Steve was walking back to his hanger from the complex where Vin had his new office.  He filled the doctor in on the latest with Ally.  They both agreed to let her rest considering how the major growth spurt exhausted both Alex and Emma.  Steve felt small again.  He felt like that nondescript white coat all over again.  Ally transformed into a goddess right before his eyes.  Steve sort of envied his fellow giants.

My time will come.  Steve thought to himself.  He didn’t look like the same man that he was before the change.  I hope Tommy recognizes me and Melinda can accept that I am different now.  I’m not the same man she married.

Steve was brought back to the here and now when one of the complexes white vans came into view.  Steve knew it was them and not the Andersons.  Alex and Emma rode on the back of a modified big rig that Vin purchased just for the giant’s transportation.  This was just one of the vans.  Steve decided to hide inside.

A plain white van pulled up to the James resident that afternoon.  There were no markings on the van to indicate that it belonged to anyone.  Melinda packed enough clothes for her and Tommy to last a week.  She made sure Tommy had his favorite toys.  A kindly gray haired woman in her fifties helped Melinda with her suitcases.  She introduced herself as Robin McAllister.  She explained to Melinda everything about the complex and its residence.  Deep down, Robin prayed that Melinda will accept her husband.

Steve waited inside his home.  He considered the hangar his home now since he can’t go back to his old home.  Steve was very nervous.  He looked in the customized mirror in his customized bathroom.  He looked at himself closely.  His orange-red hair was now a deep dark red that sat in waves instead of frizzy.  His eyes are the color of spring grass.  Even the shape of his once broken nose changed.  His skin is still pale, but appeared even paler without all the freckles that once covered his scrawny body.  Even under his baggy tunic his muscles showed.  For the first time in his life, Steve felt truly handsome.  He hoped that Melinda will accept that.

“You here, Steve,” he heard Robin shout.  “You have visitors!”

“Steve, it’s me!  I brought somebody who would really like to see you!  He misses you!”  Melinda then shouted.  I’m curious to see what you look like now.  I hope Tommy knows who he is or worse, run scared from his own father. 

Steve had a tendency to forget how strong his telepathy is sometimes.  It was hard in those first few months of discovering his unique gift.  It was a gift that only giants possessed and Steve had the strongest until all the recent growth spurts.  The growth spurts, Steve thought to himself; I have a strong feeling that we’re not out of the ballpark yet, I hope I’m wrong.  Steve was afraid to share his feelings with the others.  Alex and Emma haven’t grown another inch since their major growing spell and Steve hoped that wouldn’t change.

“Daddy?  You here,” Steve then heard a small voice say.  Tommy.  Oh son, I pray that you not be scared of your old man.  Steve looked down at his hands.  Just one hand was big enough to hold his son.  I’m a monster.  Steve wanted to cry.  He loved his son and wife more than anything in the world.  He couldn’t bear their rejection.  Steve looked in the mirror once again and got his bearings before opening the large door.

Melinda looked to the opening door with Tommy in her arms.  Tommy was getting antsy and wanted down, but Melinda held him.  Looking up, she saw the dark red hair and those familiar green eyes peek shyly around the corner.  Melinda gasped.  Is that you Steve?  Oh sweet Jesus!  You’re huge!

“Come on out, Steve.  There is no need to be shy around your own family,” Robin said to the giant with a motherly smile.  Robin thought of the giants as her children.  Even though they were bigger and smarter than her, Robin was there from the beginning as she watched them grow.

Steve slowly came out the doorway.  Melinda looked like she was ready to faint at any moment.  This was not the same man that left her and Tommy.  This is a red headed Adonis, not the scrawny thin man with freckles over every square inch of his body she married five years ago.  Dear God, people thought we looked odd together before.

“You’re still beautiful,” Steve said quietly, but his quiet voice now is more like a normal human’s speaking voice.  Melinda blushed.  Steve never looked at his wife’s physical appearance like most men, he liked Melinda for the kind person she is.  He didn’t care that she was slightly obese or the quirky styles she wore.  Steve liked Melinda for the way she made him laugh and her boldness.  He didn’t care that she had tattoos on her neck and arms or that she was the best comic book illustrator ever.  Steve adored Melinda for who she is.

Steve looked like one of Melinda’s many illustrated heroes.  Steve looked young and healthy.  His dark red hair had grown long enough for him to pull back.  His face had changed so dramatically.  The broken nose he received from a schoolyard bully as a kid had mended itself.  His jawline is now much stronger and well defined.  His freckles all disappeared.  Steve looked perfect in every way.

“Daddy!”  Tommy shouted.  “Daddy, you so big,” Tommy then said, straining to look up at his father.  Steve smiled.  He recognizes me, thank heaven for small favors.  Steve thought to himself, and then he heard a stream of kid thoughts.  My Daddy is big like a dinosaur.  I hope I get to be big.

Melinda finally let Tommy down.  Tommy ran to the giant.  Instead of a hug, Steve scooped his son up in his hand.  Tommy laughed.  Steve was careful not to drop the boy.  Tommy looked up at his father with a smile.  “Can we play Jack and the Beanstalk?” Tommy asks and Steve laughs. 

Robin offered to watch Tommy so Steve and Melinda could have some alone time.  Steve helped Melinda up on one of his chairs.  Vin decided that the giants living facilities be built for their needs and no one else’s.  Steve understood this after helping Vin evaluate the others.  The giants accepted that the world was made for humans, but Vin felt that they needed their own sanctuary.  Even though the furnishings were sparse in the hangar suites, they were all built to fit the giants.

“So..,” Steve said to his human wife.

“You’re big,” Melinda answered.  Handsome, strong and muscular.  Not quite what your fat wife was expecting.  Melinda was unaware that her husband could read her every thought.  It broke his heart to ‘hear’ her self-esteem plummeting.

“You’re little,” he said with a smile.  Melinda blushed.

“What do we do now?”

“Move here I guess.”

“What about your work?  I don’t have an office to go to, but you’re too big to fit in a lab,” Melinda said.

“Vin offered me a job here.  I’ll be helping the newly evolved start their lives all over again.”

“Sounds noble.  What about Tommy?  Do you think he’ll be alright living here?”  Melinda asked.

“He’ll be safe.  Vin and I are working on a school for children of the newly evolved,” Steve answered.  He didn’t know how to tell Melinda that Tommy will stay small for a long time or that it’s only a matter of time before Melinda joins their ranks.

“He’s not going to change, is he?”  Melinda asks with sadness filling her eyes.  “I’ll become like you, but he won’t?”

“Not for another thirty years,” Steve said, wanting to take Melinda in his arms.   Tears fell from her eyes.

“We can’t go back to the way things were.  There is no cure for evolution, is there?” Melinda sobbed.

“No there isn’t.  Our physiology has changed so much that there is no way of changing it back without consequences.  You’ll find it isn’t so bad,” Steve said, putting his hand around his wife.  He felt a tremor deep inside him.  Melinda felt the hand grow around her, another small growth spurt.  Steve has been getting them more and more lately.  He never recalled Alex’s body spurting so much before the final phase.

“Does it hurt?” Melinda asks, remembering the growing pains she had as a child.

“No, it feels like I’m stretching sometimes and other times it feels like a tingle.  My mind is different too.  I out score all known I.Q. tests and I’m super strong,” Steve said while flexing his muscle.  Melinda laughed and accepted her new and improved husband.

Alex and Emma came home later that day.  Steve introduced them to Melinda and Tommy.  Tommy seemed enthralled by the much bigger giants.  Alex played with the little tot while Emma watched.  He’s going to make an awesome father.  She thought to herself.

Melinda marveled at the size of the Andersons, they made Steve look like a child in comparison.  Steve told her that any day now he would be going through the same change.  Melinda wanted to stay for it.  She wanted to be there to support her husband and Steve agreed.

Melinda and Tommy slept in separate quarters that Vin had built on campus.  It was quarters made for the staff and human family members.  Steve felt that it would not be safe for Melinda to stay with him in the hangar until he went through his change.

Alex helped Vin examine Steve one day.  Melinda came and sat in on the examination.

“Steve, there is something different going on with you,” Vin said.  “You’ve had more growth spurts than even Alex.”

“Yeah, you’re taller than I was before my final spurt,” Alex said.

“Maybe your body is responding differently.  I suggest you lay in bed till after your final spurt.  Just for your own safety,” Vin advised.  Steve agreed and went straight to his hangar.  Melinda followed to make sure her husband would be comfortable.

The next two days felt like a waiting game….