Honey, I Shrunk the Egos

Lasers Version 2.0

With a groan, Amy slowly opened her eyes and tilted her head to see Mark, madly swiping at her phone screen with his whole arm, trying to answer the call. "Mark..." She chuckled softly, rolling onto her side and gently pulled the phone out from under him, answering the call and held it to her ear. "Hello?" She asked as she watched Mark turn to face her, dragging himself across the table by his arms as she shook her head at him, frowning.

"Amy?" Came Frederick's voice. "You sound... oh. Oh! It's two in the morning! I hadn't even noticed. I'm so sorry dear."

"We said you could call any time." Amy yawned. "Did you finish testing?"

"I have, yes. I can't... guarantee the device's safety unfortunately, but all of the test subjects have been unharmed." Frederick explained. "And I think... it should return them to their standard sizes."

Groaning, Amy put the phone on speaker and leaned over, gently picking up Mark and set him on the bed beside the phone. "Could you repeat that?" She asked. "The part about it not being safe."

There was a short silence before Frederick sighed. "Not that it's not safe... just that I can't guarantee it's safety. Like I said, all of the test subjects were unharmed. None of them were human though. They were lab mice." He explained. "And of course, there's no way to test if it will actually do the job. It's not a growth ray, it's merely going to reverse the original process. Well... that's what it's designed to do."

"That's fine." Mark groaned. "I mean, it can't go worse than shrinking us all."

"It could kill you." Amy pointed out.

"I can't be five inches tall for the rest of my life!" Mark shouted.

Amy flopped onto her back, rubbing her face with her hands. Frederick cleared his throat. "The chance of death is really, very low." He promised.

"Very low, isn't zero!" Amy whimpered.

Sighing Mark nodded. "I mean... Dr. Stewart might have been actually trying to kill us, and we survived that." He offered, frowning when Amy didn't answer. "We'll be there as soon as we can Frederick-"

"Mark... no." Amy looked up, then pushed herself up on her elbow. "Frederick, when was the last time you slept?"

There was a silence, and some unintelligible mumbling before an answer came. "What day is it?"

"You need to sleep." Amy pointed out.

"I want this over with." Mark stared up at her.

Amy sighed. "I know you do, but your life will literally be in his hands and he's been awake for days..."

Frederick cleared his throat. "I feel fine."

"He feels fine!" Mark grinned.

Amy shook her head. "I'm scared... I don't want to lose you. If we're going to take the risk of another weird machine, at least wait until he's well rested. Until he can think on his feet if something goes wrong, and he can do a proper check of the thing with a clear head in the morning. Please Mark. I don't think it's that much to ask for."

Mark watched her a moment, opening his mouth and closed it again. He nodded a little, before looking down to the phone in front of him. "Would that be alright Frederick? Meeting up in the morning?"

"Yes. That works well." Frederick answered. "Is there a time you... uh, wanted to meet up?"

"How about ten?" Amy offered, and Mark groaned, realizing how far away that was.

"Perfect!" Frederick answered. "I believe you have the address, but don't hesitate to call if you have any problems finding the place."

"Of course. Thank you." Amy smiled, hanging up the call and watched Mark. "I know you're disappointed, but I-"