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Definitely a twist that was unseen, nicely done.  

128. My Baby’s Decision My phone chimed before I even got to the meeting room. I might have ignored it, figuring that Tess’s presence had to be my highest priority, But nobody who had my details on XV could be ignored. I glanced at the screen, and saw that it was Ffrances. Maybe she wanted to know where Tess had gotten to or something; working at Pine Ridge, she was bound to find out pretty quickly if the girl had checked out. But the message was more of a warning for me. Not a direct threat, but letting me know that Tess was on the way. And that Ffrances would be interested to hear what we had talked about afterwards. The way she said it made it clear that she would be asking Tess what we discussed, and what I said. In the circumstances, I thought that this was likely to be some kind of test. Ffrances had reminded me, in no uncertain terms, that I was expected to agree to whatever Tess decided. If she wanted to be a baby, or to redecorate the nursery, or to take a vacation over the Easter break, it was entirely down to Tess to make her own choices, because she’d recently beaten me in the maturity stakes. And if I didn’t approve, the only thing that I was allowed to say was that I would ask Ffrances. So this was my chance to prove that I’d really meant it when I agreed to those terms. This was my chance to show Tess that I trusted her to be an adult, and that I wasn’t going to let her get hurt again. I took a deep breath, and walked into the plum meeting room. I had arrived a couple of minutes before Tess, but I knew that it wouldn’t be long. Just enough time to acclimate myself to the weird purple decor in here. Around the front of the Fitzgerald there were a dozen meeting and interview rooms that had unique colours as well as room numbers; designed so that visitors from outside the company would be able to intuitively walk to the only door that would let them through. I hadn’t read all the psychological studies that had led to that choice, but knowing the way SYL organised things I didn’t doubt that all the work had been done before making such a decision. I was only standing there for thirty seconds before the door opened. More than a week since I’d seen Tess, and already it seemed like forever; but she didn’t look any different from the last time we’d spoken. Like her absence was an extended school day, and my subconscious mind just wanted me to overlook it and carry on as normal. About the only thing reminding me that anything out of the ordinary had happened was the expression of pain flashing across her face as she pushed the door open. I had some sympathy for that, as I’d only started to use my own sore shoulder normally earlier the same day. She clearly didn’t want me to notice the discomfort, because she didn’t allow herself to make a sound; and I might not have noticed the momentary flicker of pain on her face if her head hadn’t been slightly tilted to one side. Still, if she didn’t want me to see, I would have to live with that. I knew well that I was on thin ice now, and I didn’t want Ffrances to hear that I’d been too harsh on our little girl while she was still recovering. “Tess!” I greeted her, and almost went in for a hug before realising that any touch could still hurt her. I would have to offer sympathy at a distance until I had a better idea of how close it was safe to come, or what had actually happened. “Are you okay? I’ve not seen you all week, I’ve been out of my mind. I’ve not been able to stop thinking about you all this time. Please tell me you’re okay.” “I’m okay,” she said. “Did Ffrances tell you where I’ve been?” I gave a quick explanation, that I knew where she had been but not why. I couldn’t interrogate her, and I didn’t want to make her worry again, but I did my best to hint that I would have felt a lot better if I actually knew what had happened. It was so hard to hear her say “I can look after myself,” but I told myself that she couldn’t keep up this mask of independence for too long. When she came home, it wouldn’t be long before I could get into littlespace again, and then she would be happy to let me make the decisions and do everything for her. I could hardly wait. “Spike’s stepfather is the big problem,” she said, and I could hear the fear in her voice no matter how much she tried to hide it. She knew what that man was like; and I wished she had felt comfortable enough to tell me all this before. Then, we might both have been able to avoid the thug. “He’s been a problem for a while, and I’ve been doing my best to avoid any contact with the guy. Spike is usually his punching bag, and he just takes it because he’s worried Duke will hurt his mum, or Nik. Cares so much about other people that he’s willing to just take a beating. But now it’s clear that this is just going to keep getting worse. Duke found out somehow that I’ve been spending more time with Spike, and he wasn’t happy. So we’ve called the police, given them all the evidence they could ask for, and we hope they’re going to do something about it soon.” I was proud of her then, even if the idea of her taking on someone like that terrified me. She wasn’t running scared like I had; she had worked out how to remove the problem. That kind of determination was terrifying, and I decided right then that I would make a situation soon where she didn’t need to think like that. A safe life was the only thing she deserved, and I couldn’t imagine how much stress she was under, feeling like she had to take all the responsibility for all these issues that nobody else would be able to deal with for her. She really needed to be little now, and I told her that I would help her as soon as we were home safe. But I wasn’t sure how to balance Tess’s need to regress against the plans I had already made for Ffrances tomorrow. Could I bring our little one along on the date, so she could watch our proposal, and lend a voice of childish glee encouraging Ffrances to say ‘yes’? But Tess wasn’t finished yet; there were still things she felt she had to say. “Spike’s moving in with us,” she said, and my train of thought derailed in an instant. I couldn’t believe that she had even said those words. My baby and a teen boy, under the same roof? I knew that any parent would say that was wholly unacceptable. And my first instinct was to cut her off as she rambled on about how he wasn’t safe with his father, and I had a spare room. I could just tell her that she was spouting fantasies, and there was no way I would ever allow that to happen. But I caught myself before I actually said it, realising quickly that I wasn’t in the best place to be laying down the law. Tess was already hurt. I didn’t want her to feel distressed or anxious, and I didn’t want her to see me as the enemy. A plain ‘no’ could only make it harder to get her back into littlespace, and might even make it harder for her to trust me like she should. Not to mention the new rules Ffrances had given me, forbidding me from contradicting anything Tess had planned. I didn’t know how likely it was that Tess would go to Ffrances anyway if I said no; but the risk was too high for me to take. Especially so close to the day of the big proposal. I didn’t want my fiancée to have any reason to doubt my dedication. I tried asking if there was somewhere else the punk could go; but when she talked about how hard things were with his family, it was clear that she wasn’t going to entertain other options. And I felt guilty again, even for that jerk, because I knew that I’d made it harder for him to stay with his actual family. Still, I didn’t want him to be around Tess any more than he had to be, and I hoped that once he had somewhere else to stay, she would quickly lose interest in him. If some relative in a different district could take him in, then she wouldn’t see him every day at school. And then she could get over him in peace at last. I couldn’t say no. That was hard for me, because I was sure that Tess needed to hear an older and wiser voice telling her the problems with her idea. But I didn’t want to be the one putting my foot down, for more than a couple of reasons now. As much as I hated not being able to correct the little one, and letting her hold out some false hope, I knew that it was for the best in the long run. Ffrances was a lot better at these kinds of conversations, and it also meant that I wouldn’t be risking any tension between us tomorrow. “You’ll have to ask Ffrances,” I said. “I promise I’ll ask her tomorrow, but don’t get your hopes up.” I’d already told her about the comic, so she knew that tomorrow was a big romantic event for us. She wouldn’t say anything to distract Ffrances from our special day. I didn’t know if I would actually need to ask Ffrances anyway. I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with human psychology, and I knew that if I told Tess that my girlfriend had said no, she was more than likely to just accept that. She would realise that there was no chance she was going to change our minds. She wouldn’t be willing to offend Ffrances any more than I was, after all the help that we’d both given her. “Thank you!” Tess squealed, and ran forward to hug me. It seemed like an almost instinctive response, and again she tried to hide that she was in some pain as she squeezed me close. But she was so excited to hear an answer that she must have known was only a ‘maybe’, and I couldn’t resist ruffling her hair just a little. “You’re welcome,” I said, but I might have been a little too quiet because she gave no sign of having heard. And then, because I knew she still needed some relaxation after all the time away from home, I added something to help her relax. I just told her that she was going to have an accident tonight; and that she would feel like a baby again now that she was somewhere that could be safe. Again, she didn’t give any sign of having heard of me; but I think that this time it was more likely because she always let those trigger words slip her mind. “Are you giving her Golden Ring tomorrow?” she asked; maybe just trying to find words to fill the air because she was embarrassed by that hug. But maybe she was really hoping we could all be a family, as much as I was. “Yeah,” I answered. And then I said more. I didn’t like to tell Tess all the details, because she was too young to think about those kinds of plans, and I didn’t want to burden her with any further responsibility. But I felt that in her current state of mind, it would be better for her to know when we were going to be at home to help her. And as I was talking, another idea came to me: “We’ll be out for lunch, I want to make it as romantic as possible. But I promise you’ll get a chance to read with her when she gets home. Or maybe you can be a little kid, and I’ll read to you. To both of you, if you want.” Tess actually smiled this time. She was enthusiastic about the plan, so maybe it would be easier than I had thought to get her to regress. Perhaps, after all the stress of wetting herself so many times in the hospital, she knew that being little was best for her. We didn’t have much else to talk about, but it was getting close to the end of the work day already. I offered to give Tess a lift home, because I didn’t want her to be struggling on the bus while she was still in pain. And I was very pleased to see that she didn’t fight me at all. She went back to the spare room, rather than the nursery. And she said that she had lots of school work that she needed to catch up on. I was conflicted then, because I didn’t want her to feel like there were things she needed to do, but I also knew that she would get in a lot of trouble if she didn’t catch up with all the work she had missed while she was away. So I left her in her room, and tried not to disturb her while I double-checked all my plans for the next day yet again. This was probably the most stressful moment of my life so far, but I knew that it would all be worth it when we were a proper little family. I really couldn’t imagine any other path for our life. Everything was going to go perfectly.

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I have two conditions that are not "visible" to others. One is a congenital heart defect, and the other is high functional autism.