After making the alteration to the strange device, Brett put it aside on the marble-topped surface of a credenza and turned back to the wee mouse, which appeared agitated. Although Nathan's feeble squeaks barely registered, Brett did look back into the bowl as a serious expression formed on his features as he studied the white mouse as it ran in aimless circles around the bowl.
"Now, what to do about you..." Brett mused aloud.
"About me?" Nathan stopped his pointless circling of the bowl to look upward at his huge friend who looked positively Brobdingnagian in his towering stature.
"I'm not sure you'd survive long on your own," Brett kept talking his thoughts aloud. "You appear domesticated."
Brett continued to stare into the bowl as he unzipped a deep pocket on the front of his warm parka.
"Just get me the Chronivac!" Nathan squeaked. "That's all I..."
He stopped squeaking as Brett's huge hand reached for him. "No! Stop!" Nathan squeaked in vain.
Brett's hand wrapped around him and lifted him from the bowl just long enough to transfer him into a pocket on the front of his parka.
"We'll figure it out once I get home," Brett said, zipping closed the pocket even as Nathan squeaked his futile protest. He didn't want to go home with Brett. He needed the Chronivac. Without the device, he was doomed to remain a puny rodent.
The fur-lined parka's pocket provided a soft cocoon and, after he calmed himself, Nathan could even hear the loud thumping of every beat of his gigantic friend's heart. For the time being, however, there wasn't anything at all he could do.