The Inventor's Wife Restored
by JMD

"I thought I was clear about what would happen to you if you disturbed me this weekend," the inventor's sister said in a dangerous tone.

"Crystal clear," he confirmed.  "Which is why I'm calling you on the phone and not knocking on your door."

He heard her laugh on the other end of the line.  "You're learning, little brother," she praised.  "So, what's up?"

"We forgot something," he told her.

"Forgot something?" she repeated.  He could picture her standing there going back over their conversation.  "I don't think so," she finally said.

"I've got a pair of panties here that would disagree."  He looked at the underwear in his hand.  "If they could," he added.

"Oh, right," his sister said.  "Her."

"Yeah," he scolded.  "Her.  You didn't do this on purpose, did you?"

"I don't think so."

"You don't think so?" he repeated in astonishment.  "What does that mean?"

"It means I had other things on my mind," she fired back.  "Like..."

"Stop!" he cut her off.  "I don't want to hear any more about your sex life.  Just get back over here and fix this."

"No," she stated flatly.  Before he could argue with her, she went on.  "First, my... um... experiments... have already started."  

"I don't..."

"Second," she said, powering over his protest, "I don't plan to be anywhere in the area when that wife of yours is about to throw her magic around again."

"Witchcraft," he corrected automatically.

"Whatever," she replied just as automatically.  "My point is, she's not going to mess up my weekend by turning me into a fish again."

He laughed dangerously.  "You'll be lucky if that's all she does to you."

"Not helping your case," she pointed out.

He sighed.  "Look, sis..."

"No," she cut in.  "I'm not coming over there, and that's that.  If you want your wife back to normal, you're just going to have to do it yourself."

"How?" he protested.  "You've got the Linge-Ray."

"So? she countered.  "Just use the Restorer."

He stopped and looked at the phone.  "You know about the Restorer?"

"I know about a lot of your crazy ideas," she answered.  "Your wife showed me your notebook.  Good thing, too.  Or else you might still be stuck in a bra with her power-hungry panties."  She paused for a second.  "God, I can't believe I actually said that with a straight face."

"And it worked?"

"You're talking to me, aren't you?" she pointed out.

"Wow."

"You honestly didn't know it worked?" she asked.

"I've never had the opportunity to test it on anything," he answered.  "The Linge-Ray was the first thing I made that actually created something to restore."

"Well, I can confirm that does," she told him.  "So, use it.  I left it on the table beside your bed."  He heard her draw in a deep breath.  "Now, go away," she said breathily.  "I'm busy."  

He flinched as the phone connection was cut off abruptly.  With a sigh, he placed the handset back in the cradle.  “Okay,” he said, holding the panties up to talk to them.  “The Restorer it is.”

Going back to their bedroom, he spotted the invention right away, realizing that he’d seen it before.  He just hadn’t recognized it, mistaking it for his wife’s cell phone.  Picking it up, he marveled at the simplicity of the device.  “And it works,” he said softly to himself with a smile.  He basked in the glory of his success for another few moments, then turned to the panties he was holding in his other hand.  “Which is something I bet you’d like me to demonstrate, huh?” he said with a bigger smile.

He made to toss the panties onto the bed but stopped before doing it.  Instead, he stepped forward and carefully place them face up on the mattress.  Stepping back, he aimed the Restorer at them.  But again, he stopped.  Biting his lip, he thought for a second before moving forward and turning the panties over face down onto the bed.  “Better safe than sorry,” he said to himself.

He pointed the Restorer at the panties and pushed the single button on the device.  The lens on the end produced a bright flash and the panties disappeared with “pop”.  A second ‘pop” and his wife appeared in their place.  Lying face down on the bed, she was still wrapped in the towel she’d put on after her shower.

The woman quickly pushed herself up off the mattress.  “That’s it!” she practically shouted, turning to sit on the edge of the bed.  “She’s had it!  I’m going to turn her into…”  She stopped suddenly as she caught sight of her husband.  She stared at him with a cocked eyebrow for a few seconds before starting to laugh.

Her husband looked back at her in confusion.  “What’s so funny?”

She just pointed at him in response.  “Really?”

Still, confused, he looked down at himself.  “Oh,” he said, when he saw that he was still wearing his wife’s clothes that he’d borrowed earlier.  “Right.”  He looked back up at her.  “Sorry about the skirt.”

She waved him off.  “That’s okay,” she told him.  “I never really liked it that much anyway.”  She looked around.  “So, where is she?”

“Her place,” he answered.

She looked disappointed.  “Coward,” she commented simply.  “But no problem.  There’s still plenty of time for me to go over there and deal with her before we go out for our girls’ night.”

The inventor looked confused again.  “Our what?”

“Girls’ night,” she repeated.  At his still confused expression, she went on.  “You promised, remember?  Just because your grump of a sister turned me back into panties for a little while doesn’t mean you’re off the hook.”

“A little while?” he questioned.  “It’s been over twenty-four hours.”

Now it was his wife’s turn to look confused.  “No, it hasn’t,” she told him.  “You kept me as panties all afternoon, remember?  This wasn’t nearly that long.”

“Sweetie,” he explained, “that’s was yesterday.  My sister kept us in her underwear drawer all day today before she brought me back.”

“You back?” she asked.  “Back from where?”

“From being a bra,” he answered.  “She used the Linge-Ray on me right after she...”  He seemed to realize something.  “That’s got to be it.”

“Be what?”

“The reason you don’t know how much time has passed.”

She eyed him suspiciously.  “You’re going to have to explain that a bit more, I think.”

“Okay,” he started, sitting next to her on the bed, “when I used the Linge-Ray on you – made you into panties – you told me that you were aware the whole time.  You couldn’t see or hear, but you felt everything that happened to you.”

“Right,” she agreed cautiously.

“And this time?”

“The same,” she insisted.  “I couldn’t see or hear, but I felt someone carrying me.”

“Nothing else?”

“Well, no one wore me this time, if that’s what you mean,” she told him.

“There wasn’t a moment when things got…”  He stopped and thought for a second.  “…fuzzy?”

His wife’s eyes widened slightly.  “Now that you mention it, there was.”  He snapped his fingers at her and smiled.  “What was that?”

“That was me turning into a bra,” he answered.

She cocked an eyebrow at him.  “Again, more explanation, please.”

“I was holding you as panties when my sister hit me with the Linge-Ray,” he said.  “So, you became a bra along with me.  Apparently, that was enough to override whatever it is that keeps you aware when you’re Linge-Rayed by yourself.”

His wife thought about that.  “So, while you were a bra, I was…  what exactly?”

He gave it some thought.  “Part of me, I guess,” he finally answered.

“Part of you?”

“I guess,” he said again.  “Just like the clothes I was wearing.”

His wife nodded.  “Actually, being part of you doesn’t sound that bad.”  She kissed him lightly on the lips.  “Now,” she said, standing up, “if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go turn your sister into a chew toy and toss her into the Lamberts’ backyard with Samson.”

“Uh,” he warned, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you?”

“Good thing I’m not you, then, huh?” She headed for the bedroom door.

“She’s got the Linge-Ray.”

That stopped her.  “She does?” she asked, looking back.

“And promised to use it if either of us come anywhere near her this weekend,” he pointed out.  “She’s probably waiting for you to come through the door as we speak.”

“Who said anything about using the door?” she said pointedly.  Before he could comment, she thought of something else.  “Wait a second.  If she’s got the Linge-Ray, how did you change me back?”

With a smile of pride, the inventor held up the Restorer.

“Oh, right,” his wife said, taking it from him.  “I’d forgotten about this thing.”

“It works,” he told her proudly.

She smiled back.  “I know,” she said.  “I was there when your sister used it to bring you and my uppity panties back.”  As she spoke, she glanced at the lingerie hanger dangling from her closet door.  “I wonder…”

“Wonder what?” her husband asked.

“This thing changes stuff back that’s been changed into something else, right?”  He just nodded in reply.  “How does it do that?”

“Well,” he hesitated, “in theory, when something is transformed, it leaves an energy signature.”

“In theory?”

“Well, until the Linge-Ray worked, everything was theory,” he pointed out.

“Okay.”

“The Restorer simply removes the energy,” he went on, “and whatever was changed changes back.  Pretty simple really.”

“Uh-huh,” she nodded.  “This energy signa-thingie?  That’s a science thing, right?”

“Again,” he explained, “in theory.  But I guess so, yeah.  Why?”

“I was just wondering,” she said, again glancing toward her closet, “if witchcraft worked the same way.”

He considered that before answering.  “Interesting,” he admitted.  “Might be worth investigating further.  It could help us with the awareness issue with the Linge-Ray.”

“How would we find out?”

“Uh,” he thought out loud, “I guess we’d have to use witchcraft to change something, then see if the Restorer brought it back.”  He looked at her suspiciously.  “You’re not thinking of trying it with my sister, are you?”

“Maybe,” she answered with an evil smile.  “Well, except for the bringing back part.”  Before he could say anything, she waved him off.  “Calm down.  I’m just joking… mostly.  It just so happens that we’ve got a test subject already available.”

“We do?”

“We do,” she told him.  Before he could ask, she turned and aimed the Restorer at the hanger on her closet door.  

With a press of the button, the device gave off a bright flash.  Instantly, the hanger began to glow.  The light grew brighter, maintaining the shape of the hanger for a few seconds.  Then, it faded, leaving an unchanged hanger on the doorknob.

The couple shared a look.  With a shrug, the redhead tossed the Restorer to her husband.  “Well,” she sighed, “that was a bu -- oohhh!!!”

The woman tensed up a second before she began to glow.  Like the hanger a moment before, the light grew brighter, leaving a woman-shaped glow standing there.  Unlike the hanger, however, this shape began to change, drawing into itself and growing smaller.  When the changes stopped, the light faded, leaving a hanger identical to the one on the closet hanging empty in the air.  Without a sound, it dropped to the bedroom floor.

For almost a minute, the inventor just sat on the bed and stared down at the hanger on the floor.  Then, he looked between it and the one on the closet door.  Finally, he looked at the Restorer in his hand.  “Okay,” he finally said, getting up and going over to the hanger that had replaced his wife, “that was interesting.”

He bent over and picked up the hanger, examining it for any sign of his wife.  “Honey?” he called softly, getting no response.  He stood there, trying to come up with a solution to the problem before him.  But after a bit, he could come up with only one answer.  With a sigh, he looked off in the direction of his sister’s house.

“Well, crap.”