The sun was setting, and the insanity of the day was fading away like a bad dream.
Back at the lab, Carrie set Todd down next to his main computer and stripped off the portable equipment. They had just carefully inserted the small singularity into a pre-existing containment unit. It was over at last. They had heroically completed saving the world from themselves. A bigger problem faced them now.
What do they do next with their relationship?
Carrie pulled a chair up to the hamster in front of her. "Well, that's done then." She said. "Right?"
"All done. Everything is in a failsafe configuration."
"That's super nerd for 'Yes' then?"
"Yes," he said. "It's safe."
"Great."
During the awkward silence that followed, they each tried to figure out what to say next since their entire excuse for cooperating was over.
"So," Todd ventured. "What do we do now?"
Carrie looked at him. She drummed a thumb on the armrest of her chair.
He continued, "We can use the terminal on the desktop computer here to make more changes. It will still work even without the remote."
"I'm worried," she said after a long pause.
"Everything should still work just fine. We could..." He searched for the words, "...fix things."
Carrie understood what he was saying. "What happens when you go back to normal?"
"I'll just be how I was before."
"That's what worries me."
Todd sighed. He had been dreading this conversation. "I won't hurt you," he said.
She raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"I'm serious," he said. "I'm done with playing with that thing. I saw what kind of danger it can cause. And, anyway..."
"Yes?"
"I like you too much to hurt you."
Todd detected a faint smile on her lips.
"Well," he said. "What happens next is up to you really. You can either trust me or not. It's your choice. Turn me back or invest in some wood chips and a cage."
She looked at him and thought about what to do next.