Andy didn't need a babysitter. Well, actually, he did need a babysitter. But he wanted someone he trusted, someone who knew him when he was normal-sized, not some stranger to whom he was nothing but a burden. Which is what Maria was.

Brooke returned to work Wednesday. Andy decided he was cool with that, even though she technically didn't ask his permission. If throwing herself into work helped distract her from losing her mother, he wouldn't protest it.

But he didn't like having Maria around, even though she was very kind. He had a big argument with Brooke about it. She ended the discussion by saying he needed help, and her decision was final. She used those words: "My decision is final." In that moment, Andy had a sinking feeling, looking up at his humongous daughter. There was a new family dynamic in play, with Brooke at the top, and him on the bottom.

He didn't leave the office all day, not even to eat. He hadn't eaten much since binging on chips and sweets with Brooke in their Richmond hotel room. He wasn't sleeping, either, despite feeling utterly exhausted all of the time. Having lost his wife, and having lost control of everything in his sphere of influence, including his own daughter, he was losing his will to take care of himself. He hadn't bathed since Sunday. He hadn't shaved since Saturday.

Brooke got home in the evening and dismissed Mary. She trudged up the stairs to look in on her dad. Andy heard her approach on the other side of the door and readied himself for another fight.

Her tone was gentler than he expected, and it disarmed him of the anger he'd been brewing all day.

"Hey, Daddy."

"Hey, Brooke."

She collapsed into the desk chair and leaned back. Andy, seated between the computer keyboard and the edge of the desk, turned around to face her.

They sat in silence for a few beats. Andy realized she was waiting for him to initiate the end-of-day pleasantries, one of those trite, accidental routines that structure daily life.

"How was your day, Brooke?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Normal."

"Normal is good."

She snickered. "Yeah. What did you do today?"

Andy looked sheepishly down at himself, dressed only in his 6-inch-waist boxer briefs. "Nothing much."

"Mary said you didn't eat anything."

"That's because I didn't feel like eating," he said glumly.

She sighed. "I'm sorry I was mean to you this morning, Daddy. But you have to trust me with Mom gone." She paused. "Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"What?"

She gestured at his thinning form. "You're not eating. You're not sleeping. You smell awful. I can smell you from here. And—look at you! You're like a caveman." She took a deep breath before plunging ahead. "Why do you hate Maria?"

Andy's defenses went back up. "I don't hate her, I just… What I don't understand is why this ice cream job is so important to you that you leave me alone with her. If it's because you want to buy your own car, your mother and I—" He bit his tongue. "I mean, we can make up the shortfall. You don't HAVE to work 30, 40 hours a week. We have plenty of money in savings."

"No," Brooke said firmly. "We agreed that I could work to make enough money to buy my own car before leaving for college. That was our deal."

"We didn't know I'd catch the shrinking disease, Brooke. You have to be flexible."

She crossed her arms, jostling her young breasts under her shirt. She was definitely hitting a late growth spurt, Andy thought. Compared to a week ago, she was at least a cup size bigger.

"I am being flexible, Dad," she said snarkily. It was "Dad" when she was upset with him. "It's you who's refusing to be taken care of by people trained to deal with people with your condition. I'll ask again, why do you hate her?"

"Because she doesn't know me for who I am, when I was big. I need that connection to the real me. To Maria I'm just an invalid."

"Guess what, Dad? You are an invalid. Maria can offer specialized care, tailored for your needs."

"Yeah, but she's not like—" He stopped himself again.

Brooke's expression changed. "Not like who?" Her voice cracked. "Not like Mom?"

"Brooke—"

"Mom's dead, Dad!" she shouted, hurting her father's ears. "No one could be like her, even if they tried. She's dead!"

She buried her face in her hands, sobbing. Andy stood up on the desk, wanting to comfort her, but seeing no way how.

"I know, Brooke. I know. No one can replace your mother. I wasn't saying that."

"Then what were you saying?" she cried, between sobs.

"I was thinking of… of… Kimberly." Andy swore under his breath. What are you saying, idiot?!

She looked at her small father through red, blurry eyes. "You want Kim to come take care of you?"

Andy scrambled for words. "Well, no. I mean, I—I'm comfortable around her. I knew her well before I started shrinking. And she did a good job when she was staying with us. I was thinking maybe we could… get someone like that." I'm such a retard, he thought.

Brooke's sobs had subsided. "Do you want me to ask her?" she said.

"No. She went back home to her parents for a reason. We shouldn't mess that up."

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

He was adamant. "No. That's not a good idea, Brooke."

She furrowed her brow in consternation. "Why not? You just said she did a good job taking care of you."

There was no way out of this one. Brooke already looked convinced of what she should do, and it was up to Andy to dissuade her. But what argument could he make that she wouldn't ignore? Only the truth that he dare not speak: Kimberly was an impressionable girl with more raw sexual power than she could handle. She needed protection from herself, and he was the last person to provide it. If she tried to seduce him again, he was afraid of what he might do.

Andy would sooner die than open up this dark corner of his soul to inspection by his teenage daughter.

"You're scared of her. Is that it?"

"What? No, I—"

"I get it, Daddy. She's like the prettiest girl in my class. I'm used to how boys act around her."

Andy had to right the ship, quickly. "Whoa, timeout. What does that have to do with—"

"She only teased you because she used to have a little crush on you when she was, like, 13. She wouldn't try to take advantage of you or anything."

Yes, she would! Andy thought. His daughter must be preternaturally chaste, maybe even asexual, to speak about attraction so openly and treat it as no big deal. She didn't know how powerful a force it was in most people.

"I know what to do. Let's not talk about it anymore," she said. She wiped her tear-stained cheeks and stood abruptly. "I'm going to order a pizza. Okay if I use your credit card?"

She didn't wait for an answer. "Thanks, Daddy." And she was gone.

Kimberly was lying on her bed in her room, reading, when her phone vibrated. It was a text from Brooke.

"I have a big ask. Can you come over tomorrow and watch my dad?"

Kimberly considered how she should respond, if at all, but the phone rang before she could put the right words together.

"Hello?"

"Hey, love, it's Brooke."

"I know. How are you doing?"

The question took Brooke off guard. "Okay, considering."

So, pretty bad, Kimberly surmised. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Did you get my text? What do you think?"

She paused a second topinion think. How could she tell her best friend no without telling her why not? "I don't think I can."

"Why not?!" Brooke whined. "You should have heard my dad earlier. He was saying how great you were at taking care of him. He was practically begging for you."

Kimberly seriously doubted that. She had said in her letter that it would be best if they stayed apart. He wouldn't intentionally try to reestablish contact with her.

"Are you sure about that, Brooke?"

"Okay, I had to talk him into it," she admitted. "But you should see him. He's really depressed. He hasn't eaten or slept in days."

Brooke sat up in alarm. Not eating or sleeping could seriously jeopardize Andy's recovery from the shrinking disease. She tried to hide the worry in her voice. "Is he sick?"

"No, just sad, you know? Like he's got nothing to live for."

Kimberly twirled her hair. She envisioned Andy helplessly dwindling away to nothing. The image was enough to move something deep inside her.

"You think if I came over he'd, you know, get over it, be happy again?"

"Yeah. I do. Please, Kim? I need your help. I don't know what to do for him. He wants me to quit my job and stay with him, but I know that wouldn't be enough. He needs YOU."

Kimberly closed her eyes. Just days ago she'd taken drastic steps to lock down her urges, especially around Mr. Speed. Now here she was, considering opening Pandora's Box all over again.

There would have to be controls, she thought. Strict boundaries that neither of them could cross. That's the only way it was going to work.

"If I say yes," Kimberly said, "it's just for a day, okay?"

"Yeah, just one day, then we'll see how he's doing."

She sighed. "Let me ask my parents. I'll text you later."

"Okay. Thanks, Kim. Love ya." Brooke hung up.

As Kimberly made her way downstairs, she told herself she was doing this for the right reasons. It was because she wanted Andy to be healthy that she was going back on her promise, not because she wanted another chance to requite her love. She did love him. That was undeniable. But her motivation was selfless this time. She didn't care about validating her feelings for him anymore. This was about helping him feel better so he could have a normal life someday.

She found her dad, Roy, alone in the living room, grading papers. She would have preferred to talk to her mother, but she'd gone to bed early with a headache.

"Hey, Dad. Can we talk?" she asked softly.

"Yeah." He cleared a space on the couch next to him. She sat down.

"You know how I was staying with the Speeds while I was working at… Twin Peaks?"

Hearing the name of her former workplace discomfited her father. "Mm-hmm," he intoned.

"Well, I just talked to Brooke on the phone. She asked me if I would babysit Mr. Speed tomorrow."

Roy's eyes scrutunized her. "At their house?"

"Yeah."

He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What do you think, Kim?"

"I think… Mr. Speed needs someone who can care for him and lift his spirits a little."

"You're saying you basically did the same thing while you were living with them."

Kimberly twisted her fingers in her lap. "Yeah, but at the time he had Mrs. Speed caring for—"

"At the time, Mr. Speed was married. Now he's not. And you're proposing putting yourself in a situation that's very personal, very intimate, with a single man."

Roy reached for her hand and squeezed it. "You know we love you, Kim. We want what's best for you. We want you to make the right choices. But part of letting you grow up has been to admit that, at times, we don't know what's best for you. We don't know what the right choices are. Sometimes, only you can know that."

He paused to measure out his words. "If you were asking for my permission, I'd say no. I'd say you could only do it if you brought Mr. Speed here, to be watched by your mother and brother also. But it's not up to me this time. It's up to you. So, what are YOUR reasons that you want to… babysit Mr. Speed?"

Kimberly's eyes welled up as she spoke from the heart. "When I was helping him before, I was really nervous at first. But he made it feel like the most normal thing. He looked out for me, gave me advice. He was… he was like you, Dad. It was after talking to him that I decided to come home. If I had asked to stay with any other family, I know things would have turned out worse. Brooke and I teased him about his size, but he took it in stride. He didn't let shrinking change him."

She took a breath. "Brooke said he's not eating and he's not sleeping since Mrs. Speed died. You know what he told me once? He said Mrs. Speed was the best thing about him. And I know it was true." She smiled fondly at the memory of him standing up to her and rejecting her once and for all. Ironic how she admired him even more for that.

"He just lost the best thing about him. I'm someone he trusts, someone he can be himself around. I know when he shows his grief to me, God will give me the right things to say. I don't want him to feel like he has to suffer through this alone."

Roy pursed his lips and nodded soberly. "Those sound like the right reasons to me." He squuezed her hand again. "I'll follow you over there in the morning to see him myself. My first class doesn't start until 9:00."

"Thank you, Dad." She leaned in for a hug. Her chin settled on his shoulder and he squeezed her tight.

"Don't thank me, Kim. Thank yourself. You're doing the right thing. I'm proud of you."

"Thank you for believing in me."

She broke the hug and ran upstairs. She picked up her phone and texted Brooke. "I'll do it"

Brooke replied immediately. "Thank you! =*)"