“Why on earth would you do something like that?” asked Trudi.

“To save us both,” said Murray.

“From what, and how exactly by shrinking?” asked Trudi.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen. I didn’t know it would. I saw the Easter Special and ....” he began, and then realised that he couldn’t tell her about the Reunion movie, which she wouldn’t learn of for another decade, “one other episode of the show, that I watched nearly thirteen years into your future. I really liked you in both of them, and then I met you not that long afterwards on a bushwalk. We found a portal and went into a giant land, where we were captured by a giantess. She kept us as pets for over two years, and then caught another woman and ate her for a picnic lunch, after the woman’s escape attempt caused the giantess to drop and dirty her sandwich. After that, she knew she’d like the taste of you and me as well. So she put us in her oven to cook us and eat us. I asked future 39 year old you for your present day address, and then sent my mind back to my 14 year old body, only to find out that the process had reduced me in size. The plan was to tell you not to enter that portal in 13 years time or ever at any time. That way you wouldn’t be trapped in the giant land,” said Murray.

“Why didn’t you just go back to a few minutes before you and future me went through that portal?” asked Trudy.

“That’s what she suggested, but as I told her, I wanted to meet you when you were single again, straight after you stopped being busy with the show,” said Murray.

“So you came to save me from the giantess, and to ask me out as well,” said Trudi.

“More or less,” said Murray, not mentioning what she already knew, that it was also to save himself from being eaten by the giantess.

“I’m sorry I said you weren’t very devoted,” said Trudi, “Nobody could possibly have been more devoted than you have.”

She lifted him up to her mouth and kissed him.

“This is even better than the kisses I imagined and hoped I might be having from you at my normal size,” said Murray.

“I don’t suppose you know anything ... I mean, I don’t suppose that older me told you anything about my love life in the interim between now and then,” said Trudi.

“I can tell you that you were single until you met your next companion at age 32 in the original timeline,” said Murray, “In fact, while we were in the giantess’s oven, I promised you that I would break up with you and explain everything when you turn 31. The way things have worked out, I’ve told you today. So you’ve got seven clear years, and it would be my fondest desire to secretly spend them here with you.”