The Doctor lay collapsed on the office floor, sprawled out amidst the scattered contents of her desk. Her breathing was thick and restrained, each inhale an effort to work through. An attempt to stand failed, as did an attempt to crawl forward.

It happened all at once, a sudden wave of fatigue and dizziness, but it was her shifting perspective that ultimately tripped her; startled by the widening of everything around her, the Doctor stumbled out of her office chair, not having realized how much shorter her legs had become. Only in a cold sweat on the ground did she understand that she was shrinking, a transformation that shocked her body with compressed pains.

Gravel was stopped by the sight, her gasp covered by a wrist. “D-Doctor, what happened…?” She neared closer cautiously, skeptical of what sickness might have overcome her trusted commander. She had been outside the Doctor’s office when she heard the crash of her fall, prompting her to poke in. The teasing smile she had prepared vanished upon seeing the Doctor violently collapsed, quickly dropping the character and approaching the situation seriously.

Especially curious, Gravel knelt by the Doctor and the pile of coats she was underneath. Each layer weighed heavy over her shrinking body, a process Gravel only then realized was occurring. She could see the change happening, every part of the Doctor dwindling inwards while she coughed and whined. By the time Gravel had reached her, the Doctor was half her original height, small enough to be slipped out from her heavy coats and into Gravel’s arms.

“Doctor, you… don’t look well…” Gravel struggled to offer medical advice; the dynamic was completely backwards. But the operator understood her responsibility as a bodyguard, and her instincts had her responding swiftly. She stood up, lifting the Doctor into a cradle among the blanket-like clothes, and she offered an encouraging smile to the weary eyes she was so fond of. “You don’t need to worry, Doctor. I’ll protect you.”

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