter-top. Her father was beaming.
"Nell-bell! Happy birthday!" He bent down to give her an aftershave-drenched hug.
"Daddy! What are you and Winston doing down here?" This was all very different from the norm: no presents or cake that she could see. Maybe now that she was eighteen they thought she'd like a more grown-up celebration. A fair guess, although she would miss the usual streamers and festivities - there was just something so cheerful about all the fuss.
"Well, honey, this birthday your present is going to be something special."
Nell caught Winston fretting behind her father. "Mr. Winthrop, sir, perhaps Nell should change to more appropriate attire -"
"Easy, Winston," Her dad scoffed. "This is her house too, there's no need for her to change for anyone. Nell, I have someone for you to meet."
Nell nodded. Sure, her PJs weren't the best thing to be wearing right now, but she was too caught up in the moment to care. This was so very different - so exciting!
Her father opened the kitchen's back door to reveal a slight, well-groomed young man with brown hair. He had a very youthful face - at first, Nell thought he was around her age, but the white lab coat indicated that he was at least a good five years older. He stepped forward to shake Nell's hand. "Hi Ms. Winthrop. I'm Daniel Farmer, human growth specialist."
***
Daniel had risen two hours eariler, the stars still fading from the sky as he hopped on the Metro. He didn't have a car, and it took three connections and two hours to make it from the city out to the suburbs. He wasn't looking forward to the weekly commute. But when someone like Bill Winthrop called, you didn't blink, you didn't worry about the distance. You said yes.
In fact, Daniel had been very nearly on the edge of poverty when Winthrop had called him. His work didn't have much scientific merit, and as a result he didn't get much in the way of grants. Every time he applied for one, he saw the wheels turning in the head of Foundation Member X: "Sure, you think you can make humans grow taller, now let's get back to our cure for cancer." And despite his sister's constant urges to go commercial, he'd always been too embarrassed. So he was thanking his lucky stars to finally have a private benefactor like Winthrop on his side. He had visions of succeeding in his research, helping people, all the while being able to afford a car.
Daniel had figured this was his big break, until Winthrop told him what he was there for.
"You want me to develop a growth serum for your daughter?"
Winthrop lifted a finger to his lips. "Not so loud, Dr. Farmer. The kitchen has an awful echo, and you could wake Nell." He stretched his hands above his head, then smoothed out his tartan robe. "There's bound to be a better word for it than serum. That sounds like B-movie science fiction stuff. Let's call it a treatment. Yes, I want you to develop a growth treatment for my daughter."
Daniel looked down at the table. "Mr. winthrop, you must understand, my, my work was years from human testing..." Damnit, he'd started stammering. He always stammered when he was nervous.
"I thought you'd already done successful animal trials?" Winthrop shot him a stern look.
Daniel thought back to Snuffles the mouse, who had started out as long as his pinky and finished the serum course as the size of a city sewer rat. "Well, yes, but usually such experiments are conducted on animals with longer lifespans before the human testing phase begins. Even then, the results could be unpredictable..." Daniel cringed, waiting for Winthrop's response.
The billionaire just laughed and clapped him on the back. "Relax, Dr. Farmer, no one's saying you have to produce this treatment tomorrow. But I'd still like you to work with Nell. This is her present, after all, and I want her to be happy with it more than anyone."
"Uh, I see, sir. It'll be a privilege to work with your daughter." Daniel spluttered. What was he expected to do with a teenage girl around the lab? "I can come in weekly on the 6:30 train -"
"You took the train here? Cripes, I thought they paid you science types more than that. Anyway, a commute won't do. We've got plenty of space here in the estate, I'll have Winston make up a room for you."
"Ah, um, but I left my stuff, and my research -"
"We'll send someone down there to get all of that." Bill was waving his hand, like all of Daniel's problems could be wiped away with a flick of the wrist. For a man with Winthrop's money and power, perhaps they could.
"Then I guess I'm good to go." Daniel concluded somewhat sheepishly.
"Good. Now quiet, I heard the steps creak." Winthrop whispered. Daniel could hear it too. A hesitant padding turned into a confident trot down the staircase. "Get 'round the corner. You're a surprise!"
Daniel obliged and hid himself behind a nearby cupboard. But he couldn't resist leaning out from behind his cover to catch a glimpse of Nell Winthrop. The poor girl had been the subject of fevered rumor and speculation almost since she was born, especially since her father did his best to keep her out of the public eye.
Daniel had been expecting some kind of dwarf, but Nell was hardly deformed. Had she been around one and a half times her current height, she probably would have been called statuesque. She was slender, and of elongated, willowy proportions. She just seemed to have been scaled down to miniature. With her light blue eyes, pale complexion and curtain of blond hair, there was an almost fairy-tale princess look about her. Beautiful in an unusual way.
Daniel pressed himself back against the cupboard and tried to avoid looking nervous.
***
Nell shook Daniel's hand - his skin was surprisingly soft, though he had something of a weak handshake - and looked up at him, trying to gauge whether or not this was some kind of setup. Her father had looked at all the options, and never found anyone who could help her before. Surely this was an elaborate practical joke on his part.
She glanced over at him quizzically, and he nodded back. Yes, this was really her gift. Nell looked back at Daniel, realized she was still shaking his hand, and abruptly withdrew hers. Now was one of the few times she was with company, so as usual, she completely forgot her manners. All the etiquette lessons Governess Lenette had drilled into her head just seemed to vanish whenever she met someone new. "Um, Nell Winthrop, pleasure to meet you." She forced out.
"Your father's hired me to see if we can work on developing some, er, treatments for you," Daniel said. "Height treatments of course. That's what I've been researching."
Nell nodded. "I've always wanted to be taller, as I'm sure Daddy told you. So, you really have something that works?"
"Well, preliminary trials suggest that maybe Compound P-282, coupled with coenzyme theta and a specific radon isotope, could -"
"We think so." Her Dad said, cutting him off. Dad hated technical mumbo-jumbo, he always interrupted anyone who tried to talk to him about it. He was always more about the ideas and less about the particulars, but so far that strategy had worked for him.
Nell's heart felt like it was about to beat its way out of her chest. "Well, when do we start?"
Her father's smile faltered slightly. "It's not quite ready yet, sweetie. But Daniel's going to work with you to make it."
"Oh." Nell tried her best to avoid looking disappointed. Of course, her dream wasn't going to come true just like that. She knew this whole thing was too good to be true.
"Hey, don't look so glum," Daniel said. "I'm - we are - going to work very hard on this. We're going to make it happen." His smile was a little shy, but very honest.
"Well, you two will have plenty of time to get to know each other as you work on the treatment. For now, let's show Daniel the lab." Dad stood up, towering over both her and Daniel. Everyone looked tall to Nell, but when she got a good look at Daniel and her father next to each other, she realized he was definitely on the short side. No wonder he'd spent his life working on a growth treatment.
She couldn't help but like him.
***
"Winston should have your stuff over here by tomorrow at the latest..."
"Are you sure he can do it alone? I have an awful lot of equipment..."
"Anything that's extremely specialized Winston will bring back, but we should have enough here for you to work with."
"You already have a full-featured lab set up?" Daniel tried to make his jaw shut but it kept threatening to flap open.
Bill led the three of them down a winding set of corridors. "Yes, it was Nell's Christmas present a few years ago. You remember that science kick you were on, Nell-bell?"
The blonde girl shrugged. "I never could use all that equipment, Daddy. I didn't really know what I was doing."
"Always best to keep your options open, though, I say. Anyway, Dr. Farmer, the lab should have everything you need."
Daniel was ready to say that he doubted the average kid's playset had a refrigerated extraction centrifuge, when Winthrop opened the door to a sparkling white scientist's paradise. "Is that a Schlick anti-mass spectrometer?" He blurted.
"Yeah, it's not the top-end model, but I figured it was close enough," Winthrop said casually, as if he'd purchased a less-than-spectacular microwave.
Daniel took a moment to survey the lab, and allow himself a few oohs and aahs. This caliber of lab equipment would easily cost four times the amount he'd earned over his entire life. "This is an incredible laboratory, Mr. Winthrop."
"It's all yours, Farmer. Well, yours and Nell's."
"When will I be working with him, Daddy? Will this be instead of lessons with Lenette?" Nell looked a little concerned.
"Hmm, maybe we'll substitue this in for science class. But other than that, lessons go on as planned," Winthrop said before turning to Daniel. "You'll work with Nell for an hour or two each day. Give her some background on what you're doing, have her read up on the subject, and eventually start preparing her for the process. The rest of the time, you work on whatever you need to do to complete this thing. Sound good?"
"Sounds fine to me," Daniel mumbled. What was he going to do, negotiate?
"Wonderful," Bill exclaimed, clapping his hands together. "I'll go tell Winston to prepare the room, then retrieve your equipment. There's a binder on the counter with the lab's floor plan and manuals for all the equipment in case you're unfamiliar with these models. For now, however, you and my daughter should get better acquainted. After all, you're an integral part of her birthday present." Chuckling softly to himself, Winthrop left the room.
An awkward silence quickly descended over the room.
"So..." Nell murmured, looking off to the side.
"Um." Daniel said by way of reply.
"You really have this growth thing worked out? How does it work?" She looked genuinely interested.
"Well, in theory, there's this organic compound, P-282, which I bind to a low-radioactivity isotope which degrades the stability of the compound..." Daniel saw Nell's eyes glazing over. She wasn't asking him to give her his standard scientist pitch, she just wanted a simple explanation.
Daniel stood up, fumbled in his messenger bag and seized a notebook and pen. He quickly sketched the outline of a rough molecule. "See, this is P-282. Because of the way it's shaped, it can easily enter the cell walls of each cell in the human body. Once inside, it encourages growth factors evenly across each cell - it even seems to activate the osteoblasts that help form and reshape your bones. The result is uniform growth and an increase in the strength and size of bones and musculature. So the body grows in even proportions and remains strong enough to support itself - maybe even stronger than that."
Nell's eyes had widened, but suddenly her brow furrowed. "So what's the point of the radioactive part?"
"Good catch," Daniel laughed. "The radioactive isotope allows me to trace the path of the compound through the body, and eventually degrades the enzyme. Otherwise, you might have unlimited growth. And who knows what would happen then? So the isotope breaks down the molecule and allows it to be flushed out of the system..."
Daniel noticed Nell's eyes had kind of glazed over again. He'd been surprised by how quickly she'd picked up on what he was talking about, however. Daniel had sort of assumed upon meeting Nell that she'd be a stereotypical billionaire heiress - snobby, spoiled, and too full of herself to listen at all to anyone else. He was coming to realize that anything that looked like arrogance from her might just be social awkwardness. Given how fully her Dad had kept her away from public scrutiny, it was entirely possible that she'd met only a few people over the course of her life, and most of them paid servants at that. She was just a bit sheltered.
"So," He said, clearing his throat to get her attention. "That's the basic idea of the serum, but there's still some kinks that have to be worked out. That's where I'm hoping you can help me."
"Oh, yeah. Sure." Nell smiled widely.
There was something different about her, Daniel thought to himself. Like she wasn't quite of this world. But in a good way.
***
Nell tried her best to listen to Daniel's lecture, but she found it hard to wrap her head around the strings of numbers and letters. She got the basic concept - thingy goes into cells, thingy causes uniform growth, radiation eventually stops thingy - but the rest of it sounded like some impenetrable code. She guessed she was like her father in that regard - better with the general idea than the specific science.
Every time Daniel started back into the hard science, she found herself leaning back, trying to get a good look at him. After the fleeting moment before they went down to the lab, Daniel hadn't been standing next to her father. But she kept thinking back to the moment when she'd seen the two of them standing next to each other. Daniel was short - she estimated him around 5'2" at best. That still had him seven inches taller than her, but he was still closer to her size than anyone else she'd met. Even Lenette was 5'4".
Nell tried to imagine herself at that height. Two inches taller than Daniel, barely anything. Still not even shoulder-height with Winston, much less her father. No, when the growth serum was worked out she'd want to be much bigger than that. Maybe her father's height. She imagined towering over Daniel the way her father did. He'd be so cute like that - almost boyish. If she held him close, he'd barely come up to her chest.
She snapped back to attention as Daniel cleared his throat. "That's the basic idea of the serum, but there's still some kinks that have to be worked out. That's where I'm hoping you can help me."
"Oh, yeah. Sure," Nell said, trying not to trip over her tongue. "What can I do?"
"Well, basically, with this kind of laboratory, we can chemically analyze each potential mixture of P-282 and a respective isotope, and then simulate the results. No organic subjects necessary, though we'll still want to inject it into a number of live tests before we move on to anything like human subjects. So, what you'll be doing is combining the different raw materials in this centrifuge..."
***
After showing Nell around the machines, then ogling each piece of expensive equipment for a while himself, Daniel collapsed into an office chair. Nell had picked up on how to work the injectors fairly quickly. She wasn't an airhead, although her lack of focus was a bit troubling. Ultimately, he was glad to have an assistant - preparing the injectors was basically busy work, and it would save him some time to have Nell do the preparations for him, while also giving her father the sense that she was really participating.
With a sigh, Daniel flipped open the tech manuals and began to read up on the new lab equipment. Most of it was more straightforward than what he was used to. Three button pushes instead of ten here, a little extra automation there, all the bells and whistles he'd penny-pinched his way out of in his old lab.
Two hours later, Winston arrived with a small cart full of the remnants from Daniel's old lab, and his clothing in heaps.
"I took the liberty of picking up your personal effects as well. Additionally, I'd like to note that Mr. Winthrop has private accounts at several premium clothiers -- I have a stack of catalogs you can browse..."
Daniel plucked self-consciously at the ratty T-shirt he was wearing. "Uh, yeah, I'll make sure to take a look over those. You found everything in the lab all right?"
"I transferred everything that seemed unique to those circumstances," Winston said slightly archly.
Daniel suddenly remembered what a mess he'd left his lab. He clearly hadn't made Winston's job easy. "Thanks very much, Winston, I really appreciate -"
"No need to thank me, Mr. Farmer," Winston said with a slight, stiff bow. "But if you feel you owe me any gratitude, I would ask you to keep in mind just one thing."
Daniel scratched his head. "And what would that be?"
"I've known Miss Penelope for all of her young life." Winston seemed to drift out of the intense focus he normally displayed, as if looking inward. "As far back as I can remember, she's sought a remedy for her stature. And I feel I can speak for all of us at the Estate when I say there is nothing we'd want more than for her to have her wish fulfilled."
"Well, I'm glad I can -"
"But," Winston interrupted, suddenly stern. "If something were to go wrong, if she found herself harmed by your experiments... I daresay everything good that has happened to you today would be reversed, and then far worse." Winston took a deep breath, and his glare softened once more. "All we ask is that you be very careful, Mr. Farmer. Our hopes and dreams depend on you."
Daniel didn't quite know what to say. He wasn't sure Winston even wanted a response. He looked down at the cart Winston had towed into the lab. "Did you manage to find Snuffles?"
"Who, sir?"
"The rat, Snuffles. A white lab rat. He was in a wire cage."
"I found no live specimens on site, Mr. Farmer. However, I did find a wire cage." The butler rummaged in the cart, and fished out an object. It looked less like a cage, and more like a piece of modern art. The wires were bent and twisted out of place, and a gaping hole was left in its side, as if a miniature explosion had blown clear through the cage wall.
Chapter Two
"Nell? Nell, pay attention!" Lenette rapped quicky on the table, her usually warm brown eyes gone stern. "Who did Jefferzon complete ze Louisiana Purchase weeth?"
"Umm..."
"Napoleon Bonaparte." Lenette pronounced the name with her usual flair. Of course, it was easy for her to use the right accent - she'd been born in France. In fact, she'd originally been Nell's French tutor. In the years since, she'd spread out to cover a few more subjects in which she had expertise. Ever since she'd begun lessons with Lenette, Nell had been fascinated by just how foreign the French woman had seemed - her odd accent softening certain words and bringing others to a harsh stop before what seemed like their natural conclusion. This strangeness combined with an almost effortless European glamour allowed Lenette to capture the eight-year-old Nell's attention with ease. In no time at all she'd become her overall tutor - Nell just seemed to learn more from her.
Well, she had until now. Instead of paying attention to the sing-song French-accented history lesson, Nell had been daydreaming about returning to the lab. Maybe today would be the day the simulator finally spit out the statistics she'd been waiting for. They'd been getting within inches of the targeted growth zone Daniel had set out for their first test subjects: Around 110% of the subject's original height. Of course, that would only get Nell up to five feet even if they injected her with that formula. But she figured baby steps were better than nothing - they still hadn't achieved full uniform growth, and Nell didn't want to think about what would happen if she didn't grow evenly. The idea of having the world's biggest nose on a normal-sized face did not appeal to her.
"Nell!" Lenette was looking almost hurt. "Two reasons why did Bonaparte complete ze purchase?"
"Um, didn't he hate the English?"
"Yes, he wished to spite zem. And?"
Nell couldn't help it. She stole a glance at her watch. 1 PM. Still two whole hours until she went back to work with Daniel.
Lenette sighed, and ran a hand through her curly brown hair. "You may study your textbook until ze end of ze period. But pleaze, for next time, you will have studied more, yes?"
***
Daniel scanned over the recent results from the simulator. So close. Usually just minor variations in the growth pattern, particularly at lower levels of exposure. Of course, with weaker isotopes and more sustained growth, those minor variations could turn into fatal flaws in bone and organ structure. It had to be one hundred percent uniform, or nothing.
He'd been getting close with his last test batch at the lab; that's why he'd tested it on Snuffles. The isotope he'd used had probably been too weak as well. But the result hadn't been uniform - poor Snuffles, though undoubtedly much larger than he'd been when first dosed, was also probably dead. Daniel knew he should never have injected him in the first place, but he'd been feeling frustrated with the project, and had hoped that a little hard evidence of its potential would convince investors. Not that he was going to tell Winthrop Sr. about this screw-up; it would only needlessly worry him. He was going to make damn sure everything was perfect before doing anything to Winthrop's little girl, and he didn't need Winston to scare him straight on that.
Speaking of the girl, Nell had actually taken to the science like a duck to water. Even though Daniel swore she was nodding off whenever he got into detailed discussions of specific hormonal volumes, the next day she'd come back with a dozen new ideas for proportional mixtures of compounds. And not all of them were bad.
Daniel had to admit, he was coming to admire the girl's dedication. Finishing the project meant as much to her as it did to him. He'd grown very used to being the only one interested in his studies, and had to admit that he liked having someone who was sometimes more enthusiastic than he was around. And though Daniel did his best to ignore this in the interest of keeping his job, she had a pretty face as well.
There was a loud knock, and Daniel started, looking up to see both that face and another gorgeous one behind the glass laboratory door. Daniel felt no shame whatsoever in crushing on Nell's tutor, Lenette. The French woman had a sort of natural glow about her. Olive skin, a pleasantly round face, big lovely brown eyes, definite curves on her otherwise slight figure. What's more, she stood two inches taller than him in flats, and had a tendency towards wearing two-inch pumps on top of that. Daniel had always had crushes on taller girls - and who could blame him, seeing as that made up around three-quarters of the women in his life.
Daniel hurried over to the door and pushed the button to unseal its lock. The door whizzed open with an appropriately space-age sound, and the two ladies stepped into the laboratory.
"She iz all yours," Lenette said somewhat coldly. Daniel was about to ask her if she'd like to stay for a moment, or maybe meet up later for quick coffee or something, but before he could get a word in she'd turned on her slightly elevated heels and left.
"Ahem," Nell cleared her throat behind him. Daniel quickly resubmerged his libido. Nell was of age, but it would not be appropriate at all to think about his boss's daughter, even if she was wearing a fairly revealing low-cut top...
"Yeah, so!" Daniel said quickly. "We've got some more minor variations on the formula to check over today. I think we're getting close to our first round of testing!" After two months in this spiffy laboratory, it was about time.
'Really?" Nell bounced slightly on her heels at the news. Daniel kept his eyes locked on her face, which broke into a huge smile. "I'll make sure to get as many sims done as possible today."
"Don't rush too much," Daniel cautioned. "If you mess up the formula, it doesn't matter how good the simulation looks - it'll be too dangerous to test."
Just then, Daniel's pocket began buzzing loudly. He fumbled for his cell phone, and was only mildly surprised to see Bill Winthrop's name lighting up the caller ID. The house was large enough that phone use would be more convenient than coming down to the lab. Daniel flipped open the phone.
"Can you meet me in my office, Daniel?" Winthrop had a note of concern in his voice.
"Uh, right now? I'm kind of in the middle of a lab session with Nell -"
"Nell can take care of herself for a little while, Daniel. I'd like to see you here in a few minutes."
"I understand, sir." Daniel shut the phone. Winthrop didn't usually call him on a private line, and never while he was in the lab with Nell. This had to be important. Daniel suddenly found himself feeling nervous.
"I think I can run the next few batches by myself," Nell said, cocking her head slightly, so her blond hair fell in a straight curtain. Daniel once again struggled to keep his eyes to himself. Her shirt was an eye-catching bright yellow. Yes, blame it on the shirt, Daniel, he thought bitterly. For all the good that will do you.
"Okay. I'll be right back," he said, then strode quickly out of the lab.
***
Nell grabbed the plastic binder with the list of combinations for the day's test batches. There was something special about today, she could feel it in her bones. Today would be the day they'd hit upon the formula. And she was going to burn through the tests quickly and efficiently until she found it.
But first, she allowed herself a brief moment of giddiness. Soon they'd be testing it on animals, and as soon as Daniel cleared it for human use - she'd be the very first person to try the formula! Lenette wouldn't be half as imposing when she stood below shoulder height. Just let her try and scold Nell about not doing her homework. When she gave her father a hug, it'd be a proper bear hug - he wouldn't hold back like he did now, as if she was too fragile to be embraced. And Daniel would be awestruck. He'd stare up at her in wonder, as she transformed from tiny teenager to statuesque beauty. He'd look at her the same way he looked at Lenette now, only moreso, given how impressive she'd be. She could just picture it in her mind's eye; the look on his face was adorable.
And if the formula worked, maybe she could use it again. Like a distant memory, she found herself recalling the dream again. Standing outside the mansion, her bare toes sinking into the grass of the lawn (each blade so tiny it felt more like moss than grass), gazing down at the little figures rushing out of the house. Winston looking like a doll with his stiffly pressed uniform. Her father's minute features filled with concern as she smiled down on him. Lenette peeking out of the 2nd floor study's window, then hiding behind the sill, as if worried that Nell would reach in and pluck her out. And just now she realized that Daniel was there too, arms folded over his t-shirt. She could just make out that he was biting his lip.
They all looked so worried, but she just laughed, and heard the echo of her laughter come back at her. What was there to be worried about? Nothing could ever harm her now. The mansion was a dollhouse to her, the whole world laid out like a child's playset. She was the bigger one now, and she could take care of them, the same way they used to pamper and coddle and protect her. Now she had the power, and it felt marvelous.
Nell realized suddenly that she had slipped into another daydream. She'd been spacey enough with Lenette earlier today, and she definitely didn't want Daniel to think she wasn't doing her job. She set about preparing the injectors.
***
Daniel stared at the picture on the tabloid page. A man holding the corpse of a white rat the size of a raccoon. There was no mistaking it; the rat was Snuffles.
"Give me a little credit, Daniel," Winthrop admonished him. "Winston comes to me with a mangled rat cage, I see this story racing around the papers... I may not be a scientist, but I can add two and two."
Daniel knew better than to try and worm his way out of this. He'd always been a terrible liar. "Sir, I suspected that Snuffles might have gotten loose, but I didn't want to worry you... I didn't think he'd survived the trial dose."
"Well, on the upside, we know it works," Bill muttered, leaning back in his chair. "On the downside, so does anyone who picks up a Weekly Inquisitor. Not to mention anyone living near Farragut North. Your little lab rat managed to terrify every other vermin nested in the Metro."
"I honestly had no idea that version of the formula was so effective." Daniel murmured. "And it should have worn off by then. Perhaps I wasn't using a large enough isotope..."
***
Nell filled the injectors with their special compounds, making sure to measure out exactly the proper amounts. She then pressed the large red button, and watched them swirl in the centrifuge. Their different colors merged in the whirling vortex, gradually settling on a purplish-blue that an artistic type would probably call a variety of indigo. The solution filtered out of the centrifuge chamber and into the analyzer, which hummed as it shot beams of light through the mixture at different wavelenghts. Nell slipped on her shaded goggles and sat back.
Ten minutes later, the results displayed on the screen. A chart displayed with several different colored lines that were supposed to represent areas of a subject's body over time, each rising to represent the growth that area would experience. Each line rose and synched up with the previous one's path.
The simulator said growth would happen across all areas in unison. Uniform growth. This was it. This was a working growth serum.
***
"Now, I'm no scientist, Daniel, but wasn't the whole point of the isotope to degrade the P-282 complex and end the growth process?"
"That's precisely it, Mr. Winthrop. So if the current isotope isn't powerful enough, I'd have to take another step up."
Winthrop's brow furrowed. "Wouldn't that make the entire solution more radioactive?"
Daniel coughed. "Well, yes. But the entire solution should flush out in a matter of days, and the radioactivity is less than that of an X-ray. Chances of permanent harm are minimal."
"This has really been what's holding you back all along, hasn't it?" Bill leaned forward again, clearly appraising Daniel in a new light. "You can make the growth work, you just don't know how to stop it."
"Not without losing uniformity," Daniel admitted. "The isotope has a tendency to work unevenly. As a result, growth continues to occur in some locations longer than others. Everything goes great until it starts wearing off. I was hoping a weaker isotope in greater concentrations might solve that problem." He still remembered his first trial with an overly strong isotope - the rat had turned into a horrible, misshapen monster. That hadn't happened since, but neither had growth.
"Hmph," Winthrop grunted. "And I suppose there's no way to make it work without the isotope."
***
Nell wasn't stupid. She knew she'd have to double-check what she'd put in the injectors, make completely sure she'd gotten the proportions of ingredients right. After all, if this worked on a test subject they'd need to replicate it for her.
She ran the analyzer to get the levels of the individual components. A blinking error screen came up: COMPONENT RADON-222 ISOTOPE NOT FOUND.
Nell could have kicked herself. Everything had seemed perfect, but it was only because she'd screwed up! She'd just completely forgotten to insert the isotope into the centrifuge. Now she'd have to wait even longer before finally growing.
She hovered over the "PURGE CHAMBER" button, but then thought for another moment. The simulator said the formula worked perfectly, even though the isotope wasn't present. Daniel had been trying to get a working growth serum together for years now. And she'd been waiting for one almost all her life. Wouldn't it be a shame to just waste all of that, because one ingredient was missing?
She knew Daniel wouldn't let her take chances with the formula. He'd worry that it was unsafe, and purge it right away. So there was no time to test this on a subject, or try another formula.
Nell knew what she had to do.
***
"Well, not if you ever want controlled growth," Daniel said meekly. "I suppose P-282 is an organic molecule, so it would filter out of the system eventually. But without any radioactivity, the molecule probably wouldn't degrade."
Winthrop nodded. "Makes sense. I'm glad you've thought this through carefully, Farmer. While I wish you'd have told me that this was the part of the puzzle you were missing, I'm glad we can focus in on it now. I'll try and get a hold of a wide variety of isotopes you can test, as well as some proper anti-radiation equipment. Unfortunately, we'll probably have Nell working on it a little less. I can't put her at risk for cancer, even if she wants to keep working on it."
"Oh, I'm sure she'll be okay with taking a hands-off approach. I'm probably boring her to tears with all this centrifuge stuff anyway."
Daniel thought he could see a faint glint in Winthrop's eye. "You'd be surprised how much she likes working with you."
***
Nell had just finished packing up the syringe when Daniel came back into the lab. She quickly turned to face him, making sure she was blocking the injection kit, which was still hanging slightly open.
"Get much done while I was gone?" Daniel asked. Nell thought there was something off about his manner. He looked uncomfortable.
"Oh, you know, just completed the first trial," Nell said quickly. No need for him to find out what she'd done just yet. If there were any actual results, then he'd be so happy he'd completely forget that she'd tested it without his permission.
"No results, again, huh?" Daniel didn't seem at all surprised. Nell just stayed quiet. "Well, it makes sense. I think that's about as far as we're going to get with a radon isotope. Luckily, your father said he's going to try and find some alternatives for us."
"That's nice," Nell said cautiously. "I mean, more isotopes are good."
"Yeah," Daniel ran a hand through his hair. "Your father's really on the dot when it comes to figuring this sort of thing out. For someone who says he's better with concepts than specifics..." Daniel looked up at the clock, then back at Nell with a shy smile. "Guess I wound up wasting most of our time today. Well, you're free to go. We'll get back to work on this tomorrow."
Daniel took a seat behind his desk. Nell turned and closed up the dosing kit, then picked up her schoolwork. She was glad Daniel hadn't found her out; whatever Daddy had called him in for, he'd obviously been shaken by it. She'd have to tell her Daddy to be nicer with him; she knew he could be strict with his workers when they did something wrong. And she didn't like seeing Daniel upset. He'd been nothing but nice to her since the day they'd met.
***
Daniel took the two hours after Nell left to mentally kick himself a few times. Why hadn't he just come clean and told Winthrop everything about his experiments so far? If he was only concerned with the isotope, he should have just said so!
He guessed that somewhere in his mind, he'd thought that the news that the treatment worked would be the only thing Winthrop would care about, that he wouldn't bother to ensure its safety. Stupid. Of course he cared about its safety, he planned to test it on his own daughter! But Daniel knew finding the right isotope and its proper ratio to the serum would take time. He'd worried that Winthrop would rush him to completion before he got everything right.
Instead, Winthrop had reacted perfectly, allotting him more time to work on the serum and providing him with alternative materials. But he also would think of Daniel as a liar, someone who couldn't be trusted. That was the last thing Daniel wanted for a business relationship with an all-powerful benefactor. And what had Bill said about Nell? Was there some kind of hint there? The entire meeting had left Daniel completely confused.
His phone started buzzing. Daniel fumbled it out of his pocket and saw that Bill was the caller again. He flipped the phone open. "Hello?"
"Daniel, you need to get down here, right now." Winthrop sounded furious.
"The office again?"
"No, the living room. This instant. Run."
Daniel barely had time to run through the various possibilities of what had happened as he bolted down the corridor. Nell had somehow been exposed to the isotope. Another one of his former test subjects had been discovered. He'd abruptly decided to fire Daniel and cancel his project.
When he got to the living room, Bill was kneeling beside the couch, where Nell lay, shaking slightly. Winthrop hovered over her, dabbing at her forehead with a soaked hand towel. Bill looked up at him. "What the hell happened, Farmer?"
"I don't know -"
"She said she felt faint, and dropped out of nowhere. Fever of a hundred and two degrees." Winthrop snarled.
"Perhaps it's some kind of virus..." Daniel had no idea how this could have anything to do with their work. "She only had safe jobs around the lab, running the injectors... Everything was shielded, there was no chance of it contaminating her..."
"This does bear similar symptoms to a head cold, sir," Winston said. "Perhaps you are overreacting..."
Nell let out a soft moan, and shivered.
"In your records, you wrote that subjects had an extremely short period of flu-like symptoms before the serum was assimilated," Winthrop said softly. "You're sure there's no way that Nell was exposed?"
"I don't know how she could have been." Daniel said shakily. Winthrop nodded at him gravely, then turned back to his daughter.
Nell's eyes suddenly fluttered open. "Dad? Winston? What's going on?"
"You fainted, honey." Bill put a protective hand on Nell's shoulder. Nell tried to stand up, and Bill eased her back onto the bed. "You should rest for a minute. You have a serious fever."
Winston produced an ear thermometer, and checked Nell's temperature once more. "That's quite odd. 98.5 degrees - perfectly normal."
"See, Daddy? I'm fine." Nell cleared his hand away, stood up and stretched. "I actually feel really rested!"
Nell froze mid-stretch. It took Daniel a moment to see it. Nell's outstretched hands were slowly reaching higher and higher. When he glanced at the tips of her fingers, they seemed to be moving like stop-motion animation - rising up a fraction of an inch at a time.
Her outfit seemed to tighten around her - the fabric of her top crinkling and conforming to her shape where once it had been loose and flowing. Her jeans receded around her ankles, as if they suddenly decided to become capris. Nell bit her lip as her top stretched and strained against her expanding form - clearly it was getting painfully tight. With a crescendoing ripping sound, one of the straps tore. Nell quickly pulled it back over her shoulder only to have the seams of the other side split open as she turned.
Everyone stood frozen. Nell blushed a vivid pink, and looked over at Daniel. Before Daniel turned his head to spare her the embarrassment, he realized she was looking him straight in the eye.
Chapter Three
Nell pulled the blankets over herself, then peered over the edge of them to watch Winston rummaging through her closet. She already felt her feet reaching farther than they had before - nowhere near the end of the bed yet, but still past the familiar indents where the foam had shaped itself around her sleeping form. She hadn't had a chance to get a feel for her new size yet - as soon as she'd grown, Winston had tugged her out of the living room and through the corridors back to her bedroom, keeping his eyes politely averted the whole time. Nell understood why he'd done it and was fairly grateful, but was also impatient to compare herself to Daniel - who was really the only person who would change very much at her current size, which she guessed was a few inches over five feet.
The clothes she'd been wearing were in tatters on the floor. She and Winston both had the distinct feeling that most of her clothes wouldn't fit now that she was seven inches taller, and equally bigger all around.
"I'm sorry this is taking me so long, madam," Winston called from somewhere kneedeep in the wardrobe. "Unfortunately, most of your clothes appear to be quite form-fitting."
Nell sighed. Winston didn't know the first thing about fashion. Of course he wouldn't, he'd been wearing the same suit since she'd known him. "There might be some pyjamas or something I could wear..."
"Hmmm," Winston emerged from the closet with a plush nightrobe. "This seems like it would cover you while remaining loose enough to fit. If it suits you, m'am." He handed Nell the garment then turned away so she could change.
Nell slipped the robe over her shoulders. The fabric felt nice against her bare skin. The sleeves, which used to hang baggily over her hands, were now a little bit tight, and an inch or two too short. But the robe tied up around her waist, and it covered her up. Definitely better than nothing. "All done, Winston."
"Yes, madam," Winston turned with a slight bow. "Your father will want to see you."
Nell frowned. She hadn't really thought about what Dad would say when he found out. Honestly, she hadn't been sure the treatment would work. There was a world of difference between seeing the results on the simulator screen and feeling them in her body. So far, the only really bad part had been the fever. And she already liked being taller. Hopefully he would see that there was no harm done.
***
"How could this have happened?" Winthrop asked semi-rhetorically.
"The elements of the serum were completely contained while Nell was working with them," Daniel asserted. "And I never saw her tampering with them while I was in the lab."
"But I called you away..." Bill clapped a hand to his forehead. "She was alone in the lab. And Nell can sometimes be very willful."
"She was definitely waiting for a working serum..." Daniel responded. "I warned her that any untested combination could be dangerous."
"She's a teenager," Winthrop muttered. "And she's my daughter. Small wonder she was impatient."
The double doors to the office opened. "May Nell come in, sir?" Winston asked.
"Yes, you can both come in here." Winthrop said hurriedly. "Come on, come on." He waved them in.
Daniel looked to the doors. Where Nell had previously come up to Winston's top buttons on his overcoat, she now reached his shoulder. She wore a purple fleece robe that looked a little too small for her currently enlarged form - not only were the sleeves too short, but her curves were very obvious under the fabric. Her expression was solemn, even penitent, but she couldn't quite hide the gleam in her eyes. She was overjoyed. For now at least. Daniel knew she wouldn't have used the formula if the simulator hadn't shown uniform growth. He could only hope that was right; if this trial worked perfectly, than there was no harm, no foul, and both Nell and Bill had exactly what they wanted of him. But if anything went wrong...
"You wanted to see me, Daddy?" Nell asked. She walked across the room to stand next to Daniel - very close to him, in fact. The plush fleece on her sleeve brushed against his arm. He couldn't help but glance sideways at her. He hadn't known her for very long, but still expected to see the top of her head when he stood near to her. Now he found himself looking right into the side of her elegant neck; he had to straighten up from his usual slouch to be level with her face. The whole situation felt vaguely unreal.
"Nell, I need to know," Bill said seriously, "How were you exposed to the treatment?"
"Well..." Nell started, before launching into a rush of words. In the middle of her torrent of explanation, Daniel caught the words "simulator","uniform", "test", and "injected myself".
"You did this to yourself? Intentionally?" Bill's eyebrows were raised about as high as they could go. "Didn't you know how dangerous -"
"Daddy," Nell said earnestly. "The simulator results looked perfect. And I didn't want Daniel to have to worry about things that were missing or the right proportions. I just wanted to grow."
Daniel cleared his throat. Now for the moment of truth. "Nell... Was there anything missing from the formula?"
Nell looked at her feet, as if afraid to meet his eyes. "Um. I kind of forgot to put in the isotope." Both Bill and Daniel's jaws must have dropped at once, because Nell quickly added, "Everything else about it was just perfect though, and I didn't want you to have to throw away all that hard work just because one little thing was missing."
Bill looked over at Daniel. "So? What does this mean? Is she just going to keep growing?"
Daniel gulped. "It'll flush out eventually. But while the compound is in her system..."
"Well then," Bill gripped a handful of his graying hair. "Winston, I want you to take Nell back to her room for now. Find some clothing catalogs she can look through. We'll all just stay calm about this until we know more." Bill seemed to say this to maintain his own cool as much as anyone else's.
"Sir," Winston began, but Bill waved him off.
"Not now, Winston. You and Nell need to work out clothing, call me on the office line when you have an idea. Maybe you can look through some of her mother's things. Daniel, you stay here and talk to me."
***
Nell lay back on the bed again and sighed. She hated it when people talked about her as if she wasn't there. Her father had been doing it since she was little, but she'd never been able to tell him to stop. She was his little girl, after all - he'd always done everything for her, gone to any lengths to make her happy and she thought it was almost ungrateful to annoy him with a stupid detail like that.
But now, when something really important had happened, something that had everything to do with her well-being and safety, he'd sent her away to her room while the adults talked about it. Like she hadn't seen the looks of concern on their faces. What were they so worried about? The simulator had shown uniform growth. She wasn't in any danger of dying or anything. Was she? What if the results had been wrong? And did the isotope matter as much as they thought?
Nell stood back up, and walked over to the doll house. Just yesterday the model mansion had stood as high as her waist; now the roof barely grazed the tops of her thighs. She undid the hinges, her newly larger fingers slipping a little as she lifted the clasps. The front of the house swung away, revealing the inner workings of the house. There was the study on the second floor, her room on the third... Lenette's bedroom down the hallway. She'd made little miniature figures of everyone who came to the house when she was in second grade. Lenette's figure sat in the schoolroom on the first floor. Her father was behind the desk in his office. Winston waited patiently outside her room. Some immature part of her wished she had a miniature of Daniel, to complete her collection.
Nell reached into the model, plucked Winston up and placed him in the closet on the fourth floor. Her mother's old chambers, where her father didn't go anymore. His ordering Winston to search about there was highly unusual. Especially since her mother had been a rather tall woman, standing around 5' 9".
Did that mean that Dad thought she was going to grow more? Nell, distracted by the thought, slipped as she held Winston's model. He tumbled over, landing at an awkward angle on his side. She was lucky she hadn't broken the figurine. Even a few inches of growth had made her so much more clumsy with small things. If she grew much taller, she wouldn't be able to play with the miniatures anymore - her fingers would be too big to hold them with the care they required.
Nell bit her lip. In her dreams the mansion had been the size of a dollhouse to her, but in real life she wouldn't be able to just pry off the front of the house. She carefully swung the front of the model shut, and closed the hinges. Peering through the picture windows, she could still see most of the first floor. The windows of the bedrooms on the third floor were smaller, so she could only get glimpses of the inside. She thought of what the scene must look like to the miniatures inside. A huge blue-green eye filling most of the window.
She pulled back, and gently patted the roof. "Don't worry little guys, I'm just curious," She giggled.
***
"You're saying it's completely unpredictable?" Bill Winthrop groaned.
Daniel nodded. "One of the side effects of the isotope was controlling the rate of osmosis for the growth-inducing part of the serum. With that missing, there's no telling when she'll grow."
"But you said it'll keep happening in spurts. How big will those spurts be?"
"Well, this first one was seven inches. I have no idea how large future spurts will be. I've honestly never tested the formula without the isotope. Of course I knew in theory that it would work, but what would be the point of virtually unchecked growth -" Daniel caught himself mid-sentence. He didn't want to tell Bill Winthrop that his daughter's growth was completely out of control. Even he had a little more tact than that.
Bill let the comment slide, and began massaging his temples with his index fingers. "What can we do to stop her growth?"
Daniel shrugged. As soon as he saw Winthrop's reaction, he realized that might not have been the best response. He racked his brain. The isotope had both degraded the molecule and controlled its rate of osmosis, but to do so it had been bound to the molecule; now that it was in Nell's system he wouldn't be able to bind anything to the original formula. But perhaps the receptor sites...
"If I can find a molecule that's antagonistic to the growth molecule, that blocks the places where it interfaces with the cells, then that would stop Nell's growth." Daniel concluded.
"I hear a 'but' coming," Bill said unhappily. "What's the bad news?"
"The antidote would need to work consistently throughout Nell's system, for the same reasons the growth serum requires uniform growth." Daniel ran a hand through his hair. He hadn't done any research on this whatsoever. And Nell's first growth spurt had occurred within hours of her injecting the formula. He didn't have much time.
"Well then, what are you waiting for?" Bill snapped. "If this antidote is going to be so hard to find, then you better get cracking."
Daniel couldn't have agreed more.
***
As soon as Nell stood up from the dollhouse, she felt it again. A wave of warmth passed over her, and she could feel the blood pumping through her veins, like her heartbeat was suddenly everywhere, throughout her body.
She quickly fell back on the bed. Dad said she fainted the last time this happened, and she'd rather do that on the soft bed than the hard wooden floor. Taking a handful of sheets in each hand, she closed her eyes and tried to stay focused. In her daydreams, Nell had always been fully grown, transformed as if by magic. Now that she was actually growing, though, she thought it might be interesting to stay awake and see what it felt like. Her head was spinning, but she forced herself to keep her eyes open.
She could see the room around her, but it felt like she was looking at her surroundings from far away - like everything was distant. She could feel the satin sheets slide against her as her body expanded. Looking towards the foot of the bed, she could see the bulge in the covers where her feet lay slowly expanding, almost like rising bread. She turned to look sideways, and the view past her outstretched arm just looked like her room was slowly compressing, like a really slow zoom in a movie. Nell swore the side table got smaller as she stared at it. That was really what it felt like; the whole world getting smaller around her.
Nell couldn't help but gasp aloud. "This is so... cool," She exhaled.
Only after she stopped growing did Nell realize Winston was standing in the doorway, one of her mother's dresses in hand. She quickly pulled the sheets up around herself.
***
Daniel had just walked into the lab when his cell phone rang for the third time that day. He fumbled it open. "Hello?"
"Nell's room, right now. She's grown again," Winthrop said tersely.
Daniel closed the phone, and pulled out a tape measure from his desk. The first time he'd been unprepared, but now it was time to start taking measurements. Assuming Nell had taken a standard dose of the formula, he might be able to use this data to eventually figure out how much was diffusing into her cells. Also, he was just kind of curious as to her exact height.
As he walked down the corridor, Daniel wondered what he'd see when he reached Nell's room. Had the growth turned exponential? He could find himself face to face with one of the tallest women alive if that was the case. Alternatively, the initial spurt could have absorbed much more than he thought - perhaps she'd only grown a few inches this time. Given Bill's tone when he'd called, Daniel rather doubted that was the case.
He gave the large, ornate wooden door a firm knock. Winston opened the door just a crack. "Miss Nell is changing into her new wardrobe. Please excuse us for a moment while she does so." He closed the door firmly in Daniel's face.
Daniel turned and breathed a small sigh of relief. If they still had clothes for Nell, she couldn't be too much taller.
Moments later, Winston opened the door. Nell was standing next to her father, draped in a pretty sundress with a floral pattern that seemed to fit her naturally. Daniel gulped. She was now up to Bill's shoulders. She turned, giggling, as Winston fixed a button on the back of her dress. She was easily an inch or two taller than the butler.
"Does it mean anything that she grew again so soon?" Bill asked, looking genuinely concerned.
Daniel, trying to avoid shrugging, answered, "There's no way of knowing with just two data points. But if it's all the same to you, I'd like to measure Nell and see just how much she's grown, just to keep track of everything."
Bill waved his hand. "Go ahead." He turned to look at his daughter, and Daniel noticed he had to lift his head - he was so used to looking downwards. "You're sure you're feeling okay, Nell-bell."
"I'm fine, Daddy," Nell insisted. "I even stayed awake this time. I feel great." Bill didn't look quite convinced, but he didn't reply.
Daniel pulled out his tape measure, and knelt next to Nell's feet. She wore sparkly pink nail polish on her toes, but she obviously hadn't reapplied it since before her first growth - there was a ring of bare toenail around each painted portion. Her toes were elegantly narrow near the instep, but bubbled out nicely at the ends. Daniel tugged out the first length of tape measure. "Could you step on the metal piece?" He called up to Nell.
"Sure," She said, gazing down at him with a wide smile. She held the edge of the metal down with the side of her pale sole.
Daniel proceeded to pull the tape measure with him as he stood up. "Stand up straight now," he told Nell, as he reached up to bring the tape measure even with the top of her head. "Five feet, nine and one quarter inches," He read aloud. Daniel realized he was craning his head to look up at the top of the tape. He looked over at Nell, to see she was still looking down at him, her eyes wide, but a grin on her face. Just two days ago he'd been taller than her, but now his eyes were level with her shoulder. She stood seven inches taller than him.
Daniel took a step back. "When did you start growing again, Nell?"
"My bedside clock said 4:25," Nell said.
"That's around two hours after the first growth. Roughly two-hour intervals so far... interesting..." Daniel said to himself. Bill looked like he wanted to interject, but was holding himself back. Daniel paced around the room. Perhaps the rate of diffusion was uniform anyway - but wasn't it too early to tell?... Maybe the molecule's form was creating a constant...
"Sir -" Winston began.
"What do you mean 'interesting?'" Bill finally burst out.
"Um, I've got ideas," Daniel admitted. "Nothing solid yet, but we'll see if what I'm thinking bears through in the next few hours."
"Work through what you need to," Bill sighed. "Just, come up with something quickly. This much, this fast... it's worrying."
"You shouldn't worry, Daddy," Nell said, taking her father's hand. "So far everything's been fine. I'm growing evenly, and there's nothing wrong with me so far."
Winthrop's tone softened as he looked at his daughter. "I know it's fine so far, Nell-bell. I'm just worried about what could happen..."
"I might still get bigger," Nell offered. She didn't seem too displeased at the thought. "That could happen, I guess."
"Sir, I really must tell you something." Winston had been looking increasingly anxious throughout the evening.
"Well, fine then, Winston, go ahead." Bill said impatiently.
"We're due to have visitors this evening, sir," Winston said evenly. "Mister Joseph Frankenson and his daughter, Linda."
Bill clapped a palm to his forehead. "Nuts. Joe was scheduled to come tonight, wasn't he? I should just cancel, but they're probably taking the chopper from Arlington already..."
"I wouldn't mind seeing Linda, Daddy," Nell said cheerfully.
"Hmph," Bill grunted. "The last thing we need is to have you growing in front of them..."
"Please, Daddy," Nell's voice rose in pitch as she begged. "I haven't seen Linda in forever."
Bill looked uncharacteristically indecisive. "I do think it's good that you two see each other," He acknowledged. "You don't always get enough time with kids your own age..." He snapped his fingers. "If you feel the symptoms coming on, you tell Winston. He'll help you back to your room. We tell the Frankensons you've been having an on-and-off fever. That should do just fine."
"I can do that!" Nell exclaimed. "No problem."
"As for you, Daniel," Winthrop said more gravely. "You get cracking on those antidote ideas. We'll call you if we need you."
***
Six years. That was how long it had been since the last time Nell had stood taller than Linda Frankenson. While Linda had always been short growing up, puberty took her to the perfectly ordinary size of 5'6". And she'd been lording it over Nell every time she'd seen her since.
Every few months their fathers would get together, have a beer or two and maybe watch some football on the projection TV. Nell and Linda would play around the house, and Linda would tell her all about private school. They got along well enough, but every time they saw each other Linda would get in at least one dig about Nell's short stature. Sometimes they were subtle, like when she'd talked about her Dad's new car, and said that if Nell wanted a ride she'd probably have to sit in the back with a carseat. Sometimes they were outright insulting, like saying Nell would have trouble finding a date if she attended the high school prom, and would have better luck at a middle school dance. Not that Nell was going to dances anyway; she was perfectly fine with Lenette teaching her instead of going to private school. The other girls Linda talked about sounded perfectly dreadful.
The important thing, Nell thought to herself, was that now the tables had turned. Linda couldn't make any more jokes about Nell being short, that much was certain. She'd probably be able to see clear over the other girl's head.
The doorbell rang, and Nell raced forward to answer it. Sure enough, Linda Frankenson was standing with her father on the doorstep. Linda was wearing black high heels, but she still stood slightly shorter than Nell. Her eyes seemed to bulge out of her head at the sight of Nell, who suppressed a giggle. Linda used to seem so imposing, but now that her curly blond head was level with her instead of looming above her, Nell thought she was little more than average.
Winston rushed to the door. "Mister Frankenson, madam," He said, bowing to each of the guests in turn. "You are welcome to come in."
Joe Frankenson pushed back his salt-and-pepper hair. He stood a little shorter than her father, but still certainly taller than Nell. Even so, he seemed shocked to see her. "Goodness, Nell, you've sure grown up since I saw you last."
"Yeah, I had a definite growth spurt," Nell said, incapable of stopping herself from smiling.
"Yep, Nell's finally caught up," Dad said, stepping around her to shake Mr. Frankenson's hand. "How've you been, you old pirate?"
"Well, you know, mergers and acquisitions and the like," Frankenson said with a knowing look.
Linda was peering at Nell's dress. "Wow, this dress must be old," she scoffed. "Did you get it in the 19th Century?"
Bill frowned. "It's her mother's dress."
"I've kind of been out of clothes since growing," Nell said softly.
"Well, you should get some new ones then! We could probably go to the mall and back before dinner. Isn't there a mall around here, Winston?"
Nell's heart leaped in her chest. She'd only ever heard about malls. Her dad didn't like the number of people there, he was always worried she could get lost in the throngs of people. Of course, she'd been more difficult to find when she was four and a half feet tall. Now that she was 5'9", she'd be easier to spot in a crowd. "Could we go to the mall, Winston?"
"Yes, m'am," Winston acknowledged. "But without Mr. Winthrop's approval..."
"Please, Daddy?" Nell knew she was pushing her luck with her father, who'd already bent just to allow the Frankensons over, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity. And she needed new clothes anyway.
Dad looked more uncomfortable than she'd seen him in a long time. "You have to be back before dinner," He said, after a long pause. "And you need to have someone chaperone you."
Winston gave a slight bow. "I am fine with escorting the young ladies," Winston said.
Bill furrowed his brow. "I'd like more than one person. But this is Lenette's night off... Perhaps Mr. Farmer could go with you." He flipped out his cell phone and looked prepared to dial. "On second thought, I'll just text him," Winthrop grumbled.
***
As soon as he heard the cell phone buzz, Daniel closed up his binders and stepped out of the lab. Sure enough, it was Winthrop, texting him to meet him in his office. At least he didn't have to run this time.
"My daughter wants to go to the mall," Winthrop said, looking none too pleased about this development. "I need someone there with medical expertise, in case she grows again. You know about her condition. You're going to be the girls' chaperone."
Daniel had never been terribly good with girls in high school. Now he was being asked to supervise two teenage girls, both of whom were taller than him? "With all due respect, Mr. Winthrop, are you sure I shouldn't be spending more time in the lab?"
"I told you, Daniel. I want an expert with my daughter. No ifs or buts. The limo is already waiting outside. Tell the driver to make sure everyone is back by 8 PM."
Daniel stood, shoulders slightly slumped, and left the office. Eighteen-year-old girls at the mall. Science was a piece of cake compared to this.
"Ohmigod, you have to get a pair of those jeans," Linda yelled. "They'll make your legs look twice as long."
Daniel knew that in the near future Nell wouldn't have any trouble making her legs look longer. He'd never seen the growth serum cycle less than five times, and that was with the isotope. Nell was bound to have several more spurts than that. He was just wondering when the next growth period would occur. They'd been happening roughly every two hours so far. Nell's last growth had been at 16:25 (Daniel always used a 24-hour clock, for precision), and now it was 18:10. Her next growth was due at any minute.
Seven inches was enough to be noticeable, particularly by that obnoxious friend of hers, who seemed to have a talent for pointing out the embarrassing or obvious. He'd seen Nell and Linda whispering more than once during the night, and sneaking glances at him. No doubt making fun of him for his height. He'd been used to this sort of treatment in grade school, but had thankfully been spared the aspersions for most of his adult life. Now, trying to keep these two girls from running amok in the mall, he felt as sensitive as ever to the stares. They probably thought he was the girls' younger brother.
Your insecurities can wait, Daniel told himself. There's a growing girl who's about to get much taller if you're not careful, and you need to prevent the entire mall from noticing.
"Perhaps we should be getting back to the estate," Daniel said. "I think you two have bought enough clothes." Daniel was holding four shopping bags currently filled to the brim with clothes.
"Oh, c'mon, Daniel," Linda said, hands on her hips. "Nell needs a full-on fashion redesign, from the ground up. We haven't even gone shoe shopping yet!"
Daniel groaned. Nothing he said seemed to have an impact. How on earth was he going to get them to leave before Nell grew again? He turned to Winston. "Um, shouldn't we be..."
"I've already suggested leaving to Miss Nell," Winston sighed. "She did not take to the idea."
"But she might... you know... grow again," Daniel whispered. "Soon."
Winston nodded grimly. "I'll try once more. Miss Nell!" He called ahead to the girls. "Your father would like us to return for dinner now."
"Oh, but we haven't even gotten to jeans yet!" Linda pouted. "And don't even talk to me about shoes, Nell, we absolutely have to get you in something nicer than those flip-flops."
Nell looked down at her pink sandals, and Daniel noted them as well. They were plain old foam flip-flops, but they suited Nell's feet nicely enough. She'd redone her nail polish in a sparkly clear coat; Daniel was glad she'd covered up the blank patches from before. "What's wrong with my shoes?"
"Oh, there's nothing wrong with them," Linda said, stretching the word "wrong" into an exaggerated drawl. "But seriously, you could have so much prettier shoes."
"We need to be getting home," Daniel cut in. "Your fathers are waiting."
"But I really do need jeans," Nell said pleadingly. "Please, Mr. Farmer? It'll only take a few minutes."
Daniel grit his teeth. He did NOT want to be in the middle of the mall when Nell suddenly expanded by several inches. Everyone would know about the serum. Winthrop would have his head on a platter. But how could he communicate the urgency of the situation?"
"Ooh, we can go to Lucky," Linda said, pointing at a storefront. "They've got some really cute stuff." Before Daniel could protest, Linda grabbed Nell's arm and practically dragged her into the store.
***
Nell felt a little bad; she knew she was making Winston and Daniel nervous. But the mall was just so cool! She'd never seen so many different kinds of clothes, just there for everyone to sort through. So many colors and fashions, both on the racks and on the people around her. Nell had never really thought much about changing her style - she just picked out what she liked from the catalogues her father gave her. There were never too many adult companies that had her size. Well, not until now. Now she had so many options!
And the different crowds of people weren't scary now that she was at eye level or higher with most of them. She felt almost like she could be one of them, just travelling to the mall on an ordinary weekend day, passing the time trying on clothes.
The only real downside had been Linda. Even though Nell could now see over her curly head, the girl still treated her like she was a little kid. Just because she'd never been to a mall didn't mean that she needed someone to boss her around. And when Linda wasn't finding some other way to demonstrate her superior shopping skills, she was gossiping, usually about people Nell hadn't even met.
Of course, they'd also talked about Daniel. "He's pretty handsome, even if he is kinda short," Linda had whispered to her in the car, while sneaking glances at him over her shoulder. Nell didn't really know what to say, but she'd just kind of giggled and waited for Linda to stop talking about it, but Linda wouldn't get off the subject. She kept bringing it up while they walked through the mall. "You going to ask him out on a date? You and him would be so cute together! Little Daniel, and bigger Nell." She'd even said that if Nell didn't act soon, she'd try to steal him from her. Whatever that meant.
Nell tried to keep her mind off Linda and just look at the jeans. There was a pair with a flowery pattern stitched down the side that Nell liked. She looked through the sizes for a few seconds before realizing that she had no idea what size pants would fit her anymore. She grabbed a few that looked like they might work and headed for the changing room.
Just seconds after she closed the door she began to feel light-headed. Now she understood why Daniel and Winston had been worried. She didn't even have anywhere to sit down in here. Nell leaned against the wall, letting the plaster cool her forehead, and waited for the feeling to pass.
Surprisingly, the dizziness was over in just a few seconds. Nell opened her eyes. The room didn't even look any different. She let out a deep sigh. False alarm. Maybe the growth was slowing down.
She undid her pants and began to shrug on a pair of the cute jeans. As Nell pulled them up her leg she realized there was no chance they would fit; they barely were making it up around her thigh. They were a little tight in the calves as well. Come to think of it, the entire leg was getting kind of uncomfortable, and the denim was pinching a bit. She tried to ease them off but the jeans had gotten so tight that she couldn't easily pull them around her ankles.
Nell realized that the sound she'd assumed to be the air conditioning was actually the seams splitting on the jeans. She gaped as her leg seemed to swell and burst through the fabric. Panicked, she stood up - and found that she could see clear over the door to the changing room.
She quickly ducked back down, spreading her arms to the opposite walls to steady herself. With a stinging whipcrack, the elastic band of her bra snapped. She could feel the soft fabric of her T-shirt yield to her growing breasts, and tear away. For a second she could feel the walls contracting - like the changing room was closing in on her. When they became stable again, she knew the growth had stopped.
Nell took a quick breath, then called out.
***
Daniel paced awkwardly through the aisles, trying to avoid the swarms of teenage girls roaming the boutique. He hadn't been dragged to the mall since he was ten years old, and he still had no idea what to do with himself while the women were shopping. He didn't have any interest in the clothes, and even the slightest indication of staring would be creepy. So he just circled around the racks and waited.
He was lucky enough to be near the changing rooms to hear Nell call his name. "Daniel, come quick." She sounded nervous. Had there been another spurt? Daniel raced down the hall with the changing rooms, only to remember that each looked identical, and he had no idea which Nell was occupying.
"Nell? Nell, which room are you in?"
The blond girl's head popped out slightly above the last door in the hall. Daniel could tell her cranium was significantly larger now than the last time he'd seen it. "Um, I'm in here."
Daniel resisted the urge to panic as he walked to the back of the room. If he stayed calm, maybe he could get Nell out of here without making too much of a scene. "Are you feeling okay? Able to stand up and walk?"
Nell gave a quick nod, her blond hair bobbing behind the door. "Yeah, I'm fine, except... uh... I don't have any clothes. None that fit anyway."
Daniel could have slammed his head into the wall. "Okay, well, we're in a clothing store... I can just go get what you need. How tall are you when you stand up?"
In response, Nell stood. The moment seemed to pass in slow motion, with Nell's head rising up higher and higher. Daniel resisted the urge to gape as he craned his head back to maintain eye contact. Nell stood head and shoulders above the changing room door. He reckoned she was somewhere around 6'6" - well outside the predicted spurt. There went the existing data...
There was no time to crunch numbers now. This was an emergency. "Wait right here, and stay hidden behind the door," He instructed Nell, "I'll be back in two seconds."
He rushed back into the main room of the shop, and staggered over to the nearest shelf of jeans. As soon as he began sorting through the stack, he realized he had no idea what sizes meant what for girls. He could forgive himself for not taking hip and bust measurements in front of Winthrop Sr., but that information would have come in very handy in the present circumstances.
In a flash, he had the answer. Winston had always helped Nell order clothes in the past. Since Nell's scale was the same, Daniel could just do some mental math to adjust for her growth. He scanned the room for the butler, and found Linda dragging him towards the shoe section. He had to resist dashing after them, keeping himself to a brisk walk. This was not the time to make a scene, or let on that anything was out of the ordinary.
"Uh, Winston? Could I talk with you a moment?"
Linda turned, her face already twisted into a pout. "I need Winston to help carry shoes. There's no way I'll be able to hold all the different boxes myself."
Winston saw the look on Daniel's face and grimaced. "I beg your pardon, Madam Frankenson. I will return momentarily."
Daniel waited until they were a few paces away, then leaned to whisper in the butler's ear. "She's six-six. We need to get clothes and get out."
***
Nell had never been more uncomfortable in her life. Usually everything outside her room and study was just a little too big for her, but that was a minor inconvenience compared to it being just a little too small. She wished she could just stand up straight, but hiding required her to hunch over and stay behind the changing room door. She wondered what people would think if they saw her feet under the door. They'd probably guess she was Bigfoot's hairless sister.
What felt like ages later, there was a knock on the door, and a set of clothes thrown over the top of the divider. A pair of grey-and-pink sweatpants, a huge pack of white underwear, and a plain white T-shirt with a flower design on its front. The flower was nice, but the clothes were pretty boring overall. Well, Nell would just have to find some better fashion options another day. No bra, so she'd just have to do without. She hurriedly tugged on the new outfit then leapt out the door, nearly trampling poor Daniel in the process.
The scientist barely came up to her chest now. His eyes were wide as he gazed up at her, but his face quickly snapped back to a look of determination. "All right, we've got to grab Winston and Linda and get you out of here."
He reached for her hand and set off for a few steps towards the exit, but must have realized how sheerly ridiculous he looked, towing her forward when she was twice his size. Instead he merely turned and mouthed, "Hurry."
They found Winston dragging a whining Linda back towards the changing rooms. "Why can't we stay just a little longer -" Seeing Nell, Linda's complaint seemed to freeze in her throat. Her eyes rolled back slightly. Nell worried she was going to faint. Instead, her face contorted in horror. She raised an accusing finger. "Th-that's unnatural! Impossible!"
Daniel reached out to Linda, but she brushed him aside, keeping her eyes locked on Nell. "Get away from me! Especially you, you huge freak!" And with that, she turned and ran off into the mall.
Nell had never been called that before. Not once in her life had anyone called her a freak. Sure, Linda had teased her when she was short. But freakish - monstrous - was that what she was, now? A huge, clumsy ogre, larger than everyone else around her?
She barely noticed as Winston set off into the mall to find Linda. Nell was too busy trying to hold back the tears stinging the corners of her eyes. Daniel actually had to lead her out of the store, his tiny hand holding firmly to her much larger one. Everywhere she turned, she could see the mallgoers staring at her. There goes the giant freak, stomping through the mall. Her cheeks were burning from the embarrassment.
When she was small, people paid attention to her for being Bill Winthrop's daughter, but she'd always been able to have her own space - she didn't stand out in a crowd. Now she stuck out like a sore thumb, and it felt like she was surrounded, closed in. It was all Nell could do to just keep walking, and avoid making a fuss.
***
So much for keeping up appearances, Daniel thought bitterly. Thanks to that vicious little brunette, Nell was now not only nine inches taller, but also near catatonic. In the back of his mind, Daniel had always thought of Nell as good-natured, but somewhat sheltered. He hadn't realized the full extent of that until now. This was probably the first time anyone had outright insulted her, and she wasn't taking it too well.
Daniel took deep breaths as he waded through the crowds. People were definitely turning their heads in Nell's direction, and Daniel found himself squeezing through the gaps between the crowds, plowing a path forward. He didn't like crowds at the best of times; wading through them felt like drowning in an enormous sea of people. But he was prepared to live with it. All he needed to do was get Nell to the limo; Winston had given him the key.
He kept a firm grasp on Nell's hand. Things were bad enough as it was without the two of them getting separated. He was surprised by just how large her palm was now. When he'd met her, Nell's hands had been proportionally long, but quite delicate. They were still very fine hands, soft to his touch, but now each could easily envelop his, probably all the way up to the wrist.
Daniel breathed a long sigh of relief when they finally reached the arched exit to the mall. Nell had to bend slightly to make it through the automatic doors. Daniel spotted the limo, parked fairly close in. He glanced over his shoulder. Nell's eyes were fairly red, but she was doing an impressive job of holding back her tears.
The minute it took Daniel to fumble the door unlocked felt like the longest of his life. He knew they weren't alone in the parking lot, and felt like everyone was staring at him and Nell. If this got on the news... or even on the internet... They'd never leave Nell alone. Daniel gulped.
Finally the key clicked in the door, and the limo door swung wide. Daniel leapt inside, and turned back to see Nell crawl in after him. She had to crouch over, hunching her shoulders to fit through the doorway. Even with her back against the seat, she seemed to fill the car in a way she certainly hadn't before, her blond hair scraping the ceiling.
Immediately after she closed the door, Nell began to cry. Her pretty face reddened as round tears rolled down her cheeks. She looked over at Daniel, embarrassment clearly showing on her face, then turned away.
Daniel hesitated. He knew he should be doing something - anything, really - he just had no idea what. He'd never been good with people, and that certainly extended to comforting others. For that matter, he'd never had someone to comfort. Still, he gingerly reached out a hand and patted her arm. Despite being smooth and relatively slender, her bicep was now so large around that he doubted his hand could wrap around it.
Nell turned back towards him, using her free hand to wipe tears from her eyes. "I never thought about something like this..." she said. "I mean, I always wanted to be taller, bigger... I dreamt about being the tallest around, but now - now everyone just thinks I'm a freak." She buried her head in her hands, sniffling.
For a second, Daniel simply marveled at how someone with such sheer size could seem so vulnerable. She loomed head and shoulders above him, yet all he wanted to do was protect her. "I don't think you're a freak." He said solemnly. He inched a little closer down the seat, and moved his hand to her broad back.
Nell looked at him askance, through her spread fingers. "Really?"
"Really." Suddenly, he felt stronger, surer - equal to the task of supporting her.
And before he even realized what was happening, she'd turned and kissed him. Her larger lips brushed gently over his, then pressed insistently against them. He could still feel the damp of the tears on her cheeks. She wrapped her other arm tight around him, pulling him closer. He found himself craning his head back to maintain the kiss as he was pressed against her soft, warm body.
***
Nell gently let go of Daniel, and he slid back into his seat.
What on earth was she thinking? She'd just kissed her father's employee. She probably looked like a total wreck with all her crying. She didn't even know whether he'd wanted it - she'd kind of pulled him towards her. It wasn't enough that she'd turned herself into some giant monster, now she was making mistakes left and right.
She wiped her face off a little more, and turned to look out the window. Winston was visible through the darkened glass, dragging Linda by the arm towards the car. Nell could hear her voice, only slightly muted through the car door. "I won't sit in the back! Not with her! I won't, you can't make me!" Winston simply opened the door, and Linda clamped her mouth into a grimace. She sat on the seat opposite Nell, and slid down to the far end of the car, pressing herself into the corner to get as much distance away as possible.
Nell just leaned her head against the cool glass and tried to ignore the smaller girl's presence. She could almost feel the intensity of Linda's disgust, but she closed her eyes and tried to ignore it.
As soon as Winston pulled up to the house, Linda roughly yanked her side of the door open and bolted from the car. The front door opened, and Daddy and Mr. Frankenson were there, waiting to greet them. "How much shopping did you do?" Mr. Frankenson called jovially. Her own dad was frowning.
Linda ran straight to her father and threw her arms around him, burying her face in his chest and sobbing. As Nell got out of the car and stood to her new height, she could see her dad turn white as a sheet.
Yet for a second, Nell was able to forget all about the disaster at the mall. Even from a distance, she knew she'd finally done it - she was taller than her daddy.
***
Daniel tried to ignore the little voice in his head that was screaming obscenities as he stared at the symbols in front of him. Who knew how much longer he'd have to crack this problem? Now was the time to focus.
Immediately after their return from the mall, Nell had run to her room, Winthrop had pulled Frankenson and his daughter behind a closed door, and Daniel had made a swift exit for the lab. He knew Bill would be expecting a number of explanations - why Nell's growth was increasing faster than before, whether he was closer to a cure, how many people had seen them at the mall - and he didn't feel like answering any of them.
Instead of thinking about that - or, god forbid, what he'd done in the limo - he'd retreated to the safety of science, beginning to craft some kind of formula to stop the growth. He was beginning to think of the project in stages. First, he could find something that antagonistically blocked the binding sites of the first serum. If he could successfully stop growth entirely for a short time, he could then use any isotope, no matter how unstable, to degrade the remainder of the original formula. There wasn't any danger of non-uniform growth if there was no longer any growth whatsoever...
He was startled by the sound of the lab doors whooshing open. Bill Winthrop looked like he'd lost three years of his life and a week of sleep on top of it. He stared pointedly at Daniel. "I hope you're working on a cure."
"Yessir, I am," Daniel said meekly. This was not the time for anything but simple answers. He started to ask what had happened with the Frankensons, but stopped himself just before the words came out.
Winthrop answered him anyway. "Joe can play hardball when he wants to, and getting his daughter upset definitely gave him an edge. At first he wanted all the research we've done on the serum so far, but I've talked him down to having a significant stake in the product if it ever goes commercial."
Daniel swallowed, even though his throat was bone dry. Surely Winthrop wasn't still thinking about this as a business opportunity? "And Linda?"
Winthrop pushed back his hair. "The little brat's still pumping her dad for sympathy, crocodile tears left and right. I should have realized she was turning into a bad apple... Lord knows how she's hurt Nell's feelings."
"Yeah, Nell seemed to take it pretty hard," Daniel acknowledged.
Winthrop sighed. "Well, she's a big girl now," he said ruefully. "She'll just have to toughen up."
Chapter Five
"Hi Daniel." Nell's voice boomed from above. "You still working?"
Daniel looked up from his formulas - and up, and up. Sitting at the desk, his head now only came up to her waist. Nell's pretty, smiling face loomed high above him, shrouded in its halo of blond hair. Another spurt. This had to be at least a foot. This was too much, too soon. Almost as if it were...
"Exponential," Daniel whispered to himself. "Exponential growth."
"Yeah, I grew again about ten minutes ago," Nell remarked off-handedly, as if she was talking about what she ate for lunch. "Everything already looks much smaller." She leaned over the desk, literally standing over him. "And cuter."
Daniel swallowed dryly. "This is too much, too fast, Nell. All of this. This level of growth could be dangerou-"
She stopped him mid-sentence with another kiss, this one far more serious than the last. Her mouth now completely overpowered the lower half of his face, a huge tongue sneaking out between her plush lips to pry his own mouth open further. The kiss was so strong Daniel could feel the breath being sucked out of him.
"Nell - we can't," He tried to protest as she finally pulled away. "The experiment, and your father -"
"Who cares about what my daddy says?" Nell shot back, an impish grin on her face. "I like being this big. And nobody's going to be the boss of me anymore."
Daniel was absolutely speechless. "But... But this..."
"But what? Come here." Nell said, her tone firm. She wrapped a surprisingly soft arm the size of most people's legs around him, and pulled him in towards her. As his head zoomed towards her chest, he swore he could see it expanding before his eyes...
Daniel woke with a start, a sheet of paper sticking to the sweat on his face. "What the hell are you thinking?" he muttered to himself aloud. Well, he couldn't control what he dreamed, even if it left him completely ashamed and confused afterwards. Yet there had been one part of the dream that wasn't fantasy or guilt. Something important he was missing.
The thought floated lazily back to him. Exponential growth. He began digging for a calculator.
***
Nell took a step back from the full-length mirror, trying to fit herself entirely in the frame. Her Daddy had rush-ordered some clothing from the nearest Big & Tall store as soon as he'd finished his "discussions" with the Frankensons. Of course, everyone was expecting her to grow again in the very near future, so he had ordered clothes that were even bigger than her current size.
The cardigan she was trying on had sleeves that drooped well past her hands, and she'd had to cinch the belt she'd been given down to its tightest notch just to keep her pants up. None of these clothes were cute like the one's she'd been trying on in the mall. All the masses of fabric just made them kind of shapeless. She frowned in the mirror, and tugged at the sweater.
Not that she wasn't grateful for the clothes - she knew her Daddy had only managed to get them at the last minute, and it was a miracle she had clothes at all that fit her new size. If she had another growth spurt, she'd be approaching almost twice her height before the growth started.
She didn't know how she felt about growing anymore. She'd been so excited in the first few hours after the serum took effect - every time she imagined herself growing, there was a little tingly rush of adrenaline. But now that excitement was always tinged slightly with guilt. Her father, Winston and Daniel were clearly worried sick about what was going to happen as she got bigger. And she'd never really thought about the practical things like, well, clothes. But at this point, she no longer had a choice in the matter. She'd injected herself, and now only an antidote would be able to cure her.
She sighed and flopped back onto her bed, which groaned loudly as the air left the double mattress. "Don't you quit on me too," Nell said aloud, a half-smile forming on her face.
As if the universe were laughing with her (or at her) Nell suddenly felt a shiver ripple through her body as the now-familiar hot, prickly feeling enveloped her. She could feel her feet skidding across the comforter as her legs lengthened. Nell suddenly found herself wondering what this would look like to someone watching her, as she grew to fill her formerly baggy clothes.
Curious, she managed to lift a hand in front of her face - and watched wide-eyed as it expanded before her eyes, the fingers visibly lengthening. The baggy sweatshirt sleeve looked like it was crawling down her arm and constricting around her wrist, even though she knew that was just her arms getting bigger. There was another splitting sound and for a heartbeat Nell worried that she was already growing out of the new clothes her father had given her.
The clothes remained intact, but she suddenly felt the solid bed give way beneath her. Nell gave a sharp cry as she tumbled to the ground.
***
Daniel had double and triple checked his figures, but the graph remained the same. If the pattern of Nell's growth remained consistent... He punched it in once more, half-hoping he'd get a different result. When the same figures came out, he printed out the graph and headed straight for Winthrop's office.
The billionaire wasn't there. Daniel wrung his hands for a moment or two. The pattern the data suggested would require some immediate action - they'd have to start accounting for the next week ahead now, or they'd be in trouble once Nell's growth reached its apex. Daniel pulled out his cell-phone to call Winthrop, and blinked when he saw the time. He'd been in the lab for three hours since they'd returned to the house.
If that much time had passed, Nell had almost certainly grown again.
Daniel half-ran from the office, resisting the urge to full-on sprint down the plushly carpeted hallways toward Nell's bedroom. He mentally filled out the equation for Nell's next spurt. If he was right, she'd now be well over seven feet...
Daniel threw open the door to the bedroom to find Nell sprawling dazed on the floor, her light blond hair tousled around her forehead. The cardigan and capris combo she was wearing were rather drab, but she filled them out magnificently. Daniel tore his eyes away from her curves and up to her concerned, distracted face. That's when he realized that even though he was only a few feet away and she was sitting on the ground, she barely had to lift her head to look him in the eye.
"I'm not sure we can salvage this, sir," Winston said. Only then did Daniel notice that Winston and Winthrop were struggling with the bent, deformed remains of what must have been Nell's four-post bed. The canopy of fabric had been torn from its moorings by the bed's implosion, and Nell's sheets were piled off to the side. The two men were lifting from the wreckage a mattress whose center appeared to have imploded.
"I knew I should have gotten you one of those fancy memory foam mattresses," Winthrop grunted, sweat beading on his brow.
Nell cracked a smile at that, but her eyes still betrayed concern. Concern that Daniel knew was probably justified.
"I'm not sure this is the best time," Daniel started hesitantly.
Winthrop dropped his end of the mattress, causing Winston to fumble the other side to the ground. The ruined furniture landed with a whumping sound. "That doesn't sound like you've found an antidote." Winthrop said matter-of-factly.
"No, but, er, I think I've figured out the pattern of Nell's growth." Daniel stammered.
"I'm not sure I'm in the mood for bad news," Winthrop scowled.
"I want to know," Nell said, brushing the stray locks of hair from her eyes. "You don't have to talk about me like I'm not here."
Winthrop and Daniel both turned to Nell, speechless. "You're absolutely right, Nell-bell," Winthrop apologized. "You have more of a right to know than any of us."
"Well, I was thinking about the rapid increase in Nell's growth..." Daniel took a moment to study her, and made a quick guess that she now stood 7'5". "At first I thought the pattern was unpredictable, but then I remembered exponentials."
"You better not be telling me Nell's growing exponentially!" Winthrop yelled. "I know enough to know what that means."
"No, thank goodness, no. If she - I mean, if you were growing exponentially, you'd already be over thirty feet tall," Daniel explained, turning to Nell. "But there are also logarithmic equations, which follow a somewhat different pattern. Logarithms normally trend in sharp initial increases which eventually plateau. But if we were to invert the logarithm..."
A look of understanding dawned on Winthrop's face. "Her rate of growth is increasing, isn't it?"
Daniel nodded. "And it will continue to do so for quite some time, as long as it's following this equation." Daniel held up the printout of the graph.
"Let me see that." Winthrop stepped forward and grabbed the paper. "If this is correct, Nell could outgrow the house in the next few days."
"That's why I thought you should see it. We need to have a plan." Daniel bit his lip.
Winthrop had turned very pale. "I might be able to clear a space on the factory floor. We'll have to keep you hidden... But how..."
Nell tried to stifle a tremendous yawn, but what would have been a small noise from an ordinary person was now roughly as loud as a cough. "Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I'm just kind of tired."
"It is after midnight," Winston announced.
"Where can I sleep?" Nell asked. "My bed's kind of totaled."
The question seemed to startle Winthrop back to the present. "Winston, can we pull together some cushions from the guest rooms? We could probably make something passable on the floor..."
"Sort of like Arabian Nights," Nell said, smiling. Daniel thought she was probably trying to calm her father down.
"You could say that." Winthrop managed a lopsided grin.
Nell got to her feet, the floor noticeably moving as she stood. Daniel, standing just a few feet away, tried to keep his jaw from flapping open. Daniel now stood eye-to-eye with the area just below Nell's bust. She literally towered over him. Thankfully Nell's room had a fairly cavernous ceiling, and she was able to stand comfortably.
"I can probably help carry the cushions," Nell said, her smile actually turning into a grin. "I bet I could carry more than either of you now."
"I think I'll decline to gamble," Winston replied.
***
Daddy, Winston and Daniel helped her lay cushions around the floor of the room, and they covered them with a few separate king-size sheets from the master bedroom. It wasn't her bed, but Nell smiled and told everyone that it was okay, because she was exhausted and just wanted to sleep.
After everyone left and her Dad turned the light off, Nell stretched out, and felt the multiple sheets shift around her. The whole situation felt strange to her. She'd never slept on the floor before, much less with the wide variety of pillows beneath her and covers on top. She tried to think of it as exotic and fun, like Arabian nights after all, but instead her mind turned back to what Daniel had said about her growth pattern.
She could outgrow the house in the next few days. If her growth kept up after that, what would she outgrow next? The town? Her state? The continent? For a second she thought of herself standing on top of the United States, looking just like it did on the globe, and thought the image was funny. But then she thought of what everything else would look like around her. Would she even be able to see people at that size? She certainly wouldn't be able to talk to them.
If she couldn't sleep on a bed now, where would she be able to sleep when she was five hundred feet tall? And what would she eat? Now that her dreams were coming true, Nell was starting to see how they could become nightmares. It was all happening so fast...
Nell turned over, pressing her face into the pillow. She couldn't think about this right now. Worrying wouldn't help anything. She wasn't anywhere near a hundred feet tall yet anyway, and Daniel's calculations could have been wrong. Right now she just needed to sleep.
***
Right around when his pen broke, Daniel decided he was done for the night. Altering the pH balance hadn't done anything except ruin the molecule's structure, so he angrily balled up his last few hours of work (now thoroughly stained with ballpoint ink) and tossed them towards the garbage can. He missed, of course. Daniel had never had anything remotely approaching dexterity or physical skill, and he was even less likely to succeed after a long day like the one he just finished.
Daniel wanted nothing more than to pass out right there on the desk, but he couldn't do that without feeling like he was letting Nell down. The poor girl was going to be inconveniently huge if he didn't work out some way of stopping her growth. This was his chance to actually make a difference in someone's life, and he wasn't about to blow it.
He'd finished rubbing his eyes and was about to open up MatLab for another round of algorithm testing when he heard a soft knock on the lab door. Daniel turned to see Nell's tremendous face filling the window, looking somewhat anxious.
Daniel hopped off his office chair and opened the door, looking up to meet Nell's eye. He couldn't help but notice her unusual bedclothes - she'd wrapped two sheets around herself, creating something like a DIY toga. The girl had already stood tall in her high-ceilinged bedroom, but hunched within the frame of the rather standard-sized hallway, she outright loomed over him. In order to stand up straight, she'd have to stick her head through the roof, Daniel thought to himself.
"I couldn't sleep," Nell said by way of explanation, shifting awkwardly back from the door. She fumbled for the corner of her toga and pulled it tight.
Daniel searched for words. "Um, sleep is pretty important. The current guess is that it serves a number of crucial auto-immune functions..."
"I tried," Nell said pleadingly, "But I just kept tossing and turning."
"Well... what do you usually do when you can't sleep?" Daniel leaned on the wall, trying to look casual.
"Um, the last time I really had trouble was a long time ago." Nell bit her lip. "My dad read me a story until I conked out."
"Do you want me to read you a story?" Daniel asked, unable to totally keep the incredulity out of his voice. The circumstances were totally bizarre - here was a teenage girl almost twice his size, and he was offering to read to her.
"No, no that's all right," Nell allowed, blushing. "If you want to go back to work that's okay."
"I'm sorry, I honestly didn't mean to make fun of you," Daniel apologized. Awkward around girls, as always. Even ones he was getting to know. "I don't really know any good stories though." He ruffled a hand through his hair and smiled.
"Talk to me then," Nell insisted. "Just until I fall asleep."
Daniel took a long, hard look back at his desk, and realized he probably wasn't going to get anything else done that night anyway. He nodded, and followed her as she padded barefoot down the hallway, her newly enlarged feet sinking deeply into the carpet with each step.
***
Nell settled herself beneath the masses of covers, and once sure she was totally beneath them, shrugged her way out of her makeshift PJs. Daniel had turned awkwardly away toward the wreckage of her bed, and the dollhouse next to it. He was toying with one of the windows when she told him he could turn around.
"Is this a scale model of the mansion?" He asked.
Nell nodded. "My dad had it made for me when we moved here. He said that no matter how big the house seemed, I would always be a giant next to the dollhouse." She smiled, but that smile faltered when she thought about how she could be outgrowing the real mansion very soon.
Daniel must have noticed her expression, because he quickly changed the subject. "Ah, so, if you wanted to talk, uh... Is there somewhere I could sit?"
"Oh, there's a chair next to the desk," Nell pointed. Daniel quickly brought the chair over and sat down a few feet away from Nell's pile of cushions. Nell was amused to notice that Daniel fit the chair almost perfectly, even though it had been made to her scale. Had her father sat there, the seat would have collapsed beneath him. Nell turned over towards Daniel, pulled the covers around her neck, and said, "So, tell me something interesting."
Daniel's eyes turned up to the ceiling, and he was silent in thought for a few moments. "Well, do you know about single-celled eukaryote locomotion?"
"Not about science!" Nell grinned. "Talk to me about yourself. About your life before you came here."
"I'm not sure how much there is to tell," Daniel said sheepishly.
"Well, you must have had friends. And people you worked with."
"Oh, well, I did have a few drinking buddies from college. But I kind of lost touch with them when I entered the trial phase of the experiment. I really didn't have too much of a life." He laughed awkwardly. "As far as work goes, I had the people who gave me grant money, but I only reported to them once a month or so."
"No girlfriend?" Nell immediately wondered if that was too obvious, and wished she had kept her mouth shut.
Daniel seemed totally oblivious to Nell's embarrassment. "Well, I dated one girl in college for a while. I think she was a lit major. I haven't really done anything since grad school though."
Nell couldn't help herself. "Why not?"
"Well, I'm kind of shy," Daniel admitted. "And scrawny. Most girls want some big guy to, I dunno, protect them or something."
Nell smiled. "I don't need anyone to protect me. Not anymore."
Daniel actually laughed aloud at that. "No, I guess all the guys in dark alleyways would be afraid of you."
Nell couldn't imagine that for the life of her. She'd never frightened anyone or anything - except maybe Linda. Yes, Linda had been scared of her, but that was because she saw her change. The Nell she saw in the mirror obviously couldn't hurt a fly. She couldn't imagine actually intimidating someone who was scary. "You're not afraid of me, right?"
"Of course not." Daniel said reassuringly, with a wave of his hand. There was something so fragile about him, sitting in her old little chair, doing his best to comfort her. Almost doll-like. Nell had a sudden, weird impulse to hug him.
"Daniel, do you like me?" Now was as good a time as any to ask.
Daniel opened his mouth as if to respond, but instead just sat there slack-jawed for a moment or two, as if he was processing this.
Sensing the need to back off a bit, Nell hurriedly said, "It's not a trick question or anything. I just mean, y'know, like me. As a person."
Daniel seemed to finally recover his composure. "Yeah, sure. I mean, I haven't known you for too long, but you seem like a very nice girl, Nell. I'd like to get to know you better."
Nell allowed herself another grin. "Well, you're stuck with me until you make an antidote. So I guess we'll have more time to talk." She found herself stifling a yawn. "Not right now though. I think I'm finally sleepy." In fact, she could barely keep her eyes open. "Could you turn off the light?"
"No problem," Daniel said, getting up and taking the chair back to the desk. "Good night, Nell."
"Good night, Daniel."
***
He lingered after flipping the light switch, waiting with the door open just a crack to make sure Nell actually fell asleep. When he heard her breathing turn to shallow, half-snore gasps, he quietly closed the door behind him and trudged down to his bedroom.
Daniel had no idea how to feel about what had just happened. Talking to Nell had been fairly surreal - with the absence of furniture in the room, his sense of scale had been totally thrown off. He couldn't tell if she was huge or he was simply tiny - although in reality it was rather a bit of both. He'd managed to avoid looking at her now mountainous curves though, and that was a small victory. No matter how crazy his dreams were, there were boundaries that he could respect while he was awake.
On the downside, he'd definitely shared too much about his personal life. Nell was his employer's daughter, not his best friend. And besides, what he'd said made him look like a total loser. No friends, just work. How pathetic was that?
Yet it seemed like Nell was genuinely interested in hearing about him. There was this strange, almost childlike curiousity about her, that shone through at odd times. A certain vulnerable air, even despite her new huge size.
She's a teenage girl, Daniel realized. Of course she's unsure of herself. And he didn't want to take advantage of that. He didn't have a chance with her romantically anyway. But a girl in a situation like hers could use a friend.
That's what he'd be. A good friend to her. And that was all.
Chapter Six
Nell woke up with a start, her head pounding and her heart racing. The details of her dream swam away from her. She just remembered sirens, and screaming, and a feeling of panic. Like there was something she had to do, but had no idea how.
The room was still dark, and Nell knew she could not have slept more than a few hours. She tried to take a few deep breaths and calm down, but just felt dizzy. Rubbing at her eyes, she threw off the covers and stumbled toward the light switch. She crossed the room more quickly than she was expecting to, almost slamming into the wall. Of course, she thought, now that she had grown she'd be taking bigger steps. She had to feel along the wall for the light switch, and was surprised to find it at her waist. The switch itself was much smaller than her finger.
She blinked in the light, and looked around. Had she grown again? Nell couldn't really judge based on her surroundings. The entire room seemed much smaller than it had when she was short, but that had also been the case the night before. On a whim, she reached up toward the ceiling, but found that her fingers were still definitely short of the plaster. Stretching up on her tiptoes, she tried to get just a little bit closer, and completely lost her balance.
Nell tripped forward, her bare feet skidding across the polished wood floor. As she lunged forward to stop herself, her foot crashed directly into the miniature of the mansion, smashing through the roof and through to the ground floor below.
Nell winced with pain, and slowly extricated herself from the model. She sat down heavily, and surveyed the damage. The roof had caved in, like it had been hit with some huge meteorite. Or as if one of its occupants had burst through the ceiling. Nell felt a little like crying. How could she have been so clumsy? She'd treasured the dollhouse since her father had given it to her, and despite all the years she'd spent playing with it, she'd wrecked it in an instant. She tried to extricate the model of Lenette from underneath the shattered remains of a window, but her fingers were too large to properly grasp it.
Nell leaned back and took a deep breath. The room suddenly felt a few sizes too small for her. She hadn't stepped outside since returning from the mall, and she'd grown at least once since then, maybe even twice. She needed some fresh air.
As she approached the door to her bedroom she immediately knew she'd grown - significantly - during the night. The top of the door frame was level with her shoulderblades. But how tall was the door? Nell had never remembered it as any bigger or smaller than the average. But her father could walk through this one without any danger of scraping his head. So it was at least seven feet tall...
Nell suddenly felt incredibly dizzy. Not only was the room too small for her, it was closing in. She couldn't breathe. She tried to hunch over to fit through the exit, but when she balled herself up, she was too wide for the narrow frame. Biting her lip, she laid down and turned on her side, praying she was still skinny enough to fit through that way.
Her head went through easily enough, and her slender shoulders cleared the gap with no difficulty. She had to squish her arms through the door and over her head to get her chest to clear the passage, but managed, somewhat painfully to fit them through as well.
Then the dizziness accelerated into full-on head rush, and Nell had to close her eyes. The now-familiar tingly feeling rushed over her, along with sudden, constricting pain around her hips. When the feeling passed and Nell opened her eyes, the hallway was suddenly far too small for her.
***
The sound of splintering wood reverberated loudly, audible even through the thick walls and byzantine corridors of the mansion. Daniel, who had been groggily shaking himself awake, abruptly snapped to full attention. He seized his glasses from the nightstand and bolted down the hallway to Nell's room.
He nearly crashed into Winston right before turning the final corner. The butler firmly held him back.
He heard Winthrop from down the hall, yelling, "Okay, the door's fallen off. Back to the first position!"
"Good, this hurts anyway!" Nell snapped back.
"Miss Nell is, ah, indisposed at the moment." Winston said stiffly.
"Let him through!" Winthrop called from around the corner. "Another brain might be able to help us out of this mess."
Daniel didn't know quite what to expect as he rounded the corner. While Nell entirely filling the doorway to her room should have been on his list, it had somehow never crossed his mind. It was as if her rosy flesh was the stopper on a flask. She seemed to be taking up every available inch of the hallway, turned awkwardly on her side, her arm just managing to cover up the nipples on her tremendous breasts.
"When you calculated that inverse logarithm, did you look to see when this would happen?" Winthrop demanded.
"Er... I suppose I should have been more accurate about the timeframe." Daniel laughed nervously.
"Don't blame him, Daddy," Nell said in a slightly constricted voice. Daniel noticed she was taking extremely rapid, shallow breaths, and her tone of voice betrayed barely-suppressed panic. "It's not his fault. Just... How can you get me out of here?"
"First things first," Daniel said. "I want you to take a deep breath and hold it."
There was audible creaking from the door frame as Nell complied.
"Ok, now slowly let it out over the next few seconds, like this." Daniel took a lungful of air and loudly exhaled it in a long blow. As Nell did the same, he thought he saw the entire doorway shift back into place. "Okay, same thing two more times."
"She's still stuck. What did that accomplish?" Winthrop snapped as Nell finished the last breath.
"It stopped Nell from having a panic attack," Daniel said. He didn't know why, but somehow Nell's crisis had him feeling more confident and in control than he ever had in his life. He stood on tiptoes to whisper to Winthrop, "Don't tell her this, but your daughter might be claustrophobic."
Winthrop nodded, and turned to Nell. "It's okay, sweetie. Just stay calm and we will get you out of the house."
"Right. Hmmm..." Daniel surveyed the scene. There seemed to be literally no gap between Nell's ample hips and the doorframe, which was currently pressing into her. Daniel felt a twinge of pity; that couldn't be comfortable. A lubricant probably wouldn't do the trick - Nell's butt got thicker before thinner, and even if she could withdraw back into the room, her breasts wouldn't flatten enough to fit back through. For once, the hourglass shape was actually incredibly inconvenient.
She couldn't go out, but also couldn't fit back through. Unless.. "Nell, do you know when you last grew?"
Nell sighed softly. "I didn't check the clock. I was too busy trying to get out. But I've been stuck here for a while."
"At least an hour," Bill muttered. "That's when I got here."
"Is this corridor reinforced? As in, structurally sound?" Daniel asked.
Winthrop's eyes widened. "Oh no. You can't be serious."
Daniel nodded. "There's no other way I can think of." He turned to Nell, whose hands were tightly clenched. "Okay, you're probably going to grow again soon. When you do, I want you to slowly turn so your stomach is facing the ground. If you feel like anything's stabbing into you, stop. Otherwise, keep turning."
Nell gritted her teeth, and nodded. There was a long, nervous pause.
Then her eyes fluttered. "Oh my god. It's happening."
"Stand back!" Daniel cried, ineffectually tugging Winthrop from the door.
Daniel had never seen anything like it. He'd thought Nell's expansion would be something like a balloon inflating, but instead it was much the opposite: it seemed like the entire hallway was shrinking around her, like she was outgrowing all of them.
Nell's massive hips swung ninety degrees to crash into the doorframe, and with a deafening crack the wood frame caved in two. As Nell continued to turn, her body slammed clear through the wall. Spurts of crumbling plaster filled the air.
"Turn back on your side!" Daniel managed to yell, while he still had a voice. Afterward, the sheer spectacle of Nell's growth rendered him completely incapable of speech.
When Nell finally turned back to lying on her side, there was a good foot of door and wall missing on either side of her.
***
Nell tucked her head to her chest and looked down at the length of her body. Just looking at herself, she didn't feel any different than before. But when she saw the crumbling walls around her, combined with the pathetic remains of the dollhouse dwarfed by her tremendous feet, she started to feel dizzy again.
She quickly turned back to Daniel and her father. They both seemed absurdly small to her. Daniel especially seemed less like a person and more like an extremely convincing scale model. Not quite a doll yet - but not quite real either.
"Okay, now move back into the room," He said, putting his hands up and miming moving back as if pressing against a wall. Like he was directing a truck.
Nell suppressed a chuckle, then carefully slithered back into the room, struggling to keep one arm over her boobs. It hadn't even occurred to her to be embarrassed up until this point, but she suddenly realized that Daniel had now seen her almost entirely naked. She felt her cheeks flush, and knew that her sudden embarrassment was only going to make things look worse.
Sucking in a deep breath, she wiggled back, and seized hold of the masses of sheets on the floor. Each of them was now about the size of a towel, but she sat up and piled them on top of herself all the same, and felt a little better - until the floor groaned, loudly, beneath her weight.
"Oh dear lord," Winthrop muttered to himself. Winston looked on grimly.
Daniel, however, marched straight over to her. Laying a tiny hand on her shoulder - he had to reach up even to get there - he pressed backwards, telling her to lie down. "We need to even out the pressure on the floor," He explained. "Sitting puts it all in one place, but if you're lying down the weight's more evenly distributed."
His seriousness, combined with how tiny he was, just made him absolutely adorable. Nell had to fight the urge to simply pull him close to her. She could do it easily enough with one hand. Her father and Winston were looking on though, and even covered in sheets she was pretty close to naked. The rational part of her brain knew this wasn't the time for that, and she was capable of listening to it.
"What am I going to do about this?" Her dad asked, visibly concerned.
Nell wished this was the doll house, and she could simply lift away the entire front and head straight outside. Instead she was stuck in here, with no easy way out. Staring at the ceiling, she felt like she could reach out and touch it, and suddenly felt cramped again.
So instead she turned to Daniel, who was looking around the room. When he settled on a wall, She turned to look toward it as well, and saw that he was looking out the picture window.
"If we can break that glass, she might be able to fit." Daniel said.
Nell turned to look at her daddy, who was frowning. Eventually, he nodded. "We have to make it safe, so she doesn't cut herself."
"Yes, but we don't have much time." Daniel said. "She'll grow again in another few hours."
"Winston, get us a..." Winthrop turned to look for the butler, only to find that he wasn't in the room.
Moments later, he appeared with a few hammers and some blankets. "With the curtains drawn, we shan't get any broken glass on ourselves. Then the blankets will ensure that Miss Nell can escape unharmed."
***
"You're sure you can do this?" Winthrop asked Nell once more.
"I'm okay, Daddy. It's not that big a drop."
To her it isn't, Daniel thought to himself, staring down through the remains of the picture window. Nell's room was on the second story, and that left a fair amount of distance to the ground. A giantess was trouble enough without broken heels. He didn't think any of them had the medical training to deal with a serious injury, and there was no way they could take Nell to the hospital. They just had to hope Nell stuck the landing.
He turned back to look at the girl. She had to be just over ten feet tall now. Truly enormous, and soon to grow even bigger before the day was done. Was eleven feet next? Twelve? He wished he had his graphing calculator on hand, just to know the next step. As if the numbers would help Nell.
She was actually calming her father down, instead of vice versa, all while lying spread out on the ground. Daniel had to admire how well she was keeping it together. Maybe the stress of it all was bringing out the adult in her.
A slight cough sounded to Daniel's left, and he turned to see Winston, who had entered quietly behind them. "Sir, it gives me no pleasure to inform you, but we are under a deadline if we wish to extricate Miss Nell from the house."
Winthrop turned, looking almost ready to snap at Winston, but instead slumped slightly. "Be careful, sweetie," he told Nell.
"Don't worry, Daddy." Nell said sincerely.
They filed out of the room, back through the foyer of the mansion and out the double doors, into the pale morning light. Nell's room was on the eastern side of the house, so the sun was rising just behind the shattered remains of her bedroom window.
"Are you ready, Miss Nell?" Winston called.
"Ready," Nell called back. Even from outside the house, her voice was clearly audible. Of course it is, Daniel thought, her lungs are twice as large. "Here I come!"
There was a tremendous rumbling sound, and Daniel saw through the window that Nell was sort of crab-walking her way toward the window, to avoid putting too much pressure on the floor of her room. Even so, the creaking timbers of the house were audible as Nell made her way to the window.
"Here she comes," Winthrop said, seeming like he could barely look.
Nell's feet appeared in the window, filling a good half of the frame with their pale, slightly wrinkled soles. And moments later, the girl was plummeting toward the earth. Daniel had never seen something so large move so fast.
The turf around her landing site literally exploded outward, leaving a crater-like indentation of mud all around her. A few spare shards of glass fell from the last bits of the window that had been covered by the blankets. Nell herself simply looked thrilled.
"Don't worry, I'm fine," Nell began, but was immediately drowned out by the wailing honk of a car horn.
All four of them turned to see a yellow Chevy that had pulled up in the driveway. With all the commotion of Nell's exit from the house, none of them had noticed. A woman was draped over the steering wheel, her brown hair falling over the dash.
"I beg your pardon, sir," Winston said. "But I altogether forgot to mention that Lenette was scheduled to tutor Nell today."
***
"I planned ze lesson," Lenette said firmly. "Now I shall be teaching you. Tell me, why did ze President begin ze Trail of Tearz?"
Nell knew that the very sight of the Frenchwoman at the table before her was ridiculous. She was easily twice Lenette's size, and clad in a number of sheets that had been tied haphazardly together. Yet there they were, Lenette insisting that now was as good a time as any to study history. According to Daniel, she had decided to go on with the lesson just fifteen minutes after waking up from her faint. Nell had no idea why she was being so stubborn about this.
"Well, what iz ze answer, Nell?"
Nell stared down at the textbook. She'd always thought of "Waltham's History of the United States" as huge and heavy, but now it could easily fit in her pocket. The words were so tiny... She leaned closer to the table and squinted to try and make them out.
Lenette rapped her hand swiftly across the table. "If someone asks you a question about Anjrew Chjacksonne, will you look in a book, or will you tell zem somezing?"
Nell found herself feeling pretty annoyed at her tutor. Couldn't Lenette understand that she hadn't had any time to study? It wasn't fair to expect her to be able to learn at a time like this.
"No pouting. You will tell me ze answer now."
Nell stared down at the little woman. She was really too big for all of this. And she knew just how to show that. Reaching out, she flipped the textbook closed - using only one finger. "I don't think I can learn any more today," Nell sighed with exaggerated boredom. She didn't want to offend Lenette, but she did want to get her message across. She wasn't going to be bossed around any more.
Lenette didn't even respond with words. She clenched her tiny fists and stood up roughly from the table, knocking over her chair in the process.
***
"J'rejeter!" Lenette screamed, standing on tiptoes to better yell in Winthrop's face. "I will not be mocked by zis -- zis giant girl!"
"It's been a trying time for all of us," Winthrop said gently.
"She will not learn, zen I will not teach!" Lenette shouted. She roughly seized her leather schoolteacher's bag and stormed through the mansion's exit.
Daniel chose this moment to fully round the corner into the foyer, smoothing his hair back. "Uh, I guess that went... um," he said, searching for the right word.
"Disastrously?" Winthrop said, almost chuckling. "Yeah, that sounds like it."
"Do you think she'll tell anyone?" Daniel felt his chest tighten at the thought.
"No, no," Winthrop waved the notion away. "Lenette's always been loyal to us. If nothing else, she'll let us pay her to stay quiet." His tone darkened slightly. "It's not good that Nell disobeyed her though. Not right now."
"Well, she is a teenage girl," Daniel reasoned. "She's bound to get a little rebellious."
"The timing for that could be better," Winthrop said sternly. "She's not going to like what I have to tell her."
"Tell her what?" Daniel asked.
"We have to move her," Winthrop sighed. "She's outgrown the mansion. We can't just leave her outside."
"Where can you take her?" Daniel had no idea what facility could house Nell. Surely Winthrop wasn't planning to hand his own daughter over to the government?
"One of my warehouses. For now. But if this keeps up, it won't hold her for long." Winthrop gave Daniel a steely glare. "You need to find a cure, Daniel. The clock is ticking."
Author's Notes:
Sorry for the lengthy delay. Sometimes inspiration takes a while to strike.
Chapter Seven
"Hmmm, we'll need to hire contractors to fix the windows. No structural damage as far as I can see, but the woodwork will be an issue... I'll look up some carpenters..."
Daniel could barely hear Winston thinking out loud about how to solve the Nell-sized hole in the side of the mansion. He had two other tasks keeping him busy: first, crunching sums in his head to try to figure out the exact protein fold that would occur if he added a diluted nitrogen blend to the solution for his antidote, and second, avoiding looking out the window's remains at the gigantic girl who was sitting in the backyard.
Winston had fetched some of the dust jackets from the numerous sportscars filling the Winthrop garage. Nell had tied two of them into a makeshift bikini, while Daniel stared pointedly away and Bill Winthrop stared pointedly at Daniel. So far, Nell's new wardrobe had yet to malfunction. She sat on the grass just next to the rear patio, her back to Daniel. At his distance of around twenty feet, she appeared normal-sized - that is, until one noticed that she was of equal height with the gazebo next to her. That shapely back was easily as tall as he was...
Damn, staring again. He needed to figure out some way to stop thinking about her. Bill would not be happy in the slightest if he realized Daniel was crushing on his darling daughter. Was a crush even the right word for it? Daniel just felt protective of her, that was all. And why shouldn't he? The poor girl's sudden gigantism was largely his fault, for leaving her alone in the lab without supervision. She'd handled it so bravely thus far, even leaping from a second-story window to avoid demolishing the house. He just wanted to help her.
A rhythmic beeping sound shook Daniel from his reverie. Why was there a truck backing up out here? He breathed in sharply - they could see Nell! Daniel dashed down the stairs and out to the front law, where Mr. Winthrop stood waving an eighteen-wheeler into the driveway.
"That's it, just a few more inches. Stop!" Bill turned to see Daniel approaching, and Daniel tried to catch his breath.
"Won't the driver see Nell?" Daniel panted. "He could tell people... We have to keep this a secret!"
Winthrop gave him a tight grin. "I appreciate the concern, Daniel, but this is a company man. Been with us for 20 years, usually transports top-secret prototypes. If he had loose lips, he could have spilled the beans on any number of other lucrative projects and made a mint. And gotten himself fired and permanently blackballed on the spot, of course. He won't be talking about this to anyone." Winthrop glanced over his shoulder at the backyard. "Just to be safe though, I'll have him come inside for a quick chat. Get Winston and work on making Nell comfortable in the back. Have Winston text me when you're ready." Winthrop clapped him on the shoulder and went around to the cab.
Daniel looked at the truch's trailer and did some quick mental math. It was roughly 30 feet long, and eight feet high. Plenty of room for Nell to lie down and even to sit up, but she wouldn't be able to stand. And if she grew again...
All the more reason to hurry. He dashed back upstairs and found Winston, measuring tape in hand, still surveying the damage to Nell's bedroom. Winston turned. "Ah yes, the truck is here. I will fetch some materials to spruce up the cabin if you will bring Nell over."
Daniel nodded, feeling for some reason as if time was working against them. He suddenly realized that could be the case - how long had it been since Nell's last growth spurt? And how long would she need to remain in the trailer? He rushed back down the stairs.
***
Nell sat back and watched the clouds drift across the sky. They didn't seem any closer than before, no bigger or smaller. Since they were thousands of feet away, she realized that would probably never change. The sky would always be there to make her feel normal. Unless she kept growing and growing. Nell had a sudden, horrible vision of growing large enough that her head literally scraped the clouds. Would she even be able to breathe that high up? She'd seen a documentary on climbers who scaled Mount Everest, and they'd needed oxygen to climb past a certain height.
She chuckled softly. If she was taller than Mount Everest, would people try to climb her? The summit of Mount Nell, rising way above their heads. They could take pictures of themselves, resting just above her bangs, on top of the world. Would they talk to her while they were up there? Would she even be able to hear them, or would their tiny voices sound like insect chatter? It would be terribly lonely.
Nell heard a creaking sound behind her, and turned with a start to see Daniel running toward her. The little guy looked flushed and totally out of breath, like he'd been running all over the house.
"The truck's here!" He gasped, waving an arm frantically toward the front of the house. "Your dad's talking to the driver, but he was hoping we could get you onboard before he finishes."
Nell nodded and stood up. As she did so, she marveled once again at just how tiny Daniel looked - even standing on the porch, he barely came to her waist. His anxiousness was apparent, but also kind of cute. Like a puppy trying to make her follow him outside.
She lingered a second, and looked back at the mansion. This had been her home almost all her life. She'd barely ever left it. And now she could no longer fit inside of it. She wondered if she'd ever come back.
Daniel had stopped frantically leading her forward, and came back to stand quietly next to her. "They're going to fix up your bedroom, you know," he said softly. "By the time you get back, it'll be like nothing has changed."
She looked down at him. "No, it'll never be quite the same. Not after all this."
Before she knew quite what was happening, he had literally placed his hand in hers - his tiny fingers wrapped around her thumb. She smiled, and closed her hand gently around his much smaller one. Funny how something so simple could still be comforting.
He craned his head upward, looking searchingly at her. "If you need to take a moment, you can. But we need to move soon, before, well..." He trailed off.
Nell frowned at the unpleasant reminder. How long had she been waiting for the truck? And how much bigger would she get once she hit her next growth spurt? She released Daniel's hand and made her way around the house, trying to step carefully to avoid leaving her footprints embedded in the lawn.
Winston was already next to the trailer, loaded down precariously with a pile of blankets and pillows nearly as tall as he was. Nell laughed and took the top of the pile out of his hands. "Are these to keep me comfortable? Oh Winston, you're so thoughtful!"
"I do my best, Miss Nell," Winston said mildly. "Given the circumstances."
Nell crawled on her hands and knees into the back of the trailer. She could hear the metal squeal in protest under her weight and stopped, embarrassed. Was she really that heavy?
"Spread your weight out!" Daniel's voice echoed off the walls of the metal container. Nell felt herself blush, but spread her hands wide and tried to shift position so she took up even more of the floor's space. Moving forward didn't feel terribly natural, but at least the truck didn't seem ready to collapse.
She made it to the back of the container and set the pillows against the wall, spreading one of the blankets across the floor. She recognized them as being from the King Suite, which had one of the largest beds she'd ever seen. When she was little, she'd loved to roll around on it - the mattress felt as though it were endless. Now her feet extended well past the end of the covers.
Winston stepped briskly aboard the trailer with several more pillows and blankets in hand, which he distributed about the space, fluffing the largest comforter before spreading it over her. Nell giggled. Winston always made such a fuss about tucking her in. He still did, even now that she was twice as big as him.
"How long will the trip be?" She whispered to him.
Winston paused in thought. "The factory is about fifty miles from here. Might I be so bold as to suggest you catch up on the sleep you lost, Miss Nell?"
Nell nodded, and tried to think sleepy thoughts as the doors of the trailer clanked shut. The last few hours had been pretty eventful, after all. She closed her eyes and tried to drift off, just as she heard the truck's engine rumble to life.
***
"We'll follow along in the sedan," Winthrop said as he walked away from the semi's cab. "Winston, you drive. Make sure no one tries to pull alongside the container." He motioned Daniel into the backseat.
Within a few minutes, they had pulled out of the estate and were headed along winding country roads. Daniel watched the container sway slightly as the eighteen-wheeler turned, and tried to imagine Nell filling its space. Thankfully, she wasn't that big. Yet.
Daniel, struck by a thought, pulled out his worksheet. "How large is the warehouse again?" He asked.
Bill frowned. "Why do I get the feeling I should be worried about this conversation?" He growled. Daniel opened his mouth to reply, but Winthrop waved him quiet. "Rhetorical question. It's got a 5,000 square foot floor. I've ordered them to clear away the production line to make room."
"Er, sorry, not area. Height?"
Bill's frown only deepened. "I believe it's a three-story building. Surely you don't think -" He stopped himself. "She could lie down, right?"
"It would get uncomfortable for her fairly quickly," Daniel replied. "For one thing, it would be hard to move her in and out of the space once she got too tall for it. And then there's the matter of her claustrophobia."
"Er, speaking of that, sir," Winston interrupted. "You may want to take a look at this."
Daniel peered out the windshield to see the container shaking violently, rocking back and forth, almost to the point of toppling over.
Winthrop yanked a walkie-talkie from his pocket. "Gus! Stop the truck! Quickly!"
***
Nell's dreams had been vague and anxious - she couldn't remember the details. Just a feeling of being smothered. When she woke up, the walls were literally closing in.
She could tell from the fevery, floaty feeling that she was growing again. "Not now," she said out loud, "Oh please not right now!" When she'd first entered it, the container had been too small for her to stand up in. Now it seemed to be shrinking around her. She could feel it pressing in on her. Her breathing quickened. There wasn't enough air.
She had to stop this. Nell started banging fists against the walls, feeling the container's thin walls shake. "Let me out!" She cried, barely in control of herself.
She barely felt the truck pull over, but she knew it had stopped when the back door swung open. Taking a deep breath, she willed herself to flatten, and stay still. She could feel herself trembling. Daniel, Winston and her Daddy all got in. Her Dad walked over to her side, his expression filled with concern.
"Are you okay, sweetie?" He knelt by her side. She stayed on the ground, unwilling to get up and make the space feel even smaller.
"I grew again," she whispered. Her voice sounded hoarse to her own ears. "How big am I?"
She saw Daniel look briefly around the container. "I'd estimate you're around sixteen, maybe sixteen and a half feet tall now. That's a huge spurt -" Her dad turned and waved his hand in a chopping motion to cut Daniel off.
"It's okay, Daddy" Nell said, feeling herself starting to calm down. "I don't mind him saying it."
"Okay Nell-bell," he said soothingly. "Now I know this is hard for you. But we don't have any other way to get you there. There's maybe another thirty miles to go."
Nell sighed. "I don't suppose I'm big enough to walk yet?" She said, with a lopsided grin.
Her dad reached out and ruffled her hair. She was used to the gesture, but surprised by just how small his hand felt - not much larger than Daniel's felt just a little while earlier. Her Daddy had always seemed so big and solid, but now he looked like an oversized doll. "Not yet, sweetie. Is there anything we can do for now though?"
Nell shut her eyes for a second. "Could someone ride with me? Just to make the space feel bigger."
"I'll do it." Daniel said, before her dad could even respond. "I'm pretty small, so next to me the container will seem huge." She was pretty sure she saw him wink at her.
Her dad rubbed at his beard. "Okay. You keep an eye on her. We don't have far to go, so just sit tight."
***
Daniel watched as they closed up the container, then walked toward the end where Nell lay. Her latest spurt had clearly ramped up the process. She was almost half again her previous height. As he passed her hips, they came up to his waist. She practically filled the trailer. No wonder her claustrophobia had been acting up. If she didn't stay calm, they'd all be in a world of trouble.
As he passed her belly, the truck started up again. He felt himself losing his balance, and tumbled on top of her. He felt a huge, soft weight on his back, and looked over his shoulder to see her hand gently pressing against him.
"Don't fall," she said softly, her voice almost musical.
"I'll, er, try not to," he murmurred, flustered. He stood, and she brought her hand up behind him, guiding him up toward her face.
"Thanks for being here with me," she said, eyes shining. "It really does help."
He sat cross-legged across from her. "Of course," he replied. "You needed some kind of distraction."
She sighed deeply. "Yeah, I guess. I dunno." She turned toward him, her massive frame shifting and causing the entire container to shake slightly. "I feel kind of, um, safer, when you're here."
Daniel could easily see the irony in this - Nell was at this point over three times his size. But he could also see it making some kind of strange sense. "Yeah. I feel safe when I'm with you too. And stronger, somehow. More capable."
He suddenly felt incredibly self-conscious. She was looking at him intently. He broke his gaze away and looked off to the pillows. "Hello Kitty, huh?"
"Oh, those are from when I was eight," Nell mumbled. It was fairly dim in the container, but he could have sworn she was blushing. "I'm not into that so much anymore."
"Haha, no worries. I'm a bit of a Japanophile myself." Daniel grinned, but cursed himself inwardly. He generally liked really nerdy anime, mostly related to giant robots. Not the kind of thing a teenage girl would be interested in. So instead of pursuing the conversation he just let it trail off awkwardly.
"You don't have to sit against the wall," Nell said after a moment. "It's metal, so it's cold, right?"
"Oh, it's not so bad," Daniel replied with a wave of his hand.
"Come over here," Nell insisted, patting a spot on the pillows next to her.
Daniel swallowed. She was asking him to come awfully close. You're here to comfort her, he told himself. It's just being professional. Well, being a good friend at least. He nodded slightly, and crawled over to the spot she indicated near her shoulder.
Nell stretched slightly and curled a massive arm over the pillow, and wrapped it around him. There was a faint sweet smell coming from her skin as she pulled him closer. Daniel could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and briefly wondered if he could feel hers as well.
She yawned widely. "I'm glad you're here," she said, then closed her eyes. Daniel watched her breath grow shallow as she fell asleep.
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