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This is being posted several hours earlier than normal due to limited privacy where I'm staying with family. Chapter 120: Tuck I WATCHED AS the woman began standing up and fighting with the police officer. “Down on the ground now!” He commanded, even as she somehow managed to grapple with his taser-like weapon and pulled it out of his holster. “Shit!” I heard Nikki say, and she stood up suddenly. The weapon was forced downward toward the ground by the officer trying to prevent it from pointing at someone, but she somehow discharged it. I watched a crazy blue pulse fire into the ground! I was looking at my seat to see if there was an easy way out, even as Nikki exploded towards the crazy woman and wrapped her arms around her from the back. I watched her sweep the woman’s legs and land on the ground on top of the woman while grappling her arms back behind her. Grandma had stood too and was sitting on her legs a second later to hold her down. “Let me up!!!” The woman screamed, “I have rights!!!!!” “Thanks,” the officer said to the bystanders who helped him. You do indeed have rights, Ma’am. You have the right to remain silent…” He had whoever he was with go to his car, and soon, the woman was cuffed with plastic-looking cuffs. “Where’s my baby?!?” The woman was crying out a few minutes later when they realized the abused Little was nowhere in sight. Ava smirked as she delivered the check to Megan, who somehow used the distraction to pick up the check, to Grandma’s clear annoyance. “I would have gotten that Megan!” “Face it, sis; I can get it every now and then, too!” She’d stuck her tongue out at Grandma, and I just shook my head at their antics even as I wondered at the look Ava gave me. ‘Would she have helped the poor boy?’ I wondered. After that, it took us an extra half-hour to leave the restaurant as officers needed to take statements from Nikki and Grandma. “Carly, do you need a change?” Aunt Megan asked. “I’m sure Meggy and Bella do?” “Umm… yeah?” “Grab your bag and come with me; I’ll change you while they finish?” “Actually, I need to go before we leave,” Beth said. “I might as well come too?” Shelby said. “Not staying here,” Leelah said. It was, fortunately, a relatively large bathroom, but oddly, for this dimension, it only contained one changing table. Aunt Megan started with Meggy, who was a bit poopy too, before going to Bella, and then finally saying, “Come here, Carly.” I squirmed a bit inside but walked towards my Aunt, who had no qualms with picking me up, placing me down on the changing table, and quickly exposing my soaked diaper. “You probably should have had a change before this; you almost leaked here, kiddo,” she told me. “I think we caught it in time, but ask to get changed before that happens next time!” She shook her head, “Meggy always does the same thing. Where do you keep your diapees?” I blushed but pointed to the compartment with diapers. Aunt Megan used some of her wipes to clean my reddening body before taping me in a fresh diaper. “There you go, all dry! Let’s wash your hands now,” she said, picking me up and leaning me over the sink. As we returned to the main area of the restaurant as a group, I saw two officers dragging the horrible woman away, even as the original officer was speaking with Nikki. “It was nice meeting you,” the officer said. “Call me if you have time and want to do something.” “Will do, Sergeant,” Nikki said with a smile that made me think some personal information had been traded! “If anyone sees anything of that missing Little, please get in touch with our office. We need to make sure the Little guy is safe!” he said towards Ava and a woman I assumed was the manager. “We will, sir,” the manager said. “Ready to get out of here?” Grandma asked us. “Please!” I said. As Nikki was placing me in the car seat, I caught sight of an oddly dressed figure moving down the fire escape of a nearby building. ‘Well played,’ I thought to myself. ‘Hope you make it somewhere safe!’ BETH LOOKED BESIDE her at Carly and noticed she was looking off into the distance at something as Nikki climbed into the driver’s seat. When they were on their way, Carly asked, “So what happens to that guy if he manages to get clear?” Nikki answered, “If he can somehow get out of Ames and go to New Haven, he might be able to stay free. It will be tough for him to stay off the radar here, though. LPS will probably drag their heels with things initially, but they get pretty efficient at looking into a Little’s former life and old contacts. If they find him, for instance, back home, they’ll be ‘obligated’ to take the unaccompanied minor back into custody.” “Seriously?” Carly asked. “What do you do when a child runs away?” She asked. “I’m not saying it’s right, but remember that the second you are adopted, you’re no longer an adult. About fifty percent of adoptive parents even have you declared dead essentially, so that you can’t even use your old Tax ID numbers.” “I didn’t know that,” Beth found herself saying. “With as many reforms as people like your father have helped bring about, it’s better, but adoption is still adoption in the eyes of most of the states. I mean, that stupid Fugitive Little Act is even still on the books!” “What’s that?” Carly asked. “Basically, it’s a law that enables ‘parents’ to go and recover their runaway ‘children’ from other states.” Beth said, “My dad has tried to gut the law as much as possible, but we need a constitutional amendment to remove it. That takes two-thirds of Congress voting in favor of it, then another three-quarters of the states. Ten years ago, they successfully voted it through in Congress, but fifteen states still refuse to sign off on it.” “Sounds like what we had to deal with to get slavery taken out of our constitution back home,” Carly said. “Yeah, it’s unfortunately just about impossible.” “We had to have a civil war for it to happen back home,” Carly said. “That’s terrifying?” Beth replied. “Thankfully, that was a long time ago for us.” “I guess the moral of the story is don’t get adopted, Carly!” Nikki said from the front. Carly was quiet for the rest of the drive to the mall. “So what are we looking for?” Leelah asked as they grouped up at the entrance. “Anything we see,” Megan said to her daughter. “Especially anything that might be a bit of a treat for Carly here!” “We should get her ears pierced, Grandma,” Shelby said. Beth couldn’t help but think that was way overdue, but for some reason, they never made it there the last week. ‘Never mind, there was a reason… I’m not sure I want to be here right now,’ she thought. ‘If we run into that stupid gang again, I will never go shopping here again. “We should do that,” Beth agreed. “We also need to find some summery clothes for her.” “Why?” Carly asked. “Spring Break!” “What is this mysterious trip you and Grandma are keeping from me?” Carly bugged her. “It’s a surprise!” Beth said. “Beth…” Carly whined. Beth smiled, debating about how long to torture her. The sad puppy-dog-like eyes she was suddenly confronted with finally overpowered her willpower to maintain the secret. “Oh, alright… You’re coming with my family on a trip to a tropical island.” She looked at her, “Assuming you want to do that?” “It’s safe?” I asked. “As safe as anywhere. Shelby, you’re invited too? I’m also planning on Livy and Reila coming?” “I get to go?” Shelby asked in shock. “Happy graduation,” Beth told her. “Really?” “Really, Shelby, it’s my graduation present to you,” Beth said. “I can go, Mom?” Shelby asked. “As long as you promise to listen to them, yes. I’ve been assured you’ll be safe.” “So I guess it’s time to find some bikinis?” Shelby said with a smile. “Somehow, I doubt they make them in your size,” Leelah kidded her slightly. “I’m jealous, it sounds like fun.” “It will be for them, Leelah, but remember you’re only thirteen. I am not about to let you go on a trip like that quite yet!” Megan told her. She sighed, “I know, Mom.” “Well, shall we just go store to store then?” Meggy suggested. “Might as well! Make sure you all let us know when you need diaper changes! Carly was about to leak through at the restaurant.” Beth saw Carly blush and felt terrible for her. ‘Nothing worse than having your potty habits announced, I’m guessing!’ So they began their troll through the shops, stopping at almost every store unless it was a men’s store. Beth and Leelah found some cute tops in a store for ‘Tweens and Tweeners.’ She had admitted to Leelah that a good chunk of her casual wardrobe came from the chain! For the shorter members of their group, they looked in baby stores and the kids’ sections. The mall had six dedicated Little stores besides the Free Spirit store they had found the previous week and Littlecise. Littletude was a super pink but not too babyish of a store. The apparel was something you probably wouldn’t want to be seen in past second grade, but it really didn’t seem all that bad for a Little clothes store. Carly found several pairs of shorts, cute t-shirts, and tank tops that would work well on their trip. ‘I haven’t told her why it’ll be so safe… I’m going to try and save that for when we get there, though!’ she thought to herself. They were coming to one of the stores for ‘those’ kinds of mothers when she spotted a jewelry shop. “Let’s see if we can find some earrings here for Carly?” She suggested. Carly seemed less sure than the rest of the crew, but their numbers meant no issues with dragging her inside. For such a tough Little, in most ways, Carly was really squeamish as they discussed the piercing. “She should get these!” Leelah said, pointing to a pair of pink sapphire studs while the rest of the party was a little further down the way. “Those are probably a little…” “Perfect,” is what Beth said, seeing them. “We’ll take them. Can you pierce her ears for us?” The saleswoman gave her a look of ‘should I even take you seriously?’ “Run my payment,” she told her. “These are real…” “I would hope so for the price?” Beth said. “I’m good for it.” The lady ran her payment and seemed a little surprised. “Is there anything else I can get for you?” “Just her ears,” Beth said, going and grabbing Carly. “I’ve got the perfect ones for you!” She told her. “I’m not…” “Yes, you are,” Beth said with a smile. “We do need an adult to consent here?” the woman said. “I can do that,” Carly said with a sigh. “No offense, but you look younger than my toddler.” “I’m not, though,” Carly said. Only Amanda’s look seemed to confirm that to her, and soon Beth was holding Carly’s hands out the door. She was now displaying two very pretty pink sapphire studs in her ears! “Why pink?” Carly asked. “It looks good with your hair and eyes,” she told her. “Thanks for the earrings,” she said. “You’re very welcome!” she said, hugging her. The group continued on their shopping quest. IT SEEMED THAT I was having an exceptionally crazy day, which had almost become my new normal since arriving in the dimension! The news that Shelby and I were tagging along to visit a tropical island for Spring Break was exciting to me! We had taken trips like that back home, and I loved being able to swim in the warm water. ‘What would sea life be like there?’ I got excited as I realized, ‘They might have dolphins?’ I assumed it was probably like Grand Cayman, Jamaica, or the Bahamas, where we’d have an all-inclusive resort setup. I’d have to ask Beth more about it before we left! In the meantime, I did everything I could not to touch my earrings. Back home, it would take weeks to heal enough to switch earrings, but I’d been assured by the jewelry store piercer that I could switch earrings by Monday if I wanted to! That opened up a whole line of shopping as we visited a store dedicated to selling tween and teen girls, especially different earrings, bracelets, hair accessories, and more! Grandma was carrying several bags, and so was I as we neared lunchtime. “How about we take a break and eat lunch in the food court?” Aunt Megan suggested. “Sounds good; my feet are killing me, Mom,” Leelah said. “Are you telling me your old aunt can outshop you?” Grandma kidded her. I noticed Leelah blushed then, but, “No… I’m just ready to sit for a few minutes?” “Sure, you are,” Grandma continued kidding her. Our group moved towards the food court, and Beth and I settled on sharing a plate of sweet and sour chicken. I sat on a booster seat beside her, letting me reach the food between us reasonably successfully. The food was good, and we continued to talk through most of the meal with everyone. I really enjoyed getting to know Leelah a bit more while we were at it! She reminded me a lot of Lilah and Hannah, and I wish all of the cousins could somehow get together without risking adoption! We’d been sitting there for a while. Beth and I had been done for a good ten minutes when Aunt Megan gathered Meggy in her arms and pulled out a blanket from her diaper bag. ‘What’s going on…?’ I thought momentarily before realizing with a blush that she was nursing Meggy right here in the food court! I was just wondering how long it would take when I noticed Aunt Bella tug on Grandma’s sleeve. “Please, Mommy?” I heard her ask quietly. A moment later, another set of breasts was being nursed, and I had to wonder about how Shelby felt about it. She was still nonchalantly talking to Leelah and Beth, so I guessed it was just ‘life’ to her. I was getting ready to ask Nikki about something during her training with my mom when I saw her almost jump from the seat. “Damnit!” she hissed quietly. A look at her top showed me two wet spots on her chest. ‘Oh,’ I thought. “Beth, I need to change my top and bra; at least I have a spare in my bag.” “Okay, do you want to leave us here?” Beth asked. “You can come with me if you want?” Nikki told her. “I actually need to use the restroom myself, and if I had to guess, this one probably needs to be changed?” Beth said, pulling me into her lap. I blushed but nodded. “I could use the restroom, too,” Leelah said, “Can I come with you guys?” “I might as well, too?” Shelby added. “It’s a party,” Nikki said. “Are you ladies good here?” “Yeah, we’ll finish up with our little ones, then catch up if you haven’t returned here,” Grandma said. “Okay,” Nikki said, “Come on girls…” We followed her to the restroom and discovered it was a pretty clean restroom but only had three stalls. “You all go ahead first,” Beth said, “I’ll change Carly and then swap out?” “Make sure you all stay in here,” Nikki said. Beth picked me up and situated me on one of the four changing tables. It was a bit more of a height to get to, so I said, “I have my step stool in my bag if you need it?” Since I hadn’t been using it to get to the potty, I didn’t have much need for it recently! “I think I’ll take you up on that,” she sighed. She’d seen me use it before, so Beth knew how to unfold it, “It’ll take my weight?” “It held four hundred pounds back home when we tested it?” She nodded, standing on it, and found herself the extra height she needed to reach me. “Can’t even pull down your jeans, huh?” she kidded me. I blushed as she pulled them down for me and exposed my diaper. She gently pushed my sweater further away as I heard the door open. I hated being exposed and openly naked in the room, but at least it looked like it was just a couple of shorter Tweener girls that had come in. I ignored them and lifted my butt off the wet diaper, even as Beth slid a fresh one in. Moments later, Beth pulled my pants back up, and I noticed something seemed wrong in the room. The Tweeners were standing by the stall doors, and it looked like some cable was blocking the handles from opening. I carefully let Beth help me down from the table and regarded them as warily as if they were a pair of rattlesnakes. Just then, the outside door opened again, and we watched a boy about our age who would just about qualify as a short Amazon and another boy walk in and shut the door. “They’re locked in?” The boy said. “Yes, Tuck,” she told him. “Good! Well, who would have thought we’d get lucky enough to have you two return to our turf so soon!” “You are?” I asked, moving in front of Beth. “Pissed off! My girl, Harley, got busted by the cops and sent to an etiquette center. All thanks to you, Bitch! When I tried to see her yesterday from the outside, she was in a diaper and sucking on some nanny’s titties like a fucking mind-fucked Little! “I don’t know who you’re talking about?” I tried to stall. I could hear Nikki trying to push the door open gently, but they’d been pretty effective with their cable through the door handles trick from what I could see. “Yes, you do, Bitch! She had that cool dragon tat? You broke her fucking ankles before they finished her off!” “In my defense, she robbed a friend and tried doing the same to us first?” He laughed. “Well, all we have to worry about right now is what I will do and more to you and your friend. Grab them!” +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thank you for reading! Please leave me a 'Like' and leave a comment! This is a big part of this arc of storyline, and I do feel guilty about having to leave you hanging next Friday. I'm going to be in a remote area and not a lot of privacy. I might have a chance to post the next chapter earlier than normal next week. If I see 40 likes (Excessive, I know, but you gotta make it extra worth my while! 😈), I'll try and make that happen late Tuesday or Wednesday morning when I plan to go back to civilization for a couple hours. Otherwise you'll probably have to wait until the next Monday! Your fate is in your hands? Thanks for continuing to read! Remember my completed works are available on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/author/babysofia

Chapter 122: Nurses AS WE DROVE, Nikki filled Aunt Megan with what she had done then, too. “What are you going to say?” Nikki asked me. “Truth?” I suggested. “That may not be the best idea?” Nikki said. “We’ll see what they know?” I suggested. “Sounds like a better idea.” Aunt Megan responded. “Somehow, I don’t think those punks will want to say they got beat up by you?” Nikki said. I smirked, “No, I very much doubt that is on their minds as something to say. But do they even have anything to lose right now?” “Not much,” Aunt Megan said. “Best case is juvie for them, but more likely they get sent to a ‘reform school.’ Really, it depends on how old they all actually are?” “Even the tall one, Tuck?” I asked. “He’s got the best chance of ending up in juvie due to his size,” Aunt Megan told me. “But if they determine he needs re-raising, they can always give a sentencing that involves shrinking like they did with Beth’s Grandma.” I blanched, “Would they do that for something like this?” “Probably more likely for a kid like this that they think is impossible to rehabilitate.” “So…?” “So those four probably feel like they have nothing to lose by throwing your ‘violent attack’ against them?” “Oh,” I said, suddenly feeling my diaper warm. It was then that I realized I didn’t have any spares, and this one was filling up rather quickly. “Any chance you grabbed my bag?” “No?” Nikki said. “I think it went on the ambulance with Beth,” Aunt Megan said. “How long do you think this will take?” I asked, pressing on the padding a little bit. “Could be a couple hours?” Nikki said. “I’m going to need a change before then?” “I’m sure the hospital will have spare diapers, Carly?” Aunt Megan said. “I’m just worried about what kind they’ll have,” I said honestly. “Has anyone called Beth’s parents yet?” I asked. “Shit!” Nikki said. “Can I turn my phone back on now?” A moment later, the device Aunt Megan had was stored, even as the bodyguard was calling Beth’s parents and letting them know her daughter had been attacked again. I was glad I couldn’t hear the other part of the conversation. I imagined Nikki was visibly sweating as it went on. Nikki was carrying me into the Emergency Room check-in area when she was asked, “Excuse me, Ma’am. Are you here to check in the girl?” “Yes?” “You’ll need to check your daughter in at the pediatric hospital.” “She’s not my daughter?” “Be that as it may be, she’s small enough; we have to treat her in the pediatric unit.” Nikki was about to say something, but Grandma showed up then. “I’ll take her over there. Why don’t you figure out where Beth is? Go find her, and Megan can go wherever the detective goes first.” “Good idea,” Nikki said. “Come on, Carly, let’s go to the Pediatric Unit.” I sighed and clung to Grandma, finally finding myself coming down from my massive adrenaline rush. I began shaking, even as she rubbed my back soothingly, “You’re okay,” she reassured me, even as I closed my eyes. BETH HAD WOKEN up before they loaded her in the ambulance, but she was only now coming to her senses. “Honey,” a nurse looked at her. “Can you please tell me your name and age?” “I’m Beth Sylvester, age nineteen?” “Is your real name Beth, or is that a nickname?” Beth shook her head, “Sorry, I’m really woozy; it’s Elizabeth.” “Middle name?” “Ashley,” Beth answered. “Okay, Beth, we’re admitting you to the hospital for a scan and observation. I understand you were inadvertently stunned with a Pulse Gun?” “Is that what happened?” Beth asked. “That’s what the EMTs said?” “Huh…” Beth spent a moment trying to assemble pieces and suddenly put her hand on her neck! “Did he cut me?!?” She felt gauze on her neck. “From what I understand, they bandaged a small scratch on your neck?” “He didn’t cut through?” Beth asked. “Cut through?” “With the knife?” The nurse looked alarmed and looked closely at her neck, “If he had, you wouldn’t be speaking to me right now. I think you probably just got a scratch, but I’ll make sure the doctor looks at it.” “Where am I?” Beth asked nervously, considering the room did not look like your typical white doctor’s office. “You’re in the Pediatric Unit here at University Hospital. We didn’t get your information from the EMTs until you’d already been brought here. We can look at transferring you to the adult unit, but it may take a while to get a room?” “How long do you think I’ll be here?” she asked the nurse. “Seeing how you’re talking to me, probably not too long? It may be overnight; it’ll be up to the doctor?” “Any chance I could have my phone to call my parents?” “Do you know where it was?” “In my purse?” “Let me see what the EMTs brought in with you,” she said. Beth leaned back onto the bed, saw the control that could raise it up, and brought it back up to better support her. She noticed a tear in the sleeve of her sweater, which made her cringe. ‘This was one of my favorites!’ The nurse returned right then with a bag in one hand, but it wasn’t her purse. “That’s Carly’s bag, not my purse,” Beth groaned. “I thought the diapers looked a little small for you,” she said. “That’s because they’re for one of the girls I was with.” “The doctor will want you to change into this gown so we can run the scan and he can examine you,” the nurse said. Beth looked at the gown and cringed at the infantile pink color, castles, and princess tiaras over it in a darker pink color. “Anything less babyish?” Beth asked. “What’s wrong with it?” the nurse asked. Her own pink scrubs looked to be cut from the exact same print and designs. “Never mind,” Beth sighed. “Can you show me where the bathroom is first?” “Hold on a moment,” the nurse said. ‘Why?’ She wondered. ‘Maybe she needs to grab a wheelchair?’ When the nurse returned, Beth realized she had gone for something else. The thing in her hands was definitely not a wheelchair! IT HAD TAKEN ten minutes for Grandma to carry me to the Pediatric Wing. The HoloReceptionist took down my information and informed us we would have to wait approximately forty minutes to be seen. “Fun,” I said. “Definitely never a dull moment since you came here, Kiddo,” Grandma said. “Let’s use the time to get that wet diaper changed.” “I don’t know where my bag went?” “Maybe it went with Beth?” Grandma said, “Come to think of it, Megan ended up with Beth’s purse. So I bet your bag went with her.” “I hope so?” “We’ll track your phone later if it doesn’t turn up.” I nodded. “Fortunately, I’m a prepared and experienced mommy and grandma, so I still have some spares in my purse!” She bounced me up and down and began following signs to a restroom and changing area. As she carried me in, she hooked her bag onto the table hook and pulled out a disposable changing mat. As she sat me down on it, another woman came by. “Oh my god, your baby is so adorable!” I blushed while Grandma said, “Actually, my grandbaby!” “How lucky are you! How old is she?” “Nineteen,” Grandma said. “Nineteen weeks? She’ll be a big girl and in school in no time!” I felt my stomach twist, my face redden, and I felt the urge to hide my face with my hands. “Time does go by fast, doesn’t it?” Grandma said, winking at me. Fortunately, the woman left, and Grandma started pulling at my pants. “How did you already soak this? Did Beth not change you before that all happened?” “No, she did change me; I drank a lot at lunch, though?” “Hmm…” As she finished taping my diaper up, she pulled my shirt up a little further and hissed, “I could kill those hooligans.” “Huh?” “You’ve at least got some serious bruises,” Grandma said. “Oh,” I said. “I’m not surprised; I feel like I went through an entire tournament day in two minutes.” She finished changing me, washed our hands, and then we returned to the waiting room. She handed me a water bottle and instructed me to drink it. “Where’s everyone else?” “Your cousin’s house,” Grandma said. “Megan’s husband came and got the rest of the girls.” “Oh,” I said. “Where’s Grandpa?” “On his way in,” I heard a hearty voice and turned to see Grandpa coming in. “Sorry it took me a while.” “No problem,” Grandma said, “Any chance you can speed this up?” She pointed to the waiting room. “Actually, could he go check on Beth? I don’t like that she’s alone here?” I said. “Nikki is supposed to be…” Right then, Nikki walked in, looking annoyed. She spotted us and came over with agitated body language. “Have you guys seen Beth?” We shook our heads, “We’ve just been in here?” “Apparently, she was admitted to the pediatric unit? Of course, it took me forty minutes to get out of a nurse, and the other member of my team was turned away from even getting that information!” “So she has no one with her?” Grandpa asked. “No?” “I’ll see you in a bit, honey,” he said. “Make sure you see Holly! She’s supposed to be coming in for her.” I watched him pull a badge from his pocket and hurry through a door where I hoped he could find Beth before anything else traumatic happened! BETH HAD WANTED to beat the nurse over the head with the item she brought! Growing up, one of her friends had a grandmother who was unable to move much, so they had placed this ‘commode’ in her room, which was, in her mind, essentially a grownup training potty. Her grandmother even jokingly referred to it as such a couple of times when they were around. All Beth could remember was how horrible it smelled! The one the nurse brought in looked like a child version of the one she remembered. The heights were different, but it also looked like someone had taken the extra color left over from Carly’s nest to color it. The result was a pink and purple abomination that looked like an enlarged child’s training potty! Beth might have argued if she hadn’t needed to pee so badly, but the longer she’d sat, the more she needed to go! “Let me help you, sweetie,” the nurse said. She picked her up under her bottom and moved her towards the ‘potty.’ Beth managed to push her own pants and panties down and sat down, gratefully releasing her urine into the potty. She sighed audibly but was still out of it enough she didn’t register the hands pulling her pants and panties off. “Tisk, tisk,” the woman said. “Huh?” Beth asked, looking at the woman. She realized in horror that she was checking over her panties, and even from her seat, she could see a quarter-sized wet spot! “Well, well, I thought maybe you were a big girl since they said you’re nineteen, but I guess we’ll have to make sure we follow our protocol for Little girls who can’t keep their panties clean and dry.” Beth figured she was doomed to be put in a diaper now for however long they kept her. ‘Could they make me in the dorm then too?!?’ She was one step from hyperventilating when a male voice asked, “And what would that protocol be, Nurse Ponder?” Beth looked up at the familiar voice and was relieved when she saw Fred had come to save her just in the nick of time! “Obviously, she has to wear a diaper now?” Beth watched the nurse look at a nametag Fred was wearing, “Doctor?” “Do you know why she had such a small leak? Is it really that big of a deal?” “Clearly, she’s not ready for the big-girl potty?” “Clearly, the only thing here is a nurse who needs to find another profession.” “Who the hell do you think you are?” The nurse asked Fred. “I’m Doctor Westerfield, and even if I don’t have the power to fire you, the next doctor I’m expecting certainly does. So if you don’t want Doctor Nickerson firing you in front of this patient, and I’m sure others who would like to see you gone, I’d recommend you leave right now?” “Like she would do that?!?!” “Hi Fred,” Beth heard another small voice join the gaggle forming in her room. “Good afternoon, Holly,” he said. “I take it this idiot is finishing off her career?” The new voice asked. Beth realized then that it was a short Little in a white doctor’s coat. ‘Wait, is that the Little doctor Dad told me about?’ “Seems like it?” He said. “Personally, I just want her out of the room. Do you want to do the honors of calling security?” “Sure thing,” the short doctor said. Moments later, the nurse was gone, and only then did Beth realize she was still sitting on the potty with nothing covering her. Fred seemed to realize it, too. “Here,” he said, handing her the gown she was supposed to have put on. “Sorry, it’s so hideous. Can I send someone to look for another one?” “If I’m going to be here long, I’ll take you up on that?” Right then, some shouts from the hallway came, and he peeked out, “Give me a minute, Doctor Nickerson’s mommy just showed up, and I don’t want to see her arrested for murder today…” Beth shook her head, ‘What the hell happened to today being a simple shopping day?!?’ GRANDMA AND I were kept waiting in the waiting room for just under the forty minutes the hologram had promised us before being led back to a room. On our way there, we passed a pair of officers and a handcuffed nurse who seemed to be in a total psychotic rage! ‘What the hell is her problem?’ I wondered. The nurse picked me up back in the screening area. “Can you please remove her clothes so she’s just in her diaper?” the nurse asked Grandma. I remembered nurses acting like that only when I was very young, and I blushed at the infantile treatment. A moment later, I was in just the diaper, which I noted was a little wet. “Can you just place Princess Carly down on this scale now? Please lay her flat.” After Grandma sat me down, I realized I was on a scale meant for infants who couldn’t even stand yet! “Try to stay still, sweetie.” I winced as the metal was ice cold; the paper covering that had been placed on top did nothing to help. “Sorry, Sweetie, I know it’s cold!” She fiddled momentarily before saying, “You really are a tiny thing, but getting to be a big girl! Forty-eight pounds!” “Forty-Eight?” I asked nervously. “Yep!” the nurse said. “Let’s get your length now too!” She moved her hands and said, “Now make your body as long as you can, sweetie!” She pressed a button on a screen above me, and a beep sounded. “Forty-six inches! Almost to four whole feet!” ‘What?!?’ I thought to myself. “Now, what happened to you here?” She asked, seeing the bruises. “That’s why we’re here; she and a friend were attacked at the mall.” “Oh dear, who would attack such a sweet thing?” “Long story, can I get her dressed again?” “Please just into this gown,” she said. “I’m sure Doctor Nickerson will want to examine her closer.” Grandma pulled over the silly hospital gown, and I saw how much it looked like it belonged in our nest. ‘Do Bigs really think every little girl wants this much pink in our lives?’ Grandma and I were left alone when we were shown an exam room. “When did I shrink?” “Good question,” Grandma answered quietly. We sat in the room for fifteen more minutes before Doctor Nickerson came in. “Sorry, I got stuck dealing with a nurse who decided she wanted to pick a fight with Fred and Beth.” “Huh?” I said. “Yeah, not a smart idea. But doing it in front of your boss, meaning me? Even worse of an idea!” she said. “Now, what are you doing back here! You’re not supposed to see me like this, Ms. Slane!” “Sorry, Doc,” I said. “we were just attacked at the mall.” “I heard some of it from Beth; what happened to you?” I explained the fight as she examined the bruised areas. When I finished, she said, “Go ahead and lie down. Let’s just scan you, and I’ll see if there’s anything we need to worry about beneath the skin.” “Huh… that’s interesting,” she said a moment later. “Interesting?” I asked. “Yeah, I have a feeling you probably should be in worse shape than you are right now, Carly,” she told me. “I can actively see the nanites in the scan working to repair the damage to your body.” “I wonder if it’s logged?” Grandma asked. “I don’t know. Do you want to log in and see?” She looked at me nervously but pulled out her phone and pressed through some information on the screen. A few minutes later, she projected a view of my body holographically in front of us. “Ouch!” Doctor Nickerson said. “That looks like three cracked ribs, serious bruising, and even a broken clavicle. You shouldn’t even be mobile right now? Were you in that much pain?” “According to the log, it looks like her nanites injected an inhibitor to block the pain?” Grandma said. “Did you program these nanites like this, Doctor Westerfield?” Dr. Nickerson asked. “No, I definitely didn’t.” “Did you do this, Carly?” Grandma asked. “Mom showed me some of the basics with them, but based on everything she and you said about the consequences of messing with them, I’ve been avoiding that altogether! I don’t want to shrink?” I felt my heart practically stop then. “Wait! Did I just shrink today because of this?!?” ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks for reading and for your patience with the timing of the last couple of posts! Please leave me a comment and press that 'Like' button. I'll be back to my slightly earlier posting schedule next week! As always, my completed works are available on Amazon Kindle. If you enjoy my writing, please consider supporting me with a purchase! http://amazon.com/author/babysofia

Chapter 123: No More Malls BETH HAD BEEN eternally grateful for Fred’s timing in getting there. She put the gown on, then realized she was missing something, “Umm… Fred?” She asked when he returned. “Yes, Beth?” “Did you happen to see where the lunatic lady left my pants?” “Damnit!” He said, “I bet that’s what she shoved down that garbage chute!” “So I take it I won’t see those again?” “Doubtful,” I agreed. “Any chance you can find me some underwear?” Beth cringed, “Preferably not the diaper she wanted me to wear?” “Let me make sure you have Nikki back here first.” “Where is she?” “Not sure,” Fred replied. Right then, the Little doctor returned. Beth noted she was probably just a few inches taller than Carly. “Hi, Beth, I guess we can officially meet now? I know your dad?” Beth nodded, “He’s told me about you a few times?” “Definitely rose above the circumstances we first met,” she smiled at Beth. “Now that I’ve taken care of the psycho nurse who wanted to make up rules for you, why are you here?” “I don’t really know what happened, Doctor Nickerson. One minute, I’ve got a knife next to my throat, and I’m convinced I’m going to die, and then the next, I’m being woken up. Everything until I get to this room is really hazy?” There was a knock on the door, then, “Can we come in?” Beth recognized Megan’s voice. “Who are you?” Dr. Nickerson asked. “I’m Megan Lethbridge, Miss Sylvester’s attorney, and Fred’s sister-in-law. We’ve met a couple times?” “Right! Nice to see you again!” she told her. You have attorney-client privilege, so I’m okay with you coming in. Who is this other woman, though?” “Sorry, I’m Nikki Paulson, Beth’s bodyguard?” “Looks like you missed today?” “Well, yes and no,” Nikki said. “Okay, do you two know what happened to my patient?” “Yes,” Nikki said. “Okay, I’ll let you tell me that, then you can wait outside.” “Actually, we need to hold off on Beth hearing Nikki’s side until she’s interviewed by the police. How about we just give you the basics, and then you can go down and check on the other patient you came in for?” Fred said. “Go ahead?” Megan said, “Just a very broad overview? Just what was done to her physically, not any of the facts. I don’t want Detective James claiming we are changing stories here.” “Got it,” Nikki said. “We were cornered in a restroom at the mall by a Tweener gang. Long stories short, Beth had a knife held against her neck that I believe may have left a small nick, the reason for that gauze, and then she was a contact victim of a Pulse Gun that I fired at the hostage taker.” “So she received a full Pulse?” Dr. Nickerson said with a frown. “Not directly, but it was enough to knock her out since the assailant was holding onto her. She was unconscious for about ten minutes.” “Got it, Mrs. Lethbridge; you may stay in here? Fred, you’re also welcome since you have privileges here?” “I think Megan has it in hand, and since Nikki is outside, I’m going to go see if I can scrounge some replacement pants up since our favorite nurse apparently trashed hers.” “Make sure you purchase a new pair,” Dr. Nickerson told Beth, “and then send the receipt. We’ll dock it from her final paycheck.” “Lie back, please, Miss Sylvester.” “Please, just call me Beth?” She asked. “As long as you call me ‘Doc,’ that’s usually what everyone calls me!” “I can see that,” Beth said with a smile. She lay back on the table and waited for the scan to complete. “I’m not seeing anything directly right now; I’m going to send the scan results on to a colleague who deals with more of these effects on adults brought in by the police. I think you’re good to go if he doesn’t see anything. That wound on your neck didn’t pass through the epidermis, so give it a week, and it should be healed. It shouldn’t even scar.” “Thanks,” Beth said. “Whenever Fred reappears with something for you to wear, feel free to change into them. Since you’re conscious and coherent, I don’t foresee any reason to keep you overnight.” She sighed in relief, fearing she’d have more nurses like the first! “Here’s your purse, Beth,” Megan said, handing over the valuable bag. She opened it and found her phone inside. She quickly texted her parents an update and was just going through the bag, hoping she had a spare pair of panties, at least when there was a knock at the door again. Right then, the detective from earlier at the restaurant came inside. GRANDMA SIGHED DEEPLY, “That daughter of mine!” “You think Stacy is responsible?” Doc asked. “I’m sure she is. I’ll have to call her later and figure out what she did and how we can avoid Carly having more problems. I’m guessing the nanites used energy from the body to heal her, which meant taking mass from somewhere.” “That seems like a reasonable hypothesis,” Doc said. “It might be good to have a follow-up appointment sometime next week?” “I’ll see when we can get in; what days are you scheduled?” “Pre-consults mostly Monday through Wednesday. I do surgeries usually on Thursdays and Friday mornings.” “I’ll see if we can’t get her in here on Tuesday; she’s got an empty spot in her schedule since a class got canceled.” “Sounds good,” she said. “I’m going to go check on the results from my other patient; then we’ll get both the girls out of here!” “Thanks, Doc,” Grandma said. We were about to dress me back in the clothes I arrived in when Grandma realized there was a large hole in my sweater, and the jeans were ripped in an embarrassing spot right on my butt too. Fortunately, she had a spare onesie and leggings outfit in her bag that fit! I figured they were about to release me when a knock came on the door, and Detective Paulson arrived with Aunt Megan in tow. “Good afternoon,” he said. “I’m hoping we can get your statement now?” I looked at Aunt Megan, “This works as well as anywhere, Carly. Saves us a trip to the station.” “Okay, where do you want me to start?” “First, I need your name, date of birth, address, and phone number, please?” I gave him the basic details, and he asked, “Where do you think this began?” I sighed, “Beth and I went to a movie last weekend. We were waiting in the bathroom for a changing table when two girls tried to snatch my backpack off Beth’s shoulder. I think they thought it was a purse? A report of that incident has been made,” I said. “They couldn’t get the bag since their knife wouldn’t cut through the straps, so they hightailed it out of there.” “Go on?” “The next day, I was shopping with friends, and we heard one of our friends scream from the direction of the changing rooms she had gone to. As we were running, I noticed movement ahead of us and realized the girl from the day before was carrying a bag that matched my friend’s, who was screaming. I could see the strap was cut, so I decided to stop her.” “The report said you broke the girl’s knee?” “Detective, I hope you are not going to turn this into something we need to stop now?” Aunt Megan said. “No, but you did?” “She claimed her knee was broken?” I shrugged, “She had a friend with her again who she told to get away since she wasn’t going to make it with her. The injured girl was arrested and taken away? Then we shopped in another store or two and got out.” “And today?” “Today, we were having a good time with the girls from my family and Beth, hanging out and shopping? We’d stopped for lunch, but there was a… wardrobe issue for Nikki that she needed to take care of. Nikki, Beth, Shelby, Leelah, and I went to go to the restroom and let her sort it out. There were three stalls, so Nikki, Shelby, and Leelah each took one while Beth changed my diaper.” “You’re a college student, correct? Not an adopted Little?” “Correct?” “But she changes you?” “We have a close relationship,” I told him with a shrug. “Huh,” he jotted a note, “Okay, so what happened next?” “While she was changing me, a couple girls came inside. Neither of us was really paying attention, though. When she had me dressed and set me on the ground, I realized one of them was the purse snatcher’s partner. Right then, I realized the other looked like trouble, too. I also noted a cable running along the doors to block the stalls from opening, meaning Nikki couldn’t help us.” “Then?” “We might have tried running, but two boys came inside and shut the door behind them. We figured out one of them, ‘Tuck,’ was the leader, and the other was just another goon. I tried to stall by talking to them for a few minutes, but then he told them to grab us. At that point, I started ducking and doing my best to stay safe.” “During this ducking, I understand there were some injuries?” “They might have been really clumsy?” I said. “Hmm… One girl has a broken kneecap and dislocated joint; her other knee has a fracture. Her lip is completely ripped open, and she has a bruised trachea. The other girl has what the doctors described as a ‘destroyed’ ankle - doctors are planning an extensive surgery with nanites tonight to try and save it. The shorter male had most of his left ear ripped off, a severe concussion, and a bruised and dislocated kneecap. And finally, the final one just has a mild concussion and after effects from the Pulse Bolt fired at him.” “Detective, are you preparing to charge my client?” BETH WAS GRATEFUL that her questioning with the detective didn’t go on too long. She described a bit of what she saw with the fight but explained that once ‘Tuck’ had grabbed her and held a knife to her throat, everything just kind of became hazy. Detective James was thankfully gentle with questioning her and left sooner than she could have hoped! Fortunately for her, Fred had somehow found a pair of scrub pants in her size. He’d brought a Pull-Up, too, but Beth had been fortunate to find a spare pair of panties in her purse that she kept for just in case she leaked while she was on her period. Grateful she didn’t have to wear infantile padding instead of panties, she quickly pulled on her borrowed scrub pants over them. Fortunately, her shirt was not missing! Nikki knocked and came inside as soon as the detective left, and she waited to be discharged. “How you doing?” She asked her. “I hurt a lot!” Beth told her, “It feels like I just ran three marathons, lifted weights for eight hours, and then let a bulldozer run over me?” Nikki blushed, “Sorry, Beth, I figured you being sore was better than him slitting your throat.” “Do you…” Beth felt her words catch in her throat, “Do you think he…?” “Would have done it?” Nikki asked. Beth nodded. “I would hope not, but I wouldn’t have trusted that. That boy was cornered and very angry. I won’t be surprised to find out he was on some combination of drugs, too.” Beth nodded. “Beth, one thing I spoke with your parents and Doctor Nickerson about is that I want you to schedule some therapy appointments this week.” Beth felt her face move to alarm, “I’m not…” “You’ve just been through a traumatic event, Beth, I’m insisting the same for Carly, too.” Beth sighed, “Fine.” “Now, why don’t you go ahead and actually call and talk to your parents for a bit with an update? That way, they’ll stop blowing up my phone?” Beth felt her stomach twist, “God, they’re going to want me to come home…” “I know… but I will say your dad understands more. Call them,” she said, pushing her phone to her from where she’d sat it down. Beth looked at the phone like a snake for a long moment before pressing ‘Call Home.’ Her parents answered immediately! “Oh my god, Beth, I’m so glad you’re okay!!!!” Her mom was crying. “Me too, Mom,” Beth said. “Won’t you please come home now?” Her mom asked. She sighed, “Mom, what happened today could have happened back home too? It was just a gang?” “But at least we can be there for you here?!?” Her mom said. She saw her dad place a hand on her shoulder, standing on the couch beside her. “Addy, I know I’d feel better with her here too, but she’s right; this could have happened anywhere. Beth, Nikki told me what she knows. Can you tell me what happened?” Beth squirmed and felt practically sick as she told her parents about what happened. She wanted to leave out the knife part, but the gauze that was still on her neck wouldn’t allow that. When she finished, “Look, Mom, things would have been way worse if it wasn’t for Carly?” “Maybe, but it also sounds like she’s the reason for the attack?” Her mom answered back. Her dad shook his head, “Maybe, but I see more and more she’s exactly like her mom. Trouble just kind of follows both of them.” “Then maybe they shouldn’t see…” her mom said. “No!” She and her dad said simultaneously, and she was grateful he was an ally. “Look, Addy, Stacy had a knack for finding trouble, but she also had a knack for getting out of it unscathed, too. She went to the ends of the earth for her adopted sister, friends, and anyone she felt she could help. I can tell Carly is the same way.” He turned back towards Beth, “Look, Beth, we won’t run your life. All we can do is ask that you please be more careful?” “Don’t worry, I’m never stepping into another mall ever again!!!” Beth told him. “Well, we’ll see how long that holds,” her mom gave a nervous laugh. A nurse came in then with a tablet, “Mom, Dad, I think they’re ready to get me checked out of here; I’ll call you again tomorrow sometime.” “Okay, and I think Nikki already told you, but you will be seeing someone to talk about this during the week,” her dad said. “Yes, Daddy,” she said. “Bye.” “It’s always the same with parents, isn’t it?” The nurse told her. “Here, if you’ll go through and sign these forms here, we’ll get you out of here?” Beth took the tablet and followed the instructions as quickly as she could. All she wanted to do was get to Amanda’s, put on some jammies, and cuddle with Carly and Rings! DETECTIVE JAMES LOOKED at Megan intensely for a moment but shook his head. “No, to be honest, right now, I doubt there’s a prosecutor out there who would take the case, even if I thought they should. Carly looks like she couldn’t hurt anyone, but I worry that she seems to be leaving a trail of destruction?” I felt my blood chill, as I worried I was about to be in a lot of trouble in this foreign dimension. ‘Would I be sent to an etiquette school?’ “You really believe she did all of that?” Aunt Megan asked, with a fair amount of skepticism in her voice. “If it hadn’t been for the video I found of the department store, I probably wouldn’t. I would guess Carly was covering for Miss Paulson, but that was more than just a trip in that store.” He turned to me, “Miss Slane, I’m going to be wrapping up this investigation, and no, I won’t be recommending charges for you. As far as my report is concerned, there was a vicious attack by gang members on a harmless group of young ladies.” I felt a grateful sense of relief and only then realized my hands had formed fists that I relaxed. He paused, “They were defended adeptly by Miss Paulson. While she did fire a Pulse Gun in the mall, she did so in defense of life. The only charges being filed will be those against the members that attacked you.” “Thank you, Detective,” Aunt Megan said to him. “However,” he said, bringing back a sense of dread, “I will tell you this as clearly as I can. If I see this trail of broken bodies continue to build, I am going to have to tell the DA to seriously consider if you should be walking freely. I’m not a big fan of etiquette schools and forced adoptions, but that may be something that needs to be considered out there for the sake of society.” “That would not happen without a fight,” Aunt Megan said. “If you’re finished with your questions, this interview is over.” “Very well, have a good afternoon,” he said, closing the door behind him. Aunt Megan turned on the device from the car again for a moment, “Carly, you are going to have to be very careful from here on out… Those were serious enough injuries that I think he might have been able to make a case against you.” “Why do you think he didn’t?” “Nikki… I think he appreciated her saving his butt this morning. If it wasn’t for that, I think we’d have seen a different side of him right now.” “Got it… We’ll start with no more malls!” ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks for reading!!! Please press the Like button and leave me a comment! So I'm going to be up front with you all about the coming chapters—or the soon-to-be-lack of them. My normal writing season usually extends through April, and then I hit June and it slows down. This year I had a lot of real world stuff that hit in April, so my season ended sooner. I may have some energy in the next weekend to get some more writing, maybe a little coming up, but we may be coming to a season break for this work until I can get to the spring again. Your comments seriously help motivate me when I'm not motivated, so please keep them up. I appreciate each of you who press the Like button and leave me a little comment or response, or more crazy ones like some of you do! (Please do watch out for the Amazons you all, because they are watching! You know who you are! 🫣 ) I have two more chapters in the can at this point, I'm hoping I can maybe get to another before I run out, but I do want you to know there will be a season break coming up here unfortunately! That being said, it's my sincerest hope I get this book completed by May this next year no matter what! Thanks again! All of my completed works, are available on Amazon Kindle. If you enjoy it please consider supporting me with a purchase! http://amazon.com/author/babysofia

Wow! You all definitely made it happen! Thanks and here is the next chapter! 🙂 Chapter 121: Smashing I HAD CLOSELY examined the quartet of hostile opponents as the boy named Tuck had spoken. One was a girl a bit taller than Beth, who I recognized from the attack at the movies the other night. She was probably half a foot taller and had a multi-colored dye to her hair that gave off punk vibes. The other girl who had come inside with her was a fake blonde color that was more pure white than blonde. She had probably a dozen piercings in each ear, a large one in her nose, another in her eyebrow, and one in her lip. Both were double my size, and I could not take them lightly. The two boys were almost taller than the girls by a good foot. ‘Tuck’ had a series of moving tattoos on his arms, and his face featured a disconcerting skull pattern over half of it that somehow had been blackened on the skin and an odd green for the skull. His hair was shaved, and you could tell most of his skin was tatted. The final member was about five inches shorter than the girls, I guessed, about Beth’s height. He had massive gauges in his ears that opened his ears up enough I could probably push my small hand through. Based on their aggression, I assumed all of them could fight. When their leader commanded them to grab us, I sprang between the shorter boy’s legs that had just moved into a long stride to catch us. I caught him completely by surprise as I wrapped his legs with mine and knocked him off balance enough to fall to the floor! The gauge earrings were a great target, so I ripped the one in his left ear out even as I smashed my foot into his temple. With a scream, followed by a crunch, he went down! I could tell Tuck was the ‘brains’ behind the operation. He was smart enough to have the girls go for me in his place, even as I managed to land a solid kick to his right ankle. “Son of a Bitch!” He said. “Let us out of here!” I heard from the stalls as my cousins and Nikki were trying to get their way free. I had a gut feeling that staying by Tuck would not be a good idea, so I moved on to the girl who had been with the dragon girl last weekend. She tried reaching for me and managed to get a hold of my shirt for a second before I yanked it loose from her grasp. I grimaced as her nails raked across the back of my neck in the process like a set of razors! I tumbled around her and managed to land a kick into the back of her left knee, causing her to stumble for a moment and have to catch herself. Piercing girl was reaching for me then, so I had to ignore a chance to knock her down to teal with her. I dove in between her legs as she reached for me again and then turned to land a kick as hard as I could at her right knee when I was passed. I heard a satisfying crack then as she screamed and went down. “Fuck! Bitch broke my damn leg!” I turned, seeing that the other girl was returning for me then! Multi-colored hair girl seemed to have gotten the idea her knees were in danger, so she tried to protect them with her fist. I dodged her and came around from the back, leaping in the air to cause my kick to have the most force I could, and landed the blow into the opposite ankle of the knee I’d hit before. I heard a gratifying crunch, but she didn’t go down. Instead, she somehow managed to grapple me into her arms. ‘Shit!’ I thought. She brought me close to her face, “You little bitch!” She squeezed her hands tight on my ribs, adding pressure to my side that I worried was going to crush my rib cage! Right then, she slammed me against the bathroom wall! I winced from the pain in my back and knew I was going to have bruises from her hands and the wall! My arms had just enough freedom of movement that I saw that I could reach the piercing in her lip. Without hesitating, I reached out, grabbed it, and yanked with all my might! The lip actually split open, and blood oozed from her face as she cried out in pain! Her grip loosened just enough that I punched for her trachea, knowing this fight was about as serious as it could get. She went down, gasping, and almost landed on top of me! I spun around, and the other girl was in tears and clutching her leg. ‘Probably down, but keep an eye out,’ I reminded myself. As I turned to face the leader, I felt my heart stop. He had a knife out. And was currently holding it to Beth’s throat! BETH WASN’T SURE what was happening when she sat Carly on the ground and realized two girls were in the bathroom with them, looking at them threateningly. At first, she just thought they were waiting in line for the stalls, but then she noticed the cable running through the handles of the stalls. Each stall door pushed inward to open. By running the cable through the handles and anchoring it into the wall with two odd metallic anchors on either side, they had effectively rendered it impossible to open the stalls. Worse yet, the mall had been built with stalls, making for a more separated bathroom experience since there were no gaps on the top or bottom. Usually, Beth appreciated that she was completely private when she used them. Now, it meant there was a solid wall between them and help! Beth felt her blood turn to ice as she grasped how serious the situation was. She could tell Carly was already a step ahead of her as she again placed her tiny body in front of her. ‘If I hadn’t seen her spar with Nikki, I’d say she was being stupid!’ Beth wasn’t sure what to do, as her primary protection was locked in the stall! When the two boys walked in, she knew they were in even deeper shit then! Her heart stopped as the boy named Tuck said to ‘get them,’ she felt her pulse skyrocket then! Of course, while Beth froze, Carly exploded! Beth watched her tiny girlfriend viciously attack each of them as they approached her! The cracks of broken bones made her fear it was Carly’s for a moment each time, then she felt relief as Carly kept moving, and it was clear the other was hurt. When the pierced girl grabbed Carly and slammed her against the wall, she tried to move towards her to help Carly. She was so focused on watching the fight before that, though, that she hadn’t noticed that the tall leader came behind her and pulled a knife. Before she could do anything, he was holding the knife to her throat, and she could feel the blade against her skin. She gasped as she could feel the metal edge scraping her skin and knew she truly could be about to die. Beth stayed absolutely still as Carly stopped moving and stared at them both. “Not sure that’s a good idea,” Carly told him. “Quiet, you little bitch!” Beth couldn’t move but could feel him shift as his head turned to look around. “Fuck!!! How the hell can you fight like that?!? You’re nothing but a Little!” “I’m just a little more than your average Little,” Carly said. “So what’s your plan now, boss man?” “Plan?” “Yeah, your goons are all down for the count here. Maybe one of them can hobble out on their own? I’ve seen your face, and we’ll definitely be able to find you on the cameras when you walk in or out?” He shook his head, “Nope, no camera issues. We’ve taken them down!” He smirked. “We do that any time we’re about to do something. Keeps us in business better that way?” “Business?” Carly asked. “Purse snatching, shoplifting, pick-pocketing?” Beth heard him chuckle, “Whatever makes the most money?” “Aren’t you worried about being caught?” Carly asked. “Not really? We’re almost all minors, the worst they can do is send us to Juvie?” “What about what you said happened to your friend? Aren’t you worried about peeing and pooping in a diaper for the rest of your life?” “Who cares at that point? All that matters is that we can make the next score. Normally, at least! Where the hell did you decide to become our problem?” “Okay, so what now?” “Now?” Beth could feel the guy was quivering, and it was terrifying her to think he might accidentally slip with the blade at her throat. “Now, I hold all the cards. I’m going to use your big sister here as a hostage to get out that door. What I do with her outside depends on you?” “I have choices?” Carly asked. Beth heard something in the stall and hoped that Nikki was figuring out a plan. “Well, not much of one, but yeah. Option one, I can go ahead and slit your sister’s throat?” “I’m not a fan of that one,” Carly said. “Option two?” “I can go ahead and walk out the door with her? You can be a good little baby girl and walk beside me?” “And then?” “Then maybe I’ll consider letting you go after having fun with her?” Beth felt her blood chill even more; she knew she wanted nothing to do with going anywhere with this guy. Dying wouldn’t be her first choice, but being raped by the scumbag seemed worse. “What if I have an idea for another option?” Carly asked. Beth felt her breathing becoming more frantic the longer this went on. She noticed the other boy was starting to try to shake his head and come to! ‘That’s the last thing we need!’ “What’s that, twerp?” He asked, seeming surprised enough to move the knife just a little further from Beth’s neck. “You go down?” Carly said. Out of nowhere, a noise came from above. Beth and Tuck turned their attention upward, even as the ceiling seemed to collapse above Beth! Her whole world suddenly went dark! I HAD HEARD something from above me, and I hoped I was right that Nikki was trying to get into the bathroom by going above through the ceiling tiles! I wasn’t sure how we would get out of this without Beth getting hurt, though! Fortunately for me, I was able to engage him in some conversation for a few moments of stalling. Then, all of a sudden, I saw a bolt of blue energy fly out at him, even as Nikki crashed down to the ground and moved his hand and the knife away from Beth. Unfortunately, whatever the pulse was, it seemed to have knocked Beth out, too! I didn’t have time to think about that, though, as behind me, the gauged-ear boy was starting to try to get up to join the fight again! “Not so fast!” I said, kicking the side of his knee. As he went down, he reached out for me and managed to land a blow on my right shoulder that was so hard that it sent me flying across the floor. “Stupid Little!” he said. I managed to tumble and absorb most of the impact safely. Ear-boy was about to come after me when I saw another of those blue bolts land in his chest and take him down. Blood pooled around his ear as he landed, and I noticed there was a fair amount around the girl whose piercing I had ripped out, too. I wouldn’t have cared at that point if one of them died, but I was a little relieved to see all of them breathing, even if the only conscious girl was crying like a baby. It was right then that the outside door opened; another Tweener boy peeked his head in, “Oh shit!” He closed the door and ran. “How many more of these punks are there?” I asked, exasperated. “I don’t know. Call your grandmother, though. We’ll need your Aunt, too, I think…” I dialed and heard Grandma say, “We’ll be right there!!!” as she gathered the others and, I assume, ran for us. “Is she okay?” I asked Nikki about Beth. She was moving the boy off because he had partially landed on top of her. She placed her into a standard recovery position further away from the boy as she took up guard over him. “She should be fine; the knife only scratched her when he was holding it to her. Unfortunately, the pulse gun will send the zap through another person if they’re touching someone who is shot with it. “Beats him cutting her,” I said. “Yes,” she said. “Nice stalling, by the way.” “I tried,” I said as the door slammed open, and Grandma ran in, followed closely by two security guards. “What happened?!?” Grandma asked. “These four apparently were pissed off that their fellow gang member got arrested last week? One of them was with her when she tried to snatch my bag the first time?” “This is Oscar. I need backup and police sent immediately!!!” One of the security guards said over a communications device. “Have them send EMS as well. Ladies, I need you both to step away from them”. I heard pounding on the door and realized my cousins were still stuck behind it. “What’s going on out there?!? Let us out!!!” Leelah was practically crying! “Can we figure out how to get them out first?” I asked. Grandma wasted no time. She looked at the end of the cable, twisted the device, and the cable retracted from that end. She had to feed it back through the handles, but a moment later, Shelby and Leelah were free, and their faces were in shock. “Oh my God, what happened to Beth?!?” Shelby was crying. “She’ll be okay, sweetie,” Grandma said. “Look, I know you’re going to have to sort this mess out, but would you please cuff those four before they try and kill us again?” Nikki asked. The guards looked suspiciously at her but did so because the one girl still conscious was resisting. She tried to escape but wasn’t going anywhere on that leg! “Did you really have to do that much damage to them?” one of the security officers asked just before we saw four officers, paramedics, and a familiar face walk in. Nikki’s weapon was being collected by one of the first officers as I tried to place the face. Nikki shrugged, and I stayed silent. Aunt Megan came in then, “Carly, Nikki, please hold off on saying anything more until we can sit down and have your interviews. You have nothing to fear, but there will be a process to go through here with your statements.” “Miss Paulson?” The familiar face asked. “Detective James, correct?” Nikki remembered. It had taken me a moment, with my adrenaline coming down, to identify where we knew the man from. He had been the officer who stepped in at the restaurant that morning. He looked around the scene, saying, “We definitely have to get some questions answered here.” I worriedly looked back and forth at Beth, hoping to see signs of consciousness. She was breathing, at least, but it made me nervous that she was still out. “My clients will answer them, but I will be there to advise them as counsel,” Aunt Megan said. “And you are?” “Megan Lethbridge, Attorney at Marshall, Warren, and Lethbridge.” “Got it, I’ve seen you in court a few times,” he said. “I hope you won’t hold that against me?” “Generally speaking, you’ve got a good reputation with the force, as I know you’ve represented the department before.” “A couple times,” Aunt Megan agreed. Right then, Beth finally stirred, and I walked over to her, “Are you okay?” “What happened?” Beth asked. “That’s what we need to find out,” Detective Paulson said. “Do you need to take them back to the station for this interview?” Aunt Megan asked. He looked at Beth, “She should probably be checked out by a doctor. She’s a victim?” “Yes,” Grandma said tersely. “Name?” He asked Grandma, seeing as how Beth was still getting her bearings. “Beth Sylvester,” Grandma said. “Yours, again?” “Doctor Amanda Westerfield?” I watched him use an interface on what must have been one of the contact lens versions of the EdgeSphere technology. Beth was slowly getting up, even as a paramedic had her sit back down and began checking her over. “Tell you what? Why don’t we get the young lady to the hospital and check out? Can you and the other three ladies in the restroom follow me to the station? I’ll take your statements there?” Right then, I winced as I moved wrong, “Actually, I think Carly should probably get checked out, too. Can the three of us share an ambulance?” Nikki suggested. Detective Paulson looked thoughtful but shook his head. “I’d still like to speak with you at the station?” “Can we drive Carly to get checked out first?” Grandma asked. “You’re injured?” the detective asked. I noticed Grandma and my Aunt were giving me some slight nods. “I was slammed around pretty good?” “Tell you what, I don’t think she’s as injured as the others. Since she didn’t lose consciousness, why don’t you drive her to the hospital? We’ll just take your statements there?” He offered. “That seems reasonable,” Aunt Megan said. Everyone nodded their assent, and we soon watched Beth leave in the fifth ambulance. Nikki mentioned she was supposed to guard Beth, so they sent an officer with her in her stead even as she reached out to another person who worked with her to take over at the hospital while she was being interviewed. Getting placed into the car seat in Nikki’s car, without Beth, felt really wrong to me. Aunt Megan joined us in our vehicle rather than riding with Beth. “Do you have phones or anything on that can record?” Megan asked as we began pulling away. “Mine can?” I said. “So can mine?” Nikki told her. “Turn them off, please,” she said. “I can’t do anything about this?” I raised my arm. “It’ll probably be okay,” she said. “Mandy passed me something too that will hopefully also help.” I watched her pull out a small sheet of translucent plastic that must have been a small device. She pressed a button, the screen flashed on, and after a moment, turned from red to green. “Okay, what happened?” Aunt Megan asked. “We were…” I spoke quickly through the story, especially when I learned we were going to the university hospital. I knew it wouldn’t take long to get there. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks for reading! Please press the Like button and leave me a comment! You all knocked it out of the park for the likes this week! Thank you! 🙂 💜 I’ll post again NEXT Friday. As always, if you have enjoyed this work, please consider purchasing one of my completed works on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/author/babysofia

Chapter 36: The Sleepover Part 4 (Taking No Chances) The smell of waffles was the first thing that I noticed the moment I woke up. Unlike my rude awakening in the middle of the night, when I had woken up from a terrifying nightmare into the more terrifying reality of having actually wet the bed, I was still completely snug inside my sleeping bag, which remained all zipped shut. Angie was already out of her sleeping bag. She was sitting on the couch, scrolling away on her phone. Emma appeared to have just woken up as well. She was sitting up halfway out of her sleeping bag, her arms stretched upward, while she let out a large yawn. I took a deep sniff, breathing in the familiar smells wafting across the house from the kitchen. There were some traditions for our sleepovers that were always the same at my house, one of which was that we would be woken up by the smell of Dad making breakfast for everyone in the kitchen. That wasn’t the same for sleepovers at my friends’ places. At Emma’s house, we were lucky to get something other than a bowl of cereal, while Angie’s parents often had bagels on hand for a quick bite in the morning. I reached down inside the sleeping bag down to my shorts to conduct a blind examination of my pull-up. The good news was that it was all dry this time. I felt all around the edge of my shorts to make sure the pull-up was peeking out at all. I wasn’t taking the slightest risk that a bit of the pull-up might be visible, but I was safe, as my shorts were more than enough to keep my nighttime underwear hidden. The hard part was over. I just needed to survive the next few hours. I tried to set aside the idea that I was going to have so many more sleepovers this summer. The one good thing was a lot of them would hopefully be at my friends’ places now that Mom would be satisfied that the pull-ups were working. And over there, I could just leave the pull-up Mom sent me with in my backpack. Or could I? That was the problem, wasn’t it? Having finally realized my dream of getting pull-ups for myself, I had careful plans to keep them secret for the whole summer. When I was sleeping away from the house, all I had to do was make sure Mom was aware that I had packed pull-ups for the trip, and then, whether it was at my friend’s place or at summer camp, I could just leave them in my bag, and no one would be any wiser. That wasn’t a risk that could be taken if I was actually wetting the bed. “Well, are you coming to breakfast or what?” Emma asked. I looked up to see both of my friends staring down at me. Emma had finally extricated herself from her own sleeping bag, which now lay in a jumbled mess on the floor. “You’d probably have better luck if you told her she couldn’t play her Harry Potter game until after she’s had breakfast,” Angie joked. I rolled my eyes. “Fine, I’m coming.” I had hoped that answer would send both of them off to the kitchen, and then I could carefully get out of the sleeping bag while making sure again that the pull-up wasn’t visible in any way. But instead, my two friends kept their gaze fixed on me. No one said anything for a couple of seconds. “Well,” Emma said. Her eyes flickered over to meet Angie’s for a split second afterward. Beneath the sleeping bag, I brushed my hand against the edge of my shorts one final time. I was safe. I didn’t feel the crinkly touch of the pull-up sticking out of my shorts. With my friends still watching me impatiently, I carefully unzipped the sleeping bag, making sure to casually tug my shirt down as I stood up. “I told you,” Angie muttered as she turned and walked toward the kitchen. It was Emma’s turn to roll her eyes. “Whatever,” she said as she turned to follow Angie toward the smell of waffles. With their eyes finally off of me, I did one last look-over of my midsection before following them into the kitchen. I was safe. The pull-up was completely obscured. I caught up to Angie and Emma just as they stepped into the kitchen. I started to stretch my arms upward, but caught myself just in time. My T-shirt was long, but it wasn’t that long. Lifting my hands up like that would still leave the waistband of my shorts exposed. Again, I couldn’t be taking any chances. There was a pile of waffles on a plate on the counter, and two waffle makers were set up next to them. From the steam coming from the sides, it appeared like there were still even more waffles on the way. I didn’t get how everyone else managed to be able to eat so much in the morning. About half of one of those massive waffles would be about as much as my stomach could handle this early in the morning. “It’s not time for breakfast just yet,” Mom said as Angie stepped forward to grab a plate. “Sleeping bags need to be rolled up first before you come and get your waffles.” I let Angie and Emma go ahead first as we retreated back to the living room to get things tidied up from the sleepover. I tugged down on the hem of my shirt as I knelt down next to the edge of the sleeping bag. I hated rolling up sleeping bags. I could never seem to get them into a compact enough spiral, which just meant trying to tie them shut was a massive pain. Angie and Emma finished with their sleeping bags well before me. They didn’t stick around to watch me struggle with getting mine all tied up. None of my friends showed any indications of changing out of their pajamas yet. Both had made their way to the kitchen without bothering to get changed. I usually felt a decent need to pee when I got up in the morning. That wasn’t the case at the moment. I winced when I recalled why that was the case. The freak bedwetting accident still didn’t make any more sense to me this morning than it had last night. I mean, it couldn’t actually be possible to turn oneself into an actual, real bedwetter? I refused to believe that. And I refused to believe that I could have coincidentally had something go wrong with my body at the exact time I had started faking bedwetting. But there wasn’t any other explanation, and I didn’t see any other way to figure out what was going on other than to see what would happen the next few nights. I thought about how I still had my underwear tucked into the bag Mom had for me under the sink. There wasn’t anything stopping me from going to the bathroom on the main floor and swapping out the pull-up for my regular underwear. Except, I didn’t really feel like taking off the pull-up just yet. After spending all of last night and the beginning of this morning around my friends, I had slowly let go of my initial fear that what I had on beneath my shorts was going to be obvious to them. Yes, I had rationalized all the reasons for why they wouldn’t notice, but it was different seeing how easily my secret was kept. Angie and Emma were completely oblivious. Even though I had managed to catch on to the crinkling sound beneath Hannah’s clothes, they hadn’t the slightest clue about what lay beneath mine. Besides, if I put the pull-up back underneath the sink, odds were that Mom would probably just toss it with the wet one I had put in the bag overnight. That would be a complete waste. It would be a lot better if I could save the pull-up until I had a chance to wet it either later today or tomorrow. With that decision made, I returned to the kitchen. I cut a waffle in half before putting it on my plate and smothering it in maple syrup. We weren’t allowed to eat waffles in the living room, not after that incident a couple years back. That had resulted in a very sticky mess to clean up. Grace and Jackson were both up for breakfast as well, so it made for seven people squeezed in around the table for breakfast. “Did you guys end up staying up late?” Dad asked. My mouth was full of waffles at the moment, so I just nodded in response. Come to think of it, I couldn’t exactly recall how late we had stayed up. The conversation shifted to summer plans. There was the soccer camp I’d be going to in a couple of weeks, a consolation prize from my parents since the lengthy vacation we had planned later in the summer was enough to prevent me from taking part in the summer soccer league that I had done the past two years. Emma said she wasn’t sure yet when her cousin Hannah would be moving, but that it would be before the end of the summer. “Are you looking forward to having your cousin at the same school as you?” Mom asked Emma. My friend bit her lip before responding. “Oh, she’s not. There’s a school for special needs kids that she’s going to be attending. That’s part of why they are moving to the area.” “Special needs?” Mom asked. “Autistic,” Emma replied. “I thought the school district had programs for kids like that,” Dad asked. “I don’t know,” Emma said. “I think she is too—” Emma paused abruptly. I got the sense that she had just caught herself before using the same word to describe Hannah as she had done that weekend when I had first met her cousin. “I mean,” Emma continued. “She just needs a lot of extra help with school cause she isn’t very good with it.” “Well, we’ll have to invite them over for dinner sometime after they get settled in,” Mom said. I took a peek out of the front window. The sky was already getting overcast. Everything was dry still, but it wouldn’t be worth risking going out to the park to bike or play soccer. The forecast had only said that there was a thirty percent chance of rain, so that didn’t seem quite fair. We had another couple of hours left for the sleepover, as both Angie and Emma would be headed home before lunch. Their families had other plans for the afternoon. Angie was off to a birthday party for her grandparents, and Emma was going to a movie with her parents. I would have gone along, except it was rated R, and I hadn’t been able to convince Dad that it was OK for me to be able to watch it, at least before he had a chance to see it himself. After returning our very sticky places to the kitchen, we meandered back over to the living room, all of us still in our pajamas. Grace was still in the living room, as she hadn’t retreated to her upstairs bedroom yet. “Can’t you guys find somewhere else to goof off?” Grace asked, interrupting our noisy chattering about what to do for the next couple of hours. “I’m sure you wouldn’t be bothering anyone upstairs.” I gave my sister a look. Not that she knew, but going to my bedroom was the last thing I wanted to do at the moment. Between the pull-ups in the dresser, my extra crinkly bed with the mattress protector, and the fact that my friends seemed to think that the room smelled like pee, there was far too much evidence of the bedwetting for me to want to spend any more time with them there today. “Yeah, no,” Angie said. “It smells gross since Chester peed in it.” “He did what?” Grace asked. “Don’t you remember,” I said. “Chester peed in my room a couple times this week.” Grace turned to look at me. Her lips were pursed, and she had a frown on her face. She knew full well that Chester hadn’t been having any issues whatsoever with peeing outside of the litter box. “Well, it’s not the cat’s fault,” Grace said. “You should know better by now not to close your bedroom door if he is in your room when you are going to sleep.” Graced shut her laptop firmly. “Since you guys aren’t going anyway,” she muttered as she left the room. “She needs to chill out,” Angie said. <><><> We ended up putting together a large puzzle on the living room coffee table while listening to the sound of rain coming down hard outside. It was a 500-piece puzzle, but between the three of us — with a small amount of help from Jackson — we managed to get it down before it was time for everyone to leave. I was so distracted that I completely forgot about the fact that I had a pull-up underneath my shorts. It was almost a surprise to see it when I took a break halfway through the puzzle to go and use the toilet. For half a second, I was tempted to wet the pull-up then and there and toss it under the sink with the one I had wet during the night, but that wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t going to get that many pull-ups to use during the day, so I needed to make it count. After Angie and Emma left for home, Dad took Jackson out to get a haircut while Mom went off to run some other errands in the rain. Grace was all the way upstairs, leaving me alone on the living room couch. I lifted up the front of my shorts to take a look at the pull-up underneath. There was still something surreal about how the last several weeks had gone. As embarrassing as some parts of it had been, it still felt so incredibly worth it. The need to pee was fairly slight. A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have been able to force anything out. But now I might be able to, and a little tinkle wouldn’t create any leaks. I watched as the pull-up began to swell with a familiar warmth between my legs. I set a timer on my phone for thirty minutes. That would give me a good reminder to get changed before Mom and Dad got back home. I didn’t go back to playing my video games. I laid all the way down on my back on the couch. This was perfection. I’d gotten what I had always wanted, and it felt better than I could have dared dream. After about fifteen minutes of lying on my back, the pull-up began to cool off. I allowed myself to make just another slight tinkle into it, warming it up again. That’s when I heard the unmistakable sound of my sister walking down the stairs. I scrambled back to a sitting position, hastily grabbed my Switch, and restarted the game. Maybe Grace was just hungry for lunch. But if she did come into the room, I needed to look natural, like nothing was out of place. To that end, I kept my eyes glued to the screen, even as the sound of Grace’s footsteps indicated that she was now in the living room. “You,” Grace said. “Need to be a lot more careful. I’m not going to tell your secret, but I’m not always going to be able to get away with covering for your lies.” I paused my game and looked up from where I was seated on the couch. My heart stopped. What did Grace know? What lies and secrets was she referring to? Did she know that the bedwetting accidents were anything but accidents? Did she know about those times when I had been wetting myself intentionally in the basement? Had I not been as careful as I had intended to be about covering my tracks? Did she know that even at this moment, I was sitting in a wet pull-up? “Lies? I tried to sound confident but casual in my denial, but the word seemed to catch in my throat as I croaked out my answer. “Come on, we both know that Chester hasn’t been peeing in your bedroom. It smells like that because you’re still wetting the bed and not airing your room out enough. You need to leave the window open for a couple hours with a fan every morning. Just spraying some air fresheners in there isn’t going to do enough.” I paused before responding after Grace gave her explanation. Was that it? If so, I might still be safe. But that was the thing. Grace wasn’t supposed to know that I was a bedwetter. Mom and Dad had promised to keep it a secret. And besides, if I had managed to keep wearing a pull-up secret from Angie and Emma, surely Grace hadn’t noticed anything about the pull-up as well. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said in a nervous whisper, concerned that Jackson might come back at any moment. “I mean, it stopped earlier this week. That’s why Mom and Dad let me have the sleepover for my birthday.” “Sure, and you’re wearing a pull-up under your pajamas for no reason at all.” I made the mistake of looking right down at my pajama shorts that I still hadn’t changed out of, fearing for a second that the bulge from the accident might be visible or, even worse, that pull-up was something sticking out in some way. I looked back up at my sister. She had that expression on her face that told me that any more denials weren’t going to be believed. “Mom and Dad promised not to tell you.” Grace rolled her eyes. “No, they didn’t. But it was pretty obvious. It wasn’t exactly believable that your bedwetting would magically go away before it was time for the sleepover.” There wasn’t much I could say in response to that. I realized that I was still very much a beginning when it came to bedwetting. Grace had wet the bed for about a decade after being toilet trained. It was stupid to think I could have kept it hidden from her like that. “Hey, it’s going to be alright. I’m not going to tell anyone,” Grace said. She stepped forward and gave me a big hug with one hand around my back and another on my shorts. I hadn’t even realized that I was on the verge of crying until the first few sobs came out, the sound muffled with my face pressed against my older sister’s shoulder. I had gotten over the embarrassment of Mom and Dad knowing about the bedwetting. That had been an inevitable and necessary part of my plan. But I hated that Grace thought that I was a bedwetter. I didn’t want her advice or opinions. I wanted my bedwetting to be handled the way hers had been left as an unspoken secret that didn’t need to be brought up in conversation. “You should go get changed,” Grace told me as she released me from the hug. “It’s not good for your skin to stay in a wet pull-up that long.” --- Links to all my stories can be found at https://abdlwriter.wordpress.com/

Chapter Forty Six John tried to make the word grump a verb as he was carried out of the bedroom after the diaper change. His perfectly reasonable explanation was brushed aside like it was nothing. He had said “But I’m used to my Mommy changing me, and I’m shy about it.” But there was the endless and unstoppable giant amazon logic “Every so often someone else is going to have to change you. There will come times when your Mommy is at the doctor, or has an appointment. Those times you’ll have to just stay with someone else for a little while. So it’s important that you get used to this.” He had tried to argue more, but all that got him was a pacy and a couple of firm pats on the bottom. Not a spanking, but clearly meant to distract him from arguing more. Oh, and that warning worked, he stayed quiet and sulked. The diaper change itself wasn’t bad. In fact it was very quick. And while John hardly considered himself an aficionado of diaper changes, it seemed from his perspective like a well done diaper change. MeMaw seemed to know he was sulking and trying to stay grumpy. But little did he know, she had tricks up her sleeve. “Caramel.” was all that she said. One single word. John looked up. With one single nod, MeMaw walked over to the counter, reached into her purse and held up one single caramel colored cube. Johns eyes zeroed in on that cube. With just the fingers on one hand, MeMaw unwrapped the caramel from the plastic wrapper and slid it out to hold it between thumb and forefinger. “Can we go back to having fun?” MeMaw asked very simply and pointedly. The word ‘bribe’ almost left his mouth, but his brain mouth filter kicked in just in time to save him. Still, he squinted at it before nodding. MeMaw simply held it out to him and let him take it as he let his pacy fall out of his mouth and dangle by the strap. Popping the piece of candy into his mouth, he was able to sink his teeth into the soft, chewy caramel candy. At first it only had a soft flavor, until it got wet in his mouth as he chewed it. Then the flavor got more intense until his entire world was deliciousness. He barely registered his Mommy stick her head in the door and say loudly “Mom! Did you give him candy before even feeding him breakfast??” As John stopped chewing, uncertain of what to do, MeMaw just waved a hand dismissively and said “MeMaw is allowed to give him candy. When he’s done he’ll eat breakfast.” then she looked down at him and asked “Right?” He nodded vigorously and went back to chewing before anyone could take his candy away. “See?” MeMaw said over his head. He heard Mommy grumble something, but the screen door shut again. By the time they were back on the playmat, John was sold on this MeMaw candy thing, which was absolutely not a bribe. As he was sat down on the mat, he found himself looking up at MeMaw as he swallowed the last bit of caramel. “Okay Sweety, I think we need to figure ourselves out now, wouldn’t you agree?” She asked in her singsong voice. Nodding along, he didn’t really know what needed to be figured out. She had been treating him more like a child than a vertically challenged adult, and it had grated on his nerves. But there was the candy, and that sort of reset his patience a bit. Leaning down she asked quietly “So, do you like puzzles?” Answering that with a nod was simple. “Yes Ma’am!” After all, one of his four favorite activities these days was puzzles! Holding up one finger, MeMaw then got up and went to the door. She leaned out of the door for a moment before coming back over to him with another package. This one was wrapped in bright blue. As the package was placed in front of him, he asked “MeMaw, did you color code these packages so that you would remember which one is which?” The blinking eyes as the words registered for her told him the answer. After a moment to regain her composure she said “Well! If you must know my secrets, young man. Then yes. I made sure to wrap similar sized presents in different color paper. It wouldn’t do to not spoil my Grandson, now would it?” Laughing, he avoided answering by standing up on the playmat to walk over to the package. Immediately he noticed that this playmat was squishy enough that he had to walk slow or he’d fall on his butt. With the advantage of being able to stand up this time, he made short work of the package and found himself looking down at a large red box the size of his entire torso of … of … “Blocks?” he asked. She just shook her head and said “Not at all. Look more closely. These are hundreds of puzzles!” Now reaching to tip the box over, he found that the box weighed more than he expected. The container ‘conveniently’ doubled as a toy box again. These giants didn’t seem to believe in half measures. Popping the lid open was easy enough, and then he started at the contents of the box. Hundreds of pieces of various shapes, sizes, and importantly colors, greeted him from within. Spotting a semi thick booklet, he grabbed it and pulled it out. Opening it to a random page, all he saw of the instructions was just a full color image of what he was supposed to make: A fish. Flipping to another page, there was just an image of a robot made of the blocks. Another page had a little house. Looking up in confusion, he asked “Where are the instructions?” Just pointing to the images, MeMaw said “That’s the puzzle. You can pick what to build from the book that shows you what’s possible.” Picking up two pieces, John noticed that despite looking like a solid surface, they stuck together on one side, but not the others. The blocks had magnets hidden in them, and they only stuck to each other in certain directions. They also happened to push away from each other from certain sides. So, John did his best to do what MeMaw expected of him by getting all of the blocks of the correct colors and started piecing together the big fish on the paper. Having the basic outline done in ten minutes, MeMaw seemed satisfied and interrupted to ask “What would you like for breakfast?” It was never going to be hard to answer that question, as he looked up and immediately replied “Eggs with runny yoke and some toast, please.” MeMaw gave him a nod, ruffled his hair, and was off to the kitchen. While she was gone, John made it all of three minutes before he gave up on the instructions and started flipping the pieces around to make them repel each other. He even stood them up vertically and made a game of trying to assemble it in roughly the correct shape while they repelled each other. After a few minutes he nodded at his wobbly mock up of an outline of a fish with parts of it floating haphazardly and threatening to topple if John so much as breathed wrong. Hearing a chuckle, he looked up and saw MeMaw standing there with a great smile. “That’s great! You decided to do it your own way, you ignored the instructions, and you still made what you were supposed to!” MeMaw reached down over the blocks and tried to pick him up gently, but the blocks fell over anyway since they were just barely perched. Being placed in the booster seat and buckled in, he was pushed forward to the table and presented with two eggs, toast, and a small plank of bacon. The eggs had a delightful dark crispy edge around the outside. “Oooooooo” was all that John could mumble as he looked around for a fork. But there was no fork. And then MeMaw pulled a chair next to him with a fork and cut a piece of egg off. She then scooped it up and held it out for him to try. “Umm… MeMaw?” “Yes sweety?” “I can feed myself.” She just nodded and answered “I know, but I really want to help you.” “MeM..” and the egg went into his mouth. First of all, the egg tasted amazing. The edges were crisp and tasted like it had been cooked in bacon. And secondly, John felt indignant over not being left to his own devices to feed himself. “MeMaw please, I can f…” and more egg went into his mouth. Finally on the fifth try, John held his hand over his mouth to stop the fork and pleaded. “MeMaw, please let me just dip my toast in yolk and eat it. Please.” She looked at him for a moment before putting the fork down for him and then kissed him on the forehead. “Of course sweety, you just had to ask. What would you like to drink?” While he awkwardly picked up the Amazon sized fork, he answered “I would like some Plapple juice, please.” While she was walking away he briefly had the urge to flick some egg at her for being frustrating, but fought it back because then he’d lose the fork for real. So he settled for using the fork to rip the top of the egg off over the yolk and flip it up onto the toast. He was happily munching away when she came back with a sippy cup of juice. The rest of the meal she did not help, but using a fork the size of a small spatula meant that he made a mess of it all. Didn’t matter, he used the bacon to scrape egg back onto the fork and after eating both yolks, one piece of toast and half the bacon he had to finally give up and put it all down. He barely had time to look up before a napkin descended on his face and a surprisingly happy MeMaw declared “Well, someone sure enjoyed my eggs enough to make a mess!” Sputtering a bit, it took a deep breath to put the smile back on his face and admit “Your eggs were very good! Hey … can we let Xerxes back in for a minute?” MeMaw eyed him. Then the plate of eggs. Then eyed him again. After a long silence, she walked over and very quietly opened the glass door. Immediately a large dog came trotting in to sit next to the chair that John was in. Leaning over, MeMaw whispered “I told you that MeMaws get to spoil. Just don’t feed him the toast and I’ll buy you two minutes.” And with that she gave him a kiss on the forehead, right where the band aid was, and left him to feed Xerxes ALL of the eggs and bacon instead of just scraps he could sneak in. When he was done feeding the dog, he was left giggling while his hands were licked from just grabbing bacon and eggs to feed him. True to her word, MeMaw came back in and quietly shuffled the dog back outside, then came back to unbuckle him and get him lifted up onto her hip. With her free hand she tipped the plate into the trash can and then put it directly into the sink, whispering “There. No evidence.” While he was sitting on the counter having his hands and face scrubbed with a wet rag, John simply couldn’t help smirking at the fact that MeMaw seemed to be able to get away with anything. When she finished, she stood upright and looked down at him still sitting on the counter and commented: “Hmm… you looked like you ate until you hurt. So you probably don’t have room for anything else?” He shook his head no “No Ma’am, I’m stuffed.” Now smirking, she asked “Do you want me to make you some cookies for after your nap?” John had no idea that he was smiling as he nodded, he was just nodding yes. With another kiss on the forehead, she picked him up and walked him to the living room “Okay. How do you like the blocks?” Hesitantly he tried to stall by saying “Ummmmmmm” as he thought of a lie. He never got the chance as she just nodded and said “That’s okay, you’ll get better at playing with them. How do you feel about picture puzzles?” “Oh!” this time he perked up “I haven’t done a puzzle like that in years!” Now smiling she sat him down on his new play mat and said “You put your blocks away and I’ll get you something.” By the time he was done shoving the blocks haphazardly into the box they came out of and shoving the box up against the wall while on hands and knees, he turned around to find MeMaw already sitting cross legged with a blue wrapped package in front of her. As he reached out to take the package he started to jab his thumb into the paper before he stopped and said guiltily “Oh … Umm … Thank you very much for the present!” Ruffling his hair, she just answered “You are very welcome you sweet little boy. Now open that up so we can play with it!” Now just tearing the side of the paper off, he found himself looking at three different boxes of puzzles stacked and taped together. Looking at the top one was really discouraging since it looked to had 32 large wooden pieces and showed a cartoon tug boat. Apparently he was easy to read as MeMaw picked up the box and he could see that the next box had 120 pieces and showed a picture of a farm. “Oh!” he said as he looked up at her in confusion. With a shrug, MeMaw explained “I didn’t know where you were developmentally, so I got you three different puzzles. I figured that if we did them together, then we could know where you are.” “Uhhh, MeMaw, I’m an adult.” With a pat on the shoulder, she said “That doesn’t mean quite as much for littles in our world as it does in yours. Come on, let’s do these together.” And so MeMaw opened up the top box with the easiest puzzle and as she handed him pieces he assembled the entire thing in less than two minutes. Nodding in approval, she helped him put the puzzle back in its box and placed it in the big plastic toy box that the play mate came in. Next came the 120 piece puzzle. Admittedly, that one took John almost an hour to do while he got the hang of getting all of the edge pieces grouped up and the tiles sorted by color. But once he had the entire outside done and he looked at the picture every few pieces, he was able to start speeding up and the last half took a fraction of the time that the first half did. With another nod of approval and then being picked up for a big hug, MeMaw asked “Are you ready for the last one, or do you want to wait?” Simply nodding, he answered “I want to do the next one, please” The next puzzle left him staring at the box. It had 350 pieces in it and was an image of a city from up in the air. It took fifteen minutes just to sort out all of the edge pieces and another half an hour to get most of the border put together. While grouping up the colors, he was trying to rush and stalled out a bit. MeMaw bumped him with his sippy cup several times through the process and made him drink until she was satisfied that he’d had enough regardless of whether or not he wanted to stop. After an hour and he was not even close to a quarter of the way done, he looked up and asked “Would you mind helping me a bit?” She simple nodded at him and every time he picked up a piece, it seemed that she looked at the pile and pulled one out and sat it down roughly where it would go. And conveniently, every single time the one he was holding would snap right into place with the one she just grabbed. With MeMaw’s help the rest of the puzzle took less than half an hour. The woman was so good at it that John felt like she must have been cheating some how. But he just kept picking up pieces and attaching them to the ones that she put down, and it just kept working. Finally they were done and John stood up as best as he could on his knees to look down with satisfaction. The moment was a bit spoiled by the fact that he couldn’t get his knees close to one another. “Thank you for your help, MeMaw.” “You are very welcome!” she answered before reaching out to give his diaper a squeeze. “Tell you what, let’s pack all this up and then we’ll get you changed.” One thing about the play mat not letting him stand up easily was that not being able to stand up in a wet rough pup diaper seemed almost irrelevant in a way. Somehow that seemed like a tie between which one was worse. Being carried to the changing table, this time John decided to lace his fingers together behind his head and use his hands as a pillow as he was laid on the changing table. But as he was laid own on the table, his arms bumped the wrist straps and when they coiled up they took his arms with them whether he liked it or not. Which he did not like. “MM… I... GAH.” was all that he could manage while pulling at the straps in frustration. Halfway into the diaper change he finally gave up and just went limp and let it all happen. He’d accidentally distracted himself from what was going on downstairs and now he had no choice but to tune in to what he was feeling as he was powdered and taped back up. But MeMaw did not release him after she was finished. No, she started ticking a foot. Which he pulled up and away. And then she tickled the other foot. And then the first foot again. Then finally she took a DEEP breath and leaned down to blow a big massive raspberry on his belly, leaving him squealing at the top of his lungs and trying to curl up into a ball. Pleading “St..STOO..OOOOPPPPPP” had no effect and she tickled him relentlessly until he was panting and had a bad case of the hiccups. Now being picked up from the table, he could feel a massive hand patting him on the back until he stopped, which took several minutes. Finally she asked “Okay, what would you like to do now?” Without a moment of hesitation he answered honestly “I want to go outside and draw for a bit.” And that was it. With only a nod she stopped to button up his onesie and then dug in his drawers until she found some pants for him. Which she obviously insisted on putting onto him. That was then followed by socks, which he also had to wait to be put on, despite any protests that he could do it. Again, he was not expected to walk as he was carried to the front door and left standing just inside the child gate while MeMaw went into the porch to move some things around. After a few minutes he was just picked up over the child gate and sat down on the porch in front of yet another present. Okay, so the first two presents sucked. The third present was actually kind of fun to do with MeMaw. John couldn’t help feeling cautiously optimistic as he thanked he MeMaw yet again and peeled back the silver paper. This time he sprouted a great big grin! On top of a box there were three different sized drawing pads! The box didn’t really seem to matter at first, but after picking up the drawing pads, he turned his head sideways and stared at a moment before he realized that it was some sort of a folding desk. Within minutes MeMaw had the desk unboxed and the legs unfolded and he was reclined against a pillow with a small (to them) drawing pad in front of him. He had to ask MeMaw to bring him his 3D pencils, but there he was left to his own devices for the first time that day. Sitting sideways along the porch he could see Mommy and PawPaw carrying a grill in through the gate and setting it up together. Immediately he began to sketch out his point of view, from the side of the fence, the grass, the little stone walkway, the bit of the fence that he could see around the super spicy pepper plants, and eventually the grill itself. Eventually he became aware that MeMaw was sitting next to him watching when she started bumping him with the sippy cup until he drank enough of it for her satisfaction yet again. And even then she interrupted him to put a few more pillows behind the two of them and throw a blanket over them before pulling him and his new lap desk up against her side with her arm around him. After a while a yawn escaped his mouth, but he had bad news for MeMaw: He wasn’t sleepy yet, he was going to finish this drawing first. Yawning, he turned a dark gray pencil sideways and made some little wisps of slowly wafting smoke coming from the top of the grill. While idly rubbing at his face to stay awake, he realized that this little lap desk was perfect for drawing. Yeah, it was made of some brightly colored plastic and looked like it was made for a big child. But it was just high enough that he could rest his elbows on it. Still absolutely not tired at all, he leaned back against MeMaw’s warm side and took a moment to stretch out his legs forward and his arms up over his head. John was starting to think about MeMaw letting him feed Xerxes, patiently helping him with the puzzle that was actually hard, and now just letting him draw in piece as long as he was propped up against her. While he rubbed his eyes he decided that MeMaw was pretty overbearing, but maybe she wasn’t so bad. As some fingers began to lightly trace along his scalp started to lull him to sleep whether he wanted it or not, he decided that he would reserve any final judgement on MeMaw until after seeing if she made good on her promise about making cookies.

Chapter 124: Embraceable You GETTING RELEASED FROM the hospital was a process, so it took another hour before Beth and I were reunited. She knelt down, and we hugged, both of us wincing. “Ow,” she said aloud though. “Are you okay?” I asked, with concern, releasing her. “Yes, all of my muscles ache, though.” “Sorry,” I said. “You?” “I’m a fast healer?” She raised an eyebrow at that but didn’t say anything. Amanda, Megan, Nikki, and Fred led us to the parking lot. “Nikki, do you want to follow Fred back to the house? I’ve got to pick up the girls and drop Megan off.” “Sure, Mandy,” Nikki said. “Just let me get the girls settled in here, Fred, and I’ll set the car to follow you back.” Nikki led us to where we’d left the car earlier. Nikki opened my door and gently lifted me into the waiting car seat. Beth had opened the door for her side, and I watched her wince as she climbed carefully into her own booster seat. She wasn’t moving very quickly, and since she wasn’t done yet when Nikki reached that side, she reached in and helped with the buckles. “Thanks,” Beth said with a blush. “Trust me, I know what you’re feeling right now. The last time I was hit with one of those, I was in pain, and my legs and other muscles were cramping up randomly for a few days.” She closed the door and started up the car. When she found Fred’s car, I heard some beeps and, “Mode set to follow.” I was facing the backseat, so I could see Beth’s face, but that was it then. She looked like she was in pain then. I reached my hand out towards her and was glad when she reached and held mine. We sat silently, and both must have fallen asleep for a while. We were only woken up when Nikki turned into my grandparent’s driveway. She pulled into an area set aside for guests to part and came around to let us out. Neither of us rushed off, but we found ourselves using the open garage door from Grandpa to go inside the house with my bag on my shoulder and her purse in her hand. He knelt down and hugged us both inside. “Sorry you both have had such a rough day, girls. Your grandmother just called and said she’s picking up some pizzas on the way home for dinner.” “Great,” I said unenthusiastically. “Sounds good,” Beth said, her voice sounding like mine. “I’m going to go change my clothes,” Beth said. “Come with me?” “Sure!” I said. She started to pick me up but winced, “I think I’ll have to hold off picking you up for a day or two.” “It’s okay, I can climb,” I told her. As I clambered up the stairs behind her, it occurred to me that it was one of the only times I had gone up them on my own! With my own injuries, thankfully almost healed, I didn’t feel much pain going up. Still, one pull of my hand grabbing the banister rail to reach the top step made me remember all that the scan said had been wrong with me! At her glance, I dropped my bag in my room and headed down the hallway to hers. She closed the door behind her and then knelt down beside me, squeezed me in a hug, and bawled! BETH FELT SO emotionally spent after the day that holding Carly was the only thing that comforted her. She collapsed to the floor and leaned against the bed, holding Carly, who hugged her back. “It’s okay,” Carly told her after a few minutes. “You have no idea how scared I was…” Beth told her. “I do,” Carly said, “Seeing you being threatened like that was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.” “We can’t keep having things like this happen,” she told Carly, even as she squeezed her tightly, then pushed her further out onto her lap to where they could look at each other. “I told Grandma no more malls?” Carly suggested. “Definitely no more malls!” she agreed, nervously laughing then. Beth sniffed right then; she hadn’t noticed before, but Carly definitely had a dirty diaper. She sighed, “You need a clean diaper, and I think I want to shower before we go downstairs to eat dinner?” “I can get Grandpa to change me?” Carly said. “Or actually, I guess Tessa is probably around here somewhere, too?” “No, tell you what. Why don’t you go grab your jammies, a diaper, and some wipes from your room, and then we’ll just clean up together?” Beth blushed a bit as she said it, but they’d been around each other naked enough that she was feeling less self-conscious about suggesting something like that. “Okay,” Carly said, “I’ll be right back!” Beth started taking off her shoes and socks and digging through her overnight bag for panties and fuzzy socks to go with a set of pajamas she thought were packed. Instead, she discovered Rachel had packed a zippered footie, one of the last things she felt like wearing after nearly being stuck in a diaper earlier! She was looking through other compartments when she smelled the pungent diaper-wearer return. She turned to see Carly holding a folded set of pajamas, a diaper, and a packet of baby wipes. With a shrug, she gave up looking for something more mature pajama-wise and headed into the bathroom with Carly. “Lay down right there,” she told Carly after putting a spare towel on the floor beside the giant tub. She helped Carly shimmy the jeans off her legs, pulled the socks off, and then sat her up to pull the top off. All that was left was the diaper, and from where she was kneeling over Carly, she could see it was a doozy! She sighed, “Okay, sit still; this looks like it will probably be extra messy.” Beth pulled the tapes open and held her nose as she exposed a mess in the diaper that she could have lived ten lifetimes without seeing. It looked like her bowel movement had been incredibly runny! At least the diaper had absorbed much of the moisture, but as she wiped Carly, it was like cleaning oil off a surface. It was good that Carly brought a nearly new pack of wipes because it took half of it to make it decent enough that she was okay with tossing her in the tub with her. ‘I could have sprayed her off instead… but then that would be in the tub,” she thought, looking at the disgusting pile of wipes that she carefully rolled into the diaper. There was a diaper pail in the bathroom, so she carefully fed the toxic bomb inside of it. Fortunately, an experienced mother like Amanda kept around some of the better pails, so Beth was pretty sure there would be no further scents from the diaper as it was sealed away. “Okay, Carly, let’s get the water running here?” Beth said. She pressed the panel buttons to start the shower at the temperature she liked, then decided to bring down the temperature a couple of degrees to ensure she didn’t burn Carly’s skin. After checking it, she picked up the naked girlfriend and sat her inside before quickly stripping off the borrowed pants, panties, bra, and top she wore and joining her. She noticed Carly was just standing there and hugged her before asking, “Do you want me to wash your hair for you?” “Please?” “Here, let’s use the nozzle and get your hair all wet!” Beth washed the Little girl first, finding that caring for Carly was helping calm her down quite a bit. Eventually, she soaped her own hair and body, used her conditioner, and rinsed them both off. Neither girl talked much during the shower, and Beth sensed the intimate moment didn’t need a play-by-play from her either. She dried Carly in a towel before wrapping her in it for a second and then placed her on another towel on her bed. Her arms were about to give out earlier, even trying to pick her up, so the shower had apparently done some good on loosening things up. ‘I still hurt like hell!’ she thought as her arms spasmed for a second while she squeezed her fingers on the tape to finish sealing Carly into her fresh diaper. Carly had brought a pair of footed pajamas with her, too, so when they went down to dinner a short while later, Beth noted that they did, in fact, look like they could be sisters. “You feel better after the shower?” Amanda asked her. She shrugged, “Somewhat, my body hurts a lot, but it loosened up some of the muscles?” “You could try sitting in the hot tub tonight for a bit?” Fred suggested. “I’m sure you wouldn’t have to twist Carly’s arm to get into the water?” Amanda added as she helped Carly into her highchair. “Although she’s small enough, she has a ten-minute limit, no more in the jacuzzi than that ever at a given time.” Carly frowned but didn’t say anything. Right then, Bella, Shelby, and Ryan came in to join them. Beth watched as all three were helped into their high chairs, too. However, Bella was the only one with a bib around her neck. Beth noted that Amanda also cut Bella’s pizza into tiny bites, which she used her hands to pick up. Everyone else at the pizza the ‘normal’ way. Fred had picked up Big-sized pizzas, so one slice apiece was more than enough for the Littles, while two was enough for her. She noted the leftovers afterward. Dinner conversation had been very quiet compared to what she had grown used to in this house. Clearly, just about everyone was upset right then. “Where’d Nikki go?” Carly asked. “She had to run back to town for something,” Fred said. “She said she’ll be back tomorrow afternoon; she figured as long as you don’t leave here, we have you covered for security.” Beth just nodded. ‘Not like she’d been the hero earlier?’ Right then, she felt the ghost of the knife against her throat and suddenly stood up, running to the nearest downstairs bathroom, and emptied her guts into the toilet. A moment later, Amanda was behind her, holding her hair as she retched again into the toilet. I WATCHED BETH suddenly run from the dining room, with Grandma close on her heels. “Would you please let me out of this?” I asked, looking at Grandpa. He looked at the half-eaten giant piece of pizza that remained, shrugged, and released me from the highchair after moving the tray to the table. I reached the bathroom where Grandma held Beth’s hair and felt my stomach turn. I could smell the vomit and knew she couldn’t feel good in that instance. I watched with sympathy as she stood, rinsed her mouth at the sink, and then caught sight of me. I walked timidly over to her and held her by the knees. Beth picked me up and held me tightly, eyes clearly full of tears, but unable to say anything for a long time. “Would you mind if we went and laid down in my room?” Beth asked Grandma. I looked at Grandma, who looked slightly torn for decency reasons, but was relieved by her nod. “You may stay together; all I ask is that you don’t have sex while you’re here,” she said lightly. “I don’t blame you for wanting a cuddle right now.” She embraced us both, saying, “I’m sorry today happened. I will bring up something for you both to drink in a bit; you will definitely be dehydrated, Beth.” Beth just nodded and carried me upstairs with her. She plopped me down on her bed, then grabbed a giant stuffed red panda. I vaguely remember her telling me about it before. She saw my stare, “Haven’t you met Rings before?” I shook my head, “No?” She blushed, “I guess I’ve kept her hidden until you’ve gone to bed…?” “Why?” “I guess I’ve just been embarrassed that I still sleep with her?” I laughed, “Like I’d have any room to talk?” I shrugged, “My sisters all still have stuffies they sleep with. Thanks to my nest mothers, I’ve got a couple, too.” She nodded at that. “So what’s her story?” “She was my daddy’s?” She blushed, “He gave her to me when I was reborn.” I knew that was a touchy subject, so I didn’t push her on that part. “Where did your dad get her?” “My mom gave her to him when she was his mommy.” “That’s got to be an odd relationship?” I asked. “It worked for them?” She shrugged, “As far as I know, they stopped acting like that when I was about three?” “As far as you know?” I asked. She nodded, pulling rings closer to one side and sliding me to where I was lying on top of her. “To be honest, I think Mom and Dad have played with him as her little girl more than once over the years. If it wasn’t for the Supreme Court role, I’d guess they’d do it more?” “That definitely would be quite a scandal,” I nodded. We sat there for a long while as she ran her hand idly through my hair. “You know, I really wonder something sometimes?” I looked up at her, “What?” “What is it like in your world, where you don’t have to worry about forced adoptions? Where adults are just adults?” I shrugged, “That part is definitely less stressful.” “You really thought it was worth it to come here?” She asked me. I looked up at her and smiled, “I hoped it would be?” “Has it been?” She asked me. “Yes, it has,” I said with a smile at her. She was still clearly upset, but at least she was talking. “Why?” “Well,” I thought momentarily about how to say what I wanted to, “I mean, becoming myself was nice?” I shrugged and smiled at her, “But the best part is getting to be here with you. That alone has been more than worth the risk!” I gave her a hug and felt her squeeze me back. “You know you’re the only reason I haven’t taken my parents up on running away from here, right?” I nodded, “I kind of guessed that. I wouldn’t blame you if you left?” She shook her head, “I have no idea where we’re going, but leaving you would feel like leaving part of me.” “You know I’m supposed to go home in a few months?” She shrugged, “We’ll see what happens? Who knows, maybe we’ll figure it out. I just want things to calm down!” I nodded at that. A knock came at the door right then, “Come in,” Beth said. “Hmm… clothes are still on?” Grandma joked as she came in with a couple of spill-proof cups. “Here’s some water for you both.” “Thanks,” I said, blushing because of the juvenile sippy cups. There was a purple and a pink one; Beth passed me the pink one before saying, “Thanks,” to Grandma. “Fred and I think it would help if you soaked in the hot tub for a while tonight, Beth. It’s not a requirement, but it might help?” “We’re already comfy in our jammies,” Beth said with a smile. “What do you think, though?” she asked me. I shrugged, “If it would help you with your soreness, it might be worth changing?” “Then we’ll have to take another shower?” She suggested. “I’ll be fine. Maybe I can hop in tomorrow morning while the dolphin here swims?” “That could work,” Grandma said. “I’ll get out of your hair,” she told us. Beth squeezed me, “Sorry, I know you would live in water if we let you?” I shrugged, “It’s okay.” I started squirming to get off her lap. “Tell you what, why don’t you lay down on your belly?” “Why?” She asked. “Just do it?” I suggested. “Hmm… Why do I think you’re up to no good?” She asked. “All good, I promise,” I smiled at her. She complied and laid on her stomach, turning her head towards me, “Now what?” “Now relax,” I told her. While I’d certainly been held on her hip and in her lap, I’d never actually climbed on her back like I did then. I straddled the top of her back and gently pushed her hair to the side as she asked, “What are you…?” Right before I began gently kneading her back with my hands. She winced at first as I hit certain spots in her shoulders, but she was purring like a kitty before long. “That feels so good!” I took a moment to kiss her neck below her hair before working my way down her back. While working on her lower back, she winced but loosened up the more I worked over her muscles. I continued all the way down onto her butt, “Is this okay?” “Uh-huh,” was all she could say. I could tell she was in a sort of trance and was glad I was having the effect on her I wanted. She willingly cleaned my disgusting diapers up; the least I could do was this! I stayed on her rump for a little bit but didn’t explore past the tissue, not intending things to go another direction that night. Instead, I continued down her legs, starting with her right and then moving to her left even as I climbed beside her. Reaching her footie-clad foot, I discovered she was actually quite ticklish. She giggled, “That tickles…” “Sorry, I’ll save that information for another time.” I smiled and moved back up her ankles and rear and then to her arms and hands. I explored her fingers and gently massaged her hands for several minutes before moving back up her scalp. “That is wonderful,” she said, clearly feeling the effects. “Your hands have way more strength than they should.” “I can do your front sometime, too,” I told her, gently rubbing her back. She rolled over, “Not now?” “That’s up to you,” I said, looking down into her eyes. “What would you massage next?” She asked me dreamily. “Maybe your face?” She took a moment to lean up to kiss me on the nose. “Then what?” I blushed, “Your chest?” “Then?” “Work my way down?” “Hmm… Seems to me like there’s another night before we go back to school?” “I think there is?” I smiled at her. “Then I’m going to hold you to that tomorrow. Massages work better without clothes, I think?” I blushed but nodded, “Uh-huh?” She kissed me gently on the lips, “Seems like we’ll have to do some experimenting.” “I’m up for it,” I smiled. She took that moment to wrap me tightly in her arms. “Thank you, Carly.” “I love you, Beth.” “I love you too, Carly.” We sat there for a few moments, “How about we go change you and then call it a night?” she suggested. “Sure,” I said. She sat up and popped a few bones as she stood before picking me up gently and carrying me to my room. She sat me on the changing table, unzipped my sleeper, and gently cleaned me up. I didn’t know what she would do then, but she was smiling as she carried me back to her room and closed the door. She pulled the covers of her bed down and placed me on the bed before joining me after turning off the lights. “Not getting up to any funny business tonight,” she told me, “But I wouldn’t mind your hands exploring again some other time.” I hugged her, then squirmed up the bed until my head was opposite hers. She embraced me tightly, and we kissed for a long moment. “Good night, Carly,” she said, “I love you.” “I love you too,” I said, and we fell asleep in each other’s embrace. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Thanks everyone for reading! Please press the like button and leave a comment! There will be on more chapter before this goes on a season break. Thank you to everyone for your kind words above!!!!

Chapter Forty Nine Amanda felt Johns forehead. He was getting a bit warm again, so instead of getting him snuggled in, she stood up and carried him to the kitchen. Sitting him on the edge of the counter, she used her upper thigh to gently pin his legs so that he couldn’t fall as she opened up the medicine bottle that her Mom had so kindly gone to town for. Looking at the medicine cup, and the little syringe with no needle to just squirt the medicine into his mouth, she opted for the cup. Carefully measuring the amount, she held the cup up to his mouth. He just shook his head “No, the last one tasted bad!” Tilting the cup against his mouth she said patiently “Take the medicine, sweety.” He started to lean back. He had made it about forty five degrees before she finally put a hand behind his back and pulled him back upright. “This medicine is going into you.” He had barely shaken his head before she picked the medicine syringe used to squirt liquid medicine into the mouths of children that wouldn’t drink it willingly. He eyed the syringe and said “You wouldn’t dare.” Face completely impassive, her right eyebrow slowly went up and she shrugged. As she started to suck the medicine into the syringe, she saw him give up. “Ugh. Fine!” John finally caved and reached out to take the cup. He shotgunned it like it was a shot glass of tequila. She watched his face closely as his left eye squinted up, his right eyebrow right up, and as hit entire face squinted he started to slowly shudder a bit. “Does it taste that bad?” she asked softly. He only nodded, so she tossed the medicine cup into the sink, then picked him back up and took him to the rocking chair for his snuggles. As she got him covered back up, he started complaining. “This is ridiculous.” He started. Calmly, Amanda asked “What is ridiculous, sweety?” “The medicine! It tasted like grapes made of chalk!” He was starting to seem a bit animated. “Well sweety, Medicine just tastes like medicine.” “Uh uh.” He shook his head “If they can make the peanut butter taste as addictive as crack, they can make cookies taste like chewy crumbly happiness with a hint of delerium, then they can make the medicine taste better. The only reason it could taste that bad is to make us not want to take it.” “Well sweety, the medicine here is also much more effective than it is on your world.” She tried to bring him to reason. “Not good enough.” So after about five minutes of going back and forth, she pulled her shirt off, and slid a bra strap down. If he was going to keep being grumpy, he was be grumpy and fed. Small blessing, while he was nursing, his entire body relaxed and then he finally fell asleep peacefully. Before he even halfway drained one breast. He had obviously been seriously tired and didn’t want to sleep. So going about the nightly routine, she went ahead and got him comfortably in his crib, set about pumping the rest of the milk, and logged onto her computer to update complete notes in the journal she kept about him. After that, she decided to grab the receiver for the baby monitor and then go to bed early. She had a hunch that this could turn into a rough night. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Xerxes, having not gotten the attention he wanted from his little, grabbed his doggy bed after everyone went to sleep and dragged it into his littles room right up next to the bed. Going back into the living room, he found the big green plushie that made his little laugh so much on the couch, and carried it to his bed. Xerxes then walked in three circles to get himself exactly so and flopped down with his head on the plushie that smelled like his little. Every time throughout the night his little made a sound or a whimper, Xerxes stood up and peaked through the mesh wall for a moment before laying back down. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John Taylor sat on the living room floor. He was reclined on a stuffed lizard and grumbling about a cold thermometer in his ear. He was wearing nothing but a diaper and towel draped over him. A large hand tried to hold his head still, but he refused to stay still. Another cough racked his body, pulling him away from the thermometer in his ear. There was a beep and a sigh from above him. “John for the third time, please just hold still for ten seconds.” He tried to say no, but he coughed again. The thermometer went right back into his ear. Fourth try being the charm, the thermometer finally started a series of warning beeps. Once again from above him he heard a sigh. “John, your fever has gone up. Here, drink this.” He shook his head. No, that last dose tasted bad. A little medicine cup was held to his lips and his nose was pinched shut. He would not win this time, so he gave up and took the nasty medicine. But the second she let go of him he flopped onto his side on the rug. He didn’t have to, he was just feeling dramatic as he heard footsteps moving away from him toward the kitchen. His chest hurt, and he still tried to say ‘I’m not sick.’ but all that he got was a cough followed by ‘-ot ick’ as the foot steps came back. She obviously did not hear him because she just picked him up and sat n the couch with him on his back across her lap. There was a cold sensation across his lips so he tried to turn his head. But the inside of an elbow stopped him. He was not going without a fight, so he used both hands on the bottle and one sweaty foot to push up against her arm. Victory! The bottle moved. Hah! Just as he was reveling in his victory, because he was absolutely not sick at all, a blanket was pulled over him and he was wrapped up like a sweaty, coughing burrito. “Cheat!!” he croaked out a little better than he could have before the cough syrup a minute ago soothed his throat. “John.” Amanda said to him softly “You have not had anything to drink all day and you refused to eat. You’re drinking this and that’s not negotiable.” “No! I refmmmpphhhh” And in the nipple of the bottle went. He absolutely refused to drink. Ever the arbiter of unfairness, the giant Mommy cradling him squeezed the bottle and a little bit of cold, refreshing juice dribbled into his mouth. It tasted just a bit different, but his brain couldn’t connect the taste with any medicine that he knew of. After several minutes he gave up and started drinking from the bottle. By the time he was halfway through the bottle, he started to drift off to sleep. ~~~~~~~~~~ John woke up to an odd scratching sound above him. He sat up and looked at the window above his bed. There in the window was Steve, his loyal pet squirrel, scratching at the window to get his attention. “What is it boy, do you need something?” In response the squirrel gave him a long series of panicked chitters. John knew what he needed to do. “Mom!” John called out. “Mom! I need to get up!” From through his door he heard her call back “I’m coming sweety, one moment!” She came into the room and reached up and lowered the side of the crib. Smiling at him she asked “Are you feeling better?” With a nod he said “Yeah, I told you I’m not sick. Can I go outside?” Pausing to check his diaper to confirm that he was clean and dry, which he already knew and could have just told her, she nodded and picked him up and put him down, and only after she put some shorts on over his onesie did she swat him on the booty and send him on his way. As he went through the living room he saw Mom go back to the table where Mike was waiting. They had a big pad of paper and had spent several days sketching out the plans to expand the fence to make the garden bigger and apparently that involved building new, bigger trellis’s. Which immediately turned into doing math and soil testing for reasons that he was happy to not be involved with. The screen door was oh so slightly open, so he helped himself onto the porch where he was greeted by his waist high squirrel standing next to Xerxes. The dog was staring intently, clearly listening to the Squirrel in some sort of animal conversation. Which of course animals are wont to do. When they saw him Xerxes barked briefly and jumped off the porch and started scratching at the gate on the side of the yard facing the river. John stepped into his shoes without bothering to tie them and hopped down the three large steps to the ground. When he ran over to the gate, he heard a strange sound on the other side. Spotting a Trellis leaning against the fence, he used it like a ladder to climb up and peek over the top. What he saw when he peeked over the top of the fence took him completely by surprise. There, plain as day, was a large wide oval of what looked like a thin layer of bright blue rippling water. Clearly it was a portal. Portals all look like bright blue rippling water. That’s just the rule. Coming out of the portal were round fluffy forms a bit less than Johns own height with curled fluffy tails. They were bounding around the field by the dozens, and as he watched, they were gathering up all the woodland creatures and herding them into the portal. OBVIOUSLY they were kidnapping the animals, and the people were next. Climbing down from the trellis, he ran back to the house and leaned into the door to shout “Mom! Mike! There’s a portal in the back yard and you’ve gotta come quick! We’re being invaded!” Mike and Amanda jumped up and ran out the door and over to gate. The moment that Mike opened the gate he turned to Amanda and said “We have to call for help.” While the gate was open, John climbed into Xerxes’ back, and Steve jumped up onto Xerxes' neck. Both of them held on tight as Xerxes took off into the field barking loudly and chasing the evil chinchillas away from a fox that was being dragged belly up, kicking and biting at the air. As Xerxes got close and the Chinchilla’s let go of it, the Fox rolled onto its legs and took off toward the treeline like a red lightning bolt. Within moments Amanda was running through the field using a shovel from her garden to pick up the chinchilla’s and hurl them toward the portal. Mike came into view every so often as Xerxes darted back and forth barking at the adorable, yet menacing, swarm. Mike seemed to just be simply grabbing them and hurling the beach ball sized animals back through the portal that they came through. Steve would chitter directions at Xerxes, and any time one of them tried to take down the dog, John would grab it by the tail and shove it off. Together the three of them managed to avoid being swarmed. Finally, after what seemed like twenty minutes, reinforcements arrived. First Aunt Cat ran up with Kate on her shoulder. Aunt Cat just punted one like a soccer ball back through the portal. Agent Praefectus started grabbing them by the tail, shouting “Bad Chinchilla.” and hurling them back. For some reason John caught a glimpse of Miss Bairn. She wasn’t even fighting them. The tall woman with a dark brown pony tail, dressed like she had just come from work simply stood with her arms crossed and stared at a swarm of Chinchilla. An entire group in the swarm stopped short of her and did not dare climb her. Before they could turn and attack someone else, Miss Bairn just pointed back at the portal. Miss Bairn didn’t even say anything. She just looked disappointed. All the Chinchilla in front of her turned and sulked and walked back to the portal, all clearly dejected like they had been sent to their room just for trying to take over another dimension. As Xerxes carried him and Steve past Amanda, he could hear her shouting to Agent Praefectus “Hey, shouldn’t there be police, or the army or more ABI agents here for this?” Luckily Xerxes ran past Agent Praefectus next and for a brief moment it sounded like he shouted back “Yeah, but John hasn't met them yet, so he doesn't know what they look like!” That made no sense to John, but he had more work to do as he and Xerxes and Steve saved a baby bear from being dragged away. Plus he got to pet the bear cub before it ran off. Double win! ~~~~~~~~ The Battle of Chinchilla field was fierce, and by the end of it they were all tired, but excited as the last of the Chinchilla menace retreated back through their portal. Everyone celebrated with cups of plapple juice on the porch. But while they were celebrating John found one straggler that got left behind because it was in their yard and it could not climb the fence. While the adults were distracted, John fed the chinchilla some sweet peas and befriended it. When it followed him back to the porch, it took quite a lot of convincing to get them to let it stay with him. But they had to let it stay, because he had already named it Gizmo. That’s just how that works. After everyone had left, Mom insisted on cradling John and feeding some more juice that he was pretty sure had medicine in it. He knew she knew how to take care of him better than he did, but he fussed about it anyway because he was tired. And finally Gizmo was put into a diaper and laid in the crib next to him. They snuggled up nice and close and drifted off to sleep. But Gizmo was so soft and so fluffy that John must have been sweating, because soon he felt like he was wet and slick with sweat from head to toe. Luckily Gizmo didn’t seem to mind, he just let John lay there with him. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Waking up, John lay face down on something large and soaking wet. He was wearing only a diaper, and as he pushed himself up he could see that he was in his crib and laying on his giant pillow. He felt gross. “M..” it took a moment because his throat was sore, but he swallowed a few times and managed to find his shakey voice. “Mommy?” he called out. It was just a few seconds before she was in the room and the side of the crib came down. Her hand went to his forehead and immediately she sighed in relief. “Okay, it seems like you finally broke your fever. You must have been having one weird dream, you were mumbling about Chinchilla's.” “Mom?” “Yes, sweety?” “If a Chinchilla comes through a portal in our yard, can I keep it?” He could see her close her eyes and take a deep breath as she felt his forehead again. “Yes, sweety. If a Chinchilla comes through a portal, you can keep it. Now let’s get you bathed and your bedding washed. You’re gross.” “Thank you Mom.”

Chapter Forty Eight Having just had his temperature checked, MeMaw came back and sat on the couch next to John. He found himself gathered up and placed in her lap with his back to the kitchen. MeMaw was suspiciously quiet the entire time, and he couldn’t help but wonder what she was up to. Until she held out her hand, palm up. And there in her palm was a broken off piece of cookie. Just enough to be one goodly sized bite. So obviously John happily grabbed it and popped it into his mouth. Oh it was the single best peanut butter cookie he’d ever had. Before he was even done chewing, he had been kissed on the forehead and was back against the arm of the couch. Okay, so MeMaw was frustrating, but she had her perks. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dinner seemed to be ready in a flash, and John found himself in his booster seat facing a plate that had a bell pepper easily eight inches wide filled to the very top with some sort of rice based casserole, some sweet peas, a generously portioned dinner roll, and a sliver of meat cut off of a steak that looked oh so slightly past being pink. And it all looked so good that he couldn’t help staring at it as MeMaw sat down and slid her chair right up against his right side. Eventually coming out of his stupor, he picked up the plastic spoon and got some of the dressing out of the bell pepper and stared at it. He could make out rice, some sort of leafy stuff that might be cabbage, there was a little chunk of that sweet tomato that he was a bit ambivalent to, and just a bunch of seasoning sprinkled all over the rice. He took a bite and chewed slowly while all of the flavors hit him. Was casserole or rice what-ever-this-was this good in his own dimension? Had he missed out completely when he had the chance? As he swallowed the food, he could hear MeMaw fussing at PawPaw. “Harold, I told you to cook his meat well done.” PawPaw just shook his head “Margaret, I won’t commit a warcrime for you.” John chimed in before he could stop himself “My dad always said that after you turn 14, all steaks should be medium rare, or medium at the worst.” PawPaw just pointed and said “Good Man.” As PawPaw reached across the John took the hint and reached back with his fist and they fist bumped right there in front of MeMaw. As MeMaw started to complain, John looked up and asked “May I have some pepper?” “You certainly may” She stopped fussing at PawPaw and as she tried to sprinkle the pepper for him, he held out his hands to accept it. MeMaw gave him a sideways glance, but did hand it to him, which he took with both hands just to be sure he didn’t drop it. The last thing he wanted was an incident. As he started to tilt the pepper shaker, he said “MeMaw, I can handle the pepper.” and as turned sideways over his sweet peas a bit blob of it came out and landed right in the middle of it. John sighed. Perfect. Before he could even turn the pepper shaker back upright, MeMaw came to the rescue by using her spoon to scoop away all of the peas that were completely covered in pepper, and then stir the rest of the peas so that it was still peppered just about right. The feeling of indignity at his own failure was pretty severe at the moment. John Coughed a little and tried some of the sweet buttery peas with just a lightly peppered flavor. Oh, that was too good to keep sulking. As John ate his peas and the rice dressing out of the pepper, he saw a knife and fork in the corner of his vision start to cut the steak on his plate. He stopped too look at MeMaw, who was cutting the meat for him. “MeMaw, I don’t suppose that you have a small knife and will let me cut my own steak?” She paused briefly and looked at him, then at the pepper shaker, then back at him. “I don’t think so, no.” and then she went back to cutting it up for him. Closing his eyes, John took a deep breath and exhaled to calm himself back down. When he reopened his eyes, he sighed and said “Okay.” before going back to eating. Between bites, a fork with a square of steak came up in front of him, waiting patiently for him to take a bite. He hesitated, staring at it for a moment, but it wasn’t going anywhere. Giving in just to get it over with, he leaned forward and took the bite of steak. OH. That was GOOD. John didn’t even notice that he was nodding as he ate. It was so good he couldn’t help himself. From his right he heard MeMaw ask “Do you like it, sweety? Do you want any Ketchup or anything?” Indignantly, John turned his head and said deadpan “MeMaw, putting ketchup on that steak would be little abuse. And steak abuse, I guess.” MeMaw, for her own part, just rolled her eyes and held out another bite of steak for him, which he happily accepted this time. The meal itself continued on with the bigs making idle chatter, but MeMaw focusing mainly on spoiling her Grandchild. John did at one point lean forward and take a bite of the red bell pepper itself. It was a little sweet, but that char on it gave it a pretty good kick. Less than halfway through his own dinner, he found himself running out of steam starting to slow down. He just didn’t seem to have the energy or the appetite to go much further. But as he started to slow down, MeMaw slid his plate away and held up a sugar cookie. As he reached out and took it, he was surprised that it wasn’t too huge, it was just a big cookie. Oh! Sugar cookies can taste good! By the time he was done picking away at his cookie and drinking juice every few bites to sooth his throat, he was very fully out of steam. But MeMaw was there to pick him up, take him tot he bathroom and sit his soggy bottom on the countertop with a squish and got him cleaned up. After he was cleaned up in the bathroom, he was carried to the bedroom for a different sort of cleaning up. But being sedate from having eaten too much, he didn’t even have the energy to grump about the diaper change. And when the onesie was snapped back up, no pants were offered back to him, he was just lifted up and carried back to the kitchen where a tiny cup was offered to him. “Here sweety, this will soothe your throat.” was the only explanation MeMaw offered. But he took it anyway. After downing the syrup that tasted almost similar to raspberry, he did a full body shiver. “UGH! Bitter!!” God, his eyes were twitching as he said that. MeMaw tried to bribe him with a bit of peanut butter cookie, but with the weird bitter and chalky flavor in his mouth it wasn’t happening. Ultimately, they wound up back on the couch with John in MeMaw’s lap. But this time he had his tablet, and MeMaw just watched while he did some puzzles for a while. Every once in a while when he would stall out she would just point to a spot without saying a word, and every time that turned out to be what he needed to do next. And every time he got a puzzle right, he got a kiss on top of the head. After an hour or so of this, it started to feel like the inside of his sinuses itched and no amount of rubbing his nose or pressing against his cheek over his sinuses would help. Switching from puzzles over to the books, he felt MeMaws hands slide under him and she moved him up sideways across her lap. And every so often the back of her hand would brush across his forehead. Conveniently enough, when he opened up the book section there were the two books he had been reading. “The Odyssey of Hugh” and “Littles Lost in Space” were waiting for him. Not wanting to read ahead of Kate, he tapped on Littles Lost in Space and it came back to where he had left off. MeMaw nudged him and asked “I’ve never read this, can you tell me what it’s about?” With a nod and a dry cough, John patiently explained the story as closely as he could remember, including some of his favorite parts like where the Big Dad tied a rope to his little sons space suit and had him hold onto a tool box and aimed him at a gap in a damaged hallway and then gave him a little push so that the little floated down the hallway, occasionally nudging himself off of debris to deliver the tools to the Big Mom. That scene had been so full of suspense that he’d even ignored Xerxes licking him to get his attention. After getting MeMaw caught up, she seemed to be more intent to watch him read than to read the book. Occasionally her hand would brush over his forehead or she would bump him with his cup until he drank enough to satisfy her. The area around his eyes was starting to feel like his skin was hot from the inside, so he finally gave in and put the tablet down. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Xerxes sitting up on the new play mat. “Hey MeMaw?” He asked quietly. She leaned down and asked “Yes, sweety?” Pointing at the dog, he asked “Don’t you think Xerxes needs a bow tie?” Not only did that come out of left field as it popped into his head, it broke MeMaw for a moment as she had to stop chuckling before she could answer “Yes, I think he does. We’ll see what we can do.” Since MeMaw let her guard down, he took the chance to slide off of her lap, turn to face the back of the couch and slide carefully to the floor and onto his feet. Before he could walk halfway to Xerxes he took a breath and something started its way up his throat and he wound up having a full on coughing fit. At some point his Mom was kneeling next to him with a tissue to wipe his mouth. That was when MeMaw stood up and said “Okay, that’s what I was waiting for. It’s time to run him a bath.” So quickly was John picked up by his Mom that he was left reaching out for Xerxes and whining while he was low on breath “But I wanted to lay on dog” Two minutes later Mom was undressing him while MeMaw filled the bath. He watched as she white bottle of bubble bath with a bright red cap. She opened the top of it and squeezed a bunch of the milky white goop into the tub while it was filling. By the time he was fully undressed, had his teeth brushed quickly for him, and was relieved of his diaper, MeMaw had used her arm moving back and forth to make a good layer of bubbles on top of the water. And then he was passed from Mom to MeMaw and lowered into the bubble bath. The instant he was in the warm water he could tell that there was medication in it giving off vapors. Within moments he was breathing deep and the constant need to cough started to fade. Then he could feel his muscles start to relax all over his body, whether he wanted them to or not. Whatever was in this medicated bubble bath worked great. After a couple of minutes, he heard MeMaw clear her throat. So he looked up. “Are you breathing a little easier, sweety?” Looking up, John nodded and answered “Yes Ma’am.” MeMaw then held up a little package wrapped in blue wrapping paper. Laughing a bit, she explained “I was planning to have you unwrap this, but that didn’t work out like I had hoped.” With that, she ripped the top off for him and opened the box without even unwrapping it completely. With no pause or anything, she pulled out … … A blue toy boat a bit bigger than his hand., which she put on the side of the tub. And then a second toy boat in yellow, with a slightly different shaped hull. And then a toy shark in a grayish blue color.. John stared at them on the side of the tub. Bath toys. She bought him bath toys. He looked at her. Then back at the toys. And then back up at her. “Ummm … Thank you MeMaw, but I haven’t played with bath toys in like … eighteen years.” She just smiled and said “Well, now you have something to occupy yourself while you soak in the vapor bath!” She seems SO excited that he gave up and grabbed the blue tug boat and dropped it in the water. It floated around and the bubbles came up to halfway up its hull. John gave it an idle poke to send it on its maiden voyage through the foamy seas. MeMaw pointed and asked “You don’t want to play with the other tug boat, too?” Shaking his head, he replied “That’s a non-commercial Cruising Trawler, and these are rough seas.” Easing herself to kneel down, MeMaw got some shampoo on her hands and started to wash his hair as she asked “Well, what’s the difference?” Completely oblivious to the fact that he was being distracted while she bathed him, he held up the tug and explained the difference in the pilot house versus the cabin, the shape up the hull, and how Trawlers were traditionally used for fishing but were frequently converted for private use due to often having greater fuel efficiency compared to other crafts of similar size at the cost of being a slower. By the time he was done explaining it to her, his hair had been shampooed, conditioned, and a soaped up rag was scrubbing his left armpit. All in all, the business part of the bath took only a few minutes longer and the warmth was seeping into him, making him start to yawn. He tried to hide the yawn, but MeMaw pulled the stopper to drain the water. As the water started to go down, he hurriedly covered his lower portions with his arms when MeMaw came to him with a towel. Smirking, she asked “Is there something wrong?” Turning beet red, John answered honestly “I’m naked.” With a nod, she answered “Yes. That is how one usually takes a bath.” proving that she completely missed the point as she reached down with the towel and picked him up while wrapping him up in it. No amount of squirming would help him out of the situation as he was carried to the changing table, scrubbed extra dry with a towel, and then laid down naked and sulking to be lotioned, then powdered, and finally taped up into a ludicrously thick overnight diaper. Once diapered he was sat up was not taken off of the table until he was put into yet another gift: A light blue onesie with a sleeping puppy on the front. This one was made out of a light material that felt super soft and breathable. At least the onesie was incredibly comfortable. Without any expectation of a thank you, MeMaw held up his pacy, fully expecting him to take it. So he took it begrudgingly. MeMaw picked John up and got him up against her chest and carried him to the living room where she sat on the couch with him on her lap. Her face filled his view as she moved her leg up to raise him while she leaned down to kiss him on the forehead. “John” She started “We are about to have to head home. I have adored every minute with you and I hope that you get to feeling better soon.” Well, in for a penny, he held up his arms and was pulled up into a great big hug. It was a full minute before he was kissed on the cheek and then sat on the couch between MeMaw and PawPaw. PawPaw smiled down at him and with a shrug, John held up his arms again and was picked up into a second big hug and could feel a hand almost as big as his back patting him gently over his shoulders. Once he found himself back on the couch, MeMaw produced one final gift. She unrolled and fluffed out a soft wool blanket, black with sleepy cartoon stars all over it. With one last set of goodbyes, PawPaw and MeMaw gave their hugs to Mom, and he was left alone rubbing his eyes, holding his blanket, and Xerxes smelling his foot. After a moment to see her parents off, Mom came back in and scooped him up into a hug of her own and went over to the rocking chair for their own nightly routine. While he lay against her chest wrapped in a blanket for their nightly snuggles, Mommy asked him a simple question. “So, what do you think of your MeMaw and PawPaw?” He was quiet for a bit as he thought about it. PawPaw he simply liked. He was stoic, and his humor was a strangely deadpan kind. He had treated John in a way that felt more like a Grandpa than he had actually ever experienced before. And then there was MeMaw. She seemed to have a heart of gold, even if she was a bit overbearing at first. She seemed to think of him as a small adult one moment, and a helpless baby the next. John was pretty sure that he could think back to how she started to be more respectful of his ability to think for himself and she had definitely grown on him. And besides, MeMaw seemed to be determined to spoil him, let him feed Xerxes, and made him cookies. After some time to think to himself, he looked up and answered honestly. “I like them.”

Chapter Forty Seven Amanda looked over at her Mom a bit jealously as John finally fell asleep against her side. She had obviously lured him outside and gotten a blanket over him before nap time, and then simply waited him out. Sneaking over to the two of them, she reached out and gently picked up his hand and let go. It flopped limply. He was out. Mom was in no hurry to move though, as she got him gently under the arms and slowly hoisted him up onto her chest to sleep face down on her while she gently patted his butt. Sitting sideways on the edge of the porch, Amanda watched for a moment before laughing a bit. “Okay, you’ve had him to yourself for a while now. What do you think of him?” Mom looked hurt for a moment before she protested in a whisper “Are you suggesting that I’m evaluating him?” Even Amanda couldn’t resist rolling her eyes as she said “Mom.” After a brief, almost guilty pause, she answered “Intellectually he’s almost late middle school. Emotionally he’s just past rebellious toddler. He has a temper lurking in there but he just barely keeps it under control. He mentally organizes things by shapes first, patterns second, and colors last. Of the three he doesn’t seem to care for color matching in the slightest. He is probably reliant on milk as an emotional stabilizer and does not know it. If he goes a day without it for any reason I expect him to have a complete meltdown and never even understand why. And while he’s not technically proficient like we are, he’s creative in ways that only a little can be. And finally he's just so stinking cute.” Now covering her mouth to keep her laugh as quiet as possible, she responded “I told you he was at toddler level, and he’s actually very clever about some things.” Mom then pointed down at the drawing pad and whispered “He’s also very eidetic, but sociall…” Then Mom stopped and bit her lip, her hand stopped moving. Amanda asked only “Wet?” A bare chuckle escaped Moms lips as she replied “Yep. It’s adorable.” With a nod, she elaborated “Every time he falls asleep. It didn’t happen at first, but now it’s every single time.” With a wave, Mom called her over as she whispered “Come help me up, we’ll get him down for a nap. I’m going to make some cookies while we're making the casserole.” Standing up, she held out her hands to take John from her Mom, but gave up when it became clear that she had no intent to hand him over. So instead she put her foot in front of Moms foot and reached out to take her hand and then lean back to tilt her up slowly while she cradled John to her chest. “You’re not going to let him go are you?” Shaking her head as she slowly walked by, Mom sassed her “No. He’s mine until I leave. PawPaw can have an hour.” “You know he’s my son, right?” With a nod, all she got was “Doesn't matter, he’s MeMaw’s grandbaby today.” Amanda could not help rolling her eyes again as she opened the child gate so he Mom could carry her son inside. “Young Lady you do not roll your eyes at me.” “Mom, I’m going to roll my eyes at you. I’ll get his stuffie.” They stopped talking while they worked together. Amanda took the comforter that was folded on the floor and put it in the bottom of the playpen, Mom lowered him down into the playpen and then his pants were carefully eased off of him so that he would sleep more comfortably. With John covered and his two stuffies up against him, Amanda went ahead and tossed the couch blanket over the side of the playpen to keep the light out of his eyes. As they moved over to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, the conversation picked back up. Mom wasted no time fussing at her “I’m very disappointed, by the way.” “What?” Amanda stopped to think before asking “Why?” “I gave that little boy his first piece of caramel.” “Mom.” Mom reached over to pat Amanda on the arm and said somberly “I forgive you for not spoiling my Grandson enough.” Amanda’s hand went involuntarily up to her forehead as she said “Oh Goddess. You’re awful.” Now smirking, Mom said “Hey, thirty years working, and I still keep Caramel in my purse in case I need to win over a little.” After another sip of coffee, she told her Mom “Cut up a strawberry. I’ll bet you that he’ll like it more than the caramel.” “I’ll take that bet.” Mom said confidently. “And what are you willing to wager?” “Young Lady, I taught you better than to gamble. Also when I win, I’ll be taking all of your hot peppers and a container of arugula.” “Mom, that’s not how … Also that’s not fair, Dad and I just picked those this morning! I don’t have any more than that because I … umm … used the rest in Mike’s food to win him over.” With a shrug, her Mom said “Not my fault. What do you want on the impossible chance that you win?” Holding up a finger, Amanda explained “When I win, and I will, you have to make me a new quilt.” “That’s pretty steep.” Amanda just shrugged “Not my fault. Besides, you just said that it’s impossible for me to win.” With that, they shook hands on it and got up to start cooking together. As they started prepping, Amanda got out measuring cups and was slow and meticulous about the amounts of seasonings. Her Mom, on the other hand, gathered her ingredients and started by mixing an egg, butter and vanilla into a bowl. Then she started stirring it while she added sugar. At some point she just nodded in satisfaction. Then in another bowl she poured flour and sprinkled an amount of baking soda and baking powder that only she knew the significance of. Amanda just shook her head “Mom, you never measure a single thing.” Her Mom did not say anything until she finished mixing the sugar cookie dough. Then she simply slid the bowl over for Amanda to see. It looked perfect, and then she said: “And I still say that you and your father spend too much time measuring and not enough time enjoying cooking.” Rolling her eyes at her mother for probably the ten thousandth time, Amanda slid her own dish over and pointed “There. One perfectly uniform cabbage and rice casserole, with that sausage that Dad brings.” With a simple nod, Mom asked “But did you have fun making it?” “I did.” Mom came in for a hug now and whispered “As long as you had fun making it, I can forgive you for doing it the boring way. Now get me the peanut butter, I'm making more cookies.” Pausing to turn on the oven, they both slipped quietly outside to sit on the porch, only to bust her Dad playing fetch with Xerxes in the field by the house. After a few quiet minutes, Amanda asked “Hey Mom?” “Yes Dear?” “Do you sometimes miss it? Working with littles?” Mom was quiet for a few moments before finally answering “I do. But it was time to retire. The last few years of in home inspections wore me out. And when LPS sent me to do diagnosis in the nurseries I got to help out a lot, but I just couldn’t keep going much longer. This way I get to retire gracefully without risking a mistake that puts a little in the wrong classification.” There were several minutes of quiet between the two of them after that while they respected the moment. After Xerxes came up onto the porch and pawed at the door until they let him inside, they both got a good laugh as he went to the playpen to smell his little through the mesh and sit down to stare at him before finally laying down to wait for John to wake up. Mom finally spoke as they made it back outside “That dog sure does love his little boy.” Laughing now, she explained “Mom, you have no idea. When there’s no company over, John naps on the floor propped up against him and you can’t get Xerxes to move until he wakes up.” After a few minutes of quiet time together with her Mom, Dad came over and sat on the side of the porch. Without any prompting, Amanda got up, took her Moms coffee cup, and then slipped inside as quietly as she could manage to grab a third mug and fill them all up. Slipping back outside awkwardly, Amanda made sure that SHE was the one drinking out of the new mug that Mike had gifted her. The trio sat on the porch enjoying the brisk air. As Amanda went to take a sip of coffee her Mom interrupted as a thought popped into her head. “Hey!” Mom started and then turned to look at Amanda “If you have all of this garden, why do I always have to buy salad fixings on the way out here!?” Having been caught mid sip of coffee, Amanda was left choking and patting her chest. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ John woke up groaning and rubbing his face. His throat was really scratchy, but otherwise he was fine. Taking a few minutes to avoid waking up fully, he lifted himself up and flopped sideways across Argo as a substitute for his pillow and then closed his eyes. Of all the things to annoy him enough to keep him from dozing off, the feeling of air on his thighs and legs, but his feet feeling warm and sweaty was the thing to do it. So with a growl, he pulled his socks off one at a time because he couldn’t get his knees near one another, and threw them out of the playpen. Apparently this was heard by the bigs, because a smiling MeMaw came back into view, followed by a smiling Mommy. Still a bit bleary eyed and grumpy, John refused to acknowledge anything. He simply flopped onto his back looking up. A large hand reached down and he felt his diaper squished moments before two hands picked him up and he was cradled to a chest. Not ready to be awake yet, he stayed limp from the moment that he was laid on the changing table all the way to the point that he was changed and being picked up. Finally when he was brought back to the living room, MeMaw stood him up and he was in front of the coffee table. “John, would you like one of these snacks before we go back to a fun filled day?” Then she waved a hand to the table and there was a saucer with a block of caramel on it, and another saucer with a couple of sliced up strawberries on it. Without waiting to give anyone a chance to tell him anything else, he immediately reached out and snagged a chunk of strawberry and started munching away. While the other saucer was taken away, Mommy kissed him on top of the head and said “You know, your MeMaw used to make quilts. I bet she’ll make one for us soon.” MeMaw let him eat all of the pieces of strawberry, and said “Time to wash those paws!” But as her hands came down for him he tried to make a line for the bathroom by himself. A little babying was fine, but he just woke up and wasn’t in the mood for it right now. But as he got there, he was met with the closed child gate. He waited with a huff, but MeMaw simply opened the gate for him. As soon as he was inside she lifted him up and sat him on the counter next to the sink, turned on the water and waited for him to wash his own hands, and then she turned the water back off while he stretched for the towel and dried them. Instead of helping him down, she stood there looking at him curiously. “Sweety, did you wake up feeling a bit grumpy?” He shook his head indignantly and said “No.” “Mm Hmm.” was the only response she gave him. She didn’t move aside from tapping her chin a little while she thought. Finally she broke the silence. “Sweety, how about just a little bit of cold refreshing milk?” All he really managed was a shrug, but that seemed good enough for her as she picked him up and got him onto her hip. For his part, he just flopped his head against her chest in frustration and stayed limp while she poured a bit of milk into a sippy cup with one arm and leaned to snap the lid down. He looked at the sippy cup as she offered it to him and sighed. He wasn’t really feeling up to it, but if it would make her happy. Taking the cup, he turned it up and the moment he took a pull of the milk he started to space out and emptied the little bit that was there. It was only a few mouths full, but when he was done he found himself smiling and feeling a bit better, even though his throat still itched. As MeMaw took the sippy cup from him, she gave him a warm smile and asked “There, do you feel any better?” When he nodded, she asked him “So what would you like to do? Do you want to go outside for a while?” He simply nodded again and MeMaw kissed him on the forehead and started toward his bedroom to put some pants back on him. The moment she put him down he ran over to his drawer and pulled out some shorts. John didn’t even have the shorts unfolded before she laid her hand gently over both of his “Sweety, it’s just a bit cool outside for someone so small to be wearing shorts.” Good feeling now gone, he just flicked the shorts back into the drawer with a huff and let her put the pants on him without bothering to even shut the drawer he had just opened. As she put the socks he had thrown out of the playpen back onto him, he made a decision. The pants may stay on him, but he decided then and there that the socks were coming off at the first opportunity. Once they were outside, MeMaw sat him down on the porch in front of two boxes, one of them was wide and flat, wrapped in bright green paper covered in tractors. The other was smaller and blue and covered in little fish. MeMaw was nothing if not thorough, and John was honestly impressed when he realized that she had only learned that he existed just yesterday. With a pause to thank MeMaw politely, he opened the wide box first and found himself looking at … A hat. A big straw hat in his size. And once he picked it up he saw some dark blue rubber boots underneath it. Looking up at MeMaw and really just blinking at her with no idea what to say, she broke the silence first. MeMaw said “Your Mommy told me that you like to spend all your time outside, so now you have a hat to wear to protect you from the sun, just like your Mommy does.” MeMaw then took the hat and placed it on his head and pulled the boots out and tugged them up onto his feet. “Thank you very much MeMaw.” got him a great big genuine smile while he opened the blue box. What John found in the smaller box had him tilting his head sideways. It looked like a large metal cup. It was aggressively blue and had a holographic raccoon riding a rocket powered skateboard. It had a big plastic lid with a large rubber feeling handle. There was a large gray colored button on the top of it, and when he pressed the button, the lid popped up and he was presented with a big silicon straw. It looked exactly like a cup he was given as a toddler, just much bigger. So much bigger that he had to pick it up with two hands to hold it up. It was immature, but this was the first time in some weeks that he had been presented with a gods honest straw. Not a bottle. Not the spout of a sippy cup. A straw. John stared at it, considering that this was the first time anyone in this dimension had given him something as simple as a cup made for toddlers. “Do you like it?” was all MeMaw asked. Shaking his head for a moment to clear his thoughts, he looked up and said “Yes Ma’am, I do like it!” She nodded down at him and said “Good. I already took it out of the box and washed it, so I can fill it with whatever you want and it will stay cold all day long.” Standing up, he held up his arms for a hug, and MeMaw immediately obliged him by picking him up and squeezing him gently. She nuzzled her cheek against his and whispered “I think it looks like you like it?” He nodded against her cheek and admitted “This is the first straw I’ve seen in weeks. Not a baby bottle, not a sippy cup, just a cup with a straw.” A finger under his chin steered him to look her in the eyes and she kissed him on the forehead and said “Remember. MeMaw spoils.” He was lowered to stand on the porch and felt a swat on his bottom and heard “Now, your dog has been staring at you for over two hours. I’ll fill this up with some juice and you go spend some time with you PawPaw and distract the dog. I’ll have cookies for you by snack time.” With an enthusiastic nod he started for the stairs. But before he could even crouch down to go down a step, Mommy was passing by with a bucket and picked him up, swung him in a circle, and placed him on the stone at the base of the steps. Then she was gone, replaced by Xerxes who insisted on smelling him from top to bottom. Caught between the want to laugh at the silliness, and sulk at not being allowed to do it himself, he just rolled his eyes and walked over next to the gate where PawPaw had a small folding table a few feet from the grill with a platter that had, from what little he could make out, some veggies. Or at least he could make out whole corn on the cob and some large bell peppers with stuff in them. As he walked up, PawPaw turned and smiled at him “Well hey there big guy!” For some reason he immediately felt relaxed with this giant man “Hi PawPaw. What’cha cookin’?” “Hmm.” PawPaw looked at John, then the table. “Here, let’s see if we can get you a better view.” And with that PawPaw moved a platter over and picked John up and sat him on one side of the table, then scooted him back until his knees were at the edge, so he was as far back as he could comfortably go. Throat still itching, and honestly more than it was earlier, John cleared his throat before saying “Thank you!” and looking around on the table and the grill. The table had a platter with corn on the cob, four large bell peppers that seemed to be stuff with things, a pile of large green and red peppers, and then there was a plastic container with a lid on it that looked to have some meat in it. PawPaw turned to the large rectangular grill and piled five large ears of corn on one side in the very corner of it before turning back to John on the table. Now smiling as he felt more involved, John asked “So what are you cooking?” PawPaw tilted the platter to that he could see as he answered “For the bigs I have three of the biggest green bell peppers I could find filled with a rice dressing that your Mom makes. And one red bell pepper with that same rice dressing with different seasonings for you. And I have a few steaks to cook.” “Wow, that’s really great!” John looked practically starstruck as he craned his neck to peek into the large peppers filled generously with dressing. PawPaw just shrugged and said “Really all that I did was hollow out the bell peppers before your MeMaw ran me out of the kitchen. She could have filled them with live shrimp or state secrets for all I know.” “Hey! I heard that!” MeMaw said as she walked up to offer the large drink cup to John, which he enthusiastically took with both hands. Coughing a little, he took a sip of the cold juice and it felt like heaven on the back of his throat. MeMaw looked at him a bit funny, but when he stopped coughing she slowly nodded and as she walked away he could hear MeMaw calling for Amanda. Turning his attention back to PawPaw he asked “So how do you cook the peppers?” PawPaw gave him a big grin and said “The first step is that you have to click your tongs exactly twice. Otherwise you jinx it.” John simply nodded along with a serious look on his face “Yeah, that makes sense.” They stared at each other for a moment before they both had a good little laugh. Then PawPaw just reached out and picked up the entire table, John and all, and moved it closer so he had a better view of the grill. “Hah. Okay John, I’ll be serious for a moment. All that I have to do with the peppers is sear them directly over the fire for a couple of minutes, then take them far away from the fire, wrap them in foil, and shut the grill for an hour.” Looking a bit disbelieving, John asked “That’s it?” “Did you want it to more complicated?” He just shook his head “I only ever grilled a few times. I never really got very good at it, so I guess I didn’t know?” John watched closely as PawPaw did exactly what he said that he would, and made using a grill seem no harder than breathing or tieing your shoes. Well, them tieing their shoes. Not him tieing his, since it was impossible here for some reason. When he was satisfied, PawPaw slid all the peppers off to one side of the grill as far from the fire as they could go, fiddled with the corn for a moment and then just … shut the lid. Dusting off his hands, PawPaw said “Okay, now we leave that alone for an hour and then we cook the steak. What do you say we take Xerxes out into the field and let him run around?” Immediately John scooted forward on the table and looked down. At first he was thinking of just jumping down, but once he got a look at the height, he waited patiently to be picked up and put onto the ground. Then he wasted no time running to the porch and just leaning and using his hands to help climb up quickly like a novelty sized ladder. While he was grabbing the ball and the handle to throw it further, MeMaw came out of the house with her purse on her shoulder and leaned down and put her hand on the top part of Johns face for a moment. With a nod, MeMaw said “I’m going to town. I’ll be back in time for you to have some cookies.” And of course, she wouldn’t let him go down the steps himself, so she carried him not only off the porch, but back over to PawPaw. She whispered something to him before she left. And with MeMaw heading down the driveway, PawPaw turned and lead John out of the other side of the yard, facing the stream. Once John was past the gate he reared back with the handle in both hands and used it to hurl the ball as hard as he could. As Xerxes took off like a missile, PawPaw whistled “That’s a good throw.” “Thanks!” was all John said back as he stepped on the handle to snag the ball with it and throw it again. Honestly the next fifteen minutes of just playing fetch with Xerxes while PawPaw watched and occasionally took a few turns picking up the ball and tossing it. But after only fifteen minutes John was starting to get kind of short winded, and put the handle down by the gate. Then he asked “Hey PawPaw, how far can you throw the ball?” “Me?” he answered, then thought out loud “Oh, not terribly far. A bit more than halfway across the field.” He coughed a bit first, then said excitedly “Oh! Show me!” So PawPaw got the ball and made a grimacing sound as his thumb popped before he slid one foot forward, leaned back and twisted his whole body like a spring to launch the ball as hard as he could. First John just noticed the ball simply hurl away three or four times further than he could ever throw it with the handle. Second, he noticed that Xerxes was GONE. He’d never seen the dog take off that fast before. And finally, he noticed PawPaws hand go up to his right shoulder and groan “Maybe I’m not doing that again.” After Xerxes came back, John put the ball back on the handle and scratched his dogs neck while PawPaw rubbed his shoulder. When he could move it around freely again he smiled down at John. “Sorry about that. Slinging lumber for forty years has taken its toll. What say you ride Xerxes and we head over to the stream for a few minutes.” John nodded up to PawPaw and before he could even try to climb up onto Xerxes, he was being lifted up and lowered gently onto the dogs back. A hand brushed his forehead for a moment and then PawPaw added “On second thought, let’s trot by the table and get you a drink first, or MeMaw will fuss at both of us.” So with a brief stop in the yard to get a drink, they were off with PawPaw walking them to the stream and then they stopped for a bit and looked out at the water. After a couple of minutes of not moving, Xerxes sat down, leaving john shouting “nononono” as he grabbed at the collar. PawPaw reached down and with just one hand splayed out,got John under his padded bottom, hoisted him briefly and deposited him onto his own feet. After sharing a good chuckle, he was told “Don’t worry, I saw that video. Hey, do you know how to skip rocks?” Puffing up proudly a bit, John declared “Not only do I know, I’m not half bad. Not great, but not bad.” PawPaw nodded and the two of them set about finding a few flat rocks, and then a spot where the water on the stream was flat enough. Sven or eight throws in, PawPaw admitted “You know, this is one thing that your size gives you an advantage.” “But PawPaw, I can’t throw it as far as you.” Shaking his head, he held up a finger and answered “John, it’s not always about strength. Sometimes your vantage makes a big difference. And being low, you can get more skips than I can. I can throw the rock all the way across the water, but that’s not what this is about, is it?” Thinking quietly to himself, John turned his last flat rock over in his hands. PawPaw seemed pretty insightful. So finally he nodded at the man. Then PawPaw's watch dinged, and once he looked at it, he said “Whelp, Your MeMaw will be getting back and we have to get the rest of dinner handled soon. Plus the crazy woman made you two different types of cookies.” Instead of just carrying him, PawPaw let John ride Xerxes back. Once in the yard, John patted Xerxes until he stopped and pulled his boots and socks off and threw them onto the porch. When he looked up PawPaw had his right eyebrow up and his left one down. Other than that his face seemed as neutral as usual. John said simply “I made myself a promise.” With a nod, PawPaw said “I understand.” Back by the grill, John could see from his perch on Xerxes as the peppers were unwrapped halfway. MeMaw came through the gate with a white plastic bag in one hand, and her purse on the same shoulder and asked “Well, did you two have fun?” They both nodded together, and when MeMaw moved to pick John up off of Xerxes, she asked “Young Man, where are your shoes and socks?” Before John could even come up with a lie, PawPaw was already intercepting “Relax Margaret. We were climbing trees and one slipped off. Then we went and jumped in some puddles and didn’t want the other rubber boot to get water on it.” MeMaw locked eyes with him, and to his credit PawPaw kept a completely straight face. Finally MeMaw rolled her eyes and started to hoist John up and had him grab his drink cup. Now MeMaw was fully loaded with a purse, a bag, and a little. Before she could head into the house, PawPaw stoppd her and said “Steak will be done in fifteen minutes, Amanda has the salad ready and your cookies are in a container by now.” MeMaw nodded, but still grumbled “I still don’t know why you two don’t just plant some Romaine. You have everything else under the sun.” PawPaw said “We can’t plant Romaine here. International law.” Again. Completely straight face. John admired PawPaws ability to say these things with a poker face. He now had a role model to learn from. Once they were in the house, MeMaw sat him down on the couch and then went to the kitchen and she and Mom went through a handful of small boxes. Not really wanting to get off of the couch, he contented himself with taking another drink of juice to ease his little cough, and then getting in a good stretch before trying to get comfortable. Less than a minute after he got comfortable, MeMaw and Mommy were over by the couch. MeMaw was brandishing a small doodad with a cone on one end. Before he knew what was going on, a cold device was in his ear and he was trying to scrunch up. After the thermometer beeped several times, they looked at each other and nodded. His hair was ruffled and then they walked away. That was weird.

A few weeks later, the friends readied themselves for the annual sorority Halloween party. The party was always a highlight of the fall semester, with exquisite costumes and better drinks. Ted was in Lara’s room as she helped him into his costume. “There,” she said, securing the last tape on an extra thick diaper, “now stand up.” Lara helped Ted to his feet, then crouched down near his ankles. She grabbed a zipper on the edge of the garment he wore, then pulled it up to his chin. She stepped back to get a better look. Ted stood there, all five feet and ten inches of him, looking like an itsy bitsy toddler. He wore a huge footed sleeper in baby blue, adorned with yellow duckies. The pajamas were baggy enough that his diaper wasn’t completely obvious, but there was a small bulge around his pelvis that might catch a trained eye. “Ohhhh baby!” Lara gushed. “You’re too cute!!” Ted was red faced. He was more than a little unsure about going out dressed like this, even if it was Halloween. But the weeks following his plunge into sexually charged ageplay with Lara had taught him to roll with it. He trusted her. And he knew if he obeyed her, she would make it worth his while. “Oh! Wait! I almost forgot…” Lara ambled over to her dresser. She fished around in her underwear drawer. Finally, she produced an oversized pacifier. It was white and blue, adorned with the words “Mute Button” in bubble letters. Lara quickly shoved it into Ted’s mouth. “There we go, much better,” she said with a sweet smile. “Oh my goodness, I could just eat you up!!” Lara pulled Ted into a big hug and planted rapid fire kisses all over his cheeks. Ted giggled through the paci, obediently holding it between his teeth. “Ok, all ready to go?” asked Lara. Ted hesitated. He wanted to please Lara, but he was nervous about going out like this. Lara patted his diapered butt firmly. “You’ll be fine. Just stay close to me, baby boy. I’ll keep you safe.” Ted smiled bashfully. He didn’t speak, just nursed the pacifier, nuzzled into her and nodded. “Good boy,” said Lara, thumping him loudly on the butt. “Let’s go show the girls how cute you are.” Downstairs in the living room, Ashley sat waiting for everyone to finish getting ready so they could go to the party. She wore an outfit identical to Lara’s - a red, plaid skirt with a skimpy white blouse. Both girls had their hair in pigtails, portraying their very best traditional school girl. And underneath their skirts, each of them wore a snug, pink and purple Goodnite. “Awwwww!!” Ashley chorused as Lara led Ted into the room. She stood up from the couch and inspected Ted’s sleeper. “How adorable is that!” Stacey came in wearing a white blouse of her own. But hers was tucked neatly into a charcoal pencil skirt. She had on tall black heels, that clicked loudly as she entered the living room. In one hand, she held a thin, 18-inch ruler, the teacher to Ashley and Lara’s school girls. “Oh my!! Look at our big baby boy!” she proclaimed, looking Ted up and down. “Well aren’t you just the cutest little thing.” Stacey pinched his cheek, then booped his nose and his pacifier in quick succession. “Looks like we’re all just about ready,” she stated. “But I have a quick bit of good news. I just got an email back from the landlord. She said it’s no problem if Ted moves upstairs with Lara next semester, and Ashley, you can have Ted’s room. And she said she won’t even raise the rent!” “Woah great news!!” Ted said, popping his pacifier out of his mouth. “We’re gonna save a ton of money!” “Yeah, but we’ll have to spend it all on diapers for… SOMEbody,” Lara teased, whacking Ted on the butt. He just blushed and put his paci back in. Everyone’s attention turned to Ashley. She was smiling, and showing outward signs of excitement at the news. But she also wore a look of apprehension and fear. “Well…? What do you think, Ash?” Stacey asked. “Roommates?” Ashley let out a deep sigh. Her butt cheeks clenched involuntarily. She reached a hand back, brushing up against her pull-ups. “Yeah…” she said timidly, “roommates.” “Alright! Fantastic. Now let’s go celebrate!” Lara cheered. “Let’s,” said Stacey. “Does anyone need a quick smacked bottom before we go out? A little reminder to behave tonight?” She pointed her ruler at them one by one. Ashley’s face went pale. Ted chewed his paci. Lara stifled a giggle. The three looked at each other. “Nooo, Mommyyyy…” they groaned sarcastically together. All four of the burst out laughing. “Ok then, let’s get to it.” Stacey started leading them to the door. “Oh wait!” Lara stopped. “One more thing…” She reached into her bra and pulled out something small. No one could make out exact what it was, as Lara moved quickly. She reached inside the collar of Ted’s pajama and fished around, biting her bottom lip. Then, Ted heard a small metallic click. He looked down. Lara had just locked him into his pajamas. The small padlock tucked inside his collar was clasped so that he couldn’t unzip. He looked up at Lara. She pulled a small key on a chain from between her tits and waggled it at him. With a huge grin she said. “No potty for you tonight. Baby’s use their diapers.” THE END

Hey everyone! So, here’s another chapter coming fast to you. While I didn’t necessarily have to post another one today, I knew there probably just wasn’t any scenario where I was going to have time tomorrow, and I didn’t want you all waiting around until Sunday. Looking ahead, though, I’m honestly not sure how much time I’ll have with the Fourth of July and all that next week. Plus, a lot of stuff coming up after that all the way through August and beyond, so more delays should be expected in this story or the next. That being said, I will write and edit when I can, but I will also try to post new chapters as often as I can. Also, as a reminder, the poll for my next story is still going on. As a reminder, as usual, I will post my decision of my next story during my final chapter of this story. Until then, feel free to comment here or personally message me what you want to read next. I like all the choices I am presenting, so choose what you want. For those not sure of the choices, just refer to the beginning of chapter 2. Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter! Chapter 18: Protesting My Own People My nerves were all jittery the whole way back to my apartment after I had been accepted into the LRG and been assigned a new mission for tomorrow morning. It didn’t help that I kept being stared at by an imposing Big, festooned with what I could best describe as ‘daddy energy,’ but ignoring him and sitting nearby a few other Littles for safety with the whole concept of ‘strength in numbers,’ I eventually made it home. I prepared all I had learned and my current plan of action for my dead drop in the morning and then went to bed. I eventually had to take some meds to do it, but I soon closed my eyes. The next morning though, my nerves shot through the roof once more. Rushing around, I dressed as neutrally as possible, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then ran out of the door with my package for the dead drop to Astrid and the LPS. Despite all the other ways I felt I might have been set up to fail on this mission, I was at least grateful that the dead drop was located nearby. A single seemingly innocuous brick at the bottom of a building just around the corner stood out from the rest and seemed about six seconds from falling out of the building altogether. It was obvious, but the catch was that it was all designed to only look like that. Apparently, it would take about 50 Bigs pulling on it to even begin to pry it loose. In fact, the only true way to open it was a fingerprint. Pressing my thumb against the upper right corner, I heard the click. It was still early enough, and the brick secluded in an alleyway far back enough that a quick glance around told me that no one was watching. Opening the brick, I placed my materials inside. Astrid would likely get them within the hour, and this time, I wasn’t sure how she would take my news. On one hand, I was part of LRG now. I had infiltrated them in less than half the time listed to be ‘required’ in my initial paperwork. It was a success, but in that success, another factor remained. On the other hand of this whole equation, in order to be accepted into LRG, I had to now participate within LRG. It was a known complication of any undercover operation, and Astrid and LPS knew what I would most likely have to do when faced with disloyalty or the success of my mission. Success always came first, but now, I wasn’t sure if they would agree that my success was worth the information they were getting. I knew LRG’s location after all, and LPS could assault the place tomorrow… but I didn’t tell them that, regardless of whether they could guess that or not. I justified my lack of forthcoming to Astrid by noting that if LPS struck now, many in LRG would likely be able to flee and strike even harder in their rage. It was a bit of a mistruth, but I just hoped it would give me the time I needed to find Paul and convince him to help me dismantle LRG. I had no idea how to do that, but I hadn’t even seen him yet, so for now, it was a moot point. “Ready for the big day?” Sean asked, slightly struggling with pinning his own button on his shirt. I had taken the subway back to the warehouse and arrived early. It was strange seeing the warehouse so empty on the top level, with most of the members not even living here full-time, but Sean was an exception, especially with the new inductees. “Here,” I offered, “let me help you with that.” Sean presented himself to me, and I was able to just make out the sound of a crinkle from underneath his pants. Sean had been a part of the potential recruits for LRG for a while now and even lived within the warehouse, but his physical abilities had been regressed severely and had delayed his entry into LRG. Being seen as a liability, I could see that he felt like he had something to prove today. “Thanks, Susan,” he said, smiling at me. “My fingers don’t always work as well in the mornings. Especially with the finer motor control bits.” I smiled warmly back and patted his button flat against his shirt. “You’re welcome, but Sean…” I could see his wide eyes staring back at me. As Sophie the Big, I honestly just wanted to hug him and tell him that everything would be okay, but as Susan the Little, I knew I needed to take a different approach. “Just don’t try and be a hero today, okay? We’ve got one job… and that isn’t to get caught or start a riot.” Sean sighed. “I’m that transparent, huh?” I shook my head. “No but remember who you’re talking to. I’m a Little’s counselor for a reason.” Since I had come to LRG, many Littles had been asking me for advice. Carol’s boastings of my abilities had spread like wildfire and considering that access to public health was limited to most of the group, my presence was quickly utilized with each nightly meeting I attended. LPS hadn’t done me many favors but considering how quickly I had been accepted into LRG as compared to someone like Sean, I felt they had at least chosen my job right. “Hey ladies,” Xander joked to Sean and I as he then approached us with Carol and Mindy as well. Of the four of us new recruits, I think I liked him least. His tech savvy had already helped LRG, but I felt that his mouth or eagerness could be a liability in the field at some point. “Hardy har, har, Xander,” Sean grumbled, still struggling to pick up a bag he had been toying with since I had first walked over. “Here, let me help you with that,” I quickly offered. Sean smiled at me, but I could see that both Mindy and Xander both rolled their eyes. Sean was a liability, and if it was any other circumstance, I might have convinced him to stay behind today, but I also knew how much he wanted this… to prove his worth, so I said nothing. “Thank you all for coming here this morning,” Carol began. “Today’s mission is simple. There is an election coming up soon and there is a large swing neighborhood in particular that could mean the difference between restrictions on all Little movements in the city after dark and portal Littles getting a half vote in future elections.” “And why would the government ever allow that?” Xander asked with an attitude. I disliked him, but he wasn’t wrong in this case. Carol sighed. “Not that it’s my point here, Xander, but the councilman up for reelection has noted that after six months of living here, Littles passing a test will be able to vote. It could be the push we are looking for to make some real changes here in a legitimate way. Satisfied?” Xander stepped back and nodded his head. “Good. Now, follow Bill here. He’s our wheelman around here for… obvious reasons.” We all stared up at the figure before us, and she was right. Standing up, Bill was easily just a hair under 7 feet tall, which wasn’t much compared to a Big who measure up to 12 feet tall, but he could almost pass for a Middle. Much less common, but also much less harassed, especially in Aprisium. Could have been a problem in Flosus, but I doubted anyone would think twice of Bill driving us around the city today. “Hey,” he said plainly, waving to us, his deep voice almost an anomaly around here. “Hey…” we all said back in unison, clearly a smidge intimidated by this new figure before us. I was just shocked Bill was in LRG, but I knew for the others, Middles often sided with Bigs. Their intimidation was likely a mask for their slight mistrust. It didn’t seem to bother Carol though. “Right then!” Carol exclaimed, smacking her hands once together. “Off you all go. Just use your heads, stay calm, and get back here. We can talk more about next steps once you’ve returned.” Nodding, we all scampered off and loaded into the backseat of Bill’s van. Driving through the city, I couldn’t help but see some of the old places I used to know so well in a different light. My old neighborhood now represented a trap for any wandering Little from the Bigs that lived there. The LPS headquarters was now the face of the people trying to arrest the group I was now actively involved in. And then I saw the multi-purpose stadium where I had taken Paul to watch a baseball game with… before everything went wrong. I longed to go back, but as the car stopped and we all got out, I knew there was no going back. “Okay… one of you take this,” Bill instructed as he shoved a walkie talkie out of his window. No one else stepped up, so I did. “I can take that.” Mindy, Xander, and Sean didn’t seem to mind one bit. “Okay. It’s already set to channel five. That’s LRG’s channel today, but don’t rely on that forever. We change it every day.” Things were starting to fall into place of why LPS had never caught them fully. “If you run into any problems, radio in and either me or someone else with the LRG armband will pick you up. Be sure to say, ‘West Witch,’ when you meet them though. Otherwise, they’ll think it’s a trap and drive off.” Nodding back in acknowledgment to him, Bill then waved goodbye. Xander and Mindy both carried bags full of the signs we had to put up, but now, we were all alone. “I guess we get to it then…” The rest of the group shirked their shoulders but continued on. A few blocks later, we were all joking but I could see the physical toll it was already starting to have on Sean. “Let’s stop for a quick sip of water,” I suggested. Xander rolled his eyes, but Mindy seemed appreciative. “Ah!” She smacked her lips as she downed the first gulp of refreshing water. “Definitely hits the spot. Thanks for recommending this, Susan.” I smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Getting into the hotter days around here now. Could be a scorcher today. Going hiking, lack of water was never a fun thing.” “You hike?” Sean asked, seemingly skeptically. Not thinking too much of it, I just brought up one of my past experiences. “All the time when I was in college.” I then saw everyone’s looks and I realized that I was solely referring to the mountains around Aprisium… not the ones back on Earth. “Coming here though… I only hiked a few times.” “And you did that on your own?” Xander asked, definitely now skeptical. At that point, I had to quickly think of my answer. Acknowledgement of going myself meant that I would have driven myself. It was nearly impossible for a Little to get a drivers license instead of just an ID card, so it would have likely raised a red flag for the group. Going with another Big though presented the challenge of me being too sympathetic with them. Quickly deciding, I shook my head. “No. When I first got here, I met a Big. All sweet and normal. She took me up.” “A Big? You some kind of friend with them?” Mindy butted in quickly before I could explain further. Again, I shook my head. “Not anymore. I think I’ve met a few good Bigs, but this one…” I made sure to widen my eyes and grimace in pain for a moment. I had to sell this with my fellow inductees now or risk alienating myself before I even learned who the leaders were. “We got to talking at a coffee shop and realized we both liked hiking,” I lied. “It was great at first, but I started to notice her handling more things for me. Going up a mountain on these legs around here isn’t easy.” Every nodded their head and smirked. I knew I was worming my way into their good graces with my story. “But I think it was after the fourth or fifth time, she started preparing our food and water herself.” “Yikes,” Sean noted, clearly in pain and remembering an event from his own life. “Big rookie mistake right there.” “Definitely. Nearly wet myself on the trail coming down.” Everyone shuddered in pain and likely shared experiences themselves. Some could see that as a humiliating story and would never share it in a million years, but I had started to realize that despite Littles possibly being separated by countries, religions, ethnicities, or most other distinguishing factors, they shared the bond of humiliation and the prevention of it happening again. “Yeah… needless to say, never saw her again.” “Never can trust a Big, can you?” Mindy shook her head in disgust and then handed me a sip of her own water. “Only Littles, right?” It was a hard statement to agree with, but I knew this was my bonding time with the group. Seeing that, I nodded and took her offered water. “Right.” We joked around for a few more minutes after that and I could feel the further bond our group was making with each other. Still the day getting later, Sean didn’t seem ready, but Xander seemed itching to leave. Not wanting to upset Xander or Mindy and trying to let Sean keep his pride and prove himself today, I went along with the group. “Now what?” Xander asked annoyedly as we hit a ‘Y’ intersection. “Hmmm… maybe split up?” Mindy suggested. “What?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Littles splitting up was the worst thing we could have done right then. “You can’t be serious.” “I am. Look… we either all go as one and then have to redo our steps back down the other way, or we split up and just meet at the next intersection.” Her finger pointed down the road, and while I could see where the two streets likely met up down there, it was still several blocks away. “All not in favor?” I raised my hand, but a quick look around told me I was completely alone. Grinning, Mindy asked again. “All those in favor?” This time, Mindy, Xander, and Sean raised their hands. Outvoted, I flicked my hand away in defeat. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.” Fortunately, we were split up numbers wise evenly already. “So, how do we split…?” “Boys versus girls,” Xander loudly interrupted. “Make it a competition.” My inner competitive spirit hadn’t been knocked down, but I was still nervous about splitting up. Plus, I wasn’t a big fan of leaving the bold and full of energy Xander with the already exhausted Sean. Just as I was about to object though, Mindy furiously nodded her head. “Oh yeah! Definitely!” She then extended her hand. “Game on, huh?” Xander smirked and shook her hand. “Game on.” I loved Littles dearly, but sometimes, their immaturity stood out in stark contrast to the goal they needed to accomplish or pushed further than they needed or should. We were already ahead of schedule and only had this one stretch and one more block at the end to cover. We didn’t need to rush, but I saw that Xander and Mindy were already sprinting away. “Come on Susan! Don’t slow me down!” Mindy cried back. Sighing, I dashed off to catch up with her. To my left, I saw Sean desperately dragging behind Xander. As we raced toward the end of the block after mounting our signs, however, I started to notice that several of the residents in the neighborhood began popping their heads out their doors and windows. I didn’t think anything of it at first, having started a while ago, but instead of confusion as before, these faces just seemed angry. I then realized what I was seeing. This neighborhood was a swing section of the city. It meant that likely, half were pro-Little, but the others… were likely pro-Big. Something told me that we were now in the more pro-Big section of the neighborhood. I was glad that we were rushing now, but just as we got to the next intersection, sweating and a little out of breath, I could hear the distant rumble of something coming closer to us. Worried, but more focused on Sean and Xander catching up, Sean seeming ready to collapse, I didn’t notice the streets to our south where we had just come from. It was only when I head the loud roar of several engines, did I look back from my friends and see a whole slew of Bigs in front of us. “Shit… guys?” I tapped my friends’ shoulders and we all turned around. I could only see as they froze as soon as they saw the Bigs, but I knew my own heart… I was terrified. “Well… look at who we have here,” the lead Big taunted on his motorcycle. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves some unwelcome Littles, huh fellas?” A number of Bigs roared their own vehicles and laughed sinisterly. I tried searching for any way out of this, but I could only see a clump of trees in the woods far to our rear. “Please…” I begged. “We’re just doing our civic duty with these signs. We don’t want any trouble.” I could already hear Sean whimper instantly as the lead biker unclenched his breaks and edged a little closer to us. “Trouble, huh?” His eyes darted to my chest, right to the area where I had clearly pinned the LRG button to. “Seems like you all brought some yourself.” He then turned to the rest of the Bigs behind him. “Looks like we’ve got ourselves some rebels here! Some LRG Littles! How’s everyone feel about that?” The only response he got was the roar of engines and the growls and groans from nearly everyone we could see. We seemed to be outnumbered nearly five to one and looking at Sean, I wasn’t sure about our chances if we ran away. The leader turned back. I could see a desire in his eyes that quickly made me uncomfortable. It wasn’t of lust, but of revenge. Local news outlet had been painting LRG as a terrorist organization for weeks and called for all citizens of Aprisium to ensure that LRG ‘got the message’ that we weren’t welcome. It was clear to me that these Bigs intended to send their own message. Feeling my breath catch, I knew we only had one way out of here. “When I say so, drop the bags,” I whispered Xander, Sean, and Mindy. “Just drop the bags and run.” “What?” Xander asked in near disbelief and disgust over such a suggestion. “Just run away like a bunch of scurrying rats? We should stay and fight these clowns.” “No!” I briefly worried that the Bigs might have heard me, but each seemed to now be talking eagerly amongst themselves. I didn’t want to think of what, but I knew we had to do this together if we wanted to get out of this in one piece. “We have one chance at this. They’re coming for us, and I don’t think they’re offering free hugs today.” “She’s right, Xander,” Mindy agreed. “We have one shot at this to get away.” “But what about me?” Sean asked in fear. I clasped his hand firmly while still keeping eye contact with the Bigs. “You stick with me. There isn’t another option. We run as fast as we can to the woods behind us. I’ll give the signal…” Xander groaned but didn’t object. Now, I just needed to find my moment. The Bigs then turned back to us. “Looks like its unanimous. We’re going to have ourselves a bit of a Little hunt today!” He howled and everyone else revved their engines. “We say go, and you all run. Better watch out little babies…” He sneered at me, and I could feel my skin crawl. His hand then reached out to his clutch again. Our eyes locked for a moment. I knew the moment I had been waiting for had come. I braced for what we had to do. Mindy was right as well. We had one shot, and this was it. His eyes scowled. “And…” I knew the moment was here. Before he could say another word, I shouted, “Go!” Not needing another trigger, the four of us dropped our bags and ran for the woods as I grabbed Sean’s hand. I was determined we were all going to make it out of this. “Uh, ah! Damn it!” the leader yelled back, first in confusion and then in anger. “Come on! They’re getting away! Go, go, go!” I didn’t even want to turn around, but I could hear their engines growing louder. They had their muscle and speed, but we had size and durability on our side. “Make a left! They can’t cut through the yard!” Without turning around, everyone nodded. With my help, Sean and I made it through right after Xander and just before Mindy. Her hair got caught in a bush, but her panic delayed her longer than normal. Still, we all made it as I could hear the screams and curses being shouted behind us. “Go around you idiots! Go around! Now!” The woods were just ahead. I could see through their thinner foliage, but seeing the several hills and slopes, I knew we could find a place to hide out from the Bigs… or at least evade them enough to be picked up. It felt like a moment of triumph, but it didn’t last. Just as we cleared the curb, Sean and I were neck in neck with Mindy, so we saw as she then tripped over and fell to the pavement. “Ah!” she screamed. Wanting to get everyone out of here, I stopped and looked back. As she rolled over, I could see she had severely cut herself on her legs and one hand. Blood began to trickle down and was mingled amongst the dirt and tiny rocks from the street. I had been injured like that before, and while I could still walk, I was much slower afterward. Right then, just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, I saw the trucks and motorcycles round the corners on either side of us. “Go… go get her, Susan,” Sean then shockingly encouraged me. “Help her!” “But… the woods… we…” I tried to stammer out to argue with him. The stress and tension of it all was getting to my head by now. I couldn’t think clearly. “No… you go. It’s just a block away…” he panted. “I think I’ve got this… Just go!” Reluctant, but nodding, I ran back over to Mindy and then turned around. “Xander… you get…” But he was already gone. Groaning and I leaned down to Mindy. “Come on. Take my hand. I’ll get you out of this!” Swallowing her pride, Mindy took my hand, and I wrapped it around my shoulders as I helped her up. It was times like these that I really missed being a Big. Still, we managed to get back to our feet. The strain was enormous, and I could feel my heart thudding in my chest. I didn’t have time to feel that pain, exhaustion, or even celebrate though. The Bigs were right behind us, and despite limping, Mindy and I raced to the woods. I was so focused on getting there and avoiding the Bigs, that everything else blurred around us. A little way in, I found Xander hunched over in an oversized spillway that led to a creek. “Down here! Come on!” Nodding, I rushed down the hill. I could hear the distant screams and hollers of the Bigs, but I felt we were safe. Taking a breath as I wiped off Mindy’s deep cuts, I looked around, but then noticed one massive issue. My pounding heart nearly stopped cold. “Where’s Sean?” Mindy, leaning up against the concrete wall, and Xander both searched frantically around them, but none of us could find him. Hearing the roar of the Bigs nearby though, I realized what had happened. He was already exhausted, and without my help… the Bigs had him now. “Come on! We’ve got to go get him!” “Stop,” Xander said, shoving me back into the spillway a bit. “He’s gone.” “Gone? Gone? What the hell do you mean, gone?” I tried looking for an answer in both Xander and Mindy, but their faces already made it look like he was dead. “They have him…” Mindy said with a sadness and tone of disgust in her voice. “He’s gone. We can’t help him now.” “What? That’s crazy!” My mind refused to believe that a Little I had just helped get so far, was now simply ‘gone.’ As an LPS agent, we never left someone behind in the field. This was no different. He was our friend. That just couldn’t be the end of it so simply. I shook my head defiantly. “No… I refuse to believe that. I’m…” I tried to leave again, but also once again, Xander stopped me. “Susan… I know what you’re feeling. It sucks more than anyone could ever know who’s never experienced this before, but we’re Littles. Sometimes… we just go away.” For once, I could see something more to Xander than just a loudmouth tech nerd. “We go back… we’re just as gone as he is now,” Mindy noted as well. “It’s just the facts…” But my head still was screaming at me ‘no.’ I had come here to help Paul and dismantle LRG, but Sean wasn’t LRG… not the terrorist kind at least. He was innocent. A weak Little that had been through too much. He didn’t deserve this, and my years of instincts just didn’t want to drop this. I tried running again. Xander caught me immediately. “No! No!” I screamed, trying to wiggle out and run back to save Sean, but Xander had caught me fully this time and held me firm. “I have to go get him! We can’t just leave him behind! I won’t do tha…!” Mindy walked up to me and firmly slapped me across the face. Xander immediately slackened his grip over me, clearly in shock himself, but I was definitely too stunned myself to do anything about it. Mindy on the other hand, despite her injuries, was panting and nearly seething in anger in my direction. In seconds though, she hobbled over and gripped my shoulders and began shaking me. “Wake up, Susan! He’s gone!” I could see the tears forming in her eyes already as she shook my shoulders. “I‘m sorry to do that, but he’s gone and he’s never coming back! Wake up! We go after him and we’re just as gone! I’m not going back into the system!” She gave me one final shake and stormed away, stomping into the ground with her boots. Horrified at her words, I remained motionless and silent. “Gosh! It’s like… like… you just got off the damn portal! How could you not know something as simple as that? I just…” I worried that my cover was about to be blown as she stormed off in frustration, but I saw that through her ignorance or my adaptation into Little life, I soon realized she thought I was just another clueless Little. “But… I…” I wanted to defend myself, but already, the roars of the engines were fading. Our opportunity had presented itself and was now gone… forever. Xander got closer and sighed. “This is LRG, Susan. This is why people like Mindy and I joined…” Mindy looked away and thudded down on the concrete floor, clearly saddened and in pain. Her outer shell was tough, but I knew she took the loss of Sean just as hard as I did. “You’re a counselor and you help Littles. That’s great and LRG needs you, but it also needs people like us. People to make those tough calls sometimes… Sean’s loss stings, but we have to think of the larger picture.” I knew he was right, but I didn’t want to admit it. So, once the last roaring engine had faded, I picked up my walkie and clicked the button to talk. “Anyone? Anyone? This is LRG waiting to be extracted. Three to pick up. Over…” There was just static for a moment, but a familiar voice soon popped on. “This is Bill. Focusing in on your walkie’s tracker… but did you say three to pick up?” Blinking a tear back and seeing both Mindy and Xander begin to grieve in their own ways, I clicked the button again. “That’s right… just three now…” Getting back to the warehouse, Carol immediately comforted us after Bill had reported our situation as he drove us back to the warehouse. It was little solace in the wake of losing one of our own, but before we had a second longer to grieve, we were pulled into a council meeting. There, Carol, Ronald, and two other members I didn’t recognize stood in council and judgement of us. Fortunately, after us remaining Littles explained the situation, the council agreed unanimously that we were not in the wrong. I wasn’t told what would have happened otherwise, but suffice to say, everyone seemed relieved… except me. After, the rumors began to swirl around our group and the bravery I had shown in mustering everyone… almost everyone back to safety. I was credited with saving lives, but I felt little solace in their praise or comforts. So, when I finally broke free of the forming crowd, despite my mission from LPS, this one time I didn’t embrace the group. Finding a newly lit fire that no one surrounded, I plopped down and looked into the glowing embers to clear my mind. The rumor had it that the fires were set up in case of a raid. They could potentially confuse any agents or officers into thinking we were just homeless Littles, which could potentially give those on the lower levels the time to escape. Regardless, even with their perceived notion of our group being adrift or homeless, I latched on to the inner peace they gave me. Right then, all I wanted was to spit, curse, and cry all at the same time. Sean wasn’t my responsibility, but I still felt guilty over losing him. Xander and Mindy were right that he was probably already too far gone by then and we were heavily outnumbered, but the guilt in my mind still lingered. Despite nearly all evidence to the contrary, I still felt like a Big. In a sense, I almost felt like my old self just piloting this new shortened body of mine. So, my sense of protection over other Littles had not vanished. While it formed a plan and then directed Xander and Mindy to safety, it was now haunting me that I couldn’t save Sean. I felt helpless, weak, defenseless… I felt like a Little. Having nothing to go off, it was what I expected every Little to feel like, but if nothing else, that powerlessness was still there. I tried to self soothe myself and wrap my arms around my shoulders, but it wasn’t working. Sean was just another Little. From what I saw, he never wanted to hurt anyone. He never wanted to go up against the Bigs in any destructive way. Today, he just wanted to prove himself to LRG that he was a valuable member. He wanted to sway an election for the joke of equality that one candidate represented over another. There was no sinister plot in his eyes, but to those Bigs today, it didn’t matter. He was LRG, and right now, I knew he was likely being tortured for information or had now been regressed forever. I then started to realize one simple truth; I was starting to hate my own kind. There had always been a theory amongst the first pro-Big members that their hate of non-regressed Littles stemmed from the notion that Earth was slowly invading our country. Most derived it as pure conjecture or hot-headed thinking, but the notion remained for years. It could explain the hate between Bigs and Littles, but again, despite my current size, I was a Big. So, I could safely say that it wasn’t just Bigs and Littles hating each other. Further, I knew that it wasn’t hard to see the logic in my growing hate of them. Today, I saw my kind as the monsters that Littles had seen of them for years. I had been brought up to think they we were an advanced people, and we were only saving the Littles. By the time I left LPS as an agent, I knew that wasn’t true anymore, but today nearly shut down that theory completely just on its own. I knew without hesitation that Sean had not been saved today. Hearing rocks crunch from behind me, I spun around in anger and ready to fight. “Easy! Easy there…” Carol said, her hands raised in surrender and openness. “I just thought you could use some space before, and maybe now… you might want to talk. Was I wrong?” She wasn’t, so I shook my head and gestured to an open patch of ground next to me. “Tough loss today.” She sighed and stretched her hands near the fire. “Sean was a good Little. I’m really sorry, Susan, but I’m glad that at least you all made it back.” “Yeah,” I quickly scoffed. “Maybe it was quick, but maybe all those rumors are true. Maybe he’s getting tortured for information right now…” Carol quickly shook her head. “You can’t think like that, Susan. It’s out of our hands. We’re Littles. There’s only so much we can control in this world. You’ll drive yourself mad if you take every loss this hard.” “But shouldn’t I?” I knew that most people around here had numbed themselves to the loss of a member, but to me, it felt that every lost member should be counted. “I don’t know anymore, Susan.” She sighed. “Honestly… if this was any other situation, I think I would be asking you about this in our next session.” She smirked. “A bit of role reversal, huh?” “Yeah…” I turned back to the fire, not in the mood for any jokes tonight. To be blunt, I wished more than anything right then that I could just have a shot of something… anything. It wasn’t healthy, but it did the job. I could have pushed on, but maybe authentically like a Little, I had to absorb all this pain and loss myself. Carol and I sat in silence for a moment. “You know,” she finally piped back up, “I heard more of what you did today with your group. Showed real initiative.” “I just did what needed to be done…” I had heard her tone before. She thought I had done something heroic for the group. Losing Sean today… I felt anything but heroic. “No… you were brave,” she said, clearly not caring what I thought of myself. “You did something that most Littles can’t. You stood up to a group of Bigs, and that’s impressive…” She leaned over closer to me and gripped my arm to emphasize her point. “But when you saw the situation was too much for you all to handle, instead of fighting, you all ran… and when you did that, you tried everything you could to get your group to safety.” She wasn’t listening. I wanted her to understand. “Again… I just…” “No, Susan. Don’t say that it’s just what everyone would have done.” She looked into the fire with long and sad eyes. “It’s happened before. Others… those groups weren’t so lucky to have someone like you on their team.” I hadn’t expected to hear that from her. Even as we talked in our counseling sessions before all this, we always talked about the present… never the past. So, even with my grief, my curiosity got the better of me. “What happened to them?” “We don’t know…” she trailed off for a moment but then looked directly back at me with a fierceness in her eyes. “But I know this… we need more like you.” “And you’re exactly right about that,” a voice belted from the darkness. I couldn’t see anything as Carol and I bolted up in surprise at the figure approaching behind us, but I knew that voice. I had heard it in my dreams… my nightmares too. It was the song of my longing and my reason for being lately. I would do anything for that voice. So, even as the darkened figure walked into the firelight, I already knew who he was. “Sorry about startling you all, but Carol here is right,” he said, patting her warmly on the shoulder like they had been friends for years. “Thank you…” Carol nearly blushed. “I’ve been trying to convince her about today… maybe you could have more luck though.” The Little smiled and seemed open to the idea, while Carol looked back at me with an even wider smile. “Susan… this is one of the leaders of LRG.” The Little then walked closer over to me, and despite looking different, I could see his face even clearer now. “Hello, Susan. I’ve only heard good things about you. Tough loss today, but I figured it was about time I meet you in person.” He then reached out his hand to shake my mine. “I’m Paul.” Even seeing his face and hearing his voice before, to hear him say his own name out loud was something else entirely. I had faced tremendous change, adversity, and danger just to meet this one Little again. I could see it in his eyes that he didn’t recognize me, and it nearly killed me, but also, I definitely recognized him. I wasn’t sure what would happen next, but in one night, I had accomplished one of my original goals. So, with trembling fingers and eagerness and hope in my heart, I reached out and shook his hand back. “Good to meet you, Paul…”

The next morning, Ted awoke groggily to a soft rustling sound. His eyes opened slowly at first, then suddenly opened wide as he felt pressure between his legs. It still took him a moment to figure out what was happening, but then it came back to him in a rush. He was in Lara’s bed. He had been spanked before she fucked his brains out. He had fallen asleep next to her in a thick diaper while she wore pull-ups. And now, his diaper was crinkling loudly as Lara checked to see if he was wet. “Oh wow! Somebody stayed dry overnight! What a good boy…” Ted blushed as Lara groped his crotch. Embarrassed by her tone, he still couldn’t help flashing a groggy smile. Suddenly, he became aware that his bladder was extremely full. If he had slept just a few minutes longer, his diaper might not be so dry. He pulled back the covers quickly, making to charge to the bathroom. Lara saw the look of panic on his face and threw her arm over his waist, holding him down in her bed. She smiled mischievously. “Lara, sorry… I gotta go.” Ted tugged at her arm and tried to lift himself off the bed. “Gotta go where?” she said wryly, pushing him back to the mattress. “I… I gotta pee!” stammered Ted. Lara squeezed his diaper again. “Well?” Ted froze. She didn’t mean… she couldn’t. He stared at her. “Just go.” Lara’s eyes were soft and inviting. Her arm remained firmly around his waist, her free hand gently fondling his diaper. “I… right now? I can’t…” Despite his issues with overnight wetting, Ted’s daytime potty training was holding fast. But his bladder ached badly, and it took all his effort to stem the flow. “Yes you can,” Lara whispered. “Just use your diaper. That’s what it’s for! Plus, I really want to…” She bit her lower lip, then squeezed his dick through the diaper. “I want to feel you use it.” It was obvious to Ted how much this was turning Lara on. It all still felt strange to him - not a turn OFF, but not something he would have ever thought to be sexy. But he could not deny how good it felt to be rubbed through the soft padding. Ted had little time for reflection, though. His need to pee was urgent, and the dam was close to breaking. Lara could see the mix of ambivalence and panic on his face. She decided to take action. “Come on baby…” she purred, “go for me. Wet your diaper.” Her hand moved quickly from Ted’s crotch to his lower abdomen. She gave a quick jab and held her fingers firmly against his bladder. That was all it took. Again Ted wore a mix of emotions on his face. Extreme humiliation to be wetting himself in bed next to a hot girl, and relief as his aching bladder finally released. Lara put her hand back on Ted’s crotch, knowing he only needed that one nudge to get started. She cupped the diaper as it grew warm and swollen. She could hear the gush of flowing piss, and felt it all get soaked up by the cushiony padding. She smiled a wicked smile. Ted was hers now. Completely. The boy closed his eyes. The sting of his shame was palpable. But it waned at Lara’s touch. His entire adolescence had been plagued with shame about his bed wetting. Yet now, here was a stunningly beautiful woman not only encouraging him to pee his pants, but turned ON by the idea. It was calming. Reassuring. Nurturing. And yes, it was sexy. Ted held his eyes closed and finished emptying his bladder. Lara squished the warm padding against his cock. “Hey…” she whispered. Ted opened his eyes. Lara was absolutely beaming, a rosy glow in her cheeks and a deep satisfaction in her gaze. “Good boy.” She patted his crotch. Then, taking him by the wrist, Lara placed Ted’s hand between her legs. He recognized the familiar rustle of a dry pair of Goodnites. But the feeling quickly changed. Lara let loose, flooding the thin pull-up and grinning widely at Ted. His eyes widened. Her crotch grew warm, and the padding began to swell. “Mmmmm…” Lara let her eyes close halfway, but kept them locked with Ted’s. They both lay silently for a long moment, staring in each other’s eyes, cupping each other’s soggy crotches, smiling widely. Suddenly, Lara threw back the covers, exposing both of their diapered bottoms to the cool morning air. “Come on,” she said, bounding off the bed with a squish. “It’s time for breakfast.” She pulled on a long t-shirt that just barely covered her lightly padded butt. Scooping up Ted’s pants and boxers, which were strewn across the floor from the night before, she strode out of the room leaving the door open behind her. Ted lay in Lara’s bed wearing nothing but a sodden Pamper and a t-shirt. With his pants and underwear having been removed from the room, he had little choice but to toddle downstairs dressed just as he was. He peaked into the hallway and noticed Stacey’s bedroom door still closed. He made a quick move, skirting down the stairs as quietly as he could. Ted cringed as his diaper crinkled and squelched with each step he took. If Stacey was awake, he was sure she could hear those unmistakable sounds. Downstairs, Lara was at the stove, the edge of her Goodnites peaking out below her t-shirt. She had pulled out pans and bowls, with a carton of eggs and pack of bacon next to them. Coffee was brewing, and a bottle of orange juice sat dewing on the counter. In a very short time, Lara had made quite a mess. Ted sidled up to her demurely. He flashed her a bashful smile. Lara grabbed his chin and cheeks in one hand. She pulled him in for a big wet kiss. “You’re just so cute!” Ted kissed her back and blushed. “Go sit down, I’m making you a big breakfast, baby boy.” She picked up a wooden spoon from the counter and wagged it at him. “You’ll need your energy. Don’t forget you’ve got a full day of homework today until that paper is done.” Ted hung his head dramatically. “And no fussing about it!” Lara sent him stumbling to the kitchen table with a few good whacks to his thighs. Ted sat at the table on the hard wood chair, his wet diaper squished against him. He felt a mild tingle in his cheeks, a small reminder of Lara’s hairbrush from the night before. He marveled at her long sexy legs and her round butt as she cooked for him. He felt lucky to have found her, and to be under her thumb. It just felt right. And was it ever hot. “Good morning, love birds!” Ted’s hands flashed between his legs as Stacey entered the kitchen, a vain attempt to hide the state of his diapers. “Good morning!” Lara chirped. “I’m making breakfast.” “I see that,” said Stacey. “I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to clean up after yourself…” She slapped Lara’s bum teasingly. “Hey, what the…” Lara yelped as Stacey lifted the hem on her t-shirt. The taller Stacey pushed Lara forward. Lara’s elbows rested on the counter top and her pull-up clad bottom stuck out. Stacey planted another quick spank, a little harder. “Looks like someone was afraid she might wet the bed last night, huh?” Stacey asked firmly. Lara blushed and bit her lip. Stacey’s hand rubbed the padding covering Lara’s bottom, then gave it a little squeeze. “Looks like you were right to take precautions…” Stacey patted her gently on her bare cheek at the edge of the Goodnites. “Good job! No spanking for you this morning.” She patted Lara’s bottom affectionately, then turned her attention to Ted, sitting meekly at the table. “And how about you, mister Teddy boy? Did you wet the bed last night?” The young man felt like he was five years old again. Stacey’s stern maternal tone made him freeze up. He sat perfectly still as she approached him. Stacey slowly removed Ted’s hands from his crotch. “It’s ok, honey. Let me check,” she said, sweetly but firmly. She almost slipped and said, “Let Mommy check.” Soon enough, she thought. Ted moved his hands, and he could not have felt any smaller. Stacey towered over him, her cleavage on full display through her unbuttoned pajama top. She might as well have been his Mommy. “Woah!” Stacey hooked her fingers into the leg cuffs and squeezed the sodden padding. “You’re soaked!! Lara snickered and started beating the eggs. “Well I’m proud of you for being responsible and wearing your diapers,” Stacey praised, stepping back and putting her hands on her hips. “But I expect you had a little help getting ready for bed last night… didn’t you?” Stacey cracked Lara on the butt again. Lara jumped and some eggs shot off her whisk and onto the kitchen counter. “Ow!” “There’s plenty more where that came from if you don’t clean up after yourself this morning.” Stacey and Lara were both instantly reminded of the argument over dishes that had led to their disciplinary relationship. “And you,” Stacey turned back to Ted. “After breakfast you need to get a fresh diaper on and get your little buns to work on that research paper.” “Yes ma’am,” Ted muttered. Stacey turned back to Lara. “Do we need to keep you in Goodnites all day, too? Or was this just a nighttime accident?” She prodded Lara’s wet pull-up. Lara blushed. She felt a warm grow between her legs, but didn’t lift her head from her cooking. “I don’t know…” she murmured, with a hint of attitude. “Diapers then?” Stacey spanked her again. “Ow! No way, I’m a big girl!” Lara pouted. “Goodnites it is.” She turned to head back upstairs. “I’ll get everything ready to change you two after breakfast.” Ted and Lara were silent, knowing better than to question their roommate who was exerting some serious authority. With one foot on the stairs, Stacey called back to the adjacent kitchen. “Seems like I’m turning into the House Mother around here.” She started up the stairs. “And at this rate, this house is going to need to start stocking a lot more diapers!”

Hey everyone! Hope everyone is enjoying this story so far. There’s a few more chapters left, and if everything goes right, it should all be done in the next two weeks or so. I might take some more time to do a few of the concluding chapters, so that could push it out a bit, but if that happens, I’ll let you all know. Also, as a reminder, the poll for my next story is still going on. As a reminder, as usual, I will post my decision of my next story during my final chapter of this story. Until then, feel free to comment here or personally message me what you want to read next. I like all the choices I am presenting, so choose what you want. For those not sure of the choices, just refer to the beginning of chapter 2. Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter! Chapter 23: A Painful Squeeze Was it hours? Days? Weeks? I wasn’t sure how long Paul’s silent treatment to me had gone on for. Weeks seemed ridiculous, but hours… if it was only hours, as simple as it may sound, it would have just made me worried at this point. Frankly, as the Littles dwindled around us, it was hard to keep track of just how much time had truly passed. With no outside lights and the guards no longer coming about every two hours anymore, I had to look for other signs to tell how much time had passed, but even that proved very difficult with each of the ways I discovered. At first, I thought feeding schedules would have been fine. Three meals a day seemed accurate, but it didn’t take long for the Bigs to start feeding us in what felt like more than five-hour intervals. It didn’t help either that the regressed Littles were on their own schedule as well. When they cried, chances are it was likely because they were hungry or just in the midst of some internal torment. I wondered if they still were aware but considering none of them recognized Paul or I and even no longer seemed to feel or even care about the state of their diapers, I remained doubtful. Regardless, though, the method soon became useless for any degree of accuracy. My mind even wandered into time tracking methods like drips of water or counting manually. A few would make a minute if done right, but this proved tedious and useless if I fell asleep. Considering that Paul hadn’t spoken to me yet, alternating schedules to help supplement this seemed pointless, so I moved on. My final hope was either to use sleep schedules or the number of times I needed to use the potty. It seemed simple enough, but in a dark room with little to do, sleep became a way to pass the time. I couldn’t figure out if I needed more either or if it was just from boredom, but by my fifth nap in what seemed like only two days, I gave up on timekeeping with that method entirely. So, my last hope came down to the potty. Unfortunately, though maybe not surprisingly, this became near impossible to clock as well. Likely due to the large amounts of food and drink everyone was consuming lately, potty urges or usages became more frequent as well. Paul and the regressed Littles took to this without worry and resigned themselves to just purely more diaper changes whenever the nannybot deemed it necessary, but for me… my potty record was quickly becoming a disaster. “You know… you probably should hold it in when you feel the need to go…” Paul told me after my tenth trip to the potty in what I felt like was about a day’s time. Again, I wasn’t sure, but I knew Paul was right with one major factor that he quickly pointed out to me. “Probably not a good thing to just go when you feel the need…” My eyes widened in horror as I realized that I had been stupidly programming my body to just go to the potty whenever I felt the urge. With the potty in the room and no one else using it, I didn’t see the problem at first. Now, though, with Paul’s reminder, I began to count in my head how long it was before I needed to go again. To my shock, I was barely getting beyond twenty minutes… and that was when I was about to burst, not even when the need first arose. So, likely as a part of the Bigs plan, it wasn’t long before the potty was seeming like a lofty goal even to me. I tried and I tried time and time again to make it, but it was no use. Either from the excessive amount of food and drink, something they put in it, or just simply the bluish gas running its course, I found myself counting shorter and shorter times between potty trips. I tried to hold it, but not wanting an accident, nature had to take its course eventually. My only consolation in all this, was that Paul seemed to be showing me sympathy at least now. His words of warning to me at least a day ago weren’t his first words to me, but we had been building up our words to each other since then. At first, it was just a “I’m sorry…” or a “Goodnight…” or even some comment about the blandness or putrid smell of the food. It wasn’t much at all, but either from boredom or acceptance of who I was and the fact that we were both trapped together, Paul began to open up to me. I still saw his look of betrayal, but it seemed to me that the need for companionship took precedent. What I’m guessing was at least four days after our last interrogation, it was now just Paul and I. Fritz had been taken away and Paul and I had only sat in stunned silence. Once taken away, we never saw any of the Littles again. It was terrible, but I had little time to grieve. With my dwindling incontinence, I suddenly felt a massive pang in my bladder. I felt near to bursting in moments, and I quickly shuffled off the stone floor and over to the potty in the corner. I probably even had time to spare, but I was stressed and anxious. It was a near fatal flaw for my hands trying to undo my pant’s top button. “Come on, come on!” I began to squirm on the spot, something I had seen numerous times in thousands of Littles by now. It was a bad omen. Still, I struggled with all my might. Paul even got up seemingly to come over and help me with my pants, but instead, all efforts proved too late. “No…” The radiative heat blossomed around my pull-up. I was disgusted over the notion of pee thoroughly soaking into the padding, and my palms began to sweat, and I almost started to hyperventilate. Almost without fail, a single problem in one’s pull-up here led to the Little’s instant demotion to diapers. As if to confirm my fear, the door opened in seconds and the nannybot wheeled in. Using her two bottom wheels, she breezed in and stopped to scan the room. Her rusted joints creaked occasionally, and she likely needed several software updates to be considered modern, but she was still the helpful servant she had been originally designed for. Originally catering to Big children, her robust form was quickly adapted to meet the needs of the growing Little population. “Oh my!” Her voice sprang out in its usual dilapidated and electronically synthetic tone from the speaker located just above her rather curvy figure. One could mistake her for artificial intelligence, but in truth, she was more a list of codes and prerecorded responses. She had no freewill; just an assortment of Little does ‘X’ so it did ‘Y’ and maybe ‘Z.’ It was mostly repetitive, but for regressed Littles, she was perfect. “Time to check on the little ones!” A large red scanner array then emitted from her eyes and began checking over every inch of the cell. She then beeped. “One wet diaper, but… oh dear! Seems like another little someone had a wet accident as well but has been categorized as a ‘pull-up user!’ This just won’t do!” Her form then wheeled over to me and looked down at me. Despite standing upright, the nannybot still towered over me by at least four feet. Smaller than most Bigs, it still intimidated the living snot out of me. I could even feel my knees begin to shake. I also felt a tremendous sadness and whimper building in the back of the already present lump in my throat, but I pushed that down as much as I could. Any crying under her watch would either be met with a bottle of warm milk, a spanking, or a pacifier. I didn’t want any of those options. “Oh sweetie! Let nanny help you with that!” I quickly raised my arms up to her partial rubber and metallic form. Her assemblance of a face smiled down at me and I was quickly picked up and held against her body. I could already feel the heaters under her exterior shell begin to whir to life to keep me calm. “Very good, baby. Come with nanny and I’ll make you all better.” Paul gave me a resigned wave as I exited, and while part of me felt like a failure, it wasn’t because I had raised my arms up to the nannybot. I had seen it all too often where another Little in this cell refused to comply. The nannybot would then either ignore them and pick them up anyway, or even punish them… especially if they acted up. It was only a mild spanking, but feeling fragile already and my head swimming with notions of what this meant when or even if I was ever returned to Big size. Regardless, the nannybot wheeled me out and quickly entered one of the previously shuttered doors along the hallway I had seen before. Inside was a nursery of sorts, but only to the extent of containing a changing table, bassinet, and wardrobe in the back corner. The gloomy stonework still outshined everything else, even the chagrining station the nanny likely rested on when not in use. “Here we go, baby!” She then laid me on the changing table and went right to work strapping me in across the waist. I had been in her position more times than I could remember, but now… I was the Little about to be changed. I did not care for the role reversal going on, but the nannybot’s fingers were too quick for me to linger on my dissatisfied thoughts for long. “Now, just stay still sweetie! Nanny must get you all changed and fresh. Wouldn’t want a rash now, would we?” It paused and almost froze in place, as if waiting for me to respond. Just wanting to get this over with, I nodded my head. “No, nanny. I won’t try to escape.” I would have if I could have, but already placed on the changing table and disliking the wet pull-up even more than complying with her, I felt it was in my best interest to stay put. Granted, if any of the Littles who came here before me had noted being regressed or violated in some way, I would have fought, but the nannybot was sickly sweet and mostly clinical in her movements. It then sprang back to life and quickly went to work on disrobing me. It left my shirt on, but from my waist down, everything was removed. Even with the pants I had been wearing, that hadn’t been touched by my accident due to the pull-up were hoisted away and tossed in a nearby garbage pail. My pull-up followed into the same pail, and I was left naked and exposed. I shuddered as a slight breeze moved across my nether regions. “Easy there, baby…” the nannybot tried to comfort me. Her mechanical voice and lack of any expressive empathy for me did about the opposite. I just wanted it all to end. I was resigned to my fate, but her dragging it out, even when she began wiping me was just plain terrible. A few wipes later, and a new diaper was produced and set underneath me. Cartoon images of Princess Poppy danced around the waistline and the pink padding did little to ease my mind. Still, trying to maintain my sanity in spite of all this madness, I was only relieved that I would soon be covered up once more. So, I exhaled with some happiness when the nannybot dusted me with powder and then quickly pulled up the diaper between my legs. It lay in an awful bulge between them, and I knew I was going to have some trouble walking, hiding the diaper if the need ever came, or even just going about my daily routines now. It was horrible, but like the other Littles, I wasn’t given back my pants and sent back to the cell with Paul. “There, there, baby. You settle in and I’ll be back to check on you.” The nannybot then left and Paul and I were left alone once more. It was mostly silence, but Paul then shifted toward me, his own diaper prominently on display and visibly in need of changing. “So, how does it feel?” I hated that was going to be our topic of conversation, but I knew that being a Big and all, it was likely all he could think of. “It’s fine… not great, but fine…” I poked at the plasticky outer covering and couldn’t help but groan internally over the audible crinkle it set off. “Well, now you know how it feels…” Paul said bitterly. I could still see the animosity in his face, but underneath his bravado, I was starting to see an empathy of sorts as well. I sighed. “You know, as much as you might not believe me, I never wanted that to happen to you.” Paul looked like he wanted to object but, being diapered and with the threat of possibly being regressed hanging over my head, I didn’t allow him to continue like I had the other day. He had time to stew, and now, I needed to say what I needed to. “Let me finish, Paul…” He sat back in a huff and waved his hand for me to continue. “Thank you, but yeah… I mean, sure, I wasn’t terribly broken up about it after the fact, but if you went without diapers for the rest of the time you were with me, I would have still been okay with that.” It felt like such a relief to get that off my chest. “I’m not sure if I believe that…” Paul said, crossing his arms with a scowl, much to my frustration. “Believe it or not, but it’s the truth.” I knew that despite Paul’s anger with me, I needed to say my peace to him directly. When everything was first revealed to him, I wanted to speak then, but from the shock or whatever else it was, I simply couldn’t find the right words. That definitely wasn’t the case today. “I wanted to tell you for so long, Paul, but we had left on a note that I wasn’t sure what to make of it,” I confessed. “You seemed to hate me, much like you do now, but then that last day… you seemed so happy. Even looking back with you escaping later that night, I’m not sure what to make of it. Regardless though, I wanted you back. Not to torture or subject you to some long-buried infantile desires, but to save you.” “Save me?” he asked skeptically. “How in the world were you exactly going to save me?” I nodded and sighed. “Regardless of what you think, I meant what I said… I had to save you. See, Agent Astrid and a few others essentially called in your bill. They told me that if you were caught, you would be sent to Dark Cliff Prison, likely almost immediately after a very unanimous and short trial at court.” I could tell that Paul hadn’t thought fully about the consequences of what it truly meant to escape that day. He was likely just running on pure emotion when he did. It was a common Little trait in those types of situations, and I couldn’t blame him, but now, he had to know everything. “I just couldn’t have that, so, they gave me a choice.” I sighed and knew this could be a sticking point, but there was no sense in hiding anything from him anymore. “If I was willing to become a Little, I would enter LRG to find you and bring you out of there. If I did and you gave up some information, like about the bombing, you would be granted immunity.” Paul’s eye twitched for a moment. “Give up…? You mean give up members of LRG? Bring it down from the inside and become a rat, don’t you?” I could see his chest practically seething with hatred. I sighed but ultimately nodded. “It’s terrible and I never would ask you normally, but you violated your agreement to not go to jail initially by leaving me and then you rejoined a labeled terrorist group. There are consequences to those actions. This is them in their full force against you now…” Paul’s anger dissipated and he sat in silence for a moment. I was hitting him with some hard truths now, but I could see a softening of his once hardened and angry edges to his facial expressions. “So… you became a Little to… to save me? Even with how I treated you or how society would treat you?” I could hear the disbelief in his voice already, but also some sense of gratitude as well buried down deep. I nodded. He seemed to finally be understanding the sacrifice I made for him. “That’s right. I did it for you. I don’t like organizations that use bombs to get their way, but I wanted to find and rescue you. I didn’t realize you were a leader and all that until I actually met you. By then, the terms of the deal had changed, and I couldn’t back out of the mission.” I took a deep breath in to try and attempt to recenter myself to a calmer state. “If there was any other way, I would have done it, but now…” I looked around the cell and Paul was catching onto the notion of what I was implying. “You’re stuck here with me…” I could tell his mind was positively brimming with ideas of what he had just been told, but he then looked back at me. “Your tooth… it was a way out, right?” “That’s right,” I confirmed. “Crack it and I get a dose of becoming a Big again and an emergency signal goes out. Dangerous and even deadly for me, so I didn’t try to use it until the warehouse was raided. I guess by then, though, it was too late.” Paul’s mind seemed to near on the verge of frying out, but eventually he sighed and got up and came over to me. To my shock, he then thrust his hand out to me. “I don’t like being deceived and I won’t become a rat…” I could feel my pace quicken over where this was going now. “But you became a Little for me. Suicidal and stupid for your own sake maybe, but it’s hard to stay mad at someone after they go and do a thing like that for you…” I looked at his hand and wondered if it was a trap or deceit on his part now, but I knew I had to take a leap of faith. So, with a deep breath, I grasped his hand. To my relief, he only pulled me upward. “I don’t think I will ever forget you lying to me, but I can at least start to forgive you.” He then looked around him at the stone walls. “Besides, we need to work together if we’re ever going to escape, right?” Again, I was shocked at what I was hearing, but considering my recently diapered state, I made sure to shake his hand to seal our renewed bond. Shaky and built under tenuous circumstances, we at least now had a single goal in mind. The next few days at least were spent formulating various escape plans. Each seemed more absurd than the last, but one finally began to take shape. When the nannybot came in to retrieve us to change our diapers in the other room, the door would stay open for a longer period of time than any other moment. If one of us managed to sneak past it, there were no guards on the other side anymore and they could set the other free. After that seemed to be up in the air but feeling the burden of being trapped in the cell for too long, we decided to risk it. Determining that I was the faster of the two of us, we waited for the next day for when Paul used his diapers thoroughly. Deciding to attack after he had been changed, I let Paul be picked up and carried out. As usual, the door hung open for an extra second. So, seeing my chance, I made a break for it. I just made it through before the door slammed shut behind me. Not seeing any guards, I followed Paul and the nannybot into the ‘nursery’ room. The nanny cooed to him to change his diaper, and I could see him squirm in embarrassment, but remembering the charging station the nannybot rested on when not in use, it gave me the time I needed to find its kill switch. Exploiting the flaw that led to its large discontinuation, navigating a few logic puzzles, I found her kill switch. “Baby?” I looked up and saw that she had noticed me. I began to panic, but still worked furiously at her kill switch. “What are you doing out of your room? Do you need a change as well?” Fortunately, I had just been changed before Paul. I could already feel a dampness unfortunately, but I wasn’t in desperate need of a change yet. My diaper was thick, which made it hard to walk, but allowed me more time in between changes. “Come here, little baby,” she said, wheeling herself ever closer to me. The place where her face curved in to simulate her eye sockets and showed two electronic orbs, now began to glow red. “Nanny needs to check you. Don’t resist me. Stay calm, baby. Nanny wouldn’t want to spank you or your friend today, now, would we?” That was a big no and she stopped right in front of me, towering over my form. To my relief, in that single moment though, I then found the kill switch. No sooner than I did, the nannybot reached down and clicked and clacked with her hands as she got ready to grab me. She was too late though. In seconds, I hit the button and the nannybot began to sputter and shake around. “Baby… wha… what… at… at… you… d… do… doin…” Her previously stiff form quickly slackened. “Yes! Way to go, Sophie!” Paul cheered from up on the changing table. “Quick! Get me out of here!” Satisfied that the nannybot wasn’t going to come to life again, I hoisted myself up to the changing table. “Grrr!” I tried with all my might to unclip Paul, but it felt like no use. “I can’t get it open!” Paul’s eyes widened in fear. “Try again!” I did but it was just the same result. “Shit! Together then!” We tried. Still nothing. “One more time. 1… 2… 3!” He pushed with all our might, but finally, the buckle came undone. “Oh damn! That was too close!” I exclaimed, wiping a little sweat off my forehead. “Agreed…” Paul said, panting himself. Looking around the room, I think we both had the same thought. “So… what now?” As much as I hated to admit it, I really wasn’t sure. “Uh… hadn’t thought about that yet…” “So, this is the end of the line for us, huh?” Paul asked, a little panic catching in his throat. “Leaving our cell just to get caught and punished in mere minutes.” I quickly shook my head. “Definitely not. We just need to… look around first. We go small and do little increments of exploring at a time. We hear any noise, we come back here. Is that acceptable to you?” I could see the fear and the hesitation in Paul’s eyes, but I could also see a resignation there as well. He sighed and nodded. “Fine… not like I have a better plan anyways…” Smirking, we helped each other down off the changing table and slowly creeped out of the room. It felt strange in about all the ways that it could. My Little was now my partner in crime. I was a Little and attempting to break out of a pro-Big facility. I had just taken down a nannybot, and I was still unconvinced now that there wasn’t some mole or rat in LPS. It was a lot to process, but I refocused my efforts in finding a way out of here. After some close calls and more searching, Paul and I finally came to the end of the hallway and to a set of stairs. Nodding at each other, we knew we had few other choices. Fortunately, at the top, we got a much better idea of where we were. “Damn it! I recognize this place now,” I said, after seeing the large open space below us just beyond the dirty windows we were looking through now. Various BAL members were busily shuffling crates around down there. “You do?” I could hear hope returning to Paul’s previously only frightened voice. I nodded as I watched several of the BAL members scurry about the place below us. It didn’t take a genius to recognize the several cases of guns they were now unloading. “This place used to be a storage facility for ammunition, spare parts, and food during the Great War. Due to the bombs and the lack of equipment to build things, they created this place after some of the older styles. Stone and mortar rather than concrete on the lower levels. Worked too…” she then gestured around her for proof of evidence about what she was saying. Paul seemed impressed. “Makes sense… wasn’t that war almost 100 years ago now? I doubt anyone would care about a bunch of pro-Bigs settling in here.” “That’s right.” Now it was my turn to be impressed about his near accurate remembrance of the dates of the war. Paul was always reading, but I never put two and two together to realize that some of those books were about our history. “Probably been abandoned for years now. Good thing though… its in the middle of nowhere…” Paul looked at me skeptically. “And just how is that a good thing?” I sighed. “Yeah… we’ll have to find a way out of the woods but remember… we both could be fugitives right now. I’m not sure what happened with LRG, but it wouldn’t surprise me if someone has been putting out bad press for them in our absence. Besides… with you gone, do you really think Bernard would have just dropped his plans to bomb ABI?” “Oh crap!” Paul clearly hadn’t thought about what our absence meant in terms of the greater picture of things. I couldn’t blame him for that, but I knew that caution on the outside would probably be a wise idea… or at least better than usual. “Shhh!” Paul ducked and quickly looked embarrassed. “Not so loud… I think if we go up those other stairs, we should find the exit, but we have to be quiet.” Nodding but still silent behind his blushing cheeks, Paul gestured to the other set of stairs nearby. Agreeing, we both crept up the stairs and soon made it outside. The entire way up, my palms began to sweat, and my knees shook in terror. If they had only captured us and regressed us for what group we were involved in, I forced myself not to think about what they would do if they caught us now. Fortunately, though, the whole area and all of BAL seemed intent on shuffling about and not paying attention to anything not directly in front of them. We seemed to have exited a back corridor that was hardly used anymore. More cobwebs and dust had covered everything inside, but now outside, Paul and I made sure to crawl or crouch between the crats and barrels around the main staging platform. To our horror, we soon found a crate filled with items from other Littles. Not wanting to take a second to question where they had come from, we both just donned new pants and jackets. The fall weather had already started to set in and I knew that winter would be here before we knew it. “Come on,” Paul whispered to me, keeping his voice low as he crouched and waddled to and from each item outside that blocked our view from the other BAL members. Unfortunately, just as we made it to the end, we discovered that while the inside of the base had mostly been a dilapidated mess, the outside had been freshly redone, complete with a barbed wire fence around the enter perimeter of the base. “Shit! What do we do now?” We had been flying by the seat of our pants this whole time, and I knew we just had to find a solution to this latest problem. Retying my pants, I looked around, but wasn’t finding any other way out. “I’m not sure. There’s got to be, but…” “Alarm!” one of the Bigs then screamed out. All at once, every member began to scream and panic around us. Paul and I quickly found cover under some awkwardly stacked crates. Any movement or tremor around us would likely mean our deaths via a giant splat, but it was still away from prying eyes. “They got out! They got out!” a familiar voice shouted out in annoyance and hate. It was Peter. “Find them! Find them now! Burn everything! Search everywhere! I don’t care… just find them!” “Yes, sir. Right away, sir!” another Big replied back with almost a snap in his voice. I could just picture him now saluting back to Peter. Air raid sirens and alarm bells blared overhead, and Paul and I had to constantly press our hands over our ears to avoid going deaf. “Shit! They’re going to find us!” I was starting to panic. Guards were pressing in from all sides. Each was heavily armed and seemed hell bent on searching and severely punishing us when they found us. My pulse was racing, and I felt like it was the end of our short-lived victory. I didn’t see a way out, but curiously, even through all the panic, chaos, and confusion, Paul seemed remarkably calm. His eyes seemed to scan everything around us, like I had done, but where I had found doom, Paul’s eyes lit up in elation. “There! Follow me!” I just hoped that Paul wasn’t leading us into a trap, but as he scooched into a crack between the crates behind us, his entire body soon disappeared. At least curious now and not seeing another option, I followed right behind him. Interestingly enough, by the time I pressed myself through the small gap, Paul was already observing the fence. “Come on!” He waved me on and then pointed to a single spot in the fence. “Hold it open for me and then I’ll do the same for you on the other side. Breath deeply and then out and hold your breath, okay?” Not sure of what else to do, and still seeing the alarms and guards running all around, I could only nod as I pulled back the bit of the fence that Paul had pointed to. To my amazement, with a little struggle, Paul made it through to the other side. For a moment, Paul almost seemed like he was going to leave me behind, but after adjusting his clothing back into place, he pulled the fence open from his side next. I shuffled through, and despite my pants getting briefly stuck, I popped out on the other side as well. After that, we clearly both wanted to celebrate, but with the fading of the light, new spotlights and flashlights began to shine all over the compound. One even came within a few feet of where we were standing, so looking at each other and deciding to hold off on our celebrations, we ran into the woods. Animal noises and the colder climate were just some of the obstacles we faced, but through it all, we just kept running. My heart felt like it would burst out of my chest at any moment and my lungs felt like they were on fire, but minute by minute, Paul and I ran as far away from the compound as we could. Some time later, Paul stopped and practically collapsed into a bush from exhaustion. “Okay… okay…” I tried to say. I was breath too fast for my words to come out completely right, but Paul stared back at me. “We need… to take… a rest.” Paul, also out of breath, just nodded. We both collapsed to the ground and panted heavily. A little later, still exhausted but no longer panting, I decided to move around. Paul did as well, but I had one question on my mind. “How did you know those gaps were going to work?” Paul shrugged. “I really didn’t, but I’ve been a Little for a while now. You pick up a thing or two the longer you’re this size.” Paul started to move around a little more and found a small log to sit on. “You know… you Bigs are always thinking on a large scale.” He extended his hands out to emphasize his point. “You all never look for the small things.” He leaned in a little closer to me. “That’s actually how I escaped your house. I got some plans from the underground network at the daycare to briefly disable the lasers I saw you had up, but once I realized there was a small gap in your cameras and detectors, I knew I had a way out.” I wondered about the underground movement he had just mentioned, but it was another secret and question I had been longing to know for some time. Still, clearly not being tracked by BAL out here anymore, Paul and I began to debate over what to do next. “I think we should leave the country.” Paul only stared back at me in disbelief and doubt. “I know its an extreme, but I just don’t know about LPS anymore. If I’m going to be stuck as a Little, we might as well enjoy ourselves.” I remembered back to the travel show that I had been watching the night Paul had escaped. “I’m told that Allemagne is a pretty great place for Littles.” Paul looked back at me, unblinking. “No… just no.” I wanted to debate it, but Paul held his hand up to stop me. “Maybe a good idea for the future, but just how the heck do you propose we get out of the country. We’re wearing rags from other Littles that we stole from. If I’ve been hearing your correctly, LPS will at least be after us… maybe even DLS and ABI as well. There’s no way we could flee this country.” I realized that while lofty and likely the most comfortable plan we could come up with, leaving the country just didn’t make sense right now. I logged it away in the back of my mind. Maybe someday we could revisit it, but for now, the moon was climbing into the night sky, animal noises sounded all around us, and the temperature wasn’t getting any warmer. “I still think we can go back to LRG,” Paul insisted again. We tried dancing over about a dozen or so plans for what to do next. Paul kept going back to LRG, but I knew it was probably an even worse idea than leaving the country. “There’s no way we can do that Paul.” He huffed and crossed his arms. “Even if other pro-Big groups haven’t picked them up by now, there’s just no way we can take the risk. Even if they aren’t completely gone or way underground hiding out, they’re probably going to be monitored fully by LPS by now. We go find them, even through secret ways, we’d either be falling into an LPS trap, or we’d be leading LPS right to their front door. “Crap… you’re right,” Paul admitted. We were both now stumped, but something began to form in my mind. It was a loose plan for sure and unenviable, but it was something. I knew we needed resources to recuperate and to hide out with. We needed people with access to others and people that we had known prior to the LRG raid. Above all else though, we needed Bigs and Bigs that we could trust. Only a few came to mind. I hated my plan with a fiery passion, but considering our current circumstances, I knew that Paul’s and I options were extremely limited. So, with a sigh, I got up and then leaned over and whispered my plan into Paul’s ears. Backing up, I saw his eyes go wide in realization of what I was saying. “You can’t be serious… That’s probably the worst idea ever! We might as well just turn ourselves in…” I shook my head. “No, these people are the better option. They can provide us with resources and ways out if we eventually need them. Plus, I trust them completely. They’re one of the few Bigs we know and they fit what we need… I don’t even think that you can object in that at least.” Paul groaned and then sighed. “Crap. Crappity, crap, crap, crap.” I could see the hatred and resignation but also acceptance of my plan on his face. “I can’t believe we’re even considering this, but as you said before, we don’t have many options.” Paul paused and rolled his eyes. “I’m just warning you now… I might hate you a little more after this…” I sighed but still smirked. “At least you’ll still be alive and know who I am in that case.” Paul groaned and rolled his eyes once more, but I knew that we now had a plan in place. It would take at least all night to get there from about where we were, but I knew it was toward safety. “Come on. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us.” Groaning, Paul got up and leading the way, I resolved it within myself to make it out of those woods in one piece. If we could make it though, frustration and yet a peace of mind would be ours. I didn’t like the frustration part that was coming likely, but given what we had just come through, I would never pass up an opportunity for peace.

This is my entry to the 4th Kasarbefang Story Contest ( Jason was happy to be attending college. It was a financial stretch for his family. Nobody before him had ever gone to college. He had busted his butt in high school, getting good grades and going out for sports trying to maximize his chances at a scholarship. He got a small amount, but not enough to pay for everything as he had hoped. He’d worked hard all summer, picking up extra shifts trying to get ahead. Now he had his schoolwork and then did his work-study job at the dining hall, hustling food from the kitchen to the serving lines, hauling away dirty dishes, and whatever else they threw his way. Over the weeks, he’d spotter her. She’d come in to eat, sometimes alone, sometimes with other girls. She was gorgeous, with straight dark hair. She was always neatly dressed. Casual, but not the jeans or sweats most students tended to wear. One day, he was standing behind the servers, having just lugged in a tray of mashed potatoes, and his eyes met hers. She gave him a little smile. “Forget about it, Jason,” he said to himself. “She’s way out of your league. Besides, you don’t have the money or time for a girlfriend between work and studying.” Tonight, he was released from work at eight, and he peeled his apron off and hustled over to the library. He had some reading to do in the reserve room. He got in there only to find someone had already signed the book he wanted. He was just about to give up and return to the dorm when a girl came up carrying the volume he needed and returned it to the desk. “Great,” he said. “That’s the book I need.” Then he realized it was her. “Haven’t I seen you in class,” the girl said. “And you work in the dining hall, too?” “That’s me. Jason,” he said in way of introduction. “Kristin,” she said. Her hair swung as she turned. “Well, see you around.” Jason watched her go and then sat down and tried to read. Still, the vision of the girl stuck in his mind. It took him nearly ten minutes to get to the point where he could parse the words on the page before him. Be careful, boy. You don’t want to jeopardize everything over some girl. The next day in class, he looked around to see if he could spot her but couldn’t find her. He sat there as the lecture droned on, still thinking about her. As the professor wrapped up, he collected his stuff and made his way out of the room. And there she was, walking just a few feet ahead of him. He got up his nerve. “Hi, Kristin.” “Oh. Hi, Jason. I didn’t see you there.” “I don’t have a class next hour. If you don’t, would you like to get some coffee?” he said, hoping not to sound too pathetic. “Sure, I’d like that,” she said with a smile. Jason smiled back. They made their way over to the campus coffee shop. He didn’t go there much. He could have all the coffee he wanted in the dining hall, and he didn’t have money to spare, but still, he needed to be social. Kristin purchased a latte, and he got a regular coffee, and they sat. They did the normal college chit-chat about their majors and where they were from. Then she asked, “Are you going to pledge a frat?” Jason had considered doing so but then decided against it. Frats not only mandated a time commitment but also substantial dues at most of them. “Nah. I’m pretty busy with work and studying, and money is tight.” “I’m trying to get into Delta Phi,” she said. “They’re having an open house tonight. You should come with me. They accept boys, too. You don’t have to pledge. Just see the place. It’s free food, at least.” Jason thought about it. He didn’t need a free meal. He got all he could eat at the dining hall. But, sure, he would love to see more of this girl. He agreed to meet her that evening. That evening, he decided not to wear jeans. He had not seen Kristin dressed in them. He found a pair of Dockers in his closet and wore a button-down shirt. He made his way down to the address Kristin had given him earlier. He saw her standing there in front of the Delta Phi house. She wore a sleek blue dress; he was glad he had dressed. “Ready to go in?” he asked. “Yes,” she said hastily. They made their way up the front steps. A girl manned a small desk off the entrance. Kristin stepped up. “Kristin Wood and Jason Brooks,” she said. Jason was surprised that she knew his last name. He’d not given it to her. The girl slid two name tags to Kristin, told her that the refreshments were in the main hall, and pointed the way. Kristin handed one of the name tags to Jason. His name was already printed on it. “I called this afternoon to tell them you were coming,” she said. Jason nodded. That made sense, but how had she figured out his name? Jason took them into the grand foyer. You could put the entire house he grew up in inside here.. Lush wooden paneling interrupted with hanging tapestries adorned the walls and thick carpet beneath his feet. Well, it’s a nice place to visit, he thought. The dues here were going to be astronomical. They reached a punch bowl, and Jason ladled out a cup for each of them. “Very swanky,” Jason said. “It’s the best house on campus,” Kristin stated. “And quite a history. Many famous Delta Phis out there, like the Vice President, several senators, and even a Supreme Court justice.” They wandered around, looking at things and sipping their punch. A girl came up. She was dressed in an expensive-looking dress as well. “Kristin. So glad you could join us,” she said. “And you must be Jason.” Very good, he thought. Surely, it wouldn’t have been surprising that Kristin was here if they had known he was coming in together. But he made polite responses. The new girl introduced herself as Kathy, one of the ambassadors. She said her job was to show the prospective pledges around and ensure their questions were answered. They were led around the building. A large dining room, a comfortable lounge, and a library rivaled the main one on campus. Downstairs, there were more utilitarian things: a laundry (Jason noted that there were no coin slots on the machines like the ones in the dorm had), an exercise room, and various other places. Kathy returned them to the dining room and left them to meet others. Jason and Kristin alternated snacking on passed appetizers. Was this really caviar on the little toast things, Jason wondered. He’d heard of caviar but had never seen it. Lots of other tasty things he’d never had before. From time to time, other girls who were house members talked to them. They were all very friendly. They also talked to other prospective boys and girls as they moved around the room. “So, what do you think?” Kristin asked. “It’s glorious. No way I could afford to do this,” he said. “I’m hoping I get invited to join.” A while later, Kathy returned and led them to a small office. “What do you think of our house?” she asked. “I heard great things about it,” Kristin began. “But it exceeds what I could imagine.” “And you?” Kathy turned to Jason. “Beyond my wildest dreams,” he said. “Well, Kristin. I’ve been reviewing your application and talking to the other girls. I think you will be in line for an invitation. I can’t guarantee it, but I just wanted to let you know it looks good.” “Thank you very much.” “What about you, Jason? Are you going to apply?” “Well, I hadn’t thought about pledging anywhere,” he stalled. “Here, let me give you an application. You can fill it out now. No strings. I’d like a word with your date.” She pushed a form across to Jason. His date? He hadn’t thought about it that way. Was this a date with Kristin? Perhaps it was. He smiled. “Sure.” He put his information on the form as Kristin and Kathy left the room. There was a lot of stuff on this form, and some was expected as an essay. But what the hell? The girls were gone from the room, and he might as well fill it out. He had just finished when Kathy returned alone. “Have you given more thought to applying?” she asked. “I’ve completed the application. I can tell you, everything looks very nice. But I’m just not sure.” “Kristin tells me you might have financial problems,” Kathy said. Well, there it was. That was the primary concern right now. That and time, juggling his job, study, and whatever social events this place would no doubt consider obligatory, was probably beyond his means. “That’s a major part of it. That and with my job and all, I don’t know how much time I would have.” Kathy smiled. “Let me put your mind at ease. There are no dues here. We operate on an endowment, and we get support from the alumni. We have some very powerful legacies here.” Jason brightened a bit. Maybe. “I should also point out that if you choose residence here, we can get you out of your room and board contract, which would get you some money back. We also have some scholarship funds available for those in need.” Jason’s head began to swim. This was beginning to turn into a fairy tale. Was she going to wave her magic wand and make everything rosy for him? “OK, I’d like to be considered.” “Great, let’s get back to the party.” They went back out to the dining room and continued to mingle. Kristin got him aside at one point. “Well?” she asked. “Well, what?” “Are you going to pledge here?” “If they ask me, I guess. Kathy, at least set my mind at ease about me being able to do it.” Kristin smiled. The next day, he was back to the usual grind. He ate the stuff off the dining hall food line. No caviar today. He went to class, anxious to at least catch a look at Kristin. Work and Study. He forgot all about it until one night, as he readied himself for bed, he heard two sharp raps at his door. “What the fuck?” his roommate said as he rolled out of bed and went to the door. He opened it, standing in his boxers. A trio of girls stood in the hall in long robes. “Jason Brooks?” one said. “I’m Jason,” Jason said, pushing back his roommate. At least he had pajamas on. “Delta Phi,” the girl stated. “Do you accept?” “Huh? What?” Then it occurred to him. They had come to invite him to the frat. “Yeah, sure.” “Come with us.” “What the hell is going on?” his roommate asked. “Frat initiation,” Jason said over his shoulder. “I’ll see you later.” Two of the girls led him down the hall. A car was waiting, taking him to the Delta Phi house in his pajamas. It pulled up to a rear entrance, and he was led inside. Kathy from the rush party, robed like the two who had come for him, was waiting at the desk. “Welcome, Jason. Before proceeding, I want to confirm that you accept membership on our terms. Decide now, one way or the other. If you accept, there’s no going back. Understand that we have many friends in high places, including the dean and president of this university, as well as in industry and public office. If you betray us, we can make things very difficult for you. Getting kicked out of the University would be the least of your worries.” Jason swallowed hard. What was he getting into? Did he want this? Was he doing it to gain favor with Kristin? Was the temptation of free room and board and tuition causing him to make a bad decision? Still, what was the worst that could happen to him? All these powerful people wouldn’t have come out of an institution that did anything criminal or immoral, would they? Besides, knowing powerful people could be useful. He thought for a long second. “I accept.” “Good,” Kristin said with a smile. “Please sign here.” He signed his name, and Kathy signaled to the other two girls. “Get him ready.” The two girls led him to a small, well-lit room. “Please take off those pajamas.” “What are you going to do?” “We’re just going to get you cleaned up for the initiation.” “Which is what?” “Don’t worry. We’re not going to force you to down a bottle of Everclear or make you eat raw liver, or shove a broomstick up your ass. So immature. We have more refined rituals.” “Uh, OK.” Jason stripped off his pajamas. They led him to a chair, leaned him back, and started to wash his hair. After that, they set him up, and one of the girls started cutting his hair. OK, we’re going to look good for what was coming next. They rubbed a small amount of cream on one arm. He was about to ask what it was when the girl applying it said it was a test and they would check it in a minute. They lathered his face and expertly shaved him. He could get used to this level of attention, he thought. They rinsed the cream off his arm. To his surprise, the hair there came off as well. “How does that feel?” the girl asked. “OK, a little warm but not burning.” “Fine.” The two girls then proceeded to take off their robes. Wow, this was getting interesting, he thought. The three proceeded nude into a large shower. The girls then commenced rubbing more cream all over his body, everywhere but his head. After a while, they started wiping and rinsing it off. Soon, he was hairless everywhere but his head. They proceeded to wash him thoroughly. “This next part is a little unpleasant,” they said. “We need to clean you out.” He was about to ask what that meant when he felt something being pushed in his rear. He then started to sense something flowing in. An enema? Why? After a minute, the girl stated, “The toilet is just in there.” Jason clenched his cheeks together, went into the bathroom, and relieved himself. When he was done washing up, he found that the girls had put their robes back on. They then came to him and rubbed every inch of his body with some lotion. He couldn’t place it at first, and then the aroma jarred a memory—baby oil. “Baby oil?” he said. “We want your skin to be nice and soft, and you may be a little irritated from the hair removal.” “Oh,” he said. The girls finished and pronounced him ready. They led him to a small room. “She’ll come for you soon. Have a seat.” He sat down, and the lights were extinguished the rest of the way. He sat there in the dark, wondering what would happen next. A door opened on the opposite side that he had entered. From the light, he could see it was Kristin wearing an elaborate white draped gown. She looked radiant. “Are you ready for your introduction?” Kristin asked with a smile, reaching out her hand. Jason realized he was naked, and Kristin wasn’t, but what choice did he have? He took her hand, and she led him out of the little room. He realized they were now in the massive dining room of the house. The room was filled with women in robes similar to those worn by those who prepared him. This must be all the frat and then some. Only Kristen and he were dressed differently. “The Omicron Tau chapter of Delta Phi is proud to introduce our newest sister, Kristin Wood, and baby Jason Brooks,” someone announced. The room erupted into applause. Kristin nodded in acknowledgment and then led Jason to a table in the center of the room. Did they say, “baby Jason?” “Lie down on this,” she whispered in his ear. Jason was confused, but he did as instructed. Kristin pulled something under his legs. “Raise your butt a second,” she said, and as he did, she slid something underneath. He dropped down on it, and she pulled it up between his legs. Soft cloth of some sort. Kristin worked pin through the fabric, pulling it tight. He realized he’d just been diapered. Baby Jason, indeed. She worked something up his legs, and he realized they were plastic pants. He raised again so she could pull them in place. “There,” she said, offering her hand again. “You’re not so exposed now.” She led him around to the front of the table, where a broad, overstuffed chair was. She sat down in the chair and then started to pull him down. He allowed her to position him as she wanted. Odd, he was facing her, not the other girls. She shrugged the gown off one shoulder, exposing her breast. His eyes opened wide. She guided his face to the nipple. “Nurse,” she whispered into his ear. He was getting extremely aroused. It was a good thing the diaper was covering that area. He took her nipple in his mouth and started to suck. Nothing happened at first, but then he gently squeezed with his teeth, tried again, and started to get the warm, sweet milk. He got a partial mouthful and swallowed. Again, the crowd broke into applause. He pulled back. “Don’t worry. You can finish later.” She pulled her gown back into position and let him sit beside her. One by one, the girls came by to welcome Kristin. Some welcomed him as well. Others just patted his head or even gave him kisses on the cheek. Some initiation ceremony. After completing the welcomes, Kristin got up and led Jason to a side room. She removed the gown she was wearing. She was nude before him. He’d never seen her like this, and he was again quite aroused. She picked up a gown off the table and put it on. She now was dressed like the other fraternity members. Kristin held up a similar gown for him to put on. They returned to the main dining room. A few minutes later, another girl in a gown like Kristin had been wearing led another naked form into the room. This time, it was a nude girl, and a similar diapering and nursing ritual was followed. “Delta Phi is proud to announce our newest sister, Valentina Pallas, and baby Suzi Beam.” Again, the members filed past the new inductees. Jason didn’t know what to do, so he offered to shake their hands. The new pair headed to the side room, and while they were changing, glasses of sparkling wine were distributed. The pair emerged robed and were given glasses. “To our new members,” someone announced. There were murmurs of assent, and people started to drink. Jason had never had champagne before, but he liked it. They got together the new inductees. There were six of them. The first couple preceded Jason and Kristin in the induction ceremony. Pictures were taken of all of them, and the group mingled and talked. Snacks and more champagne were served. Jason was having a good time, even forgetting that he was hairless and wearing a diaper under the robe he had on. By the time the event broke up, he was a little tipsy from several glasses of bubbly. Kristin took him by the hand. “Where are we going now?” Jason asked. “Up to our room.” “Our room?” Jason said. “Yes, we’ll be sharing a room.” This, indeed, was interesting. He had come to this house to get closer to Kristin, but he had never imagined being that close. And he had just sucked from her tit. It was amazing. They reached a door, and Kristin pushed inside. The room had a small sofa, two desks, and two chairs. Bookcases spanned the space between the desks. Jason realized that all his textbooks were on one of the shelves. Kristin continued through a door that led to the bedroom. “Unzip me,” she said. Jason did so, and she let the gown fall. She was naked again in front of him. She unzipped his robe and pulled it down. She reached down, pulled off the plastic pants, and carefully unpinned the diaper. His penis sprang fully erect when it was freed from the cloth. Kristin backed onto the bed and pulled him down on top of her. “Oh, my,” Jason thought as he entered her. He had hoped it would come to this but hadn’t expected it to be tonight. He did his best, and they climaxed near together. He rolled off her but remained at her side. “That was wonderful,” Kristin said. “Yes, tonight has been unbelievable,” he said. She kissed him and added, “I’m tired. Let’s try to sleep a bit.” She snuggled into Jason, and they fell asleep. A while later, Jason stirred. Where was he? Then he felt Kristin next to him, and he remembered and smiled. He had to pee. There had to be a bathroom around. He got out of bed and started looking around. He headed out into the main room and saw another door. Maybe that’s it. He opened it and found a room that sported a giant crib. Kristin came up behind him. “What’s up?” she asked. “I was looking for the bathroom,” he said, turning around. She was still nude. He smiled. “Let me put a diaper on you,” she said. This confused him, but he didn’t say anything. His curiosity about this room was greater. “What’s this for?” Jason asked. “This is where you’ll sleep. At least part of the time,” Kristin said. “This was my bed we were in. I suspect we’ll be doing a lot of co-sleeping?” Co-sleeping? That was a strange way of describing their time in the bed. Rachel disappeared and returned with the diaper he had worn during the initiation. She patted a table on one side of the room. “Hop up on the changing table,” she said. “Changing table?” he said confused. “You’ll need to have your diaper changed. You can’t stay in a wet one.” “Wet one? What do you mean?” “You’re going to be wearing diapers from now on. Don’t worry. I’ll change you when you’re wet or poopy.” “You’ve got to be kidding?” Jason said incredulously. She stared him down. Again, she patted the table. He got up on it. She refastened the diaper and pulled up the plastic pants. “Let’s sit down a minute,” Kristin said. She led him back to the sofa, and they sat. “I need to explain to you how this is going to work. I know it will sound strange, and you probably don’t want to do it, but I’m sure Kathy explained to you what happens if you don’t.” Jason thought back to his earlier conversation with Kathy. She had told him that being kicked out of school would be the least of his worries. “From now on, you will be my baby. I’ll take care of you. You will be wearing and using diapers. You’ll be sleeping in the crib. You’ll be doing other things as well. I think you liked being breastfed.” He had to admit that he did like that. “All the time? I thought this was just some initiation thing.” “All the time. Outside the house, you’ll be wearing regular clothes and behaving normally, but you will have a diaper on underneath, and you’ll need to use it.” “Wha, wha, why?” “It’s how the sorority works. Every sister has to have a baby to care for. You’re mine.” “I thought maybe you just liked me. Did you pick me to get into the Delta Phi?” Jason asked. “I do like you. That’s why I chose you. I knew I wanted you, needed you, from the first time I saw you. I think you want me, too. At least that’s what I got from last night’s sex.” He let all this sink in. “What about the boys here? I thought this was coed.” “They are more of the babies.” “All of the babies are boys?” “No, not all. But all the boys that are members are babies.” He thought about the girl initiated right after him. She was a baby. “And all of these people sit around messing diapers just so their…” He searched for a word to describe the relationship. “Mommies,” Rachel inserted. “So that their mommies,” He said with disdain. “Can get into the fraternity.” “It’s not like that. At least, not with me. I wanted in Delta Phi, but I wanted an intimate relationship with you. I think it will be wonderful for both of us. Didn’t you get that feeling from last night’s post-initiation activity?” She leaned forward and kissed him. She then pulled him into a hug. He felt her bare breasts against his now hairless chest. Gosh, he did want her. But playing baby for the next four years? He started to cry. “There, there,” she said, patting his back. “Don’t cry. It will be alright, I promise. Are you hungry?” She guided him to her nipple again. With trepidation, he started to nurse while she stroked his hair. He calmed down. He’d have to give it a try. What choice did he have? He still had to pee. “So, there’s no chance I can use the bathroom?” “I’m afraid not. Even if you had found it, it is locked.” Jason thought about it. “What the hell?” he thought to himself. He closed his eyes and tried to pee. Years of toilet training prevented him from doing it. He closed his eyes and tried to envision himself at a urinal. He got the flow going. When he was fully relieved, he opened his eyes. Rachel was staring at him. “Finished?” she asked. “Yes.” “Let’s get you changed.” She led him back to the changing table. She removed the diaper and then used some wipes to clean him up. He was erect again. She climbed on the table and lowered herself down on him. They had sex again. “OK, maybe being changed isn’t that bad,” he said as she lay there on top of him. After a minute, she climbed down, cleaned him up again, and put a diaper on him. “I better get dressed,” she said. Just then, her phone rang. She talked for a second. “That was Cathy. She says she has some paperwork for you when we finish breakfast.” With that, she started looking through the drawers. She pulled out an article of clothing and held it up to Jason. He slid it on over his head and stood up. She reached down and snapped it between his legs. “What’s this?” he asked. “A bubble romper. It looks cute on you. You can wear it around the house.” He looked at himself in the mirror. Indeed, he was a giant toddler. Rachel disappeared into her room for a second and came out wearing a casual dress. She was brushing her hair. Gosh, even with clothes on, she was lovely. They went down, and Rachel explained they’d eat in the common room. “It’s less formal than the dining room upstairs,” she explained. They grabbed coffee from the urn near the entrance. There were some things available on a buffet on one side. “You can have them make you an omelet or whatever. I’m just going to have a yogurt and some fruit.” Jason decided to have cereal, and they sat down and ate. Looking around, he saw the other couple from the previous night, Valentina and Suzi. After a short time, Valentina exposed a breast, and Suzi started nursing. “We can breastfeed in private areas of the house,” Rachel explained as Jason turned away, embarrassed that he was watching. Then he noticed Rachel was pulling down the strap of her dress and exposing a tit. “When in Rome…” Jason thought and started to nurse. After breakfast, they headed up to the office and met with Cathy. “This is your agreement to reside here. I can submit this to the housing office to get your board money refunded.” Jason signed it. “I also called food services and submitted your resignation.” “You did?” Jason said, a little taken aback. “We can’t have Delta Phi members working jobs like that. We can try to place you elsewhere, but we’ve got you a stipend pending your scholarship coming through later this month.” She slid forward an envelope. “This will get you through until then, I suspect.” He looked inside. There was a check that was more than double what he could have expected to earn. “They’ll also send your final paycheck over soon.” Jason’s head swam. Would he not have to work anymore? Working the job, studying, and taking classes had been a major hassle. She also slid forward a book. “Rachel already has one of these, but this is for you. We’d like you to keep it confidential.” It was entitled “A Handbook for Mommies and Babies” and subtitled “Life in Delta Phi.” “Welcome, again, to Delta Phi,” Cathy said with a smile.

Hey everyone! Definitely getting close to the finish line here with the story. There are only two more chapters to go after this one, so they should be out in the next week. Unless something happens to deter or force me to pause, the last chapter should be posted next Monday. If something changes this, as usual, I will let everyone know on here. Now, keeping that in mind, that means there is also now less than a week to let me know which story you all want to read next from the three I outlined in the beginning of chapter 2. Several of you have already, and I thank you for your contribution, but I just wanted to make a point here that I will be announcing the next story I write when I post my final chapter of this story. Until then, feel free to comment here or personally message me what you want to read next. I like all the choices I am presenting, so choose what you want. Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter! Chapter 28: It Wasn’t Supposed to Be This Way It can be both funny and sad after going back to the way things used to be. With Paul now back in my life and me being the size of a Big again, the pieces of our lives began to shift back into place. Paul would go to daycare, and I would go to LPS as an advisor during the day, but that’s about where the similarities ended though from the last time that we were living in my house together. Some could consider our changes a weakness, but with the trials we had faced so far, it seemed inconceivable to me that we wouldn’t be changed, character defect or not, at least somewhat by them. For me, I was trapped in diapers. I had tried several times to make it to the potty on time, but all these inevitably ended in failure. Not even reaching the first stage I had decided against pull-ups entirely, which quickly turned out to be a good thing. “Dang it!” “Wet again?” Astrid asked with a sigh. She knew of my efforts and being my liaison with LPS and working with me each day, especially when hunting the mole, she knew about and could even see my failures directly as well. So, dejected, I nodded my head as I felt the heat bloom in my diaper. “That’s okay, Soph. How about you just go change really quick and we can come back and hit the ground running? Sound good?” Her cheery demeanor seemed to get me through everything, but I had heard that specific tone from her before. She still respected me, and I could see that in our work, but she was talking to me like I was a Little again. In truth, beyond my size, I very much felt a kinship with Littles over the detest of the diapers that had been forced onto us one way or another. If I was wet, my consequences wouldn’t be as severe by a long shot, but the fear of leaks and the methods I used to stop those didn’t put much distance between me and half the Littles that came into the LPS building. So, in addition to my diapers, and maybe as a part of being forced to wear them, I felt a bond with Littles that I never had before. I of course had felt a bond and connection with them prior to being a Little myself, hence why I joined LPS, but lately, I saw each of them in a new light. Each Little that came in that I advised on, I could remember the pain or the fear they were showing me each day. Granted, I never had my Achilles tendons severed or my brain cut into, but I felt a sympathy and ache for them that I don’t think I could ever have quite felt if I had never been a Little myself. Further, in each of them, I saw Paul, especially with his new self after his kidnapping. For Paul, I could see the struggles he started to go through more and more each day. The hints were subtle at first but started to grow with time. “Paul?” No response. “Paul?” Still no response. “Paul!” He snapped around from watching Adventure Sam and looked at me with heavily reddened cheeks. I never shouted at him unless it was my third attempt to try and get him to listen and he knew that very well by now. “Uh… sorry… I must have just been, uh… distracted.” I sighed and let the matter go. His fascination and near glued state of being with Little’s cartoons was just one of the many things at the tip of the iceberg of who he seemed to be now. “That’s okay, Paul. It’s just that dinner is almost ready, and I want you to go wash your hands.” He nodded and waddled off. I had another reason that I wanted him to wash his hands, but I just couldn’t be sure yet. Regardless, though, we just had to work through his new changes one day at a time. So, with his changes, and mine, I think it was just inevitable that our dynamic would change. For us, there was a level of respect that I don’t think we ever could have achieved otherwise. Paul had sacrificed himself when BAL raided Chloe’s house and I had become a Little to broker an immunity deal for him. Events like that might not do squat when coupled with nothing else, but our respect for each other and our previous bond began to blossom in the most unexpected of ways. “Paul… I think you could use a change…” I told him one day after I had picked him up from daycare. “Huh?” Paul glanced down at his exposed diaper. Unlike Alice, he didn’t seem to mind the exposure, or at least not anymore. I insisted on onesies and the like, but just coming home or for short periods, I didn’t want to be a nag. “Oh… would you look at that!” He grinned as he poked experimentally into the swollen padding. I smirked back and began to walk over to him. While I did though, I felt another squirt leak out into my own diaper, and my movement quickly alerted me to the fact that even before that, I had a problem as well. “Oh! Darn it!” Paul’s infectious grin grew to unfathomable proportions. “You wet too?” He asked the question with such an indifference that any other Little would have been spanked on the spot. For us these days though, I just rolled my eyes. “Guess that means we’re just two soggy people, huh?” We both chuckled a bit over that. It was a nice, shared moment in this strange new life of ours, but reality soon kicked up with a relentless fervor. We both stopped our laughter as we then heard crying from the other room. Paul sighed. “Guess that’s three then…” It was a big step to take, but after rescuing the dozens of Littles from the BAL compound, I had become a foster mom to Samuel. It was a lot of work, but Forrest Hill Daycare even gave us a discount for having two Little enrolled now and promised to try and rehabilitate him as much as possible. With them, we had undone some of the work of BAL, but even now, Sammuel’s mental and physical age could still be measured in months rather than years. “Alright… I’ll get to you first,” I said, sighing as I looked down at Paul. Three diaper dependent people in one house with one changer could be a lot sometimes. “I’ll fix myself up while you make Sammy a bottle, and then we’ll make sure he’s all set. Deal?” Paul nodded, fully assuming his ‘big brother’ role to an adorable perfection as we both ran off to his separate ‘big boy’ room for my first of three diaper changes. At this point, our acceptance of this lifestyle was pretty much all we could do. Well… that wasn’t the full truth though. Back at LPS two major events were taking place that were trying to be changed all the time. First, Paul still refused to testify against most LRG members. By now, at least once a week, Astrid and Aetos would bring him in and question him for a few hours. He still hadn’t given them a single name, and what he did tell them, from my own experience, was severely out of date. I got onto him once about it and he gave me back only one reply. “I refuse to give up members who are innocent in all this,” he defended. “Bigs struck first. We struck back. Now, BAL struck harder, so LRG is just defending themselves more lately.” I hated his logic, but I knew he had a small but still clear point. Astrid was a little frustrated over that notion, but still let it go. Aetos, however, seemed more enraged than ever though. Still, Astrid and I couldn’t think of his broiling steam quite fully these days though. We were neck deep in our own investigations. What started off in a supply closet we bribed a janitor to use, soon transformed into a steadily growing operation in a room few others could access. Astrid and I started to vet members and breathed a sigh of relief when the director of LPS was cleared. Since then, our pace doubled and we were given the resources we would need, like our new secure room to house our base of operations. Unfortunately, as we began to pour over more documents, we started to create a new pile of potential moles within LPS. What had begun as only 100 suspects, grew to 300 when we then realized that there could be more than one mole in LPS… not just the one involved in the undercover operation with LRG. Further, and most distressing, even when we got that number down to 206, at least 80% of higher staff and management were still on the list. “I just don’t what we’re going to do,” Astrid said reluctantly as she poured herself a glass of bourbon at my house later one night. “Don’t lose hope, Astrid,” my mom tried to console her. Due to the number of precautions that I had taken with Paul with his connections to LRG originally, my house had been secured and was a near dead zone for most bugs, surveillance, and electronic hacking. What’s more, considering that Chloe, Julian, and my mom were involved in this mess as well, they often came over to talk strategy with a few other LPS agents. Tonight, though, it was just Astrid, Chloe, my mom, and I. Paul and Sammy were already asleep, and Chloe had gotten a babysitter for Alice. “Thanks, Mrs. B,” Astrid told my mom. In truth, my mom told her to just call her by her name, Claude or Claudette, but I think Astrid liked the old-fashioned nature of ‘Mrs. B’ better. My mom didn’t correct it either. “I just don’t know, mom,” I said, huffing a bit as I slid down on my couch. “We keep narrowing down the list, but I’m just not sure how much more we can within the law.” I took a sip of my wine and sighed. “It’s still at 124.” “Ooh… that’s not good at all, sweetie.” My mom scratched her head for a moment. “When I was part of OSS, we sniffed out dozens of rats. It’s possible… it just takes some time though.” “Maybe if I was part of LPS, things would be different, but I can only do so much,” I lamented. I was getting frustrated and fed up with LPS lately. I once felt they were the best organization ever to work for or with, but now, with my new views on Littles and possibly several moles involved on nearly every level of our hierarchy including leadership, I was starting to have my doubts. “But that’s why you have me.” Astrid smiled down on me and patted my shoulder from above. I smiled back at my friend. “That’s true… I do have you there at least…” We all then heard a flush from nearby and Chloe walked out of the bathroom. ‘Lucky…’ She stretched and yawned, and that was always our key that these late-night chats were always getting a bit too long. “Hey sis… I think you might have a bulb going out in there.” She gestured back to the bathroom. “Light kept flickering for about a minute straight…” I sighed and added it to my already growing mental list of things I had to do around here. I had fallen in love with Sammy by now but being a single mom on top of a mole hunt and full-time job, to not raise suspicions within LPS, was a lot of work. “Thanks, sis. I’ll look at it tomorrow.” She sat back down, but I could already see her looking at her watch. She offered an outsider’s perspective, which actually helped our group out a lot, but nights like these… I knew she would just rather be with Alice. “As I was saying…” my mom piped back up. “We used something called a honeypot… or at least a variation of it. There’re a few other names for it, but you’ve already done the first step in eliminating who it could be without a doubt.” “Then what’s next?” I could hear it in Astrid’s tone that she was already hooked. Considering what she had seen from my mom’s official government file, even one that had been heavily redacted, made her a loyal fan. “Well, it’s pretty simple,” my mom explained. “You spread misinformation to those who are listening that you have something valuable and then presumably, your mole will go for it. It also usually helps if the bait is something that could identify them. After, you wait and then spring the trap and catch them in the act of stealing.” “Sounds complicated…” Chloe said, yawning. Our mom shook her head. “Not at all dear. The trick though is that you need to decide if you’re actually going to use real evidence or simply fake it.” “Fake it?” I could plainly see that Astrid was already considering it and I knew she would want to know all the angles of this potential plan. “It’s just what it sounds like, dear.” My mom shifted around and then got up. “You use manufactured or even no evidence at all to lure the mole in. It’s simple and quick, but for certain operations, it just exposes too much risk for most, so it becomes a person decision from case to case.” We were all disappointed by that notion, considering we didn’t have any hard evidence that we could even begin to fake more of to lure a mole out. So, at that point, tired and out of ideas, everyone else went home. Alone, I then finished my wine in silence and did a last check of the house. With two Littles under my care now, every day was a battle to keep the house clean. Sammy had improved physically, but essentially being a crawler without much mental clarity meant most areas were a disaster zone. Paul would help when he could, but from something I wasn’t sure of yet from his time being kidnapped, certain toys seemed to draw him in, and soon, he got stuck in a loop of playful antics. He seemed happy, so I was happy, but the resulting mess in a few areas needed to be tidied up every night. Still, I finished my task and started walking upstairs. Curiously, though, right as I reached the top, I saw the lights outside begin to flicker. Remembering back to what Chloe had told me about the bathroom, it grabbed my attention. Coming back down, I quickly checked my security system and then looked outside when it registered as all systems running fine, which from the flickering, I knew was an outright lie. Outside and to my horror, I could just make out at least a dozen or so figures fully clothed in black and body armor with each armed with assault rifles right at the perimeter of my yard. ‘Shit…’ Panicking, I knew the defenses I had added in place would hold for a minute, and that an automatic distress beacon should sound to LPS. The problem was though, I also knew that it would take time for LPS to get here. So, knowing time was of the essence, as soon as the rest of the power to the house was cut, I would only have… The rest of the power to the house was cut. ‘Double shit…’ My mind hyper focused for a moment as the lights came back on. I had two Littles upstairs, one who could barely crawl and the other who wasn’t the most reliable defender now. I knew I had few options open to me, so I picked the protection of my family as my priority. I raced upstairs and quickly jostled Paul up first. “Wha… what time is it?” he asked sleepily. “It’s still night but come on! We have to go!” I wanted to explain to him so badly what the problem was, but I was already lowering his half-size toddler bed railing and rolling him onto his feet. “Come on, Paul! We gotta go! Now!” The power flicked off for a second, his nightlight darkening, and I saw Paul’s eyes widen in panic when they came back on again. “Oh! Oh no!” I could see his emotions started to crack under his realization of what was happening, but I knew we didn’t have time. Not giving him a second more, I grabbed him and raced to Sammy’s room. “Sammy! Sammy! Come on, baby!” He was a heavy sleeper, and while that did wonders for my own sleeping habits, he was essentially just dead weight, shifting only occasionally as I pulled him up to my chest as I set Paul down on the ground, hoping he was more awake now and could follow behind me. “They’re coming! They’re coming!” Paul screamed in terror. I suspected that his kidnapping incident had left him with a fair bit of PTSD, and I knew that a therapist of some sort was definitely in our future, but for now, I crouched down and gripped him firmly on his upper arm. “Paul! Paul!” I shook him just a tiny bit. The power cut off again and I knew we didn’t have long. “Focus Paul! Focus!” His eyes darted about, but then finally centered back on me. “We just need to stick together. The defenses can hold out, but we need to get to the back door. I have an exit strategy back there that just might work still. I need you to stay with me until then, okay? Can you do that for me?” I could see the pure unadulterated fear embedded deep in his eyes, but to my relief, he nodded. “I… I can try…” His voice was so small and frail, but it’s all I needed to hear. Without a single ounce of further hesitation, I grabbed his hand and started to walk as quickly as I could. I despised how my diaper had bunched up, but in this case, I think it prevented me from completely dragging Paul behind me. I was half tempted to pick him up and just run as fast as I could with my two Littles, but I knew I needed my other hand for one further item. Racing down the stairs though, it seemed too late to make an exit out the back as several lasers began to aim inside my house through the front window. “We’re through! Go! Go! Go!” The voice pierced the darkness of the dead of night. I could see neighbor’s lights start to flick on, including Maggie’s and Bill’s. Fortunately, I had anticipated their intrusion through the front, and a few of my automated defenses popped on as the intruders penetrated the outer barrier. Electric arcs reverberated throughout my front lawn. Small and embedded dart guns popped out and began firing knock-out pellets at each tracked movement. It wasn’t long before they started to panic. “Fire! Fire! Taken ‘em out!” The voice seemed too high pitched to be a Big, but I shook my head and immediately dropped Sammy and Paul to the ground. I tried to cover them with my body, knowing full-well what was going to happen next. Zips and pops soon erupted over our heads. Dozens of pictures were smashed, and tiny holes began to appear in my walls, mere inches above my head from the bullets now whizzing through the air. Right at that moment, Sammy woke up and began to wail in earnest. I just clutched him tighter. I also scooted Paul closer to me for cover, but I noticed something curious right then. I didn’t comment about it and thought that in a certain way it just made sense with what I had previously suspected, but knowing him as I did, it still was a bit of a shock to see. Paul was sucking his thumb. I had noticed that his digit would appear a little more wrinkled than his other and when I held his hand, occasionally, I would feel a dampness that seemed unusual. I just passed off my suspicions as only that but seeing him cower in fear and try to take comfort any way he could, I knew that Paul had been sucking his thumb all those other times. With the hail of bullets whizzing over our heads now, I couldn’t blame him. Still, I knew my defense would only last so long. I had seen how this particular group was armed, and I knew that with their own firepower, my defenses would soon be mostly destroyed or inactive. Fearing for that moment and taking advantage of a brief pause in their fire, I raced over to one of my side tables and pulled out the small case I had stowed there. The tiny metal box was just that and required my thumbprint to open. Doing that though, I popped it open and retrieved the two objects inside. The first was a transponder. When the power first went out before I spotted them was likely when the intruders first began their assault. That had been at least five minutes ago now and LPS hadn’t shown up yet. So, I knew I needed to take matters into my own hands and smashed the call for help button about as hard as I could. I didn’t want to take any chances for the cavalry. The second item though, was a gun. I had just cleaned it and aligned its sights the other day, so clicking and sliding the ammo into place, I knew I was set. This time, regardless of who was out there, I was past the point of needing stun rounds. My defenses then began to slow down, but the intruders’ rate of fire didn’t. By now, I knew their intentions were deadly, so as soon as I heard the last electric arc go off, I began to sporadically fire outside from a small slit in the natural defense of at least my couch. Unfortunately, my firing back seemed only enough to keep them back and all-out assaulting my house. The back way that I had so carefully planned previously, was being riddled with several bullets. We were trapped. Minutes seemed like hours. Sammy continued to wail, and I could do little for him. Paul, still sucking his thumb and crying, albeit more softly than his ‘young brother,’ cradled him closely. I couldn’t imagine what Paul must have been feeling in that act, scared out of his mind, mixed with confusion over his new instincts and trying to comfort his former leader who was now only acting on instincts. BAL made sure that he hadn’t been left with much else. Still, in that moment, all hope seemed either foolish or lost. I just had to hope for a miracle, but the realist inside of me wasn’t allowing me to hope. “Sophie? Paul? Sammy?” I heard a voice ring out from the backyard. It sounded so pure and full of hope, and to my relief, it was one I recognized very well. “Astrid? Is that you?” I wanted to be sure my ears weren’t playing tricks on me. Deep down, I knew it was her, but my instincts, honed from years of work with LPS, knew to verify first. “Yeah! I got your signal, and I was still driving home after checking a lead downtown! You all okay?” I could hear confidence in her voice, but a definite worry as well. “Yeah, but we’re pinned down!” More bullets riddled above our heads. I had managed to keep the intruders at bay, but I was running low on ammo now. I wanted to press the urgency of the situation to Astrid, but I didn’t want the intruders to know either. Something was keeping them back from just massing as a group and into my house. I didn’t know what, but I didn’t want to give them an edge that could erase the reason why they weren’t. “Hold on!” It was about the only thing I could hear above the yelling from the front yard. Apparently, some of the neighbors had come outside to try and help but had been fired upon as well. Screams echoed from my front lawn, but my attention was focused on my dining room in the rear. All of a sudden, a mass of rectangular metal charged into the house. It was the lid from Paul’s toy box out there and was now headed straight for us. “Make way!” I then realized it was Astrid charging through, and while she might have just destroyed everything in her path, the bullets had already done most of the work for her. So, finally, she made it to us and threw the heavy lid to the other side of where we were huddled. Tiny dings and zips marked when each bullet hit the frontside. “You made it!” I don’t think, besides rescuing Paul, I had ever been happier to see someone in my life. My hope, though small, was growing. “Why are they doing this?” Paul cried from under us. “I thought we got BAL already! And… and where is the rest of LPS?” His questions were coming from a place of sheer terror, but they were valid. Astrid and I looked at each other, searching for a reason in the other, but we were both clearly confused. It wasn’t a good sign, but in my moments of not firing, I heard the worst news possible. “She must be out! Move in! Move in!” The firing died down, but right as I heard the sound of oddly small boots crack over the shattered glass, Astrid threw herself over us and started to fire her own weapon. “Shit! Shit! Retreat! Retreat!” One figure and then another quickly crumpled to the ground after being by Astrid’s rapid-fire shooting. The figures began to flee while a few others began unloading as many bullets at us as was possible to cover their retreat. Right then though, I could hear the sirens fast approaching. In seconds, my whole living room was covered in flashing red and blue lights. Hearing the sirens and several groans, Astrid and I slowly stood. It was another beautiful sight of seeing the intruders all quickly drop to the floor and surrender. As LPS got closer though, it became immediately obvious why I had heard higher voices, smaller bootsteps, and that they hadn’t fully assaulted the house when any militant group of Bigs would have. Some lay stunned on the grass, but the rest kneeling were obviously a group of Littles. Unmasking a few of them, it was horribly and immediately obvious who they were. “Oh no… They’re LRG…” It was hard to swallow that the group I had tried to help so much, and that Paul had even been a leader of the intruders that had nearly decimated the bottom half of my house. Paul seemed too emotional to say anything. “Why?” I finally had to ask one of the members I recognized as Colin. “Why hit us? Was it just because maybe you thought that Paul had sold you out?” “You’re both a traitor to LRG. I can’t believe we ever trusted either of you!” Colin then spit on the grass in front of us. “Bernard is out there, and he’ll find you. I mean, Sophie… Susan… whatever! You’re practically a Little with your diapers! How can you expect to stop us? You’re just one pants wetter against a whole movement! You can’t win!” He then started laughing manically. Astrid frowned and smacked him in the face. “Shut up!” She then looked at the LPS agent holding him. “Just get him out of here!” He continued to laugh, even as he was hauled into a nearby holding van. It didn’t take a genius to know that his future of rational thinking was likely to be very short lived. Seemingly satisfied, Astrid turned back to me and rubbed my arm in comfort. “Are you okay, Soph?” I wasn’t sure but looking down at the petrified Sammy and the nearly catatonic form of Paul, I knew I needed to go someplace safe and well-guarded. I never thought in a million years I would expect to go back, but I knew where we had to go. “Thanks for letting us stay here tonight, mom,” I told my mom as I dropped off the bags I had quickly put together from my house. It was a crime scene now, and while it would be guarded by around the clock agents that Astrid would handpick, I knew it wouldn’t be safe for some time. Looking around at my mom’s house, even by Big’s standards, felt massive, and what I knew about my mom, her security measures were likely even better than mine. The sprawling wood floors, fireplaces, and expansive room weren’t too bad either. Still, underneath all that wealth, my mom’s changed heart shone through. She then quickly hugged the three of us after I put the last of our bags on the floor. “It’s okay, sweetie. Stay as long as you need. I’ve already prepared the guest room for you and spruced up the nursery for Paul and Sammy.” Smiling, I quickly put our things in our respective rooms and then put Sammy down to sleep. In an odd way, I almost envied him. Due to his regressed abilities, he was a Little of the moment. While that meant he held onto few things, and relearning skills had practically been a miracle, it also meant that the terror of mere hours ago was forgotten after a fresh diaper and a warm bottle of milk. Paul though… once Sammy was down, refused to let go of me. So, sighing, and the first touches of morning cracking through the downstairs windows, I cuddled with him on the couch with my mom, just as Astrid came over to see if we were okay and to report on the situation. “Seems like LRG has gone a little rogue since you all were there. Those we were able to question still, and not in surgery, we discovered had received direct orders from Bernard. He’s put out a hit on you within LRG to take you out.” It all felt like bad news, but Astrid did say one thing that seemed to grab Paul’s attention. “Seems like there was a split though. Lots of Littles left LRG and are hiding out somewhere rather than going after you. The rest…” She didn’t finish her thought, but I knew from my time with LPS that her silence meant that the rest of LPS that had stayed were fair game if captured now. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way…” Paul finally managed to spit out after Astrid gave her full briefing to us. “What do you mean, honey?” Paul seemed to shudder at the thought of what LRG had become, but I knew he had something on his mind now. I wanted to know just what. He fumbled with his Aprisium Coyotl keychain that I managed to snag from the house and then sighed. “I never wanted LRG to become like… this. Change the world or Bigs views of us, yes, but not this…” “I know, but we’re okay and that’s what matters now,” I tried to comfort him. Being a part of LRG, even as an undercover operative posing as a Little, I felt the sting of their betrayal, but for Paul… at this point, knowing he had come over from Earth for people like them and to help them… his feeling of betrayal must have run far deeper than I could have ever even imagined. “No…” Astrid and I looked at him with confusion. “That’s not what matters…” Confused, but wanting to be supportive, I wanted to encourage him to say more. “No?” Paul shook his head and started to scooch away from me. “Then what does matter?” “The mole…” Paul said it with such conviction that I think both Astrid and I were shocked over the notion. “As I wondered earlier… how were the defenses shut down and why wasn’t LPS called initially?” I think I could see where he was going with this, but I desperately wanted him to be wrong. “Also, how did LRG find us? Were they tracking us?” Astrid shook her head. “No. They said Bernard gave them instructions and they followed them to the letter.” “Exactly.” Astrid looked at him a little funny. “Bernard told them, because someone told him!” “It does make sense that way,” my mom chimed in, bringing us a few cups of hot tea. “But we think that the mole, or moles, in LPS are helping BAL… not LRG? Tonight, was all LRG, right?” Astrid quickly nodded. “So, are you saying there’s another faction of moles within LPS as well now?” A terrible thought then occurred to me. “Are you saying we need to start another investigation and eliminate all potential suspects again?” Paul shook his head. “No, definitely not, but tell me this... When you were first on your mission, you told me that you almost seemed like you were set up to fail, right?” I nodded, recalling all the tiny issues I had on my first day alone. “Right, so LRG wasn’t supposed to be helped, but you actually did your job, survived, and even helped LRG out!” I could tell that Paul had a great idea, but I just wasn’t making the connections. “I’m not following…” “I think I am…” Astrid seemed outwardly confused, but still pushed on. “You made LRG better. The mole, if this theory is correct, wanted LRG to fail though.” “That’s right!” Paul was getting more excited or more crazed about this. I wasn’t sure which then or as he stood up with at least a gleam in his eyes. “So, then put yourselves in the mole’s shoes…” I tried, and I felt I was so close, but I felt I was missing one piece of information to solve everything. “Oh! Then right after that, BAL got bigger!” my mom noted with excitement. Suddenly, everything clicked. “Holy…” It was hard to fathom, but I had my final piece. “The mole could support both LRG and BAL if they were pushing a certain agenda against Littles. With my help, LRG flourished, so the mole pushed BAL to take down members of LRG directly. With an assault like the one they did; LRG lost a lot of members and became more radicalized as a result. Tonight was the end result!” “Yes!” Paul shouted out. We all were getting his point now. “Everyone can see the headlines now. LRG attacks Big neighborhood and shoots up house of local woman. Or even if the news doesn’t report its LRG, since they weren’t wearing their insignia, everyone in that neighborhood knows they were Littles.” It was a horrible and frightening truth. We didn’t have much evidence to support our theory, but everything fell into place perfectly. Everything could be explained, but now one problem remained. “So… how are we going to get the mole though?” Paul asked, clearly running on revenge and fury over tonight. I just knew that he was going to crash and cry at some point though. “We know there is one, but I just don’t see how. Do you all?” “What about what Mrs. B suggested?” Astrid asked then asked, breaking the silence in the room. My mom straightened up in her seat after taking a sip of tea. “Me? My plan of the modified honeypot, you mean?” Astrid nodded. “But then what would you all use? Are you going to make something up? Remember what I told you about doing that though…” We all knew she was right and that it was too big of a risk, so we all started thinking. Still, after a few long minutes, no one came up with anything… until Paul cleared his throat. “What about me? I could give away information and leak it that I know who was responsible for ratting out LRG.” “Wait… you?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Astrid, I, and the rest of LPS had been questioning Paul since he came back in, but we had gotten nowhere. I was okay with that, but now, he seemed determined to reverse his position. “Are you really willing to do that?” Paul sighed. I could see the conflict brewing inside of him and I briefly wondered whether this was any other circumstance if he would still be making this offer now. “I am, but I have one condition…” I nodded and I could see Astrid give her official nod as a member of LPS who could actually make the deal we were striving for tonight. “I will testify but not against everyone. I want to do it just enough that we tempt the mole… the rat from their hiding spot within LPS and end this nightmare.” “Anything else?” I could see Astrid was already going to say yes, but I could also see the determination and calculations that were likely going on her head right now of how she could spin this to LPS leadership tomorrow… or seeing the sun rise outside, today. “Yes.” Paul took a deep breath and exhaled. “Catch this rat and I’ll testify completely. No half-truths. You want the guilt from LRG… to bury them fully, I’ll do it. Just catch the mole that led to what happened tonight that almost hurt my family.” Astrid thought about it for a second more and then nodded her head. “Deal.” Paul and I both sighed with what I could tell was both a mixture of relief and apprehension. The big problem with the modified honeypot scheme we were concocting was that the mole would know who was testifying and they could get desperate. In a very real sense, things could get worse before they got better. So, I took Paul’s hand and nodded at him to reassure him. Like before, no matter what, I would be there for him until the very end.

Sorry, the previous week I took vacation with the family and this week I had no power till recently from the hurricane in Houston. I manage to get my parents some where with power early on but stay at our house which had power from our solar roof and batteries but no internet. Plus, I had to entertain my teenagers since they are unable to with out internet, lol. To be honest, I was on edge with out. Oh how we depend on it like it is a life blood to us. Anyways, here is the next chapter. I cut it short because I wanted to give everyone something to read so they know I didn't forget about my friends and readers. Chapter 31 - Acquired Skills Darlene pulled a USB driver out of her purse. “I keep this in case of emergency; it is a portable OS system that I developed so we can boot your computer system up without booting up the infected operating system.” Margaret watched Darlene insert the USB driver and boot up the computer first in the BIOS, making a few changes before rebooting again. What Darlene was doing was beyond her understanding, and it was closer to some strange magic she was working than anything that she could relate to. “This operating system is a modified Linux operating system. It allows me to use virtual environments to explore your operating system and see if it is infected. It also allows me to mask your IP address and re-route it to another server I have that will ensure the individuals that target you have no idea I am working on the malware/virus they install on their system. Margaret kept watching Darlene type away. The screen did not look familiar to her. It was a bunch of text on a black screen with white text, symbols, and numbers. “There, we are set up. Now, let's find out what these bastards have done to your operating system and network.” While Darlene was typing away, she started a side conversation. She was relaxed in this environment. This was her comfort zone, and she found it easier to open up and talk about things when doing things like this. “So how does one get into a business like this with adult infantile and toddler items? What you have here is very extensive and high quality.” There didn’t seem to be much hesitancy to talk about this subject by Margaret; she seemed very comfortable in her voice when she replied. “I was waiting for a question like that and happy to answer it.” As Margaret smiled. “My daughter. You see, my daughter enjoys being dressed in baby clothes diapers, and sleeping in a crib. Ect. She is the sweetest girl you will ever meet. It took me a while to understand her needs and how this made her more functional and happier with the world she lives in.” Marlene continued to watch Darlene type away. “Ok, I found the infection. It is in several locations.” Darlene quickly mentioned and looked over at Margaret. “I am sorry for the disruption; please continue.” Margaret continued her thoughts as she watched Darlene work on her computer system. "I remember how it all unfolded; it was a horrible time in her life," her eyes were distant as she began to recall the past. "It was during her teenage years, you know. A time that's usually filled with rebellion and angst, but for her, it was... different. It was a time of isolation, wanting to be hidden from the world. I didn’t really understand why she didn’t have any friends at that time." “I struggled with her during her adolescent years in high school, which were saturated with profound sadness, punctuated by several chilling episodes as she tried to extinguish her own existence. You could only imagine how a mother would feel watching her child do these things with the feeling of being helpless. My only child was my life; when she hurt, I hurt. I remember nights crying myself to sleep for her. I would wonder where I went wrong or what I didn’t see that I wasn’t doing for my daughter. I felt like a horrible mother.” Margaret face showed a tear that was swelling in her eyes as she continued, “The other students showed little empathy, often using her intelligence as a weapon against her. They would mockingly dub her 'smarty pants' or 'It is the walking little textbook Tilly,’ their laughter echoing through the halls, twisting the joy of learning into something cruel and isolating. She went from loving school to hating it and making every excuse to not go to school and skipping school without me knowing.” “Dam, teenagers can be mean as hell. I don’t miss those years,” Darlene commented. “Being smart seems to be a curse in those years if you don’t have the right friends.” Darlene looked over at Margaret for a second with a sympathetic look, seeing a few tears slide down Margaret’s face. “So, your daughter's name is Tilly?” Margaret took a deep breath. “Yes, it is. Tilly is short for Matilda." Darlene continued to work on installing her software on the computer. The operating system wasn’t like Windows at all. It was a black screen, almost like looking at a DOS screen except she could pull up multiple dos-like screens at once. “Do you have a picture of you daughter?” Margaret swiped through her iPhone, finally stopping at two particular photos that caught her eye. The first image was of her daughter, a snapshot that encapsulated the spirit of her 21-year-old self. Her hair, a lush shade of chestnut brown, was woven into an elaborate ponytail that tumbled over one shoulder. The picture highlighted her petite figure and slender frame, emphasizing the delicate curve of her waist and the gentle slope of her small breasts. She had an air of grace about her, a lightness that seemed to be accentuated by her slim physique. Wore a sundress, but not just any sundress. It was a playful piece with tiny daisies scattered across its pale yellow fabric and delicate lace trimmings on the hem, giving it a youthful charm that belied her age. The second photo was painted quite differently. Here, she sat at their kitchen table draped in an oversized dress that looked like it had been borrowed from the wardrobe of a toddler. Its bubblegum pink fabric adorned with cartoon unicorns and rainbows gave it an undeniably childish aura. A pacifier hung from her mouth as she focused intently on coloring in front of her, crayons strewn all over the table. Peeking out from under the hem of the dress was what appeared to be the frills of a diaper, adding another layer to this infantile tableau. “She looks very beautiful and content in both pictures,” Darelene commented as she paused for a second from her effort to remove the malware. “Tilly is now. You know she works in marketing for a large toy company and she has been an employee of the month. They don’t know about the diapers she wears to work. Tilly keeps it as discrete as possible while at work.. She is where she belongs now.” “That is good. That is what matters. You should be proud of her.” Darlene commented as she returned to the removal of the malware. A proud smile went across Margaret’s face as she looked at the picture lovingly, knowing her daughter was better now. “As you know, it wasn’t always like that. As I mentioned, the high school years were hard.” “It didn’t help that she was very late to puberty, so her voice, naturally pitched higher than most, became another source of torment. They mimicked it in shrill tones, distorting her words in an unkind way that followed her from classroom to classroom. Even during lunch breaks, there was no respite from their relentless taunting. Tilly would quietly nibble on her sandwich and apple; their relentless jeers continued. I remember how she would try to tell me she tried to enjoy the simple pleasure of a peanut butter sandwich; they'd squawk from across the room, "Pass the peeeanut buuuutter," mimicking her request from earlier in home economics class. The cafeteria's laughter was a grim reminder that there was no sanctuary from their constant ridicule.” “Moreover, the simplicity of her attire - plain dresses in muted colors - made her an easy target for those who equated fashion with social standing. Her lack of interest in trends was interpreted as a lack of style or means, further fueling their derision.” “The digital world was far from a refuge but rather an extension of the battleground. Her Instagram account, once a sanctuary filled with snapshots of happier times, transformed into a relentless war zone. Each post she made became an open invitation for their cruel remarks and mocking memes.” “She'd once share a photo of her morning latte art, which she enjoyed drawing into her latte, and they'd swarmed in like vultures, leaving comments like "Is that foam or your self-esteem melting away?" Tilly had created a picture of her cat in the latte, which was quite good, but it was answered with memes comparing her to the feline's aloof expression: "When you realize you're as irrelevant as your owner." Margaret shook her head in memory of this chapter in her daughter’s life. It was etched in her memory as one flooded with relentless torment and hopelessness that seemed to stretch on without any sight of relief. As Darlene focused on her task, she turned to Margaret, paused for a second, and then changed the subject, "So, how did you come across this malware on your system? Did you click on any suspicious links or download anything recently?" Margaret hesitated for a moment before responding, "I'm not entirely sure. I do remember receiving an email from an unknown sender a few days ago, but I didn't think much of it at the time. The email mentioned that there was an error when processing my order. I thought it was an order I placed for my business. I clicked on it and realized it wasn’t anything I ordered, so I immediately closed it. Could that have been how they got in?" Darlene nodded thoughtfully. "It's very likely. Cybercriminals often use phishing emails to trick unsuspecting users into downloading malicious software onto their systems. We'll have to be extra cautious moving forward. “So, how did you find out about her desire to regress and the diapers?” Darlene asked as her focus was back on the computer. Margaret again paused momentarily, gathering my thoughts before continuing. “The day arrived when her spirit had sunk to its nadir, and she confessed a desperate yearning to reclaim the life she once knew, unable to bear the weight of her difference anymore. Her words cut through me like a blade, my tears flowing as I desperately tried to convince her that her perceived oddity was merely an illusion of her own creation.” “Her retort was fierce, laced with a bitterness that suggested she believed I could never truly love the person hidden beneath her facade. My heart pounded in my chest as I assured her that my affection was unwavering, regardless of any revelations she may have.” “Yet dark thoughts kept gnawing at me. Had she committed some unspeakable act? Was there a chance she was concealing her sexuality? Would it be substance abuse? The uncertainty was agonizing; I couldn't comprehend what this monumental secret could be.” “Her voice wavered as she spoke about the taunts from school - being dubbed a crybaby. She echoed their sentiments, believing herself undeserving of life. It felt like my heart would shatter at the raw despair in her voice.” “Then came the admission that left me reeling. As if propelled by an unseen force, she screamed out a confession that took me completely off guard. She harbored this...this yearning to regress back into infancy. It involved donning diapers and embodying the persona of an infant or toddler. Even more shocking were the details about drinking from baby bottles and using pacifiers. She told me she had been doing this behind my back since ever she was seven, got an allowance, and could walk to the grocery store to get supplies. It was easy for her since I was a single mom and worked so much.” “The revelation hit me like an icy wave on a bleak winter's day - sudden, numbingly cold, and disorientating. The realization that all this had been happening right under my nose for years left me feeling betrayed and utterly bewildered. “ “Frustration churned inside of me as I realized I had missed all the warning signs. The scattered diapers in our outside trash bin that I had brushed off as a careless neighbor's mistake now seemed like deliberate acts. But bringing it up with the neighbor meant adding another task to my already overflowing to-do list. I couldn't shake the guilt for not addressing it earlier.” "But you know what? "Margaret asked rhetorically, a smile playing at the corners of my lips. “I attempted to calm myself down, but it was useless. My daughter's unconventional desire to regress back to being a baby had shocked me to my core. How could I possibly support something that went against the idea of her being a fully functional adult? But then, as I took a few deep breaths, another thought entered my mind - what I really wanted most was for my daughter to be happy and safe. If this was her happiness without causing harm to others, how could I really stand against it? The internal battle raged on as I questioned my own beliefs and struggled to understand my daughter's needs. Was it possible for me to accept something so different from what I clearly thought was abnormal and taboo?” Margaret's voice trembled as she took a sip of her coffee, trying to calm the emotions bubbling inside her. "And so," she began again, "I made the choice to support my daughter in her unique journey, no matter how unconventional it seemed." "We started small," Margaret continued, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. "Sewing has always been my passion, my creative outlet. But now, it had a greater purpose." "Can you even fathom it?" Her laugh was tinged with bitterness. "Me, a middle-aged woman sewing onesies for my teenage daughter. The initial creation was truly a work of affection, meticulously crafted for a teenager with a childlike heart. The fabric was as soft as newborn skin, dyed in the gentlest shade of blush pink. It was adorned with the beloved figures of Disney princesses, each one intricately depicted with an artist's precision. Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, and Belle danced across the material in a playful waltz of nostalgia. Each stitch that held this whimsical garment together had been sewn by hand - a testament to countless hours of careful labor. Every thread woven into the fabric bore silent witness to the love and dedication poured into this unique piece of clothing.” "The moment when I presented it to her is burned into my mind forever," Margaret's voice cracked with emotion. "Her face lit up with joy and gratitude, and I knew that I would do anything for her." Margaret said softly, reminiscing about the past fondly. "The delight in her eyes... it was unforgettable." "And then she hugged me," Margaret added finally, smiling at the memory. "It felt like the tightest embrace she'd ever given me - a silent acceptance and gratitude that transcended words." “I am now one hundred percent committed to helping my daughter be who she is and could be as long as she wants it for herself.” Darlene continued to work on cleaning up the infected system, her fingers swiftly dancing across the keyboard as she navigated through the virtual environments she had set up. “Wow, you're a really great mother, and I am so glad you found a way to support her. Not many parents would or could.” Margaret had a tear slide down her face as she observed Darlene with a mix of fascination and confusion, trying to follow along. Darlene briefly looked up, seeing the tears of love for her daughter. “So, then you just decided to open up a shop with all these adult items based on your daughter?” Margaret had a slight smile, and it looked a little proud as she began to describe how Mama B’s came into business. “Indeed, I had launched the medical supply outlet a few years prior, but this particular venture was a more recent addition. The inspiration stemmed from my daughter Tilly's candid revelations about her unique needs and desires. Her openness stirred something within me; it sparked an interest that extended beyond our personal bond.” “As Tilly gradually peeled back layers of her life, she introduced me to a world where adults sought comfort in assuming different age roles and wearing diapers. It was an unexpected revelation, one that intrigued and moved me simultaneously. I became curious about this phenomenon and set out on my own quest for knowledge.” “Through countless hours spent poring over articles, forums, and research papers online, I discovered a spectrum of desires related to this lifestyle - some were sexual in nature while others bore striking similarities to Tilly’s non-sexual inclination towards age regression for comfort. There were those who embraced this way of life round the clock and others who indulged only sporadically.” “My curiosity soon transformed into empathy as I engaged in heartfelt conversations with other parents and partners. Their stories mirrored mine – they, too, had loved ones who yearned for these unconventional comforts yet struggled to find appropriate resources. It dawned on me then that there existed a gaping void in the market for such supplies.” “The realization struck like lightning – why not expand my existing business? Why not create a safe space where people could shop without judgment or discomfort? So, with determination fueling my actions, I decided to dedicate part of my store to cater specifically to adult baby items - diapers, clothing, furniture, everything they could possibly need.” “Tilly was instrumental throughout this journey. She became my advisor when it came to selecting products that would resonate with our customers. Her first-hand experience lent authenticity and sensitivity to our advertising campaigns as well - making them not just promotional materials but messages of acceptance and understanding.” Just as Margaret finished Darlene piped in. “wow, what a story. I am glad I found this place.” Then, Darlene began to explain what she was doing to her system. Margaret listened intently, feeling a sense of relief knowing that Darlene was there to help her through this ordeal. Despite the technical jargon and complex processes, she found comfort in Darlene's expertise and determination to resolve the issue. Darlene's fingers danced over the keyboard in a rhythm of practiced precision. Her eyes, sharp and focused, skimmed the lines of code that filled up the computer screen. She was deep in the system now, navigating through layers of software and data like an expert diver exploring an underwater cave. Her tools were her knowledge and a suite of advanced cybersecurity programs she'd spent years mastering. She initiated a deep scan, setting it to probe every nook and cranny of Margaret's computer for malicious software. As it worked its way through thousands of files, Darlene herself began manually combing through system logs, looking for any anomalies or suspicious activities. It didn't take long before she found what she was looking for - a series of unauthorized access attempts flagged in the firewall log. The IP addresses linked back to known botnets; clear signs of an infection. Darlene traced these digital footprints back to their source - a trojan hidden deep within the system files. With surgical precision, she isolated the infected files into a virtual quarantine zone to prevent further spread. Then she launched her removal tool - a specialized program designed to safely delete infected files without damaging surrounding data. The tool did its work efficiently; within moments, the infections were eradicated from Margaret's system. But Darlene wasn't done yet. She re-ran her scans twice more to ensure no trace elements remained lurking in unseen corners. Finally satisfied with her thorough cleansing operation, Darlene turned towards Margaret with an accomplished smile on her face. "Sorry for being so quiet. I wasn’t ignoring you, but I've managed to locate and remove all infections," she said confidently. "Your computer should be clean now, but I'll run a few more checks just for good measure." As Darlene completed her final checks on Margaret's computer, a mischievous glint appeared in her eyes. She had isolated the program that had been used to demand 300,000 dollars in Bitcoin from Margaret, but she wasn't going to let the cybercriminals get away with their actions so quickly. "Now for the fun part," Darlene cracked her fingers and declared with a sly smile. "I'm going to teach these people a lesson they won't forget." Margaret couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement at the thought of some cyber vigilante justice being served. She watched as Darlene navigated through the code of the malicious program, her fingers typing furiously on the keyboard. "See, I'm crafting a facsimile of a Bitcoin transaction," Darlene began, her fingers dancing across the keyboard. The lines of intricate code cascaded down the screen like a waterfall of digital hieroglyphics. "The first step is to create a false blockchain record. This serves as the backbone of our pseudo-transaction." "Instead of sending them actual Bitcoins, we're going to send them a piece of self-replicating code disguised as a transaction verification." She paused and turned to Margaret, ensuring she was following along. "I'll then generate a fake wallet address that would mirror an actual Bitcoin recipient's address," she continued. Her fingers were now flying over the keyboard like an expert pianist playing a symphony. "The key lies in crafting an illusion so impeccable that their network is duped into acknowledging a transaction equivalent to 300,000 dollars in Bitcoin." As she elucidated her strategy, a series of complex and seemingly random combinations of letters and numbers, symbolizing the fraudulent Bitcoin wallet address, began manifesting on the luminescent screen. "Once their system tries to verify this 'transaction,’ it'll execute our hidden payload instead - effectively turning their own defenses against them." Margaret watched in awe as Darlene concluded her digital masterpiece with a flourish. She couldn't help but feel humbled by Darlene's extraordinary skill and cunning mastery over cybersecurity intricacies. After several minutes of intense coding, Darlene sat back with a satisfied smirk on her face. "There we go," she said triumphantly. "Their system will be infected, and they won't be able to access any of their files until they pay us 300,000 dollars in bitcoin." Margaret couldn't suppress an excited giggle as she imagined the look on the cybercriminals' faces when they realized what had happened. “Finally, someone gets what they deserve.” "Now all we have to do is wait for them to try accessing their ransomware program," Darlene said with a knowing grin. Sure enough, within minutes, alerts started popping up on Darlene's computer, indicating that someone was trying to access the encrypted ransomware program. With one final click of her mouse, Darlene triggered the pseudo-bitcoin transfer. A sense of satisfaction washed over Margaret as she watched the notifications on Margaret breathed a sigh of relief, grateful for Darlene's swift action and expertise. "Thank you so much, Darlene. I don't know what I would have done without your help." Darlene smiled warmly at Margaret. "It's all part of the job. I'm just glad I could assist you in resolving this issue. If you ever need help again or have any questions about cybersecurity, don't hesitate to reach out." Margaret couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration for Darlene's skills and dedication to her craft. She knew that in this digital age, having someone like Darlene on her side was truly invaluable. “What do I owe you?” Margaret looks at Darlene. Darelene smiled back with a friendly smile. “You only owe me lunch with a new friend, you.” She smiled. “I would love to learn more about you and Tilly.” “I would love to have lunch with you also, but I need to pay you for all this work. It would cost me thousands of dollars to have someone with your skill set to fix this mess for me. You save me from having to close my business and losing 300,000 dollars.” Just at that moment, Darlene's phone buzzed with an incoming message from Laurisa. It was a snapshot of Avery, deep asleep on Darlene’s sofa, oddly enough with his thumb lodged in his mouth despite sucking on it while being dressed in a t-shirt and a soggy diaper. The text read, “He's had quite the day. There's so much to fill you in on...and he could use a fresh diaper change., hurry back when you can. Love, sis.” Margaret happened to glance over and caught sight of the picture. “Your little man is adorable,” she commented. Darlene blushed slightly as she had to admit he did look cute and innocent right there. She found herself at a loss for words, but before she could gather her thoughts to reply, Margaret chimed in again. “I feel like I should help you out here," Margaret said with a gentle smile. "I can give you a few essentials.” Darlene looked up at her, surprised but grateful. “Oh no, you really don’t have to...” But before she could finish her sentence, Margaret shot her an authoritative look. “Listen,” Margaret interjected firmly but kindly, “you're clearly fluent in code. But I have some idea of what might be coming your way, and I won't take no for an answer." Before Darlene could voice any further protests or thank-yous, Margaret was already on her feet heading towards the store shelves to gather supplies beyond the diapers and button-up pajamas that Darlene had intended to buy. ————————————————————————— Ashley greeted the morning with a languid pace, draped in her tantalizing sleepwear. Her pajamas were soft silk, whispering against her skin in hues of midnight blue and stardust silver. The top was a loose camisole, its thin straps dipping low to showcase her collarbone, while the shorts flirted with the line of decency, ending just at the curve of her thigh. She reveled in this luxury for the entirety of the morning, a well-deserved indulgence after an evening spent with a client who was unfailingly courteous and gentle. Eventually, Ashley discarded her alluring evening wear. She shed her previous attire, opting instead for an ensemble that was a tantalizing mix of practicality and allure, perfectly designed for daytime pursuits. The outfit hugged her form just right – a sleek pair of high-waisted trousers in charcoal grey that accentuated the curve of her hips and the length of her legs. Paired with it was a crisp white button-down shirt tucked neatly into the waistband. Its sleeves were rolled up to her elbows, revealing toned forearms, adding an air of casual sophistication. A few buttons were left undone at the top, providing a teasing glimpse of collarbone and cleavage, hinting at the soft curves beneath. The ensemble was completed with black ankle boots with just enough heel to give her an assertive stride but not too much to hinder any daylight activities she might find herself engaged in. When the old church bell in the town square chimed the first hour of the afternoon, A sense of purpose flooded her; she was resolute in her decision to peel back the layers of this enigma named John from DNA Pharmica. The logical starting point for her investigation was the company's website. To her good fortune, a comprehensive employee directory was available for public viewing. She keyed in 'John' into the search bar and waited as it sifted through countless names. Three results came back, all Johns - one affiliated with accounting, another with marketing, and lastly, a John who belonged to the engineering and projects department. Instantly, she knew this was her man – John Taylor. "Of course," she muttered under her breath, "he had to have one of the most common surnames." The ubiquity of his name would make tracing him slightly more challenging than she'd hoped. Ashley harbored an unyielding resolve to ensure that John never threatened or intimidated Darlene and Avery again. Men of his ilk infuriated her – they made her blood boil. While she had developed effective strategies to handle such men when they crossed paths with her directly, dealing with them indirectly presented a new kind of challenge. After some diligent digging around on various social platforms, Ashley found a headshot of John Taylor on LinkedIn associated with DNA Pharmacia. Her next task involved locating his digital footprints on Facebook and Instagram - platforms where people often let their guard down. She spent considerable time scrolling through numerous profiles before finally stumbling upon his Facebook account. A triumphant smile spread across Ashley's face as an idea took shape in her mind: catfishing him using a dummy profile. She selected some photos of random people from the internet that had a sexy appeal and created a convincing fake account under an alias. This new account was then linked to several other decoy accounts she had previously crafted for her clandestine operations. After a few well-crafted posts designed to add credibility to the fake profile, she initiated contact. She sent John Taylor a friend request, accompanied by a casual message: "It was good meeting you." Choosing to take a pause from her day for lunch, Ashley sauntered into the heart of her home - the kitchen. She resided in a sleek, modern condominium perched on the edge of a serene lake. The condo was an architectural marvel, a blend of glass and steel that stood out amidst the natural backdrop. It was nestled within one of the most coveted locations in town, boasting an unobstructed view of the tranquil waters. The interior mirrored its exterior charm with floor-to-ceiling windows that framed the scenic panorama. Her living room and kitchen were bathed in natural light that filtered through these gigantic panes, casting playful patterns on her polished marble countertops. Ashley had only called this place home for a few years but had already formed a deep affection for it. The breathtaking view from her living space was like an ever-changing painting - sometimes calm and serene, other times wild and tempestuous; it was more than just visually appealing. It served as her sanctuary from the outside world, where she could cocoon herself away from life's chaos. As she prepared herself a simple yet satisfying meal of sandwich and iced tea, she relished in the tranquility surrounding her. Once ready, she sank into her plush dining chair with an engaging novel by her side. She nibbled at her food leisurely while diving into another world through the book's pages. A couple of chapters later, just as Ashley began to lose herself in the plot twists and turns, a notification ping from her phone snapped her back to reality. John Taylor had graciously accepted her invitation, making it all seem almost too effortless. Her laughter echoed in the room as he expressed his interest in getting to know her on a more intimate level. As soon as he had given his consent, she began to delve into the digital history that was his profile. There were pictures aplenty, painting him as a globe-trotting lothario. One such image captured him aboard a luxury cruise liner, the sun setting spectacularly behind him. A bikini-clad girl clung to his arm, their radiant smiles matching the brilliance of their surroundings. Another snapshot showcased him on an exotic beach with yet another stunning woman. The azure sea provided a striking backdrop to their tanned bodies and playful poses. His shirtless torso gleamed under the tropical sun while she flaunted her curves in a skimpy two-piece. Then came a series of photos taken at what appeared to be his local watering hole. He was seen surrounded by an array of attractive women, each one more glamorous than the last. The bar's neon lights reflected in their eyes as they leaned towards him for selfie after selfie, their faces glowing from the fun and alcohol-fueled merriment. As Ashley scrolled further down, she noticed that these photos were all taken at the same establishment - perhaps his regular haunt or favorite pick-up spot. And then there it was - a picture that stood out amongst the rest. This time it wasn't just another pretty face beside him, but rather an unsuspecting bartender caught mid-action in the background. In this photo, John was grinning unabashedly into his phone's camera while laying down a coaster with exaggerated flair - seemingly trying to portray himself as both a ladies' man and someone who knew how to have fun wherever he went. Ashley squinted at the grainy image on her screen, straining to make out the details of the bartender's attire. Her fingers danced over the mousepad, attempting to magnify the image further. However, his shirt remained a blurred enigma in the digital landscape. Defeated, she shifted her focus to a small disc-shaped object lying innocuously on the counter - a coaster. As she zoomed in, pixel by pixel, letters began to form, and words became discernible. “Prost Sports Bar where we are all friends,” it read. A flicker of recognition sparked in Ashley’s mind. She had heard whispers about this place before. Fingers flying over her keyboard, she searched for more information about Prost Sports Bar. Sure enough, nestled amidst towering skyscrapers and bustling streets of the city was its location. What piqued her interest, though, was its proximity to John's office – a mere 20-minute drive away. A quick scan through past dates revealed his frequent patronage on Thursdays and Fridays. The evidence was stacking up like an unsteady Jenga tower ready to topple. A plan began forming in Ashley's mind as she leaned back in her chair thoughtfully, "Perhaps it’s time I pay Prost Sports Bar a visit," she mused aloud, an impish smile playing on her lips as she imagined herself decked out in something alluring yet sophisticated - just enough bait to reel him in.

Chapter 2 Nadia stopped pouring the wine for a beat. If you weren’t watching, you’d have missed it. She handed one of the glasses of wine to Brian. She took a sip and sat her glass down. Brian took a big gulp of his wine and sat his glass down, too. “Quit your job,” she said. “How’d that go over?” “I don’t think they’ll miss me. They didn’t try to get me to stay or ask why I was leaving,” said Brian. “How do you feel about it?” she asked. “Strange. I hated the place. It was killing my soul,” he said. “I’ll miss a few of my coworkers but I died a little every time I walked in the door.” Nadia walked to Brian’s side of the counter and wrapped her arms around him, “I’ve told you to quit more than once. I’m glad you finally did it. Now, how much longer until the chicken is done?” “You’re not mad? Not upset I didn’t talk to your first?” he asked. “Of course not,” she said. “Where’s that chicken?” Brian turned to check the chicken and managed to burn himself in the process. He let out a little yelp. Nadia walked to him to see what he had done. She looked it over and kissed it. He didn’t think much of it at the time but that was the most motherly thing she’d ever done since he’d known her. During dinner, they discussed how things could be different now that he was leaving his job. Brian wanted to start looking for something right away. Nadia suggested he take some time off, discover what he really wanted to do. She took the opportunity to tell him her news, she was getting a promotion. “We can live off my salary, hun,” she said. “You won’t have to go back to work for quite a while if you don’t want to. You can lounge around the house and be my little boy toy.” She’d always liked to take charge though it was usually in the bedroom. It didn’t surprise him when she made that statement. He wasn’t hating the idea of taking a break from the rat race and decided to see how it went. That evening, Nadia was feeling particularly aroused. She wouldn’t take no for an answer from Brian. When he didn’t hold up his end of the arrangement, she smacked his bottom and it was more than a playful swat. It stung his behind. She looked him in the eye, “You may be finished but I’m not. Now that I’m going to be supporting us, I think we need to make some new arrangements.” He tilted his head, “Like what, exactly?” “For one, you should have dinner ready when I get home,” she said. “On top of that, when I need a sexual release, you should make sure I’m finished before your job is done.” “OK,” he said. “I can do dinner but it’s a lot harder for a guy. You’ve never complained before.” She smirked, “I’m feeling my dominant side kick into overdrive. If you aren’t up to the task, I’m going to find some toys that will finish what you started.” Brian liked the idea of shedding some responsibility in favor of her taking more control but he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of her saying he was lacking in the bedroom. He was going to see what could be done in that department when he had a free moment. The next morning, nothing much was said about the previous night as they both went through their morning routine. Brian shaved while Nadia applied her makeup. He took a moment to stare at her lovely breasts in the lacy black push-up bra. He still thought himself a very lucky man. They kissed as they left for work. Brian’s day ended almost as soon as it started. When he entered the building, an HR person was waiting for him. She was a tall woman. With heels she was eye to eye with Brian. She asked him to follow her to conference room. Inside the conference room was Brian’s boss and another HR person. They asked him to take a seat. The lady read off a few things that basically said Brian would get his two-weeks severance and was no longer employed. The other HR person followed him to his desk as he cleaned it out and that was it. Brian couldn’t believe it was over that quickly. He texted Nadia that he was released and was now free man, to pursue whatever it was he was going to do next. She called him and got the details. She made it clear he was to have dinner on the table when she arrive tonight. Brian made some pasta with salad and bread sticks before Nadia arrived. The table was set and there was no evidence he’d played video games all day. He even shaved again and put on fresh after shave for her. He was debating romantic candles for the table when the door opened. Nadia walked looking as fresh as when she left this morning. She walked to Brian and kissed him on the cheek. She looked over the stove and the table to see the table set. She was pleased he took the suggestion he take the evening meal prep seriously. They had a nice meal and Brian asked Nadia about her day. Hers was uneventful and she steered the conversation to Brian’s largely free time. She stated he should do the laundry, the dishes and most of the other chores around the house. He agreed, after all, he was no longer working, at least for now. As he cleaned the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher, Nadia opened up laptop from her bag and started scrolling through some things. She smiled and even giggled a little. Brian smiled though he didn’t know why other than Nadia was smiling. “What are you looking at?” he asked. “Come see for yourself,” she motioned. “I’m going to need a good romp and I want to be satisfied. If you are going to come up short, this will be the substitute.” She turned the screen where he could see it. There on the display was a rather intimidating dildo. Brian didn’t think much of it but she turned the laptop back toward herself and typed away. She pulled out her wallet and put in a credit card. “There, done,” she said. “It will be here by the weekend.” Brian’s eyes were wide, “Wow! You weren’t kidding.” “Actually, I got two of them,” she said with a wry smile. “A pink one for me and a black one for you.” He stuttered his response, “B-b-but, I don’t need one of those.” Nadia looked at him, “If you don’t give me what I want, I’m going to give you what I want, little boy.” Brian gulped, “Oh.” He wasn’t feeling quite as good about his time off. The power dynamic of their relationship had always skewed toward Nadia but not the balance of powered shifted completely in her favor. The truth of the matter was, he wasn’t comfortable taking charge. Nadia easily filled the vacuum.

Chapter 7 – Rebellion “Come on sleepyhead, you can’t sleep all day. We have to go on our vacation.” Oliver felt Abigail shake him gently on the shoulder to rouse him, the words that might have comprised his grumbling protests came out misshapen by the pacifier still sitting securely in his mouth. The padding under his pyjamas made itself known to him as he turned in the bed, feeling even thicker swaddled around his waist than when it had first gone on since it was now wet. She pulled back his sheets and started to help him out of his PJs. “Looks like we won’t have to worry about leaks.” she commented approvingly, as she undid the tapes on his diaper. Except unlike the previous night, it really was his diaper purchased for him to wear and he couldn’t tell himself otherwise. She plucked the pacifier from his lips and sent him to shower. He allowed the rivulets of hot water to run over him for as long as he thought he could get away with to prolong starting the day and going on this trip. He knew Abigail would come looking sooner or later so he reluctantly shut off the faucet and grabbed his towel. He trudged back to his bedroom where he was met by Abigail again, but unlike yesterday instead of a pull-up she had laid out a fresh diaper, wipes, and powder. Oliver struggled to remain composed as her intentions set in. “I have to wear them in the car too? Mom, please no. I’ll wear pull-ups!” He never thought that was a sentence he’d hear himself say. “Now Oliver, we talked about this.” “I don’t want Jessica to see. You know what she’s like!” “Well, actually, your cousin Davey will be wearing them too, so she’ll be the odd one out.” She knew it was a weak gambit even as she made it. Oliver rolled his eyes. “He’s a baby!” “He is a little boy who’s struggling with his potty training and right now, so are you.” Abigail said as she commandeered his towel and laid it out as a makeshift changing station of sorts on his bed. She was losing her patience but she sounded meaner than she intended to. He crossed his arms and fell backwards onto the bed, keeping his cooperation to a minimum. She nevertheless made short work of getting him diapered and dressed. “The car is packed. I’m just going to grab a few more thing from upstairs so go get any toys you want to bring on the trip after breakfast. I wanna hit the road so we can beat traffic.” explained Abigail as she set a hastily prepared toaster waffles and formula. After breakfast, Oliver went to grab his Switch and tried to check its battery but the screen didn’t even illuminate. “Damn, dead as a dodo.”, he thought. He was always forgetting to plug it in. He knew he had no one but himself to blame, as Abigail was never slow to point out when he voiced his frustrations, but that didn’t make it any better. He thought briefly. Sometimes, she’d let him borrow her phone to play games. He could play them on his own phone if she’d let him have one. Sue let Jessica have one, and she was almost two years younger than him. But that was a fight for another day. He grabbed her phone from the kitchen table to see what he could download before they left. He had seen her enter her passcode enough times to remember it. The screen unlocked and he was confronted with an open chat. On screen was a picture Kianna had sent of him asleep in the stroller at the zoo. He felt his breathing begin to quicken and looked over his shoulder to make sure he was still alone. He scrolled through a series of replies from Abigail, Sue, and women he didn’t even recognize the names of, all fussing over how adorable they all found him and detailed discussion of his various accidents and mishaps that had ensued since Summer started. He continued scrolling down to the most recent message from Abigail sent this morning. [Abigail Wilson 9:03 a.m.] oh btw Sue he doesn’t know about the accidents being a side effect of the formula so hush hush. He trembled with rage as the pieces fell into place for him. Now it all made sense. All this time he had been allowed to feel like it was his fault. He had to will himself not to break the phone. Checking the coast was clear again, he walked into the downstairs bathroom as silently as he could, lowered his shorts and tore his diaper off before discarding it in the trash. Upon exiting he bumped into Abigail and tried to act naturally. “He little man, you’re looking kind of pale, are you feeling okay?” “Yep, never better.” he said through a forced smile. “Well... if you’re sure. Will you be my helper and carry this out to the car for me?” she asked handing him a bag. Outside he opened the trunk and added the bag to the mounting pile of supplies. He paused to bury the package of pampers Abigail had left in full view when he spotted the mascot on one of the containers of Nutriform grinning back at him. It was that little container that had caused him so much trouble. He glanced over his shoulder. His work wasn’t over yet. He took the entire container and zealously threw it in the outside trash can before returning inside. “Okay, ready when you are.” smiled Abigail. They made their last minute checks and made for the car. Oliver hadn’t considered if or when he would reveal his sabotage, or what he would say if it was discovered. He simply hadn’t thought that far ahead. He was currently thinking he probably should have actually used the bathroom when he had been in it. But he had nothing to worry about, Sue’s house was a mere 20 minute drive. “See this is exactly what I wanted to avoid.” lamented Abigail 40 minutes later gazing over a frozen sea of traffic. Oliver for his part did not contribute to the conversation. Not that he would have felt like chatting in any case, but all his focus was allocated to keeping the mounting pressure in his bladder at bay. It had gotten to the point where he could not longer fidget discreetly enough to avoid notice from Abigail who quickly inferred what was going on. “Sweetie, it’s okay if you go in your diaper. I won’t be mad. This is what I put it on you for.” His face turned red and tears streamed down his face as he stared straight ahead, avoiding eye contact at all costs. Abigail was taken aback by how much distress this was causing him. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. What is it? You can tell me” He said nothing but silently wept as he soaked his shorts and the seat. Abigail’s eyes went wide. She pulled back his waistband. “Oliver... did you take off your diaper? Why would you do that?” she demanded in disbelief. He remained silent but for intermittent hiccups snd whimpers through tears. She rapped her fingers on the steering wheel while she considered their options. Traffic was beginning to move but not quickly enough to get to Sue’s anytime soon. A light went on in her head. There was one place she could go, and the exit was coming up fast. Liz watched the car pull in with more haste than either of the previous times. Abigail rapidly emerged from the car and made her way around to the passenger side door to pull out a practically catatonic Oliver. “Hi... I’m sorry to drop in all of a sudden. We got stuck in traffic and he had a little accident and I was hoping-” Liz shook her head and tutted sympathetically “Say no more. There’s a room in the back you can get cleaned up in.” she offered. “You’re a lifesaver.” said Abigail, breathing a sigh of relief. Liz lead them through to a door in the back of the store. Instead of a dingy bathroom or storage room she was expecting to have to make do with, this room was more like a well appointed, if compact nursery. “I’ll leave you two to it.” Liz said, closing the door behind her. Abigail knelt down to address Oliver who hadn’t spoken since the accident and, come to think of it, barely spoke since they left. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” He looked at her with red eyes and tears flowing freely down his face. “It’s your fault!” Abigail naturally looked perplexed. “Honey, what’s my fault?” “All of it! The accidents, the diapers, everything. I saw the message on your phone. I know that stupid formula made this happen to me!” Abigail’s features dropped into an expression of guilt and genuine remorse. “Oh baby, I am so, so sorry.” she said sincerely, pulling him into a hug. “I never meant for things to happen like this. You know I would never do anything to hurt you. The doctor told me this is just a rare side affect that happens sometimes.” “But why didn’t you tell me?” “Sweetie, be honest with me, would you have kept drinking your formula if you knew this was going to happen.” Oliver looked at the ground. “...probably not.” “Exactly. And you need it if you want to grow up big and strong. So for the moment, we just need to to take things as they come, okay? Now are you going to let me get you out of those wet clothes?” “Okay mommy.” he sniffed. “Good boy.” she said soothingly as she started to get him undressed. She boosted him onto the well-stocked changing table and made use of its supplies to get him cleaned and back into a diaper once more. “Sorry to interrupt.” said Liz, making herself known just as Abigail was finishing up. “I thought you’d like to know that your order came in. Talk about timing, right?” she said holding up a pair of denim overalls. “Oh, thank you Liz.” said Abigail accepting them. “I really appreciate you getting us out of a bind here.” From Oliver’s vantage point she appeared to be explaining something about the garment but he couldn’t see or hear what. Abigail began to help him into the overalls. She adjusted straps before connecting them to the bib. Oliver noticed they had some kind of strange buttons he had never seen before. “Now, I don’t think you’ll be having any more daring escapes from your little Houdini in those.” beamed Liz, leading them back out into the main store. Oliver didn’t know what she meant by that. “I took a swing at your seat using some upholstery cleaner by the way. You don’t want to let the stain set in.” “Liz, you angel, you didn’t have to do all this.” “It was nothing, really, and I don’t mean to pry, but I couldn’t help notice your little guy doesn’t have a car seat. I hate to be a stickler, but you should know they changed state law recently and it’s a must at his size.” “I had no idea.” admitted Abigail. “Well luckily, for, you, I know someone who can do you a great deal.” she grinned. Fifteen minutes later, Oliver’s pleas fell on deaf ears as Abigail installed the car seat complete with high back and five point harness. “But I didn’t need it before!” “Oliver, honey, you heard what Liz said. It’s the law. Besides, I don’t think you’re in much of a position to negotiate right now young man.” Oliver simply pouted. Abigail took the rest of items she order from Liz and popped the trunk to try to find space for it. As she rummaged around she noticed some items had been rearranged. “Oliver, where is your formula?” Abigail asked in a stern tone that informed Oliver she had already put the pieces together and simply wanted confirmation. He only looked at his shoes. “Pull any other stunts you want to tell me about while we’re here?” she said exasperatedly. “No... that’s all.” he peeped meekly. “Boy you folks sure came to the right place today.” chuckled Liz, breaking the tension. She lead them back into the store and rang up another container of Nutriform. Once again, they seemed to exchange a furtive whisper out of Oliver’s earshot about some detail of the product. Abigail just smiled and nodded at Liz’ explanation. Oliver couldn’t help notice that the container was a different shade of green to the last one and advertised “added fiber” on its label. Abigail thanked Liz profusely once more and they said their goodbyes.

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late posting, but looking back now at the end, it’s kind of interesting to me the process of writing these stories. I’m definitely a planter, which means that while I do plan out my stories (which is one of the reasons they can go up so fast, relatively speaking), I also let the stories grow naturally. This chapter essentially ends how I wanted it to, but with vastly different results, which just took a little extra time to make right. I won’t go into details about what could have been, but I think some of you would have loved it, while others may have hated it. With this version though, I think I’ve struck a nice medium. No final explosions or anything, but a good way to end all this, nonetheless. In this same thought, I didn’t even realize that I had inadvertently created a trilogy from this story as well. I knew I had formed some loose connections with The Opening story, but in writing this story, I made many connections to another as of yet unwritten story. I definitely think you all will like the black ops and revenge plot lines in that one when it eventually comes out, but I just felt it was something to note here at the end as a curiosity of sorts to me. That being said, speaking of the future, I will be choosing the follow-up story with Miss G. I added up the votes on here and those sent to me privately, and there was a tie between this story and the Boys Maturity Reform story. From now until about the middle of September, I have three trips coming up and so my time will be more limited in writing these stories. The follow-up with Miss G is hovering around only about ten chapters now from my initial outline. These outlines aren’t always accurate (especially considering this story was originally only 15 chapters in the first outline), so it could be longer, but the Boys Maturity Reform Story has been more fleshed out and is almost 40 chapters. I will definitely include it and the Bethany story (getting a few votes as well) in future polls, but I think the follow-up story with Miss G has been waiting in my back pocket for long enough. Speaking of the vote here, I also want to note that there were fewer votes noted in this story than others. I think I will still continue my polls, but I am curious to the lower-than-expected numbers going into this vote. I’ve been contemplating linking to a separate poll website (rather than strictly keeping a tally on a sticky note next to my computer), but I will let you all know if this happens. I think there could be an issue of not wanting to post publicly, and I understand that, but more numbers for these future stories could be more accurate with what you all want. Looking ahead though, I have no idea when I will start posting this story. It’s not one of my truly shorter stories, so it will definitely bump up against my previously noted several trips coming up. Instead of postponing though, I will try to work around them to get another story out there ASAP. This will mean that there could be a week or longer gaps in the next month or so with my postings, but I’ll try to write and edit as much as I can in the meantime. Next, I also just want to thank everyone sincerely for their support of this story on here. I have ‘won’ several more days since posting this story, and many of your all’s comments have been truly wonderous to read. I always love when the comment section almost takes on a life of its own regarding plot speculations and playful banter. To be perfectly honest, I was thinking that due to the lack of most regression elements in the majority of the plot line for the main character or even mostly for the secondary character, this story may never be a success on here. Regardless of my feelings or desire to be right most of the time, I am glad that you all have proven me wrong in this case. Finally, I hope everyone enjoys this next and final chapter of this story! Chapter 30: L.R.G. It was a glorious sight to see when both LRG and LPS members faced their just punishments. The state government legislature in Aprisium made a spectacle of it, and while some believed that undercut the seriousness of what happened in what amounted to nearly the past year, most believed it served as a valuable and equal warning to our society. With both trials happening simultaneously, it showed that Bigs and government agencies were not above the law. Many had speculated that Bigs or the government could escape retribution when it came to Littles, but the trials proved different. Of course, some of the lower tier members on trial only received a stain on their records and extended community service, befitting their crime, but many were shipped out west. As such, Dark Cliff got a fairly substantial load from the incident regarding both Bigs and Littles. It fueled the fires of speculations that Bigs were being shipped elsewhere or something funky was going on, considering Dark Cliff was supposed to be just for Littles, but by the end of March, those rumors mostly just appeared on government conspiracy websites. Curious to most though, despite the press and many members of LRG put on display, the actual name of the organization of the Littles on trial was never publicly acknowledged or announced. LPS members, my family, and a handful of Littles knew that it was LRG who was on trial, but the media remained silent about the Little’s affiliation. “I can’t believe the media won’t even give LRG credit for all this!” Paul complained as he sat back on the couch after another rogue member from LRG was sent to Dark Cliff Prison. “It’s like they never even existed!” I sighed and turned off the TV without notice. “Hey!” Paul complained, now trying to grab the remote from my hand high above his head. “I was watching that!” “No…” I corrected, “you were complaining about it and then you would have moped about it, like you have for the past few weeks now. I don’t know why LRG isn’t being mentioned by the media, but neither of us can do anything about it. I’m very sorry, but it’s time we move on.” I placed the remote on the kitchen table and then turned back to Paul with a sigh but in an attempt to raise his feelings as well. “How about instead of watching all that again, you go over to Roger’s? I’m sure he would love to pl… hang out with you today.” Paul groaned, but knowing he was hitting a brick wall with me by now, only grabbed his coat and headed over. As I stared through the window, I sent Maggie a quick text telling her that he was headed over. Since she had noticed Paul looking gloomier than before when he first got home and seeing that Roger had been lonely without an equal like him lately, she made a fully open offer of her house whenever Paul wanted to come over. I had extended the same offer, and it even got to the point where we would message each other whenever we weren’t going to be at home, just in case. As soon as I got the ‘thumbs up’ message back from her and saw Paul disappearing inside her house, I closed the blinds and sighed. I had just lied to Paul without hesitation before in that moment. I didn’t want to do it, but I hadn’t seen any alternative when I first started lying to him about LRG when the trial first started. The thing is, I really did know the main reason the name of LRG was being left out of the media. Several of the other agents at LPS, with me advising as well, insisted on leaving their name out. As a favor to LPS, they complied. We all believe that due to the nature of the group’s collapse, we knew they could be in a prime position to become a martyr for any Little cause of action in the future. Those following Samuel, my Sammy, would have chosen peace, but in our experience, most would have likely gravitated toward Bernard and would have chosen violence instead. Not wanting that scenario, we left them anonymous to the rest of the public. Unfortunately, the hits kept coming for Paul. With the threat of LRG no longer looming and Paul already having turned in evidence against LRG, I could see there was a part of him that wanted to go home. Additionally, his reputation had taken a hit with his old friends, and not seeing him as anything but a gullible puppet for Bigs now, abandoned him completely. Even Little support groups were wary of including him now. So, just wanting him to be happy, I set up a maturity test that his parents insisted on him taking. For them, they believed that Paul was flooded with homesickness and nostalgia for the life he once led, but as they noted, due to his time here, there was a question of how returning to his life back on Earth would even look. Finding a test that was unbiased towards Littles and would just give us the answers we were looking for; I drove Paul over one Friday morning. The test consisted of several parts and was meant to be tiring and taxing on the mind. Unaffected Earthers could pass the test with ease, even among their… less gifted individuals. When the test results came back, however, we both knew that Paul had to make the decision whether to return to Earth or not. While his scores were borderline, I shared them with his parents and we both agreed that if Paul was to return to Earth, things would be very difficult for him. Through some programs for negatively affected returning humans to Earth from our dimension, Paul could make it work with a live-in nurse. He could tie his shoes and read for example, but his inability to concentrate, his complete lack of potty training, and his emotional needs and the ways in which he was comforted now would likely be huge obstacles and potentially major sources of embarrassment for him. So, for now, Paul remained with me until he could make a proper decision. I helped him improve where I could and Mr. Oliver supplied him countless books to help as well, but we still seemed to be at an impasse. Seeing him walk around the house trying to make his decision and like a man already lost was tearing at my soul every day. I knew my plan had to occur soon or else I would lose Paul forever. Finally, one day I drove Paul to the more Little-heavy side of Aprisium. “I just want you to know that I’ll always be here for you, honey,” I tried to comfort Paul, now sitting glumly back in his car seat. I had packed his diaper bag as usual, made sure he was at least dry and clean for the trip, and told him we were going out. I didn’t tell him anything more than that. “I know you’re still sad about LRG, but maybe not everything is as bad as you think?” Paul momentarily shifted in his seat, but then kept looking outside the window as the buildings passed by. I heard him heavily sigh. “Thank you, Sophie… what you’ve done for me these past months… I don’t think I could ever thank you enough.” I was worried where he was headed with this, but at a traffic light I made sure to turn back to him and pat his outstretched leg in acknowledgement that it was all going to be okay in my own silent way. He smiled at the gesture and continued. “I… I just don’t know about what to do anymore…” I could hear the loss and aimlessness in his voice. “When LRG collapsed, I at least hoped the news would mention their name, as a sort of memorial, but with their name left out… I feel like everything we did was for nothing… that my own sacrifices, and everyone else’s, were for nothing…” I had never thought about it that way and I could feel a tiny stab right through my chest as the guilt piled on, knowing full-well that I was one of the chief architects of the policy to exclude the LRG name from the public’s attention. “I’m sorry…” Paul nodded and just went back to staring outside. He probably thought I was apologizing in sympathy for what he was going through, and that was true to an extent, but I was also apologizing to him for my part in the loss he was feeling now. ‘Just a little longer, Paul…’ A few more traffic lights later, we soon pulled up into one of the recently deserted office parks. With Littles disappearing every day, Little-owned businesses were here one day and gone the next. Using a few pooled funds, we had purchased part of the single brick clad office building in front of us now. If my plan was successful, more could be purchased later. “Where are we?” Paul finally asked as I plucked him out of his car seat and set him down on the pavement near the front entrance of the building. I could have parked in the parking garage around the back, but I felt the front way seemed a better way to enter today. “I want to show you something…” I then held my hand down to Paul as I adjusted his diaper bag on my shoulder with the other. As usual these days, he took my offered hand without question. “Come on…” We casually entered the front of the building, and while dust still covered a few of the surfaces, I was already impressed with the amount of work that had been done to the front lobby. It would need more work and I could just picture it as a welcoming and professional sight to see in the future, but it was a good start for now. Looking down at Paul, I could recognize that he was likely still a bit too gloomy and reserved to question anything he was seeing. Still, we walked over and then hopped in the elevator to go to the top floor. As soon as we got off, I could see the difference already. Glass doors and polished surfaces greeted us pleasantly. Paul seemed to perk up a little more, but I had purposely left off a few signs for a grander reveal to Paul today. “Where are we?” Paul finally asked again as we stopped in front of several cubicles, most still smelling like the new padding that lined their gray walls. I smiled down at Paul and then crouched before him. “Sweetie… I wanted to do something for you… and for all the Littles in this area. When I was at least the size of a Little, I realized that we needed something more. I had an idea and when I told her, Astrid completely agreed with me.” “Astrid?” I could tell the gears were starting to run in Paul’s head already. After nearly a month of him passively moving from one daily task to another without much enthusiasm, it was a wonderous sight to see. I nodded. “That’s right.” I then held my finger up to him and stood back before whistling loudly. In moments, the two conference rooms off to the side opened and a dozen or so figures piled out and lined up in front of the two of us just like we had planned beforehand. For his part, Paul seemed beyond bewildered and confused. “I… I… I don’t understand…” A few of the crowd chuckled, but I patted his shoulder and gestured to the crowd. “Paul… I want you to meet the new team I’ve been working with. I’m sure you recognize a few of them…” I could see Paul squint, but after a moment, his eyes then lit up. While a few of the figures were likely strangers to him, I knew that he at least recognized Astrid, my family, Maggie, Roger, and at least a few others. “Wha… what are they all doing here?” Again, a few chuckled. “Paul… this is what we’ve been working on.” I paused for a moment. “See, Sophie felt that Littles needed something more in this city… even in this country as a whole,” Astrid started to explain. “I felt LPS was too restrictive and attached to the government, but LRG was far too detached from mainstream society,” I continued. “Astrid and I brought everyone together here for a specific purpose.” I could see Paul still struggling with a few of the faces, so I knew I needed to explain why they were here further. Starting on the left, I began to gesture to each figure. “My mom is our insight into the Midas Society. She’s already agreed to rejoin as a periphery member so we can gain insight into their dealings against Littles. The government may not be able to touch them right now, but with her… expertise,” a few of the Bigs laughed, “we can at least stay ahead of them.” “You don’t know them, but they’re good friends of mine,” I said, gesturing to Jane and Dr. Jackson. “Jane works at the hospital and Dr. Jackson works on a variety of projects all around the world. With both of them, we can stay ahead or at least better know of the harmful drugs like the ones that were released that got all of the Littles sick and hurt their potty training.” Paul still blushed a little over the notion, despite the fact that his diaper was pretty obvious to anyone who looked at him for more than a few seconds. I knew that it was likely already at least a little damp. Speaking of which, just shifting slightly, I knew mine was as well. Moving on though, I patted the shoulder of my old familiar friend. “I’m sure you recognize Mr. Oliver.” Paul smiled and waved to the elderly figure, curiously one of the few in the crowd that everyone seemed to already know. “He’ll be helping us with research and his general knowledge about pretty much everything.” Most everyone chuckled over that. “Next, is actually where you come in… as well as Roger.” I gestured to one of the few Littles in the crowd and back to Paul. “Me? How can I help?” Paul already seemed bewildered and overwhelmed. Looking at him and Roger compared to everyone else, being Bigs, degree holders, experts in their fields, or members with access of some kind, I knew his question and fear wasn’t completely random or unexpected. “That’s an easy one, Paul,” I noted, quickly trying to ease his mind. “For right now, I want you and Roger to be our insight into the Little perspective. I don’t want this new organization to just be a bunch of Bigs thinking they are doing good. I actually want them to do good.” From Paul’s expression, I knew he was already starting to understand what we were trying to do here, and what’re more, he already seemed to approve of it. “Right. Next, we have Donna Feldstein,” I explained. I knew she was one of the strangers to Paul and most in this room, but anyone who had ever read a book about Littles or who had watched TV recently, knew her name. She was our most recent acquisition, but likely one of our most valuable going forward. “She’s an expert in Little psychology and can provide a useful insight into branding and media outlets.” I could see many of the Bigs less familiar with her finally get why I had accepted her onto our team. “If we’re doing something wrong in the view of the public, we can use her knowledge and pivot slightly toward a better image. We play our cards right; our reputation for helping Littles will only grow with time.” I then gestured to my sister, who of course had brought Alice. Alice could be utilized in her own way to help Roger and Paul out, but her regression had been far more embedded still than either Roger or Paul put together. “My sister here can give us the insight into portal travel, the regulations involved, and the tactics being used to entice humans over here from Earth.” Alice gave a tiny, cute wave to Paul, which he promptly returned, leading to several Bigs doing their very best to hold back on making a scene out of it. Wanting to move forward, I gestured to the next figure. “Next, is Barry.” The gangly and more awkward of the group, I think he had been surprised when Astrid and I first approached him, but considering he was already warning us about something called ‘Tabers,’ I knew he would be useful. “He’ll provide an insight into food contamination or product placement bent on humiliating or regressing Littles.” I then moved onto the last three figures, who had already proven themselves invaluable to the organization. “My brother, Astrid, and Shelly here will be our insight into government workings, intrusion tactics, interrogation methods, and most importantly, how to stay above the law.” Paul seemed unsure about everything he had just heard, but I didn’t see a fear or sadness in his eyes… only curiosity. “So… all this is for us Littles?” Paul asked hesitantly, clearly still absorbing everything I had hit him with though. I nodded. “Yes.” I sighed and walked back over to him. “At one point, you told me that LRG was needed to change Big society. While I think LRG didn’t always stray into staying on the right side of the law, you all were right in the fact that laws need to change for anything to get better with Littles.” I then gestured back to the group that Astrid and I had gathered. “We’ve seen firsthand the wide-reaching and engrained problems our society faces when it comes to Littles. LPS can only do so much and most of LRG was destroyed. We’ve come together to fill that void and to fix the laws that need to be added or amended.” “So… we’re going to protest and go to demonstrations?” Paul asked, even more hesitancy laced throughout his voice now. I shook my head. “No. We can support those, but we need different tactics if we want to make a change.” I sighed and placed my hand on Paul’s shoulder. “As you saw from Bernard, LRG worked too close in the shadows and employed underhanded methods that put them on the radar of both the ABI and LPS. We can’t have that. If we want to make any lasting change, our new group needs to have a public face and a united front instead.” Nodding to what I just said, and showing no objections, I then showed Paul the rest of the office. A few office spaces were still cluttered and dusty, but everyone now at least had a desk and a computer to work from. Hours worked here would be strictly voluntary for now, with everyone meeting up at least after work twice a week and then every Saturday for some of the larger events we had planned. “Uh… do you all have a name yet?” Paul asked after coming back to the entrance way. “No… I wanted to tell you about this first before we came up with one…” I turned to the rest of the group. “Any suggestions?” All at once, I heard dozens of names. “How about the Littles Liberation Army?” “What about Littles Against Unpotty Training?” “No, no. Needs to be the United Littles League.” “Oooh! What about the Pants Pooping League!” “Oh! Oh! Wha’ about Sparklin’ Wainbow Pawty?” Most answers were all a jumble, but a few stood out plainly from the rest for who they were coming from. “What about LRG?” It was a soft voice, barely heard above the rest, but the lack of urgency and yet combined with a strong sense of firmness entered my ear clearly. I turned around and looked at Paul. The other suggestions started to die down. “What did you say again, Paul?” His hands quickly locked and began twisting together in nervousness from all the eyes looking at him now. “Uh… uh… I said… LRG?” I could see a few members roll their eyes from my periphery vision, but his answer still intrigued me. “LRG, huh?” Paul nodded. “But Paul… LRG was ended…” Paul nodded again, but I could still see a faint look of determination in his eyes. “Yeah, but the media didn’t connect the Littles on trial with LRG… it… it could be something new…” His logic was sound, and I could already hear a few murmurs behind me. “You know… he has a point, Soph,” Astrid noted. I spun around to face her. “Only LPS, the people here, or those in Dark Cliff know the truth at this point basically… if we do this, it could bring more Littles to our side faster in the beginning…” “That’s absolutely right. We could focus on the Bigs later with our good works and non-violence,” Donna noted, competently fulfilling her own role. “I know that a lot of Bigs hate what’s been happening to Littles around them but are just too afraid to speak out. We connect to LRG now; it would bring the Littles in, and we would be able to present a strong front that we are for the betterment of Littles without problem.” In my mind, I could already see the success of the group with our new name. The mall bombing was associated with it, but with Donna, I knew we could spin that as an easy smear campaign or Littles being bribed to spread false information about LRG early on. With all the secrecy around them, I knew it could work, but I knew that my opinion wasn’t the only one that counted. “Okay… let’s put it to a vote. All not in favor?” No one raised their hands. I couldn’t help but smile. “All those in favor?” Everyone raised their hands. It was unanimous and I turned to Paul. “Alright, ready to get started?” Paul looked behind me at everyone now apart of this new LRG. A smile, something I hadn’t seen in weeks, soon appeared. He then simply turned back to me and nodded. * * * Phones rang off the hook and everyone was busily scrambling about trying to fulfill their certain roles within the organization. As soon as we announced ourselves to the public, we had a flood of volunteers apply for roles. Starting off with less than 20, including a few initial members that were attached to one of our main members, like Alice, we had grown to over 200 in a single month. Branded as ‘The New LRG’ by the local papers, the ‘Little Rights Group’ had already achieved its first victory in campaigning to strike down a bill in the state congress that would require Big authorization for Littles needing to return home. It was simple and likely wouldn’t have passed anyways, but Donna spun the story, and soon, the governor and members of congress were calling us up for further help. “No, I don’t think that’s accurate, Senator,” Paul noted on the phone as Astrid and I walked into the office, our holding hands quickly dropped… just in case someone wanted to accuse of us bias when we supported each other later during a vote or whatnot. We both then waved to Paul and saw Sammy already making friends with a few Littles of some of our volunteer Bigs in a separate area of the office. We were already considering adding an office daycare downstairs for them and for the Littles that needed… assistance. “Yes, Senator. The papers are correct,” Paul acknowledged. “We have started what is known as the ‘movement for the better treatment of Littles.’ I think that any people, Big, Middle, or Little, should be horrified if they knew the full scope of what was going on in Louisianum right now if what we’re hearing is even half true.” Since LRG had started up officially, Paul spent most of his time here instead of at daycare. He was still regressed in some ways, but he had thrived under the conditions here. Becoming almost a symbol of Little strength, he was at every fundraiser and had spoken to dozens of politicians now about the necessity of LRG. Still, I felt that something was missing. So, I reached out to a few undercover agents in the field to convey a very specific message. Regardless of that though, Paul soon smiled and hung up the phone. Seeing us, he cheered. “Well, that’s one more senator down for the charity auction this Saturday!” I smiled warmly, feeling an overwhelming sense of pride for how Paul was doing these days, but I knew I needed to show him something else. “That’s wonderful, Paul, but Astrid and I…” “Yes, yes. Everyone knows,” Paul said to my immediate blushing. “It’s hard not…” “No!” I didn’t want him to finish that thought at the office. For now, we had other pressing matters he needed to see. “I want to show you something…” Paul raised an eyebrow and then looked behind me as he saw the surprise. “Hey Paul…” Patricia said first, leading the other group of Littles behind her, all gathered under our new white and green LRG signage. “I… I…” Paul was near speechless, and I knew I had done good. He then quickly turned to me. “I don’t understand. Just… how?” I smiled back and gestured to Patricia. “We knew that a lot of Littles in LRG fled after Bernard took over. From what we know now, it got bad, but Patricia got a bunch of them out before Bernard started anything nasty. Ever since, they’ve been hiding out, but I used one of my contacts to find them… and offer them a place here.” Paul went back to being speechless and just looked at the Littles before him. I knew there were more out there, hiding in their own pockets, but for today at least, Ronald, Carol, Mindy, Xander, Bill, and Carmen all stood eager but seemingly nervously behind Patricia. “Come on, come on!” I quickly gestured to the group. It had been awkward at first explaining who I was, and while Carol and Mindy seemed horrified by the notion that I really was their fearless Little ‘Susan,’ our drive of them over here had seemingly lightened that initial reaction. “How about I give you all a tour, and then…?” “No!” Paul finally popped out. “I mean… let me show them something first…” I smiled, already knowing what he was going to show them. Paul led the group and I followed along with Astrid behind them. Coming back to the main entryway before the main part of the office, where Paul and I had first stepped off the elevator our first day here together, Paul pointed to a large marble and brass plaque on the wall, something we eventually were going to add to the lobby downstairs. “Wait… is that…?” Ronald asked, seemingly in disbelief, his eyes staring to the note above the wall piece saying, “Lost but Not Forgotten.” Paul nodded. “Sophie kept track of all the names of those we lost in the final days.” I had kept track in a notebook that I had hidden in the warehouse in a safe container, so even when the place burned down before I could pick it up, I managed to salvage it afterwards. Since then, I had gathered even more names, but among them were Sean, Rebecca, Jackson, Tula, Burt, Lamar, Ginger, Katya, Josiah, Steph, Fara, and Fritz. It didn’t take long for the group of Littles in front of us to start to tear up. “We wanted to change the world with the old LRG…” Paul started after a brief moment of silence for the fallen Littles. “I don’t know what Sophie has promised you all, but we’re trying to do the same here. So… what do you all say? Are you up for another go of it?” Xander stepped up first, seemingly brushing off the grief that each of the others were feeling at the moment after seeing the sheer number of names on the wall. Using my records, Paul’s memory, and a few records we had found with BAL of those they had already regressed and shipped off to parts unknown, there were over 60 names listed now. “Well, we came here for a reason, Paul,” Xander said with a thin smile across his lips. “I figured if there was an LRG out there fighting or working for Littles, we might as well be a part of it.” Paul teared up a bit himself now, but still smiled to one of his friends. “That sounds like a good idea to me…” Everyone then hugged it out and I got Astrid to give them the grand tour and jobs that each could fill out uniquely with what we already knew about them. A few, like Bill and Mindy, might have to wait for a special project that would adhere better to their skillsets, which Astrid and Julian had been planning recently, but the rest quickly seemed to ease in. Already, a few were even answering a whole new fresh batch of calls for us. Gazing out into the office, a small space we were in the midst of expanding by the end of the week into other floors, it was a sight to see. Just as I was about to head back to my own private office though in the back, Paul stopped me. I looked down and recognized his look of needing to tell me something important, so I crouched down beside him. “What’s up, sweetie? Everything okay?” Paul nodded, still clearly emotional from seeing all his old group members again, likely thinking before that he may never see them again. “I… I just want to tell you…” He blinked a few times and then wiped his forming tears away. “Thank you, Sophie… for all this…” I smiled and nodded back. “It’s no problem, honey. I saw that there was a problem, and I wanted to fix it, for all Littles… for you…” Paul sniffled, but still smiled back at me. “Thank you, but I just… I just want to tell you…” He was already having a hard time forming his words. I tried to ease him up a bit by ribbing his back. Being kidnapped was something I would never forgive BAL for, but little gestures like that counted ten times over now afterward. To be blunt, it was probably one of the few reasons I hadn’t sought after my own revenge on them… Still, for today, I was glad my little gesture seemed to work. Paul eased up and smiled back. “Thanks… but I just wanted to tell you that… well, I’ve decided to stay…” They were the words that I had been hoping for Paul to say for so long now. I despised our path to getting to this day, but I had long ago asked his parents permission to keep Paul when it seemed doubtful that he could lead a normal life back on Earth. Being forward-minded these days though, I didn’t want to take Paul’s choice away from him. So, for him to accept staying here with me… the feeling was near indescribable, except for maybe pure joy. I quickly hugged him and spun him around as I stood up and pulled his body into mine. We buried ourselves into each other about as much as we could and embraced the moment. No words were needed. I wasn’t his mommy, and maybe that event would happen one day, but for now, I was just about as happy as I had ever been in my life with Paul accepting to stay here with me. I had always thought of him as ‘my Little,’ and I always worried that I was overstepping, but seeing the massive smile on Paul’s face, I felt an ease in embracing my Little now. Settling Paul on my side a little while later, when the last of our happy tears had dried, I could quickly tell that he needed a diaper change, and shuffling around myself, I knew that I needed one as well. They were both stark reminders of the pains that we had taken in order to get where we were today. Some could see it as labor lost or the ends not justifying the means. As Paul and I gazed out into the offices of the new LRG, seeing both Bigs and Littles working together, for us, it was all worth it. We were together, forever changed by the experience of the past year as our lives entangled with each other. We saw the future, not as Bigs, Middles, and Littles as separate and unequal, but being together, and working for a better future as one. Cuddling with each other and moving off, we hoped that what happened to us and that our little change of perspective would soon spread. Hoping beyond all for the accomplishment of our goal of true equality and better treatment, we knew that if someone asked, diapers or not, in the end, it would have all been worth it.

Hey everyone! We’re getting closer to the end now. Definitely a few big chapters to come and a few of you have guessed a few plot elements, so good job there, but I’m hoping I can slip a few surprises in here or there. Additionally, I am introducing a new term in this chapter. You’ll know it when you see it, but I’ve wanted to lay out the seeds for this new term since October last year. If anyone recalls, I was playing with a Halloween story if I was able to finish up A Walk to Remember, but that just didn’t happen. That being said, I was able to write the full plot and I came up with this one term. It will become important in some of my future stories. Also, as a reminder, the poll for my next story is still going on. As a reminder, as usual, I will post my decision of my next story during my final chapter of this story. Until then, feel free to comment here or personally message me what you want to read next. I like all the choices I am presenting, so choose what you want. For those not sure of the choices, just refer to the beginning of chapter 2. Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter! Chapter 24: The Lesser of Evils Sometimes, plans can go just the way one wants. It feels like Christmas morning and crossing the finish line in a race all at once. You were right, and if anyone doubted you, they would be wrong, and the victory would be even sweeter. I longed for that feeling, but fleeing in the woods and as far away from BAL and Peter as we could, I knew that at least I was feeling the sting of only a partial success in the plan I had created. Considering we were still fleeing; I couldn’t claim a complete victory. “You know… you’re not a Big anymore, right?” Paul said, a little out of breath when we stopped over at the next ridgeline. The Bigs had long sense disappeared behind us, but fear of getting caught still was an excellent motivator. A little out of breath myself, though, I nodded. “Yeah… I know that. I just don’t think we have too much of a choice with our plan right now. We agreed that fleeing the country was impossible and LRG was way too risky. Plus, I keep getting this bad feeling about LPS. Where we’re going is probably the only safe space and we need to get there ASAP.” “Right, right,” Paul admitted, though I knew he wasn’t in favor of where we were going. He was still rational though and he knew our options were limited, so he relented and gestured for us to continue onward after we recovered a little more of our breath. Being trapped inside the cell for who knows how long, my endurance had slightly diminished. Paul and I made sure that our muscles were in working order at least to pass the time at first, but there was only so much we could do to keep our running ability up. It could have been even a deadly problem for us in the future, but for a tiny moment, I was actually glad of being deep in the woods around Aprisium. For now, it meant less Bigs to worry about. Still though, everything was a guess at this point. Paul, not being from here, wasn’t much help, but I needed to see more landmarks to know exactly where we were. Colorubrum had created dozens of those facilities back in the Great War. So, seeing the sun rise about an hour ago, I knew that we were at least on the East facing side of the mountainous terrain. I wanted to go higher to get a better view, but being a Little myself, I knew that would have cost Paul and I valuable energy. Aprisium was our goal and that was mostly definitely nestled between the mountains… not at the top of them. So, we continued and remained vigilant as we snapped back branches, crouched under logs, and dreaded each step we took that snapped another dead twig. Fall was definitely here, and the frost of the wintry months were rapidly approaching. A month from now, this mountainside could easily be covered in snow and be considered ‘normal’ for this area. Finally, after reaching the top of another ridge, Paul and I spotted a cabin on the slopes below us. It was surrounded by an even denser thicket perimeter to the south below, but a pleasant creek wound beside the whole thing. I almost felt like Paul and I were in some sort of fairytale come to life, and though my stomach was grumbling, I was definitely relieved that the house at least wasn’t made out of candy. Hearing Paul’s stomach growl as well, I wondered if he was thinking the same thing. Still, despite all those books warning Littles and children to never venture to a house alone in the woods, Paul and I needed to get our bearings at least. We swore we wouldn’t stay but considering the nice appearance of the area around the cabin, I felt the person inside at least had their mental faculties about them. I didn’t want to be another statistic of some Little that had gotten lost and then nabbed in the woods all the way out here. I heard about some story from back east that a portal Little had escaped to the mountains in Kentake and was found by a Big. I wasn’t sure how the story ended, but I couldn’t imagine that it was good. “You knock…” I told Paul, urging him up to the door. If there was an issue and Paul was captured, I felt I could make it back and eventually save him as a Big. If I was captured, Paul was likely just screwed if he asked for help… and I would definitely be screwed. “To hell with that! You’re the Big. Why don’t you knock?” He kept his voice low like I did, but I could tell he wasn’t going to budge. I rolled my eyes at his logic in shirking off the task, but I sucked it up, and knocked on the front door. I could hear some shuffling coming from the inside. The door then opened with a slow and near ancient creak. Before us, now stood an elderly lady. Looking far older than most in our society, the alarm bells in my head were already going off. “Well, hello, little ones,” she said in her near stereotypical grandmother voice. It was a pitch too high in spots and seemed to strain against every third or fifth syllable. “Good morning, ma’am,” I said, trying desperately to keep my emotions in check over her appearance and sickly-sweet demeanor. “We just got lost and were wondering if you could offer us a clue to where we are now.” I quickly regretted my words as soon as her smile of old yellow teeth began to glow in front of me. ‘Shit.’ “Oh, my! Come in! Come in!” I wanted to refuse but her long ang gangly arms and withered hands pulled us inside. It wasn’t harsh or rough as I might have suspected, but it was forceful enough that both Paul and I were soon inside her ramshackle house. Well, it was more like a hunting cabin of sorts. It was essentially one room with only two side rooms off to one end of the house. Cobwebs appeared in several corners, but fresh flowers and hand-stitched quilts littered much of the house in contrast. A heavenly aroma soon wafted from her kitchen though, and my was quickly sidetracked from looking at anything else of note. “Is that… is that… are you baking a casserole, ma’am?” Paul asked behind me, his eyes nearly glazing over and his mouth watering at the sight of the kitchen. BAL hadn’t fed us much, and while we maintained our figures for the most part, walking all night up and down the mountainside had taken its toll. I didn’t need to be a genius to see that Paul was famished. The old woman’s smile only grew more intense. “You know what, dearie? It just is. Why don’t you two have a seat.” Her offer was more of a command, and while I hesitated, her strong arms pushed me toward the kitchen table before I could outwardly object. Hungry, Paul didn’t need any further prompting. “Here… have some juice…” the old woman soon offered as Paul made his final adjustments in his seat. There wasn’t something odd about all this, but thirsty, I didn’t turn the drink down. I was trying to collect my thoughts though, so Paul was nearly halfway through his glass by the time mine came up to my lips. “Oh… dass good… Wan’ suh’… mo…” Paul began to slur his words. Worried, I quickly put down my drink. The old woman was busy, so her momentary distraction gave me the time to look around to see if it was just Paul getting sleepy, or something more sinister. To my luck, surprise, and terror, I soon found a common Little’s sleeping aid bottle perched on her kitchen countertop. It wasn’t anything permanent or even harmful, but working with LPS, I knew it was a common additive to lull Littles in and eventually capture them for other more nefarious purposes. My eyes widened and I began to slip out of my seat just as the old woman began to take the casserole out. She was pleasantly yet eerily humming to herself, and for a brief moment, I swore she looked a little more youthful. My head began to tick, but while Paul was in his stupor, I pulled him down from the chair. He made a few whimpering noises, but I quickly clamped my hand over his mouth. Likely too affected from his large ingestion of the drug by drinking so quickly, it was taking effect faster than I’m guessing the old woman wanted. We were halfway to the door, however, when she finally turned around. “Babies? Where did you go babies?” Her still mitted hands went around her waist and her eyes beadily scanned the room. I gulped when she finally spotted us. “And just what do you sweeties think you are doing? I just pulled out the casserole. Aren’t you hungry?” Paul wiggled free of my hand. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” I just ignored him and pulled him further away to the door. “That’s right…” She began to stalk closer to us. Her back started to hunch over. Her eyes widened with a craze I had only seen in the movies and her fingers now began to look more like claws than simple digits. To top it off, I swear if this was a fairytale, I got the peculiar sensation that she was about to smack her lips in anticipation for having us as a meal. Seeing her now though and putting everything together, I realized that it was likely actually worse. “No, no… thank you, ma’am. We need to get going…” I pressed toward the door and already started fidgeting with the handle. “Go? Go where?” Her voice was now gravellier and tense, while somehow still alluring in an odd and perverted way that made me sick to my core. She edged closer, her pace showing that she was completely unconcerned with how far we had gotten already and that we couldn’t escape. I guess she was counting on my having drunk the juice and would soon succumb to it as well. “You all said you were lost. Just come back with me and I can make you both full and happy. A nice diaper change, bath, and a long nap will do you both well.” I could feel my pulse rising. Her words were all said exactly as any grandmother or mother would say to a young child under their care. Maybe old fashioned in a way, but still comforting. Any regressed Little would want to embrace them fully and give in to her. I could tell that Paul was already starting to do that. I just pulled him back harder. That might have been fine even, but the problem was though that her words were anything but pleasant or kind. In fact, they seemed to echo and drip with sinister intentions. I could feel a shiver crawl up my spine after each syllable. I felt we were doomed. I panicked. I fussed with the handle more. It still didn’t give way. But all at once, it clicked. Smiling, I burst it open, and taking advantage of her previously slow pace, I ran for it, dragging Paul behind me. “Get back here!” The previously kindly ‘old lady’ demeanor quickly dropped. Hunched over, she began to run as well toward us. “I’ll bake you all special cookies!” If we had been in the city, she would have caught us. In fact, her talon-like fingers snatched at our backs, and I could feel the breeze from it ripple across the back of my neck. But we were in the forest. Either as a defense against outsiders or animals, or just simply from neglect, I remembered that there was a bramble and dense thicket to the south of her house. It nearly encapsulated the property completely, except where we had entered. The rest was too thick to pass through… except for a pair of Littles like us. Tearing our clothing in a few spots, we still it made it through and to the other side. “Come back, babies! Mommy won’t hurt you! Come back here! Only a spank and everything will be okay! Come back to mommy! Come back! Come back!” She ranted and raved and while Paul wanted food and kept mumbling ‘casswol’ all the way, I made sure I didn’t stop until I could only hear the clacking of the now-barren branches around us. Sighing with relief, I pushed on. Still drugged though, I had to half-carry Paul through all the surrounding dead foliage. At first, I grimaced with each crunch of the leaves underneath our feet, but after about an hour, I felt certain we weren’t being followed in these woods any more by the old lady. At about the same time, we finally came to another ridgeline. “There it is…” In the distance was Aprisium. For us, getting to the nearest subway stop was probably still going to be at least a three-hour trek, but to my relief, Paul was already sobering up. “About time…” I only smiled and continued to hold him up as we started making our way down the hilly slope. About an hour later, Paul had passed the worst of his drugged juice and was able to stand on his own. “Geez… what the heck was that lady’s problem? You think she’s crazy or something?” I shook my head. “Not in the strictest sense, but I think…” I sighed and moved a branch out of the way in front of me. “I think she has Seniorosis…” I could hear Paul behind me stop for a second as he heard the word out loud. “Senior... Seniorosis… you made that up, didn’t you?” I shook my head. “Well, I’ve never heard about it…” I sighed. “I’m not surprised. The government’s been keeping it quiet for years. It’s one of the scarier conditions that affects us Bigs and can hit anyone.” “Anyone?” I could hear Paul stop again, clearly worried over if I could catch it, my DNA at least still being that of a Little’s. I shook my head. “Don’t worry, Paul. It’s not a contagious thing. It’s more…” I wasn’t sure of the right words to use to describe it, but I gave it my best shot. “I’m not sure what term to use, but frankly, it’s within most women Bigs out there. Could be men as well, but there’s just not enough data to go off. Essentially though, it appeared after the Great War from what most suspect was a mutation caused by some of the fallout from back then. All speculation though…” “Of course…” I could hear the annoyance already in Paul’s voice. He had joined a group bent on at least altering the government after all. “Yeah… not our finest moment, but Bigs who go without contact from Littles and have certain predisposed conditions, start suffering from a form of schizophrenia or dementia.” I hoped over a few stones that spanned the small stream. I could tell we were getting lower. “Hard to know with all the secrecy, but even in some extreme cases, it can even affect a Big’s appearance. A Big surrounded by Littles at age 90 would look radically younger than a Big of the same age who had Seniorosis.” “That’s messed up…” It was about all Paul could say about what I had just told him, and I couldn’t blame him. By now, the disease was nearly akin to the boogey men of the lonely older women in our society. Despite Alice and being around Littles, my mom even panicked herself once about it. Regardless, Paul and I pushed on and finally came to a road. We made sure to stay hidden from the main traffic, as hitchhiking Littles were almost certainly doomed, but about an hour and a half later, we finally made it to the nearest subway station. It almost looked weird out here, but I definitely wasn’t going to complain about the expansion that happened about two years ago now. We made sure to wash ourselves off a little bit in the nearest restroom, and seeing our reflections, I could already feel the panic tighten in my chest. Our borrowed clothes weren’t exactly mature, slogans, colors, and all that essentially announcing us to the world. But on top of that, our diapers were just obvious enough. While Paul paid no mind to his own, I worried as I felt my own squish a bit when I poked at it. I knew that if we didn’t find help soon, I would leak, and then we’d really have a problem on our hands. Leaky diapers meant neglected Littles, and neglected Littles were prime targets to be kidnapped or seized by the government. Keeping that in mind, Paul and I then made sure to stick together, hand in hand. We didn’t make a big deal about it, and when we started getting odd looks when the train began to crowd from the daily commuters, I gestured to Paul to get closer to me. Finding one Big and then another, Paul and I made sure to stick closely to some of the more non-threatening Bigs looming over us. My hope was that if any real threatening Bigs saw us, they might just assume we were cared for by that nearest Big. Littles being seen and not heard or spoken to was common, so that wasn’t a dead giveaway, and I fully knew that no Big in their right mind would snatch Littles in such a crowded subway train… especially if they even for a second believed that we were already owned. And so, it went. Being so far out, it took about two hours to get to where we needed to go. Hopping off was a challenge and I’m pretty sure we were being followed, but I soon orientated myself to the neighborhood around us. It felt strange seeing all the street signs and I had known for so long at this height, but I could feel a sense of relief as we neared the house. Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the bright red door and it soon opened. “Hello?” Chloe asked with some skepticism over seeing me at first. Her eyes then shot to Paul. “Paul? Holy… you’re here… you’re…” Panic set in her face and I could see her eyes dart around… likely to see where I was. “Wait… Paul, where’s… where’s my sister? Where’s Sophie?” It was good to hear my name again, especially from family, but there was a tiny part of me that was still a little hurt that she didn’t recognize me immediately. My altered appearance was good, but I didn’t think that it would be that good. “Chloe… it’s me…” Chloe squinted hard at me but shook her head. “No… I’m sorry little girl. My sister, even if she somehow shrunk… doesn’t even look like you… Do you want me to maybe call your mo…” I nearly wanted to slug her before she finished that thought, but Paul interrupted her first. “Chloe… I know it might be a bit difficult… but this… this is Sophie. Trust me…” Chloe’s eyes were still unconvinced, but for the moment, she no longer looked like she was about to call DLS, LPS, or the police. Still, she sighed and crossed her arms. “Fine. I still think this is some game, or whatever, but I’ll play along… for now.” I could tell she was putting her thinking cap on. “Okay, how about this? I ask you some questions and you answer them for me. Does that…?” This time, I didn’t let her finish. “Oh, come on, Chloe. It’s me!” My tiredness, wet diaper, sore feet, and desperation were getting to me. “Do you remember that one time with Thomas Delaney?” Chloe’s eyes widened, but she remained silent as her cheeks began to redden. I knew I had her. “He had a crush on you in fifth grade, but he didn’t know how to show it, so he resorted to tickling you. One thing led to another, and you started to we…” “Okay! Stop!” She blushed about ten shades of red and I heard Paul snicker for a moment. “Ugh! Definitely have the annoying bit down from her, but I’m still going to ask you my questions, okay?” I smirked and crossed my arms confidently now. I could tell I was getting under her skin and was already halfway for her getting to believe me. Knowing I would pass, I invited her challenge on freely. “Okay, fire away.” About twenty questions later, I had answered each with perfection. I added my own little punishment to her and made sure to add some embarrassing details for an extra kick, but finally, she believed me. “Damn sis. What did you do to yourself?” I smirked but as I stepped forward into her house, I could feel my diaper squish. I think Chloe might have heard it as well, because she looked right down at my pelvic area. “Uh… I’ll tell you all about it, but for now, can we use Alice’s nursery for a moment. We could use a shower and…” “Oh! Oh! Right away!” Chloe quickly showed us to her room, despite having been there several times before. “I can help, but… I’ll just step outside for now. Holler if you need anything… but sis… I really do expect some answers when you all are done.” I nodded my head at her perfectly reasonable request. Closing the door, Paul and I began to disrobe each other until we were basically naked except for my bra and our diapers. Having seen him naked before and seeing a few fumbling’s in his coordination, I made sure to run a bath and help Paul out as well as I could. It was a bit awkward at first, but soon, I had him sweet-smelling and diapered all back up. I had to dress him in a pair of floral jeans from Alice for now, but he actually seemed better with those than to just run around in a diaper. Showing him back out to Chloe, I went to work on myself afterward. My diaper had been decimated, and I was highly relieved that my bowel control still remained mine. Paul had gotten a bit ripe by the time I changed him, but having gone longer without a change, I wasn’t too great off myself either. Still, removing the diaper and easing into a fresh bath, I felt divine. Even back at LRG, it was strictly showers, so I had taken a bath in ages. The smells wafted around me, and I never wanted to leave. Steam filled my pores and I nearly passed out for a moment there. Chloe was waiting patiently though, so I only stayed long enough to soak and not feel that I was about to crawl out of my skin from all the filth and grime. Seeing myself in the mirror, it was about a miracle we hadn’t been picked up on the subway. Regardless, though, I then went about diapering myself with one of Alice’s diapers. Still being self-conscious of them, her designs were less cutesy and not as thick as I had once imagined they might be. That being said, I had only started wearing diapers with the nannybot to change me, so it took me a few tries to get it right. I eventually did, but I was still worried if this was going to become my new daily routine… even when I was returned to my original Big size. Deciding to face only problem at a time though, I donned a white blouse and some sunflower themed shortalls, and I made my way back out to Chloe and Paul. “Finally!” Chloe said a bit too eagerly. “I take it you’re all… fresh?” I just knew she was referring to my diapers, but she also had the good sense and decency not to mention them. So, I just nodded, plopped down on the couch and began explaining everything in detail as much as I could. For a while, she would only ask the occasional question, and I would answer as best I could. Considering what was implied by BAL about LPS, and thinking about it now, even Astrid and my own suspicions previously, I knew I needed an ally going forward. The more Chloe knew in this case, the better prepared she could be for whatever came next. “Okay, so, now that all is out of the way, I need you to contact my neighbors Maggie and Bill.” Chloe nodded but I could see curiosity in her eyes. “I told them to be on the lookout for a few things before I left. I need to know about LPS, and my house will be a good barometer for their involvement or possible distrust of me.” “I can do that.” Chloe then checked her watch. “I should be able to tomorrow after I drop Alice off at her daycare. I think normalcy would be best, even with you all staying here, but first, there’s something…” Paul and I both heard the same screech of tires outside. They sounded urgent and we both panicked and shot up, ready to defend ourselves. “You called the cops?” I shouted at my sister, not even thinking it could be anything else. My nerves were pretty much shot at that point. Chloe immediately shook her head and stood up as well. My previously shorter than me sister now towered over me. “No, I didn’t do that. I promise, Sophie. I’m your sister. Nothing that happens will change that, even if you are really cute…” I glared and groaned at her. She only smirked back at me, clearly enjoying her Big status over my Little form. “For now, though, just wait here. I’ll be right back. I promise.” Letting her go, Chloe slipped out the front door, just as I heard a car door slam. By the sound, I knew the strength would have taken some, so I knew that whoever it was, it was a Big. A few minutes later, we had sat down and Chloe came back, but now, she had a worried expression. “Is everything okay?” Chloe sighed and I got feel my heartbeat pick up. “Well… I hope it will be, but first, there’s something you need to know.” I braced for the worst and gripped onto the couch cushion for moral support. If I thought he would outright accept it, I would have held Paul’s hand, but I just couldn’t deal with another potential problem right then. Chloe sat down in front of us once more, and Paul and I also took our seats. From my peripheral vision, I could tell he was nervous as well. “So, if you remember, Julian and I have been working with mom…” Instantly I just knew who was waiting on the other side of the door. Chloe seemed like she was deactivating a nuclear bomb right now. “And before you outright object, she’s made some tremendous steps, and…” “And nothing!” I jumped to my feet and couldn’t help but blurt out exactly what was on my mind. “The last time she was within spitting distance, she spanked Paul for something so freaking minor. Look at me! What the hell do you think she is going to do with me now?” I didn’t want to, but I could already feel the hot sting of tears form in my eyes. Paul, vowing to his promise to at least forgive me by now, clutched my hand while still seated on the couch. Oddly, he seemed like the more level-headed one with this. “Chloe… I think Sophie is coming from a place of hurt, but truth. How can we really be expected to see her again?” One of Paul’s hands unconsciously slipped toward his rear for a brief moment, as if he was recalling that one moment of punishment between them. Chloe sighed. “I understand, but… she has changed. If you let her, she can explain it better than I can, but…” I could sense there was another side to all this. Chloe had remained resigned but remarkably calm as the mediator. I felt that was about to end in some small way. “She isn’t staying here, so you don’t need to worry about that, but…” I knew her caveat in all this was coming. “I want you all to at least talk… even for a moment.” I nearly objected right there, but Chloe stopped me. “But before you object, hear me out on one thing…” Again, I wanted to object, but I could feel Paul’s hand grip mine. I looked back, and with pleading eyes, he shook his head and gestured over to my sister. I sighed. “Fine…” Chloe nodded. “Good, but I just want to note first that I love having you both here. As far as I’m concerned, we’re all completely family by this point, so if you need a place to stay safe, my doors are always open…” She took a deep breath. “But with that, I need you two to know something…” She took another breath and I braced for the impact I knew was coming. “I’m just one person. I’m not sure what happened to either of you since we last heard from you, but considering that crinkle, I’m guessing it wasn’t too good.” I wasn’t sure about Paul, but I definitely blushed. She knew… “It’s okay… really, but that means two things.” She sighed. “First, I am here to help if needed. Whatever the case, we’re family and your needs and comfort are my priority. But second… I’m just one woman. I’m strong and I can take a punch and keep on going, but when you all stay, with Alice, that makes three Littles. I need help…” It then just dawned on me where she was going with this. “You have some good reasons to hide, but I’m guessing that means you’re not going to trust a lot of people. Maybe this Maggie and Bill that you want me to talk to, but I can’t guarantee that.” Her eyes glanced outside, and I knew who she was looking at. “But mom… our mom is family and can help as well. Just give her a chance, sis. Please…” I could see that my sister was coming from a genuine place of care, but it was still hard for me to reconcile the image of my mom coming in here to see me like… this. I wasn’t even comfortable about it fully still, but my mom? The Little belittler of Aprisium… member of the Midas Society… likely backer of several pro-Big groups, including maybe even the one that had just taken us? I didn’t feel out of line in the slightest over my previous objections. But then I felt a squeeze of my hand. I looked back and Paul was looking back up at me with his pleading eyes. “Sophie… please… just listen to her. If she’s bad, you can say you tried, but until then…” Paul heavily sighed. “Just give her once chance at least… for me.” I was still conflicted, but it seemed that my one ally with similar objections in all this even seemed to think I should give her a chance, so I simply waved my arm at my sister to let her in. No sooner than the door opened did Alice come charging headfirst toward us. At first, I was confused, but she quickly went to hug Paul. After a moment though, she looked back at me. In fact, I saw that my mom was staring at me as well. For a second, Alice surveyed my face and even poked and prodded at it as if examining my face for lesions or tumors. “Uh… sweetie… who is this?” my mom asked, clearly referring to me. Chloe was just about to respond, but suddenly, Alice lit up. “Oh, Aunty Sofee!” Without a single word of warning, she launched into me like she always had. Confused, but grateful that at least Alice saw me, I hugged her tightly back. Again, it was strange with our similar heights now, even more with the fact that I was wearing her shortalls, but a hug felt good. “What?” My mom’s confused question pierced the serene moment. Despite Alice’s greater perception of who I really was, I couldn’t blame her. “This is Sophie, Mom… really,” Chloe tried to emphasize. My mom set all her purse, several grocery bags, and Alcie’s diaper bag on the ground and began to walk closer to me. Staring back at me, her face looked like she was staring back at an odd specimen of alien origin. I tried to explain quickly, but Alice interjected. “She’s jus’ wike dat supahhwo, gwanny! Iss da gwasses!” I took them off immediately, and I could slowly start to see my mom come to grips with the reality. Sitting down, everyone then explained what had happened to me and Paul. “You know… I doubted everything at first, but I can see it now… Hard to believe people would be really fooled by even all that work you got done.” To my surprise, I saw Paul nodding as well. I quickly looked at him with surprise. “What? When I first saw you, I kind of thought you looked like you. Different and shorter, but you. It was only when Carol introduced you as Susan that I thought any differently. One or two differences, but all together… that’s what gave me doubt. Not your disguise…” We all talked for a while and after that, my mom and I warmed back up to each other. For a second, I thought her old self was going to pop back up, but instead, I just saw her getting to know Paul better and apologizing profusely to him. After I questioned how long we had been gone though, at least according to them, my mom started getting emotional. Everyone saw. “Uh… Paul? Alice? How about you come to help me in the kitchen. It’s almost dinner time…” Alice was about to object, but Chloe gave her a look of ‘don’t mess with me’ that I knew too well myself. Still, I was a little worried as we were left alone. “Mom… you okay?” My mom hadn’t said anything in a while now. I had wanted to tear her a new one from the start, but this version of my mom. She seemed resigned, contemplative… even regretful. Above all thought, she seemed sad. My mom sniffed and looked back up at me. It had been years since I had seen her this emotional without being angry as well. “I’m… I’m fine, Sophie. It’s just that… we heard you were missing, and I…” She trailed off for a moment. “I came to regret so much in my life afterward. I should have done it before, but I couldn’t deny it anymore when you were gone.” “Oh?” I’m pretty sure I had never heard my mom use that word before. My mom nodded. “When you left, I thought it was strange, but I thought you would be back, so when I heard the news from Julian and Chloe… I didn’t think much of it. I thought you would be back soon, like you always were. A simple business trip... nothing more…” I perched about as well as I could on the edge of the couch. “And then what happened?” My mom sighed. “Well, nothing for a while. It was hard but Chloe and Julian were helping me come into the modern age. Lots of rallies and seminars later, I realized I had made some terrible decisions and judgements about Littles.” Her mind then seemed to wander to a dark place. “But then…” I could see whatever she was thinking was a heavy burden. I hadn’t seen her this upset since my dad died. It then clicked in my head with what must have happened while I was gone. No news isn’t always good news. “We got a visit from LPS… they told us that you had disappeared while undercover…” My mom quickly wiped a tear away from her cheek. Now normally, government agents disappear from time to time. Mostly, a lot just go silent for a while to maintain their cover. Unfortunately, in the past few years, more and more agents had disappeared and were either never seen of again, or their bodies were found. So, to my family, me going missing was about the next closest step to hearing that I had died in the field with Paul. I could only imagine the grief and confusion they must have felt. “I’m sorry, mom…” I didn’t mean to hurt my family like that. I couldn’t do anything about it now, but that didn’t mean I had to stay quiet about my own regrets. My mom let out a weak smile. “That’s okay, Sophie. I know…” I could see the cracks begin to form in her once so mighty demeanor. I would have given anything to have cracked her rigidity a year ago, but now… My mom still pushed through though. “I know you were… detained this time around. It’s not your fault. I just…” My mom then got a sudden odd yet familiar look. To any outsiders, they might have thought it was gas or nervousness, but I knew what I was seeing. I had seen the same look in the mirror before whenever I wanted to hug Paul and felt I couldn’t or that I would be outright objected. My mom needed a hug, and while I never thought I would feel this way again at one time, I knew I needed to give her one. In fact, I wanted to give her a hug. So, emotionally drained, exhausted, and needing to feel a connection of some kind today in the midst of all this chaos, I got up and marched right over to her. “Sophie… what are you…?” But that was as far as she got. Even in my shortened form, from my mom sitting on the edge of the couch, I was easily able to wrap myself up around her lower body. “Oh! Oh… Sophie…” Not even caring what happened next, I didn’t object at all when my mom hoisted me up and nestled me into her arms. It had been over a year since our last hug and years since our last genuine hug. “Oh Sophie… I’m so, so sorry, baby. I… I promise that I’ll be here for you now. Whatever you need, I’ll help you out with it. I was so stupid, and I was blind to the only thing that mattered… you are my daughter and I love you.” All at once, I was hearing everything that I had secretly desired to hear from my mom. I never told her any of that, always trying to win our arguments over the years, but I really just wanted a mom who would be there for me. She was her own person, but I wanted her to be in my corner sometimes. Over the years, that felt impossible. Today, it seemed like a reward for our forgiveness to each other after all our years of bickering. “Mom, I…” I wanted to tell her everything that I was feeling, but my emotional state was just too much. My lips started quivering and I could feel a catch in my throat and a stinging in my eyes. So, instead, I let my actions speak for themselves, and I launched myself further into my mom. Surprised, but quickly receptive, my mom only squeezed me back. “I’ll never let you go again, sweetie… please forgive me, but know that I’m yours now…” I could nearly hear the tremendous burden of our previously soured relationship lift off her shoulders. “I’m your mom, and it’s my duty to protect you from anything… even if that means taking on the whole damn government. You need a mama bear; I’m yours…” Our interaction was awkward at first. I think I was anticipating everything going wrong, and that was just a barrier that was hard to overcome. As we hugged and my mom began saying all those long-held back wonderful things to me though, that feeling started to change. I no longer felt burdened or uncomfortable with our hug. It might have been my lack of sleep, my captivity for what turned out to be almost a solid month, or just the final breakthrough that I had longed for with my mom, but I started to feel a sense of peace at last. It was the first time I had felt that way in months. As my mom swayed a bit back and forth and even patted my diapered bottom embarrassingly enough, I only felt safe. I was here with my family, and while I had to protect Julian in my own way by keeping him at arm’s length for now, I was glad of who I still had with me. My mom’s wording punched through my mind, and for once, I felt at least decent about the future. If everything I suspected was the truth, moments like those, no matter how good they felt, were likely a sad rarity in the coming weeks and months. For now, though, I just leaned in and closed my eyes and took in as much serenity as I could with my mom.

Thanks again for the kind feedback all. I seem to be developing a habit of posting chapters in pairs. Chapter 8 – Roadtrip The day had barely started and Oliver was already wishing it could just end as he watched rows of identical trees and telegraph poles hypnotically woosh by beyond the car window with his head slumped against the head rest of his new carseat. It was surprisingly soft and comfortable to the point of being almost inviting and the raised vantage point it offered improved his view of the outside world immensely, not that he planned on conceding any these points. His final stand against the tyranny of the carseat had ended mid-debate with his arms crossed in the Tender Care carpark when Abigail hoisted him from the asphalt and bundled him into it. The clunk of the buckle locking into place was like a judge’s gavel cementing his conviction. The padded restraints forced his legs apart and pressed firmly but not uncomfortably against his waist and shoulders, holding him securely against the back of the seat in a slightly reclining position. He idly inspected the buckle with his fingers. It was completely alien to him, unlike the typical red button affair, it seemed to require more force and particular knack to operate. The remaining drive to Sue’s house was short now that traffic had abated and the car soon rolled to a stop and the door swung open. Abigail smiled at Oliver furrowing his brow at the mechanism as she reached in and casually released him from his captivity. “Come on kiddo, last chance to stretch your legs before we’re in it for the long haul.” she said cheerily as if trying to put the events of the morning behind them. They made their way to the house and the door swung open where they were greeted once again by Sue. “Hi guys, come on in.” she said in the familiar inflection of a parent going through their last minute vacation checklist. “Rough morning little man?” she asked rhetorically. Oliver didn’t know how much Abigail had told her but it must have been enough. He just looked at the ground. “I don’t think he’s feeling very talkative just yet.” Abigail offered placatingly. “Hi Oli, super cute overalls!” Oliver winced. He didn’t even need to look to recognise the source of the saccharine insincere greeting, He glanced up at his cousin Jessica just so he could roll his eyes. “Why don’t you guys help pack the car while I make your aunt Abigail a coffee for the long drive?” suggested Sue. It had been agreed that they would carpool to save on fuel and split the driving since they would all fit in one car. Oliver didn’t waste a second before grabbing a big to haul out to the car. Anything beat trying to hang out with Jessica. It was like exposing himself to deadly radioactivity, he thought. She looked completely harmless but it was only a matter of time until she did something horrible to him. Jessica couldn’t help but spy the tell-tale pampers package amongst the luggage and smirk. Sue had made vague reference to Oliver’s issues in hopes Jessica could act with sensitivity if she knew in advance. She didn’t know the details but it didn’t take much to piece it together. She fetched Davey’s booster seat for Abigail’s car and when she opened the door, her smirk grew into a grin. “Wow, Davey. Your booster seat is so grown-up compared to Oli’s baby seat.” “Shut. Up. Jessica.” Oliver ordered through gritted teeth. “So cranky. Is it already time for your nap?” she shot back unphazed. “Now, what else?” she pondered with disingenuous curiosity “Everyone should definitely go potty before such a long drive. I just went, and I just took Davey too. Do you need to go Oli? Oops, I forgot.” she said patting Oliver’s bottom to confirm her suspicions “You still wear diapers.” “D-davey is wearing them too.” Oliver stammered, recalling what Abigail had told him. He realised as he spoke that even comparing himself with a four-year-old did nothing for his perceived maturity. “Oh, no, Davey wears big boy undies now. Your mommy probably just lied to you so you’d feel like less of a baby.” Jessica said slowly with a voice full of fake concern, savouring the interaction. Just at that moment they heard the front door shutting behind them as Sue and Abigail appeared holding coffees in travel cups. “Good job packing guys.” praised Sue. “We have a long drive ahead of us. Let’s all try to get along so we can have a nice vacation together, okay?” Abigail said glancing between the look of smug self satisfaction on Jessica’s face and the clear distress on Oliver’s. She opened the door and hoisted Oliver once again into his new seat and buckled him in securely while Sue did likewise with Davey and they set off on their long drive. Boredom quickly set in on the long straight road. Davey chatted idly, commenting on the scenery, asking inane questions, and verbalising sound effects with his toys. Jessica scrolled aimlessly on her phone while the adults made conversation in the front seats. Oliver just sat staring into the middle distance. He was bored, but really he was too angry at the unfairness of everything for boredom to even register. After some time, Abigail looked back to check on him. She lent him a sympathetic smile and silently offered her phone to play with. Oliver tentatively accepted, surprised that he would be allowed near it again after the events of the morning. An episode of a cartoon he used to enjoy but now felt too old for was already loaded on screen. He attempted to find a game to play instead but was met with a prompt informing him that the app was pinned, and he would need to unlock the device to switch apps. He punched in the passcode and the numbers flashed red. It had been changed. Oh. That explains, he thought. Feeling a pit in his stomach for the trust he had lost, he resigned to contenting himself with the show. It beat staring out the window. A couple of episodes later, Sue passed out snacks from a bag in the front to all three kids, follow by juice boxes to Davey and Jessica, and finally a sippy cup to just Oliver. Although she wouldn’t say anything in front of their parents, Jessica shot Oliver another knowing smirk as he started to drink. Another few episodes later, the battery on Abigail’s phone was starting to dwindle. He passed it back so she could charge it and, with nothing else to occupy his attention, subtle signals from his bladder rapidly started to become less so. Luckily, he felt the car slow as they pulled into a service station. “We’re just going to get gas first, and then we’ll look for somewhere to eat, so stay put guys.” explained Sue as she and Abigail exited the car. In the silence of the parked vehicle, Jessica noticed Oliver’s increasingly desperate fidgeting at first, and then full blown failed negotiations with his seat buckle. She saw her opportunity and pounced. “Davey, do you need to go potty?” He nodded predictably in response. She exited the vehicle and circled round to open the opposite door and help him out. “Jessica... please help. I can’t get this stupid buckle undone.” Oliver pleaded in desperation. “Hmm, let’s see here. Yep, I think I see the issue.” she said. Oliver felt a mix of relief and embarrassment that she’d been able to figure it out so quickly, but at least now he’d know how to do it. “Yep, it looks like this was designed to keep babies from escaping. Which probably means your mommy doesn’t want you wandering off since she left you in it, so I think we better leave it locked up nice and tight. Good thing she put you in a diaper.” Oliver’s eyes went wide “No, Jessica, please don’t.” he begged, but it was too late. She had slammed the door and left him alone before he could even finish his undignifying appeal. Oliver sat alone in the fading light and soaked his diaper as tears ran town his cheeks. In the privacy of the car, he allowed himself to cry freely. “Oliver, sweetie, what’s wrong?” He hadn’t even noticed Abigail and Sue approaching the car until the door was opened. Abigail swiftly undid his buckle and pulled the boy into her arms, rocking him from side to side and running her hand through his hair as he pressed his teary visage against her shoulder. A moment later, Jessica returned with Davey in tow, looking rather pleased with the aftermath she helped to create. “I told you to two to stay put. What happened to your cousin?” admonished Sue. “I’m sorry. Davey just needed to go potty and I didn’t want him to have an accident. I think Oli just needs his diaper changed.” she explained with false sinceritty. Abigail knew there was more to it than that but nevertheless slipped a finger between the snaps on his overalls to confirm her suspicions. “Why don’t you guys go find somewhere to eat while Oli and I freshen up?” she suggested, as she popped the trunk with her free hand to retrieve a single diaper and a packet of wipes. Jessica smiled at the visual as they parted ways, knowing any onlooker could finally see her cousin for what he was. Oliver had mostly calmed down to intermittent sniffles and hiccups by the time he was being gingerly laid out on a changing table. The fluorescent light caught in strands of Abigail’s hair as he looked up at her. He took comfort in her broad, reassuring smile as she secured him to the changing table with a strap across his chest. “What’s got you down little man?” she coaxed softly as she undid the snaps on his overalls. This was the first time he had noticed them. Why did she even buy clothes with those on them, he wondered? “I couldn’t open that stupid buckle and Jessica wouldn’t help. She wanted me to have an accident. Why is it even like that?” he asked in a whisper as she removed his sodden diaper and started to wipe him clean. “It’s like that to keep you safe. I can’t just have you wandering off in a place like this honey bunch.” she explained as she sealed the tapes on the new diaper. Her phrasing unintentionally mirrored Jessica’s cruel taunt, which set his lip trembling again. “Okay, okay.” she coo’d like she might to a toddler who couldn’t be reasoned with as she released the restraint and pulled him back into arms. “You’ve had a long day, I think we better get some din-din in your tummy and then you can sleep in the car. You’ll wake up in the cabin tomorrow feeling right as rain, I promise.” The rest stop had an area dotted with picnic benches and half a dozen or so food vendors. They returned to a generous spread of burgers, fries, and shakes that had been purchased in their absence. Rather than releasing him Abigail took a seat at the edge of the bench with Oliver in her lap and wrapped her arms tightly around him. He didn’t feel like fighting and since the evening air had developed a chill, he was glad for the warmth as he got comfortable. He reached for a fry and started to eat his fill. “They were happy to microwave it. The blue one, right?” Sue said handing a sippy cup to Abigail. “Here sweetie.” she whispered as she held it pressed to his lips and started to tilt it back. Oliver was taken by surprise that she didn’t hand it to him but offered no resistance as the sweet, warm liquid flowed. Exhaustion felt like it was seeping out of his muscles mere minutes after he finished the formula. He could swear the lights of the cars on the distant highway started to dance and blur in the distance as he nestled his head into his mommy’s shoulders and closed his eyes for what he could have sworn was just a second, but when he opened them Abigail was buckling him in. “Go back to sleep sweetheart.” she whispered as she produced a pacifier and pressed it tenderly to his awaiting lips. He dutifully obeyed until he awoke once more in an unfamiliar room to the sound of birds tweeting outside, azure light streaming through the window, and the smell and sounds of sizzling bacon. He stretched and felt his feet seemed to press against the inside fabric of his pyjamas and he could feel it tugging against his shoulders. He opened his eyes fully and noticed for the first time that his view of the room was somehow obscured by a series of vertical lines.

Chapter 5 Robin wished she could reach out and strangle her doubts. She needed to get a grip, or she would spend the night worrying and not sleeping. Right now, she needed to feed Amber. Ok. She psyched herself up. You can do this. She pulled the unconscious Amber into her lap. She figured that she would approach it the same way as the bottle. That didn’t work. She was too high in her lap now. She considered it for a moment and shifted her arms around. More cradling and lifting. She giggled suddenly as she tried to line up a closed mouth and her leaking nipple. How can this be so difficult? On the third the try Ambers lips slid across her wet nipple. Whether it was the feel of her nipple, or the smell of her milk, Amber opened her mouth and began to suckle. Within moments she began to pull milk from her breast. Yes! She did it. She stroked Amber’s hair and just enjoyed the feeling. This was nothing like giving her a bottle. She could literally feel the milk leave her body. Watching her new child fill her little tummy with what only she could provide. She closed her eyes and just let it happen. Only pausing to switch Amber over to her other breast when the first one ran dry. She was finally beginning to understand why her friends thought it was so great. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Robin spent the next four days feeding Amber. Robin would breast feed Amber every four hours with an occasional bottle thrown in when her breasts were not quite full. On day four there was her first wet diaper. There was finally enough excess fluid in Amber that the nanites were able to start letting her body go pee. It was a litmus test for Robin. Amber’s first use of one of her diapers. It held the pee and didn’t leak. She pumped her fist after checking out the results and shouted “Oh yeah, who’s the momma!”. A closer examination revealed that she would need to add another layer and a soaker pad in the future. The only reason it didn’t leak was because the amount of pee was small. She felt the fold was ok. Just needed more layers of cloth. She cleaned up Ambers bottom and put her in her new and improved diaper 2.0 and put her back to bed. Robin realized she had been in a baby haze the last four days. She needed to get some work done. She had started lining up tasks to do but let Amber derail her planning. On purpose. The problem was she didn’t want to leave Amber alone, but she needed to leave the cave. She needed to dive her sunken ship again. There were some things on board that could be used as a bathtub and a laundry tub. She had dived down there countless times recovering the relief supplies but now she was worried about Amber. Who would take care of her if something happened? She had never thought about what could go wrong before. It was a shallow dive for her. But now all she could think of were the ways it could go wrong. Each imagined accident was more unlikely then the last. It really helped hammer home how alone they really were. How alone she was. In the end she went despite her fears. She needed to think long term and these tubs were part of that plan. Robin gave Amber both breasts and half a bottle of formula before grabbing her tools and recovered snorkeling gear. Dive gear would have been better, but she had never carried it between tourist trips. She was glad the ship was not straight out from the cave. It was nice to have a little separation in case the ship was ever discovered. Still, it was not a long walk from the cave. When she was dragging relief supplies to the cave, she was very happy about it. Robin was not sure how long it would take but she wanted to take no more then four hours total. She had given Amber extra milk but that was just in case not the plan. She considered taking the raft out, but it was deflated for storage, and it was a pain in the ass to inflate with just a foot pump. She stopped long enough to put on the short flippers and mask before entering the water. With her tool bag tight to her side, she swam out to the wreck of her beloved ship. When she reached the ship Robin swam down and entered the galley. The ship was slowly being incorporated into the sea bottom and surrounding coral. Already the galley was filled with schools of small fish, and everything had a film of algae on it. She would have sighed if she didn’t need to hold her breath. Her fist goal was the kitchen sink. She thought it would make a nice wash basin for scrubbing diapers or other clothes. She could rinse the diapers out in the ocean first and then wash them in fresh hot water in the stainless steel sink. It didn’t take long to remove the sink since the faucet was separate from the actual sink. She unscrewed the drainpipe and pushed up from underneath the sink. It popped right out. She guessed that something down here liked to eat the putty seal. She dragged it behind her and soon broke the ocean surface. Not long after breaching the surface Robin pulled herself out of the surf and onto the sandy beach. The sink looked good except for the green film. The strainer drain plug was even still in place. She rested for a few minutes. That was the easy one. On the next trip she would try to remove the large work sink from below decks, near the engine room. It was made of heavy rigid plastic. It was big enough for Amber to sit in and stretch her legs out, but not so deep that her head would be below the edge. It was one solid piece on four legs that were bolted to the floor. If she could keep the legs intact, she would be able to stand up while bathing Amber. She smiled at the brief image of washing Amber’s hair while they watched the waves roll in. She stood up and double checked her tool bag making sure the required wrenches were there. In addition, she made sure the flashlight was still nice and bright. It should have been, it had batteries that were supposed to take years of continuous use before needing replacement. She was thankful that Amazon products had moved into longevity and sustainability. In her grandparents’ day they were still building commercial products to break and be replaced. Fat lot of good that would have done her here on the island. However, a guaranteed way for flashlight to not work was to not check it before it was needed. She laughed and thought ‘Or be chased in the dark by a hungry, one eyed, clawed monster’. God, she missed bad sci-fi movies. Things were not as smooth as the first sink. She ended up making twelve separate dives before she hauled the thing to the surface. Disconnecting the water line and the drainpipe, one dive. Then it took three dives before she realized that she couldn’t get a grip on the floor bolts because they had some sort of rubberized seal over them. Four dives to scrape them clean. Two dives to remove the bolts. And finally, two more dives to get the big sink on deck and up to the surface. Even though Robin was in excellent shape, and she was used to diving and swimming, she was staggering by the time she dragged the second sink to shore. She collapsed to the sand and closed her eyes. That was a lot more work then she had expected. She didn’t stay down long. She wasn’t sure how long she had been diving so she needed to get back and check on Amber. Eventually she stood up and took each sink and set them in the bushes. She would come back later. Now that she had the kitchen sink, she really had everything from the ship. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The next day she set Amber’s new bathtub up. She set up on the beach near the tree line under a shady spot. Using her pot, she made multiple trips to the cistern for fresh water. The last three pots she boiled and added to the tub. This made the tub nice and warm. There were tearless shampoos and baby safe soaps in the relief crates, and she used both liberally. Robin gently set the unconscious Amber in the water. This was her first time seeing Amber in the light of day. Her cave was home now but it was still a cave and poorly lit. She was a beautiful child. Her golden hair and olive colored skin a perfect combination. She slowly washed her. Starting with her toes and working her way to her hair. Robin’s fingers lingering on the scar on her hip. The nanites do good work and normally there would have been no scar, but they were limited here. Not allowed to do a complete job. She cleaned her cute little butt and her penis. While she thought her blonde little bush was to die for the nanites obviously didn’t. The programmers of the nanites had lots of hidden codes. It was a risk she had to take. Amber’s life was on the line and there were no other options. The other changes were obvious as well. She was smaller than before. She had probably lost twenty or thirty centimeters in height. She had expected that. She had been warned about a loss of mass. What she hadn’t expected was the chubby cheeks. The fat distribution made her face much younger looking. She could be a cute boy or a beautiful girl depending on how she made up her hair. She finished her washing and inspection, happy that Amber was finally clean. You can use all the wipes you want but nothing beats a good bath. The shampoo left her hair glistening in the midmorning sun. She used a large cloth diaper as a towel and dried her hair and body. Later tonight she would braid her hair before bedtime. She had found over the last few days that tending to Amber’s hair before bed was very relaxing. She hoped that when she woke up Amber would equally enjoy it. Robin picked Amber up and held her close and returned to the cave to get her diapered. They were going on a walk. The relief crates did not have a stroller. Indeed, it did not have any real Little furniture. No crib, no changing table, no playpen. She had made do so far. She wanted to build something for Amber to sleep in, but she held off for now. She wanted Amber’s input before building something. However, the crates did have something she was excited to use. It was a light gray and made with a soft durable cloth. It was designed to be slung over a shoulder and carry a newborn up to a toddler depending on how it was configured. She had not made her rounds of the island since she found Amber. She had not wanted to leave her alone that long. But with the carrier she could take her with her. She had already adjusted the straps and just needed to try it with Amber in place. She picked her up off the bed, her plastic diaper cover making crinkling noises. It was a bit awkward at first, but she was able to slide her in the carrier. It was a good fit. She had the carrier adjusted to newborn even though Amber was a little bigger than an Amazon newborn. When she carried a conscious Amber around, she could readjust it to allow her to sit up and see. She stopped by the cave entrance and grabbed her walking stick. It was just as tall as Robin. Robin called it her walking stick but with the sharp tip you could call it a spear as well. She had carved it a few days after Amber showed up. She had not been afraid to walk around unarmed before. There was no significant wildlife on the island except birds. Certainly nothing that could threaten Robin. Things were different now. Somebody had shot Amber, locked her in a trunk and tossed her into the ocean. They would not get her again. Not that she really expected them to show up. People don’t go hunting for things they threw away. Besides the ocean was big after all, and this island was not easy to get to with any sizable ship. The rocks which had doomed her ship now offered protection. But if they did land here there would be hell to pay before she gave up her daughter. Robin set off on a slow walk. Enjoying the sunshine. She found no signs of visitors. A little debris but nothing interesting. The few pieces of wood she tossed above the highwater line. She would collect it later in case they wanted a fire after dark. There were places to hide the flames from the sea but only at night. She was sure any smoke could be seen for miles during the day. At first, she didn’t realize she was looking for the lid from Amber’s crate. She had ripped it off and tossed it, but it was nowhere to be found. Most likely the tide carried back out to sea where it tipped over and sank. She didn’t want Amber ever seeing it again. Satisfied it was gone, she continued her walk. Robin suddenly shrieked and jumped. She had become so comfortable with Amber that she almost peed herself when the child found her nipple and began to nurse. It was the most movement that she had shown since the nanites induced her coma. There was no rush, so she found a shady spot and eased herself to the ground. She rocked back and forth and tenderly patted Amber’s diapered bottom. Somewhat sheltered from the constant ocean wind, she was warm and very comfortable. She catnapped and barely woke when she moved Amber around to reach her other nipple. Robin awoke only as the temperature started to drop. The sun had fallen behind the high cliffs that made up the islands center. She stood up and then looked down at Amber. From the smell it was obvious that Amber’s bowls were beginning to work as well. She was excited at the news. It was just another sign that she would be waking up soon. Smiling and happy she hurriedly finished the walk around the island. She had a baby to change. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Sammie dreamed. His father was there looking down on him. He was in his coffin. It was tight and he couldn’t move. He struggled to sit up, but his hip flared with pain whenever he moved. He whispered, “Help me father, please don’t let me die.” His father just laughed at him and said “Save you? I just got rid of you. I’m finally free of you.” Then he stretched his hand out and grabbed the coffin lid. The lid closed slowly and the darkness around him grew and seemed to wrap around him. Sammie panicked and tried to move again but the darkness had wrapped its arms around him. When the coffin lid slammed shut, he screamed and screamed and screamed. The whimpering noise woke Robin. Amber was waking up. The whimpering tore at her heart and she held tightly trying to comfort her. Amber started struggling and rolling and Robin eased her grip so that she wouldn’t hurt herself. Then the screaming began loud and piercing. They were filled with terror and just kept coming. She climbed out of bed and turned on the little light by her bed and waited for Amber to wake up. She was afraid to do something that would make it worse. She was just about to turn on the PLDC for medical advice when the screams started slowly ending. Whatever hideous nightmare had inflicted Amber it was beginning to end. Sammie slowly opened his eyes. There was light and he was no longer in hell. All he remembered was endless darkness and pain. He figured he must have died. Maybe he was in heaven. Was his mother here? She would want him, right? She wouldn’t cast him back into that darkness again. He tried to sit up and to his surprise he could. His hip twinged but the pain was nothing like he remembered. He blinked and looked around. He was sitting in a huge bed, wrapped in some sort of blanket. The room was dark with a small table lamp. He could tell it was not the ship. There was no sense of wave movement. He heard movement from beyond the light and he said with a shaky croaky voice “Who’s there?” Robin could hear the fear in Amber’s voice and decided to make herself a little less threatening by sinking to her knees. She kept her voice soft and said “My name is Robin Crusoe. What is your name?” “My name is Samuel Friday. I guess you can call me Sammie though. Where am I? Were you the one who bought me from the captain?” Sammie asked fearfully. He didn’t think so. He thought that guy had some pretty bad things planned for him. He didn’t think that guy would have been so friendly sounding. “Bought you?” Robin said with a gasp. “No sweetheart I didn’t buy you. I found you. You washed up on my island. You were trapped in a crate. Do you remember?” Sammie closed his for a moment and said “A crate? I remember being trapped in a dark place. I couldn’t move. Everything was moving up and down. Everything hurt. My hip hurt most of all. I could smell blood.” He was too embarrassed to mention the other things he had smelled. Robin said “I think we need to exchange stories. But it is late, and I would rather do it in the morning. It will be easier to understand when you see it for yourself.” Then she hesitated and said “I do need to show you myself. I do not want to scare you later.” Sammie gulped, his pulse rate climbing and said, “Are you a monster or something?” Robin laughed a little and said, “No, not a monster, but I’m a very large woman and I do not want to frighten you.” She slowly inched her way into the light still on her knees. Even on her knees her head was a good three meters off the ground. In the dim light Sammie could see she was a very big woman. Maybe eight feet tall. Far taller than anyone he ever saw before. She was also very pretty. Her face and hair reminded him of someone who he couldn’t quite place. His mind flashed to dumb movies he saw on the tv. Giants and other things. They were always mean and vicious in the movies. He figured if she was going to eat him, he would be in a cage or something. His eyes widened a bit and he said “You are big, I bet you would be good at basketball. How tall are you? Ten feet?” His curiosity overcoming any real trepidation at her size. Robin pondered the use of feet instead of meters. She knew of that unit of measure but nobody in her dimension had used it for many years. It was mostly a historic note. If you read old stories or science books you needed to be able to translate back and forth. She considered her answer for a moment and went with the truth. “Well Sammie, I’m about twelve feet tall. I’m on my knees right now so I wouldn’t seem so scary to you. I would never hurt you.” She said. Mentally adding ‘I love you’ and ‘You are my daughter’. “Wow! That’s very big. How did you get so big?” Sammie said. Robin laughed and said “It is a long story. I will tell you everything in the morning.” Sammie yawned suddenly feeling the exhaustion he had been holding back. He nodded and said, “That sounds….” He suddenly stopped speaking. In the silence of the room, it was quite obvious that someone was peeing. It was equally obvious that the someone was him.

Hey everyone! Had some extra time today to finish up this chapter before it was too late. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post the remainder of the chapters, but I think I can safely say at this point, that unless something goes terribly wrong, this story will likely be concluded by next week. If this changes though, I will let everyone know on here. Also, as a reminder, the poll for my next story is still going on. As a reminder, as usual, I will post my decision of my next story during my final chapter of this story. Until then, feel free to comment here or personally message me what you want to read next. I like all the choices I am presenting, so choose what you want. For those not sure of the choices, just refer to the beginning of chapter 2. Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter! Chapter 27: Searching for Answers from A Closet I was near ravenous to get back out in the field. Fortunately, with Astrid by my side and being a Big, I felt a newfound level of respect amongst my peers. It could have been an acknowledgement of the work that I put in, but I highly suspected it might have simply been the difference between being a Big and a Little around the office. Littles in LPS were those to be protected or jailed, and there wasn’t much wiggle room on that. So, as I began my therapies while also investigating LPS and BAL, I found the differences frightening, but ultimate a relief that I was once again a Big. I continually wondered just how much help I would have received if the reversal procedure had gone wrong though. Apparently, and I was frustratingly only told this afterward, but there was about a 20% failure rate of a reversal of the process. The problem was now, I didn’t see anyone in the office who fit into that failure rate, so I very much questioned their ultimate fate. Every time I tried to ask; I was always quickly shut down. Still, my work continued both inside and out of therapy. Going to the therapist three times a day while at work and being a Big before, ensured that my recovery only took about three more days after I initially woke up after the procedure. Everything was working normally… or at least almost everything. “It’s not that big of a deal,” Astrid tried reassuring me once the doctor left my therapy room after giving me his latest prognosis of my condition. “But it is, Astrid!” My patience with therapy was already reaching its limits. Sure, 100 years ago, therapy could take months, but now, it was a matter of days instead. So, I felt my frustration was perfectly natural when I got my new diagnosis. “But I’m sure tons of Bigs wear diapers still.” She was trying her best to console me, but without personal experience or real numbers to back up her statements, on one level at least, they felt very hollow to me. “Name one,” I challenged. Astrid couldn’t, but it didn’t matter at this point. I was encouraged to perform Kegel exercises and then time things just right, but for me, there was no strict cure. Apparently, the bluish gas was outlawed for one single reason; it affected the nervous system more than the muscular system, which as much Bigs hated to admit it, the gas would therefore affect them as well. I was no exception, and my condition could very well be permanent. Right now, it was just too early to say except for the notion that I would have to continue to wear diapers until that time had passed. My one consolation though was that at least my diapers no longer sported Princess Poppy or babyish designs anymore. Strictly bland and unicolor for my personal usage from now on. It was a small consolation… Still, outside of therapy, things were actually going pretty well. With my exercise and drug regimen, to ensure I wouldn’t collapse, or die from shock or the energy required for me to heal back up, I was able to dive headfirst into work. “Slow down,” was starting to become Astrid’s new catchphrase to me around the office. Often, when I wasn’t in therapy, eating, sleeping, or on my way to or from the office, I was hitting the case as much as I could. Hours spent researching BAL, their origins, and habits, practically made me one of the top experts on them in LPS. Astrid, Aetos, and a few others were worried, but I always told myself that they didn’t have a Little of their own on the line. I did though. Entering day four, I was already extraordinarily stressed. Hours of work had led nowhere, and I couldn’t help but picture Paul. If he was still himself anymore, I imagined that he was being tortured for information and left destitute in a cell by himself. Even if he hadn’t been regressed, I knew he wouldn’t last long like that. Before, he had me, but this time, he was all alone. Further, with his previous escape attempt, I knew that they would be even harder and more restrictive with him. As much as I hated it though, I knew I had to wait. “We found something, Sophie. We have a man in custody,” Astrid said later that afternoon. Waiting and doing everything I could, it was the first good news I heard from her. So, naturally, I quickly jumped up and ran to the nearest interrogation room. Right as I got to the door though, Astrid stopped me cold. “What are you doing?” I struggled to push against her, but my therapy was still on-going. Facing down a seasoned agent that hadn’t just gone through what I had was clearly still superior to my own current strength. “Just…” I pushed harder and Astrid shoved me off. “Now wait just one moment, damn it!” I paused but only to take a breath. Still in therapy and running myself ragged lately weren’t helping my endurance against my friend’s blockade of the doorway. “Just take a breath and listen.” I waved my hand instead of speaking to get her to continue. “Good. Now, I want you to sit this one out. You can watch, but I’ll bolt you to the floor if I need to. Don’t tempt me, got it?” “Got it.” I wasn’t sure how much I could keep to that promise, but for Paul and the sake of my friend, I knew I at least needed to try. Coming to the other side of the one-way glass, I saw a member I recognized from when I had escaped the BAL facility. I immediately wanted to throttle him, but I knew from experience that would only guarantee his freedom once his lawyer got involved. For now, it was just Aetos interrogating him… something I wasn’t too keen on, but also knew that I had no choice about. “You are the tenth BAL member we’ve interrogated today…” I whipped back around to Astrid who clearly mouthed ‘sorry’ to me. I wondered what made this one different and why I had brought in on the tenth, rather than the first. “We know that you are one of the higher-ups in BAL.” Right… that’s why. “What’s it to you?” the member said nonchalantly. I wanted nothing more than to wipe that stupid grin off his face. Aetos sighed. “Look, your lawyer is going to be here any second. We have evidence that is airtight and will send you away for years by now, with or without him. We know that you’re the one who stole the blue gas, codename Dreamer’s Loss, from a military facility about four months ago.” My rage increased tenfold, especially as I even slightly shifted and my diaper crinkled, but I kept it in check. I had to… for Paul… The rugged BAL member sighed. Despite my rage against him, I could tell he knew he was cornered with that last piece of evidence against him. If he got the right judge, he could be sentenced to Dark Cliff ‘off the books’ in seconds. “Fine… What do you want from me?” Aetos smirked and leaned forward. “Give me a name, location, or something tangible I can bring back…” he said cooly, sliding a piece of paper and pen over to his prisoner. “Write it down first. Then we’ll talk.” To my relief, the man started scribbling for a few minutes and then handed the paper back to Aetos. “Very good. Let me see what I can do…” “I’m proud of you for staying, Sophie,” Astrid said as she placed her hand on my shoulder once Aetos had left the interrogation room. “Just tell me that Big is going away for a long time to rot…” I wanted him punished and hurt like I had been, but with LPS involved, I knew I just had to take my justice where I could get it. “Don’t worry… he will be,” my friend reassured me. The information we gleamed from the BAL member led us to a bar on the edge of town. It was a known pro-Big location, so we knew that part already, but this time, we knew to be on the lookout for a Big and another BAL member called Tom Daley. The BAL member also provided a few locations where they were located, just to seal the deal. Regardless though, LPS coordinated with other agencies and began to infiltrate the bar to look out for this ‘Tom Daley.’ In the meantime, I started to hear rumors from others in the office about a resurgence in LRG. Apparently, several of the members had quit after the raid by BAL, but many had found safety and were already starting to protest. Concerningly though I was informed of two major factors with them. The first was that from the raid on the warehouse, they believed that they had been sold out by one of their own. It was pure speculation, but back chatter seemed to indicate that beyond fighting Bigs, it was their top priority to find them now. Second though, this iteration of LRG seemed to be more violent. Already, a portal facility had been temporarily destabilized and multiple government official’s cars had been vandalized or even torched. It was all extremely alarming, but just as I was about to investigate, we received some urgent news about Tom Daley. LPS was no stranger to undercover work. They had sent me out into the field as both a Big and a Little. Figuring the bar wouldn’t take kindly to Littles, they solely relied on some of their deeper cover agents out in the field to stake the place out. It wasn’t long before Tom Daley showed up. We all questioned why he had been named, but according to the undercover, after a few drinks, the man would have admitted to anything, and he wasn’t afraid to boast… especially regarding the capture of a Little from LRG. It was just a single thread to go off, but for LPS, a Little in trouble was still worth a raid. Highly suspecting it to be Paul, I volunteered to go on the rescue mission as well. To my chagrin, Agent Aetos was there as well. “You know, this might not be Paul!” Aetos warned me on our way over. “Yeah, I know that,” I replied as I strapped the last of my reinforced Kevlar to my chest. “Still, a Little here is a Little in danger. No harm in busting down a few doors!” Aetos smirked but in a way that unnerved me, just like the old days. Still, I pushed on. “Besides, even if he isn’t here, we might just find that one piece of evidence that links everything up and we find him because of that!” The assault transport vehicle hit a bump and my diaper crinkled a bit, but I knew no one could hear it. I had been paranoid at first over being discovered on the job, but Astrid and my therapist had suggested a few fixes. The undershirt onesie I was currently wearing was just one of them. “Better get ready!” the driver yelled at the crew of us seated behind him. “We’re almost there! Infiltrating in one minute!” “Alright you lot!” Aetos screamed over the bumps and loud rumble of the gravel road we were driving on. “This is it! From our reports, we’ve got at least one Little inside. Sophie here was once an agent, but she’s more here to help with the Little once we find them. Do not approach the Little without her, got it?” Everyone grunted a ‘huah!’ in acknowledgment. “Perfect!” He then held up his weapon. “Make sure everyone is using the stun setting on these things. They may have kidnapped a few Littles, but we don’t want a bloodbath hitting the 8 o’clock news tonight.” Several saluted and I heard a few more grunts. I was tempted to leave my stun setting off, but I knew I would be in the minority, so I decided against it. After all, we needed prisoners and talkers… not corpses tonight. The vehicle then screeched to a stop. Everyone quickly stood up and Aetos reached for the rear door handle. “Alright! This is it! Good hunting everyone!” With a final grunt from everyone, Aetos popped the backdoor open and everyone scrambled out. The first approaches were quiet. I was expecting BAL to be more prepared when they heard the vehicle stop outside, but the few guards that had been standing post were quickly taken out. Each was shot twice by precision shooting. They momentarily convulsed and then collapsed into a heap on the floor… only stunned, not killed. “Forward, two to the left, two to the right. The rest with me,” Aetos commanded. For my part, I just stuck behind the rest of them going up the center. I was armed, but not being a direct agent, as Aetos had said, I was more here for the Little they held captive… Paul or not. We crept quietly through the halls. One by one, we took out each of their guards. It was a slow and methodical approach, but the twisting corridors were tricky to navigate, but gave us excellent cover. Soon though, we came to a large room. Several BAL members were situated around a central planning table of sorts, and a few were well armed. “Okay… everyone takes a shot and then take cover,” Aetos noted quietly after assessing the situation. “On my mark.” We all nodded, he gave us the signal, and then everyone dispersed to their own corners of the upper walkway of the room. Once we were all in place, Aetos radioed in again. I was nearest to a sign that read ‘nursery.’ It was a different building than the one Paul and I had been in before, but I felt it was a safe bet that if there was a Little here, they would be there. “Okay. In three… two… one.” The burst of gunfire was immediate and swift. From my vantage point, eight BAL members were taken out at once. “Up above! Up above!” one of the remaining members shouted out. There were still seven of them remaining, but they were at a distinct disadvantage being on the lower ground. “Fire at will! Fire at will!” Aetos shouted. A hail of gunfire soon erupted again and then stagnated into a shot or two every few seconds. Soft thuds could be heard from below and from the barriers we were hiding behind from up above. So, when I took a quick peak, I could see little bursts from where the stun pellets were hitting around the BAL members. They had taken cover, but being surrounded on all sides, each went down quickly. I wanted to move and to find the Little or Paul as soon as I could, but the remaining members on the ground increased their rate of fire. It didn’t matter though. They were now outnumbered, and less than three minutes later, a final pop, groan, and crunch to the floor signaled the last of the BAL members below being taken down. “Everyone approach slowly…” Aetos went first but was quickly supported on all sides. Some Bigs seemed to be immune to the stun rounds, but it was only about 1 in 10,000. Still, no one wanted to take the risk of being on the wrong end of that individual in case they were faking their initial stun. Checking each of them though, Aetos smiled. “Congratulations everyone! Each of them is stunned. Good work!” His eyes then shifted down each of the hallways that splintered off the main area we were all standing in now. “Okay. I want two agents down each hallway. The rest stay with me, but Sophie… I assume you’re going to want to head to the nursery first?” I nodded. “That’s right. If I was them, shorter transportation just makes more sense so I’m guessing the Little in question will be around the nursery area.” “Good. Logical… as usual.” He then directed two agents to go first and for me to follow them. As we ventured down the darkened hallway, I still kept my gun at the ready. It was still set on stun, and considering just how deep and far these Great War era buildings could be, I didn’t want to take a chance that there was another contingency surrounding the nursery. If BAL wanted to hurt Littles, they would probably leave one member behind. Fortunately, though, our surprise of their limited forces here proved to be their undoing. When we came to the nursery section, the room was empty except for a single nannybot, some changing tables, and dozens of cribs, bassinets, or even newborn warmers. The smell of used diapers and disinfectant assaulted my nose in seconds. “Geez! You think they’ve never been changed,” one of the agents gagged as he staggered out of the room. I sighed. “It’s a breaking technique for Littles. The more they spend being unchanged, the more they get used to being diapered and not noticing. I’ve seen this kind of thing before…” It was hard not to think of Paul being in that situation right now, so I quickly stomached the intense smell, entered, and then began checking to see which sleeping arrangement he had been placed in. To my horror though, instead of finding the cribs, bassinets, or newborn warmers empty except one, each was filled. “There must be dozens of these Littles… not just the one,” the other non-gagging agent said as he entered behind me. “You think your Little is in here?” I honestly wasn’t sure, but I wanted… needed to know. So, I quickly began to search each crib, bassinet, or newborn warmer. Sadly, as I searched, I began to notice a pattern. Each of the sleeping arrangements corresponded to the likely mentality or physical capabilities now of the Little inside. Newborn warmers were for those at the newborn level, bassinets were for those at the baby level, and the cribs were for the non-regressed or only partially regressed Littles. Finally, though, I came to the one that I had been looking for and had been worried about. “Paul?” The figure inside was sleeping, but checking the ID tag on the outside of the crib and the Littles ankle bracelet marked him as Paul. Nothing more, but his dark hair and a single scar on his right arm were evident even from far away. It was Paul… my Paul. I shook him awake and he began to stir. Panic flashed over his face, and he began to wrestle. I quickly had to reach in and stop him from hurting me or himself. “Paul! Paul! It’s me! It’s Sophie!” Paul continued to thrash about, but his eyes soon widened as he saw my face. “There… there… that’s right. It’s me, buddy. Are you…?” Paul tried to speak, but we both quickly saw the problem with the pacifier gag strapped in his mouth and around his head. “Oh! Shoot! Let me get that.” I briefly rested him on the railing and let my gun slacken by my side. In a second though, his gag was removed, and he took about the biggest breath of air I think I had ever witnessed. “Oh, thank you, Sophie! Thank you! I… I… I thought I was going to lose it! I…” Without a second though, he then practically launched himself into me. Surprised, but reassured with his body now pressed up against me, I knew this was no illusion or dream. I had lost count of how many of those I had at this point since he was taken by BAL. I was half tempted to pinch him or my own arm… just to be sure, but his tightening grip around the back of my neck quickly assured me that he was very much real. “It’s okay, Paul… I’m here. I’ve got you. You’re coming home with me, and I promise that I’ll keep you safe from now on.” Paul didn’t move an inch away from my body, but quickly nodded his head and only gripped me tighter. With Paul still wrapped around me, I called in for backup and began to search the area for evidence. The records I found were disturbing, but unfortunately just par for the course when it came to kidnapped Littles. Surgeries, hypnosis, torture, and punishment and reward systems had all been set in place for each of the Littles around me. Some already had buyers and seemed to be custom changed for those Bigs, but others, like Paul, seemed more captured for information. It wasn’t long before I found two of the more important files, to me at least, in the whole stack. The first was Paul’s. While he had been tortured in ways that I never could bring myself to forgive BAL members for, he seemed mostly unaffected mentally at least for his cognitive or creative sides. Unfortunately, his higher reasoning skills and independence traits as mental factors had definitely taken a hit. To be honest, looking at his file, I could almost see how BAL was trying to make him into the perfect Little. They hadn’t finished, but it still made me wonder about his future. The other file though, Paul and I both gasped as we saw who it was. Being cooped up and sequestered as they were, it wasn’t a surprise to me that Paul didn’t realize he had been taken here but reviewing his file and then finding and peering over into his crib, it was most unmistakably Samuel, the at least now former leader of LRG. Pleasantly napping, his hair curled ever so cutely over his head, and his clothing was the epitome of the perfect baby, but reading his chart, I wasn’t even sure I could call him Samuel anymore. Severe hypnosis sessions and surgeries had likely left little of who he used to be. Suddenly, the information about LRG growing more violent made sense. Still, despite the loss of Samuel and what that implied for LRG going forward, the mission was considered a success. While BAL hadn’t been completely eliminated, especially with their leader, Peter having been away on business elsewhere, in one raid, 29 members had been taken down. With their assault of LPS members and being in the same building as the dozens of kidnapped Littles ensured their convictions would stick. Hard labor or Dark Cliff awaited each of them. So, back at LPS headquarters, we all found it in ourselves to celebrate. Cake, balloons, and streamers all accompanied our success today. For LPS, despite being composed of Bigs, the takedown of a pro-big organization like BAL was a huge win. Nothing good lasts forever though. Just as Paul took a bite of cake first, I noticed a single envelope on the desk I had been using while performing my investigations into BAL. Due to my personal connection and former status as an agent, Astrid had extended my scope of my usual consulting job. Seeing the envelope, normally, I might have called someone over to check it out, but curiosity got to me first. When I looked inside though, my heart fell a little bit. Inside were several photos and memos regarding LRG. What’s more, most of them had to do with them searching for the person who ratted out their warehouse location out to BAL which led to the raid. To my horror, most pointed to Paul. Finding a single short note, my curiosity piqued even more. ‘S, I have included in the following info to you. Use it well and stay safe. Your friend.’ I instantly thought of Astrid, or that maybe it could be a trap, but as I looked over the information further, I knew it was legit and that Astrid would have likely just told me. Regardless, apparently, some LRG member spotted Paul on the playground, the day I insisted on leaving the house, and questioned why of all the LRG members taken that night, that he seemed to be the only one in a position that could have been the rat and was fine. From what I was seeing, I was likely getting my diaper changed by my mom at the time the photos were taken, and I think that was the only time I could admit to being truly grateful for a diaper change in public. Still, I had to inform Paul. “I should reach out to them,” he insisted, his mouth covered in a bit of icing from the cake still, but his eyes full of shock and worry that he would be blamed for the raid. I quickly wiped it off for him. “Don’t be so foolish, Paul. If they find you at this point, it won’t be good. You saw Samuel. He’s gone and LRG has started acting more violently. If you went back, I don’t that would translate very well for you.” “Shit…” Paul then looked over the packet of information I had gotten. “Who do you think your ‘friend’ is?” “I don’t know… but were you able to learn anything while you were captured at least?” I knew it was a desperate question, but with this information and the mole at LRG, I had never felt more vulnerable as a Big. Paul scratched his head and then seemed to have a thought. “You know… when they were interrogating me, they asked me about specific things they shouldn’t know. Things I only told you…” I briefly panicked. “Wait… you don’t think I’m the mole, do you?” Paul quickly shook his head. “No, definitely not, but you told me that you were reporting to LPS what we talked about, right?” With still some lingering shame, I nodded my head. “Well… who did you tell all that stuff to then?” With a sinking feeling, I knew who he was referring to, but my mind still refused to believe it. Still, he had asked the question, so I knew he needed an answer from me. “Astrid… it was Astrid, Paul.” “Your friend?” I nodded and we both glanced out at the party. She was laughing with a few of the other agents, completely oblivious to our suspicions about her. “Well… I think we need to know for sure, don’t you?” I didn’t want to think it was her. We had known each other for years, and I didn’t even question her loyalty to me for a single second. She had been with me through everything, but still… my curiosity burned. If she was the mole, several items would easily click into place and suddenly make sense. She felt too obvious, but I just had to know. So, texting her to meet by the water cooler, I knew that I could take her by surprise. With Paul acting as my second, he could quickly close the door and ensure we wouldn’t be disturbed. I didn’t want to, but I quickly enacted our plan, and just like I suspected, it went flawlessly as I caught her unaware and dragged her into the closet. Once Paul had closed the door, I looked at my friend deep in her eyes. “Now, I want to know the truth! This time, all of it!” Nervous, Astrid nodded as quickly as she could. “Good, now are you the mole? Did you betray Paul or I?” I wanted her to shake her head. I wanted her to be innocent, but instead, she nodded. Surprised and betrayed, I backed away. I didn’t even think that she could now scream for help or even escape us. I just felt a crack form in my heart. With my hand off her mouth though, curiously, she didn’t try to run. “I’m sorry, Sophie! I didn’t mean to!” “What?” I spat back at her. “Betray me and Paul? Just how much did they pay you to sell yourself to a bunch of Bigs? Was it worth the price?” Astrid shook her head. “No, no, no. I swear! I wasn’t paid off or anything. I just… I…” I could tell she was having trouble forming the right words. “Out with it!” I yelled impatiently. Startled, Astrid began to explain. “I… I think someone might be trying to set me up.” I was furious but I still let her explain first. “I just… I was the leak that led to LRG being exposed to BAL. We found out through an anonymous source that they didn’t have enough from your friend Sean for an exact location of the warehouse… so I gave it to them.” Her words were poison, and I could see Paul seething with fury. “What? How could you? I thought we were friends! Why Astrid? Why? They hurt so many Littles because of that night! Do you even have a soul anymore?” I could feel the hot sting of betrayal in the few tears that rolled down my cheeks. “It isn’t like that, Sophie. Please! You have to believe me…” I didn’t but I still wanted to know more. The longer I could get her to talk, the more I could learn about the truth of everything. “I just wanted to flush LRG out and into the open. The LPS brass wanted answers and every day they were putting more pressure on me. In fact, if I didn’t act soon, the mission was going to get scrubbed and you, Sophie, would have been stuck as a Little.” I felt a little softer toward my friend, but I still wanted to know more. “From what I knew of LRG, I thought they could handle it! They handled BAL well enough at the protest, so why not again?” Her voice was starting to shake, and I could see her emotions as plain as day. If she was lying, she was definitely fooling me. “So, you thought that BAL members with guns and protective riot gear and the ability to knock down or blow-up walls could have been taken down by a few Littles with clubs at best?” Paul nailed the one question I had on my mind for a while now. BAL was a street level gang, but recently, they seemed like they were all ex-special forces. Something had changed. Astrid shook her head. “Definitely not. That’s where everything went wrong,” she explained. “I leaked the location, but someone supplied them with more arms and ammunition than they ever had before.” She paused and looked at her feet briefly. “It was one of my first tip-offs that something more sinister was actually going on with LPS. I traced the requisition order back here, but even that led to a dead end.” A few moments passed, but I needed something clarified first. “So, you were only trying to protect me?” I asked, still hesitant to trust my friend again, but desperate for an answer with that at least. Astrid nodded rapidly. “Of course! I’ve always tried to help you, Sophie. Why do you think I was the LPS agent that you met in the alleyway? Another agent could have been the mole, and you would have fallen right into their trap. I couldn’t just let that happen.” It was a touching moment, but it still left one major question; who was the mole? “So, there is a mole, but now we don’t have any leads. That’s just great!” I could feel Paul’s frustration, and admittedly, I shared it as well. “He’s right… we barely know anything.” I turned back to Astrid. “I’m not sure if I can forgive you yet, but we have bigger fish to fry for right now. So, care to rejoin our mole finding mission?” Astrid smiled, clearly relieved, and nodded. “Of course.” Her smile soon faded though. “Just how though do you plan on finding out who it is then?” I sighed. “I’m not sure yet, but first thing first… we need to narrow down the list at least.” We all nodded at each other and temporarily opened the door to peak our heads out and look around. There were at least 100 agents that the leak could have come from based on what we knew already. Looking out at all the agents still celebrating their victory today, it was hard to fathom the depth of their depravity and the consequences it had already brought to us. Paul’s effects were still to be determined, but I wondered if he could ever be an independent adult again based on what I read in his file. I was stuck and consigned, possibly forever, to diapers… which I now just felt were in dire need of changing. As for Astrid, she had been hit less, but most of the speculative evidence against the mole in LPS led back to her. Heck, even Paul and I had only moments ago thought she was the full-on mole, rather than just a tiny part of it. Further for her though, I knew that if we didn’t find the mole soon, everything was going to be pinned on her and Dark Cliff always had room for another errant Big in their program. “So… here it is. The three of us.” I sighed briefly. “Together until the end of this mole hunt?” I asked, placing my hand in the middle of the room. “Until the end…” Paul agreed, placing his hand on top of mine. “Agreed.” Astrid slapped her hand in the middle of our combined oath. We knew the stakes and we knew what we had to do. 100 agents were going to be a near herculean task to undertake, but I knew at least that for the future of LPS, we had to succeed. Thousands, if not millions, of Littles depended on what the agency did right. If we failed, there was no telling what would happen to them. Determined not to let that happen though, the three of us set to work right away.

I've prefaced this chapter with a short prequel interlude which is a first for the story. Interlude – Maternal Instinct Abigail carefully cut the corners off the sandwich and placed it in a brown paper bag on the kitchen counter. She heard a loud trundling down the stairs before the front door opened “Bye-mom-gotta-go!” “Wait, honey you forgot your-” *SLAM* “... lunch.” The note she had handwritten for his lunch drifted gently towards the floor after the gust from the front door had lifted it from the counter. She glanced down and saw that the vibrations had knocked a picture off the wall, too. She picked it up and noticed that the glass was cracked. It was a photo of Oliver sleeping that that must have been taken nearly ten-years-ago, give or take. It had been taken when they were first moving in and he fell asleep while they were unpacking. Abigail had had him when she was young. Oliver’s father was never in the picture and she had struggled so much to provide for her boy in those early years. It felt as if it had come and gone in a heartbeat. And now that she had clawed her way up the career ladder, she had the luxury of working from home with flexible hours for a healthy salary. It felt cruel and ironic that, now that she could be there for him, it felt like he didn’t need her anymore. Didn’t want her anymore. The ticking of the analogue wall clock was the only thing breaking the silence as she stewed in her thoughts. She might have continued if the phone hadn’t rang. “Hi, is this Abigail Wilson?” “Speaking.” “Hello Ms. Wilson, my name is Evelyn Richardson. Dr. Harris is retiring and I’m the new pediatrician and child psychologist who’ll be taking over. I’ve been getting up to speed with patient files, and I notice little Olive is overdue a checkup. I just wanted to call to check in and see if we could fit him in somewhere soon.” Abigail exhaled sharply in frustration with herself. “Yes, yes of course. I’m so sorry. I meant to schedule it months ago and it just sort off... fell off the radar, you know?” “Of course. It’s no trouble at all. We all know what it can be like with little ones. It sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Are there any concerns you have about Oliver you’d like to address at the appointment? A problem shared is a problem halved, you know.” At some point over the course of the conversation, Abigail noticed that the doctor had deftly steered her from routine clinical questions to far deeper concerns without her noticing the transition. With everything weighing on her mind, it felt like a relief to have someone to confide in. She found herself rambling at length about how other parents kids still crawled into their bed when they had a nightmare, needed them to kiss their grazes better, or carry them in from the car when they fall asleep. Ironically despite their perceptions of Oliver, he seemed to isolate himself more than any of his peers and had seemed simply to have outgrown any need for her care and affection. She vented openly with barely a word from Dr. Richardson until she glanced at the clock and almost half an hour had passed. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I’ve taken up so much of your time.” “It’s no problem at all, I like to get to know my patients. You know Abigail, you might be surprised at how many parents come to me that feel the same way you do. My philosophy is that I don’t take care of patients’ bodies, or patients’ minds. I only care for whole patients. And if we figure out some of what Oliver needs, he may have his own way of telling you the rest. I think you may be pleasantly surprised at how things fall into place.” Abigail felt as if this new doctor’s words had greater significance than she could grasp on the surface. The conversation came to a close after penciling in a date for an appointment. She felt as if an enormous weight had been lifted off her shoulders and she and Oliver would have an unforgettable Summer together. Chapter 10 – The Hike Oliver absentmindedly stirred his oatmeal. “Why do we have to go on a hike?” he moaned. “What do you care?” asked Jessica. “You’ll be in your stroller anyway.” Oliver only glared. “One more word young lady, and you’ll be losing your cellphone for a month.” warned Sue. “Actually, we’ll all be walking.” added Abigail as she confiscated the spoon. “The trail isn’t really made for wheels.” she explained as she started to pilot spoonfuls towards Oliver who sat with his arms crossed looking less than amused. Abigail had dressed Oliver in something approaching normal clothes today, so he was looking forward to getting to act almost his age around his new friends as soon as Abigail finished playing airplane with his spoon. He wiped the residual oatmeal from his face with his arm and jumped from his seat before Abigail could find an excuse to baby him any further. He swung his legs cheerfully as their car followed behind the Baker family to the trailhead. Not even his stupid carseat could put a damper on his mood. He waited patiently to be released but was almost putting distance between himself and the car before he even made contact with ground. “Hold your horses there kiddo­.” instructed Abigail patiently. He rolled his eyes wondering what it could possibly be now, “Arms up.” Oliver pulled his t-shirt down in a bid to hide the waistline of his diaper from view, praying that Nick and Jacob still hadn’t figured it out, and then complied. He was used to his mom making him wear sweaters when it got chilly, but today it was scorching. What came next, however, wasn’t a sweater, but a tangle of colorful padded straps. As she pulled them around his waist and through his legs, it dawned on him that they were just like the ones in his carseat, and his stroller. They clipped together with an audible click behind his back before she adjusted the harness to fit snugly. “Let’s get going!” said Abigail enthusiastically. Oliver tried to look behind him and followed his line of sight to the leash in her hand. “Mom, NO!” “Oliver, sweetie, it’s not polite to shout.” “I don’t need this! Davey doesn’t even have one.” “I’m not Davey’s mother, I’m yours. And you proved yesterday that you do. Think of it this way, you have way more freedom this way than if I had to hold your hand the whole time.” Unsurprisingly, he didn’t see things from that perspective. Oliver just kept his arms folded and his head down as the group started to walk. As the leash went taut, he had no choice but to follow along. After a while, the group started to spread out a bit with Scott taking the lead and the other kids enthusiastically vying to keep up and even run ahead. Sue felt she had better stay near the front to keep an eye on Davey who didn’t want to miss out on the fun the other kids seemed to be having, while Oliver was forced but to lag behind with Abigail and Julia. After some time, Abigail stopped and undid harness strap that ran between his legs. For a brief instant, Oliver thought he was going to be granted his freedom before Abigail pulled his shorts to his knees. “Mom!” Oliver objected, his face turning crimson. “I just have to check you sweetie.” soothed Abigail. “Those designs are so cute! What brand are they?” Julia gushed. “Just regular old Pampers, believe it or not.” “I’m surprised they still fit.” “I’m just grateful they do. We started having a bit of potty trouble at the start of the Summer and pull-ups weren’t quite cutting it so we thought we’d play it safe for the vacation.” “I think that was the right call.” she said, approvingly. “Well, still dry for now, color me surprised.” said Abigail completing her thorough check. “I don’t always have accidents.” Oliver objected gruffly at the insinuation of their inevitability. “I just don’t want you getting dehydrated little man.” soothed Abigail as she handed him a bottle like the one from last night, now filled with chilled apple juice. “So I bet you’re looking forward to getting back into big boy undies when you get home, huh Oli?” asked Julia, inadvertently broaching and unspoken topic. “Well...” began Abigail. “Hey, what do you guys think about breaking here for some lunch?” interrupted Scott from the head of the group as they emerged onto a pristine vista. “Sounds good.” agreed Julia. “Here, sweetie, why don’t you go play with the others. All this mommy talk is probably boring you.” offered Abigail as she released the leash from his harness. Oliver didn’t have to be told twice as he ran off to join the others while the adults laid out a picnic for everyone, stopping only to drop his emptied bottle of juice. The adults lounged on the picnic blanket making idle conversation while the kids continued to burn off energy chasing each other around and exploring the clearing, stopping intermittently to eat. Oliver soon began to notice that all that juice would have to go somewhere. With Abigail’s comment fresh in his mind, he was determined not to have an accident to recover some much needed big kid status. He though he had lucked out with normal clothes today, but the harness he was still wearing brought him back to square one, making it every bit as impossible remove his shorts. He tried to see if he could shimmy them down to relieve himself in a bush that was far away and mostly out of view of everyone else, but just as he was getting started Abigail noticed his absence and called him back to eat. He struggled to stem the stream and dribbled into his diaper as he made his way back, acting as naturally as possible. As he sat down, Abigail pulled him him into her lap by surprise, wrapping her arm firmly around his lower stomach and causing himself to lose any remaining control, rendering his ploy useless and saturating his diaper. It didn’t take her long to notice as his weight shifted. He made to get up as the others finished eating. “Wait just a second honey, I think you need a change.” said Abigail discreetly as he rose to his feet, gently grasping his hand. “Mom, not here!” he pleaded in a whisper, jerking his hand free of her grip before running off with the others. The exchange didn’t go unnoticed by the other mothers who were quick to chime in. “Ugh, I remember it was used to be a wrestling match when mine were toddlers. Sometimes you just have to put your foot down.” said Julia. It was an innocuous enough turn of phrase, but it stuck out like a beacon to Abigail. She hadn’t realised how readily others would actually see Oliver on those terms. “You said yourself the doctor said you needed to let him be little. Have you considered that that might include discipline? Maybe until he’s ready to be a teen, you’ll have get used dealing with a tyke.” added Sue, sagely. Abigail realised what she had to do. She patiently but methodically removed the changing pad from her bag, laying it out flat on the grass. Next came the wipes and powder before finally, she unfolded a single diaper and laid it out flat on the pad. All of the others had already taken notice of the situation playing out before she even spoke. All, that is, except Oliver. She placed her hands on her hips and spoke loudly and clearly, in a voice filled with calm authority. “Oliver Sebastian Wilson, mommy told you it was time to change your diaper. Get your little bottom on this changing pad this instant, mister!” Oliver froze and a chill ran down his spine. He felt like his whole body had ossified and was blushing all at once. “I won’t repeat myself. Does someone need a timeout?” If his bladder hadn’t been empty before, it certainly was now. He slowly twisted around with his head hung as low as it could possibly go and walked back towards the picnic blanket like an inmate on death row. He dropped onto the changing pad and lay back, seeing no other option. He tried to fix his gaze on the infinite blue expanse of the sky above with a canopy of trees skirting the edge of his vision, certain that all eyes were fixed on him but doing everything in his power to avoid confirming it. But he could still hear and feel as Abigail patiently undid his harness straps and unbuttoned his shorts. The tearing of the tabs on his diaper seemed to be the only sound in miles before she pulled it away and he felt the cool Summer breeze on his skin. She took his ankles in one hand and pushed his knees to his chest to thoroughly wipe and powder his bottom before setting him down on the fresh diaper, pulling the front snugly up to his stomach and securing the turquoise tapes on Elmo’s smiling face. “Now, I bet that feels much better.” warbled Abigail. Oliver didn’t answer. Thankfully it wasn’t long before they decided to pack up and start heading back. Oliver had less of a spring in his step on the return hike, but he also couldn’t help notice that not a single person here, not even Jessica, had made fun of his diapers, or anything else, when they couldn’t have had a clearer opportunity. Abigail even noticed him tugging on the leash less as they walked back, preferring apparently to remain in her protective maternal shadow and, as they got to the last mile of the short trail, resting his weary head against her as they walked. Some way short of car park, he felt himself lifted from the ground. He readily nestled his head into his mommy’s shoulder as her hands gently cradled his back and bottom and swayed rhythmically as they walked. Maybe there were some benefits to being little after all, he reflected as the dappled sunlight dancing on the back of his eyelids faded to an inky black.

Boss Baby or Boss' Baby: Chapter 3 Jesse was unaware of how much time passed before he felt like himself again. Eventually, though, his diaper started to grow cold and uncomfortable. Every shift would cause the plug inside him to shift as well and it left him feeling wrung out and very overstimulated. “Mommy,” He whispered, surprised almost immediately as that was the first title that came to his mind. Not ‘Miss Tammy’ or anything else. “Mommy, can we go get cleaned up?” “Does my boy want his diaper changed?” She asked, scratching her nails gently against his scalp causing goosebumps to rise along his arms. Perhaps he wasn’t feeling 100% like himself again as he melted against Tammy’s chest once more and hummed. “Mhm, want my diaper changed, Mommy.” “Good boy,” She purred. It was her gentle guidance that led him to stand up from the couch and awkwardly waddle to follow her down the hall in his soaked diaper. He needed no extra instructions as he climbed up onto the table again, sparing a small look at himself in the mirror. He looked pathetic. His skin was still slightly red, his hair disheveled, and an obviously soaked diaper strapped to his waist. “Do I need to strap you down again or can you be my good boy?” She asked with her hands on her hips. She’d discarded her bra somewhere along the way and he could see her perked nipples through the thin fabric of the nightgown. “I’ll be good,” Jesse assured quietly. He watched from his reflection as she untapped the diaper with expert hands. When the front panel was pulled down, he was embarrassed to see milky streaks of cum dirtying his still-caged dick and the inside of his diaper, the white splashes stark against the slightly yellow-tinged material. “Aw,” Mommy cooed, stroking her finger over the tip of his penis, chuckling at his oversensitive flinch. “You came so much! Poor baby must have needed his cummies, hm?” Immediately he knew she wanted an answer. “Yes, Mommy.” “And what should a good boy say now that he’s had his cummies? Mommy made you feel so good…” She asked, reaching into the drawer for a package of wipes. “...Thank you, Mommy.” “For?” Oh god. He looked away from his reflection to stare off at the crib. Is that where he was going to be sleeping tonight? “Thank you for the cummies…” Mommy’s face lit up. “You’re very welcome, baby. Mommy loves rewarding her good boy. But Mommy also isn’t afraid to punish bad boys either.” Jesse knew that much. The spanking at the office was no joke! They were silent (although Mommy was humming under her breath) as Jesse’s cock was released from the cage and his privates were wiped free of baby powder and the used diaper was disposed of. When the plug was finally removed, Jesse couldn’t help the weak whimper that escaped him. For an awkward moment, his ass clenched down on nothing. It didn’t help that Mommy was watching it all with a smile on her face. “Don’t worry, baby,” She soothed, petting his thigh. “I have plenty of toys for you to try.” “I’ve never-” Jesse trailed off. “I know,” Mommy nodded. “We’ll start slow. But eventually, you’ll love having your little ass played with while you make cummies.” Before Jesse could comment on that bombshell, another cage was retrieved from the drawer. This one was a softer silicone and much less noticeable after it was locked on. “Hmm,” Mommy pondered, looking into the drawer. “What diapers does Mommy want to put on her little stinker?” Confusion steeped in Jesse’s mind before he realized she was calling back to the writing on his shirt. She seemed to decide without his input and Jesse found himself being diapered up in a much thicker, blue-patterned diaper. “Is this going to be a thing?” He couldn’t help but ask while he was guided to sit up. “The diapers and baby stuff?” “Oh definitely,” Tammy smirked. “While you’re my little boy you will never be out of diapers. Even at work.” Jesse’s eyes widened. “I can’t wear these to work-” “Ah ah ah!” Tammy tutted. “You’ll wear what I tell you to wear. If you’re a good boy I have more discrete diapers for you. But I won’t hesitate to send you on the office floor in one of these, little boy!” She pointed to the diaper he was currently wearing. “Anything else?” He asked sarcastically with a morose tone. “You are my baby,” She reinforced. “I reward my baby when he’s a good boy. I punish him when he’s bad. If you want something from Mommy, you ask for it.” No way that can come bite him on the ass, he thought sarcastically. “Yes, Mommy.” He responded. It only took ten more minutes before he was secured in the crib with a pacifier clipped to his shirt and a baby bottle of water left by the pillows for him. He had to admit…at least the mattress was comfy. At his insistence that he wasn’t hungry, Tammy nodded and set about readying a pump right in front of him. “Do you just…do that?” He couldn’t help but ask. “It’s somewhat new,” Tammy admitted. “I wanted to be able to feed my baby. Did it taste good?” Looking back, Jesse could admit it did taste pretty good. Relaying the information caused her to smile and he watched her bag up two packets of breast milk to place in the fridge in the kitchen. With instructions to call her if he needed anything (and informed of the presence of a video baby monitor on the shelf pointed at his crib), Jesse was left to sleep. Unbelievable. How did he possibly get himself into this situation? Sleep found him reluctantly as half the bottle of water was sipped before he finally drifted off. It seemed as though he was only asleep for a few minutes before a sweet sing-song voice was calling him out of his rest. He groaned, rolling over and reaching out to silence what he thought was the alarm on his phone. “Aww,” Tammy’s voice cooed at him. “I know, baby. But you have to grab work clothes from home before your shift.” Cracking his eyes open, Jesse spotted the white bars of the cage he was in above him. The soft sheets wrapped around him tried to lull him back to bed, but Tammy wouldn’t have that. The side of the crib slid down with a few clicks and Tammy was free to reach her arms in to cradle him close. Jesse was very foreign to the concept of waking up with someone near him, but he decided he could get used to it as he nuzzled his cheek against Tammy’s shoulder. “Let’s see how dry you are,” She mused, her hand tracing down his chest to part his thighs. The diaper taped onto his hips crinkled loudly as she groped over the front of it. A throb of interest from his dick reminded him of its locked-up status and he sighed. “Mommy,” He mumbled, receiving a pleased hum in response. “Cummies?” Tammy’s eyes lit up. “I would love to help you with that, baby,” And Jesse felt excitement well up in his chest before it was dashed. “But,” Her finger gently tapped against his nose. “We don’t have time for that this morning. Besides, you’re still dry.” Her hand patted the front of his thick diaper as if to prove her point. “Please?” He asked with what he hoped was puppy eyes and tried to reach down to grope himself even through the diaper. His hands were grabbed into a firm grip. “Does baby need a spanking this early in the morning?” Tammy asked with a raised eyebrow. Jesse let out a deep whine, hands dropping to fist into the sheets instead. “No, Mommy.” “That’s what I thought,” She nodded. “Now, are you hungry?” Jesse wasn’t one for breakfast, but the way Tammy was reaching for her nightgown again had him quickly reconsidering. His head bobbed in a nod and his tongue traced over his lips in anticipation. “Ask nicely, baby,” Tammy urged. “Ask Mommy for what you want.” This again. Jesse mentally sighed. “Mommy,” He asked as sweetly as he could. “Can I nurse?” It sounded so foolish to his brain to say those words. He was sure his face was burning bright with a blush. But the look on Tammy’s face was worth it. “Of course, sweet boy!” Jesse couldn’t help but think derisively about how there was enough time for him to nurse, but not enough time for him to cum? Sure. Tammy led him over to the rocking chair and pulled him into her lap excitedly. He thought that it would have been an awkward fit for him, a grown man, to sit in her lap on the chair, but it seemed as though that was compensated with the design of the chair. Tammy was able to rest the arm cradling his head to her breast on the arm of the chair and his knees were resting comfortably over the other padded arm. Her nightgown slipped down with ease and the nursing bra was nowhere to be seen. It was far more awkward to nurse without the haze of arousal clouding his brain, but in a way, he was better able to enjoy it. The gentle scratch of Tammy petting his hair. The soothing rock of the chair. The warmth of Tammy’s breast in his mouth. Jesse hadn’t realized his eyes were closed until Tammy’s thumb parted his lips from her nipple. His eyes fluttered open. He couldn’t help but be slightly disappointed that it was over. “Let’s switch to the other one, babe,” She reassured, adjusting just slightly so he could latch onto the other one. Maybe this wasn’t so bad… ______________ After letting him drain her dry, Jesse was ‘allowed’ to go home, but not before showering and being diapered up in a (thankfully) thinner diaper that wasn’t obvious under his work pants. By Tammy’s instruction, he packed a bag with some extra work clothes so that he could spend the night and sleep in at her home instead of waking up early. By the time he walked into the office, it was almost as if nothing had happened. Only the crinkle of his diaper as he sat down at his desk reminded him of it all. He got sucked into the flow of work and didn’t realize the first issue of the cage until his bladder twinged at him right before lunch. ‘Can you take this cage off so I can go to the bathroom?’ He texted her. ‘Come see me in my office.’ Was the message he received in response. Great… He knocked on her door and stepped inside to see her eating a bowl of salad at her desk. “Lock my door, Baby,” She instructed, barely looking up from her computer screen. Doing as he was told, Jesse found himself standing awkwardly in front of Tammy’s desk, her lack of attention on him a big difference from the usual care directed toward him. Each crunch of her salad made Jesse shuffle his feet. Was he supposed to wait to be acknowledged? Did he need to ask again? He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be doing. Seeming to find a stopping place, Tammy hit a key on her keyboard to pause whatever video she’d been watching with her meal. Her eyes turned to him and Jesse smiled sweetly. Returning the smile, Tammy pushed her salad aside. “Are you on lunch now, Baby?” She asked, lacing her fingers together and leaning her chin on them casually. “I was about to clock out…” Jesse informed shyly, suddenly needing to look down at his feet to avoid her gaze. “But I wanted to go to the bathroom first.” “Oh?” She hummed. Her chair was pushed back slowly. “And did you?” Jesse shook his head. “I…I wanted to ask you to take the cage off first…” “Why would I do that?” Tammy tilted her head to the side and looked Jesse up and down. “...So I can go?” Tammy let out a sigh that made Jesse feel like he’d broken some sort of rule and now she was begrudgingly punishing him. The feeling didn’t dissipate as she waved him over to her side of the desk and pointed at the spot right in front of her. Oh god. When Jesse’s feet planted in front of her, Tammy’s hands started to unbuckle his belt with ease. It was so familiar to the previous day that Jesse couldn’t help but hope for a similar experience. Maybe he’d finally get to cum? His pants button was opened and the front of the diaper was exposed. It wasn’t overly cutesy like the previous ones were. Just a plain white plastic front panel. The only color was blue lines on the tapes. “Still dry,” Tammy said with a strong tone of disappointment. “Why is that, Baby?” “I…” Jesse thought the answer was obvious. But some survival instinct inside of him told him that it was not the correct answer. “I don’t know.” Tammy’s disappointment seemed to grow. “You don’t know.” Tammy turned, reaching for a drawer at her desk and pulling it open. In his standing position, Jesse could see stacks of diapers both thin and thick as well as changing supplies inside. “What do you see in here?” “...Diapers?” Jesse answered, expecting to be wrong. “And why would I have diapers in my desk, Jesse?” Jesse’s heart dropped. He must be in so much trouble for her to use his real name. How was he going to get out of this? How could he fix this? “To…” He paused, biting his lip. “To change me?” “Correct,” Tammy nodded and reached into the desk to pull out a pink printed diaper with little rabbits on it. It landed on the top of her desk with a loud thwap. “And why would I need to change you?” “Because…” Jesse felt his lip quiver. Why? Why was the scrutiny of Tammy so much for him to bear? Why was he so worried that she was angry with him? “Because I-” Tammy didn’t offer any assistance as Jesse’s voice cracked. “Because I needed it?” Tammy said nothing as she pulled out an opened pack of wipes and a small bottle of baby powder and set them on the desk as well. The last thing was a white plastic pad folded up that she spread onto the ground beside Jesse’s feet. “You had no problems wetting your diapers last night, little boy.” She said sternly. “Maybe I spoiled you too much by letting you make cummies so soon.” “No!” Jesse denied it immediately. “I’m sorry, Mommy! I- I didn’t know you wanted me to- to use my diapers at work.” Jesse dropped down to his knees at her feet, hands twitching to rest against her legs but wasn’t sure if he was allowed. “I’ll be a good boy. I promise. I’m sorry. Don’t be mad at me, please Mommy.” The stern crease between her eyebrows smoothed out slowly at his groveling before she gave a long. “I suppose I can give you a little slack since you’re still new to being my baby.” She said, reaching up to pet his hair. He leaned into the touch eagerly, plastering his cheek to her knee. “Thank you, Mommy,” Jesse said honestly. “I promise I’ll be a good boy.” “Well then,” She said, tilting her foot forward to pat his padded crotch. “Go on then. Go potty for Mommy in your diaper.” Jesse’s heart raced, but in the end, he knew there was no resisting. It was hard to let his muscles relax. It took a lot of hard concentration and imagining himself in front of the urinal. His eyes squeezed shut at the first trickle. The second came much easier and lasted for a few seconds before dribbling to a stop. But once he started, Jesse found he couldn’t stop. It was like a building pressure in his bladder. Each spurt was a tease until he was pressed, lips parted, against Tammy’s knee. The stream was steady then and he felt a surge of warmth spreading through the front of his diaper. It didn’t seem like the diaper could hold it all. The warmth trickled down his scrotum until it reached his crack and started to pool there. He could feel the warmth radiating from his diaper as it eagerly soaked up all it could manage. At last, the flow tapered off for good and Jesse was left nearly mewling and panting against Tammy’s leg. The quiver of his lip was back and wetness flooded his eyes. He couldn’t see her face through the blur of his tears, but he hoped it was happy. “M-Mommy I-I-” He stuttered with a sniffle. “Aww,” She cooed. “Did baby go potty in his diaper?” “Mhm,” Jesse hummed sobbing as Tammy’s hand grew firm in his hair. “Say it, baby,” She reminded. “You know Mommy loves to hear you say it.” “I went potty,” He cried out, hoping the office was soundproof. “I went potty in my diaper, Mommy.” “That’s my good boy,” Her smile was evident in her voice and she lightly pushed him away from her leg toward where the pad lay on the ground. “Let’s get my baby changed so he can have some lunch.” Jesse’s cries turned to weak whines as he was laid out onto the changing pad. Tammy let out soothing noises the entire time she transferred the supplies to the floor and dragged her purse over. Between one moment and the next, Jesse’s wet diaper was removed as well as his cage and he was thoroughly wiped down. Any relief he would have felt at the cage being removed was clouded by the surprise that arose as something small and round (But not like the plug from before) was slipped into his backside. It was so small that there was almost no resistance to its movements. And happened so quickly that he couldn’t react. A blink and suddenly he was generously powdered and changed into the noticeably thicker pink diaper. “You are not allowed cummies,” Tammy’s words were firm. “Mommy is trusting you to be a big boy and not make a mess in your diaper. You won’t like the consequences if Mommy finds out you disobeyed.” Jesse sniffled. “Yes, Mommy,” Was all he could manage to say before Tammy pulled his pants back up and did his belt for him. There was a small moment of pause as she fiddled with the back of his belt buckle strangely, but Jesse thought nothing of it. He was more focused on trying to ignore how thick this new diaper was. He hoped with his black slacks it wouldn’t be noticeable. “Now, is my boy hungry?” ‘Lunch’ turned out to be another feeding from Tammy’s breasts. It wasn’t quite as filling as he hoped, but Tammy came prepared with a small water bottle half filled with water and a capsule filled with more of that yellow powder. “What is that, Mommy?” He asked softly as she shook the two together, her breasts jiggled with the movement where they were tucked into her bra but her shirt was left open. “It’s a protein blend, baby,” She explained patiently. “Mommy doesn’t make enough milk yet to feed you, but this will help keep you full while Mommy’s milk catches up.” Jesse didn’t ask any more questions as he accepted the bottle and a wipe for his face before heading for the door. He made it back to his desk without bumping into anyone as they were all still at lunch. He had about ten minutes left of his lunch that he used to chug the formulated mixture and put the empty bottle into his bag to take to Tammy’s house later. It was when the first wave of coworkers came trickling in from the hall that his phone pinged with a message. Of course, Jesse nearly dropped it like a hot coal as he clicked on the message (from Tammy, of course) to see a photo of her naked from the waist down on the floor of her office. Or, more accurately, kneeled on the floor of her office. Between her legs was his used diaper, a pink dildo balanced on top of it and looked to be inserted deep inside her by the way her head was thrown back in the photo. ‘Wish you were here baby ;)’ was the message that followed it. Like a lightswitch, Jesse found his dick hardening inside his diaper. The bulge now more than obvious between his legs. Cursing, he wheeled his chair under his desk and put his phone inside his desk drawer. Tantalizingly, his hand drifted down to squeeze his cock only to be met with a handful of padding. The rustle of fabric against his diaper was loud enough to cause him to jerk his hand away. His dick, seemingly angry at the tease of a touch, throbbed insistently. Part of him wished he was still caged. How the hell was he supposed to get any work done now? Another ping, muted by his desk, sounded from the drawer. The temptation was too much and he fished it back out to see another message from Tammy. ‘Get back to work little boy. And no cummies! I mean it. I’ll know.’ Came the ominous message. How was this his life? He wondered. And why did it make him so horny?

Chapter 66 - Darkening Skies 9:35 PM Kelly walked up to the back door of the car she had hired, and yanked it open, collapsing down onto the seat and startling the driver, who was looking at his phone. She put the nursing pump kit on the seat next to her, and took a deep breath. It had been an impulse purchase, but it felt right to her. She was justifiably upset, and doing this had made her feel just a bit better. She had been discussing parenting strategies on and off with some of the contacts she had made on the Parents of Bedwetters forum, and had eventually connected with a couple of moms who invited her to message them directly, because their approaches, they had explained, were sometimes met with disdain, or even disbelief, in the public chats. But their results spoke for themselves. However, she couldn’t talk to them right now, much as she would have liked to, because she had more urgent matters to attend to. “Ma’am, where do you want to go?” Where do I want to go? She looked around her, up and down the dark, busy streets. The clock on the dash said 9:37. Chris’ dinner was going to be drawing to a close at some point, and she knew that Martha, who never neglected anything, would undoubtedly be following up with her even before that. And the city was big. And busy. And intricate. The longer this took, the further, and deeper, Zack could be intwined within its labyrinthine passages. The little shit. I hope he’s sleeping behind a dumpster. How was she going to buy herself the time she needed to get ahold of him again? If Chris found out his son was missing in the city, late at night, he’d probably hire a private jet to get back. His phone…. Zack’s phone! Kelly had wondered why Zack didn’t take it with him; she doubted it was because he thought they could track him with it – she didn’t think that Zack knew that. And now she wondered why she hadn’t brought it with her, either – as far as she knew, it was still sitting on his bedside table in the hospital room at the Children's Hospital. “Driver, I need you to take me to Mercy Children's Hospital, right now.” “You need to enter it in the app…” “I’ll give you zero stars if you make me use the app, and I’ll give you two hundred dollars in cash if you drive me there right now.” The engine in the white Volkswagen started, while the driver took himself out of service on the app, and then mapped his way to the hospital. ________ 10:15 PM The streets and the highway between the downtown campus and the children’s hospital in the Northern suburbs had gone from heavy traffic, to just traffic, and the ride back took less time. The white sedan pulled up in front of the same entrance where Zack had made his daring escape, hours earlier, when he spotted the shuttle bus. Kelly walked through a revolving door, after striding away from the driver, who had expected to be paid on arrival. “I need to find an ATM,” she said dismissively over her shoulder. “And I’m not done with you.” “Yes, but I want to be done with you!” the driver said in response, but not loudly. The lady disappeared into the large glass atrium that fronted the building, and he had no choice but to hope that she returned. Sitting back down in the car, he realized that at least she’d left her package on the back seat. He hoped it was worth something close to $200. Kelly didn’t bother going back to security, and instead went directly to the elevators, and straight up to floor that Zack had been on. She didn’t know if she could walk straight over to his room at this time of night or not, but that’s what she intended to do, so she breezed past the nursing station, and over to his room. She thought she heard an “Excuse me” from behind her, but she ignored it. His roommate was sleeping in his bed with the television on, a Styrofoam cup on his bedside table. Her eyes barely flicked over him, as she scanned the room for the object she sought – the kid’s damned cell phone. It was not in evidence on his bedside table, which looked like it had been straightened up. His bed had been made as well. Were they preparing the room for another patient? However, Zack’s gifted bag of diapers was still on the cabinet across from his bed, and the message she had written about fastening his romper was still on the white board above it. That feels like it was a week ago… Kelly heard steps come up behind her, and turned around. “Excuse me, can I help you?” an exasperated young nurse asked, in a terse tone. “Well, I doubt if you can, but what the hell, I’ll give it a shot. My son, Zack, disappeared from this room today, and he hasn’t been seen since he left your custody. I have security looking for him at your downtown location, but right now, what I’m after is his phone, which I happen to know he left in this room. I need to know if he was chatting with anyone before he rolled out of here on that damned scooter you gave him.” The nurse’s expression softened, going from irritated, professional detachment, to concern. “I…. I didn’t realize he was missing. We thought you’d taken him home for a visit, or maybe out for dinner.” “Security never spoke to you? Amazing. They’re doing an amazing job. I’m so reassured.” Kelly looked down at the shorter woman, with crossed arms. “I… I only came onto this floor an hour ago. I’m sure they must have spoken with someone on shift earlier.” “Well, I’m glad you’re sure, because I’m not sure of anything right now. Would you happen to know where they put his phone? Or has it been stolen?” The nurse transited quickly over to the bedside table, and opened the drawer, withdrawing a cell phone in a black protective case. “We tend to put personal belongings out of site, if a room is unoccupied.” “So, you do have some security protocols, just not any that pertain to the children themselves.” “Uh, well….” the nurse began, while pulling a pen from the pocket of her green scrubs. “If you could give me your name and phone number, I’ll make sure that if we hear anything, we’ll contact you first thing…” Kelly was already walking, her prize in hand. “You have my number in about four different places. Look it up.” “But, ma’am, if you’re leaving with that device, I’d like to get a name… ma’am….” But Kelly was already out the door and accelerating down the hall. “Is there an ATM in here?” she barked over her shoulder. “The lobby…” she heard behind her, and picked up her pace further. When the elevator arrived, she punched the lobby button, and then while she was waiting, she looked at the phone in her hand. Squeezing the side of it, she tried various buttons, until the screen lit up, and offered her the option to swipe upwards, to unlock it. She swiped upwards. Face ID, it requested. F**k. Then it switched over to a passcode screen. I should have the kids’ damned passcodes! She jammed the phone into her purse, and pulled her own phone out, once again calling her sister’s cottage. The phone rang a few times, and she was just about to hang up and text her instead, when her sister’s voice, raspy with sleep, came on the line. “Did you find him?” she asked, knowing that it had to be her sister. “No, not yet, but I will. I need you to get Maddy on the phone.” “She’s sleeping, Kel, we’re all sleeping.” “Get. Maddy. On. The. Phone.” “Kel, why don’t you… oh, forget about it. Fine. I’ll get Maddy. It’s going to take a minute – they’re upstairs.” Kelly heard her sister put the phone down, and then there were some background noises that she couldn’t make out – she thought it might have been a television. A couple of minutes later, she heard voices drawing closer to the phone, and then Maddy’s young voice, hesitant, came on the line. “Hello?” “Maddy, this is Kelly – I need you to listen to me. What is the passcode for Zack’s phone? I know you know it, I’ve seen you two looking at each other’s phones.” Maddy paused, taken aback by Kelly’s strident tone. “Where’s Zack…?” she asked hesitantly. “Tell me his password, Maddy, or so help me, I will come up there right now, and we can have a fun night feeding your stuffies into a bonfire. After I smash your phone.” Maddy emitted a sharp gasp. “Kel, it’s our mom’s birthday…” “Which is what?” “Oh-four-two-seven. April twenty-seventh.” Kelly made a short, dismissive “fffft” sound. “Good girl, Maddy. Have you talked to your dad yet tonight? Maybe via text?” “No, he’s away, remember?” “I remember. Listen, I need you to give your phone to Aunt Kim. Are you wearing your diaper, sweetie?” “No, I have a pull-up.” “Okay, go get your phone and give it to your aunt. Let me talk to Kim.” “Okay, bye…. Aunt Kim, Kelly wants to talk to you…” Maddy’s voice faded and then Kim came on the line. “What’s going on?” “I needed Maddy’s help to open Zack’s phone. I’ve asked her to please give her your phone, as well. I don’t want any back-channel chatter between her and Chris while I sort this mess out. And Kim, she said she’s wearing a pull-up – I want her in a diaper. Get one of Zack’s – there’s a bunch of them in my room.” Kim rolled her eyes, but decided not to argue with her younger sister. “Fine. Anything else we can do for you?” “I want her in diapers until I get back there. Put Maddy back on the phone with me.” Kelly heard the phone land on a surface with a hard clunk, and she wondered if she’d been hung up on, but then she could hear her sister’s voice in the distance. Eventually, Maddy’s plaintive cries could be heard, getting closer to the phone. “But I don’t need to wear diapers….” Maddy’s voice trailed off and dissolved into sobs. “Here, talk to her, ask her why!” Kim said to Maddy. She heard the phone being handled. “Hi, Maddy – what is aunt Kim doing?” Kelly asked. “She… she said she’s putting me in one of Zack’s diapers...” “Do you know why she’s doing that?” “No. My pull-up is dry.” “She’s doing it because I asked her to, that’s why. Because no matter where I am, I am in charge of you, Maddy. Do you understand me?” “No… I mean, yes, yes.” There was a shuffling noise in the background, Kim said “Lay back..,” and then Maddy said “Okay, jeez” in an irritated tone. There was some background crinkling sounds, and Maddy’s breathing became heavier. “Is Kim putting your diaper on?” “Yes,” Maddy whispered. “Good girl.” _________ Kelly stood behind the glass, looking out at the blackness beyond the streetlamps. The white car sat with its four-way flashers on. She had been about to leave the hospital and ask to be driven back downtown, maybe to her hotel, when a thought occurred to her: just as she could have used the phone to track Zack, so it went that Chris could do the same thing. Or, more likely, ask Martha to do it. And if the phone tracked back to a downtown hotel… that wouldn’t work. In order for her to execute her plan, she needed to communicate with Chris from here, and then shut down communications. Or… with Martha. That would be even better. She unlocked Zack’s phone with the passcode she’d been given, looking at the image he was using as a background, which was a scene from a video game, as viewed through a sniper’s scope. I’m going to need to be a sniper right now. I get one shot. Zack: Dad, are you there? Kelly waited, staring at the screen. Outside, her confused and frustrated driver paced back and forth. Chris: Zack, this is Martha. I have your dad’s phone. He is in a meeting. Yes! A smile crossed Kelly’s face. Zack: Hi Martha please tell dad im ok Kelly left out punctuation and did her best to omit letters, mimicking the texts she got from the kids. She was pretty sure that Martha wasn’t very experienced in texting kids, anyway, but she hoped to arouse no suspicions. Chris: Are you with Kelly now? Zack: yes Chris: Where are you right now? Zack: the hospital Chris: Which one Zack: the kid one Chris: Where did you get to? Why did you leave? Zack: i got bored and took a hsptl bus dwntwn and got lost Chris: Did Kelly find you? Zack: yes i was gtg food n she fnd me Chris: Your dad is going to be so relieved! I’ll talk with Kelly. You get yourself to bed and concentrate on healing. Zack: moms phone is dead she was using it all night Chris: Mom’s phone? Crap. Zack: Kelly’s Chris: Okay. Get some sleep and we’ll call Kelly in the morning. Zack: okay gn Chris: Goodnight Zack. I’m very happy to hear you’re safe. Zack: Thanks to Kelly Chris: Yes, thank her for me, and I’m sure your dad will thank her in person when he gets a chance. Zack: ok bye Kelly lowered the phone. She had an urge to say more, but she felt like she could be swimming into troubled waters if she did. Brevity was best. She’d gotten lucky getting Martha on Chris’ phone – very lucky. If this whole situation blew apart, then Martha had very naively taken the word of a troubled eleven-year-old, hadn’t she? While Kelly was diligently searching the city. But… now, she had to search the city. She held the power button on Zack’s phone down until it asked her to swipe. ***** The uber driver had $200 in his pocket, but he also still had the irritated, tall blond lady in his backseat. He was even growing a tad nervous about being alone with her. Driving fares around within the directions of the app offered certain protections for everyone, including the driver. Nobody could claim, for example, that he had veered off course. He could demonstrate where his car had travelled within a few yards if necessary. This lady had an air about her; it seemed like everything she wanted him to do was part of some grander plan. “Take me to the Residence Inn on 45th Street.” He let out a breath. That wasn’t very far. The lights of a darkened 45th Street played over the surface of the car as the tires slapped and light Indian music played on the radio, turned almost all the way down. Still, it grated on Kelly. She was tired, and she needed a shower, space to think, maybe a drink, and some sleep. Enjoy your night in the big city, Zack.

Hey everyone! Moving right along with this chapter, as a reminder, I will likely not be able to post another chapter until Friday at the earliest. My Fourth of July plans are actually pretty hectic over multiple days this year, and I think that even with me partially gone on Friday, I should still be able to eke out at least a single chapter then. If not, I might be able to shift some things around and then post the single next chapter out on Saturday by splitting the work over three days. Also, as a reminder, the poll for my next story is still going on. As a reminder, as usual, I will post my decision of my next story during my final chapter of this story. Until then, feel free to comment here or personally message me what you want to read next. I like all the choices I am presenting, so choose what you want. For those not sure of the choices, just refer to the beginning of chapter 2. Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter! Chapter 20: Mission Success Is Never Fully Guaranteed I was running on pretty much just nerves and fear at this point. After about a week and a half now, I had gone on at least 13 different missions. I had one every day and multiple missions the previous weekend, but now, another weekend was approaching, and my nerves were more frayed than they had ever been. Every mission I went on was a success, and we even only lost one Little, Josiah. I wrote his name down in my ledger, but sadly, like the others that had been lost, most everyone just moved right on to the next mission. Reviewing the names every night in my little book, I understood why they didn’t force themselves to remember. Each name was a reminder of just how fragile our lives were as Littles. Each of us lost was another token of the dangers we faced out in the field as we protested a Little’s very right to freedom. For each mission, one minute, each Little was dutiful or laughing all the way until they were taken. Now, I knew that each had likely been tortured and regressed into a newborn. So, when any new member came in, it was hard not to see them as a potentially new name to my list. While I maintained my outward strength and led several Littles during those missions officially, I was a wreck inside. It certainly didn’t help when I discovered from Astrid that any early cancellation or failure of my mission wouldn’t guarantee my regrowth and it certainly hadn’t helped ease my mind either. I licked and passed my tongue over my back molar constantly in the past two weeks, just as a reminder of my out, but another thought had been growing in my mind as well: if everything was to go wrong and I had to use it, would I be rescued after or if not, could I even get to the hospital in time? In my briefing paperwork, I saw just how devastating it could be to my system. Acids, fats, and various chemicals would be released to ensure my growth if I broke the tooth, but each would eventually poison me within a single hour. The original plan was that the homing device in the tooth would activate, and I would be rescued immediately to ensure my survival after. Now that the terms of my agreement were changing without my approval, I wondered if that applied to my use of the tooth as well. It seemed inconceivable that I would be left in such a lurch or vulnerable position, but then again, I never thought I had to be worried about being stuck as a Little forever if I failed either. So, the tooth remained stuck. Breaking it could be a potential death sentence for me, and while that will to not just bail right now stayed firm, recent events had started to unnerve that stance as well. I was entrenched enough by now that while I still didn’t know what was happening specifically, I knew something was up after I saw leadership preparing supplies and contingency plans all throughout this week. I asked Paul, but he just said to come in early on Saturday and nothing more. Sighing, I knew I couldn’t pry any further without raising suspicion, so I remained quiet. The day of, I did my due diligence to inform Astrid of the potential for something going wrong today during my morning dead drop, but I wasn’t sure how much good that would actually do me if I ran into any issue. Finally, nearly every Little involved with LRG was gathered into the main level of the warehouse. I saw Paul and several of the other leaders from the other night, but a new leader, almost hippy-looking man, emerged at the front of the podium and addressed us all. “My fellow Littles! For weeks now, we have been made aware of a vote taking place today on the Senate floor. It calls for our registration and tests to determine or competence. We at LRG say no! What say you?” Everyone booed over the impending vote. I then realized that the moment had finally arrived. For years, the Senate had threatened to bring a bill to the floor discussing various Little practices in the state of Colorubrum. The house usually rejected each in closed talks apparently, and the governor swayed back and forth, so a real vote was never brought out to be voted on. Therefore, if the Senate was voting today on it, I feared the bill could actually have enough traction to pass. “Today, we are going to the steps of the capitol building and protesting that we will not go quietly! What say you?” The crowd around me instantly cheered. I, however, remained silent. I felt a looming trap in the distance of all this. I wasn’t sure why, but I’m not sure if it was Astrid’s intention or not, but I peaked at the envelope she gave me. It didn’t go into many details, but the evidence was there that Bigs knew about something we were planning. Going to the capitol building… it just felt like walking into a problem. So, mustering my courage, I brought the evidence to Paul as soon as the main leader stepped down from speaking. “Paul! Paul! I need to show you something!” He turned to me and smiled. We had gotten closer over the past weeks, and I was already wondering if he knew it was me or if like what Astrid had counted on, he was making an unconscious connection between the Susan he knew now and the Sophie who he knew before he escaped. “Is something wrong? You look ill almost.” I nodded my head and thrust the information I had received into his hands. “I’ve been doing some off the books research on my own. A few of my Littles are connected with some Bigs and I’ve been hearing about something brewing…” I lied about it as best I could. “I think today’s vote is what they were referring to.” Paul seemed unconvinced, but I then saw the deep pause and his shifting eyes as he looked over the evidence that Astrid had given me. “So, they do know…” “Wait…” My mind tried to process what I was hearing and seeing from Paul now. “You all knew about this stuff? And you’re still going? The protest is still on?” I couldn’t believe LRG would take such a big risk. I then quickly flashed to my list. Already Sean, Rebecca, Jackson, Tula, Burt, Lamar, Ginger, Katya, and Josiah were listed there. If the rally still happened, I couldn’t help but wonder how many more would be added if the trap was sprung. Paul sighed and nodded. “This stuff… it’s good, so thank you for it. I’ll definitely speak to the higher-ups, but we’ve been hearing similar rumblings on the deep web for a while now. Think of it like looking for clues in how to prepare for something. If this were a party, for example, we’ve now seen evidence of purchases of balloons, cake, party favors, and even a clown. Your evidence basically confirms all that and that the event is likely going to be today as well. It’s valid, but I don’t see leadership calling today off.” “So, what do we do? DO we knowingly walk into a trap?” I looked around and saw at least 40 different Littles that were present for LRG. Even some that didn’t even have a badge and weren’t full members were there. Paul patted me on the shoulder. “We’ll still go, but take some solace in one thing… if we know a trap is coming, is it still really a trap?” With that notion floating around in my head, he soon left and immediately turned to the other leaders in the distance. Less than an hour later, I was just finishing messing with hair in the mirror. I wanted it up and out of my face today, just in case something did happen. At my feet, my sign read that small didn’t equal dumb, and next to that was a manifesto that one of the Littles had written years ago. It was severely out of date in my opinion, but it was still circulated to any new members wanting to do more reading about LRG. “You ready?” I turned to look at the person who had asked the question, and Paul was standing there in the open doorway smiling. I exhaled a big breath and then nodded. “I think I’m about as ready as I’m ever going to be…” I could see that he had recently trimmed his hair again and he was wearing his normal civilian clothing that I knew housed a bit of padding underneath for protests just like today. “I take it leadership still wants to go through with the plan today, huh?” Paul scratched his head, but still nodded. “They feel that too many things are in place now to back out. Plus, if we don’t show our support of Littles today, the government could believe that Littles don’t care or don’t have the say or numbers to be a threat to them in the next election. We can’t have that. So, a Big trap or not, we’re going.” He paused and took a step closer to me. “So, with all that, you still in?” I really didn’t want to be, but I knew that I didn’t have many options at this point. By now, I recognized that I was one of the few in LRG with actual combat training of some kind. If there was a trap, people like Carol, Mindy, Xander, Fritz, Carmen, and even Paul could be in danger. I didn’t think I could live with myself if something happened to them, and I wasn’t there, so I responded in the only way I knew how. “I’m in, but let’s just get this over with. I have a bad feeling about this…” Paul walked over and patted me on the shoulder again. “Me too, but if you’re in, I want you to take this…” I looked down and saw that he was handing me a map. “I don’t understand. Why are you giving me a map?” I took it all the same, but I felt something else was going on. Paul led me out of the bathroom and into the main hall. “I want you to be a leader today, Susan. I’m promoting you and you’ll lead your own usual team officially from now on, okay?” I was shocked but I still nodded. “Good. If anything should happen today, follow this map. Drop any LRG insignia and signs and follow one of the routes noted here. Contingency plans are on the back, but also, if you’re captured, throw it in water. The ink will run off and the map will be useless to any Big with prying eyes. So be careful with it, but just in case…” Nodding, I stuffed it into the front pocket of my jean shortalls today. To me, my outfit was my camouflage. If even one Big hesitated to attack me today because I was deemed ‘cute,’ it would be worth it. Seeing all the Littles gathered around, I just hoped my estimates and evidence was wrong. Bill then loaded up the equipment into his van while the rest of us took the subway to get downtown. I made sure that I had the map on me still, plus my shoulder bag filled with some water, bandages, and a rain jacket. Ensuring it was all there, I looked back up at my friends nearby. Xander, Mindy, Fritz, Carmen, and Carol were all around me, and I knew that if the worst should happen, we might be headed into the city on the subway, but I doubted we would be leaving that way. Getting off, I led my group to the initial rallying point. Bill was already there, and each of us collected our signs. Badges, banners, buttons, and all sorts of other insignia marked who we were. I just hoped that everyone would look past the single bombing and view us as peaceful protestors today. If they didn’t, I knew it was going to be a short walk to the capitol building and a long walk back. My heart raced and my palms began to sweat, but I still made sure that my group was right behind me and to my sides. I wanted to keep my eyes fixed on them if anything bad should happen. Seeing the gathering Bigs as well and the cameras of the local news begin to focus on us, I took a breath and marched forward as best I could. The backlash against us, however, was almost immediate. “Get out of here babies!” “We don’t want your bombs anymore!” “Someone check their diapers! They’re too young to be outside and not in daycare!” Childish, demeaning, and unoriginal, but sadly, it was just what I had come to expect from my fellow Bigs. Being out here with them, I couldn’t help but feel a peculiar sensation right then. Surrounded by LRG and facing against a crowd of angry Bigs, I felt more of a Little than I had ever before. I had experienced helplessness and frustration like any Little before today, but now, I was out in public and standing with my what I could only describe as my fellow Littles. Certainly, if things got violent, I would be seen as nothing else, so for today, I knew I just had to embrace what I looked like. “Steady, steady…” I tried to calm everyone. “If we don’t hit back, they’ll be the ones that look foolish. Don’t give them the satisfaction!” I heard the usual grumbles from people like Mindy behind me, but to my relief, no one did anything but stand and begin to chant. “Little’s rights! Little’s rights!” “Equality not slavery!” “We are people too!” It was almost even a little uplifting, especially when some of the faces of the Bigs against us began to morph from angry into neutral or even sympathetic. I knew our non-violent strategy was working, but out of the corner of my eyes, I knew that was about to change. The same Bigs that had gathered on their bikes and trucks and who had likely taken Sean now stormed in from the east. LRG had positioned itself to the west of the capitol building, right before the main entrance stairs, and these Bigs were now massing on the other side. Unlike the previous bystander Bigs before though who just threw out insults, these newly arrived Bigs were clearly already itching for a fight. “Come on Bigs!” I recognized him immediately as the leader who had confronted me previously. I had seen him a few other times since then, but he had played a more passive role. Today, though, he was nearly out in front of everyone else and yelling to the large and growing crowd of Bigs in front of him? “Are we going to let these terrorist Littles come in and try to dictate our government’s own policies?” “No!” the vast majority of the rest yelled. I gulped in terror at what I just knew was about to happen. “Then, come on!” he screamed fanatically. “Let’s put them in their proper place!” The yelling and oncoming storm of Bigs right for us was a sight to behold that terrified me to my very core. Littles in the front lines held their signs like a picket fence against a surging tide. It barely did a thing against all the rushing Bigs. A few slowed down and some Littles even took a few of the Bigs down, but most got through and easily infiltrated our lines like water passing around rocks. Even being a few lines back with my group, the Bigs soon caught up to us. I used my fighting skills to fend off the bludgeoning and spitting Bigs before me, but where we had brought wooden picket signs, they had brought chains and sticks. Most Littles without any training went down quickly. Blood spurted out all around me. Screams and gasps lit up my ears and confusion seeped in on all fronts. I tried to keep my group safe, but it didn’t take long for one to get hit after another. I managed to fend off a few, but then I heard a louder scream to my left. Snapping my head over, I saw Carol being dragged off. She bit, screamed, and flung herself all around, but the greasy Big holding her almost by the neck just kept dragging her along the road. Springing into action, I turned to Mindy as she just narrowly missed a punch by another Big. “You’re in charge of the group. Keep them safe. Focus on them and don’t run off!” Even the colder Mindy seemed terrified now, but she nodded her head and immediately pulled Carmen out of the way of a nearby thrashing Big. Satisfied over her direction in all this chaos, I turned around and ran after Carol. The Big was massive, and while that made my knees quiver a bit in fear, I knew I couldn’t back down and I could see that it was slowing his progress through the erupted fighting all around us now. So, catching up with him, I punched him right in the back of his knee. He stumbled and then reared around to face me. “Get your filthy hands off my friend!” “Susan!” Carol shouted out in terror, still trying to flail around to get loose. “Get out of here! Save yourself!” I only shook my head as the Big quickly recovered and lunged for me, as his grip tightened around her neck. Holding Carol like that though, despite being more secure, made his movements slow and clumsy. I, on the other hand, was able to dodge him and then smack him on his side. I cursed my shorter height as a Little and I knew that if he caught me, I was doomed, but for now, I was able to duck under each of his heavy blows. Getting tired, I saw my chance. One kick to his butt. One punch to the back of his thigh. I reared around as he swung for me again. He narrowly missed my head, and I came back to his front and with all my might, punched him right in his crotch and then kicked his right ankle with as much force as I could. He dropped to his knees with a howl. Unfortunately, another Big, missing their own targeted Little next to me, hit me instead. I dropped to the ground. I feared that I was a goner by now, but the Big still clutching tightly onto Carol, was out of breath and clearly in pain. Dazed but still seeing my one moment, I reached out for Carol. Seeing another Little nearby, I shouted to them. “Help me! Help me! Pull! Pull!” The Little nodded and started pulling on my shoulders as I pulled the top of Carol toward me, the Big now only holding onto her knees. Clearly realizing what was happening, the lumbering Big pulled back. He grunted and groaned, and I cursed the air and yelled in the sheer tension as I pulled back with the other Little. Carol had become a game of tug-of-war. It was largely based on strength, and I could see the Big was quickly recovering. In moments, I could be dragged away myself and lose Carol forever. I didn’t want her name added to my list, so I had to think of something quick. “He’s taking her! He’s taking her!” I screamed in panic. “Kidnapper! Kidnapper!” Despite being a common practice with Littles for decades now, even before portal Littles had arrived, and was even rumored to be a cause of the Great War initially, it was highly illegal. Being mere steps from the capitol building, all eyes were on the massive fight taking place there. So, in moments of my shout, cameras focused in on our fight. Panic lit up the Big’s face. Gasps and whispers electrified my ears. Everyone was staring at us. Punching and tearing at each other was one thing, but kidnapping a Little, real or perceived, was a huge no can do on both sides. Several of the Bigs, even the ones part of the Bigs that had harassed my friends and I earlier, stopped what they were doing and looked at us. I could see each with the same look on their faces… ‘what the hell are you doing?’ The Big’s grasp immediately slackened, and it was just enough for me and the Little behind me to pull Carol free, red marks already forming around her neck from where he had previously held her. As she took a deep and labored breath in, I pulled her back and to the safety of our side. “Come on!” The crisis now averted with her capture, it unfortunately didn’t deter either side and everyone was back at it again in seconds after we had passed. The other Big retreated in disgrace under the cover of the chaos unfolding once more. Sputtering and gasping for air, I set Carol down in our rear where some of the other Littles had been moved that had been hit. “Are you okay?” Carol, still trying to catch her breath and occasionally coughing, only nodded. “Okay. I’m going to find the rest of our group and make sure they’re okay. You just wait right here. Come find me if you feel up to it but pay attention to the leaders.” I pointed to a few of the elderly leaders I had seen the other night standing nearby and issuing out orders. I quickly saw that Paul wasn’t among them. “If they leave, you leave, okay?” Carol was now more of my equal within LRG, but my leadership skills and lack of major injury gave me a bit more of a dominant role over her. So, still shaken from her ordeal, Carol nodded. “Got it,” she rasped, color finally returning to her face. Seeing she was at least better off than the others, I dove back into the crowd. It took a bit, but I eventually found the rest of them. Mindy was thrashing wildly, Xander was pulling a nearly catatonic Carmen away, and Fritz was wrestling the lower half of a particular massive Little. I quickly helped him out and shoved the other Big away. “You okay?” Fritz nodded, but a piece of trash hurtled through the air and hit him directly on the head. He went down in seconds. Xander got hit as well and Carmen dropped onto the pavement. Mindy disappeared into the crowd further. “Push forward!” I heard someone yell from our rear. The momentum of the crowd shifted, and I tried to help my group out as much as possible. I dragged Carmen to the side of the road, and then quickly bandaged both Xander and Fritz as best I could. “Come on! We need to get you two to the rear with Carol. Strength in numbers, and…” “No! We’re not leaving!” Xander yelled, pulling Carmen close to him to shield her from the incoming flying garbage that took down several other Littles. “He’s right!” Fritz agreed. “Carol can stick close to leadership, Carmen will stay with Xander, and we go together. We need to stop all this, or at least win.” I didn’t like the plan, especially with the looming notion of Big retaliation of some kind, but I could see the determination in at least Xander’s and Fritz’s eyes. “Fine… let’s go.” Fritz nodded and we left Xander and Carmen there to fend for themselves. As Fritz and I joined the mob once more, trying to help out as many Littles as we could, I tried to find Paul. It took some searching, but I could see Paul fighting several Bigs at once. Like me, he was going for their lower bodies and used his speed to dodge their hits at him. It was effective and several Littles were rallying around him. “Paul!” I yelled, trying to get his attention and maybe manage to pull him away from all the fighting. I doubted it, but I had to try. “Susan!” He then nailed another Big right in the crotch and smashed into his face. The Big groaned as he fell over on the pavement, bleeding and battered. Satisfied that he was down, Paul then made his way over to me. “Heck of a fight, huh? Never would have wanted this, but we can’t give up now. Look!” I looked in the direction his finger was pointed, and several news reporters were on the scene. Additionally, several other Bigs were now holding up signs in support of Littles. The tide of the protest was changing in our favor. I thought everything was going to be okay in that single moment. The Senate would reject the new bill based on new Little support and we would all be fine by the end of today. I could eventually get Paul to leave LRG and turn into LPS a few rogues I suspected were solely responsible for the bombing before. It all seemed so perfect, but then I heard a whistle. Its chirp seemed to pierce my entire ear canal as the sound rose above everyone else. Several Bigs and Littles stopped hitting each other to clasp their ears in pain. Once it had passed, I looked to see where it had come from. Unfortunately, when I looked up, I saw a mass of blue hidden by a wall of clear shields. The police had arrived… “Disarm immediately! This is the police,” one of them said through a megaphone. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up. “You are in violation of several laws. Please disperse immediately or we will employ harsh methods.” There was a pause in the crowds now surrounding us. Both Bigs and Littles didn’t seem to know what to do. Then someone shouted. “All Littles together! Quickly! Quickly!” Almost as if on automatic, every Little, including Paul, Fritz, and I, migrated together. We interlocked our arms and held fast. I wasn’t sure if it was the best or even right move to make, but we made our stance. Panicking, the Big leader from before, yelled as well. “Get together! Get together! Don’t get caught! As one! Quickly!” The Bigs then formed their own wall of interlocked bodies against the police. The resultant dispersal back into our own groups left a wide swath through the middle and then up to the steps of the capitol building. “That is not the type of dispersal we are asking for. Please remove yourself from the area immediately or face the consequences,” the announcer said again into the megaphone. “Don’t listen to ‘em!” one of the Littles yelled defiantly from behind me. I was definitely nervous, and I wondered if Paul was as well. “Should we leave like they’re asking us to?” I asked quietly to Paul. Paul sighed. “I want to, but I know we would be in the minority at this point. A few threats aren’t enough to move half of these people.” I knew he was right, and I just silently hoped the police would give up. They didn’t. “Very well,” the announcer said with a sigh. He then backed off the megaphone and turned around. “Fire!” From behind him, two cannisters were shot out and one landed in front of both our grouping and the Bigs. It shot out for a moment and giant plumes of gray smoke began to envelop the whole area. Soon, several Bigs and Littles were coughing and sputtering. “It’s just the normal dispersal gas! Try not to breathe it in and fan it away from your eyes, skin, and mouth!” Paul called out, briefly spitting the remnants of the dose he had been hit with. The gas penetrated my lungs and eyes. I felt like I was slowly catching on fire. I tried to claw around, the group spreading out again. I tried to fight it, but eventually, I just had to run away. True to Paul’s word, the gas was just the normal repellant gas. Once the wind picked up and it moved off, the burning sensation faded. Right then though, more Bigs arrived. Unlike before where most seemed to be pro-Big, several seemed to support us and began to call for Little’s rights. It filled my heart with joy, but not being outdone, the other Bigs from before ran forward and began fighting their own. It was horrendous to watch, and as I peered into the mass of chaos, I saw Mindy. She was thrashing about one Big’s legs, but she didn’t have time to see another Big come up behind her. “Watch out!” I cried to her, but it was too late. The Big swung his large stick right at her back. Mindy dropped to the group, screamed and then gasped for air. I tried to get her. I couldn’t lose another Little, but more Bigs shoved me back. I fell down and someone hit my head with their foot… I think. Dazed, I tried to get up and help Mindy on my own, but each time, I was shoved back down by a different Big. “Come on! Get out of here! Get!” Paul shouted at the Bigs, and anyone else who was blocking his way. He then crouched down and grasped me by the hand. “Come on, Susan. You gotta get up!” Paul said, as he picked me up off the street. At this size, I was surprised just how strong he was, but I was grateful to at least not to be trampled to death. “Thanks!” I said about as enthusiastically as I could while still clutching my sore and even slightly bleeding head now. Concerned, but clearly relieved to see that I was mostly okay, he nodded and then ran back off into the crowd to help others. Looking back for Mindy, I was shocked to see another Big pick her up and carry her off. Unlike Carol though, this Big ran over to our side of the fighting protest. “Hey! Hey you!” I called out over to the Big carrying my friend. The Big stopped in his tracks and looked at me in terror. “I’m just trying to help her! Please! I swear I’m not trying to…” “Easy, easy. I can see that,” I reassured him. “I know her. Just follow me to a safer spot.” He nodded and I guided him back to where Xander, Carmen, and Carol now were. “Here, set her down.” He did so without another word, and then quickly went back. Sitting there for a moment, I saw him bring back several other wounded Littles. Mindy was slow to rise and open her eyes, but by now, another Little was attending to the several wounded members of LRG. I even saw a few Littles that weren’t even a part of LRG getting taken care of, so naturally, seeing their golden opportunity, it didn’t take long for the press to hover around the scene unfolding. Dozens of reporters started to take shots and give out interviews to the fallen Littles. To any casual observer, despite everyone getting into a fight, even as part of LRG, sympathy was swinging to our side. As soon as I went back to try and find Paul and Fritz, I saw the Bigs weren’t happy about the unfolding situation with the press behind us now at all. “Screw them! Chew on this, you big babies!” A Big then lobbed another object in the air. This time though, the device exploded overhead. A new blue gaseous vapor spread out as everyone screamed in terror. The Bigs held their breath and quickly retreated. I didn’t see them placing their hands over their mouths until it was too late. The minty and cooling mist settled on my skin and was inhaled quickly by my body. “Don’t breathe it in! Don’t breathe it in!” Paul shouted, but it was too late. Nearly every Little who wasn’t wounded and instead was in the front, at least forty of us by now, were dosed with the blue spray. Seeing it as an assault, the police marched towards the Bigs and began arresting several of them. For any Little not coughing or nursing their wounds, it was clear the momentum had shifted in our favor. A cheer soon erupted, and we all felt glad of our little victory. Continuing further, just as the police even assisted us with our wounded, an aide ran out of the building. “The vote failed! No registration required!” A massive and thunderous cheer erupted in the town square. Even those who were still partially blinded from the first round of smoke or who were wounded badly, raised their arms and celebrated the victory. Everyone felt triumphant, and several Littles, including Mindy, Xander, and Fritz, gave interviews to the reporters. I then noticed the remainder of the Bigs who had stayed afterward, soon left in panic. Some time later, Bill and several other volunteers who offered to drop us off anywhere we wanted, hauled us out of there. Several offers to go to the hospital were made, but my group all turned them down. Fearing the warehouse could be discovered from this reliable but still a stranger, I made sure to get us dropped off two blocks away in a busier part of the city. Thanking the driver, we all got out and started to make the march back to headquarters. It was slow going but seeing that rusted door with the camera above it again was an oddly welcome relief. Inside, each of us was checked out by Dr. Jackson, including me. He seemed worried about the blue gas that I had inhaled, but then wrapped a bandage around my head and sent me on my way, with orders to try and take it easy for the next few days. Making my way back to the surface, just as I had finished checking on my group, Paul found me and pulled me aside. “I just wanted to tell you in person that you did really well today. Leadership noticed.” “Oh, well, it was nothing… I just wanted to help my friends,” I said truthfully. I was never much for bragging about myself. Paul shook his head. “No, no. Don’t sell yourself short. You entered back into the fight at least three times, maybe more. That’s not nothing.” He then reached into his back pocket. “I was talking with leadership now and we’re all very impressed. You helped a lot today, so, we all felt you definitely earned this.” He then opened his hand. I looked inside, and there, newer and fresher than all the others I had seen so far, was the red LRG armband… just like the one that Paul and the others wore. “Paul… I don’t know what to say.” I had wanted the armband for a while now as a symbol of my commitment to LRG and ass a key to talk to the higher-ups and learn more, but I thought only members here for at least a year had earned one. “Well, you don’t need to say anything. You earned this…” His smile remained, but I had known Paul for long enough to see that there was something else behind his eyes. The last time I had seen him look like this was just after the baseball game. “Is there something else you’re not telling me?” Paul sighed and I definitely knew there was. “Please, Paul. You can tell me. I need to know.” Paul nodded his head. “Right. You’re right. I just…” Paul scratched the back of his neck, clearly trying to stall for time. “You were seen today… you made the front page even…” He then pulled a piece of paper out of his right pocket, unfolded it, and then handed it over to me. I looked down and there, clearly shown, was me when I had shouted at the other Big. “Local Littles Protest Registration Vote At State Capitol Building…” I looked back up at Paul, but I was confused why he still looked worried over a simple headline and picture of me helping out another Little against another creepy-looking Big. “Isn’t this a good thing for LRG with this free press?” Paul sighed. “It is, but… Bigs will know about you now.” I looked at Paul in confusion still. “If you go home now, you’ll be recognized. Could be helpful with Littles coming to your side more, but Bigs… well, we lost five Littles along last month because the Bigs tracked them down to their homes.” I then just realized what he was trying to tell me and why he looked so despondent. “You mean… I can’t go home?” Unfortunately, he nodded. “We won’t stop you, but just know that if you do, you might never make it back here.” The gravity of it all was quickly hitting me, and I think Paul could see, as he quickly patted me on the shoulder as had become our tradition by now. “Still, if you want to stay here, there’s definitely a place for you on one of the lower levels. Might not be much, but it’s safe at least.” Like had been happening so much lately, I felt my world spinning around like a top. Not going home meant so many things. I felt that I might be able to get away with it tomorrow during the day… at least to inform Astrid of what was going on, but to never go back… It was a lot to take in. Paul could clearly see that and guided me gently away to the lower levels. “I’ll show you to your room later, but first, I want you to formally meet our fearless leader.” Paul then opened one of the bulkhead doors and led me into a single room after I put on the LRG armband. After all, I wanted to make a good first impression. Inside, LRG tapestries adorned the walls as I had predicted, but incense burned all around and several books of both Big and Little philosophers from the ages adorned one wall. “Susan… this is Samuel… our leader.” He stood up and came over from his desk and quickly hugged me. “Welcome to LRG, Susan.” He backed off and I remained frozen, not ready for his hug. “I’ve only seen great things from you, so I’m definitely glad to have you fully aboard now. Sorry about the whole news bit though…” “I…” I knew I had to quickly shake off my shock from his hug and focus in. At last, I was finally meeting the top leader of LRG. Maybe now I could get some answers at some point about the bomb. “Thank you… I’m glad to be here.” He smiled and turned to Paul. “I can see what you mean. Very focused and a little uptight.” He turned back to me and smiled even wider. “No worries, though, Susan. We take all kinds here at LRG. Sometimes, we have a few too many jokesters around here.” He then walked back to his desk and plopped down into his chair. “You get some rest for now, Susan. We can talk more tomorrow if you want. Now that we’ve gotten some positive traction in this city, we should be able to push ahead with a few of our other plans.” Seeing the interview was over, Paul ushered me out after we said our thanks and goodbyes. After leading me to my new room, Paul said goodnight and left me alone. In my new room, I felt accomplished but all alone. I had joined the Littles and fought hard against my own kind. I wondered how long I would have to stay below the surface or where I should draw the line between my Big persona and accomplishing my mission. But, right then though, I got a funny almost tingling sensation. It came on suddenly, and at first, I wasn’t sure what it was. But as it started to grow and move lower, my eyes bulged out in panic as I realized at once what it was. I had to pee! And it wasn’t just a normal need to pee. This was something more… something pressing and highly urgent. My only solace though was that I had my own small but private bathroom. So, I flung myself in there and dropped my pants as quickly as I could. It wasn’t enough. A trickle then began to escape through my still present training panties. My cheeks flushed hot with embarrassment, and I let out a tiny and pathetic whimper. Today I had shown up as a defender of Little’s rights and tonight I had even been inducted to their group of revolutionaries. It was all good and I was glad that I was playing my part so well. Seeing my soaked underwear and the tiny puddle that had formed below me, I felt that maybe in fact I had played the part a little too well. Mortified and wondering what to do, I fingered my new LRG armband and then looked back at myself in the mirror. Moments ago, I had questioned where I should draw the line between being a Big and being a Little to accomplish my mission. Standing there, training panties soaked, LRG armband prominently displayed, and a bandage around my head from defending Littles after getting knocked down by a Big twice my size, I couldn’t help but feel that maybe I had already crossed it.

Lara’s tone was dripping with sexual dominance. Ted could sense that she was turned on, and his cock started to come to attention. They turned down Columbia Ave., nearing their house. Lara waited for an answer to whether Ted believed he needed a bedtime spanking. “No way…” he pouted playfully, “I am such a good boy.” He gave her a cheesy grin. Lara laughed and swatted his butt. “Hmm… you have been rather obedient since your punishment last weekend, I’ll give you that.” They turned onto the walkway toward the house. Lara unlocked the door and led the way in. She closed the door behind Ted and grabbed his elbow. “But what if I WANT to give you a spanking? Just because?” “Just because?” Ted asked. “Because why?” Lara wrapped both arms around him. She grabbed a handful of his butt in each hand. “Because I like your cute little butt,” she said, groping him. “Because it turns me on to hold you over my knee and see this little tush turn red.” She kissed him passionately. Ted wrapped his arms around her shoulders and kissed her back. Lara slid one hand around to his front side, keeping her other hand firmly on his ass. “Because I want to feel your big hard cock pressed between my legs while I give you a good hard spanking.” She rubbed him through his pants, making Ted’s knees buckle. His cock pulsed and dripped into his boxers. “Because I know that deep down, you’re just a little boy who needs his bottom spanked on a regular basis.” Lara kept rubbing his front side while she delivered two quick swats to his backside. “Isn’t that right? My Teddy boy just his needs little reminders to be a good boy?” Her tone was still dominant, but there was a hint of sweet baby talk. The question was rhetorical, and Ted didn’t bother answering. His eyes closed halfway and he gasped as Lara started rubbing him faster. Suddenly, she stopped. She grabbed him by the wrist and started up the stairs. “Come on little boy. You need to have a spanking,” Lara said, marching him toward her bedroom. “Then we’ll get you in a nice comfy nighttime diaper and get you all tucked in.” Ted toddled behind her, his manhood swelling, even though Lara was making him feel so small. He was so turned on by her dominance. He couldn’t wait to see what she had in store for him. He didn’t have to wait long. Lara opened her door and dragged him in to the bedroom. On her nightstand were two open packages flanking a flat wooden hairbrush. One of the packages was still mostly full, the puffy, oversized, pastel blue diapers spilling out. The other was deflated, with just a few pull-ups left inside. Ted immediately recognized the Goodnites logo, but was surprised to see the pink and purple aesthetic on the rest of the packaging. He then remembered Lara coming to his bedroom wearing a pull-up the first time they had fooled around. It had been dark in his room that night, and Ted had just assumed Lara was wearing a boys’ version. But no… she had bought an extra pack of girls’ Goodnites… for herself. As he stood ogling the package and noticing how few pull-ups were left, Lara approached the nightstand and slowly removed one of the bigger diapers. Ted’s gaze shifted to that package. He saw the cutesy printed label, noting the words “overnight,” and “maximum absorbency.” His face flushed and he grew embarrassed. Lara took the diaper along with the hairbrush and sat down on the bed. She set the diaper to her left side with the brush on top. She beckoned Ted over, hooking her finger seductively. “Come here, little boy.” Ted’s cock throbbed and dripped as he slowly walked over to her. He stole a long look down her shirt. Lara grabbed him by the belt buckle and pulled him roughly to stand right in front of her. Then, gently, she rubbed his member through his pants, making his knees buckle. In a low voice, Lara asked, “Now, what do we say about spankings? Always…?” Ted’s knees buckled as she continued rubbing him. His eyes rolled back in his head. “Always on… the … bare,” he obliged her, breathlessly. He reached for his belt buckle. Lara slapped his hand hard. “Ow!” Ted pulled back. “Hands at your sides,” ordered Lara. Ted obeyed as Lara quickly unfastened his jeans. She dropped them to his ankles revealing his boxers, which bore several wet spots from his dripping member. Lara took his underwear by the bottom hem and rubbed the wetness with her thumb. “Aw no! Teddy had a little accident!” she baby-talked at him. “We better get you in a diapie before you make an even bigger mess.” She slid her fingers up his leg and brushed against his dick, again making him squirm. “But first…” Lara yanked his boxers downward and shoved them to his ankles to join his jeans. Ted’s manhood bounced in her face, standing at full attention. “Somebody needs a good spanking.” The room spun as Ted was flung across her lap. Lara spread her legs so that his cock fell between her thighs. As she pushed him down to bend over her knee, she clamped her legs around his stiff penis, pinning him tightly in place. The warmth of his cock elicited additional warmth between Lara’s legs. Her panties grew damp, as Ted’s dripping cock made the inner seam of her leggings equally wet. Ted gasped, enjoying the sensation of his massive hard on rubbing against Lara’s thigh. He found himself face to face with the diaper and hairbrush, each one awaiting its turn to be applied to his bottom. He was somewhat surprised to find his arousal growing by the minute. The intimacy with Lara and her dominance over him made him actually eager to feel the hairbrush against his butt and to lie down and let Lara diaper him. It was a little strange, but at the same time, it felt very right to be under her control. His introspection was cut short. A loud, hard crack landed on his exposed bottom. Ted flinched slightly, but took the spank in stride, sticking out his bottom and ready for more. Lara roughly rubbed the spot she had just spanked. She rubbed the other cheek, then smacked it just as hard. “Mmm…” she purred lasciviously. “This is such a cute butt.” She gave him six more spanks in quick succession, alternating cheeks. A little bit of pink appeared as she continued rubbing, warming him up nicely. She could feel the heat growing in his backside, as the heat also intensified between her legs. “But I think it looks much cuter when it’s a nice dark shade of red.” Lara spanked him in earnest, rhythmically covering every inch of his butt. Ted squirmed on her lap a little, which made his member slide against her thighs. He continued dripping precum onto her leggings. He moaned with delight. With a deep shade of pink achieved on Ted’s butt, Lara paused. She ran a finger gently along his crack, teasing him. She landed another spank and let her hand rest on his reddening bottom. “This is a nice, warm, pink bottom,” Lara said rubbing him sensually. She spanked him lightly. “But I think I prefer a darker shade…” She smacked him again. Ted was enjoying the growing warmth in his backside, but he couldn’t stop staring at the hairbrush in front of his face. He knew what was coming next, and he was more than a little nervous. Lara rubbed his butt in big circles, her pussy getting wetter and wetter. “Hand me that hairbrush, please,” she said firmly. Ted’s mouth was dry, his gaze fixed on the heavy wooden implement. Lara smacked him hard with her hand. “Did you hear me, young man? I said… hand me … SPANK … the … SPANK … hairbrush … SPANK SPANK SPANK.” Ted got the message. Fearing that things would get worse for him if he didn’t obey, he reached forward and picked up the brush. Slowly, he passed it back toward his naked, waiting bottom. Lara grabbed Ted’s wrist. Snatching the brush with her right hand, she kept a firm grip on him with her left. She twisted his arm behind his back to hold him in place across her lap. CRACK The hairbrush walloped him, catching the sit spots on both cheeks. CRACK CRACK Lara spanked Ted hard, making him flinch and rise up on her lap. She tightened her grip on his arm and pushed him back down. She landed three more quick, hard spanks. She could feel Ted’s dick soften slightly between her legs. Meanwhile, her own arousal only grew. “Now that I have your attention,” she said, continuing to spank him, “I want to be perfectly clear.” A sting started to grow in Ted’s backside. His cock was still hard, but waning slightly as he was reminded of his first spanking at Lara’s hand. Lara noticed, and squeezed her thighs, jostling a touch to make sure the boy stayed interested. She paused her barrage and rubbed the brush in circles on his now red cheeks. “This ass,” the brush smacked down loudly, “belongs to me now.” Ted flinched, but Lara held him down firmly. She started spanking in rhythm, alternating cheeks and bringing out a nice crimson color. “You know by now what will happen when you break the rules,” she lectured. “But I want you to also know that I will pull down your pants and put you over my knee anytime I feel like it. Any time. Any place. For any reason. Or for no reason at all. “This butt is mine. And I will do whatever I like with it.” She paused. Ted was breathing heavy, almost panting. The hairbrush stung like hell, and though Lara wasn’t applying it with full force, the dull pain in his rear was real and growing rapidly. Still, as blood rushed to his butt, it also ran to his dick. Lara’s no nonsense domination was a major turn on. Even though it was painful, Ted was delighted to submit to her. “Do you understand me, Teddy?” SMACK The brush exploded on his bare ass. He bucked reflexively, but he did not resist. He knew what she wanted to hear. “Yes ma’am!” he called out. “Good boy,” Lara purred. SMACK The brush landed one more time, very hard. An exclamation point. Lara put it down and caressed the red butt spread across her lap. Ted didn’t show any signs of bruising, but he was certainly a well-spanked young man. Lara smiled at her handiwork and enjoyed the heat radiating from his firm cheeks. “Now that you’ve had your bedtime spanking…” her fingernails teased his crack, “…it’s diaper time.” Ted didn’t move. He lay tensely across Lara’s lap, delighting in her touch. His member throbbed against her leg. She slapped his bottom lightly. “Hand me that Pamper, will you? And then please lie down on the bed.” Ted reached out and grabbed the diaper in front of him. He slowly stood and handed it to Lara. She took it from him, and sat for a moment, enjoying the sight before her. Ted’s pants and boxers were pooled at his ankles. His cock protruded straight out from his groin, inches from Lara’s face. She felt the dampness between her legs, both from Ted leaking on her and from her own pussy. She ran a finger along his aching member, stopping to poke at the drop of precum hanging off the end. “Mmm…. You certainly look like a big boy,” she teased. “But you can’t seem to control yourself can you? So you belong in diapers like a little boy.” She stood up, making space for Ted to lay down. He stepped out of his pants and let her guide him to the bed, flat on his back. He felt vulnerable and exposed, but insanely turned on. His cock pointed straight up at the ceiling. Lara unfolded the diaper and stretched it out. She tossed it on the bed, then started stripping her clothes off. In a matter of seconds, she was kneeling on the bed between Ted’s legs, naked except for her lacy red panties. Ted’s eyes here fixed on Lara’s huge, perky tits. Her nipples were quite hard as she picked up the diaper and readied it for Ted. “Lift that bottom little boy,” she ordered, smiling slyly. Raising his hips, Ted lifted himself off the bed and allowed Lara to slide the big diaper under him. He felt a somewhat foreign sensation as he lowered his butt onto the soft, crinkly padding. There was a mild sting in his butt still from the hairbrush spanking. But the cushion of the diaper was remarkable. The crinkly edges tickled slightly and almost made him giggle. But overall, Ted noticed two things: the feeling of Lara diapering him was at once both calming and sexy. He felt cared for, loved, and turned on. Lara tugged the diaper up between his legs. With both hands, she pushed it against his front side and rubbed his erection roughly with the soft padding, the diaper crinkling loudly as she did. “Hmm… I don’t think I can get your diapie on with that big hard cock in the way.” Ted gasped and roiled on the bed as she touched him through the diaper. “Maybe we should make him go away,” Lara cooed, pulling the diaper back open. She straddled Ted, rubbing her crotch against his manhood, then pulling it away teasingly. Ted reached down and grabbed her ass with one hand, rubbing her pussy with through her panties with the other. He noticed the dampness. “Ohh…” he said breathlessly, “seems like I’m not the only one having accidents…” Ted squeezed Lara’s ass hard and found the target between her legs with his fingers. The wetness in her underwear grew. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she gasped loudly. “Is that why you have those Goodnites over there?” Ted pressed. “Because you can’t keep your panties dry?” He started tugging them down over her butt, landing a quick, playful smack to her bare cheek. Lara grabbed his wrist and violently pinned it against the bed above his head “Ah ah ah… you don’t get to spank me, buster.” She grabbed his other arm and quickly secured it. Ted smiled at her coyly as she lowered her wet panties back down to rub against his cock. He shuddered in delight. Lara let go of his hands so she could relieve herself of her underwear. Ted kept his hands above his head, in a reflexive show of obedience. He ogled Lara’s naked body as she fully disrobed and straddled him again. She took him deep inside her. Ted gripped the headboard and arched his back. Lara moaned deeply. She started slowly, but Ted grabbed her by the hips, pounding himself deeper into Lara’s pussy and making her ride him faster and faster. The anticipation and build up had been so great, it took only a few minutes for them both to climax. The bed shook under them, and the each howled in wild ecstasy. A very short while later, the two lovers lay snuggled up and soundly asleep, Ted in a thick baby blue diaper, and Lara in tight fitting pink and purple pull-ups.

Hey everyone! So… darn. Finished this last night and the site went down. I guess it is what it is, but I didn’t want to wait until tonight to post this chapter. I’m going to try and get out another one later, but here’s this one for now. Regardless, a big, big thank you to everyone who has been commenting, reading or liking this story so far. I know it’s not the more traditional version that a lot of people seek out on this site, but I’m glad to see that a few of you are enjoying it so far. There’s a lot planned, and I just wanted to say one thing more here. Many of you have pointed out some flaws or elements that don’t seem to click just right yet. I will just say for now that nearly all of them will be answered soon, or there is a reason why I have written it that way. Just hold on and enjoy the coming ride. Also, as a reminder, the poll for my next story is still going on. As a reminder, as usual, I will post my decision of my next story during my final chapter of this story. Until then, feel free to comment here or personally message me what you want to read next. I like all the choices I am presenting, so choose what you want. For those not sure of the choices, just refer to the beginning of chapter 2. Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter! Chapter 17: No One Said It Would Be Easy Good gracious, was being a Little hard! Being a Big that had been trained at the LPS academy when it was first created, our methods were… unorthodox to say the least, but were turning out to be truly valuable now. While they included the usual regimens of strength and coordination training, firearms skills, assault procedures, laws, and all the rest of the usual courses, the training also included some more… unusual tests as well. I think it honestly started as a joke, but for a week, we had to wear a special underwear that essentially amounted to wearing something in between my current training pants and what I imagined diapers would be like. I think it was to break us down into the moldable agents they wanted, but skills like that, taking down larger opponents, and being tested on all sorts of Little products and backgrounds, was basically the only thing saving me out here in the field lately. True, I had spent a few days basically locked in my slum apartment, that seemed dismal even as I fixed it up, but I eventually had to get more groceries. So, getting used to my new body and then ensuring I could physically make it outside, I finally left. Things weren’t any easier though, and I was starting to get a suspicious feeling about this whole mission. Every time I left my apartment, even being in a more heavily populated Little area of the city, I was surrounded by near ravenous Bigs. It seemed that for every block I walked, another Big seemed ready and eager to take me back home with them. Kidnapping was illegal, but knowing this world as I did, I knew there were always around that. So, I never accepted money, gifts, drinks, handshakes, or pretty much any other friendly gesture from a Big ever. Some nearly spanked me a few times for my perceived rudeness, but I had managed to evade them just in time and wiggle my way out of those situations. It only added more fuel to my already growing suspicions about this mission. A tiny part of my paranoid brain kept telling me that I was set up to fail. My apartment was in the middle of the Little portion of town, but it was also near to another nearly Big only apartment complex. Just last week, one of my downstairs neighbors had an accident in front of them and all everyone saw of them again was their apartment being packed up. My internal alarm bells had been ringing before, but now, they were practically shouting at me. Unfortunately, unless I pulled my ripcord and came in early without success, I had no way of fully communicating with LPS about what had possibly gone wrong. Astrid was normally so cautious about these things… I even started to wonder if she had set all this up herself or not. Still, I had to wait for next Thursday’s dead drop to communicate my weekly progress to LPS. Until then and as a result, though, I kept to myself most of the time in my apartment… just in case I was being set up to fail somehow. For other Littles, this might have been a near death sentence if they had to work outside and were discovered to be neglectful in their job, but fortunately, LPS had at least set me up with a remote job; Littles life counselor. At first, I was only okay at it, but now, after some time dealing with Bigs, I was able to call on my previous training and new life experiences to near expert levels. “And did you try those breathing exercises we tried on Tuesday, Carol?” The anxiety-ridden and near agoraphobic Little on my screen hesitated but nodded. “I did, Miss Susan, but… but… I…” I could see I was going to have my hands full today with her, but yes, my name had been changed as well… Carol’s anxiety wasn’t doing her any favors, and I just knew deep down that unless something changed soon, a lack of her medication from Earth was likely to eventually doom her. Still, for now, I could already see the cracks forming in my client today. When I first met her two weeks ago when I first arrived and started my job, she was nervous, but also truly an adult. Now, especially seeing her hug her new stuffed animal off camera where she likely thought I might not see it, I knew she was at a critical stage. If she could just get a burst of maturity, I knew I could bring her back from the brink. “Come on, now, Carol. Take a deep breath for me…” She attempted it, but just sputtered out after only a second. “That’s okay… one more time. In… and hold!” I could see her struggle, but without her medication from back on Earth or access to it here, I could only do so much on my end. Counseling and breathing techniques would help, but I knew I was fighting an uphill battle already. “Very good. Now, release…” Carol exhaled and smiled. I could already see her begin to calm down. It was a relief to me as well, because I knew that now we could get down to business. I still wanted and felt I needed to help these Littles… I guess fellow Littles, but I had received this job for another and more specific reason. When I first entered my dingy apartment, I knew I was already going to be facing a challenge with my current assignment. If the walk over wasn’t easy, everything else seemed to nearly impossible as I read the hidden documents from LPS explaining my assignment further. It told me of my new name, Susan O’Brien, my job, and what my task was exactly. I knew that I needed to rescue Paul and infiltrate LRG, but reading over my instructions, my job seemed to be one of the best ways to do that. And to supplement my job, and the other way to possibly get into LRG, I needed to attend a weekly support group, which is where I had originally met Carol. Tonight was another meeting, so, as soon as Carol and I finished our virtual meeting up, I braced to leave my apartment and head into the dangers of society. Fortunately, the meeting was held at a local rec center that heavily catered to Littles. While half of the building did seem to resemble more of a daycare, the other half seemed like most any normal rec center. The high number of changing tables in all the bathrooms was a bit concerning, but I proudly still wore my training panties. Considering all the drugs and potential traps out there for Littles, still sporting a pair of training panties was nothing to sneeze at. “Welcome everyone,” Ronald, our group leader, announced as we sat in a circle around each other. “I see we have some new faces, a few old, and a few missing. Let’s bow our heads and recite our creed.” We all did, and while I thought it was a little hokey at first, by now, I felt that every Little needed to know the creed. We all closed our eyes, some held hands, and we all began to speak it aloud at once. “We are Littles. We are many, but we are weak alone. Some may disappear and some appear from far off lands, but today I stand hand in hand with other Littles. I am safe here. I trust in others, and I know that trust is hard to come by. Through all these things though, I am a Little.” Everyone opened their eyes and Ronald smiled. “Now, I see a few new faces, and we would like to hear you, but would anyone else like to share something from this week to start?” Most kept silent but Timmy, as he liked to be called now, began bouncing up and down from his spot near opposite of me in the circle. “Yes, Timmy?” Ronald called out on him. I could tell that Ronald still held a mixture of reluctance and sympathy for Timmy. Tom had been coming to the meetings for weeks, but after slipping up at his job, another Big had taken him in to ensure he would be able to make it on time and to take care of his more pressing needs. It had been a downward spiral since then though and the group waited and watched until the day that Timmy was no longer going to be allowed back, or just simply couldn’t make it anymore. Sadly, I already knew of ten members of the group that matched one of those outcomes in the three weeks since I had started coming and no longer attended. “Well, well… I goh’ a new toy da uddah day!” I could already see a few people in the group groan. When I first met Timmy, he was already diapered, but he held a certain dignity where he could regarding his evident regression. Now, no one could claim he was unregressed anymore, especially after he began to suck his thumb at one point. “Thank you for that… illuminating story,” Ronald noted to Timmy as the regressed Little sucked his thumb further a few minutes later. Apparently, another Little didn’t want to share her toy in daycare with him and that was causing Timmy a lot of distress lately. Ronald, as patient and understanding as he was, clearly wanted to move on now. The group learned a few new stories that actually seemed relevant, and I made a note to talk to them later on whether they wanted additional counseling or not, but finally, Ronald turned to the new members of the group. While the guy Little just crossed his arms, the other Little, seemed more willing to speak. “Yes, and your name is…?” “Fara…” she said shyly. I couldn’t blame her. Presenting in front of a group could be hard with these situations, especially if it was about something embarrassing. “Welcome Fara,” we all said in unison. She smiled, clearly relieved that she was finally among friends, but I could still see a sadness there… maybe even a little anger. “I… I was grabbed today by a Big…” You could clearly see who had been here the longest as most of them nodded in sympathy, but their faces also showed that it had become frighteningly all too routine for them to hear by now. Ronald, ever our leader and steadfast supporter of even the most wayward or regressed of Littles, nodded as well, but his eyes still showed a caring attitude toward her plight. “That’s one of the most difficult things we have to face here, Fara. We’re just glad you got away.” Fara seemed appreciative but her face nearly snarled. “But did I?” I could tell that Ronald was not expecting that type of question. “I mean… look at all of us!” Her anger rose as she gestured to the group. While it was unusual to reference others, for fear of upsetting anyone who’s emotions may have been regressed, it wasn’t hard to see the point she was making. Of the 18 of us here tonight, I knew that only about six of us weren’t in some type of disposable underpants by now. Ten of the group wore something decidedly unadult, and at least three that I could see were like Timmy and barely even paying attention even now. Cindy, likely the next to not return, was even sucking her fingers while cuddling her newest stuffy. Ronald sighed. “It might feel that way, Fara, but this is only one group. It might seem dire, but some of us have been here all our lives and still haven’t been forcibly or accidentally regressed. Even me…” He trailed off for a moment. He rarely ever spoke about himself, more than a comforting anecdote of what was normal or the like, so now, everyone paying attention leaned in to hear him better. “I was just like you… scared and confused, but then I found purpose and found out the unspoken rules around here. It might seem like the impossible, but just take it one step at a time.” Fara still seemed unconvinced, but I knew from personal experience that Ronald would likely talk to her after the group meeting had ended tonight. Still, I felt I had an opportunity here. While I genuinely cared about helping Littles, the goal of helping Paul was never far from my mind. I had been introduced to this group to interact with Littles and find ways to get in with them, but to such a wide audience, I knew that at least one of them had to be associated with LRG. I knew I had to take a shot at least. “But it shouldn’t be like that!” I said, smacking my thigh on purpose for emphasis. Ronald quickly turned to me in shock. I didn’t want to blow my cover on my first day, so I had held back. Now that I had researched more about California, my chosen backstory, and was more comfortable as a Little in front of other Littles, I knew I needed to strike out in some way soon to accomplish my mission before too much longer. Tonight felt like the perfect opportunity. “Well… that’s certainly one opinion,” Ronald tried to say while also staying strictly neutral. I could tell from his eyes though; I had struck something deep within him. So, I only pushed further. “It is, but if that had happened on Earth, or from one Big to another Big here… they would have been strung up by their heels… or at least prosecuted.” I could tell I was striking a chord with many of the Littles in the circle as they nodded in agreement. “Why should it be so different in this case?” I was pulling from every Little whom I had ever heard complain about our system here. I had always thought it was just talk but having been a Little now for even just a few weeks, I could already begin to feel myself siding with them more and more. While a part of me had just put on a show, there was a growing and very real sense of anger now in me about how Littles were treated. “Maybe, but you aren’t on Earth anymore, Susan,” Ronald directed at me. I knew I had to get used to my name and I made a mental note to yell at my reflection my name in the mirror tonight. “These Bigs have their own laws and customs. Just as if you were going to a far-off country back on Earth and needed to respect their customs, the same goes for over here.” The group made several other comments after that, but another derailment by Timmy talking about playground etiquette essentially ended the lively discussion and meeting after that. As I started to talk to Fara and a few other newbies about the potential of counseling, I already could see that Ronald was just about to have a talk with Timmy. Cindy was worse off mentally, but at least she was quiet. Seeing that, I sadly doubted that Timmy would be returning again to us. Just as Ronald finished up from a somewhat tearful Timmy, I saw him coming over to us. “So, you really think you could help me out?” Fara questioned yet again. I found her doubt over being counseled was usual at the stage she was at. Feeling I could help her though, I nodded. “Absolutely. I know from my own experience that as a Little new to here, we can get thrown into the deep end way too quickly for our own good. It can cause a lot of problems, and even if it’s just a single chat, I promise I can get your feet wet with some of the unspoken rules or even just a few tips and tricks.” Ronald soon joined our little group and after a moment, Fara and I both stared back at him when he seemed like he wanted to speak up. “Ladies…” I nearly excused myself, thinking he was going to talk to Fara about her problems, but instead, he turned to me. “You mind if we talk for a moment, Susan?” I wasn’t prepared for it, so as I stumbled with my words, I could only nod my head as Ronald noted to Fara that he would see her after he was done talking to me. Still unsure of what to say at first, I let Ronald guide me to the side for a moment. “So… feeling a little more vocal lately, huh?” Finally finding my words, I nodded at first. “I have been, yes. I didn’t want to make a stink before. I know all this can get a bit touchy for some of us and I just wanted to make friends at first.” Ronald sighed and scratched his head. “You know… when I first met you, I thought you were just coming to these meetings for new clients.” I blushed and he noticed. “Don’t get me wrong, I definitely approve of what you’re doing and it’s great or even needed for some of the Littles here. One meeting a week just isn’t enough, but I thought that was all that was going on with you.” “Oh?” I could tell he was trying to make a point ore even a gesture of some kind to me. “It’s even a noble pursuit admittedly, but tonight…” I could already tell that he was impressed. I felt like it was a good sign, but I wondered where he was going with this. “Well, I think I finally can see what Carol told me last week. I couldn’t believe it at first, but… well, here we are.” “What did she tell you?” I looked over at Carol briefly, her usual shy demeanor always shedding a bit when she was around other Littles in similar circumstances to her. “She said you were a good listener, but that you also had a confidence… a spark in you that we could use.” I could feel my heartbeat rising. He said ‘we’ as in group. My heart filled with excitement, but I knew I needed to be sure. “What are you trying to tell me, Ronald?” I asked, still trying to keep a low profile and not come right out and accept his offer to a new group. “I’m always looking for new Littles to join our group, Susan, and I think you meet my criteria.” He started numbering them on his hand. “Connection to Littles, check. Ability to think critically, check. Works well with others, check. Some knowledge or useful insight into our plight, check. Anger, frustration, or sadness over our massive Big problem… I would definitely say check after tonight.” He said it… the magic word: ‘group.’ My foot was in the door, but I knew I still had to cautiously approach this situation. “So… you all meet in another rec center or something?” He shook his head. “Not exactly…” He then quickly popped a card out of his pocket and handed it to me. It was entirely plain, except for the words ‘Little Group’ on the front and the address on the back. “I want you to come to this address. Stop by this coming Thursday and just meet a few people. You like what you see… we can talk more after. That sound okay?” It most sincerely did. I recognized the address. It was out of the way of the rest of the city except for a few bus lines and the main subway and was mostly comprised of old and abandoned warehouses. Most hadn’t been used since before the Great War after a few got hit by bombs during the early stages of that disastrous conflict. They were out of the way but convenient, known but secret, and dilapidated but still standing. If I was going to head up an organization like LRG, its where I would go. So, I quickly took the card. “Okay… I’ll be there, Ronald.” I pocketed the card and could feel a relief wash over me as Ronald informed me of a few more pressing details. By the time he went over to speak to Fara, I felt that much closer to finding and helping Paul to end the start of this nightmare. A few days later, I finished up my last call with one of my more nervous clients and I checked to ensure I had everything ready for the meeting tonight. I had my required IDs and fare for the subway out there, plus some extra money just in case I needed a cab instead. Taking a cab could be dangerous, but walking home alone at night was nearly always worse. After nearly getting taken one night coming home just getting some groceries, I didn’t want to even risk that possibility if the subway was having issues. After checking my clothing to deem it appropriate and not mark me as a defiant or cutesy Little, I then passed my tongue over my back molar. It might sound odd, but as soon as the medication I was on the first day had worn off… before I had my timing down with it, my jaw ached long and hard. Confused, I thought it was just leftover feelings from how they changed my face. Reading my debriefing material though as I waited for my medication to kick in, I realized it was something else. They had removed one of my teeth and put in a very special replacement. Undetectable to all but government scanners that needed even the right frequency to pick it up, it served two functions. The first was a tracker. It beeped passively to a specialized machine buried deep within LPS in case of an emergency or to see if they could find me if I didn’t perform a dead drop when I was supposed to. If I cracked it though, agents would be quickly alerted to my position, but cracking it also came with a massive caveat. This caveat, the second function, was a laced chemical inside that could quickly grow me back to my normal size. It wouldn’t restore my facial features, eyesight, or any other ill effects I picked up since I was turned, but if needed, I could be restored back to being a Big just in case. It seemed like a no-brainer in a tight spot, but there was one massive problem. In order to grow at a rapid rate, my body would suck the nutrients from the rest of my body for what it deemed ‘unnecessary.’ Needless to say, it could get a little mixed up and I would become extremely sick afterward and could even die if I wasn’t rushed to the hospital within 30 minutes of the tooth cracking. So, in other words, it was for dire emergencies only. Still, my tongue feeling it still in place tonight, did give me a sense of ease going to this new location out in the near middle of nowhere. One creepy subway ride later, where I was propositioned twice to go home with both a potential new daddy and mommy, I finally made it out. Another block to the south, and I found the address. It was a large series of warehouses that once housed one of Aprisium’s premier car manufacturers. After the Great War and then the introduction of renewable energy cars not long after that, the whole plant shut down. Creepy and nearly forgotten about, I hated walking in the darkened streets, but I also knew I was likely in the right place. After all, I doubted LRG would set up headquarters in a popular outlet mall. Coming to the nearest doorway, I could see that everything was rusted over or encrusted with ivy and dying trees. Curiously though, as I got closer, I wondered if the building was really in such a bad state of disrepair as it appeared to be from a distance. While everything seemed to be falling apart still, I noticed a security camera poking out and even blinking above the doorway. Feeling better that I was in the right place, I gave a wave to the camera and then knocked three times on the heavy door. A nearby hidden speaker crackled to life. “Who is it? This is private property! Who sent you?” A little alarmed, it took me a second to respond, but I then cleared my throat. “It’s, uh, Susan. I met… Ronald in a support group the other night…” I only heard the breeze rustling off the metal sheeting on the roofs nearby and the crunch of old and dead leaves on the cracked street outlining the middle of the open spaces behind me. “Password?” I scratched my head. I was worried that I was going to forget it, but after saying it out loud and in my head a half dozen times or so by now, I didn’t. “Land of Oz.” At first nothing happened. I silently feared that I had misremembered it, but I knew that couldn’t be the case. Ronald had even made the point to reference the movie and book it was from, which I had promptly researched when I got home that night. Still, I felt an instant rush of relief when the door hissed and clunked open. With a deep breath, I stepped inside. Walking down a corridor and then down a few steps, I came to a large opening. Signs pointed all around and revealed that the building actually housed several underground levels, but on the surface, aside from a few office spaces, the rest of the floor in the warehouse was open and now filled with dozens of people. It looked very much abandoned, but the map to my right at the top of the stairs showed the rest of the building was anything but. “Keep moving, newbie,” a nearby Little nearly grunted at me. I almost didn’t even have to look at him to spot the one thing I had been looking for this whole time. One his arm, wrapped around in its usual red and white color scheme, were the letters, ‘LRG.’ Moving down the stairs to not attract any undue suspicion, my heart still leapt for joy at the sight. I nearly wanted to race around, find Paul, haul him out of there, and end the mission. I almost even thought about far-flung locations we could flee to be together, but after a further second of thought, I knew it presented two huge problems at least. First, there were still a lot of factors keeping us both here. Paul was still attached to LRG, and they would still be a problem for anyone left behind. If we were to flee, Paul also likely wouldn’t see his family again, which would likely be the case for me as well. Second though, as I walked around and tried to blend in, it was also painfully obvious that I was now the size of a Little. If we fled, that would still be the case, so, without a second option, I stayed. “Hey, newbie!” I spun around and saw Ronald running over to me. “Glad you made it.” I smiled and felt like I was already part of the team as he patted me on the shoulder. “Glad to be here.” I then looked around us. “So, when’s everything start?” I was eager, and I couldn’t hold back knowing that I had finally found LRG. Ronald smirked. “That’s the type of attitude I love to see, but we just need to do a few things first, okay?” Still eager, I nodded without question. “Good. Now, follow me.” Following Ronald, I noticed several Littles I had seen before at our meetings and elsewhere around the city… like some who had been going to Forrest Hill Daycare and had since ‘disappeared.’ I wondered how many of the weary faces I saw were escapees of their Bigs… just like Paul was. Entering another doorway, this one led to a set of stairs. One floor down, I could already see that LPS had underestimated their group. Med bays, storage and conference rooms, and at least a dozen or so bunks all littered just that one floor we were on. “Started off as a bomb shelter. Impressive though now, huh?” Ronald asked, going through another corridor. I felt I was being led into the very pits of the Earth, but I knew I had to say something else in order to remain on Ronald’s good side. “Very. I can’t believe all this is out here. Was it always this big?” Ronald shook his head. “No. We got some equipment a while back and we all got to work on an expansion down here. Near solid rock, so everything is pretty sturdily built… plus, we have a few backers and insiders who got us some specialized materials to do all this properly.” Instantly, I was intrigued, but Ronald finally stopped at one of the med bays where an older gentleman was sitting and waiting. “Alright. I’m going to leave you here. Answer all of Dr. Jackson’s questions, but if you don’t want to, just let him know. We’ll have to ask you leave at that point, so I hope we don’t get there, but just know… you aren’t trapped. We aren’t Bigs, right?” I nodded and took a seat as he went off, but his comment hit me hard. I wondered how many countless Littles, even just the ones I had seen so far today, that had been trapped by a Big at some point. I couldn’t help but wonder, even if I knew by now that I was a good Big, did Paul feel he should be counted in that number? “Alright then. It’s Susan, right?” Dr. Jackson questioned, holding a somewhat thick file in his hands. “Uh… that’s right… but how did you know?” He only smiled back at me and held up the file he was going over. “We have our ways.” He then flipped the page, and the brief time I saw the first page as it turned, I knew that LPS must have created a fake file for me in the official government system. “Now, just so you know… this is just a test to see a few things with you. So far, I think you’ll pass no problem, but let’s begin, shall we?” The next thirty minutes were some of the most uncomfortable I had been in my entire life. After the first few, I knew he was trying to determine if I was regressed or not. So, while I could definitely pass the physical portion… the mental felt like another matter entirely, especially when I realized they were also checking to see if I was a spy and traitor to Littles as well. “So, you’re from California, so… who’s the first president of the United States?” I bumbled along, but thanked my lucky stars that I had read up on several books about the United States and Earth in general before I went on this mission. Mr. Oliver, once again, was very helpful. Still, there were a few I wasn’t sure about. “What’s your favorite ride at Disney World?” The question completely caught me off guard, and while I had heard about it from Paul when he mentioned his sister’s joy when it re-opened a few years after we initially came through the portal, that was about the extent of my knowledge. So, thinking on the spot, I answered as best I could. “I’m not sure. My family didn’t have a lot of money when I was growing up with all the problems we were facing, so I never went actually…” Dr. Jackson seemed a bit suspicious of my answer but wrote something down and just pressed on. Finally, at the end, he smiled back at me. “Congratulations, I think you might have spent too much time over here by now… a few memory problems here and there, but I think you’ll do just fine.” “I’m glad to hear that.” I spun around toward the doorway and saw that Ronald had made his way back. “Always a huge shame when I have to turn someone away because they’ve been too regressed.” “That happens a lot?” I didn’t even think a group for Little’s rights would do something like that, but Ronald nodded. “Doesn’t happen all the time, sure, but it still does occasionally.” He then paused for a moment before turning back to me. “Please take a walk with me…” He gestured out the door, and after thanking Dr. Jackson, I followed Ronald. “We refer them to some good homes who sympathize with Littles, but as you might imagine, we don’t like turning our kind away in this kind of anti-Little environment.” He then gestured to a different room, still comprised of riveted white walls like most of the other rooms I had seen, but this was decidedly meant for more regressed Littles. “If they get young enough, either on a mission, or otherwise, but still meet our limits, we’ll bring them here. There are some exceptions, but the last thing we want is a regressed Little who stubs their toe outside and alerts every Big within a mile with their crying.” “Harsh, but I understand.” It was the truth, and I did understand, but only to a degree. Even in the few weeks I had been living as a Little, I couldn’t imagine coming here after being ravaged to one degree or another by a Big, only to be turned away and given to another set of Bigs. His reasoning made sense, but it was a hard concept to swallow that not all Littles would find refuge here. Returning to the surface shortly after, I started to mingle with the rest of Littles around me. Curiously, I started to recognize a few of them. “Mindy?” The black-haired and freckled face Little spun around and looked at me closely. “I’m sorry… do I know you?” I then realized that we did know each other, but I couldn’t just tell her that we really knew each other from when I had advised LPS about her. She had been robbed of her credentials when she first came over from Earth and had resorted to a life of petty thefts in order to eat. Fleeing one LPS agent after another, she finally was caught after she had accidentally eaten spiked food and had passed out in wet pants as she was stealing from a clothing store. Hearing a slight rustle as she turned fully to face me, I knew she hadn’t quite recovered from all that yet. “Sorry… I know you from…” I had to think quickly on my feet, but I remembered that she used to frequent a bakery downtown once a week from the money she made off her stealing. “McGinty’s Bakery. You always ordered the bear claw and a coffee every Sunday.” “Oh, that explains it,” she said, looking a little relieved and yet also sad. Seeing she was here now instead of the home LPS had placed her in, I couldn’t imagine that path was easy. “Sorry… I try to block out all that from back then.” Curious, for the mission and myself now, I wanted to know more. “So, what brings you here?” “Oh.” She seemed surprised I would even ask that question. “You must be new here, huh?” I nodded and she smiled warmly at me. “Well, don’t worry. This place is the best for anyone wanting to make a difference out there. LPS stupidly placed me with a Big that just seemed to want to collect Littles. I was their third, so I ran away and came here. Been pretty much smooth sailing ever since as I wait to be accepted in here officially.” “Wow. Sounds like the dream for you then.” I made sure to force a smile onto my face, but internally, I could only feel my own heart start to crack. I felt I had done her a kindness after I had done my job. Surely a Big home would be better than the streets… or at least that’s what I told myself. As we continued to talk and I was introduced to more Littles throughout the night, I was starting to realize something terrible. I had always felt I had done a good job at LPS in my current role. I knew that there were flaws in the system, but one by one, I started to doubt the system in its entirety as I discovered four other Littles I had advised on. All seemed helpless and innocent, but now, all but Mindy sported the red and white armband of LRG. All came from broken or even abusive homes, verbally or otherwise that LPS had placed them in. I had felt like a saint this whole time in my job, but now… it was hard to feel that way when your efforts end with a Little joining an organization now labeled as terrorists by the same ones who tried to help them. I tried to shuffle the feeling off that night, but it persisted stubbornly each time I returned. Twice a week meet-and-greets soon turned into nearly every day. Names like Mindy, Carol, Sean, Xander, Ronald, and so many others became synonymous with my friends. Each had endured a hardship, and while I was still focused on my mission, I found myself falling deeper into LRG, especially after I had now been undercover for just over a month by now. I still wasn’t a full member yet, but one day as my new friend group began cracking jokes, all that changed. “Recruits!” Ronald practically shouted, quickly getting each of our attentions. We snapped in front of him, each of us eager for our own reasons to start our work here. By now, I was finally realizing a truth about LRG that most other Bigs didn’t seem to understand. From what I saw, LRG didn’t want to harm anyone. LRG just wanted equality or at least to be able to walk down the street without the fear of getting tricked or taken by a Big. With my job and mission, it was a hard concept to reconcile with. “Now, I’ve just talked with leadership…” I quickly saw the rest of the group beam with pride at the mention of leadership. I had only seen them once, and even that was at a distance. For now, they have remained a mystery and yet were idols to most of us. “They believe you all are ready. You have proven your commitment to the cause. Here…” Immediately, my heart leapt with joy as we each received an LRG button. The armband came later, but for now, the button seemed glorious and like a long-awaited dream come true. Everyone, including me, pinned it to our clothing with pride. “Excellent. We want to welcome you as the latest batch of inductees into LRG. Progress further, and you will receive your own armband.” Ronald then pointed to his own, a symbol I noticed he only wore in this building I saw after still attending the Little support meetings. “For now, tomorrow is a Saturday. Come early and we will give you your first assignment.” My heart pumped blood, but I knew that it was a mixture of both excitement and nervousness. I knew that the mission would be something minor, but still, I felt I was part of the group now. It meant I was one step closer to finding Paul, which I found odd that I still hadn’t seen him here yet, but ultimately, ending this mission. Still, my nerves were very much present. I would come, like everyone else would, seeing as most Littles rarely had weekend plans from fear of being caught or tricked then, but on the inside, I was still a Big. Sure, I wore training pants, had to stand on my tippy toes while getting groceries most weeks, was nearly taken every time I stepped outside of my house, and had now been accepted into LRG, but I was still a Big in my soul. I held sympathy for Littles, but I felt there was a line between feeling sympathy for Littles and actually joining in their movement. Going outside and even sporting the LRG button was a clear step to show our allegiance to the group and the crossing of that line. Anyone seeing me with my button now could just assume I was the same as those bombers from the mall. Nothing bad had happened since, but it was still the gossip of the whole city. To most Bigs, LRG just equated to bad people. Being here for a bit, I just couldn’t accept that notion anymore. Regardless, though, passing my fingers over the white and red button on my chest now, I couldn’t deny any longer that I was associated with LRG. Today, only my friends and I knew, but tomorrow, everyone seeing us would know as well. Regardless of my mission or intentions, I knew that for all this to work, I had to be a Little now. I had to be a member of LRG. If I ever wanted to see Paul again, I knew that despite my fear of whatever would happen tomorrow, I had to continue this dangerous path… no matter what.

"Do you even have any underwear that isn't stained or ripped?" The question came with a healthy dose of lightheartedness about it. Looking back, Jacob's reaction was very disproportionate. But, in his defense, it was only after a whole morning of this "lighthearted teasing". He quickly reached his limit. Today was only the second day after getting a place with his longterm girlfriend. Moving was a hassle, but they managed. And the topic of conversation for that entire morning had been the state of his underwear drawer. He was a frugal kinda guy! Most of his underwear came from when he was in high school as he hadn't grown very much since then. Yes...okay...he should have thrown out the majority of it a long time ago as it was ripped and stained as Margo said. But it, technically, still functioned as intended! "You might as well wear a loincloth!" "Now I know you do your own laundry because no way your mom would let this happen." "Do you enjoy feeling a breeze on your ass or something?" All lighthearted. But...a little too honest. "Oh my god can you just shut up!?" Jacob growled in the middle of the store aisle. The pair went silent immediately. Not even the squeaky sound of the basket moving was heard. Margo's face fell into one of quiet fury. She abandoned the basket to stomp up to Jacob's face. She was a head shorter than him but that didn't stop her from getting up close and personal, her finger stabbing him in the chest. "You don't talk to me that way, Jacob!" She seethed. "If you didn't want me to mention your tattered undies, you would have bought more. I think it's disgusting and you should be embarrassed as an adult to have let your girlfriend see the state of your clothes like that. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're a fucking slob! But I do know you better. So instead of biting my head off in the middle of the goddamn store, how about YOU shut up while I pick up a pack of underwear off the shelf for my asshole boyfriend!" She was panting by the end of her rant. An angry flush staining her cheeks. And she was right. Jacob felt like a complete dickhead. "Maggie..." He tried using her nickname to calm her down, his arms opened in the offer of a hug. "Maggie I'm sorry-" "Can you just go wait out in the car?!" She huffed, crossing her arms. "I wanted a fun trip to the store so we could get nice things for our home and-" for one heartwrenching moment, Jacob thought she might cry. "And you ruined it!" "Let me make it up to you, babe," Jacob tried again, but Margo was stiff in his arms. "I just need a minute alone. Can you please go wait in the car?" With a sigh, Jacob pulled out his wallet and, after taking some cash out, handed it over to it's entirety to Margo. "Use my card. Buy whatever you want, baby. Let me know when you're at checkout and I'll be by the door. We can get takeout on the way home, yeah?" That, at least, earned him a small smile and a chaste kiss. If all things went well, this would be the "big first argument" everyone warned them about. As promised, Jacob pulled the car right up to the door as soon as he got the text that Margo was almost done with checkout. He helped her load up the backseat without even looking at what all she bought before driving them to a drive-thru. Everything kept well in the car while they went inside and ate their food. And they started unloading everything inside. It was only towards the last few bags that Margo stopped him. "Okay...I might have done something shitty." She admitted, looking down at her feet. "Oh?" Jacob asked. "So I was still mad at you in the store," which was completely fair. "And I...I didn't get you underwear..." A mild inconvenience, sure. Given that he'd thrown all his old pairs away that morning. "I got something else." And with that, Margo pulled a blue package from the bag in her hand to show Jacob a package of bedwetter's pull-ups. His jaw dropped. "I'm sorry," Margo apologized again. "I thought it would be a good idea at the time. But I should have bought you actual underwear too. I was just angry and I wasn't thinking and you've been so sweet since-" She was interrupted by Jacob's laughter. It was a good prank. And Jacob knew he deserved it. He'd already come to terms with the inconvenience of having no underwear for the night. But really there was no harm done. "That's hilarious, babe," He smiled, taking the package of pull-ups from her and looking at the cover. "These even have the cartoon my baby brother watches on them. Blueffy or something-" "Bluey." Margo corrected, a hesitant grin on her lips. "Yeah!" After that, Jacob tossed the package onto the dresser by the receipt to return tomorrow. He'd all but forgotten about them after the couple watched a movie and showered together. It was only as he was pulling on a shirt that he realized he still didn't have any underwear. Margo stood in the bathroom doing her skin care routine. The pack of pull-ups were right there. They were even his correct size. Thinking he could pull a funny joke back on Margo, he found himself breaking the pack open and slipping one on. It fit like a glove and Jacob couldn't help but like the soft padding secured around his private bits. His train of thought however was interrupted as Margo stepped into the room. "We'll, babe, how do I look?" He asked, turning and posing like an Instagram model, the pull-up on full display. "No- wait-" Margo gasped, her hand covering a giggle. "That's actually so cute." Jacob scoffed. "No way-" "Yes it is!" Margo's smile was wide and playful as she walked over. He eyes kept looking him up and down with amusement. "You look like a little kid going to tell your Mama that you wet the bed again." Jacob scoffed, feeling a blush strain his cheeks. "I wouldn't wet the bed though. That's what these are for." "Yeah?" Margo giggled. "You think you wouldn't wet the bed?" Jacob nodded confidently. "16 years of potty training will do that." Margo's eyes widened like she'd been awarded a surprise party. "You weren't potty trained until you were 4?!" Shit. "I'll make you a deal," Margo said after she'd gotten a good laugh in. "You go the rest of the night and keep that pull-up dry, and I'll buy you're underwear tomorrow." "And you have to buy a pack of the girl ones for you." Jacob added. "I bet they have little fairies or something on them." "...princess actually...but deal!" She smirked. "But if you lose, you have to finish wearing the pack. I won't buy you undies until it's all gone." "Deal," Jacob knew this was a deal he could win no problem. They shook on it and went to bed that night cuddled up close. Jacob always slept like a rock so he didn't notice Margo slip out of bed and prepare a warm cup of water in the kitchen before dunking Jacob's hand in it. Only when she heard the telltale hiss of his bladder giving out did she return the cup back to the kitchen and crawl into bed again. The next morning, Jacob was mortified. "Wha-!? How did this-?! When?!" He gasped, the pull-up soaked and sagging between his thighs. "I guess it's a good thing we bought those, huh?" Margo reassured softly. "Would suck to wet the bed on our new mattress and sheets." "I've never wet the bed before!" Jacob gaped. "This is-" "A deal is a deal," Margo interrupted by pulling another one out of the package and holding it out to Jacob. "Go shower and get dressed." Well...a deal is a deal... Jacob took the pull-up and waddled to the bathroom in shame.

Chapter 22 My heart sank at the state of my apartment. The only furniture left in the main area was the couch and coffee table. The large TV that I had was gone and in its place on the floor was my TV from my bedroom. There were a few boxes near the front door and on the kitchen island, was a box of diapers, along with other supplies and a stack of what I assume to be clothes for me. My mom said to me, “Looks a lot different?” In a dejected voice, I said, “Yeah.” My mom bounced me a little in her arms and said, “I know this is a lot to take in and everything is moving fast for you, but hopefully, things will get better once you are home and settled in.” “I hope so,” I stated. She replied, “I’m sure it will.” She then sat me down on my couch and said, “I know you've been stuck with just watching TV, but with it being so close to lunchtime, I figured that something other than basic cable may be more entertaining. Your dad and I will get you some fresh air later today.” As she was handing me the remote to the TV and a sippy cup of water, I said, “Well, I'm sure there is a lot of new stuff out on Netflix that I have not seen yet.” I then heard my dad say to my mom, “I’m going to get the rest of the stuff out the back.” I turned on the TV as my dad went out the front door and my mom went into the bedroom. I started flipping through Netflix to see if anything new was worth watching. I got excited when I saw that they made a series of the first book, The Three Body Problem, and immediately started it. Before the intro was done playing, my dad walked back in carrying a few plastic bags and a long, slim cardboard box. He sat the bags on the counter and then proceeded to open the box. Shifting my eyes back and forth between the TV and what my dad was doing, I noticed that it was a simple I.V. pole that he was putting together. After placing the newly assembled pole by the couch, he took a seat beside me and asked, “What are you watching?” I replied, “It’s The Three Body Problem, it is the first of a sci-fi trilogy that inspired the Dark Forest Theory that is one of the answers to the Fermi Paradox.” Deadpan, my dad said, “Nerd.” I looked up, glared at him, and said, “Don’t come crying to me when someone tries making first contact and sells out humanity.” Laughing he asked, “OK, OK, so what is it really about?” “It’s about making first contact with a more advanced alien race and the dangers of what that could mean. If human history is used as an example, then it does not look good for us,” I replied. He responded, “So, one more thing to keep us up at night.” “Yes and no, but it is something to think about,” I replied. My dad said, “Well, I will leave you to your show, I got to go unload a trailer full of donations.” “I was wondering what the trailer was for,” I replied. He said, “Yeah after I drop you and your mother off at the airport tomorrow morning, I will load off the rest of your stuff that needs to be donated. Then, hopefully, be on the road and make it into New Mexico by tomorrow night.” “I do not envy that cross-country drive,” I said. Smiling, he said, “Neither do I, but I haven’t done it in over thirty years, so it should be nostalgic for me.” He kissed me on the forehead, and then as he was getting up he yelled toward my bedroom, “Elania, I will be back in a little while, I’m going to drop off some donations.” I then could hear my mom shout back, “OK, honey.” As my dad left my apartment, I turned back to losing myself in the TV show. At some point, my mom emerged from the bedroom and announced, “Arighty, we should be pretty much packed for our flight tomorrow.” Feeling a little bad that I have not been able to help, I asked, “Is there anything that I need to do?” “Nope, just a positive attitude. Most people are just going to see a toddler and with the feeding tube and I.V., a sickly toddler tomorrow. So, just let me do all the talking and ignore all the comments and questions from strangers, OK,” my mom said. I responded, “OK.” She then said, “Well, it is about time for your noon feeding, so let me get that started for you.” I nodded my head as I watched her start rifling through the bags on the counter. I saw what looked like one of the reusable feeding bags that the doctors talked about being pulled out of one of the bags. I then saw what looked like a can of infant formula being opened and my mom putting a few scoops into the opening on the top of the bag. She poured water into the top out of a jug, then closed it, and shook it up. Grabbing a syringe out of a small box on the counter, she walked over and hung the feeding bag on the I.V. pole. Sitting down beside me, she said, “This is your nausea medicine.” She injected the medicine into my I.V. and then connected the feeding bag to my feeding tube. She then asked, “Have you drank any of your water this morning?” I sheepishly shook my head no, and then she said, “I know it's tough, but you need to try and drink a little for me. I’m going to give you some I.V. fluids too.” I sighed, and said, “OK,” as I looked at the infantile cup. I grabbed it with both hands and put the spout in my mouth and turned it up to take a couple of swallows. Once, satisfied that I got my mom off my back I tossed the cup to my side. My mom then hung a bag of fluids on the I.V. pole then connected it to my I.V. After getting a can of Diet Coke out of the refrigerator, she took a seat on the couch beside me as I continued to watch the TV. At some point as the feeding bag was starting to empty, I felt myself starting to get tired. My mom got up and grabbed another syringe, then disconnected my feeding bag and flushed my feeding tube. After rinsing out the feeding bag, she walked back over, picked me up, and sat me in her lap on the couch. I continued to get more and more sleepy, then found myself being repositioned and laying on top of my mom as she laid down with my head against her upper chest. My eyes started getting heavy as she gently rubbed my back and patted my bottom. The last thing I felt as I fell asleep was my diaper warming up as I wet myself. I woke up to the sound of people talking. I open my eyes and see that I am in my bed. I look over and see that there is a pillow used as a barrier to keep from falling out of bed and the room is empty except for my nightstand, the I.V. I am still hooked up to, and a few luggage bags on the floor. I groan as I feel my body ache and my diaper is positively soaked. I feel around the back of my shorts and sigh in relief that only my diaper is wet. Not a moment later, the bedroom door opens and my mom walks in. With a smile, she said, “I’m glad you're awake. Your friend, Steven, is here to see you.” “OK, can I get some pain medicine … and a change,” I replied. She said, “Sure, I’ll be right back.” She turned around and was back in a minute with the diaper bag and a syringe. After closing the door, she said, “I’ll give you your medicine first, then I will change your diaper.” I just nodded as she injected the syringe into my I.V. and disconnected my I.V. fluids. She opened up the diaper bag, took out what looked like a changing pad, and placed it at the foot of the bed along with a diaper and wipes. My mom then lifted me and laid me back down on the changing pad. She pulled down my shorts and started changing my diaper. At the same time, I was getting more and more nervous about how Steven was going to react to the new me. I’m sure, my parents have already been talking to him about the changes, but hearing about it and seeing it has to be two different things. Before I knew it, my shorts were being pulled back up over a fresh diaper. Lifting me onto her hip, she said, “Are you ready?” Not wanting to be carried and wanting to face my friend on my own two feet, I asked, “Can I walk?” “Sure, sweety,” My mom replied. She sat me down on the floor, after grabbing one of my hands, we walked to the door. She opened the door and we walked into the main area of my apartment. I look up to see my dad and Steven standing near the front door talking. As soon as they noticed that my mom and I were standing on the other side of the room, they stopped and turned to me. I could see Steven’s eyes get big for a moment as I stood in my place, frozen. He then said, “Will?” I hesitated for a moment, then after my mom gave my hand a gentle squeeze, I replied, “Yeah, it’s me.” He walked over, crouched down in front of me, and said, “Wow, your parents said you were a lot smaller, but I did not think that you could have been this small.” My mom then said, “She is tiny.” I looked down at my feet and replied, “Yeah.” Steven stood back up and said, “Well, I’m glad you are alive. You had the whole Math department worried sick.” Looking up at Steven, I said, “Yeah, me too.” My mom then said, “I’m going to let you two catch up, your father and I need to make some phone calls to make sure everything is ready tomorrow.” My mom then picked me up under my armpits and sat me in the corner of one end of the couch. I slightly blushed as she pulled my shirt down to cover the top of my diaper from it riding up. My mom then turned to Steven and said, “We will be right outside if Grace needs anything, just holler for us.” “Yes ma’am,” Steven replied. Steven took a seat on the other end of the couch and both my parents walked out the door. After a moment of awkward silence, and me just looking at my lap; Steven spoke up, “So, your parents told me that you changed your name to Grace.” Looking over at him, I bit my lip and said, “Yeah, I felt like I needed to since I have a vagina now.” “Dude, sorry to be blunt, but this is like a total mind fuck right now,” Steven responded. Smirking, I said, “You ain’t lying. I freaked the fuck out when I woke up in a body not much bigger than I am right now. It’s like I went through the looking glass.” “I bet. If you don’t mind answering me, how weird does it feel not having your, let’s say, original equipment?” Steven asked. Pausing for a moment, “It's more like I feel like I’m missing something. But also, since I guess my nerve endings were just rearranged, so in some way some of the feelings are the same, but also different at the same time. Honestly, my new body feels like my body, but at the same time it feels alien too.” “Wow, that is crazy. How does it feel alien?” Steven asked. I replied, “Well, other than everything and everyone being giant now, the doctors told me that my coordination would be off. In my mind, I have full control over my body, but my body feels like I had around four beers, if that makes sense.” “Yeah, that makes sense. It’s like your body is a little drunk all the time,” Steven said. I replied, “Yeah,” then wanting to change the subject, I asked, “So, how has everything been going at school?” “Not too bad, just about to wrap up the semester and everyone is getting ready for finals,” he said. I replied, “That's good, the end is in sight. How has abstract algebra been going?” “Dude, it has been brute. I’m still going to make a good grade, but it was a lot easier when we could work on homework together and bounce ideas on proofs off one another,” he responded. I replied, “Yeah, it’s always easier when we can work together on assignments. Does Dr. Simoroff still start writing in Russian randomly?” “Yeah, you would think that he would be used to lecturing in English since he has not lived in Russia since before we were born. He still says da instead of yes, too,” Steven said. I said, “I think it is because he lived in Germany for ten years before moving to the States and has to translate from Russian to German, then to English all the time.” “That is probably a good theory to go off of,” Steven responded. We continued to talk about what had been going on at school. I tried to keep the subject off myself, since I really did not want to talk about my only goals right now were getting off the feeding tube and trying to repotty train. At one point, my bladder made itself known and I resigned to wetting myself, hopefully, without Steven noticing. Looking at the box of diapers on the counter and the bugle between my legs, it's not like it took a rocket scientist to figure out I was in diapers. For once, though, it felt like everything was normal and we were just talking about school and what was going on on campus lately. After talking for a while, the first door opens, and my parents walk in. My dad asked, “Y’all been doing OK in here?” I nodded my head as Steven responded, “Yes sir, I probably should get going soon, I have to get some grading done tonight.” “I do not miss that,” I said. Steven looked at me and said, “Yeah, it does suck at times, especially since you should always grade an assignment in one sitting.” Pausing, he then asked, “Do you mind if I get a selfie with you, I don’t think anyone would ever believe this.” “Only if you promise not to post it on social media. You can even show the picture to people at school, I just don't want others finding out since I am the only known case in the world of anything like this happening, and don’t want to go viral over this,” I stated. In a serious voice, Steven said, “I understand and I promise that this picture will only be on my phone.” “OK,” I said. Steven took his phone out of his pocket, and then my mom said, “Steven, I can take the picture. If you can sit next to Grace and help her stand up beside you.” Steven handed his phone to my mom, then slid over to me. As I was leaning forward to try and push myself up, I felt two hands wrap around my torso, and then I was up on my feet, standing on the couch. I looked over at Steven and he said, “Sorry buddy, it looked like you could use a hand.” I just nodded as he left one arm wrapped around my lower half to keep me steady. I then heard my mom say, “Steven can you pull Grace’s shirt down?” I blushed as I looked down as Steven was pulling my shirt back down over the top of my exposed diaper. My mom then said, “Alright, look at the camera and give me a smile.” I gave the best smile I could, and then my mom said, “OK, I got a couple of good ones.” The next thing I know, I am airborne, then on Steven’s hip. I looked at him with questioning eyes as he said, “I couldn't help myself, it is not every day that you can easily pick up your friend, and I had to know how light you are.” Before I could open my mouth, my dad said, “She is only twenty-six pounds.” Steven replied, “Wow, that is light,” looking at me he said, “Don’t get too much smaller on me.” Sarcastically, I said, “I will do my best,” as I rolled my eyes. In a serious voice, Steven said, “Please take care of yourself, and let’s stay in touch, even if it is only texting every now and again.” “I will,” I replied. He then wrapped his other arm around me in a hug. I was shocked at first since we were not the type to hug each other, but I decided to wrap my arms around his neck. A moment later after I unwrapped my arms, he said, “I better get going, shoot me a text when you get home.” I nodded my head, as my mom passed him back his phone, then took me and placed me on her hip. My mom said, “It was nice meeting you, Steven.” Steven replied, “It was nice meeting you too, Mrs. Gauss. You two have a safe flight tomorrow.” “Thank you,” my mom responded. My dad started walking Steven to the door, then said, “Good luck on your finals,” and reached to shake his hand. As they were shaking hands, Steven said, “Thanks, drive back home safely.” My dad opened the door for him and right before he left, he looked back and gave me a small smile and waved. I gave a small wave back and as he was walking out, the thought hit me that this would probably be the last time I would ever see him in person. As the door shut behind him, my mom bounced me in her arms a little, then asked, “Are you ready to go outside and get some fresh air?” Not wanting to dwell on what just happened, I said, “Sure.” She squeezed the front of my diaper and said, “You shouldn’t need a change until we get back.” My mom then walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed the same sippy cup of water then walked over to the couch and set me down and said, “Let’s get your shoes on.” She quickly put my shoes on and tried the laces up. I was picked back up on her hip and she grabbed the sippy cup with her other hand. My dad was ready by the door and opened it for us. As we stepped through, I could feel the heat of a late spring afternoon. My dad quickly locked the door, then we were off and down the stairwell. As I was being carried through the parking lot, my dad asked, “How does it feel to finally get some fresh air and sunshine?” Feeling the sun rays hitting my skin, I said, “It does feel better than the hospital.” My dad nodded and smiled as we made our way to the sidewalk outside the parking lot. With this area being residential, other than my apartment complex, most of the nearby surrounding area are houses with sidewalks lining the streets. My mom then said, “How about you try and get a little bit of exercise, and we will carry you if you get tired.” “Sure,” I replied. I was put down on the ground, then my mom held my right hand as my dad held my left. I started taking steps as my parents walked slowly beside me. I was making good progress, but my focus had to be on walking or I felt like I would lose my balance. I made it somewhere between 50 and 100 feet but was starting to feel weak. I stopped and looked up at my parents who were towering over me and said, “I’m starting to get tired.” My dad smiled and said, “That’s OK, I will give you a lift.” He picked me up with both hands under my armpits, then effortlessly held me over his head, then placed me on his shoulders. Holding onto both my lower thighs with his hands he asked, “Are you conformable up there?” I said, “Yes,” then I grabbed two tufts of his hair, “now forward,” as I gently pushed his hair forward with a smile. With a chuckle, he said, “Alright, alright, I get it. I’m just a pack mule for you now.” I simply replied, “Yep.” I quickly abandoned trying to control my dad through his hair and just started taking in the sights and smells of the neighborhood. My parents were making small talk as they were walking and I would notice that anytime we placed someone walking their dog, they would look up at me on my dad’s shoulders and smile. After passing what seemed like the fourth person walking a dog, I felt a sharp pressure building quickly in my lower abdomen. The first thought I had was, ‘Not here’. I called out, “Dad!?!” My dad stopped, then as he was lifting me off his shoulders, my bowels started to erupt. My dad asked, “What’s wrong…,” as I began to pass gas, then said, “It’s OK, Grace,” as he held me with one of his forearms supporting me by my upper thighs. I buried my face into his upper chest and clung to his shirt as my body continued to push out wave after wave of poop. I whimpered as I could feel it being forced up the front of my diaper and the back. My dad started rubbing my back as my body was finally coming to a stop, but could feel it leaking around my legs. I then felt my dad pull out the waistband of my diaper and said to my mom, “We better get back to the apartment, she just had a blowout.”

Hey everyone! So here is the penultimate chapter of this story. Rather than saying it at the end, I know full-well that this story could have stretched out for several more chapters. At one point, I was even considering making this whole thing a trilogy by itself. I decided against it though, because I wanted each chapter to mean something very specific. I dawdled and fleshed out certain concepts in the beginning, but I wanted the plot to really move after Sophie was reduced in size and I think I’ve done that here. I know many of you probably would have wanted to see more from this story, but I think 30 chapters is plenty long, in fact, its my longest story on here yet (though not the longest story that will ever post on here). Regardless though, for those of you saddened by the ending coming soon, just remember that another story is just around the bend. Next, as a reminder and coming of that thought, I will be posting my decision and the results from you all in my next and final chapter for the next story I will write. Likely posting Monday still, everyone is still free to comment here or personally message me with what you want to read next of mine from the options listed in chapter 2. I like all the choices I am presenting, so choose what you want and just let me know. Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter! Chapter 29: Smells of Cheese Often Attract Rats as Well Holding Paul’s hand outside of LPS headquarters in front the visitor’s entrance at the base of the steps leading in, I’m sure we both looked like any other doting mommy and Little duo that could be seen millions of times all over this world. Paul was wearing his checkered buttoned up shirt and nice corduroy pants, which did nothing to hide his diaper bulge, and a simple overcoat. He insisted on looking more mature today, but in some strange sense, to me and likely to most others, especially with his trimmed and slicked-over hair, he seemed he was only playing at being a grownup now. For me, though, my suit jacket and skirt combo seemed right out of the LPS manual. The dark blue diaper bag slung over my shoulder just added to the scene of my authority and gentle domination like any other good mommy… but like so many other things on this journey, not all was what it seemed. I was diapered and the diaper bag had a pocket dedicated just for me. As for Paul, he had exhibited more signs of slippage and his thumb sucking only grew more prevalent when he was nervous. Today was a prime example, which was just one of the many reasons I was holding his hand. Paul was testifying today and the last thing he needed people to see was his moment of vulnerability. His ego was fragile enough as it was already. Per Astrid’s suggestion though, as I couldn’t be in with him when he testified, I had purchased him a small stuffed animal of the Aprisium Coyotl mascot, ‘Kelsey.’ Safely tucked in the diaper bag for now, ready or not, I sighed and then looked down at Paul. “You ready for this?” Despite the bluster forming already in the air from the tail end of the year now, I could feel Paul’s hand was already sweaty from nervousness. Still, he nodded. “Let’s just do this… before I change my mind.” I gave him my best sympathetic smile, a reassuring squeeze to his hand, and then guided him up the stairs and into the building. As we had planned, Paul only stuck to half-truths and obfuscations or old information for the moment. He mostly began to implicate people who were already guilty to anyone in the know, but to his interrogators today, they seemed pleased with what they were hearing. As opposed to before, this time, Paul actually began sharing some of the finer details to flesh out his stories and add to his legitimacy. For all intents and purposes with LPS, he was unleashing a flurry of useful intel to them. It was a wonderful moment, but two things occurred that upended most of our original plan. First, the mole still wasn’t biting. The group of us investigating tried as hard as we could, but ultimately, the mole remained hidden. Secondly, though, the LPS warehouse, safehouse, and headquarters building had burned down. Torched by angry Bigs or by the remaining loyal followers of Bernard, no one really could say. What we did know though was that while Paul’s testimony wasn’t questioned and was deemed as valuable, LPS had a new toy to play with in the form of all the rubble from the warehouse site. So, Astrid and I went back to what we were doing, and Paul slowed down on his testimony, using exhaustion as an excuse to explain why it was taking longer to debrief than usual. It was a tense time, but I was just happy that with a few suggestions from my mom, more LPS agents could be vetted. “I’m glad we can count you among the more loyal around here, Shelly.” I stood up and shook her hand. She smiled and shook it back. “I’m glad as well. Would have been here sooner as well but when I sent you that note about LPS suspecting Paul of being their rat, I had to stay anonymous.” “That was you?” I had kept the knowledge from that note in the back of my mind since I had read it. In a way, it was one of the reasons I upped the security in my house and was extra cautious when the lights began to flicker. Shelly nodded her head. “That’s right. Found out about it from one of the Littles we had found afterward that had escaped LPS. They had nowhere else to go, and when I heard about their suspicions of your Paul… well, I knew I just couldn’t stand by and do nothing.” Things like that kept happening more and more. It turned out that Astrid and I were just the tip of the iceberg of those associated with LPS who suspected something foul was going on within the agency. Shelly ignored her orders and sent me the information on Paul anyway and other agents were relying on their instincts to salvage their missions in the field to help Littles out against orders. One agent wasn’t so lucky though and had fallen into a trap set by pro-Bigs somewhere south of the border. We still hadn’t heard back from them or our rescue team. Naturally, from that type of situation everyone was already tense. Unfortunately, though, it started to leak that an investigation was underway in LPS that was somehow tied to LRG. Teams were split in their alliances and tensions only rose when more evidence was recovered from the LRG warehouse. Piles of burned documents and equipment were unloaded in the garage downstairs and were being sorted through daily. The process was slow though, but coupled with Paul’s testimony, to our relief, our group of loyal and good LPS agents started to notice some odd behavior with those we hadn’t fully or couldn’t vet yet. “Have you all seen Agents Scythian and Aetos lately?” Shelly asked one day in our secretive room. Her new perspective had sped things up even further and her outgoing personality amongst the other agents had given her a unique insight. “You know…” I mused. “Now that you mention it, they have been a little suspicious lately.” I quickly recalled to all the times I had noticed them taking over investigations and trying to pressure agents under them for completed outcomes. I just chalked it up to them being an overbearing boss or agent, but now… “Take it easy with your accusations you two,” Astrid quickly warned. “Both have been on the rise in LPS for years now and are dangerous enemies to have… especially without hard evidence.” She then turned specifically to me. “Soph, while you were undercover, Agent Scythian got a promotion and is now in charge of the Littles acquisition group.” Her tone gave me pause as if it should be a group I was both familiar with and frightened of. “And they are…?” I asked after a moment of silence. With me only consulting still, my knowledge of LPS had a few holes in it now. Astrid sighed with a tone of deep shame. “Basically… they’re one of the more sinister things that’s ever been approved of in LPS. They’re essentially all highly trained agents that specialize in covert ops. They’re primary mission is in taking down violent Littles.” I blinked as my mind tried to comprehend this group. I didn’t like it one bit when I finally did. “What the…?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. From why I had joined LPS, it felt so polarizing to what they were originally intended to do… protect Littles. “It gets worse…” Everyone in the room leaned in. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who hadn’t heard of them before, though, given the nature of their work, that wasn’t too surprising. “They have total authority when assaulting a building, facility… pretty much whatever, but it’s been left up to their discretion what they consider a threat or not.” “That can’t be…” Shelly was beyond shocked, and I was at a loss for words. Seeing the other agents’ faces in the room as well, I knew we weren’t alone. “It is.” Astrid sighed again, this time in the likely burden of carrying around all these facts that could destroy us all. “Soph, the raid on that BAL facility with Paul… Scythian was there as well. I didn’t find out until recently and I thought more people had heard but… those BAL members…” “What about them?” I had to know. I feared her answer, but seeing justice done to the BAL members we had captured… the ones responsible for hurting Paul and Sammy… had been a moment of grace for my own mind within LPS since I had returned to work. Astrid sighed again. “All of them were immediately questioned, sentenced, and then shipped elsewhere…” A gasp went up in the room. It was a violation of our policies to even convict Bigs in that manner, but that didn’t seem to matter in their case. My fists clenched in rage. “No one cared about them, because they were bad people,” Astrid tried to explain, “but they’re gone.” Her head dropped down. “I’m sorry, Soph. I thought you knew…” The mood in the room quickly soured after that, but it also gave a motivation that I hadn’t seen yet in all the agents working directly with the mole hunt. By the end of that week, not long after New Years Eve, we had been able to narrow the suspect pool down to 81. There were still a lot of members, and that concerned everyone, but it was still progress. Then, a near miracle happened. Due to the vetting of several more members, we felt that the majority of LPS staff were now on our side. They had been cleared of charges, and a few others had been looped in. Knowing the evidence from the warehouse could hold some key to what we were looking for, we ensured we could trust as many of the staff as we could muster on the team. Scythian and Aetos inserted a few of their own, but the director finally halted the number of members directly working on the project. Fortunately for us, one day, it proved to be just enough. “Soph!” Astrid burst through the door and seemed exhilarated. I looked up from my notes on Aetos and looked at her expectantly. “We found something!” My eyes bulged and bolted to my feet. “Where? When? How? Who?” Several questions raced through my mind. This conspiracy had gone on long enough and I could tell that everyone just wanted to end it and feel safe once again in their jobs. 11 members had already resigned since first learning about the mole hunt. Astrid nodded and guided in a shy and fumbling agent. Sadly, Stanley was an agent of little value in the field, so he mostly worked in analysis and performed administrative duties that no one else wanted, but most importantly now though, he was loyal. “M… ma’am…” His nervousness around me was almost cute. My reputation had taken a bit of a hit since Colin had blurted out that I wore diapers now when we took him in after the assault on my house. Fortunately, Astrid had managed to spin it like a war wound and had been boasting about everything I had done for LPS, when I wasn’t even an agent. Most everyone shut up after that. “Thank you, Astrid.” I then turned my attention to the slightly trembling agent in front of me. “It’s okay, Stanley. Just tell me what you found.” I walked over to him and then sat down in a seat. I made sure to put on a smile in order to ease his discomfort. Inside though, I was near bursting for him to tell me what he had found. “Y… yes, m… ma’am…” He then reached around him, and while I tensed for a moment, thinking the worst, he only pulled out a single evidence bag from underneath the lab coat that any agent or technician wore when sifting through the rubble of the LRG warehouse. Soot stains covered most parts of his coat. “I… I found thi… this…” I calmly held my hand out, and with shaking fingers, Stanley handed it to me. Based on Astrid’s persistent smile, I took it that she already knew what I was going to find. So, even my own fingers began to tremble in anticipation. Finally, though, I got a good look at it. “Wait… is this…?” Astrid quickly nodded. “Yep!” She came over to me and pointed to the section of the document in the transparent evidence bag. “Right here…” I started reading the remains of one paragraph. ‘LPS is sending coordinates to prime target. Do no… empt to hold back. Figures inside ar… posable. Extreme prejudice is gran…d.’ The document was heavily charred, but from what we could read, it was direct evidence of a conspiracy between LPS and LRG… just as Paul first suspected. I looked up and smiled at Astrid. “This… this could be what we’re looking for…” She said nothing, but I had to look back down at the single piece of paper in my hands. To me, more than our constitution or declaration of freedom stored in New Columbia, this document was the single most important I had ever seen in my life. I looked back up to Stanley and smiled. “Thank you for this… really. This means more to us than you ever could know.” He blushed. “Thank you, ma’am. It was no… nothing. B… but I figured you all sh… should see it at least…” I nodded. “Most definitely. In fact, you might have just saved LPS.” That was an exaggeration of course in the literal sense, but I knew it was just what Stanley needed to hear right then. Regardless of my exaggeration though, the document was highly important, so, I thanked him and then sent Stanley to search for more evidence if he could any. I realized one problem with the paper however and sighed. “Too bad there aren’t names attached to this thing…” Astrid sighed. “I saw that too… but maybe that doesn’t matter…” I looked at her questioningly, but I had seen the look that encapsulated her face now. Somewhere, brewing beneath her pensive expression, she had a plan. And I was right. The next day, as part of Paul’s slow given testimony, we had him testify that there was evidence that connected both LRG and LPS. He also gave a location where it could be located, which just happened to be the latest pile being extracted and examined from the LRG warehouse. Soon, the whole agency was in a buzz, and several agents on our mole list began to look nervous. It was a gamble to show our hand like that, revealing the likely mole from the connection we implied of LRG to LPS, but it was the honeypot we had been trying to create for weeks now. To sweeten the deal further just in case though, we had Paul bluff and note that the document revealed the names of the conspirators as well. It was a lie, and therefore a major risk, but at this point everyone agreed that it would be worth it to catch the mole and end this operation. So, that night, we lay in wait for the trap to be sprung. “Are you sure you installed those off-grid security cameras?” I asked Astrid nervously. She nodded and took a sip of her coffee from her ‘World’s Best Agent’ mug. “I did. Watch.” She then leaned forward and hit the power to the monitors in front of us. They had the normal feeds of the building, but also now included those looking in on the evidence room as well. “See, Mrs. Doubting pants? Just as you asked for.” I rolled my eyes. “Fine, fine. I believe you. I just… I need this to be done already.” I sighed and briefly looked back at the monitors. Still no movement. “Paul, Sammy, and I just need to go back to normal lives…” Astrid looked a little sad for a moment. “You know… as much as I hate having a mole in LPS, it’s been nice seeing you again… like old times, huh?” I smirked and nodded. “Yeah… me too. I can’t say I miss some of those old stakeouts or missions in the swamps in Flosus, but it has been nice seeing you regularly again.” She smiled and it quickly seemed like she had a question for me. “You think maybe… after this… we could…” “Wait!” I spotted movement. “Look! On the monitor!” I hated stopping Astrid like that, but my pulse began to race as I saw a single figure lurk just off camera. “Look at that…” Astrid pointed to the main normal feeds. “Can’t even see him. He’s avoiding the cameras…” “But not the ones you installed…” Astrid shook her head and I smiled and picked up my radio. “All units… this is it. Be ready and be prepared to go on my signal.” “Roger… awaiting your signal…” Astrid and I knew the agent searching would be strong, swift, and smart. They likely knew the building well-enough to make a quick getaway, so in anticipation, we had at least 30 agents perched all around the evidence room in secretive locations. I just needed to give the signal, and each would emerge, and another team would come in and capture the mole once and for all. Watching the monitor, the mole made sure to leave no trace of his movements and clearly had been trained in assault procedures and espionage tactics. Looking over our remaining files, it narrowed it down to ten suspects. Then, as soon as he touched the evidence and pivoted away, I gave the signal to my radio. “Go! I repeat, this is the go order! Capture the suspect now.” “Roger…” The lights immediately flashed on. In seconds, our loyal agents captured the mole, still leaving his mask on until Astrid and I got there as planned. Both of us entering the evidence room, Astrid gave the signal and Shelly removed the mole’s mask. It was clear who it was from the start. “Agent Aetos…” I don’t think I will ever forget the look of hatred and betrayal in his eyes as he was then pulled away and into one of the interrogation rooms. Two of his top agents and first recruits in LPS were now taking him into custody. Three hours later, the initial interrogators had broken him down enough that it was deemed safe and valuable enough for Astrid and me to enter. Using a truth serum of sorts, it took longer to kick in but could cause the most hardened of trained agents to reveal anything. For Littles… it was lethal, and for Bigs… mostly illegal, however in this case, the director gave us permission to use it. Astrid and I could tell that their feeling of betrayal and annoyance of a mole in their organization was grinding on their patience and good will. In truth, neither of us minded. “Well… if it isn’t my two least favorite agents,” Aetos chided us both as we entered. “Got any diaper rash lately, Sophie?” I nearly took a wing at him right there, but Astrid held me back. “He’s not worth it, Soph. Let’s just ask our questions and go.” I shuffled her off and just took my seat opposite of our old mentor, glaring at him the entire time. “Ladies… I’m here, you’re here… so, let’s make a deal.” I hated his smugness and confidence in all this, but I knew with Astrid in the room, a deal was going to be made. Despite the truth serum, subjects could withhold information or obfuscate. If we struck a deal, however, Aetos was likely to open to us more, and further, if he lied, we could build a clause to the deal that could void all benefits to him from the deal. Astrid sighed but had come prepared. She reached into the file that she had brought in with her and laid out a large sheet of paper and a pen in front of Aetos. “This is it. Sign this or there’s no deal and you go away to Dark Cliff. Considering you’re an agent who has sent Littles there before, I’m sure you know what that means…” For the first time since I had known him, I could see a fleck of fear in Aetos’ eyes. The truth serum was definitely working on him. Seeing little things like that honestly made my day in situations like these. Aetos was our mole and I had lost track of how many innocent Littles had paid the price for his treachery. Still, he took the paper, read it briefly, and without question, signed on the bottom line. “So, where should we start?” Astrid sighed and placed her hand on my arm to indicate I should go first. I had looked forward to this day for so long, but now, only one massive question lingered in my mind. We knew pretty much everything else, but I wanted to know about the very nature of this plot. “Why Aetos? Why?” He smirked and it disgusted me, but I could tell he wasn’t going to hold back a single item. “The Midas Society offered me money. Pure and simple.” I wasn’t satisfied. “That’s it? All this… for money?” It was the oldest excuse and reason in the book, and while the Midas Society being involved didn’t surprise me, I still wanted to know more. There just had to be more. Aetos scoffed. “It was more money for one task than I ever could make as an agent here in three lifetimes. Paid out when I retired in mostly offshore accounts. I couldn’t pass it up.” He then leaned forward. “But you’re right... there was another reason…” I leaned forward too, almost to the point of our foreheads touching, but Astrid pulled me back. She wasn’t being driven on pure emotion and she knew how badly that type of situation could go for me, Aetos cuffed or not. I made a mental note to thank her on behalf of my forehead not getting smashed in later… Aetos grinned wickedly. “Littles are a blight on our society or should be the babies they really are. There is no in between. Therefore, when babies act up, you spank them. End of discussion. So, when the Midas Society offered me money to put a permanent end to LRG for a lot of money, of course I wasn’t going to say no. I restored the balance from those tiny uppity rebels.” I was too flabbergasted by what I was hearing. The hate and vitriol I had long feared since my time as a Little had been unleashed on our society and the city of Aprisium by the want of more money and the old ideology of Bigs. Before Paul, I am ashamed to admit that even with my more progressive views, I usually only saw Littles as children in a very real sense. Masquerading as adults perhaps, but still needing the watchful hand of a Big within their lives. Everything I had been taught, led me to that conclusion. Coming to their planet, it was stricken with disease, poverty, nuclear fallout, and a civilization on the verge of total collapse. Seeing them as children, even beyond their diminutive stature, was just a natural conclusion. After Paul though, my stances had changed. Seeing Aetos spout his insane and near ridiculous reasons, I could see that very clearly now. “So, arming a pro-Big group like BAL seemed the only logical way to eliminate or radicalize LRG as I had agreed to,” Aetos continued to explain. “It was just too easy…” I had tuned him out in my shock before, but now, he was essentially just confirming everything we already had suspected. Never stopping our recordings of this interview, we were getting everything. As he continued to talk, I had one further realization. Despite his own radicalization over Littles and their place in our society, he was right in that they were ‘vulnerable and ripe for the picking.’ Littles needed something more… something more legal, but as much as I tried to think of a solution, I was coming up blank. Aetos then leaned forward once again in his chair. “I want a new deal.” Astrid and I were stunned that he would make such a request after already signing his first. “No can do, Aetos,” Astrid shot back confidently and even sticking her finger hard into the signed deal he had just made. “You signed a deal; you stick to it.” Aetos squinted at both of us and then leaned forward with his hands clasped together. “And what if I told you all the names of the co-conspirators in this little mess here, huh?” His villainous grin made my skin crawl. “Imagine that… wrap up all the moles in one basket. I think I hear promotions and bonuses in the wind.” His eyes sparkled in an unnerving manner. My stomach sank. Any more leverage in his deal and with our current justice system, he might even only serve house arrest for a few years. The deal Astrid had made was slipping away before my eyes. I wanted to throttle him on the spot, but I knew I couldn’t. Astrid and I suspected there were more moles in LPS beyond Aetos, so it was a deal I knew had to be taken. If we didn’t, the director would force us to or remove Astrid, and therefore me as well, from the case. Astrid then pressed her middle finger to her earpiece. She had popped it in to link her with the outside monitoring and recording room just in case more information came to light with the quick turnaround of the portion of the case so far. I nearly held my breath waiting for what she was hearing. It was either good news that his new deal proposal to us would be flushed, or it was the director forcing us to take it instead. Then, she smiled, and my heart leapt with joy. Astrid leaned forward. “Sounds like a good deal to me, but you wanna know something?” I could hear her growing playful tone. I knew she had heard something good for sure now. I just didn’t know what yet. “What?” Aetos asked smugly. “You always sucked at computers.” Aetos faced dropped and it clicked to everyone in the room, including me, what Astrid had just been informed. “We got your computer and we bust it open like a piñata. So good of you to keep all the records of your fellow coconspirator colleagues. I’m sure they’ll be so thrilled when they find out eventually…” She smirked and then stood up while I followed her. “Enjoy your deal with us, former agent Aetos…” He sat back smugly, but as soon as Astrid opened the door, three ABI agents entered the room, including Julian. “Nikolai Aetos… you’re hereby under arrest by the order of the ABI. Anything you say can and will be held…” “What are the charges?” he lashed out as the ABI agents began to haul him away. I think in that moment, despite my brother being on the team taking him away, both Aetos and I shared the same confusion as to what was happening. “It’s simple,” Julian piped up. “You made a deal with LPS today, but that doesn’t preclude you from prosecution by another agency. You just made a full confession to selling guns to a known domestic terrorist group. BAL has been on our watch list for years, so thank you for that.” We both smirked at each other, even more so when the realization of what was happening started to sink into Aetos’ head and he tried to fight the agents strong-arming him through the building as they read him his rights in a court of law. It was a good moment for LPS, but there was a part of me that hated even to ask Paul to hold up his end of the deal afterward. He still did without me asking though, and with his full confession now, the remaining rogue members of what was left of LRG were brought in, including Bernard and his radicalized and armed group of followers that hadn’t been caught the night they shot up my house. On the one hand, the day all the warrants came through and the several raids took place, was one of the happiest days of my life. Scores of LPS agents and LRG members nearly walked side by side into LPS headquarters to be arrested. On the other hand, though, I felt a wave of guilt pile over me. LPS had been cleansed, everyone involved received promotions, bonuses, or both in compensation, and LRG would no longer be a threat. Everyone cheered, especially when it was revealed they were planning a series of bombings of portal facilities and the ABI and LPS headquarters in Aprisium, but Paul wasn’t among them. February saw a series of sweeping initiatives within LPS to help purge and prevent any future plot like the one the Midas Society had tried to enable. It also saw the increase in hate mail and dirty looks to Paul whenever we went out anymore though. Bernard’s group of followers had covertly sent out a mass of fliers and information campaigns in the Little community, calling Paul out for trading in secrets about Littles in general. Curiously, no one made the connection to LRG sending out the tips, or the fact of the bombings attached to Bernard and all, but Paul still was bearing the brunt of the blame for the whole mess. Each day, I saw him retreat into himself a little more and he slipped further into Littlehood. Part of it was a latent response with PTSD and the trauma that had been inflicted upon him when he had been kidnapped by BAL. The rest was purely his isolation and the guilt he was feeling over betraying his own kind. I was officially his caregiver again, but I felt so powerless to help him, aside from my endless streams of hugs, kisses, and playdates that I set up. Nothing seemed to work. I had got what I wanted in the beginning of our relationship, and Paul now accepted me fully as part of his life, but I felt the price we paid to get here had been too high of a cost for him at least. So, I started desperately searching for answers to help my Little out. By the middle of February, I was wrapping up the paperwork for the mole case within LPS and my role as a consultant in it. It was probably seeing the names of LPS and LRG so often that made me think more in-depth about both organizations. LPS was a government-run agency and had set out with a good purpose of protecting Littles within the law but being bound by free hiring practices and a need for powerful agents, it had opened itself up to corruption and scandal through their sordid ambitions. Bureaucracy saw every problem as a ‘hammer and nail’ situation and the very people it sought to protect were now afraid of it. LRG though, was run by Littles and therefore felt like a safe place for them to congregate. As Shelly had informed us, many of the Littles had few other places to go when it collapsed, largely because they lost their only sense of community and home in this world where they weren’t treated with prejudice or condescension. It was a wonderful community, however, with their operations outside of the law, they were no longer bound to it or could seek its protection. Years of animosity and pent-up rage were unleashed in the form of bombs and bullets when those with more level heads had fled, been captured, or had been regressed. Operating from the shadows gave them a needed edge to survive in this world, but it also made them susceptible to malice and revenge against every Big, regardless of their own beliefs, in the city. It seemed like a dead-end conundrum to me, but I remembered what I had thought in the interrogation with Aetos. Littles in our society were vulnerable and needed protection from both themselves sometimes and those Bigs that still held onto their old ideologies of being far superior to them. LPS had been too entrenched in the government and LRG had strayed too far from it. Littles needed something more out there for them, and suddenly, I felt I knew just what to do about it. Not wasting a second more, I ran out to Astrid and explained everything to her. “We need something more than LPS and LRG in this world now. What has happened already can’t be undone, but with my idea… maybe we can remedy it and take a lesson from it.” I paused and took a breath. “So… what do you think?” Astrid remained quiet and motionless for a moment. Then, I saw the same smirk and look on her face that I had seen so many other times before. She was in, so now, we just needed to find a place to do all this and get the funding we would need in order for my idea to become a reality.

Before you read I would like to warn there is mention of child abuse. There are no descriptions of it, nor does it happen in the story itself. It takes place before the events of the story. While I do not condone or support anyone abusing any child (especially as a victim of child abuse myself growing up), it is a real life issue and helps set the stage for the better things coming Andy's way. *****Jeremy***** The phone rang. Jeremy sitting at his desk in his office at home left his program running on the computer to answer it. "Hello, this is Jeremy how may I help you." This being his professional work line he had no qualms answering the phone with his name. He had a strong masculine voice, but at the same time it had some indescribable quality that just made it sound open and caring. "Hey Jeremy it's Emma down at DCS. I've got a kid that we got notified about a couple of weeks ago. As of today the Judge has taken away all parental rights from his parents pending a full investigation into them. Honestly though I don't believe they will be getting them back." She let out a heavy sigh on the other end of the phone. Jeremy sat back in his chair holding the receiver. In order for the parents to have already had the judge rescind their rights the parents must have been horrible to this kid. "So tell me what's up. Give me the details, and I'm assuming you would like me to foster him until a new home can be found." There was a long pause as a keyboard clicking could be heard in the background of the call. "Well he was brought into the hospital about sixteen days ago on a Monday from his school. They called the ambulance after one of the teachers found he had a broken arm when he came into school that morning. She had noticed he was having difficulty getting his jacket off, and when they were getting off his arms she said he just started crying. That's when she saw his arm was heavily discolored and swollen from the wrist all the way up to the elbow. once the ambulance arrived he was taken to the nearest hospital." She paused for a second here. She had been saying this all in a fairly monotone voice. Reading facts from a screen. Jeremy could tell she was upset by this case. "At the hospital his arm was x-rayed and it was determined that he had a break of both bones in his forearm. Based off the bruising and the way it looked when they examined his arm they estimated it happened around Friday night or Saturday morning. The recovery is projected to take around six to twelve weeks in total. As the they were trying to get him prepped for the doctor a nurse noticed some other marks on the boy as she was running an IV for him. However he fought against her examining him and the nurse let it go for the time." She paused here and Jeremy could hear her take a drink, and let out a sigh. "After setting the bones and casting the arm, the doctors did a full examination of his body while he was still sedated. They found multiple signs of physical abuse." She described what was found to Jeremy. She took a pause here, and Jeremy had time to think. He couldn't understand how anyone could possibly treat any child that way let alone their own. It was simply unthinkable and he could feel his own anger rising at the thought of what this young boy had been through in his short life. After a minute or two Emma finally spoke back up. "Sorry this is hard to even read let alone see the pictures they have of his injuries." She said with a slight hitch in her voice. "I see kids come through all the time, but this is definitely one of the worst cases I have seen." "I get it. It angers me just hearing about it. I'm not sure could handle seeing the pictures." Jeremy said back to her. "Well the hospital of course reached out to us to report the incident. We got in touch with the school and got the contact information for the parents. When we tried calling though we got no answer no matter how many times we tried. Finally I was sent to their residence with a police escort. When we arrived we found the front door left open, and the mother and her boyfriend passed out in their living room floor. They were apparently high based off the paraphernalia we found in the living room around them. The whole place smelled god awful and was a complete mess. I really don't understand how they made it under the radar for so long. Based off the state the boy was in and the fact that the mother is a chronic drug user a judge had little problem doing a temporary removal of parental rights. We have kept him in the hospital the last couple of weeks for monitoring. During that time he has healed well from most of the injuries he had. They have also brought his nutrition level up alot as well. The only issues left really have been his arm which will still have a lengthy recovery time, and an issue with his bladder control." She said the last with some hesitation. Jeremy didn't really understand why, he had already taken fostered a few kids who had issues with bedwetting and such. It wasn't really a big deal. "Well to be honest he doesn't seem to have basically any bladder control at all. The doctors have examined him and from the tests it appears his bladder is very under developed. It can only hold about four ounces, but for his age should be able to hold closer to ten ounces. When they did the urodynamics testing the child indicated to them that he couldn't tell when his bladder was full. The other families we have approached have shied away due to the amount of care and attention the boy will need." She finally wrapped up with. "To top this all off with we can't get him to talk, he hasn't said a single word the entire time he has been in the hospital. The psyche team has been in to examine and talk with him, but haven't been able to get anything out of him. After talking to his teachers we have found this is his normal. Apparently he just doesn't speak to basically anyone, they can rarely get a couple of words out of him in class. Usually they communicate with him just writing out whatever he wants to say. The psychiatrist called it selective mutism. Apparently he is physically able to speak, but for some reason often finds himself unable to. They said the cause is often anxiety or fear, but that it could be basically any emotion that is overwhelming for him that is causing it. Due to these reasons three other families we have reached out to have said they just can't take him. To be honest it's completely understandable too. He needs a placement where he can be the only kid in the house, and with someone who knows and understands how to handle kids with special needs and rough backgrounds." She paused here and didn't say anything for a minute. Jeremy finally spoke after processing for a few minutes. "I'll be more than happy to take him in. When could I meet him?" "Today if you want, he is over at the central hospital off main street. It would be a couple of days before you could take him in as the doctors are still doing a few tests and ensuring everything is ok with him. I figure that should also give you some time to get things set up and ready for him. You will be outside of his current school zone, so you have a couple of options there. Mine would be to take him out of public school altogether for the time being. The state has a great online school program going I think he would be great in. However there is the option of your nearest public school as well. Whatever works best for you and you think will be good for him." She said as she gave him all the details for Andy's situation. "From what you have told me about his school life it might be best to give him a break from all that. I'll talk to him though and see how he feels so we can at least take that into consideration too." Jeremy pushed away from his desk still holding the receiver. Moving to the door he grabbed his key ring from a glass bowl next to his office door and left the room. "Listen I'm going to head down to the hospital now, if you have anymore you would like to fill me in on call my cell." "That should be it. I'll call ahead for you so they will let you up to his room." Emma said, relief tinging her voice. "And thank you, Jeremy, this is going to mean the world to him. He may not realize it yet, but it most definitely will." "Of course, I can't let this boy go on thinking the way things have been for him is how the world is. I've been there and it's not a fun place to be. I just hope I can be what he needs to see him through all of this." With that the two said their goodbyes and Jeremy left the house. *****Andy***** Andy sat up in his bed as a nurse came into his room. Andy is a small boy for being eight years old. After two weeks of the hospital feeding him double and also giving him nutrients through an IV his weight was still only up to twenty eight pounds. Top that off he was only about thirty two inches tall. All the kindergarteners and some of the preschoolers were bigger than him! He got told all the time he looked so cute by all the adults at school though. He had bright green eyes with freckles spread over his nose and under his eyes. His red hair hung down past his ears and constantly got in his eyes. To make it worse the hair curled a bit at the ends. He absolutely hated it. He was a bit groggy and tired most of the time he had been here. The doctors and nurses told him it was because his body was recovering, and the meds they were giving him to help with the pain would make him sleepy. He pushed his hair out of his eyes as he watched the nurse move around the room straightening things up. Though Andy had no idea what she could be straightening. He hadn't been out of his bed but a handful of times since he got here, and it's not like anyone had been to visit him. Not even his mom. Andy loved his mom and just wanted her to be happy, and to be a good boy for her. It seemed like he could never do that though. He waited patiently for what he knew was coming. The nurses always did the same thing whenever they came to his room. They moved around acting like they weren't doing anything to him, and like they weren't even really here for him. He knew though they only came in for one of two reasons. The first was to bring him food, but lunch time had already passed and it wasn't time for dinner yet. The second was for the reason he resented. It was the reason his mom was always mad at him. It was time for him to be changed again. Andy had always had trouble with going pee in the bathroom. He never seemed to know when he needed to go, and often didn't even notice when he had wet himself until someone made fun of him or a grown up yelled at him. His mom was bad about yelling at him, but her boyfriend was even worse. The nurses though had been different. They had been nothing but kind and gentle to Andy the entire time he had been here. They had done the one thing his mother had flatly refused to do, though she had threatened it many times as the worst thing she could do to him. They had put him in diapers from his first night in the ER when he had wet himself multiple times. He had seen the package for the diapers a few times. They kept at least one package in a cabinet to the side of his bed in the children's ward. It was pampers cruisers size six diapers. They were baby diapers, and he fit in them. It made him feel like the baby the kids at school always called him when they made fun of him. He hated school and was dreading going back. He knew he would just be made fun even more now than he had been before. Especially if he had to keep wearing diapers like the doctors said he would need to. He wasn't happy about it, but the doctor had explained the problems out to him. He hadn't understood much of it, but basically he had the bladder capacity of a three year old and the control of an infant. That and the things that told him his bladder was full didn't send the signals the way they were supposed to. It was very demoralizing to be told you were barely better than an infant at something. Finally the nurse came over to Andy's bedside. "Ok, you know what time it is. We gotta get you changed. I'm sure you are quite wet by now. Lets lay back and I can get you changed." With that Andy lay back in the bed. The nurse quickly and efficiently went about her business. She was nice and got Andy to cooperate and even help where he could. Instead of lifting his legs she had him raise his bottom up for her to take the used wet diaper out from under him. While he held himself up she used a warm wet wipe to clean his entire lower region. With a gloved hand she spread some cream on his bottom and his groin. "Now we have to give you some medicine, I'm sorry for this, I know it's not going to be pleasant but it won't hurt. You'll just feel a small bit of discomfort." With that she placed a hand on Andy's stomach, and her other moved to his bottom. He felt a bit of pressure and discomfort from his anus as the nurse pushed a small suppository into his bottom. She was quick and true to her word. It hadn't hurt, but it had made Andy very uncomfortable to have her stick a finger in his bottom. "There all done. Now that is something that will help you go poopy. You haven't had a movement in over a week. That is very unhealthy and the doctor is concerned. It will be unpleasant I know, but as soon as it happens all you have to do is press this button and a nurse will be right in to change you." With that she removed her gloves, and after throwing them in a bin off to the side, slid a fresh diaper under Andy's bottom. She swiftly taped it into place and then pulled his paper hospital gown back down, and his bed sheet up and over his legs to his waist. "Here you watch some TV and we will be back around in just a little bit to check on you." With she left the TV turned to Nick Jr. and Blaze and the monster machines was on. Not having a remote to change it, Andy resigned himself to watching it. *****Jeremy***** Jeremy arrived at the hospital a little later that afternoon. He had stopped at the store to get something that he hoped Andy would like. He went to the front desk and got directions to Andy's room after verifying his identity. He went up to the children's ward from there, and found the room of his soon to be foster child. Andy was sitting at the top of the bed leaning forward with his legs folded criss cross. On the tv up on the wall over the foot of the bed Nick Jr. was playing a show with some dogs on it. Jeremy faintly recognized it from something another kid he fostered like to watch, but just couldn't recall the name. For a few minutes he just stood to the side of the door unnoticed by Andy as he watched the cartoon. He seemed to have gotten sucked into the show as he wasn't noticing anything around him. He sat on the bed in a light blue hospital kind of shirt and a white diaper with some designs on it he couldn't really make out from here. 'He is a cute kid, hair is a little long an unruly, and he was quite small for an eight year old, but otherwise he looked healthy and in good health.' Jeremy thought to himself. He didn't see any of the bruises or marks on him that Emma had told him about, other than the cast on his left arm he could have been just any kid. Suddenly Jeremy felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning he saw shorter dark skinned nurse standing behind him. "Sir, may ask what you are doing?" She said looking at him suspiciously. "Oh sorry I got distracted watching him enjoy the TV show. I'm Jeremy and I am here to meet my new foster Andy." Jeremy followed this by holding his right hand out to shake hers. She took it and shook hands with him. "Sorry was worried you might be the one he was living with for a second. They warned us there was a possibility that the mother or boyfriend might show up and to call for security if they had." She said this with a reassured smile. She was happy it hadn't been one of them. "Well they did let us know you were coming though. If you want you can go in and see him. One of the other nurses gave him some medicine earlier to help him go poop. One of us should be in here before long to check him. If he does happen to go before then you can call the station and one of us will be in to change him." With that she strode off down the hallway and entered the room of another patient. Jeremy turned back to the room and saw Andy sitting on the bed watching him. Seeing this Jeremy came into the room a friendly expression on his face. "Hey, Andy right?" Of course Jeremy knew it was him, and Andy nodded affirmation, but that helped get him engaged from the start. "My, name is Jeremy. I'm here because I got a call this morning that a very special boy needed a safe place to stay at for awhile. I told them I needed to meet you first though so we can make sure you like me. I brought you something down here to keep you company." With that he held out a box to Andy. Andy took the box and looked it over. It was a plain red box with a lid fit over the top. It looked like the boxes he had seen Christmas presents come in on tv shows. "You can open it." Jeremy said reassuringly. Andy removed the lid then and pulled out the item inside. It was a green dinosaur stuffed animal plushie. Andy's face lit up with a big grin. He held it up to the ceiling then pulled it down and hugged it close. Andy loved stuffed animals, and though dragons were his favorite, dinosaurs were a very close second. "I was hoping you would like it. It's all yours as is the tablet in the bottom of the box as well." Andy looked back in the box and sitting at the bottom was a small tablet. "I set it up with an app on there already so you can use it to communicate with." Jeremy moved and squatted down beside the bed next to Andy. Andy already had already turned the screen on and it didn't have a passcode on it yet. Jeremy showed him the two apps he had installed on the tablet. One allowed Andy to type out whatever he wanted to say to someone, and then could be shown to someone to be read or the tablet could speak out what was typed. The other app had a bunch of different squares on the screen with pictures on each. You could touch the picture or a series of pictures for what you want and then the app would make them into a sentence for you. They were really useful and Andy loved it. "Also it can give you something to do while you're stuck here so you're not bored. You can play games, watch videos, or find something to read if you want." Andy had started using one of the apps on the tablet and showed the screen to Jeremy. It read 'Thank you this is really cool.' Jeremy was happy that he could use it and that he liked the gift. It would definitely make things alot easier for the boy moving forward. *****Andy***** Andy loved the tablet and the Dinosaur. It was amazing! He had never had a tablet or electronic before, though he had used one at school a couple of times, and he marveled at how easy it made it for him to let people know what he wanted or was thinking. He and Jeremy talked for awhile about what kind of things Andy enjoyed. He told him how he liked playing with lego blocks, stuffed animals, going outside, and more. He was finding he really like this man who was being so nice to him. Just a short bit after Jeremy had arrived though Andy felt a sharp pang in his gut. The medicine was finally taking affect. After the first cramp the gates opened, and Andy found himself powerless to stop it. With a wet farting noise the poop rushed out into the diaper as Andy sat in terror and shock. It filled every crevice around his bottom and into the middle of the diaper as it seemed to just keep going. It was warm and mushy almost feeling like warm oatmeal. After just a few seconds that felt like an eternity it finally ended, and he was sitting in a full diaper for the first time since he was a toddler. Andy had struggled with controlling his bladder, but he had figured out how to go poop on the potty fairly quickly according to his mom. Now he understood why. He did not like the way this felt at all. He drew up his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them as he started to tear up. Here this man had been so nice to him, but he had just messed himself. He waited for the yelling to start like it always did with his mom when he wet himself. *****Jeremy***** Jeremy knew immediately what had happened. He could see the dirty state of the diaper as Andy sat huddled on the bed with his head ducked into his legs. Instead of saying anything he just sat down on the edge of the bed next to him. Jeremy put his arm around the boy's shoulders and hugged him to his side without a word. Just providing safety and comfort. A nurse walked to the door at that moment and Jeremy held his hand out to stop her. He motioned that everything was ok and to give them a moment. The nurse nodded and headed back into the hallway without a sound. After a couple of minutes Andy's shoulders stopped moving from him crying and Jeremy spoke to him. "Hey its ok. I know it's probably embarrassing to have this happen but it's not your fault. The nurses had to give you some medicine that made you go that's all. It's ok I promise." Sniffling Andy looked up at the bigger man. Seeing that he wasn't mad, Andy stretched his legs back out and picked up the tablet. Quickly he typed out 'not mad at me' and showed it to Jeremy. Jeremy smiled in a way he hoped was reassuring and said, "Of course I'm not mad at you. Why would I be? Like I said it's not your fault." 'Mom was always really mad when I have a accident' he typed out on the tablet. Jeremy positioned himself so he could read it as Andy was typing it out. 'Get punish if have a accident. Teach not to do it again' Jeremy felt a chill followed by a rush of heat at the implications of what Andy had just told him. Schooling himself he kept the emotions from his face or body. "Well I don't think that was right for her to do. You had no control over this due to the medicine. Me punishing you for something you can't control would be wrong." Silently he seethed at the scared look in the young boys eyes. No child should ever have that look. "Look why don't we get the nurse so she can get you cleaned up. While she does that I'll just step out and make a phone call, OK?" Jeremy gave him a questioning look to ensure that he would be ok for the few minutes he would be on the phone Andy nodded and he left the room to get the nurse and make a call to Emma. He was more determined than ever to help this boy, and give him a better life than he had experienced so far. *****Andy***** Andy lay back on the bed waiting for the nurse to come in. It had been a few minutes for him to adjust to his state, and he found he kind of liked the feeling of the poop as it smushed around his bottom. It felt like when he played in mud. It wasn't long before it started to get cold, sticky, and uncomfortable on his backside making his butt itch. Finally a nurse came into the room pushing a cart loaded with supplies. It was a different lady from earlier that he hadn't seen since he had been here. This nurse was an older white lady, she had grey hair, but stood straight moved at a purposeful pace. She came to the side of the bed and opened the cabinet grabbing the package of diapers from the shelf inside. Setting them on the cart she grabbed a folded pad from the bottom of the shelf. Unfolding it she turned to the bed. "Ok now I need you to lift up so I can slide this under you to keep the bed clean." Andy lifted his entire back off the bed holding his weight on his shoulder and his heels. The nurse slid the pad under him, pushing the hospital shirt he wore up around his chest as she did so. "There now this will only take a moment." From there she undid the tapes of the diaper, and slid the front down over his crotch to clean any poop that had smushed up to the front. Without warning the nurse took his ankles in her hand, and unceremoniously lifted his legs straight up in the air. This was an embarrassing position for Andy and felt his face burn as it turned red. He felt like a toddler as she wiped the mess from his bum with the relatively clean front of the diaper. Finally she folded the front down and opened the wipes with one hand as she held his ankles with the other. Taking one out she proceeded to clean his bottom up with the wipes. He liked this part as the wipes were always really warm and felt amazing. It took a few wipes, but eventually his entire bottom was cleaned of the poop. The nurse pulled the dirty diaper and the used wipes from under Andy and lowered his legs back to the bed. The nurse set the used diaper to the side on the cart without rolling it up. Then pulling a fresh diaper from the package she turned back to the bed. Opening the diaper she lifted Andy's legs once more and slid it into place underneath him. Andy had to admit, at least to himself, that the diaper really did feel nice. It was soft and cushiony, and once it was taped up he felt like someone was constantly hugging him. It felt amazing which left him feeling conflicted about them. He found he hoped he could keep wearing them after he went home, but he knew his mom would never allow it. Maybe Jeremy would let him wear them while he stayed with him though. The nurse spread rash cream across his entire diaper area, and finally closed the diaper and secured it snugly around his waist. The nurse stuck a forearm under his back then and lifted his small frame a bit from the bed. With her other hand she removed the bed pad from under him and pulled his shirt back down as she withdrew her hand from beneath him. "There we go all done." From here she moved to the cart with the soiled diaper. There she picked up the diaper and a small container. With this she dumped as much of the poop into the container as possible before closing the container and sealing it with some sticker. "What's that for?" Andy turned to see Jeremy had come back into the room. He watched quizzically as the nurse was working. "The doctor wanted a stool sample to make sure there wasn't anything more going on with his constipation. It's most likely just from the pain meds, but he would rather be safe." She moved and put the package of diapers back in the cabinet then pushed the cart back out of the room. Jeremy moved over to the bed and sat on the edge next to Andy. "Well I just got done talking to your case worker at DCS. You are gonna come stay with me for awhile. Do you think you would like that?" Andy nodded his head enthusiastically. He really liked this guy so far and hoped staying with him would be fun. Jeremy sat next to him and talked about everything he could think of. From what they could go out and do to have fun, and what his house looked like. They spent alot of time like that. Eventually they ran out of things to talk about and just sat in silence and watched Nick Jr. on the TV. Eventually the nurse came back in with dinner for Andy. She sat the food tray down on a table thing then rolled it over until it reached over the top of the bed. Then left the room saying she would be back in a bit to get the tray. Jeremy removed the lid from the plate on the tray to reveal some chicken strips, green beans, and mac and cheese. There was also a small roll, and a glass of apple juice. Andy ate with relish enjoying the food. He quickly finished the plate off and sat back. Leaned back as he was the front of his diaper was completely exposed. Jeremy examined it and noticed the yellow wetness indicator down the middle had turned completely blue. He got up off the bed and walked around to the cabinet. Andy watched him curiously the entire time. Jeremy reached down into the cabinet and pulled out some wipes and a fresh diaper, and turned back to the bed. He moved the table to the side away from the bed. "Hey buddy, you are quite wet there, how about we get you changed into a fresh diaper?" He asked, but it was more than a simple request. "You just need to scoot down a bit and lay back for me." Andy had gotten used to the nurses coming in and changing him, but he wasn't sure how he felt about Jeremey changing him. It felt more embarrassing somehow. After a moments hesitation though he followed the instructions and lay back for Jeremy. He quickly undid the diaper, removed it, cleaned up Andy with some wet wipes, and then secured a fresh diaper on him. Andy felt safe and secure the entire time. The rest of the evening went well as the two sat and talked about all kinds of things. Eventually Jeremy Asked Andy if he liked books, when Andy nodded he did, Jeremy asked if he would like him to read one. After he again nodded, Jeremy took the tablet and pulled up a picture book. "Now, this is one of my favorite books from when I was a child. It's called the very hungry caterpillar." Jeremy read this book and two more to Andy, but by the last one he was getting tired and his eyelids were starting to droop. Until finally they shut completely and he dozed off. *****Jeremy***** As he got about halfway trough the third book he realized that the young boy at his side was fast asleep. He had fallen asleep hugging the new dinosaur toy. He looked peaceful and happy, and Jeremy hoped he could get up without waking him. It had gotten late as they had sat talking. He had learned a lot about the young one in this time and had started to make plans for them for the next few weeks. He had already called Emma earlier and confirmed he would take Andy in with him. He just needed to spend a couple more days in the hospital while the doctors ran a couple more tests. Then he would come to stay with him. Possibly as his forever home. Jeremy was excited and nervous at the same time. He needed to go home and get some things settled and ready for Andy. Carefully he got up from the bed, plugged in the tablet to charge, and left the room. He let the nurses know Andy was asleep, and that he would be coming back to visit tomorrow. He left the hospital, made a stop at the local Walmart. He had finally remembered the show Andy had been enjoying was called Paw Patrol. He got some bedding supplies and kids towels in with those printed on them. From there he moved over to the baby aisle and stocked up on rash cream, baby oil cream, and powder. Lastly he looked at the diapers. There he found that Luvs had a print currently going which also featured the paw patrol show. He grabbed a case of size 6, and moved to the checkout. After checking out Jeremy drove home and went into the bedroom he regularly used for foster kids. There he unpacked the items and made up the bed with the items. He stored the box of diapers and supplies on a set of shelves built into the closet. He figured he might get something better latter on though. Afterwards he went online and began to look up things that Andy might enjoy doing. During their talk he has found that the boy had basically never went anywhere except the store, school, and where he lived. Jeremy planned to correct this. Every kid deserved to have trips and do things they would enjoy. He planned to give Andy a lot of new experiences. Chapter 2 A few days passed, and it was finally the day Andy would get to leave the hospital. He was excited but also anxious about going to stay with Jeremy. He knew it would be better than going back to his mom. He didn't even want to think about how mad she would be about this whole situation. His arm had started bothering him over the last few days as the Dr's had the pain meds slowly lessened. It still bothered him to think about it. He had been so scared the night it happened. He had never seen his mom that angry with him, and her boyfriend had tripped him when he tried to run from her angry tirade. He had tried to catch himself, but when he held his arm out, he felt a sharp pain as he impacted the floor. His mom had repeatedly hit him with the belt after that. He didn't blame her, though. If he was a better son and behaved, she wouldn't have to discipline him. That's what her boyfriend always told him. He said if Andy would just stay out of the way and quiet like a good boy, there wouldn't be any issue. It especially made her mad when Andy wet himself and needed help cleaning himself. That's what the punishment that night had been for. He had stayed in his room all that weekend to avoid her. His arm had really bothered him, and he had struggled immensely to get ready for school that Monday. He couldn't wait til his arm was healed. Maybe then his mom would take him back, and things would be better this time. He really loved his momma no matter what she did. The nurses knew this despite all she had put him through. He didn't know any different, though. They really hoped Jeremy would be able to provide him with a better home. They had grown to love this little boy over the weeks he had remained in their care. He was such a ball of joy once he had gotten to trust them. They didn't care that he struggled to talk. He smiled whenever they came into his room now rather than looking at them with wariness in his eyes. Jeremy had spent nearly every waking hour in the room with the child. Even when he had to work, he would bring his laptop and sit with him. It was such a beautiful thing to the nurses. This man who didn't owe the child anything. Was of no relation to him, but wouldn't let the boy remain here alone and scared. It seemed to help Andy come further out of his shell, and by the last couple of days, he had tried to talk in halting and stuttering words. The doctors claimed that with some time and therapy, he would most likely be able to communicate verbally without trouble. Jeremy was happy when they told him this as it meant that Andy would have one less struggle in his already complicated young life. Jeremy had planned out the next couple of weeks to make Andy as happy as possible and help him be more comfortable. He couldn't wait to take him out of the hospital at last. He had finished setting up the bedroom for him and hoped he loved it. *****Andy***** Andy was super excited to finally be getting to leave the hospital. The nurses had been really nice to him, but he really didn't like the food here, and he was insanely bored of sitting in bed all the time. At home, he rarely got to watch TV, so he enjoyed the novelty of that at first, but it had worn off after the second week straight. Looking forward to being able to go home with Jeremy, he tried his best to get dressed. He found it was difficult with his arm in a cast. It went from halfway up his upper arm, all the way over his wrist to the bottom of his fingers. He couldn't bend his elbow or close his hand fully. This caused him to struggle with pulling a shirt down or securing his pants. Finally, he gave up trying. He had his shirt over his right arm and over his head but couldn't figure out how to get his left arm in it. His pants were up, but he couldn't get the button secured without the use of both hands. The diaper didn't help as it made the jeans tighter than what he was used to. Sitting on the side of the bed, he resigned himself to wait for help and watched more TV. He found that he really enjoyed watching Paw Patrol, sunny patch friends, little bear, Blaze and the monster machines, and many other shows that came on Nick Jr. He no longer cared what the other kids would think of him watching "baby" shows. He enjoyed them, and he felt that was all that mattered. After a short while, a nurse came in to check on him. "Well, I never, look at you. Half dressed and lots of places to go. Do you need some help there?" She asked, pointing at his clothes. Andy nodded and stood from the bed. She first took the bottom of his shirt and rolled it up with the hole for his arm. She slipped this easily over his cast and pulled the shirt down to his waist. "Now, has your diaper been changed since this morning?" She asked, raising a single eyebrow in question. "No." Andy muttered in a low shy voice. "Well, we gotta take care of that before you get all dressed. Don't want it to leak out on your clothes." With that, she guided him back onto the bad and had him lay down. She lowered his pants to his ankles and turned to his bedside cabinet. Opening it, she didn't see the diaper where they usually were. "Now, where have your diapers gone off to?" She said, looking back at Andy. He pointed over to his bag, sitting on a chair in the corner. He had already been packing everything up to leave. He really was ready to get out of the hospital. She moved over to his small duffel bag and pulled out the pack of pampers size 7 diapers. After removing one and coming back to the bed, she unfolded the diaper and set it to the side. She proceeded to undo the tapes on his wet diaper and pull it open. She lifted his legs by the ankles and proceeded to pull the used diaper out and clean him up with a couple of wipes. After that was done, she placed the fresh diaper under his bottom and, after lowering his legs, taped it snugly into place. "There you're all clean and ready to go home." With this, she helped him stand up and secure his pants. "But I'm not going home. I'm going to stay with Mr. Jeremy at his house." He said a bit confused at her statement. The nurse had slipped a bit here. Since Andy didn't know he was going to be living with Jeremy for the foreseeable future. Jeremy had asked the nurses not to say anything as he didn't want Andy to get upset about not being able to go home to his mom. "Oh my bad, I just mis-spoke, hunny. Just habit to say you're going home when you leave." She said with a reassuring smile. "I'm sure you're gonna have all kinds of fun. Jeremy seems like a really nice guy." Andy nodded excitedly, "We are gonna have lots of fun. He said we would get to go to the fair, and he would take me to the zoo and the park." The nurse zoned out a bit as she bustled around the room, making sure her patient had everything and straightening up everything. Andy kept listing off places he had never been, but that he and Jeremy had talked about going to see. He was very excited to be able to finally enjoy all these things. Eventually, he ran out of places, though, and silence filled the room. "Well, it sounds like you have a lot of adventures ahead of you. Jeremy should be here shortly, and then you can finally get out of here and start on all those adventures." The nurse said to Andy as she turned away from the bed. "Why wait? We can get going right now." Jeremy was standing in the doorway. He had come in on the tail-end of Andy's long list. With a shout of joy, Andy jumped up from the bed and ran over to Jeremy. "Really? We go now?" "Of course, I've already finished the paperwork, and we are ready to go. Just gotta grab your things, and we are out of here." He walked over to the chair and grabbed the small duffel bag, holding everything Andy currently had. DCS had gotten him a few changes of clothes from his home. Unfortunately, most of what he had was ragged and barely acceptable as clothing. Most of the shirts were too small, and the ones that weren't often had holes all in them. He only had one pair of pants at the time, and it had holes in the legs and seat of them. Eventually, they had only been able to get a couple of t-shirts and one pair of shorts that were in acceptable condition for him. Once Jeremy had learned of this, he had taken it upon himself to get a couple sets of clothes for him to choose from to wear when he left. The bag was light. All it had in it was the tablet, a single pair of clothes, a pack of diapers the hospital provided for Andy, a small pack of wipes, and a tube of rash prevention ointment. Holding the bag, he walked back to Andy at the doorway. "Say goodbye to the nice nurses, and we will head out of here!" He said with a grin. Andy immediately lit up with a big grin and looked to the nurse. "Tank you for caring for me." He said, sounding younger than his 8 years. "No problem, Lil guy. You behave and stay out of trouble, hear?" She said as she tousled his already disheveled hair. He really would need to get him a good haircut, Jeremy thought to himself. Then the two left the room. Andy said bye to the nurses at the desk. A male nurse then handed him a small lollipop as they turned to leave. Andy immediately opened it and stuck it into his mouth as they walked to the elevator. Before long, they were in the parking garage and heading over to a small dark blue hatchback car. Jeremy opened the back door and tossed the duffel bag into the rear area of the car. Then he turned to Andy and picked him up under the arms. Lifting him, he turned and set him down in a car seat. It was a nice seat, Andy thought to himself. It was well cushioned and soft, and when Jeremy buckled the harness together, it was snug and not tight on him. He looked at Jeremy in confusion, though. He was 8, and 8 year olds weren't supposed to be in carseats like a baby. At least, that's what his mom said. "Sorry dude, it's the rules. DCS said I had to have a carseat for you. You're just too small to be without one. They said you have to be at least 4 foot 9 inches to be out of a booster seat. We also got to get some weight on you. You're only about 33 lbs right now and just over 3 feet tall. For your height and weight, this is the best seat I found that is appropriate. I know it sucks, but it is what it is. Safety is more important, ok?" Andy looked thoughtful, then just shrugged and nodded. He didn't really mind the seat. He just hadn't understood why he needed one now when his mom hadn't made him sit in one for a long time. "Can I have the tablet?" He asked Jeremy. So he reached back over the seat and grabbed the bag. Opening it, he quickly found the tablet and handed it to him. "Tank you." Andy said with a grin. Jeremy shut the door and got in the driver seat. Jeremy lived a bit out of the city, so it would take them about an hour to get there. Andy happily played on the tablet through the ride. After a while, he felt a cramp in his stomach. "Mr. Jeremy, I need to go poopy!" He said as the cramp worsened. "We are about 10 minutes from the house, buddy. There's nowhere to stop here, though. Try to hold it, but if you can't, that's OK. It's what the diaper is for." Andy looked out the window and saw open fields of grass that were fenced in. He didn't like to poop in the diapers. It felt weird and wrong to him. Most of his time in the hospital, they had allowed him to use the toilet for his poops once he stopped needing medicine for being constipated. After a couple more minutes of holding it, he lost the battle. With a small fart he felt the poo push out into the diaper. It quickly filled the seat of the diaper and squished into the middle. Being strapped into the carseat, he didn't have very far he could move. As such, it squished up into the front some before he finished. As he sat there, he felt the mushy mess on his backside and cringed a bit. He was glad it wasn't on the new clothes he had gotten, but he still did not care for the sensation at all. "You feel better now, bud?" Jeremy asked, looking at Andy in the rearview mirror. Andy nodded dejectedly as he tried to focus back on his tablet and ignore the sensations. "We are about to turn in the driveway. As soon as we get in, I'll take you straight to your room to get changed. Okay?" Andy nodded, feeling a bit better, knowing he wouldn't have to sit in the mess for long. Soon, they turned into a long driveway, just as Jeremy had said. It was a gravel driveway, though, and this caused Andy to bounce around in his seat. As he bounced, he could feel the poo being mushed around his butt and further up into the front of his diaper. This made him uncomfortable, and he would be really happy to have this diaper off. Finally, after passing through a row of thick trees, the house came into view. Andy's mouth got big as he looked out at what he thought was a mansion. In reality, it was just a newer style of the old farmhouse look. But to Andy, who had only lived in the city in small apartments, it was gigantic. Jeremy pulled up to the side of the house and got out. Then, opening the back door, he unbuckled Andy and carried him inside and upstairs to the bedrooms. There, he opened the first door to the right. Inside the room was painted a clear ocean blue color, on the walls were hanging lots of dinosaur decor. There were two dressers, each a white color, one that was tall and had 5 drawers, the other was long with six really wide drawers. On top of the tall dresser was a statue of a Triceratops and a couple of pachycephalosaurs on each side of it (for those who don't know the pachycephalosaurus is the "head-butting" dinosaur). On the long dresser was set a thick pad, and at the end was a hanging piece filled with diapers, lotion, powder, and wipes. On the opposite side of the room was a twin bed. The bed was a dinosaur cover and a pillowcase with a T-Rex roaring on it. "I decorated this room with dinosaurs. I know you said you liked dinosaurs, so I hoped you would like this. Do you?" Jeremy asked, still holding Andy in his arms. Andy nodded with a big grin. He didn't just like it. He LOVED it. He had never had his own room, let alone one decorated in a way he liked. From there, Jeremy laid him on the changing mat and proceeded to undo his pants. Pulling them down and then off, he revealed the heavily soiled diaper. He could see from the outside, the brown had moved up into the front of the diaper. This was a big mess. Instead of changing him, Jeremy had him sit up and remove his t-shirt. "OK, change of plans, big guy. We are instead going to go get in the bathtub and clean you up that way." He then picked Andy up under the arms and carried him through the house to the hallway bathroom on his hip. There, he placed Andy on the toilet. This room was a light grey color. On the toilet lid was a dark blue padded cover that had a picture of the paw patrol on it. The rug in front of the tup also had chase and rubble on it. Andy thought this was really cool as he looked around. On the counter next to the sink was a soap dispenser that was shaped like Marshall, and hanging from the towel rack was a kids towel with Chase on it. You could tell this was meant to be a kids' bathroom. After getting the water right, Jeremy picked up Andy and stood him in the shower. There, he removed the diaper, wiping as much mess off as possible. Turning, he threw the diaper in a small bin next to the toilet. He then used the handheld sprayer to wash the mess off of Andy. After being thoroughly scrubbed down and cleaned off, Jeremy hung the sprayer back up in the shower head. "Now you ready to get out, or would you want to play in the water for a bit?" Andy thought about it for a second. He had never really had the opportunity to play in the bathtub. His mom has always just quickly washed him and made him get out. He was interested, but though he would rather wait. He was too excited to explore the rest of the house. "No, want out." He said. He was anxious and nervous and wanted to explore to hopefully alleviate some of that feeling. Jeremy grabbed the towel and wrapped it around Andy, drying him off, then lifting him out of the tub with it. He reached behind Andy and grabbed something. Coming back forward, he pulled something up over his head. As they moved past the mirror, Andy could see it was hood that came up as part of the towel. On the top was a pair of rounded dog ears set on what looked like Chase's police helmet. Andy giggled a bit at the sight, but he absolutely loved it. They walked back over to the first bedroom, where Jeremy picked him back up and set him on the dresser. There, he proceeded to put a fresh diaper on Andy. Andy was conflicted about this. The nurses had said he had to wear them while at the hospital. He assumed that meant he could go back to normal underwear after he got out. He wanted to be normal and wear underwear like a big kid, but at the same time, he really liked the way the diapers felt. Plus, he hated the way his pants felt when he would accidently wet them. "Why diapur? Nurthe said only for hothpital." Andy asked his nervousness, making his speech even worse in the moment. "Well buddy, that's because you need them. The doctors told me about the accidents you were having and the tests that ran to try to find the problem. What they found was that your bladder just wasn't developed enough to hold much in it, and your nerves aren't transmitting when you need to use the bathroom they way they should. Do you understand what all that means?" Andy had understood some of it but was confused about some parts. So he shrugged his shoulders, not sure what to say. "Well, do you know what telephone wires are?" Andy nodded at this they had learned about telephone lines in school. Though they rarely got used anymore since people mostly used cellphones now. "Well, think of it like this. Your internal organs are kind of like their own buildings. The nerves are like telephone wires that lead from those buildings to a main building, which is the brain, so they can tell it what is going on. Make sense so far?" Andy nodded following along. "Well, in your case, the bladder buildings telephone wires aren't working correctly. Due to this, the message about when your bladder is full isn't making it to the brain all the time. That's why you have accidents without knowing you need to go to the bathroom." Andy started to tear up a bit at this. Did that mean he would never be able to use the bathroom like everyone else? He wasn't sure how to feel about all this. "Hey, it's OK, it's not something you can control. The doctors hope that as you grow and get bigger that things will kind of work their way out and start to operate properly. They said that since you aren't retaining your pee, then it would be best to just keep you in diapers. That way you won't wet your clothes and no one has to know about your problems." With that, he grabbed a diaper from the end of the dresser. Andy saw that it was slightly purple and had pictures of all the paw patrol dogs on it. "Now let's get you into this diaper, then you can go check out the house and play. OK?" Andy nodded. After a couple of weeks wearing the diapers, he decided he preferred them to wearing wet clothes or a wet bed. Quickly, with a practiced hand, Jeremy got Andy into a fresh diaper. He used some baby oil to help protect his skin and then sprinkled some powder on him to help keep his skin soft and comfortable in the diaper. Then he closed the diaper up and helped Andy down to the floor. Then, moving to the closet, he grabbed out a shirt with Pokémon on it. Pulling it over Andy's head first, he then helped him get his arms through the holes. Then he took Andy's good hand and walked towards the door. Andy, however, tugged back. "Wha bou pans?" He asked with a worried expression. "You mean pants?" Jeremy asked, unsure. Andy nodded quickly. He may be OK with the diaper, but what if someone saw him in one. He would get made fun of then. "Aww, you don't need pants, buddy." He said with a grin, then with a serious look he thought for a moment. "Are you worried about someone seeing your diaper?" Andy nodded, looking at the floor. "You ain't gotta worry about that. I don't have any nearby neighbors who could see you. We are surrounded by trees. Besides what's it matter if they did. I wouldn't let anyone mess with you. You're my new and best little buddy no matter what." He said the last with a tickle to Andy's stomach, making him laugh and giggle some. "But I need to be able to easily see if you're wet. That way, I can get you changed when needed. No pants are the easiest way to do that. Don't worry if we leave the house you will have pants though. Is that ok?" He asked the last, but Andy was sure it wouldn't matter if he was OK with it. Thankfully, his fears had been quietened with Jeremy's reassurances. With that, Jeremy took him downstairs and showed him around the house. There was a big living room with a TV on the wall over a fireplace and a couch opposite it. The kitchen was huge with lots of silver appliances. The counter tops were a dark grey marble like surface with white veins. The fridge had two doors and was fully stocked with lots of food and juice boxes. There was a pantry where Jeremy kept lots of kid snacks for when he had Foster kids as well. It had little bags of goldfish, fruit gummies, and lots of other individual snacks. There was a den that led to the back porch on the other side of the kitchen. In there were a bunch of kid toys ranging from toddler toys up to action figures and transformers for older kids. From here, Andy could see out the big bay window to the large backyard. Jeremy had one of the really cool swing sets back there that looked like part of a pirate ship. It was sitting under a massive oak tree, and in the tree was a large tree house just waiting for Andy to play in it. He had fantasized about what it would be like to have a tree house, everything he saw one in a show or movie. He ran to the window, pressing his hands and face to it. "Wooooooowwwww!" He exclaimed a huge grin on his face. "Yea, there is a lot to do out back there. The property is fully fenced in with a 9 foot tall fence, so no one else can get back here without coming through the house. More importantly, no one can see you playing out here so you can be dressed however you need to be while playing, and not have to worry about being seen. I only have one rule for you, though. You can't play in the tree house without me or someone bigger out there with you. It would be too easy for you to fall and get hurt, and we don't want that." Jeremy gave him a stern look with this last, and Andy nodded that he understood. "Good. Now how about we make some lunch." At the thought of food, Andy's stomach let out a big growl. "Well, it sounds like someone is about to starve over here. How would you like my famous one of a kind grilled cheese sandwich?" Andy giggled as he was tickled some more. Then nodded. After all the nasty hospital food, a grilled cheese sounded awesome! "With that, I'll make up some fries too. Sound good?" Andy nodded again, then ran to the kitchen. Jeremy cooked up lunch for the two of them then, after Andy demolished the entirety of what he had, they went back upstairs. Up there, Jeremy showed him a large open room to the right of the stairs. In it was a desk with a computer setup, a TV on the wall with shelves mounted below it, bean bag chairs, a cloth thing mounted to the ceiling with a seat pad inside Jeremy called it a pod indoor swing, and a small wall shelf to the side of the TV with some books and various controllers on it. On the shelves under the TV were the newest game consoles. Andy had never really played video games very much, but he couldn't wait to try them. "This is the game slash entertainment room for kids when they stay with me. You can play on whatever you want. There are lots of games available for download on each console. If there is a game that you find you want and it's not available on there, just let me know, and we will look at it together to see if it's appropriate for your age. If it is, I will get it for you." With this, he sat on the floor next to Andy. "Now we do need to talk about something else. I have to get you enrolled in school out here. I have a few options for you with this. The first is the public school here. It's not the greatest, but it's not the worst, especially when you take into account that we are outside the city and it's just a rural county school. The second is a special school where they help kids like you who have extra needs. They could help you with your speech, or just with alternative ways to communicate like the tablet we used. Last is online homeschooling. This desk would be your school computer, and you would be able to stay here all day in a safe environment. This option is the safest, but I also feel it limits you on meeting other kids your age." He watched Andy the entire time he was explaining these and saw the excitement over the second choice, and even more excitement over the third. "I see you like the latter two better, so we will go ahead and skip the public school altogether. Now I would like you to at least come with me to see the other school, and meet some of the teachers there. If you like it we will try it first. If you don't like it, or we don't think it will be a good fit, we will just come right back here and do the homeschooling." Andy nodded his acceptance of this. He thought the idea of homeschooling would be the best, but he did want to make friends, so maybe the actual school would be better. He was willing to give it a shot, at least. "tHas oK." He managed to get out. The Th sound came out with more emphasis on the H than the T. "Good, I'm glad you're excited. It won't be for a few more days, but I will get everything set up, and we will go check it out. By the way, where is your tablet?" He asked, noticing he didn't have it with him. "N car. E dea." Andy said. "OK, well, I'll get it here in a bit and put it on the charger. First, there is one more room I want to show you. I wasn't sure how you would feel about it, so I made up both rooms for you and thought I would let you pick." With that, he led Andy down the hallway past the stairs, bathroom, and the first bedroom to one last room. Opening the door, he let Andy walk in. Inside Andy found a room made for a toddler. The entire room was paw patrol themed. With a chest/shelf that had balls, giant Legos, blocks, and other toys in it. A playset table and chairs with a bin that held playdough in it against the wall. Underneath were some more bins with coloring books and crayons filling them. The hardwood floor had a large rug over it that was striped with multiple shades of blue, and lastly, it was another twin bed. But instead of dinosaurs, this one had paw patrol themed covers and sheets on it. The bed had been modified as well to look like a toddler bed with rails that raised up higher than the bed on either side. The headboard, footboard, and rails all also had pictures from paw patrol shows and movies on them. Andy felt confused and conflicted about the room. He thought it was so cool, but also felt that he shouldn't like it cause he was too old for this stuff. He just wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel, but he knew he did like all this stuff. He would definitely like for this to be his room. "So what do you think? Do you like it?" Jeremy asked Andy as he walked around the room. Andy turned to him from the foot of the bed and just kinda shrugged his shoulders while giving him an odd look. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked, moving over and kneeling down next to him. "Ooo ol. Shoud hav ig oy suff." He said this but looked more and more dejected as he said it. "Hey, you are never too old for things you enjoy. If you like this stuff, then that it ok. If you don't, then you don't have to stay in here." Andy looked up startled, "I like. Jus don wan be weer." He said, lowering his head back down with each word. It took Jeremy a few seconds to figure out what was said, but then he replied. "Aw hell, everyone is weird. The ones who say they aren't are just miserable from trying to hide the things that make them weird and happy." He laughed as he said this. "Look, nothing you like or want will make me think you are weird. I just want you to be happy. I just thought you would like this stuff with how much you seemed to like the show in the hospital." "bU, is a bayee sow." He said, looking up at Jeremy. "No, it's just a TV show. It is made for people to enjoy and maybe teach a few life lessons like how to treat one another. There is no age limit on the show, though. You can enjoy it at any age. But even if it was a baby show, it wouldn't matter to me. You could still watch it and enjoy it. Heck, you could use pacifiers and drink from bottles for all I care. As long as you are happy and healthy, that is what matters most to me." He smiled at Andy, and finally, Andy smiled back. It was small at first but quickly grew as he processed everything that Jeremy had said. Then he threw his arms around Jeremy's neck and gave him a hug. Something he hadn't done with anyone in a long time. Shocked at first, Jeremy patted him on the back a few times and then gave him a small squeeze back. "Fank ou." Andy said with his head buried in his shoulder. "I wil seep here." He said as he let go and pulled back. "OK, well, I'll move the dressers into here then, and you can go play downstairs. We will keep the other room done up just in case you wanna switch back or if we have company over." Andy nodded in acknowledgment and took off downstairs. He immediately went for the playroom that led outside. With a quick look, he made sure that there really wasn't no one in sight, then took off out the door for the swing set. He played there for a couple of hours, going up and down the slide, swinging, and having a few pirate adventures aboard his ship. Finally he was getting bored so he went inside to the toy room. There, he played with a mixture of the action figures from TV shows and games and the more toddler like toys like a bus with shaped holes and figures from various young children shows. He had a lot of fun mixing the different toys together and making his own stories with them. Finally, after playing for a couple more hours, his stomach started growling at him again. Looking up, he realized the sun was going down outside. Getting up, he went to find Jeremy. Eventually, he found him in an office room that was next to the front door of the house. "I hungy." Andy said as he moved up to Jeremy's desk. "Hey there, I was just thinking about what we should get for dinner. Time got away from me while I was catching up on some work. I don't think I will have enough time to make anything. How about we. Order. Some. PIZZA." He said the last with an exclamation of excitement. Andy jumped up and down, nodding his head. He LOVED pizza. "OK, so do you like anything on your pizza or just cheese?" "Cheeze." Andy said with a grin. "OK, well, I'll order that, and it will be here in just a bit." With a few quick keystrokes, he sent the order off to the pizza place. Then he stood up and walked around the desk. Looking down at Andy, he could see his diaper was full nearly too bursting. So, picking him up, he carried him up the bedroom. As they entered the bedroom, Andy saw that both dressers had been moved in here along with the dinosaur decorations that had been on top of it. And before Jeremy turned on the lights and could see that the horns on the Triceratops were glowing in the dark. It looked so cool! He thought to himself. Jeremy laid him on the changing dresser and proceeded to remove the wet diaper. The outside of which was brown with dirt and mud from Andy playing outside in it. Quickly, he got him changed into fresh diaper. Then, he carried him back downstairs. He deposited Andy on the couch in the living room and turned on the TV. "How about you watch a movie. How about the new toy story?" Andy nodded his head adamantly, so Jeremy turned it on and went back to work. After a short while, the doorbell rang, and Andy jumped up and ran to the door excited for some pizza. He had totally forgotten how he was dressed till he was standing there in the doorway next Jeremy with a pizza delivery lady handing him the pizzas. "Aww, look at this cutie. He is so handsome." She said as she bent down to him. She was a fairly short lady, with cropped brown hair, and dazzling green eyes. She looked like she was maybe 19 or 20 to Jeremy, but looked like any other grown up to Andy. Andy felt immediately hesitant and hid behind one of Jeremy's legs. "Don't worry about him. He takes a bit to warm up to new people." "Well darn. Now, who am I supposed to give this to?" And seemingly from nowhere, she produced a dumdum sucker. Holding out to Andy, he saw it was watermelon flavored. Hesitantly, he reached out and received it from her. "Tank ou." He said as he turned and ran off down the hallway, embarrassment coloring his face. Jeremy talked with the delivery lady for a few more minutes, then closed the door and brought the pizza to the kitchen. Then called Andy to come eat. They sat in a couple of stools at the island and ate together. Jeremy told him everything he had learned about the school they were going to go check out. Jeremy had even already gotten an appointment for Monday to have a tour. Andy felt both so excited he could barely contain it and so nervous it made his belly feel like it was doing flips. He really hoped it would be a good school. Preferably without any mean kids there. *****Jeremy***** After they finished eating, Jeremy put up what was left of the pizza in the fridge. Then, carrying Andy, he went back to the living room. There he found a Disney movie and they sat and watched it. About halfway through, Andy fell fast asleep leaning into Jeremy's side. He looked so cute and peaceful, he thought. He almost didn't want to disturb him, but he could see that it was time for another diaper change. Picking Andy up didn't cause him to stir at all, and Jeremy was able to take him upstairs and lay him on the changing table before he groggily came awake. "Shhhh gonna get you changed then you can go back to sleep." Quickly he changed out the wet diaper for a clean one. He took an extra step here though and pulled a pair of black shorts up his legs. At the waist was two lengths of cloth that velcroed together snugly. "This will keep anything from leaking on the bed. Now let's get you tucked in for the night." With that he got Andy laid out and under the covers with them pulled up to his chin. Lastly before he left he reached over and turned a switch on the Triceratops. The horns lit up with a low soft glow. This gave a gentle light to the room much like a nightlight would. Turning back he saw that Andy was already back to sleep. He left the room leaving the door cracked and made his way downstairs. There he spent some time on his computer. He would flick back and forth between doing work for a few minutes and then looking things up to take Andy to. He ended up finding a few events he thought Andy would absolutely love and buying tickets for them. Lastly he got some appointments made for him and finished up what he needed to do for work. Then looking at the clock he saw it was already after 11. That little scamp is probably gonna be up bright and early. I better turn in or I won't be in any shape to handle him in the morning. He thought to himself. He grabbed the tablet and its charger off his desk, and with that he went upstairs. He quietly hooked the tablet up in Andy's room and left tit to charge overnight. Then, he went to his room, took a shower, and turned in for the night.

Chapter 4 “Hey Lisa….Wakey Wakey!” Lisa felt her eyelids slowly opening up from the familiar sounding voice. Although she was not in the mood for anything except getting herself some much needed sleep. “Just a few hours please, I only have just started to fall asleep." Lisa was unaware that her words were muffled by the pacifier in her mouth. Gloria gently patted her head before picking up and holding Lisa in her arms. "Oversleeping is not good for your health but I am happy that you are enjoying my baby boy's soother." After hearing Gloria's words, Lisa opened her eyes and realized that she was still suckling on the pacifier. She looked up at Gloria with utter shock and embarrassment. Lisa was about to spit the soother out until Gloria gently took it out of her mouth and placed it into her pocket. “I...I’m so sorry…I don’t…I just don’t know what came over me…And…” Lisa tried to come up with any excuse as to why she would allow herself to use such an infantile item, Gloria however didn't seem to mind whatsoever. “It’s alright Lisa. In fact, I am kind of pleased that you are allowing to tryout new things. The important matter is that you are comfortable, nothing more." Lisa realized that she was still naked and knew that she was far from comfortable right now, especially after realizing that she had allowed herself to be breastfed last night. "It's already past noon, I think you could use something in that tummy of yours." Lisa felt her body grow cold after realizing what time it was. “NO! OH SHIT! I’M LATE FOR WORK! OH GOD NO!” Lisa tried to wrestle her way out of Gloria's arms but was quickly stopped after receiving a quick slap on her butt. Gloria then slowly lowered the girl onto the bed. “Let's call down now. It's not the end of the world. Though I wish I knew that today was a work day, I would have not allowed you to sleep in like you did. Tell me, is this your first time being late?" Gloria asked. “...Yes…Ever since I started this job, nine months ago, I never allowed myself to be tardy or absent even once." While Lisa knew that she would not be fired, she did know that their were certain punishment levels for portal littles based on attendance. “Then you don't have to worry, worst case I could vouch for your tardy if need be. Last thing we both want is for you to lose your adult privileges and end up being adopted." Lisa blushed at the thought about being adopted, but as she began to think about having Gloria take her in, all of her worries seemed to suddenly disappear as if she were somehow fine with the idea. Lisa pinched her cheek, trying to remove such thoughts from her head. “...I’m hungry.” Lisa could feel her stomach growl and really wanted to change the subject. “Well, after you get dressed, I’ll gladly fix you some scrambled eggs. Alex is already having his lunch. You can join him after getting dressed.” Gloria then placed Lisa’s freshly cleaned clothes right beside her. Lisa could smell the lavender aroma coming from her newly washed clothes. She was happy that she could finally regain some of her dignity back. “So let’s change that frown upside down, shall we!” Gloria began to tickle Lisa on her mid-section, causing the portal little to burst out laughing. “PLEASE STOP! HAHAHA…I DON’T WANT TO HAVE ANOTHER ACCIDENT AGAIN! HAHAHA!” After stopping her tickling barrage, Gloria kissed Lisa on the stomach before allowing the girl to get herself dressed for the day. She left the bedroom, leaving Lisa to her own thoughts. “...Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me?…” Lisa looked over her panties and was wondering why Gloria did not do the honors and help get her dressed. It seemed like such a missed opportunity. “I cannot...Will not! Let myself keep feeling this way. I'm a god damn grown ass woman! Why the fuck to I suddenly want to be cared for by Gloria!" Frustrated with herself, Lisa quickly dressed herself and then entered the dining room and watched as Lisa was helping Alex out of his high-chair. "I was wondering what was taking so long. If you took any longer, I was going to personally have to dress you myself. Just hold on a moment. After I put Alex in his playpen, I'll help you with lunch." As Gloria left, Lisa once again felt her face blush. The newly acquired feelings she had for her amazon friend had made her feel very conflicted. Lisa remained silent until Gloria reappeared a few minutes later. “Thanks for waiting sweetie. I bet someone is ready for yum yums?” Lisa could not help but smile after hearing the childish question. She raised her arms in the air and awaited for Gloria to pick her up and place her into a high-chair. "Gloria...If anything should happen to me...Would you be really willing...To look after me?" Lisa asked after she was placed into a high-chair, she quickly noticed that it was not the same one that Alex had just used. "What do you mean? Like if you got hurt on the job or something?" Gloria's question made Lisa stop think if she should just shut up. She was making things even more awkward for herself. "No...Never mind. Just forget it." Lisa said as she found a bib being placed around her neck. "If you say so. Though I do want to let you know that if you do find yourself in a bit of a pickle, I'll gladly let you stay over at my place at anytime. You are basically family to me." Lisa bit her lip, keeping herself from smiling to much. Her body seemed overjoyed at the prospect while her mind wanted to keep things at a minimum. "But I have faith that you will be alright. I've never met such a mature portal little such as yourself. I hope your boss understands just how luck she is to have you by her side." Gloria said as she placed a bowl of scrambled eggs in front of Lisa. "My boss certainly does. As you know, she is a portal little like myself so she understands the struggle that we constantly are going through. I kind of wish that I could get to know more about her. I only talk to her mainly at work." Lisa began to look for a fork so she could take a bite of the delicious meal in front of her but there was nothing around. She assumed that she would be using her hands but wondered if the food would be too hot for her fingers. Lisa suddenly blushed as Gloria held a spoon filled with eggs near her mouth. “Now open wide and say AWW!” Lisa wasted no time and opened her mouth and allowed Gloria to start spoon feeding her the scrambled eggs. She could not explain as to why she felt so compelled to do so but didn't care. The food was delicious and she was enjoying the company of her amazon friend. "Now here comes the airplane!" Lisa giggled as Gloria began making noises with her mouth while playfully moving the spoon in several directions until it reached Lisa's mouth. “The fuck am I doing!? This is all wrong! I need to stop this..."As Lisa was about to put an end to this childish behavior she noticed that Gloria was taking the bowl away. She realized that she had just finished the bowl of scrambled eggs. Lisa knew that she was too late to take any action now. “After I nurse you your baba, we will head out okay?” Lisa was shocked that not only was she just fed, but she was about to be nursed while at it. She wanted to say something in her defense but as Gloria began to wipe her face clean, Lisa once again remained silent. "The fuck. Say something...ANYTHING!" Lisa's thoughts were overwhelming and felt the need to speak up as she was being helped out of the high-chair. "Gloria...Thank you..." Lisa said as she watched as she was being carried back into the living room. She noticed that Alex was transfixed on a cartoon show while inside his playpen. She began to wonder what cartoon he was so interested in while Gloria took a seat on the couch while placing Lisa in her arms. "No problem, anytime Lisa." As Gloria took out a baby bottle and began to shake it a bit, Lisa felt her heart pounding which kept her emotions conflicting with each other. "SPEAK UP NOW DUMBASS, OTHERWISE YOU WON'T HAVE ANTOHER CHANCE!" Lisa's thoughts kept trying to get through to her body but it seemed like it was almost impossible. “Tomorrow I have to head to a conference meeting that is important to landlords such as myself. It’s always such a bore.” Lisa could not take her eyes off of the rubber teat as it grew closer to her mouth. “Listen Gloria…I've been thinking...And perhaps we should….HMPH!” Lisa had lost all ability to talk as the bottle had found it's way inside her mouth. Lisa began to suckle on the bottle, not caring what she had on her mind just a moment ago. "Did you have something to say Lisa?" Gloria asked as she continued to nurse Lisa with the bottle. Lisa simply waved her head, letting Gloria that their was nothing to be said. The cold liquid formula soon found it's way inside Lisa mouth and she felt her body grow goosebumps as she began to relax even further. "I may have to consider finding alternative daycare centers for my Alex. Everything has gone up in price except my pay. Story of my life, I tell you!" Lisa curled up in Gloria's lap, and seemed to be in utter bliss as she felt so safe and secure. It was a feeling that she wished could last forever. As her eyes began to close, she did not care one bit if she showed up to work today, right now she was were she needed to be. "Lisa...LISA!" Lisa quickly opened her eyes as the baby bottle had soon found it's way out of her mouth. "Wha...What?" Lisa asked as she began to look around wondering what was going on. "You were about to fall asleep again sweetie. No nappy time for responsible adults like us!" Gloria said as she placed Lisa over her shoulder. "That's right. I need to get to work soon." Lisa said as she licked off some of the formula near her lips. "That's right. After I drop you off, I'll need to do the same for Alex. Though he will be having his afternoon nap right after arriving at the daycare." Lisa watched as Gloria picked Alex up from the playpen and then carried the two towards her garage. "What if I wanted...A afternoon nap?" Lisa asked as she watched as the garage door opened and were heading closer to Gloria's vehicle. "You just had your afternoon nap silly head. Though if you wanted to make a habit of it, you would probably have to allow yourself to end up being adopted. But that is something I know you definitely don't want!" While Gloria found the idea to be somewhat silly, Lisa could not laugh as her very thoughts continued to betray her very being. Adoption was out of the question but with Gloria, she could not close the door on that one. Right now, she wanted to focus all of her energy and attention on what was coming up with work. "While my job is far from ideal, it will give me time to get my head together. I cannot allow myself to stay here any longer. If I do then I'll probably..." Lisa stopped thinking after she and Alex were buckled into their respective booster seats. Alex was suckling on his pacifier in the back seat while she was in the passenger side. The drive to the building she worked at did fill her with a sense of dread. Even though she was allowed to be tardy five times a year, they were considered valuable to hold on to, especially occurrence's. All littles were only afforded two a year. Anymore and that would lead to being fired and then would be adopted before they could even get the chance to find another job. Gloria noticed the concern on Lisa's face and patted the girl on the head, letting her know that everything was going to be okay. Lisa felt so relieved at Gloria's words as if they meant the world to her. Lisa knew that her being breastfed had somehow seriously fucked with her mental state. She had never seen Gloria as a potential motherly figure until just today. After arriving at the building, Gloria helped Lisa out of the vehicle and then kissed the girl on the forehead before speaking up. “Now you take care of yourself, okay? And if you ever need me, you have my number. I'll make sure to answer anytime for you and I'll come for you." "...Ugh...Thanks." Lisa tried to focus from keeping herself form crying. She felt her body desperately wanting to cling to Gloria but used all of her will power to keep herself at a stand still. As Gloria entered her car and began to take off, Lisa spent the next minute watching until she was no longer in view. She then took a deep breath before heading towards the building and then Kelly's office so she could explain herself. As usual, Lisa garnered the attention of several amazons that were working inside the building but made sure to ignore them. They meant nothing and were nothing. As Lisa walked into Kelly's office, she noticed her boss was on the phone with someone. So she decided to take a seat and wait for the call to finish. “I know…I know! Just leave a fax to my new boss, she will be taking care of the documents from here on in! You need to make sure to keep the information I provided updated, okay!” Lisa could hear the stress in Kelly's voice and wondered what she was talking about. It was obviously something very important given that she had always seen her boss as the type to keep a cool demeanor. After the call ended, Kelly took a seat and looked over at Lisa before letting out a loud sigh. “A bit late…Aren’t we?” Lisa could see that Kelly was not too pleased by her absence but now that she was here, Lisa planned on making up for her mistake. “...Yes…I have no excuses…I…I…Overslept.” Lisa had no intention of bringing up the reason as to how she overslept. Every moment she thought back to being breastfed, it filled her with emotions that she still could not fully comprehend. “This is so unlike you. Thankfully this is only your first occurrence, so I don’t expect the punishment to be harsh.” As Kelly began to type away at her computer, Lisa felt her body tense up after realizing that she had attained an occurrence instead of a tardy. “Occurrence? I thought I would only be taking a tardy? What gives?” Lisa knew that she could only afford two occurrences which meant that if this was legit, she only had one more for the next three months. “Lisa, did you forget? If you show up over two hours late, the tardiness turns into an occurrence…You are nearly five hours late!” Lisa could only look down, ashamed that she failed to realize something so simple. If she had remembered, she would have skipped out on showing up. She was not going to be paid or even work today since it was an occurrence. “I’m so sorry! It will never happen again! I promise!” Lisa was nearly in tears while feeling so weak. She wanted to crawl into a dark hole and forget everything the world she was living in. Noticing Lisa’s dire mood, Kelly decided to not harp on it any longer. She knew that Lisa was responsible and grew respect and even wanted to get to know more about her. “It's all good Lisa. You can still afford another occurrence and after a year, you will be able to have three to use. So you just need to be careful for the next three months. Unlike myself, your job is secured, haha." Kelly let out a small laugh which caught Lisa's attention. It was not the type of laugh that would be considered in a humorous sense. “What happened? Don't tell me that you losing your management position?” Lisa no longer cared about her upcoming punishment and was now entirely concerned about her boss and her future. “Let’s just say…Much of what I do will now be handled by the new amazon couple that now have taken ownership of this company. I’ll be working directly under them and also…” Kelly sighed as she looked over at her desk before speaking up. Lisa knew it was serious as she had never seen Kelly look so gloomy before. “I’ll be living with the amazon couple for the next year…Until my contract ends.” “What do you mean that you will be living with them? What is happening?” Lisa wanted answers. There was so much that didn't make sense. “The company is restructuring for financial reasons, so I was given the option to find another job that was affiliated with the company. However I did not like the positions that were available for obvious reasons. So I chose the one that would grant me the best security until my contract finally comes to an end. So to make a long story short, I was given the option to work and live with the amazon couple that are now also my new bosses. Which means that I’ll basically be living as their…Baby while at their home. Though I will still be allowed to come to work and do my job in this office. Although my workload will be much lighter going forward. I’ll be in a more supervisor position than an a actual manager.” Lisa looked horrified after hearing about the baby part. That was all that she needed to know as to why Kelly was feeling the way she did. “So let me get this straight. Your new bosses are forcing you to live with them as a baby, which means that you will have to wear diapers from now on, is that it?" "It's not really being forced, so to speak Lisa. As you are well aware, most of our kind can find many jobs to take on, the important matter is job security. There is no point in taking a job if you will eventually get fired after being there for a few months. It's something most of our kind never really look into. Once we lose our jobs, we are eligible to be adopted by almost any amazonian. I did my research and chose the one that would give me the best long term option. Plus by taking this offer, I was able to renegotiate my contract so I can leave the company in just one year instead of two. It's obviously not pleasant having to go back to reliving my infancy but the important matter is that it's temporary and my job security is still as good as ever." “That’s such crap! How could they legally do that!? Can’t we file some sort of grievance against them with the littles labor movement?” Lisa also began to wonder about her role in the company. It was so simple that anyone could take up the task and yet there was no mention of anything changing that could affect her. She had three months until her vacation could finally take effect. After that, she could decide if she would continue to work in the amazon dimension. “There really is not much we can dispute. Our benefits and roles in the company are always subject to change. It was part of the contract we both signed. And the littles labor movement is really useless. They are more a center that helps portal littles with transitioning to their new environment. They have zero political power. And as I've already told you numerous times, in order for us portal littles to survive in this dimension, we need to adapt and take advantage of anything that comes our way. We want to reap the benefits of our high paying positions while avoiding adoption. That is what matters, don't let anything else distract you from that very fact!" “But to live as a baby…Even for one year. You sure that they will not try to do something shady against you? Lisa asked as she began to follow Kelly outside her office and then towards a elevator near the center, inside of the building. "I made sure to read up on all the specifics. And trust me, I got everything sorted out. I'm not going to lie, it's gonna be a difficult transition, but after one year of it, I'm out. Forever. I will finally be able to use all the money I've accumulated and start a early retirement and focus on building a business for myself." "That's...Good to hear, so you will still be coming to the office and giving me my usual reports?" Lisa asked. “...Yep...The only difference is now I will be wearing much more…Childish clothing. I tried to negotiate on certain areas with this new position but I could only get so far. I'm gonna miss the business suits. I loved the material and how mature it made me look. I know my amazon co-workers will be utterly pleased by new new attire." “Then what’s going to happen to…Me?” Lisa asked as she felt weak to the knees, feeling as if her future was already finished. “Your job will stay the same, nothing will change. Though could be a change to your living arrangements. I know you are provided free rent but from what I've been told, that could be coming to an end shortly. So I would consider looking for a roommate. Living costs in this city are ridiculous. You won't be able to retire if you got no money to save." Lisa immediately began to think about Bonnie. She only lived a few doors down and did enjoy her company, despite the glaring fact that Bonnie had no issue in wearing pull-ups or diapers at any time. Then Lisa began to think about Gloria and soon started to blush at the idea of living with her. She felt that the second choice was not a option as she could not trust her own emotions. “Now, what about this…Punishment? What is in store for me?” Lisa asked as the two of them exited the elevator after reaching the human resources floor. “From what I understand, it will most likely be a spanking, though it should not be too many given it’s your first time.” Lisa felt sick to her stomach. A spanking sounded like something that should only be given to little kids that don't listen to their parents. The fact that it can be used against working adults felt so violating. She was grateful that Kelly was coming along to provide some emotional support. After entering the HR office, Lisa suddenly could smell baby powder in the air and began to worry about what was in the other rooms inside the office. “Hello, how can I help you?” An amazon receptionist asked as she noticed Kelly and Lisa walking up to her. “I’m Kelly Hue and I’m here with Lisa Matthews. My friend is here for the punishment of having her first occurrence.” Lisa knew that many portal littles had entered this office and knew it was also the location where many of them had been fired. She had never once been in this office with the exception of after her first day of being hired on. The receptionist began to type away at the keyboard while looking down at Lisa. “Alright, I have confirmed your arrival, so if you wish to follow me, I’ll take you to the nurse that will be administering the punishment.” The receptionist was about to take Lisa's hand until Kelly intervened. “Is it okay if I escort Lisa into the nurses office?” Kelly asked as she took hold of Lisa's hand, hoping that would help keep Lisa calm. “Go right ahead. The room will be the first one on the right.” As the two portal littles headed past the receptionist and continued to walk down a long narrow hall, they eventually began to walk by several amazons, some of which were carrying several diapered littles. All of which had pacifiers in their mouths. Lisa did not recognize the littles and wondered if they actually worked here or were simply staying at the daycare center that the building provided. "Don't get any ideas Lisa, you are NOT going to be put into a diaper. That is certain." While Lisa felt relieved by Kelly's words, it still did not help with her confidence as she kept her head low, not wanting to see what was up ahead. “It will be over before you know it. And I will be here if you ever need me, okay?” Kelly said as the two portal littles entered a room that almost looked like a combination of a doctors office and a nursery. Lisa looked up and felt her body grow cold as she watched as another portal little was in the room having a diaper safely secured on him while laying on a changing table. “That’s a good boy! I’m so proud of how well you are handling this.” After applying the tapes to the boys diaper, the nurse then helped him off the table and then allowed him to stand on the floor. “Are we done?” The boy asked as he looked defeated in the eyes. He was wearing a simple looking white t-shirt however below that he was only had on a very thick white diaper with white socks protecting his feet. “Yes, we are done. You are now permitted to go back to your desk and continue your work.” The nurse said as she started to write a few things on a notepad. “But what about my pants?” The boy pleaded as he did not want to walk outside the room while his diaper was available for all to see. He then turned his attention to Kelly and Lisa and blushed after seeing them. Lisa blushed as she began to recognize the now diapered boy. “They will be given back to you after your shift has ended.” The boy clenched his fists knowing that he had no say in the matter and would simply have to tough it out. He was not looking forward to all the unwanted attention he would be getting from his amazon co-workers. “Joey?” Lisa asked as she now remembered the person in front of her. “Heya Lisa…It’s been a while… It really sucks that you had to see me like this." Joey tried to joke about it but it was clear that he was deeply ashamed to be seen in a diaper, especially by someone he used to work with. “Could I ask what happened?” Kelly decided to get in on the conversation, curious to know how Joey ended up in diapers. “It's quite simple, I didn’t meet my numbers this month. It’s the second time this has happened. Turns out that the job I transferred to is much more difficult than I expected, but I cannot quit for obvious reasons.” Joey cringed as he heard his diaper crinkling every time he moved one step forward. "Perhaps we can hang out sometime after work and chill, how does that sound?" Lisa asked as she watched her co-worker exit the office. "I would love that. Just as long as I'm not in...This." Joey exited from view, feeling so humiliated with his new disposable undergarment in full view. Lisa said nothing as she knew that Joey was not in the best position to converse with at the moment. Plus she knew that she had to worry about herself. “So…Who’s ready for their diapey change?” The nurse asked as she looked down at both Kelly and Lisa, wondering who was going to go first. Kelly quickly spoke up, making sure the amazon nurse knew what they were in for. “Lisa is here for her first occurrence. So diapers will not be involved in this." Kelly did not want the nurse to get the wrong idea and do something that could escalate the situation. “Hmm…Let’s see…” The nurse looked over her tablet before looking down at Lisa. “I see, and as you said. It's only your first occurrence, so diapers will not be required for this." Lisa sighed quietly, glad that she did not have to worry about that possibility. “So if you go ahead and remove your shoes and pants, we will begin the spanking.” The nurse said as she took a seat on a chair near her. Lisa took a few steps back, wondering why she was required to remove any of her clothes. Kelly held Lisa close to her, letting her know that this was unfortunately necessary. “ Lisa, after your spanking, you will have to wear a pull-up for the rest of the day. Though since it's an occurrence, you can simply take it off after we get back to my office. So this works out perfectly. You don't have to wear a pull-up while working." Lisa did not feel one bit reassured by Kelly's remark. The idea that she would have to wear something that was akin to a diaper was very unpleasant, but alas she knew that this was something she had to do. Running away or throwing a hissy fit would do nothing but put her in far greater danger. Lisa hated herself for not showing up sooner. If it was a tardy, she would not have to worry about removing any of her clothes. After removing her shoes and pants, Lisa began to walk towards the nurse. “And your underwear please.” The nurse's tone made Lisa shutter. She looked back at Kelly and could see that her boss was not thrilled about it either but it had to be done. They were in the amazon dimension. A world that looked down on their kind. After removing her panties and placing them to the side, Lisa soon found herself being picked up and was now laying on her stomach while on the lap of the amazon. “Since you are behaving quite well, I will only be administering twenty smacks instead of the usual thirty.” The amazon wasted no time and began to unleash several heavy blows to Lisa’s butt. The first couple only caught Lisa off guard. There was no pain about after a dozen of them, Lisa began to feel the sting from the slaps to her rear-end. By the time the nurse was finished, Lisa was gritting her teeth, Kelly could see that Lisa's butt had turned red but nothing compared to what she had been administered to other unfortunate portal littles. "All right, now that the hard part is finished, let's get you new underwear ready." The nurse lowered Lisa so she was now standing on her two feet. Lisa quickly covered her privates after realizing that Kelly was staring right at her. Kelly quietly giggled to herself but made sure that Lisa did not notice. " Keep in mind that if you have another occurrence, you will find yourself in a diaper next time, do you understand?” The nurse asked as she slid the disposable pull-up over Lisa's legs. Lisa closed her eyes as she felt the undergarment slowly going up her legs until it had reached it's goal and secured itself around her butt and privates. The padding was evident and Lisa felt so ridiculous in it and was looking forward to removing the first instant she could. "I understand." Lisa began to walk around and noticed that she was not able to close her legs all the way and wondered how much more difficult it would be if she were to find herself in a diaper. Before Lisa could grab her pants, the nurse slapped her on the butt. "HEY! WHAT GIVES?" Lisa yelled out which made Kelly nervous. She knew that having an attitude while in the human resources floor was the worst thing a portal little could do. "You will be allowed to put your pants on, that is AFTER you return to the first floor. Or are we going to have some problems with that?" The nurse gave a menacing smirk, hoping that Lisa would continue to berate her. "Ugh...No...Thank you for everything." Lisa knew she was about to fall into the amazons trap but quickly refrained from saying or doing anything that could be used against her. Kelly took both Lisa's pants, shoes and underwear as they headed towards the exit of the office. Kelly thanked the nurse as they left, making sure that they showed their respect. Lisa continued to walk forward. Her goal was simple, to get to the first floor as soon as possible. Walking around with a pull-up exposed made her so utterly pissed off that she wasn't sure if she could hold back her anger. "Good job on keeping yourself level headed. That nurse wanted you to take the bait." Kelly said as she continued to walk by Lisa's side as they headed towards the elevator. Kelly could see that several amazons seemed to be focused on Lisa and her new underwear and wished they would have the curtesy of not constantly staring at her friend. Although Kelly had to admit that she found Lisa to be quite adorable in her new underwear but would never admit it. "Fucking hell! Jesus this is just so damn FUCKED!" Lisa yelled out as they entered the elevator and began to descend to the first floor. Kelly said nothing as she allowed Lisa to vent her anger before they finally exited the elevator. As the two continued to walk past several amazons, Kelly watched as Lisa quickly entered her office, she could see that Lisa was ready to put her clothes right back on. And as soon as she entered her office, she noticed a large amazon standing near her desk and wondered who it was. “KELLY! My adorable whittle Kelly! I’m so glad to see you! You have no idea how worried I was about you.” Kelly immediately knew who it was and was bracing herself for what was to come. The large well dressed amazon walked past Lisa and then picked up Kelly and then gave her a firm hug. Lisa didn't care as all she wanted was to get herself dressed but her clothes were still in Kelly's hands. “Fucking hell. I don't need this right now." Lisa took a few deep breaths trying her best to remain calm. She knew that whoever this amazon was, she was only interested in Kelly and not herself. “It’s so good to see you too, Laurine. Kelly was relieved as she was lowered back onto the floor and was about to hand Lisa her clothes. The amazon noticed and began to speak up. “And who is this sweet whittle red head? Is she your precious playmate Kelly?” The unknown amazon picked Lisa up and quickly rubbed her cheek with Lisa’s. Kelly could see that Lisa was reaching her limit and knew that she had to intervene. “Lisa is one of the employees that work under me. She is quite the hard worker and a very mature young woman. I would ask that you treat her as such.” Kelly watched as Laurine slowly lowered Lisa back to the floor. “I see! That also means that she also works for me and my husband. That is so great to hear! It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Lisa. My name is Laurine Savik and in case you haven't already heard, me and my husband Owen recently acquired this company from the government in a private deal that involved many other parties. I truly hope we can become the best of friends!" Lisa looked up and was not in the mood for conversing but knew that it was the only way she could get to her clothes. “It’s…A pleasure.” After shaking the amazons hand, Lisa soon felt the her butt being patted by the amazon. Lisa bit her tongue to keep herself restrained. "It appears that you are dry. Such a mature whittle girl you are...Yes you are!" As Laurine began to pinch on Lisa's cheek, Kelly knew that she needed to become the focus of the attention so that Lisa could finally get herself dressed. "Is there something I can help you with Laurine?" Kelly asked as she finally got the amazons attention. “I just wanted to make sure of something. Did you get the special gift of clothes that I sent the other day?” Laurine asked. “...Yes ... Yes I did. They are very…Cute.” “That's wonderful to hear! Which means that when I pick you up tomorrow morning, I can expect to see you your whittle bum all padded up! If possible, can you please also put on one of the onesies that I sent to you? I want our first day together to be a really special one!" Laurine said as she knelt down and kissed Kelly right on the cheek. “Will do.” Kelly sighed quietly as she had already resigned to her fate. An outcome that she did not desire but was not one that eliminated her entire future. “And as for you Lisa. I am looking forward to getting to know you more. Especially since you will also be working under me." Lisa said nothing as Laurine patted her on the head before exiting the office, leaving the two portal littles to themselves. “Well, now you have met one of the two amazons that I'll be working and living under. What do you think?" Kelly asked as she watched as Lisa wasted no time in putting her clothes back on. “You already know what I think.” After putting her shoes back on, Lisa could not wait to head back to her apartment so she could take off the pull-ups. Even though they were not diapers, they did not come close to feeling like normal underwear. The thickness was very evident. “I can clearly see that you are not in the best of moods. How about I call a taxi up to bring you back to your apartment." Lisa decided to take up on Kelly's offer as it was obviously more practical than walking while wearing the padded undergarment. “Kelly…Are you really about this? I mean to let yourself be babied for the next year? It just sounds beyond fucked up." “Lisa. I know very well that this is not what I signed up for, but I have to adapt to whatever changes come my way. I've seen way to many others refuse to do so and end up being adopted. And I would not what that to happen to you as well, Lisa." Kelly's response made Lisa feel a bit more comfortable. The fact that her boss cared about her was reassuring. “It kinda sucks that we never have had the chance to hangout with each other. I've basically only been able to talk with you while at work." Lisa looked over at Kelly and could see that her boss looked a bit anxious before speaking up. “Lisa…I know that this may seem a bit sudden, but how about coming over to my apartment later today? I would love to have some company, given what I'm about to go through tomorrow." Lisa could see that Kelly was doing her best to hold back some tears. She did not want to be anyone's baby but she really had no choice in her case. Lisa knew that she would soon be sleeping in crib and having her diaper changed on a constant basis. And she felt very sorry for her. “Sure, why not... I would love to do that, but as you said that should wait until later today. I seriously want to get myself out of this thing." As Lisa pointed to her butt, Kelly could not help but giggle before grabbing her phone to get a taxi for her friend and colleague. "I'll call you later this afternoon and have a taxi pick you up and bring you to my place, okay?" Lisa agreed on the time as the taxi arrived to pick her up. After being secured inside the vehicle, Lisa began to think about her two much closer friends, Clyde and Cassie and wondered how they were both holding up. She knew that they were both now adopted which meant that they could no longer leave this dimension. A thought that sent shivers up Lisa's spine. After arriving at her apartment complex, Lisa was about to head up to her place until she saw the management office and wondered if Gloria was there. She decided that she would take a moment to see if she was available. “Why do I want to see Gloria? It makes no sense. I need to get myself out of this pull-up first! Lisa once again felt conflicted when it came to Gloria. The urge to see her amazon friend felt far more important than removing the disposable pull-up that she was currently wearing. After entering the office, she looked around and noticed that it was empty. She figured someone would be there since the door was not locked. But as she was about to exit the office, Lisa heard the flushing of a toilet and knew someone was in the restroom. Just a few seconds later Gloria immerged from the restroom and soon noticed Lisa standing right near her desk. “Lisa! I was not expecting to see you here so soon. Not that I have any problem with it, hehe." Gloria walked over and then picked up the much smaller girl and planted a few kisses on Lisa's face. Lisa could not help but smile while trying to remain composed. “If you don't mind me asking, why are you back so soon? I thought you would still be working. Did something happen?" Gloria asked in a worried tone as she placed Lisa on her desk while she took a seat on her chair. “I received an occurrence, which means that there is no point in working for the rest of the day since I'm not going to be paid for it. I thought it was going to only be a tardy but I guess I didn't keep track of time. It's okay, as long as I don't do it again, there should not be any issue." Even though Lisa tried to reassure Gloria, the amazon was obviously not pleased by the answer. She felt that she was partially to blame for what had occurred. "I would prefer that they give you a pass but that's just my opinion. Next time I'll make sure that I keep your work schedule on my list the next time you want to stay over at my home. Did they punish you in any way?" Lisa could see that Gloria was bracing herself for the response. Lisa took a moment before responding, hoping that Gloria would not get to riled up about it. “It was nothing harsh... Just a spanking." Lisa lowered her head as she spoke up. However Gloria got up from her chair, enraged by what she had just heard. “A SPANKING! I NEED TO HAVE A WORD WITH YOUR BOSS. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! I MEAN..." "It's okay Gloria! It was not as bad as it sounds. Although I could do without the damn underwear I was forced to put on." Lisa suddenly felt the urge to put her thumb in her mouth. She decided to bite on the tip instead. “Underwear? What do you mean?” Gloria placed her hand on Lisa's butt and soon noticed that it felt a bit thicker than normal. “Since it was an occurrence, I was required to wear a pull-up for the rest of the day. But that is only while inside the building. That's why I am back home. I plan to get this pull-up off of me and change myself into something I normally use for underwear. “I'm so glad that you are not in any real danger after what happened. If you would like, I would gladly change you myself if you prefer." Lisa's eyes widened after hearing the thought. At first she was going to accept the proposal as she wanted to raise her legs in the air and let Gloria take over. “I…I think I will be alright Gloria. Even I can change myself. Thank you for asking though." Lisa could not believe herself, she had finally spoken up and let Gloria know that she could be self sufficient. “Okay then, but I want you to come to me as soon as you feel that their is a problem. I am always here for you!" After being helped off the desk, Gloria gave Lisa a quick hug before allowing her to walk back to her apartment room. “By the way, how is Alex?” Lisa decided to bring up one more subject before heading off. “Thank you for asking. My baby boy is doing quite well. He is still in daycare right now. But I believe that he will be able to walk on his own in just a few days. I'm actually considering potty training him very soon as well. It's amazing how fast he's growing up!" Lisa smiled, pleased by what Alex's development. “OH Before you go! I almost forgot! I’ve got a special present for you.” Gloria said as she rushed over to Lisa was standing. “A present? What's the occasion? It's not like it's my birthday or anything?" Lisa felt her face flush as Gloria pulled something out of her pocket. Lisa could feel her mouth going dry after seeing the item in Gloria's hands. “THIS…THIS…THIS IS…!!!” Lisa looked down and noticed that the item was a pacifier. A bright purple pacifier with the rubber teat that was colored bright yellow. “Yes, it’s a soother. A brand new one to boot and I wanted to give it to you.” Gloria could see how flustered Lisa was as she handed it over to her. “But…But this is for…Babies…Right?” Lisa asked as she felt so conflicted as she looked over the item in her hand. “Of course not! This is for special whittle girls that are so precious and capable in our dimension. I know that times can get tough and that's why I want you to have this. It will help you out when you are feeling stressed out." As Gloria began to playfully mess with Lisa's hair, Lisa herself suddenly had the urge to put the soother right into her mouth but continued to hold herself back from doing so. “...Okay…Mo…Gloria…I will do exactly that.” Lisa stuttered with her words as she thanked Gloria before quickly heading back to her apartment. She was filled with a various arrange of emotions that she could not fully comprehend. “Thank god, I’m back." After unlocking the door to her apartment, Lisa entered and quickly took a seat on the couch after removing her shoes, and her pants. She took a moment to take a breather before looking down at her pull-ups. The colorful looking decorations on the undergarment made her feel ill and motivated her to stand up and walk to her bedroom to remove them. “ How can Bonney actually enjoy these things! They are so freaking....Juvenile! Before removing the pull-ups, Lisa looked over the pacifier that Gloria gave her. She took a seat on the bed, still staring at it. It was almost like she was hypnotized by the soother. “Damn it, why did Gloria have to give me this? ” Frustrated, Lisa unknowingly plopped the pacifier right into her mouth and began to suckle on it. Lisa suddenly felt herself calming down. She then removed her shirt and bra while thoroughly enjoying the item in her mouth. “Perhaps Gloria was right. This thing is quite the miracle worker. I always though that pacifiers nothing more than a simple dumb baby item." Lisa then grabbed her cell phone and began to review all the photos on them. As she began to scroll through them, she wished that her phone could contact her family and friends in her dimension. "But that would be way too practical. To be able to talk to my parents while stuck in this dumbass dimension." Lisa curled up into a ball as she felt her eyes growing heavier. She had completely forgotten to remove the pull-ups as the pacifier had made her feel utterly comfortable at the moment. A few hours later, Lisa slowly woke up, and was a bit groggy as she looked around to figure out that she was back in her apartment. After hopping off her bed, she was about to head to the living room until she felt an odd feeling inside her pull-ups. She put her hand on the front of the underwear to realize that she actually used them while she was asleep. The pull-ups felt quite warm which meant that she had used them quite recently. “HOW! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN! THIS IS BEYOND FUCKED!…WHY!?” Lisa suddenly rushed to the bathroom, eagerly anticipating to remove and throw away the used pull-up. After entering she took a glance at herself in the mirror and was surprised by how much more youthful she looked while the pacifier was in her mouth. Nothing physically had changed, but she thought she appeared several years younger. “Here I am, using a fucking pacifier while wearing a soiled pull-up. Some adult I am. While keeping the pacifier firmly in her mouth, Lisa looked over the used pull-up and noticed the decorations on them had faded, indicating that it had been used. After removing the pull-up and throwing it in the trash can, Lisa grabbed a towel to cling up her privates before helping herself into a new pair of underwear. The feeling of having something so familiar over her privates felt wonderful and helped her regain some lost confidence. Afterwards she headed into the living room to watch some television while still keeping the soother in her mouth. “Fuck, there is so much dumb crap on television. I need something to help me zone out for a while." Lisa suddenly found a station that was playing a cartoon show. She noticed that it was similar to the one that Alex was watching earlier on in the day and so she decided to check it out. Lisa was unknowingly enjoying the show and continued to keep her eye on it until she heard the phone ring. Lisa was caught off-guard as she turned the show on mute and began to look at the hard-wired phone that was connected directly to her apartment. Very few people ever called it, but whenever someone did, it was always a person that Lisa personally knew. Lisa tried to answer but quickly realized the pacifier was still in her mouth, she soon removed it before speaking up. She was thankful that no one could see her blushing face. “Heya Lisa, it’s me Kelly. Did I wake you or something?” "Nah, I'm fine. I was just immersed with a...Show, that's all. Why are you calling so soon? It's not even noon." “What are you talking about Lisa, it’s going on six in the afternoon. What made you think it's only noon, haha. You must have been so engaged in whatever tv show you are watching to lose track of time so badly." Lisa was shocked as she looked up at the clock and saw that it was nearly six and wondered how she could have wasted so much time in the day. She wondered if she had overslept or perhaps it was due to the cartoon show she had been watching or perhaps a combination of both. "Anyhow, I just wanted to let you know that a taxi will be coming by to pick you up shortly. I would also love it if you could stay for the night, that way we can make most of the time we have together." "Ugh...Sure, I don't mind staying over." Lisa said as she still couldn't believe that she had wasted most of the day away. "In that case, be sure to bring an extra pair of clothes along and perhaps some toiletries just in case!" After the call was finished, Lisa looked over the pacifier in her hands and wondered if she should bring it along. "Why not? Even if I bring it with me, it's not like I'm gonna end up using it." Lisa spent the next few minutes placing some clothes into a large plastic bag that she had saved. After placing the pacifier with her clothes, she then made sure that her work necklace was with her as well. Just in case if some random amazon decided to come along and try anything funny. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door, Lisa slowly opened the door, assuming that it was the taxi driver. “You must be Lisa Matthews. Come along, I don't have all day." Lisa could see that the taxi driver was not in the best of moods and seemed like the type that despised his job. Lisa grabbed her things before exiting her apartment and following the driver to his cab. "I guess things could be worse. I could feel dead on the inside like this guy." Lisa quietly said to herself as the cab driver opened his door and prepared to help Lisa inside. “Ugh…I don’t get paid enough for this crap.” The amazon driver didn't seem to care of Lisa overheard him and even though Lisa wanted to respond she knew that causing any type of drama could prove to be her undoing. She was all alone in a vehicle with a complete stranger. And after being secured into the booster seat, she knew that she just needed to remain quiet. There was nothing to accomplish by bad mouthing the taxi driver. "It's not often that I ever use a taxi or rather do much traveling at all." Lisa was thrilled that she was going to be spending some time with Kelly. Most of her socializing was with Bonnie, so this was a welcome change of pace. After a few minutes, the car came to a stop and then the driver helped Lisa out of the car. Lisa looked over the building in front of her and realized that she was at her destination. She was a bit surprised at how much closer her place was from Kelly's. "Dreamy Realm. I remember that I wanted to live in this luxurious apartment complex when I first came here but this place didn't offer any free housing based on my work." As Lisa headed towards the building, she noticed that unlike her apartment, that there were no signs of any littles like her. So it came to no surprise that she caught the attention of several amazons as she walked passed them. Lisa made sure that her necklace was in full view so no one would have any strange ideas. “Let’s see…She should be on the third floor.” As Lisa entered a elevator on the first floor, she was surprised to see that there was an area where she could press the buttons without having to stand on her toes. After exiting the elevator, Lisa found the room number that Kelly was staying at then knocked on it. Lisa took a deep breath hoping that she didn't accidently knock on the door of a amazon. She remembered the incident from a few days ago where she was kidnapped while on the job and did not want to deal with anything like that ever again. Thankfully all of her worries vanished as Kelly appeared after opening the front door. “Lisa! It's so good to see you! To think this is the first time we have had a chance to hang out. You have no idea how happy that you came all this way!" Kelly wasted no time and hugged Lisa with both of her arms. “Crazy to believe that is the case. Perhaps we can make a routine of it going forward.” Lisa suddenly noticed a change into Kelly's mood after speaking up. She then realized that this was Kelly's last night in her apartment. Tomorrow she would be living in her bosses home as their baby for the next year. Lisa apologized as she placed her bag of clothes near a couch before sitting down herself. "There is nothing to be sorry about. It's just the way things are." Lisa looked over Kelly's apartment and noticed that it looked rather bare. She had expected to see many items that would have reflected Kelly's tastes but there was nothing on the walls and just a television along with the usual couch and recliner. Nothing stood out. “Surprised by how dead my place looks? Well it is my last night here. Tomorrow I start my new life with my new bosses which are also my new parents. It's gonna take some time to adjust to that new...Lifestyle." Lisa knew that Kelly was still coming to terms with the fact that she was going to be spending most of her days in a nursery and began to feel sorry for her. “Most of my stuff is also already been moved over at Laurine’s house… Or rather my soon to be mommies.” Kelly walked over to the kitchen and took out two beers before heading back the living room. “It’s hard to believe that this is really happening to you. If there is anything I can do to be of help, let me know." Lisa said as she took the can of beer from Kelly. “Having you visit is more than enough. And keep in mind that I am still going to be your boss. It's just going to come with less responsibilities. I will also be dressed far differently at work. If I'm gonna live as a baby, It's obvious that I'm going to look the part as well. Just don't give me a hard time when I come into the office wearing a frilly dress, okay?" Kelly began to laugh to herself as she chugged down the can of beer in her hand. “Will do. And just to be clear, you are not in any danger of being adopted right?" Lisa asked as she continued to sip on the beer in her hands. She was hoping for a nice buzz but nothing was coming from it. “I'm all good on the whole adoption shit show. This is all part of my job. Just going in a slightly different direction…Corporate restructuring… Also known as TOTAL BULLSHIT!” Lisa was caught off guard as Kelly angrily threw the empty beer can at the wall before lowering her head. Lisa patted her back, kind of understanding the frustration that Kelly was feeling. She was a grown adult being forced to relive her infancy. “Kelly…No matter what happens, I’ll always be your friend…If you want, I may even…Visit...” Lisa did not like the idea of becoming a playmate which also meant that she would end up in diapers but she could not ignore Kelly in her time of need. “You are a true friend Lisa…That’s why I wanted you to come over during my final hours of adulthood. Say…How about we hit up a special joint that serves really good pizza. Let’s enjoy ourselves, shall we? My treat.” Lisa agreed to tag along, as there was not much to do while in Kelly’s apartment. She even found it to be somewhat depressing from a visual aspect. “And where is this place? Lisa was a bit wary as she did not want to be out during dark. Even if you were a protected little, it meant nothing to amazons that constantly lived shady lifestyles. “It’s not far. Actually it's just across the street from here, so you don’t have to worry about us possibly getting lost or something worse. This area is quite chill despite it being dominated by amazons." As the two exited the apartment and headed towards the elevator, Lisa began to grow more curious about the pizza joint. “Did you know Lisa, that the main reason as to why the amazons allowed us portal littles to gain employment in this dimension was mainly due to the lack of tourist activity for the past several years. Given all the kidnapping and adoption that had been going on with the tourists, the amazon dimension had built a reputation for being unsafe, so the amazon government made some drastic changes in it's laws to help turn that around. So they have been luring our kind with promises of high wages, bonuses, and other valuable perks to appease us. AND IT WORKED! I mean look at us! We are prime examples of littles that took the bait and are paying the price for it!" “Ya, but we signed contracts after already knowing what we were getting ourselves into. The important matter is that we don't allow ourselves to end up being adopted. As long as we can avoid that, we can return to our dimension." Both Lisa and Kelly soon noticed that the pizza joint was now within eyesight of them. “If you are smart enough and play your cards right, you will definitely come out of this alright. Unfortunately there are too many dumbasses that don’t think long term and because of that, they end up screwing themselves over and end up adopted.” Lisa began to think about herself and the questionable decisions that she had made in the past few days and how that affected her mindset, especially with Gloria. “Hello there and welcome to Dawn Breaker Pie. Will it just be the two of you for tonight?” Lisa was surprised to see a little like herself as a server at the front entrance. The little was wearing a dress but didn't appear to be in a diaper. Although Lisa had no intentions of checking if that was the case. “Yep, it will be two and if possible, can you please get us a table near the corner.” The server escorted both Kelly and Lisa to a dimly lit area that was playing some soft rock music in the background. The whole area had the aesthetic similar to an underground bar. Lisa noticed that nearly all the employees in the restaurant were littles. “Are all the employees littles like us?” Lisa asked as she took a seat opposite of the one Kelly was sitting at. “For the most part, that is the case. There are a few amazons that also work here, but they are actually pretty chill and are not all baby crazy. It’s so refreshing to see.” Kelly then ordered a few hard drinks for herself and for Lisa as well while the two of them looked over a menu together. “I’ve never thought such a place could exist. Not only are there littles that work here but some of the customers are littles as well!” Lisa secretly wondered if she had somehow accidentally stepped her dimension. The vibe was unlike anything she had seen since arriving in amazon dimension. “This joint is not widely known. But thankfully because of word of mouth, we are able to like minded people to come and spend some time here. I bet more of our kind would come here if they were not so afraid of going outside or were not already adopted. The owner of this establishment is an amazon but he knows very well that there is money to be made for littles that feel a bit homesick.” After receiving their drinks, both Kelly and Lisa ordered their slices of pizza and began to eat on some breadsticks that came as an appetizer. “God damn I love this atmosphere! And these drinks! Holy crap are they strong!” Lisa could feel her body warming up and the lovely buzz that she was feeling. “I know right. This is something that you can never enjoy once you are adopted. And even though my life is going to become far more restrictive. My bosses did say that they would potentially give me a few days to unwind. If that's the case, I'm making this place priority number one!” Kelly had already finished her first hard drink and was already on her second. Lisa could see Kelly was not planning on holding back and seemed to be on the path of getting black out drunk. Lisa would have advised against it, but given it was Kelly's last night as adult, she decided to not say anything. Plus the pizza was far better than anything she could have ever hoped for. Lisa could not help herself but take a few more sips of her drink. She wanted to get as drunk as Kelly but knew that she had to work the next day. After finishing their meal, Lisa helped Kelly to her feet and after exiting the joint, Kelly walked over to a sidewalk and took a seat to gather herself. “I’ll get us a taxi in just a minute Lisa. I first need to gather myself, hehe.” Kelly pulled out her cell phone but seemed to be having trouble using it, given how plastered she was. Lisa was a bit envious as she was not given a work phone to have. She always felt that it was counter-productive. “What a day. What a awesome day! This was exactly what I needed.” Lisa then stretched her arms and legs, enjoying the cool air while it was completely dark outside. A few seconds later, Lisa wondered why her legs felt so warm, almost like she was in a bath. She then looked down and was horrified to see that she was pissing herself. She tried to stop but could not tell her body to stop. Kelly noticed as she put her phone away. “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME!” Lisa yelled out as she looked down at herself. Kelly quickly hugged Lisa before the younger girl could tear up in frustration. “Lisa…Calm down, I’ve got you.” Kelly held Lisa close to her while patting her back. “This doesn’t make sense. I had no bladder control. The fuck is going on with my body!?" “Lisa, I think we should walk back to my apartment. It's really not all that far. I bet we could get there in around fifteen minutes. It should not be a problem for wetters such as ourselves, haha." “What are you talking ab….!!!” Lisa stopped speaking as she watched as Kelly began to urinate all over herself. Her pants suddenly turned as dark as the sky. Lisa was alarmed however Kelly didn't seem to mind at all. “There is noo taxi in the world that would give us a ride now, haha.” Kelly continued to laugh at herself as she and Lisa began to slowly walk back to the apartment. Lisa was a bit worried about being spotted by a random amazon. If they were caught, they would be sent to the nearest orphanage. They would not be adopted but they would be treated as babies for the next day or two. And that was something Lisa wanted to avoid at all costs. “Tell me Lisa, just how long have you been having these accidents?" Kelly said as she raised her hands in the air, happy with how the cool air made her feel. “This…It’s all so recent…And I think I kind of think I know the reason as to why this is happening and I’m…Very ashamed of it.” Lisa lowered her head as she began to think about the two incidents of when she was breastfed. “Interesting…Wanna tell me? I would love to know more.” Kelly said as she placed her arm over Lisa’s shoulder. The smell of urine was quite strong even though they were both outside. Lisa wanted to gag from the smell but was more ashamed at the moment. Plus the fear of being spotted. She was thankful that it was dark out. If it was still daylight, they would have already been inside an vehicle dedicated to sending them to an orphanage. “If I tell you Kelly…Do you promise to not laugh at me?” “Of course I won’t! You are a great friend of mine and possibly future playmate. I’m not here to judge. I'm more curious than anything!" “I’m sure that you know that if a little is breastfed…Their bladder control is weakened quite a bit…” Kelly looked at Lisa with a curious smirk before speaking up. “Oh!?…Are you saying that you allowed yourself to partake in the act of being nursed by one of our fine local giants? What brought that on? I never saw you as the type that would participate in such an intimate act.” Kelly smiled as she noticed how embarrassed Lisa was after saying that. “Well…What about you Kelly? Why did you…Wet yourself?” Lisa asked, hoping to change the subject. She did not want to discuss anything about Ramona or especially Gloria at the moment. “Oh…This accident? I did it because I fucking don’t care. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be using diapers as my bathroom. So I might as well get used to this.” Kelly and Lisa continued to converse until they reached the apartment. Lisa breathed a sigh of relief that they had made it without being spotted or stopped by anyone. She considered it a miracle in itself. “I’ve got some wet wipes to clean yourself up with in my bathroom. You can go ahead and get yourself changed there. I’ll be in my room…Getting changed myself.” Kelly said as she opened the door to her apartment. Lisa quickly grabbed her spare clothes and entered the bathroom to change and also clean herself up. Kelly slowly entered her bedroom and took a look at a cardboard box on top of her bed, she knew what was in there and was preparing herself to open it. “I guess I should get this over with. No time like the present." Kelly said as she walked towards the box. “As long as I don’t allow myself to be breastfed again, my bladder control should return if the rumors are correct…”After cleaning herself up and putting on a new pair of panties, Lisa looked over the pacifier that Gloria gave her. She could not stop staring at it. Thoughts kept coming through her head about using it but before she could consider going through with it, she heard a loud crinkling noise coming from Kelly's bedroom and then heard Kelly yell for her. “LISA! CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME FOR A SECOND!” Lisa quickly exited the bathroom while only in her bra and panties. She was concerned about Kelly, wondering what she could possibly be needing assistance with. After opening the bedroom door, Lisa stood still, silent, wondering if her eyes were playing tricks on her. Had she allowed herself to get that wasted? “Sorry to ask, but I’m still very new at this. Do you mind helping me into this diaper? It’s not as easy as I had thought, haha!" Kelly was laughing out loud while laying completely naked while sitting on a very thick white diaper. Lisa still could not move but was finally able to speak up. “Ugh…Umm ... .Kelly? ... .Are you really...Putting yourself in a....Diaper? Lisa was finally able to walk closer after speaking. It was almost like she had been in a trance and now she was finally coming to terms with what she was witnessing. “Yep yep! Though since I’m so freaking drunk as hell, I can barely lift one of my legs in the air. Even a actually baby can do better, haha!" Kelly said as she kicked both of her feet in the air at the same time. Lisa didn't know why Kelly was trying to put herself in a diaper but knew that she would not get any answers by just standing there. “Umm…Why do you trying to diaper yourself? Lisa said no more. She just wanted an answer. “My new…Fucking mommy asked that I be already in a diaper when she comes to pick me up tomorrow. I’m just fulfilling my NOBLE obligation! Though I would really appreciate it if you can help me here.” Lisa noticed a box filled with several items nearby where Kelly was laying down. Lisa decided to look inside and noticed several items including a bottle of baby powder and some wipes as well. She took them out and placed them near Kelly. “I knew I was missing something, thank you so much Lisa! You are the best of friends! So if you want to go ahead and wipe me down and place the powder on me, that would be so awesome!" Lisa was at a loss of words. Her very boss was asking her to actually wipe her butt and actually diaper her. It didn't sound like something out of reality. Lisa wanted to say no and that Kelly needed to sober up but felt compelled to oblige as Kelly had treated her to a very delicious meal. “I…Guess I can…Do that…”Lisa didn't believe that she could ever agree to this if she were fully sober. She was glad that she was still somewhat buzzed so she could push herself through this very awkward moment. “Kelly is without a doubt going through some hard times and it's my job to be her friend. I don't really have experience on this but it should not be difficult... I think." Lisa thought to herself as she grabbed a few wipes and began to clean Kelly's privates followed by every area around her butt. “Wow, you are so good Lisa...I have say that ...AHH!!! Kelly moaned incredibly loud which nearly caused Lisa to lose whatever remaining buzz she had. She looked down at Kelly, noticing that she was panting rather heavily, and that drool was coming down her mouth. "Umm...Kelly, you okay there?" Lisa asked as she waited for a response before doing anything. "All good here, please keep going." Kelly then raised her hips while still breathing heavily. For Lisa, she wondered if Kelly was someone getting aroused by this. She quickly dismissed the very thought, thinking that there was no way her boss was getting turned on by all of this. Lisa then applied the baby powder all over Kelly's lower half, she then used her hands to make sure that it was applied to all parts of Kelly's butt and privates. Lisa noticed that Kelly was now suckling on her thumb and knew right then that something was wrong with Kelly but before she could say anything, Kelly spoke up first. “There should be a pacifier in the box as well…Can you please get it for me?” Kelly said as she placed her thumb back into her mouth. Her hips were still in the air which didn't make any sense to Lisa but she felt that nothing made sense right now. Right now, she decided she would simply comply with Kelly's wishes and grab the item out of the box. "It looks so similar to mine...Jesus." After taking a look the soother, Lisa handed it over to Kelly who took it without question. She then replaced her thumb with the pacifier. After doing so, her hips finally relaxed on the mattress. Lisa looked over Kelly for a moment. Still shocked to see her own boss suckling on a pacifier. Kelly made some muffling noises which could not be understood by Lisa, but after taking a moment, Lisa understood that she needed to finish up and secure the diaper on her friend. "This can't be real...Can it?" Lisa though to herself as she grabbed the front sheet of the diaper and quickly covered Kelly’s privates with it, then she took the tapes from both sides so she could secure the diaper on her boss. After finishing applying the tapes, Kelly slowly sat up and began to pat the front of her diaper. She then squeezed the front a few times which causes her to make few more moaning noises which only made Lisa even more uncomfortable. After hopping off the bed, Kelly began to check out the new diaper that was secured onto her. The only noises coming in the room were from the crinkling sounds of her diaper. Kelly then walked over and gave Lisa another hug. Lisa did nothing as she still was coming to grips with everything that just happened. “I’ve got to say, not a bad job Lisa. I bet you will make a good mommy yourself one day, haha.” Kelly giggled as she took out the pacifier for just a moment before putting it back in and then turning her attention back to the cardboard box. “Kelly, are you sure that you are alright? You are not acting...Normal.” Lisa didn't even know what normal was anymore since arriving in the amazon dimension but she knew that Kelly seemed to be acting very questionable. She watched as her friend took out a purple onesie with yellow stars on it. It only took a minute but Kelly managed to help herself into the onesie without asking for any assistance and she seemed to be quite proud of it. “Oh, Lisa, could you make sure the snaps are secured on correctly near the butt area. I can't really see on my side. I want to make sure that mommy knows that I did a good job.” Kelly once again put the pacifier back in her mouth. Lisa bit her lip as she looked over the snaps to the onesie and noticed that everything was secured in place. Lisa slowly gave a thumbs up, letting Kelly know that everything was all good. Kelly jumped up and down while giggling to herself, obviously happy with the response. "Kelly, perhaps you should consider getting some sleep. You are not acting like your normal self." Lisa watched as Kelly pulled out another diaper from the box and then placed it on the mattress into a t shape. Kelly then took out her pacifier to speak up again. “Ready for your diaper change, Lisa?” Kelly looked almost too excited as she patted the diaper on the bed, eagerly awaiting to put one on her much younger friend. Lisa assumed that Kelly was still heavily drunk and decided to speak up. “NO NOPE! No way am I allowing myself to wear that! Kelly please drink some water and get yourself together...Fuck." As Lisa exited the bedroom, Kelly quickly followed beside her. “Want another beer in that case?” Kelly asked as she went into her fridge to get herself another one. “Just water, thank you.” Kelly sighed as she plopped her pacifier back in her mouth and handed Lisa a bottle of water. Lisa began to wonder if Kelly was really all that drunk as she was still able to speak coherently. Either way she knew that Kelly was not herself. “You should consider water Kelly. You don't want to get too dehydrated as well. " As Lisa took a seat on the couch, she watched as Kelly too took a sip of the beer. "I'm a baby, so I don't know any better, haha." Kelly said as she laughed to herself before chugging down the can. Lisa felt immensely uncomfortable by what Kelly had just said. Kelly spent the next few minutes looking for a channel to put on. She eventually stopped on one that was playing a cartoon with talking animals. Lisa wondered if Kelly was suppressing her anger by acting the way she was. She knew that it was not healthy and hoped that she would get herself together before the end of the night. The two of them watched the cartoon show for the next hour before Kelly decided to speak up. “...Lisa…I'm sorry… I didn’t mean to get you dragged into this…It’s just that I don’t really have anyone that else I can really express myself too. I spent my whole life trying to move up in the world…Only for this to be my next best option…I’m so fucking pathetic!” After finishing her can of beer, Kelly once again threw the empty can right at the wall, not caring if it left any type of mark. “It’s better to let everything out then holding it in. Plus I don't think diapers and beer go well together, haha." Both Lisa and Kelly laughed together as they continued to converse while the tv show played in the background. “Lisa...I know this is a long shot...But If possible, would you be willing to come with me tomorrow as my playdate? I…I could convince mommy to give you the day off so we can spend the whole day together. Lisa was bewildered by Kelly's suggestion. She then noticed Kelly wiping a few tears from her eyes. "I'll...Think about it..." Lisa wanted to say no but didn't want to be the one to sour the whole day away. Kelly smiled while clapping her hands as if she had said yes. Afterwards the two continued to watch whatever was playing on the television for the next half hour. Lisa felt herself growing tired by how dumb the plot was on the cartoon show and then turned her attention to Kelly and was surprised to see that she had fallen asleep while having a pacifier in her mouth. Lisa said nothing as she grew to enjoy the odd benefits of the soother herself. “I can only imagine what's going on in your head Kelly.” It took a few minutes but Lisa managed to pick up Kelly up and place her padded friend over her back as she carried her back to her bedroom. Lisa decided it was best for her to get some sleep as well. After placing the bed sheets over the two of them, Lisa closed her eyes, hoping that tomorrow could bring about some form of sanity. But after rolling around the sheets for twenty minutes, Lisa realized that her growing anxiety was keeping her from getting a good night of rest and she knew that there was only one thing that could cure that. She didn't like the answer but knew it would work. “This better not become the only option to fall asleep in the future.” After heading into the bathroom, Lisa took out the pacifier in her plastic bad and quickly placed it into her mouth. The suckling motions instantly made Lisa feel several times better and knew that she would quickly fall asleep once she entered the bed. “Please bladder. Don’t fail me. If I need to go, just wake my sorry ass up!” As Lisa placed the back of her head on the pillow, as she closed her eyes, her final thoughts were of Gloria and how much she missed her. She wanted to hate herself for having such feelings but she couldn't. She wouldn't. After pulling Kelly in, Lisa wrapped both her hands and legs around her friend, enjoying the warmth and company of someone that was going through not a mid-life crisis but rather an infantile life crisis.

Chapter 2 The House Spring, the Diaper Bunny, suggested she ride with me. Her friend Sarah, and her boyfriend, who's name I learned was John, already knew the way to her house. To have this attractive diapered young woman alone for the ride sounded like a wonderful idea, and was a chance to talk one-on-one. That was, if I could muster the courage to talk to this beautiful creature who already had my heart skipping a beat. We left the fairgrounds for the parking area, buzzing from the amazing music, and non-stop dancing. Our cars were parked only a few spots away from each other, so I told John and Sarah that I would follow them. Spring smiled at me as I opened the door for her to hop into my car. We drove out of the parking area, onto the highway, and I made sure to keep close to follow her friends' tail lights. There was silence for the first few minutes as I drove, when finally Spring broke the ice. “I could tell you were different from most of the other guys ogling me at the festival. You're more shy about it, maybe even embarrassed.” I was taken aback by her perceptiveness, and could only muster a nod in agreement. “Have you ever worn a diaper as an adult?” she asked bluntly. “Yes...I have,” I half-whispered, feeling especially embarrassed admitting this to a beautiful young woman I had only just met. “I knew it!” she exclaimed, bouncing a little, and smiling. “And you're cute,” she added, looking right at me. “You're pretty cute, yourself,” I managed to say. She opened up and explained how she had a small bladder, and would wet herself sometimes when she was much younger. After several embarrassing accidents, she found that she rather liked the feeling of peeing in her clothes, and when she was alone she would sometimes pee herself on purpose, because the naughtiness of it made her feel exhilarated. “Does that seem weird to you?” she asked, and I told her it did not, because I could relate. Spring explained that when she got older she found forums online with others that shared her secret kink, and through that community she discovered her love for adult diapers. I could not believe what I was hearing, as it was so similar to my own journey into enjoying wearing, and wetting adult diapers. “I have a pretty similar story to yours, although I didn't have many accidents I could remember as a kid...one or two maybe,” I told her, then added, “I did try to get alone as often as possible, and would pee myself on purpose, because it was exciting and naughty.” Then I told her how it also made me pretty horny most of the time, and Spring smiled at me coyly. “I can relate to that, too,” she said softly. After that we were both silent, but I could feel that something magical might be brewing between us. We exited the highway behind her friends, and onto a back road, so I figured we must be getting close to her house. “I really have to pee,” she said out of nowhere, adding, “I've been holding it for a while now. It must be all the water I drank while we were dancing.” That statement really got my heart racing, and my brain buzzing. “You can pee whenever you want, you're wearing a diaper,” I reminded her. “I know, but I'm a bit shy to do that in your car after I just met you,” Spring replied. I told her that it really was okay, but she insisted on holding until we at least got to her house, if she could. A few minutes later we pulled into her driveway, parked, and I turned off the car. I asked her to wait just a moment while I got out, and opened the door for her. That simple chivalrous gesture got another wonderful smile, so I extended my hand, and helped her out of the car. Her friends were already waiting at the door, so Spring let us all inside. Sarah asked how we were doing, mostly to Spring, and she said we were doing great. “Wonderful,” Sarah said, adding, “then John and I would like to hang out in the bedroom, and you two can chill in the basement.” It did not take a brain surgeon to figure what they were up to, and I was grateful to get more time alone with Spring. It was a large house, and the bedrooms were upstairs, so there was a whole floor separating us from her friends, and whatever they had planned in their furry-esque Halloween costumes for after the festival. Spring grabbed me by the hand, and walked me down the stairs to the basement which was set up as an awesome chill-pad. There were lava lamps and posters, a black light, two couches, a flat-screen, and a DJ setup with speakers and a sub. There was also a table in the corner next to a cabinet, and a mat on the floor. I was quite impressed with the room, and how cozy it felt. I was also drawn to the DJ setup, and went to check it out. “Do you spin?” she asked. I nodded. Spring asked if I would like to take off my costume and put something more comfortable on. “I have some Pj pants, and a shirt that would fit you,” she offered. “Plus you can put one of these on if you like,” and pointed at her diaper. Since we had already talked about it, and I was feeling more comfortable around her, my embarrassment had melted away some, but that was still a pretty big request. I had never worn one outside of my own house before, and never with another person around, either. I knew I could not pass up the opportunity though, no matter how embarrassing it might be, and said, “I guess so...but I'll put it on myself.” She fetched me the clothes, and a diaper with little monsters on it from a closet, then pointed me to the basement bathroom. When I got in the bathroom I realized how badly I needed to pee, as well. Instead of using the toilet like a normal person, I decided to take off my clothes, fasten the diaper on snugly, and put on the Pjs and t-shirt Spring provided for me. It is such a comforting feeling to be in a fresh diaper, even though the brand she gave me had a noticeable crinkle sound as I moved around. My preferred brand did not have that, but I was not going to let a little crinkle get in the way of my enjoyment of this wonderful shared experience. Exiting the bathroom Spring took one look at me, smiled really big, bounced, and clapped her hands. I did a silly spin with my arms out, and smiled back. Then she looked at me very seriously, and said, “I still have to pee...really, really bad.” “I do too,” I told her, and her smile returned. There was chemistry there between us, and I could feel it. I decided to act on it. She was standing a couple feet away, so I approached her slowly. Spring allowed me to place one of my hands on her back, while I put the other behind her head, and drew her against me. I placed my lips on hers, as we locked in a passionate kiss. Immediately, I allowed my bladder to release its hold, and began to slowly pee in my diaper as we made-out. I was experiencing a wonderful warmth spreading in my diaper, as well as in my heart, simultaneously. It was a glorious moment. As my stream turned to a trickle, and finally stopped, I gently pulled away from her lips, looked her in the eyes, and said, “I went.” “So did I,” she replied, and smiled.

It's amazing how much and how little has changed. I was wearing diapers 24/7 for a decade before this surgery anyway, so it's not like I'm suddenly "more" in diapers. Yet every time I do feel myself wet without being aware of it (or even stopping it for more than half a second), it's an amazing feeling. The moment I had the cath removed after this last revision and literally wet myself helplessly, I knew I was going to be doing well afterwards. I still have a stricture too to worry about - I cath about once a week to keep things stretched out - and I probably will look into getting a urethroplasty some time in the next year or so to take care of it for good. It's literally the last thing holding back my pee - and it's hilarious to me that it's a literal medical issue that causes me to even have a CHANCE to retain urine. But even then, it can only really retain it when I'm sitting or lying down. If I stand, lean back, or relax/tense my pelvic floor in any way, that's enough to completely defeat it, and I begin wetting myself. After my first surgery in Mexico, I was at a 7/10 of happiness with the results. Now I'm easily at 9.5/10, and if a urethroplasty works as intended, it'll be a 10/10. I'm so very glad i did this.

Thanks for the thoughtful comments again everyone. This is a longer chapter which hopefully will shed light on some of the characters' motivations. Chapter 9 – Out on the Town. Oliver thought maybe he was seeing things as his eyes adjusted to the morning light. He extended an exploratory finger towards one of the vertical lines. It was a smooth, round, wooden bar, spaced about two inches apart from identical bars either side. He ran his fingers along them producing a sound like a muted xylophone. He gripped his hand around one of the bars for support and attempted to rise to his feet. This was easier said than done as the mattress provided uneven footing, so he held another bar to keep his balance. There was something else, too. He threw off a tangle of blankets as he rose but still had the distinct feeling of being enveloped in soft fabric head-to-toe. He looked down, lifting one foot, and then the other. He was wearing a baby blue, one-piece footed sleeper, sporting a repeating pattern of cartoon steam trains. What on Earth was going on, he wondered? He placed his hands over the cross-bar which came up to about his chin and kicked his foot against one of the bars, to begin his ascent. He pulled with all his strength but the sole of his sleeper slipped hopelessly against the finely sanded and varnished wood. The door to the room was open a crack and the sounds of morning chatter echoed from outside. “Mom?” he called quietly. He let a few seconds pass. Nothing. “Mom?!” he called, louder this time. Still nothing. “Mommy?” he tried. Seconds later, he heard footsteps approaching the door before it gently creaked open. “Good morning baby. How did you sleep?” intoned Abigail softly. “What’s going on? Why I am in a crib?” he asked as she released the side of the crib, causing it drop unexpectedly while he was still leaning on it. “Oopsy-daisy.” she said in a sing-song voice while she allowed the boy to fall forward into her arms. “Well, you’re not anymore are you?” she teased. “There’s only four beds and Davey was kicking up a fuss about wanting to sleep in a big boy bed, so we just let him have it.” she explained. “Oh... okay.” Oliver said, feeling very unsure. “I knew you’d understand. Thank you Oli.” He didn’t want to appear even more immature by also kicking up a fuss, a fact Abigail counted on to sell her little white lie. The truth was that when she saw the large, sturdy crib last night, Doctor Richardson’s words about giving him permission and space to be small echoed in her mind, and it felt as though it was meant to be. As she watched her boy sleeping soundly and safely in its confines last night, she didn’t want it any other way. Knowing she could count on him not to get hurt trying to get up for the bathroom in the middle of the night in a strange environment was an added bonus. “You slept in a bit later than everyone, so let’s get some quick breakfast and then get ready to go.” said placing him back on his own two feet. “Where are we going?” he asked with a hint of sleepy disorientation still in his voice. “We’re just going to check out the local town for the day.” she answered as she opened the door to the bedroom and sent him towards the kitchen. She smiled at the pitter patter of his padded steps on the floor and the slight toddle his diaper added to his gait. He made his way to the kitchen while taking in the details of their vacation home for the first time. Everyone else seemed to have concluded breakfast and were off getting ready for the day so it was just him and Abigail. The kitchen was fitted with a bespoke dining table with matching chairs that seemed unusually tall. Oliver pulled out a chair and climbed into one, kneeling to be at a comfortable height. He leaned on the table with his chin on his hands, swaying idly from side to side while he watched Abigail make toast. She caught his absentminded gaze and made a concerted effort not to break eye contact, creating a spontaneous staring contest. She went as far as to remove the toast from the toaster, opened a jar of jam, and spread it on toast without breaking eye contact or blinking once, eliciting a fit of giggles Oliver. As he ate, she noticed her breaking the seal on the new container of Nutriform. He tried the resulting formula with some trepidation but, finding it to taste just as good, drank it all without complaint. “Good boy.” she praised. “Now let’s go get you dressed.”. She swept him from the chair back onto his feet and sent him tottering back towards his room with an encouraging pat on the bottom. Abigail trailed behind at a leisurely pace. She chuckled as she caught up and noticed him reaching behind his head, making no headway against the locking mechanism. She kneeled down and patiently reached behind his neck. She seemed to be working something with her fingers and he could hear a distinct click, pop, and the sound of velcro ripping before she finally lowered a zip down his back. She noticed he seemed lost in thought for a second before he spoke. “Mom... why am I wearing these pyjamas. Where did they come from?” “We picked them up at that store yesterday. I ordered them a few days ago. Do you like them?” she asked hopefully as she stripped him down to just his diaper. “They’re just... kind of for babies.” he admitted, trying to be honest without sounding hurtful. “Well that’s funny. Because seem to fit you just fine, cutie.” she teased, leaning in to rub the tip of her nose against his, eliciting the second giggle of the morning he asked as she boosted him onto the changing table. “But... why do they have all these weird buttons on them and stuff?” “Hmm... if I remember correctly, they’re to stop little scamps from going behind their mommy’s backs, taking off their diapers, and peeing all over their cars. Now, that’s the end of 20 questions, I think.” she declared, as she got to work on his diaper. She dressed him in a nautically themed t-shirt and a pair of green shortalls. By the time she was finished, he was still blushing from her last comment. A knock on the door announced Sue’s presence. “You guys ready to rock and roll?” “Just about!” replied Abigail cheerily, leading him out by the hand to the communal living space where she sat him down to get his shoes on and tied. “Mom... I can do that.” Oliver objected in a low voice, feeling much more self-conscious in the presence of others. “I know, sweetie, I’m just helping so we can get going.” The cabin was part of a set of vacation rentals, spaced far enough apart to offer ample privacy and quiet while allowing guests the opportunity to socialise if they so chose. The whole complex was situated in a quiet wooded area with trails and an idyllic town within walking distance, allowing them to leave the car behind. As they set off, Sue took hold of Davey’s hand and Abigail did likewise with Oliver, implicitly leaving Jessica as the sole member of the family trusted with her own safety. “Hey, I think you guys are renting the cabin closest to ours? Are you heading into town too?” a friendly voice enquired from behind. Oliver looked back to see a couple with two boys. They introduced themselves as Julia and Scott Baker and their two son as Nick, 12, and Jacob, 9. Sue and Abigail returned introductions and they struck up conversation as they walked together. Oliver’s initial unease gave way to the boys’ affable demeanour and the reprieve of having someone approximately his own age to socialise with. Someone who wasn’t Jessica, anyway. They seemed miraculously incurious about how he was dressed or why Abigail was holding his hand, but he couldn’t help but dwell on how long that could last. As they reached town, a natural consensus to stick together emerged among the two families as they weaved leisurely between the stalls of an open air market. Happening upon a stall touting hobbyist RC planes, Scott held the boys attention as he enthused about the ins and outs of this hobby he shared with Nick and Jacob, explaining the strengths and weaknesses of various models to Oliver and Davey in great depth. Abigail and Sue were content to leave the boys to their devices while the girls split off to find something more to their taste. After Scott’s had concluded his impromptu lecture and the salesman at the stall had wowed them a with demonstration of a mini drone, they moved to regroup with the girls. As they moved through the crowds, Oliver became momentarily captivated by the displays of handmade wooden slingshots at another stall. At least, it only felt like a moment, but when he turned around again, he had become separated from the group. He tried to push his way through the thick crowd but in a panic he tripped. Mercifully he felt a pair of hands break his fall. “Whoa there, little man, did you lose your mommy?” He looked up to see a kindly-faced woman smiling down at him as she helped him to his feet and took his hand. He noted her name tag and surmised she must work at the market in some capacity. “I...” he stammered. “Come on, I’ll help you find her.” she stated matter of factly as she grasped his hand firmly and began to lead him away from the direction he was pretty sure his family was before he could object. “What’s your name sweetheart?” she asked as they arrived at a large stall which sold nothing but had walls full of flyers and posters. “Oliver... Oliver Wilson.” he replied softly. The woman lifted a microphone from a desk and spoke “Will the parents of Oliver Wilson please come to the tourist information point?” all the while never releasing her iron grip with her other hand. The message rang out through a PA system across the entire market. Minutes later Abigail appeared looking equal parts frustrated and relieved and as she rushed over and swept him off his feet into a hug. “Thank you so much for finding him.” “Hey, that’s what we’re here for.” “I only let go of him for a few minutes but I won’t be making that mistake again.” she said looking down at Oliver pointedly. “Look, we’ve all been there. You think they’re past the stroller so you try to pack a little lighter by leaving it at home for the vacation. Want my advice? You might as well buy one here. You’ll thank me later. Here, there’s a place just down the street that sells that kind of stuff. I think there’s even a discount in here.” she said, handing her a flyer. “You had us going for a minute there pal.” said Scott as they returned. “How do you fine folks feel about grabbing some lunch with us? We were thinking about taking a stroll up the main thoroughfare.” “Sounds good.” agreed Abigail. “I have a little errand to run there anyway if that’s okay.” Oliver hadn’t really been focused on the conversation between Abigail and the woman who had found him at the market, nor did he pay any particular attention to where they were going. His heart-rate quickened as Abigail lead him past the threshold of a baby equipment store. “Hi there. What can I do for you folks today?” asked the attendant cheerily. “Hello, I’m looking for a stroller for son. Do you stock any with the kid-safe harness?” ‘Sure, let me show you my selection.” Oliver’ balked at the realisation of what was happening. He feebly pulled back against Abigail’s hand. “No mom, please, I’ll be good. I won’t let go of your hand again.” “I can see your little guy has an independent spirit.” “Oh he can be a handful.” laughed Abigail. “Are you guys on vacation? That can be tough.” “Just renting one of the cabins outside town for a few days, yeah.” “Well you’ll have nothing to worry about with this model. Foldable, washable cover in case of spills... or leaks.” she added looking Oliver up and down. “And of course the escape-proof buckle for your little Houdini here.” “Here sweetie, let’s try it out.” Abigail said sweeping him off his feet and getting him situated. “No mommy, please.” begged Oliver as she secured the restraints which mirrored the ones found in his carseat. “Do you need your binky sweetheart?” she asked the squirming boy. Oliver melted back into the seat, accepting his fate rather than risking further embarrassment. The shopkeeper rang up his new stroller and held the door so Abigail could wheel out the boy who had walked in. They regrouped with everyone who had agreed in their absence on hotdogs for lunch from a locally renowned street-side vendor. Oliver tried his damndest to avoid making eye contact with anyone under his new custodial arrangement. Taking a big bite out of the hotdog Abigail handed him, he had to admit that, as upset as he may be, he was for too hungry stage a hunger strike in protest. She cleaned the ketchup from his hands and face with a baby wipe before handing him another sippy cup of formula which he reluctantly accepted. As he was rolled over the old cobblestone streets, his eyes started to feel heavy from the rocking. “You can take a little nap, baby. We’re just going to be walking back soon anyway.” “Look who’s finally waking up.” Oliver glanced around the kitchen of the cabin to see it was Julia’s voice who made the remark. All the adults were gathered casually chatting and drinking wine as the sun started to dip in the afternoon sky. Oliver reflexively attempted to sit up but the restraints of the stroller held him snugly in place. “I think someone wants uppies.” she added. Abigail released him and lifted him into her arms. “I think we probably need a change after that long snooze. We’ll be back in a few minutes guys.” “Mommm” groaned Oliver out of embarrassment, pressing his face to her shoulder inducing a chorus of “awws” from the assembled adults. “Why did you tell them that?” he moaned as she set him down in the changing table. “Oh sweetie, Scott and Julia are parents. I didn’t have to tell them anything. And they’re not going to make fun of you.” she consoled as she removed his soaked diaper. He was starting to feel more awake as she set him down on his feet. “The others are out back playing, why don’t you go find them?” suggested Abigail. “Hey dude, wanna play tag?” asked Nick as soon as Oliver appeared. “Sure.” smiled Oliver, caught off by the other boys’ nonchalance about his treatment that they must surely have noticed. The good company made the daylight hours seem to slip through their fingers. The other boys even habitually rebuffed Jessica’s mean comments, to Oliver’s delight. Eventually, just as the sun was dipping over the horizon, everyone was called for dinner. It was beginning to get chilly anyway, and Oliver had noticed a mounting pressure in his stomach and the occasional gurgle. The site had a shared outdoor pizza oven that they taken advantage of to cook up a feast for both families. Oliver ran past the table looking for Abigail to help him but Julia caught his hand mid-stride. “Hey pumpkin, aren’t you gonna come join us for dinner?’ “I just need to talk to my mom about... something.” explained Oliver as he pulled away but Julia wasn’t hearing it. “Scott, we have a little runner here.” Julia said gesturing as she lifted Oliver from his feet. Without need for further explanation, Scott pulled a large wooden high chair into position at the table and opened the tray, allowing Julia to fix Oliver in the seat. “Don’t worry, your mommy will be back in two shakes. She’s just getting something for the table.” she explained. He saw no prospect of escape with Scott at hand so he allowed her to do up the straps and replace the tray. “Hey sweetie, comfy?” asked Abigail smiling at his new seating arrangement as she passed by, stopping to deposit a sippy cup on his tray. “Mom, I need to talk to you.” Oliver said quietly but with a hint of desperation in his voice. “I’ll be back out in a minute.” Abigail explained as she and Sue partially set the table and returned to the house. Meanwhile, Julia plated up a few slices of pizza for him. When Abigail finally did return, she saw he had been tended to and took her seat with the adults at the opposite end of the long table. Every attempt to get her attention was met with gentle admonishment not to interrupt the grown-ups. Oliver resigned to eating his pizza, hoping to get through dinner and get released as quickly as possible. As he finished, however, he realised that the mounting pressure in his bowel could not be negotiated with. He leaned forward to make one last plea for Abigail’s attention and felt a warm mess push out into the seat of his diaper all at once. “What is it sweetheart?” Abigail said, finally acknowledging him. “Uh-oh, I think someone needed the potty.” chuckled Julia, observing the unmistakable strain on his face. “I think it’s time I got him in the tub and off to bed anyway.” Abigail conceded as she lifted him from the highchair. “Say goodnight to everyone Oli.” she implored, hut he only pressed his face to her shoulder out of shame. Nevertheless, everyone else bid him goodnight as he was carried away. “I tried to tell you.” croaked Oliver through tears as she undressed him and ran a bath. “It’s no big deal. We’ll have you cleaned up in no time.” She carefully disposed of his soiled diaper and wiped him as clean as she could before lifting him into the tub. “Now, squeaky clean and ready for beddy-bye.” sang Abigail as she secured the second tape on his diaper. A knock on the door announced Julia’s entrance. Oliver could do nothing to conceal his embarrassment and Abigail was apparently unphazed as she set him on his feet and started to help him into his sleeper. “Wow, cute jammies.” commented Julia in a sincere but unavoidably condescending tone. “Thanks. They’re new, aren’t they sweetheart?” replied Abigail giving him a knowing look as she secured the zipper. “I thought I’d help give the bedtime express a little push by getting his formula ready.” explained Julia. Only now did the baby bottle in her hand register to Oliver as Abigail accepted it. ‘That was so thoughtful of you. Say thank you, Oli.” He managed to muster a meek “Thanks.” It wasn’t as if asking for a sippy cup would making things any better, he had to admit. “I won’t be long.” said Abigail to Julia. “See you out there. ‘Night Oli.” she replied as she exited. Abigail cradled him in her arms as she got situated in the nursery’s rocking chair. “Did you have a good day baby?” she asked as she pressed the rubber teat to his lips. The question played on his mind as he lazily suckled on the bottle in Abigail’s hand. He realised he had to conclude that in spite of everything, maybe, in part, because of everything, the answer was “Yes.”

It's been a minute since I last posted, so I'll give y'all the ol' double-shot of story action. Eighty-Nine The alcohol might’ve been a mistake. Of course, that’s only something you’d say after the fact. As the first rays of the morning light poked through the living room windows, I woke up on my back on the floor. My diaper was damp. My stomach felt queasy. My head was pounding. I could still taste sweet and sour sauce in my mouth. Momentarily panicked, I glanced to the coffee table, where I had a vague recollection of shoveling tons of food into my mouth just a few hours prior. So much food. But all the food was gone now. As were the napkins, the plates, the empty containers, the plastic bags and the used chopsticks. I know that I hadn’t cleaned it up, and Ava had passed out before I did. Maybe Lyndie or Paige had? Ava was in the armchair, though she wasn’t exactly sitting in it. She was sort of draped over it–as if someone had been carrying her and didn’t know where else to put her. But, as best as I could recall, she had put herself there. Lyndie was stretched out along the length of the couch on her side. She was the big spoon. The little spoon was Paige, her back pressed into Lyndie as she laid alongside her. Her skirt was missing, as was her jacket, leaving her in just a well-used diaper and her Blondie tee. It smelled here, and it made my cheeks blush. Did I…poop myself in my sleep last night? I reached behind me and fondled the thick padding of my diaper. It was certainly wet, but I definitely wasn’t poopy. And I didn’t think it was Ava–at least I hoped it wasn’t, seeing as how she wasn’t in a diaper. Which left…Paige. This was confirmed when I stood up and took a step or two towards the couch–Paige’s bottom was ripe. That seemed like more of a Lyndie-problem, though, and so I shrugged it off and carefully left the living room–doing my best not to wake anyone. I was expecting another disaster in the kitchen. At the very least, there should’ve been opened bottles of alcohol, dirty drinking glasses, and sippy cups. Too, maybe some remnants of our meal from last night–perhaps someone had just taken it all from the coffee table and moved it into the kitchen. No. The kitchen was spotless. There was nothing in the sink. Chinese leftovers in the fridge, neatly stacked. All the garbage stuffed into the garbage can. The dishwasher was running. “It wasn’t fairies that cleaned up after you last night,” Mommy chuckled from behind me. I spun around, my cheeks already blushing. “Y-you cleaned up after us?” Mommy nodded. “Indeed. By the time I got home from my date last night, everyone seemed rather…unresponsive. So I took it upon myself to take care of the loose ends.” “I’m sorry about that,” I said, scratching the back of my head nervously. We shouldn’t have gotten so…” “Stop that, Baby,” she cooed, gliding past me as her hand lightly stroked my face. “I’m glad you all had a fun night. You need that sometimes. You deserve it.” I tried to string together the details I remembered from the night before, hoping to assemble them into a chronological order. Truth or dare. Piss being poured into my diaper. Getting changed by Lyndie. Babytalk. Ava kissing me. Eating. Then things start getting hazy. “I think Paige, uhm…” “I know,” Mommy nodded, waving a hand in front of her nose as she smiled. “I smelled it.” “Do you think we should wake her so you can change her?” She shook her head. “I suspect Lyndie would be upset if she missed out on that opportunity. Is there something going on between those too?” I laughed and shrugged. I remembered how Lyndie whispered into Paige’s ear last night. She was supposed to have been telling Paige about what she did with the diaper she wore once–but I had reason to believe that she might’ve said more to Paige than that. Something that got Paige all sorts of worked up. I also recalled the conversation I had with Lyndie while she was changing my diaper; she had asked me if I thought I’d ‘go steady’ with Paige. “Maybe,” I finally said. “Paige is going to be pretty embarrassed when she wakes up in a dirty diaper,” Mommy said. It sounded like the sort of thing she’d say with pleasure, though I could detect a hint of worry in her tone. “If you don’t want to change her now, what else can we do about that?” She laughed. “She might feel better if she wasn’t the only one.” I felt like she was suggesting something, but between the lack of sleep and the hangover, I wasn’t completely sure what it was. Mommy sidled up to me, putting her hand on the bottom of my diaper. “If she wasn’t the only baby waking up in a dirty diaper, maybe she wouldn’t feel so bad.” “O-oh… Do you mean me?” “Well…as best as I can tell, you’re the only other one in a diaper.” I sighed. “So…I need to go back in there and…poop?” “Why don’t you fill your diaper right here? For me? And then I’ll send you in there.” I almost protested, but I already knew that I wanted to do this. I would always choose to do as Mommy asked, especially when it came to my diapers. “Right now?” I asked sheepishly. “Mmhmm. And you best be quick about it, Baby. Any of them might wake up at any moment.” My body was well-acclimated to the routine of unloading my bowels in the morning, and last night’s Chinese food felt like it was ready for an exit. This would be no problem at all. I barely even thought about it until I squatted down in the middle of the kitchen and began to push. As I began to feel this morning’s load crest my anus, I sighed–no matter how ‘big’ I got, I doubted I’d ever get sick of the feeling of loading my diaper for Mommy. “Go on,” she said softly. “Make a big ol’ mess in your diaper, okay?” “Y-yes…Mommy.” It didn’t take much sometimes to slip back into my smaller headspace–the one I had gotten accustomed to when I was living my life as a full-time baby in Mommy’s care for the last few months. I popped my thumb in my mouth as I pushed, feeling the thick mush slowly expanding the back of my diaper. “I bet that feels so good, doesn’t it?” “Yeth,” I said through my thumb. “Feelth good to…poopy my panths…” “I will never tire of having that power,” Mommy said, her hands on my shoulders now, sending supportive vibes through my body as I pushed the last of it out. “I sometimes think I could do this to you anyplace. At any time. Years from now, even–after you think you’re all grown up again. I bet I could still get you to do this.” “P-prolly…” “I imagine it’s your wedding day. Your bride is coming down the aisle. All eyes are on the two of you. But you’re looking into the crowd, and you see me. And I smile and nod, and you know exactly what to do.” I nodded. “Y-yeah.” “You’d squat down right there, wouldn’t you? Right there at the head of the ceremony–pushing a stinky poopy into your diaper as your wife-to-be is just getting to you.” My cock ached and I nodded my head rapidly. “Just the sorts of things I think about,” she said, patting me on the head. “All good now? Diaper full?” “Y-yeah.” “Good boy. Go back into the living room. Lie down where you were. When folks start waking up, I’ll come change you.” “Yes, Mommy.” Against all odds, I managed to fall asleep again while wrapped up in a thick blanket on the floor near the couch. Then, I was dreaming… It was my wedding day, and I was standing at the forefront of the audience, divided into two sides. At first I thought we might’ve been at a church, though the longer the dream went on, the less likely that seemed. Some sort of…conference room? Yes! I was in the big conference room at the old office–the one where I had once been passed around the room and spanked by the other executives before Mommy put my chastity on me. I was getting married there now. But who was I marrying? I saw her coming down the center aisle in her white dress. A veil was over her face, obscuring it. I was scanning the crowd, wondering who I’d see. There were familiar faces. Courtney. Bradley. Even Kylie–who was wearing a light pink onesie while a pacifier hung from her mouth. Obviously. And then I spotted Mommy, which filled me with more joy than actually being at the wedding itself. She was smiling and nodding. I knew exactly what that meant. I squatted where I stood, but it wasn’t the same. These awkward tuxedo pants were too tight–I needed more room for my diaper. Fuck it. I pulled my belt open before unbuttoning the front of my trousers–pushing them down my thighs to expose my plump diaper. I squatted again. This time it felt right. With a firm push and a grunt, I could feel myself unloading. “Oh my god!” shrieked someone in the audience. “Is…is he really…” “He is!” someone else said. “He’s shitting his diaper!” “Are you kidding me right now?” my bride said. She stopped just shy of where I stood, her hands on her hips. I didn’t recognize her voice and I still couldn’t see her face. “I was supposed to marry a man! Not a fucking baby.” Someone was behind me. One of the bridesmaids, I think, but I couldn’t see who it was. I felt a hand on the back of my still-expanding diaper. “It’s a really big load too. Sooo stinky.” “You can’t marry him,” someone else said. “Not until he grows up.” My bride, whoever she was, reached forward and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Wake up.” “Huh?” “Wake up, Clark.” I opened my eyes, finding myself on the floor of Mommy’s living room. Someone was gently shaking my shoulder to try and wake me up. Before I could even look up at their face, I could smell the room–now filled with the thick stench of dirty diapers. “L-Lyndie,” I said as I came to, seeing Lyndie’s face hovering above mine. “Hey, smelly.” “I, uhm… What time is it?” “Late enough. You need your diaper changed.” Somewhere behind her, Paige giggled. “Don’t laugh too much, Paige,” Lyndie said, glancing over her shoulder. “She’s only laughing because she’s not the only one to have woken up with a stinky mess in their diaper.” Maybe Mommy had been completely right about her plan to have me mess my diaper as well. “I have to go change Paige anyways,” Lyndie said. “So if you want, I could…” “I’ll take care of that one,” Mommy said, strolling into the room as if she just happened to walk past at the perfect time. “I could even take care of both big babies if you want.” “No, that’s okay,” Lyndie said, her cheeks getting a little rosy. “I-I was thinking that I would take care of Paige at the very least…” “She’s all yours,” Mommy said. “But I’ll be taking my baby. But, Lyndie, why don’t you and Paige go use the nursery first.” “Are you sure?” Lyndie asked. “I insist. Go ahead. Clark and I will wait right here.” Lyndie took Paige by the hand and led her out of the room. It was, admittedly, a cute sight to behold. “Where’s Ava?” I asked, finally realizing that it was only Mommy and I in the room. “Bathroom. She woke up a few minutes ago, and she wasn’t feeling well. Last I heard, it sounded like she was throwing up.” “That sucks…” “Everyone drink a bit too much last night?” Mommy asked. I nodded. “Some of us more than others.” If I drank too much, then Ava drank way too much. “She’ll be fine,” Mommy said. “We’ve all had those mornings.” “W-wait,” I said, suddenly remembering. “What about last night? You had your date. H-how did that go?” Mommy smiled and shrugged. “It was fine.” “Fine?” “I don’t think we’re going to get married or anything. We didn’t have very much in common.” “Oh. Sorry…” “Don’t be,” she chuckled. “He was very good at eating pussy. And if that’s all I got out of last night, I’ll call that a win.” I blushed, just trying to imagine what it must be like to go on a date with Mommy. How did she get Andrew’s head between her legs? Where did that even happen? “I doubt he and I will be going out again,” she continued. “I’m sure he’d like to, but he won’t be able to convince me to. The good news is that I feel my interest in dating again has been restored.” “R-really?” “I was worried I’d be out of practice, but I think I did rather well. Still got it.” “Good,” I said. I meant that. “I wish you were there,” she shrugged. “I’d have loved to have seen your face when I talked to him at dinner.” “Wh-why?” She sighed. “I think he revealed himself, very quickly, to be a follower–not a leader. I’m sure he does just fine in the boardrooms for his company. But in the presence of a powerful woman, he might as well have been sucking on a pacifier.” “Y-you didn’t make him do that, did you?” She laughed. “I should’ve. I bet he’d have done it. The dinner was actually a lot of fun. I spent a good two or three hours winding him up. There were a few times I legitimately thought he was going to cream his pants.” I wondered what she had been saying to him. What she had been doing. “By the time the check arrived,” she said, “I literally had him eating out of my hand.” I really wished I could’ve seen that. “And then he…” “We went back to his place. Just long enough for him to make me cum with his tongue. I pissed on his face too, per his request. I would’ve at least jerked him off if he wanted, but he took care of that himself as I was peeing.” Fuck. “I’m, uhm, sorry that he’s not what you were looking for.” “I had fun with him. But I can have fun with anyone. What I want, I think, is someone who can make me do the things that I’d make someone like Andrew do for me.” “You want a man who’d make you suck his cock?” “Mmm, that sounds delightful, Clarky. Daddy, please. But it can’t be a suggestion. He has to be the type who can make me do it. And I put up a good fight.” It sounded a little like her expectations for men in the dating scene were too high–but she also didn’t seem especially discouraged by that prospect. I could see her having plenty of casual fun with men until she eventually met the one who’d get her mouth wrapped around his cock. Best of luck, men. You’re going to need it. A few minutes later, Paige and Lyndie reappeared in the doorway of the living room. Aside from her unruly hair, Paige was looking similar to how she did when she first showed up last night–a clean, thick, diaper jutting out from the bottom of her skirt. “All yours,” Lyndie said with a smile. “Gracias,” Mommy said, grabbing me by the hand. “Come on, Clarky. Let’s get that icky diaper off.” We walked a few feet before she stopped and pivoted towards the other girls again. “Oh, and Lyndie–you texted me last night that everyone might need toiletries if they stayed over night. I got some toothbrushes, toothpaste, and some deodorant, and it’s in a basket in the bathroom. Of course…Ava’s in there now, doing who-knows-what. But when she’s done, it’s all there for whoever needs it.” “Thank you,” Lyndie nodded. “I didn’t make coffee yet,” Mommy continued. “But I can start some–and breakfast too–after I take care of this baby.” “Paige and I will handle breakfast,” Lyndie said. Paige nodded to agree. We continued on towards the nursery, my hand still in hers. The stink of my diaper followed us, and it wasn’t until we were actually in the nursery itself that I could smell anything else. And when I did smell something else–it was Paige’s dirty diaper and baby powder. I almost wondered if Mommy brought me up after Paige just so that we’d have to smell this. “Did you behave yourself last night?” Mommy asked as I laid down on the changing table. I nodded. “I think so.” “How did things go with Ava last night?” “Sh-she kissed me.” I wasn’t planning on telling anyone this. If Ava didn’t remember the moment herself, I was happy with just letting it be forgotten by the rest of the world. Except for me, of course. “Did she now?” My diaper was being pulled open, revealing this morning’s nasty mess. My stench seemed to intensify, overpowering the lingering scents of other baby’s diapers and the baby powder. “Well…I doubt she’ll remember that.” “Ah. One of those kisses. Did you kiss her back?” “Uhm. A little. B-but she started it. And I…eventually…stopped it.” “Are you going to be okay?” Mommy asked. “If she doesn’t remember?” “She’s with Caleb,” I said. “That’s not what I asked.” “I’ll be okay,” I said. I didn’t entirely believe that, and Mommy probably didn’t either. But it seemed like the right thing to say. Mommy sighed as she brought a damp baby wipe to my skin to start cleaning away the disgusting mess I had in my diaper. “I don’t know if this is good advice to give someone or not. But…may I tell you my thoughts on the matter?” “Of course,” I said. “I know the right thing to do is to not meddle in Ava and Caleb’s relationship. But…I’m also a bit of a romantic at heart. And, well, if I were you, I think I’d need to tell Ava how I felt.” “But…I can’t do that,” I whined. “I just don’t want to fuck anything up.” “I know you don’t, Baby. And I respect that. I just…if I liked someone as much as you seem to like her, I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my mouth shut.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair as I felt Mommy running another wipe through my ass cheeks. “I’m not telling you what to do,” she continued. “I’m just telling you what I’d do.” “Thank you, Mommy.” I honestly wasn’t sure if that helped me or not, though I was still happy she shared her opinion with me. I wished I was the kind of person who could just tell Ava how I felt, but that wasn’t me. At this point, as terrible as it sounded, I wondered if my best chance would be for Ava and Caleb to choose to break up on their own. “That’s a hefty load you’ve put into your diaper,” Mommy said, her voice reminding me that I was still getting my diaper changed like a baby. “I, uhm…thanks?” “You didn’t poop last night at all, did you?” “N-no…” My recollection of the night before wasn’t perfect, so I couldn’t be certain that I had to go and chose not to while in the company of my friends–but that certainly sounded like something I’d do. Wait. There was something I could remember: Early in the game of truth or dare, I felt a mild pressure in my bowels–but I decided to ignore it in the hopes that someone’s dare for me might involve filling my diapers. In hindsight that was pathetic–and probably unnecessary, seeing as how everyone had witnessed me filling my diaper plenty of times without there being a game. “I don’t know if you were trying to not to embarrass yourself in front of your friends, or if you just thought you were too ‘big’ to poop your pants, but Clarky, you really shouldn’t hold it so long like that. That can cause other health problems.” “I-I know…” Mommy paused for a moment, sighing and then laughing to herself. “I’m sorry.” “For what?” “I know you’re trying to make some changes in your life. I worry that I’m not helping when I still treat you like a baby all the time.” “M-maybe it’s a good thing,” I shrugged. “If I ever do, like, grow up, it’ll be because I resisted all your efforts to keep me as a baby forever.” “I’m not trying to keep you as a baby forever. I did buy you a potty chair, didn’t I?” she asked, smiling as she shook some baby powder over my crotch. I laughed. “Oh yeah…” I thought back, again, to Lyndie tipping the purple potty into my diaper so that all of Ava’s warm piss cascaded over my caged cock. Mommy reached for a new diaper under the changing table, but what she grabbed was a pair of the training pants. She didn’t say anything about them, and so I didn’t either. Maybe this was how things were going to be moving forward–less diapers. More pull-ups. More potty-chairs. More dates for Mommy. “Wh-what do you think about my, uhm, chastity?” I asked. “When do you think–” “Do you want it off?” she asked. “N-no, that’s not what I’m asking. I just mean…did you have any idea of when you think it’d be right for it to come off?” “Maybe,” she shrugged, pushing the pull-ups down my legs. “But if you really want to take it off, just tell me.” “Okay,” I said. It sounded simple, but it didn’t feel as simple. The cage was an extension of Mommy herself–as if her hand was forever gripping my cock. When the cage was gone, her hand was gone. I sometimes hoped that I was ready for that, but the reality was that I didn’t think I was just yet. I didn’t know when I would be, but I was certain that I’d know it in the moment. From elsewhere in the house, we could hear the sounds of clanging–nothing alarming, most likely the sound of someone fumbling their way through the pots and pans. “It sounds like the girls are making us some breakfast,” Mommy said. “Let’s get you dressed and back down with your friends.” “I…don’t have to wear that onesie again, do I?” “Even if I wanted you to, I don’t think it’d be possible. Your diaper looks like it sprung a leak at some point. Another onesie for Marnie to clean, hmm?” I blushed, just trying to imagine Marnie’s face when tasked with having to clean soiled onesies from ‘babies’ that might be just as old as she was. “Dress yourself,” Mommy said. “Where whatever you want to. If you want to be a big boy today, go for it.” “R-really?” She smiled and nodded. “I’ll see you downstairs, Clarky.” “Thank you, Mommy,” I said. I liked onesies and baby things, but I spent the last two nights filling up diapers in the presence of pretty women. Maybe it was time they saw the other side of me. I threw on some socks, a pair of jeans, and a black t-shirt before catching myself in the mirror. I could almost pass as an adult. Someday soon, you’ll pass as an adult everytime you look in the mirror. Maybe there wasn’t a need to rush things. I took off the t-shirt and pulled the jeans down to my knees. I chose a simple baby-blue onesie from the closet and slipped it over my head, snapping the bottom of it below my pull-ups before pulling my jeans back up. I looked a lot less adult in the mirror now–though the jeans still seemed to add a few years. Good enough. I went downstairs, where it sounded like most everyone was already in the kitchen talking. The scent of freshly made coffee was wafting down the hallway. “Hey Clark.” Ava was in the living room by herself, reading her phone. “Oh, hey,” I said. “Is this your new aesthetic?” she asked, looking me over. I blushed a little. “Do you like it?” “It’s cute.” “Hey…how are you feeling?” I asked. “Last night was, uh…” “I drank a lot,” she said. “I’m not feeling my best today. How are you feeling?” I didn’t feel great, but I was certain that I was feeling better than her. “Can’t complain.” “Most of last night is a blur to me,” she shrugged. “Oh, uh, yeah,” I nodded. “Same.” “I really hope I didn’t do anything stupid.” I shook my head. “N-no, I doubt that. I don’t remember you doing anything too, uhm, silly. You just drank a lot and passed out.” “Good,” she said. “All morning I’ve been trying to shake the feeling that I made some stupid mistake last night, but I just couldn’t remember what it was. But maybe it was just in my head.” “No,” I said. “I promise–you didn’t make any mistakes last night.” My palms were sweaty. My heart was beating a little faster. Ava laughed to herself and shook her head. “I shouldn’t have drank so much.” “I get it. You were upset about whatever’s going on with Caleb.” “Ugh,” she groaned. “I forgot about him. I guess I’ll have to talk to him later. When I’m feeling better, of course.” “Best of luck with that.” “Thank you, Clark,” she said. “Thank you for just being a good friend.” “O-of course.” She leaned forward and hugged me, and I embraced her back. Over her shoulder, I could see my phone sitting on the couch’s side table–the same place I had left it last night. “Alright, I need to eat something,” she said, pulling herself away. “I’m coming to the kitchen. You coming?” “Yeah,” I nodded. “I’ll be there in a minute.” I checked my phone. No new messages–as to be expected. Though I still owed Megan a message. I started to type out an apology for not messaging her sooner before I stopped myself. She deserved an apology for more than just that. Megan was my friend, and I hadn’t done a very good job of making sure she knew that. What would an adult do? Me, to Megan: “Hey, I’m sorry about that, I was with some friends last night. But, speaking of friends, I know I haven’t been a very good one to you. I’d like a chance to fix that.” From elsewhere in the house, Lyndie’s sing-song voice rang through the halls: “Clar-ky! Hurry to the kitchen before your eggs get cold!” In the hallway, I paused in front of the mirror. It was the same mirror that I looked in last night before I greeted Paige at the door–the one that made me feel pathetic and infantile. I didn’t see that now. Aside from the blue onesie that disappeared into my jeans, I almost looked like an adult. Almost. Close enough for now. Ninety I missed spreadsheets. There was a part of me that was disgusted for even thinking that, but it couldn’t be denied. There was something about them that I just found so interesting. Rows and columns of data, with calculations and equations used to manipulate one set of numbers into different ones. Sometimes I’d look at a spreadsheet and the actual context for it wouldn’t even matter–it was just a pocket universe in and of itself, with self-governing rules about how raw data was manipulated into other useful information. “How’s that report coming along?” Lyndie asked, strolling up to the side of my desk. “Almost done, actually,” I said. Her eyebrows raised with some surprise. “Really? Already?” I found the workplace to be where I felt the most mature. Ironic, I supposed, considering how the workplace was also where I tumbled so hard to infancy in the first place. Now, despite the diaper-friendly environment of this new office, it felt like a training ground for adulthood. I was in training pants–and had actually used the urinal in the restroom that morning. I had a cup of coffee at my desk. I had plans for lunch that didn’t involve diaper changes or being fed a bottle. I shrugged. “It wasn’t that hard.” Lyndie laughed. “Look…I’ve got plenty more where that came from. Just say the word, and you can do all the stuff I don’t want to do.” “Bring it on.” “I’m holding you to that,” she said. “Before I go back to my office, is there anything else I should be checking in on?” I felt my cheeks warm a little. “I’m…dry.” “I should just take your word for that?” “D-do you want to check?” “I want to trust you. But you’ll earn that trust if you can keep showing me a dry diaper when you say it’s dry.” “Fair enough.” Someday, I’d be working at a place where I wouldn’t have my diaper checked. This wasn’t that day, and this wasn’t that place. I stood up from my chair and went through the motions of unfastening my belt and unbuttoning my pants before sliding them down my thighs. “Ooh,” Lyndie cooed. “A pull-up. A little promotion, huh?” “M-maybe.” She carefully inspected the garment, running her hand up the middle of it. “It does seem dry.” “Told you so.” “You might just find yourself in big boy underpants sooner than later at this point.” “Wouldn’t that be crazy?” “I’m proud of you.” I was so used to her sarcastic sense of humor that I thought she was somehow mocking me at first. But then I realized that she might have been serious. “Really?” “You’re growing up,” she said, walking away from my desk. “And don’t worry–I’ll have plenty more reports for you to work on soon enough.” I quickly hoisted my pants back into place and took a seat, basking for a moment in the warmth of her compliment. Risa was next on Lyndie’s list, it seemed, and I could hear Lyndie asking a similar question as she had asked me: “Is there anything I should be checking on?” “W-well…” Risa said. “I might be a little soggy.” “Stand up. Let me check your diapers.” I didn’t bother looking up from my monitor–I could imagine the scene perfectly. I had been in Risa’s shoes countless times before. It never stopped feeling great knowing that I wasn’t the littlest baby in the office any more. “Soggy?” Lyndie commented. “Risa, this thing is soaked. Your diaper is leaking. You’ve soaked through your dress. And…even your seat is soaking wet.” “I…I didn’t realize.” “Ms. Beaufort can change your diaper. And I hope that she has a change of clothes for you too. Either way, you can’t come back out here and use this chair again.” “Wh-why not?” “Because you’ll just get whatever you’re wearing wet again. Until this chair is dry, you'll just have to work on the floor.” “Yes, Ms. Brown.” Ms. Brown. What a power-trip that must’ve been for Lyndie. “Oh, Clark?” Lyndie said to me, walking past my desk again. “One more thing.” “Yes, Ms. Brown?” I asked with a grin. She laughed. “Do you want to come to my office for a minute?” “I’m not in trouble, am I?” I was only sort of joking. “No,” she said. “But I might be.” Curious. In Lyndie’s office, with the door closed, I sat in a chair on the other side of her big wooden desk. Sometimes, Lyndie was the same person I shared a tiny closet with when we were both interns. Sometimes, like now, she looked different. She looked powerful. She looked important. She looked like she had made adulthood her bitch. “I wanted to talk to you about Paige,” she said. “Oh. Uhm, sure. What about her?” “I don’t know how much you remember from the other night at your house…but I don’t think Paige and I were being all that subtle about, uhm…feeling something.” I laughed. “Yeah…I know.” “I was thinking maybe you and I should talk about that?” “She’s not…mine,” I said. “She can do whatever she wants.” “So progressive of you, Clarky,” she said. That was the sarcasm I expected from her. “I’m not here to ask you for permission. I’m here because I’m your friend, and I find myself attracted to someone who you seemed to have some sort of…connection with.” “We’re not dating,” I said. “We never were. There might have been a spark there, but I think that fizzled when…uhm… I think we’re just friends.” “Would it upset you if I…asked her out?” I had to consider that for a minute. The pragmatic part of myself didn’t have an issue with it–she already knew that I was still lusting for Ava. And if she shared Lyndie’s attraction, who was I to get in the middle of that? The more emotional part of myself was a little more conflicted. I liked hanging out with Paige. I liked the direction things had been going in until I made the mistake of involving Ava. Even the other night, during our sleepover, I had thought once or twice about how nice it would be to have a partner like Paige. But what could I offer her? Not the entirety of my heart. And if she knew there was a part of me still pining for Ava, how much of her heart could she offer me? “All I want is for you to be happy,” I said. She smirked. “That’s not what I asked you.” “I’m not going to be upset,” I said. That wasn’t entirely true. The idea stung a little bit. It’d sting when Lyndie told me they were actually going on a date. It’d sting when I saw the two of them together. But that wasn’t the worst thing in the world. I loved them both, and I knew I’d ultimately be happier for the both of them than I’d be bitter about it. “I promise.” Lyndie sighed with relief. “Thank you, Clark.” “Thank you for talking to me about it,” I said. Once again, my ‘big sister’ had been a good role model for maturity. No matter how awkward the conversation, sometimes they just needed to happen. I made note of that. “What are you doing for lunch today?” she asked. “Maybe we can go grab a sandwich or something?” “I’d love that,” I said. “But…I might have to take a raincheck on that. I have plans for lunch today.” “Oh? Mommy feeding you a bottle?” I laughed, feeling my cheeks blushing a little. “N-no… Actually, I was meeting with Megan today.” “Megan? Oh wow. How is she?” I shrugged. “No idea. Hence, getting lunch with her.” “You know, I never really had the chance to get to know her.” “I suspect the two of you would get along,” I said. “Maybe, if everything goes well today, I’ll have you two meet each other.” “I’d like that,” Lyndie nodded. Megan would probably like that too. “Of course,” I said, “I do have to ask that you try not to fall in love with her too.” “Touche,” Lyndie laughed. “Wait,” I said as I was about to leave her office. “I have one more question for you.” “Sure,” she said. “Go for it.” “So…what did you whisper in Paige’s ear the other night.” Lyndie bit her bottom lip and shrugged. “You know…we all had a lot to drink and…” “C’mon. I know you remember.” “That was between me and her. Maybe you should ask Paige sometime.” “Maybe I will.” “Good luck with that, though. I doubt she’d ever be able to repeat back what I said verbatim without fainting from embarrassment. I made note of that too, and went on my way. Just a few blocks away from the office was Lazy Cat–a tiny cafe stuffed in between a yoga studio and a liquor store. I probably walked past the place a thousand times while living in the city and never once realized it was there. When Megan asked me to meet her there, I almost didn’t believe the place existed at all. Sure enough, there were a few tables and chairs set up on the sidewalk in front of the cafe when I got there. I don’t know how I never missed seeing them before–making me curious as to what other treasures were hidden inside this town. Sitting at one of the tables was Megan. She looked amazing. She had always looked amazing, but this might have been the most amazing I had seen her yet. Her hair was voluminous. Her black and white dress looked like something a model would’ve worn on the cover of Vogue. “Clark,” she said, standing up. “Come here.” I practically ran to her, throwing my arms around her as she embraced me back. “It’s been a while,” I said softly. “Just a little bit,” she said. “How are you?” That was a complicated question. How did I sum up months and months of my life–arguably the strangest months I’d ever experience for the rest of my life–in a succinct way? “I’m good,” I said after a momentary pause. “And you?” “Oh, I’m doing quite well, thank you.” “You look amazing,” I said. Her cheeks reddened a little, but she shrugged like it was the sort of things she heard all the time. “I like to dress up for work. I like to dress up.” “No changes there, then. Though, I suppose Mr. Yang isn’t paying for those clothes anymore?” Her face contorted for a moment and then she laughed. “Oh jeez. I almost asked you who that was. It’s, uh, been a while since I thought about him. No, I’m buying my own clothes these days. Paying for my own apartment. Paying for my own food. Paying for my own diapers.” “You are still working back at the old office, right? Well…I guess it’s not old for you.” “Still there,” she said. “How is it?” She shrugged. “It’ll never be my dream job. And I still get pushback from assholes in suits who think that I’m less than them. But everytime I think about leaving and broadening my horizons, I get a raise or a promotion, and it convinces me to stay a little longer.” “You’re happy, though?” “I don’t need work to make me happy. I need work to help me afford the things that make me happy. Like pretty dresses and diapers.” We both laughed. “What about you? On the phone the other day you said you were working?” “Sort of,” I said. “I’m working for Mommy–er, Ms. Heller again with her new company.” “Ah yes. Neve Beaufort is there too?” “And Lyndie,” I nodded. “How is that?” “Well…the office always smells like a nursery.” “Ah. So diapers are encouraged?” “Very much so.” “Sounds like my kind of company,” she said. “Well…I have an in with the owner, so if you’re ever interested in a position, just let me know.” “Very tempting,” she smiled. A server approached our table and took our order. Once again, I was reminded of the simple details that contributed to feeling like an adult. It was more than having a job and not sucking on a pacifier in public–it was having a stranger ask what kind of bread you wanted your sandwich on. It was looking forward to a tall glass of freshly brewed unsweetened iced tea with a lemon wedge. It was the joy of looking across the table at a friend and not wondering when–not if–they were going to change your diaper. “So,” Megan said, stirring the ice in her water with her straw. “I want to know everything.” “Everything?” “Catch me up, Clark. What happened after you and your Mommy walked out of the office and into the sunset together?” “It might take a while.” “I’ve got as much time as you do.” “Uh, sure. So…” I let her have it. Maybe not all of it, but most of it. I told her about how I had moved in with Mommy, abandoning almost everything else in my life. I told her of the months spent in diapers, acting and being treated like an actual baby. I told her about the realization that I wanted to be an adult again–though I left out the part where it was my infatuation for Ava that served as my inspiration–and the slow progression I had been making. I even told her about my training pants and the potty chair. I didn’t tell her about my mother. As best as I could recall, I hadn’t ever told Megan about who she had sent the pictures of my dirty diaper to–and I didn’t want her to ever think she owed me an apology. Megan may have hit the send button, but the moment was actually the culmination of my own actions and choices. That burden was mine, and mine alone–and now that I was in a better place with my mother, it seemed even less necessary to tell Megan about it. Too, I didn’t tell her about Paige, nor did I tell her about the recent sleepover. They weren’t secrets, nor were they details I didn’t think Megan could handle–I just felt like I had already thrown so much at her, and I was eager to see how she felt about it all so far. She shook her head. “Incredible. You know, you really ought to write about all this. It’d make for a hell of a book.” “Well, I don’t know how much of a market there is for a book about a guy being made to use diapers, but…” “Trust me, someone will read it. Besides, it's way too wild to keep to yourself.” Since my conversation with Paige a week ago, I had been thinking more and more about how much I wanted to commit my saga to words–and Megan’s suggestion only seemed to reinforce how good of an idea it was. “I might do something like that,” I shrugged. “So what now?” she asked. “You’re working towards getting back on your adult feet again. What are your next steps?” “Well, I’m working again, so that’s a good start. I’m using the toilet again, too.” Megan burst into laughter, shaking her head. “And I’m so proud of you for that.” “Like, I love living with Mommy, er…” “You don’t have to keep correcting yourself, silly. I know who ‘Mommy’ is.” I blushed again as I nodded. “I love living with her. There’s a part of me that wants to live there for the rest of my life. But I need my own space, and she needs hers. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to, like, grow up if I stay there, you know?” “That makes sense,” Megan said. “Have you been looking around for a place to live?” “Not really. I mean…a little. But rent is so expensive anymore, and so I’d probably need a roommate. And then I start worrying about whether or not my roommate will discover my diapers or not. And then…” Megan smiled. “Which part of ‘growing up’ requires diapers?” “W-well, I mean…I know some people…” And I was thinking of Ava as I said this. “...choose to walk away from this stuff and they don’t want to go back to it. But I don’t know if I’ll ever be completely done with wearing them.” “I’m teasing, Clark. And I understand what you mean. Honestly, I think it’s a good thing.” “Yeah?” “You’re allowed to like what you like. And I hope that you always have a place where you can express that.” “Th-thank you.” “May I float an idea out to you?” she asked. “Sure.” “When I decided that I no longer needed Darren Yang anymore…” She practically spat the name out like it put a bad taste in her mouth. “...I had to move out of the apartment he was renting for me. I downsized a bit, moving into this tiny studio apartment, afraid that I wouldn’t be able to afford much more than that. Well…I quickly outgrew the place, so I just signed a lease for a new two-bedroom place closer to the office. It was going to be cheaper for me to just run out the lease on the studio instead of breaking it, so…I still have it.” I thought I saw where this was going, but I didn’t want to just assume. “So…?” “Well, it’s not in the prettiest part of the city. But it’s a safe neighborhood. And it’s a lot cheaper than anything else that’s out there. If you’re interested…you could either apply to live there after my lease is up, or I could just renew the lease and sublet it to you.” “Megan, that’s a huge offer. A-are you sure that you…” “I wouldn’t offer it to you if I thought it was a bad idea. You’ve got a month to think it over, and then I need to tell the leasing office what I want to do with the studio apartment. I won’t be hurt if you don’t want it. But, I dunno, it seems like a nice place for someone who wants to get back on their feet again.” I wanted to ask ‘why,’ but maybe she just answered that question. Once upon a time, probably not that long ago, she was getting back on her own feet as well–and now she was paying it forward. “Thank you,” I said, as humbly as I could. “That means a lot to me, and I’m going to give that some serious consideration.” “Of course,” she shrugged. “Honestly, your timing for reaching out to me was perfect. Any later, and I might have already given my notice that I wasn’t renewing the lease. And a place like that? It’d be snatched up in a minute.” “I’m sorry it took me so long to say hi,” I said. “It shouldn’t have.” “It’s okay. It sounds like you had your hands full. Or…maybe Mommy had her hands full.” “I…I shouldn’t just be let off the hook,” I said. “We had that really fun day together, and almost right after that I dropped off the face of the earth. That was uncool.” She took a moment or two to consider my words. I appreciated that–if she quickly replied that it hadn’t bothered her, I’d have worried that she was just dismissing me. “I knew about what was happening,” she said. “So it’s not like you just disappeared into a void. I was happy for you too–maybe because there was a part of me that wished I was in your shoes. Or, uhm, your diaper. I mean…yeah, it sucked that I felt like I had just made a good friend, only for you to leave–but it was hard to take that personally. I sometimes think about my own transition. Not even the transition to ‘Megan’–just the transition into who I am, overall, now. I know there’s people I unintentionally left in the dust too. I know there were times I chose pleasure and self-fulfillment over my friends.” “I’m sorry,” I said again. “Thank you,” she nodded. “But you don’t owe me any more apologies. You were the first friend I had made in a long time, and that helped motivate me to make some big changes in my life. I’ll always be thankful to you for that. You and I will always be good, Clark. Promise.” I felt tears welling in my eyes, and I not-so-discreetly had to wipe them from my face. “I’m so glad we’re finally hanging out again.” “Likewise. I missed having someone I can talk about diapers with.” I laughed. “Are you not listening to me? I’m trying to grow up.” “You’ll always have diapers, Clark.” “I know, I know. So you’re still wearing them, then?” “Not as much as I’m sure you are,” she shrugged. “But regularly. I tried real hard to find people to share that part of myself with.” “How’s that been going?” “Awful,” she laughed. I was laughing too–I tried to imagine a world where I didn’t know anyone else with a diaper kink and had to find them on my own. It never really occurred to me how lucky I was that I accidentally found Mommy–and everyone else I had met on my journey thus far. “Are you seeing anyone?” I asked. “Why? You interested?” “N-no, I… I mean, I wish, but… Uh…” She was laughing again, more of a cackle this time. “It never fails to amaze me how easy it is to get you all worked up.” I sighed and shrugged, unsure of what else to say. “I’m seeing this nice young man named Ryan,” she said. “He’s a real daddy-type, though he doesn’t know that yet.” I chuckled under my breath. “He doesn’t know about your diapers?” “Not yet. But one of these days, he’s going to pull down my pants and find a padded surprise waiting for him.” “A soaking wet surprise,” I nodded. “Probably,” she shrugged. “If that happens, I’d love to hear what happened next.” “I bet you would, dirty baby.” “What about you?” she asked. “Is the big baby back on the dating scene yet?” “Uh…sort of,” I shrugged. “You had a little thing for that other assistant-girl didn’t you? Ava?” I couldn’t remember if Megan and I had ever talked about that before or not. But if we hadn’t–we probably didn’t need to. I imagined it was pretty obvious to anyone who knew either myself or Ava. “Yeah, just a little crush.” Just–as if Ava wasn’t at the forefront of my mind 90% of the time. “Do you keep in touch with her?” “Uh huh,” I nodded. “She’s, uhm, not a ‘baby’ anymore though.” “That’s a shame. For you.” “And she’s dating someone else,” I added. “Someone else who’s, like, not a baby either.” “Ah,” Megan smiled knowingly. “That sounds like a good reason for a little boy like you to try and grow up.” “Maybe.” Later, after our longer than expected lunch, I walked back to the office with a little extra pep in my step. Seeing Megan had been incredibly nice, and may have been a little extra fortuitous if access to her studio apartment was in the cards now. That felt like good luck. No, that felt like fate. It felt like being rewarded for good decisions. I was thinking about spreadsheets again, and imagining my life laid out across one. Some of the cells held raw data–actual numbers, representing decisions I’ve made for myself. Some of the data in other cells, however, would be the results of calculations and equations–possibilities of my life to come, based on the decisions I’ve made. I couldn’t control all the data, but I could control some of it. I thought about what Mommy had said the day prior about confronting Ava and telling her how I felt. I still didn’t love the idea–but a conversation like that was, at least, raw data. And that seemed better than leaving it up to calculations that were beyond my control.

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay. A family event yesterday ran a lot longer than I was anticipating, so when I got back after, I still had two pages of this chapter to write. Then, on top of that, I realized when I was editing all this that I wanted to change the sentiment of a particular section. It felt a bit weak personally and I knew it was important going forward, so I changed it. Next, looking ahead, I should be able to post another chapter tomorrow, but after, there will likely be a delay until Friday at the earliest. Unfortunately, if a chapter doesn’t go up Friday at this point, it might not go up until next Monday. I’m really trying to avoid that and write like crazy before then, but the Fourth of July here in the states can be a bit busy, so no promises. Also, as a reminder, the poll for my next story is still going on. As a reminder, as usual, I will post my decision of my next story during my final chapter of this story. Until then, feel free to comment here or personally message me what you want to read next. I like all the choices I am presenting, so choose what you want. For those not sure of the choices, just refer to the beginning of chapter 2. Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter! Chapter 19: A Step Back and Up I felt dizzy and numb, but warm and satisfied at the same time. That tiny glow in my heart reserved solely for Paul began to glow again. I had finally met my Little in LRG. Here he was… standing right before me, proud and as happy as I had ever seen him. But like all things, my mind snapped to one massive problem I had just heard; he was a leader in LRG. Astrid was insistent on bringing down LRG. My reports to her were just about some basic facts about the organization, but when I found a note the other day in the brick for the dead drop pressing me for more information on leadership, I knew it had to be my top priority to end all this. Now, while I wasn’t sure if Paul was the leader per say, him being anywhere near leadership was a massive problem. Removing my emotional stake in everything, if I was viewing this as an outsider LPS agent, Paul would be shipped off to Dark Cliff Prison after a five-minute trial… even a fair one. “You know…” Paul mused after a moment of introductions and pleasantries, stroking his light stubble that had grown back after he had clearly stopped using the shampoo I used on him that was designed specifically to only keep a Little’s topmost hair growing. “You seem familiar…” “I do?” I could feel my pulse quicken. The average Little I had met around here, even if I knew them before, I had only seen for maybe three weeks at the most. For Paul though… he had lived with me for over two months. I had fed him, bathed him… even changed his diapers by the end. For someone like that, I wasn’t sure how well my changed looks were going to hold up. “Maybe you met her before you were with that other woman? Or maybe one of her friends recently?” Carol suggested. My mind picked up on the fact that she was likely referring to the real me… the Big version. Paul shook his head. “I don’t think so. She…” Paul’s previously confident and mature demeanor switched back to what I had seen when he was around me. I wasn’t sure exactly how to describe it… shy maybe, but I could see through even his personality at LRG, my Little was still in there. “Well, she really didn’t keep much company with unregressed Littles.” He turned to me, his eyes clearly still trying to discover why I was so familiar to him. “You didn’t happen to go to a daycare… Forrest Hills, did you?” I shook my head, still remembering the profile LPS had set up for me. Undercover work could be about improvisation, but it also had to be consistent. Especially with Carol here, even if I could form a new bond and better bond with him better as ‘Susan,’ she knew that I had never been regressed or owned by a Big. So, meeting him at a daycare was definitely out as an option. “No… I think I just have one of those faces that are familiar to everyone. I was always getting compared to someone else back home. Some singer or TV star usually with glasses…” I wasn’t sure how convinced Paul was about my line, but he smiled and nodded. “Hmmm… I guess that must be it.” He took a breath, and then patted me on the shoulder, a curious crinkle coming from him as he shifted toward me. “Regardless… welcome to LRG officially, Susan.” “Thanks. It’s good to be here…” I made sure to smile for Paul. It was becoming my mask against what I was truly feeling lately. Openness could serve me well, but all I wanted to do right then was hug Paul again. I wondered if it would feel the same in my new Little form, but I quickly decided against it. For now, no matter how much I wanted more than just a simple pat on the should from my Little, now one of the leaders of LRG, I knew I couldn’t have it. After that day, my reputation in LRG began to spread. My leadership and quick thinking of hiding in the woods to evade a known problematic pro-Big group of Bigs in the area, made me a valuable asset. Carol had been right when she had said that several groups in similar situations never even made it back. A few had one or two people, but sadly, a 75% return rate was considered almost abnormally successful. Still mourning Sean though, I clung onto that other 25% and tried whatever I could to make it so that never happened to another Little around me again. Seeing me as a likely rising star in LRG, I began to see Paul more often. Going on more day missions afterward, I started to visit the warehouse more often. Now, I was able to confirm that Paul lived underneath the warehouse with the other leaders and full-time LRG members. Unlike the other leaders though, Paul seemed to take more of an active role with new recruits and the overall morale and well-being of all LRG members. I had always seen his kindness and leadership when it came down to it, always leading Alice or even Roger during some of their ‘playtimes’ together, but I also began to see a new side of Paul as well. His scruff and close-cropped hair now continually threw my mind for a loop, but to my relief, I felt I could still be proud to call him my Little. Possessive of me, perhaps, but the notion of us leaving here together to live in peace had been my driving hope and was one of the few things keeping me sane around here. As I began to go on more missions with Xander, Mindy, and an occasional other new recruit leftover from one of their decimated parties, I also began to see LRG in a new way. It was a tough life, and I could see how much it was already affecting those around me. Before, LRG was a group bent on destruction of Big society. It was still in all the papers, but now, I saw the Littles come back from the more extreme missions of protests and equipment sabotages of pro-Big groups. Bloody wounds, dull eyes after being dosed with some chemical, and tears for yet another fallen Little. While I still remembered Sean, for most others, he just became another number. For my own mind’s sanity and clinging onto that fleeting feeling of humanity… if that was even the right word to use in my case, I began to keep a log of those we had lost: Sean, Rebecca, Jackson, Tula, Burt, Lamar. Each loss weighed on everyone, but as the days passed, I saw that LRG couldn’t mourn properly or hold themselves back if they otherwise normally would have. If they did, it could be a liability. They could be too distracted or in grief and then fall behind on a mission. If they did, they would probably just become another name in my book. So, the Littles around me walled themselves off or, gratefully in some cases, came to me. Then, one night, I was gathered around the fire once more with my friends and a few other fresh faces. “I can’t believe they just came at us like that,” Fritz noted, holding an icebag to his head where a darkened lump was already forming. “We were just going door to door… we weren’t hurting anyone…” Carmen said, her voicing quaking as she tried to rub the tears away from her eyes, a stain of blood on her shirt from one of her former companions today. “Bastards…” Mindy nearly hissed. “That’s why we’re doing this… to prevent all that. But also, don’t you forget that’s just what all Bigs are.” Since Sean’s capture and her recovery from her fall that day, Mindy was growing colder. She was a far cry from the Little that couldn’t stop playing with her hair as a shield from her previous problems when I had first met her at LPS. I had even considered giving her a doll to hold that day to better open up to me. Now, it seemed only her curly hair remained of the Little she was back then. “Don’t listen to her,” Xander said with a sigh. He still had a mouth on him that could piss off the dead, but unlike Mindy, since Sean’s disappearance, he had actually come to me a few times to talk and was better a processing his grief. “Bigs are… well, Bigs are complicated. If we start labeling all of them as ‘evil,’ we might as well just try to leave here and focus on something else other than a lost cause.” “And go where?” Fritz asked, wincing a bit as he shifted his ice pack around. “Most of us are stuck here still from the block they have over us from how long we’ve been here.” “True,” Xander admitted. “Maybe an island somewhere in that scenario, but that’s not what I’m saying.” Everyone looked at him in curiosity, including me. “LRG is about something more.” “More?” Carmen questioned. I could see the doubt in her eyes, and I could see that Xander was trying, and no offense to him, but likely going to fail in his explanation. It just wasn’t his strength. “I think I get it,” I quickly noted. “LRG is about changing minds. Bigs aren’t great…” I was starting to freely admit that more to myself and out loud as my time progressed here. “But we want them on our side. LRG isn’t about killing or forcing every Big to their knees in submission. That’s just revenge. That’s not us… or that’s not why I joined at least.” “And then how do you explain them rounding us up?” Mindy spat back. “Or how about lobotomizing us? Or forcing us to mess our pants? Or surgeries to cripple us?” “Fear,” Paul said, emerging from the darkness again. Curiously, he moved in next to me. Internally overjoyed just a bit, I made sure he had room. “Evening everyone.” Most of the group nodded, and I could see Paul’s smile already beginning to melt a few of the hotter tempers around the circle. “Fear?” Carmen asked, her wide eyes searching for the truth in something to better cope with the loss of today. Ginger and Katya had both been hit with baseball bats and were too injured to continue without slowing Fritz or Carmen down, so like Sean, they had been left behind. “How in the world do Bigs fear us?” Paul sighed. “You know… I would have never believed it myself. I mean, I joined LRG a long time ago. It was basically just a few people back then who escaped and were homeless. All full of anger and not much else. Together though, we found our strength and focused that anger and built what you see today. Then I got captured…” “You did?” Fritz asked with wide eyes. “How’d you escape?” I forgot that most actually didn’t know about Paul’s history, but even I leaned in to see how he would answer. It was still a bit of a mystery that I wanted answered myself. “That’s not important…” My hopes were quickly dashed, but likely about to be talked about in some form or fashion, I wanted to know what he had to say still. “What is though… I saw a different side to Bigs than most. The woman… well, she was different. It’s complicated and I’m still sorting it out, but when I saw those Bigs, I saw the same hatred and prejudice that you all see now.” “And how does that lead to fear exactly?” Mindy scoffed and crossed her arms. I wondered if she would ever change by now. “Fear breeds hate,” he said plainly. “We all view this as an us versus them argument, and as much as we don’t want to admit it, we both get lost along the way.” “So, you’re saying we’re to blame for them?” Fritz asked skeptically. His question posed with him still holding his bruised head was a powerful sight. I could even see Paul waver for a moment. Paul sighed. “There are two sides to every equation. We see them as the enemy, but I see your all’s looks when you come back bloody, bruised, and missing a friend or two. If you had the power, would you offer a hand of friendship to them, or would you strike them down for what they’ve done to you and your friends and your kind?” The room was silent for a while. I could see the same question replay over and over in their minds. I couldn’t help but ponder the question myself. Seeing that he might be reaching everyone though, Paul continued. “See, they have the power, so they are acting out of hate.” He sighed. “It’s terrible, but it’s how we are wired. “Fear leads us to be more cautious. Before, we used it as a weapon against the predators of the jungle, so now our fear leads to us labeling what we fear as an enemy. It’s good for survival but look what it’s brought to us.” “Do you have a solution then, or is this just another philosophy class that I fell asleep to in college?” Xander tried to joke amongst the tension. “I don’t know, but I know we are the first step. We have to be.” Paul paused for a moment and took a breath. “They fear us because the native Littles here created a lot of their technology. It was the reason why the Great War here lasted as long as it did. Bigs have a long memory, so for us, we need to make up for what happened in the past. It’s harder to offer a hand to them in friendship when it could be a fist, but we have an opportunity here to at least try first.” “And… how exactly does that help us at all?” Fritz asked. I could see the confusion and yet overwhelming amounts of hope in his eyes. “If we just sit back and active peaceably, won’t they all just walk over us like they’ve been doing?” Paul shook his head. “Not all are bad. I know it might seem like it, but we need to find the good ones first.” Paul then looked down at his fingers, and I wasn’t sure what I was seeing, but he was definitely messing with something small between them. “My caregiver… she was kind and patient. She might have been an exception… not the rule, but it gives me hope. So many others have acted in fear but hold onto the fact that they could change. For now, they hate us because they fear us. Childish in a way perhaps, but we were the same in our own history.” A few scoffed, but Paul pushed through. “Do you think it was just a mistake that Earth was so devastated when they came? That wasn’t them… that was us. We learned, and LRG was founded to reach those that can be taught.” “But what can they even learn from us?” I could still see the tears in Carmen’s eyes. “How can we teach them when we end up with black eyes and losing our friends every time we leave here?” Paul sighed. “It will be slow and hard… maybe even painful for some of us. I won’t lie to you there,” Paul admitted reluctantly. “But we need to do it for a better tomorrow. Stay with us a little longer and find out just how we plan on doing that. Like most of you, I’m stuck here… so, we might as well take advantage of that and help those who aren’t able to now and those who come long after us.” Paul had formed into a sort of crouch amongst the group, but now stood up. “We have some events planned. So, for now, I want you all to get your rest… lick your wounds. Today was hard, but our work of reaching out to the Bigs who can side with us is our first step.” “But when will that happen?” Mindy asked impatiently. “Another week? Month? Year even? How long do we have to wait in the ruins here?” Paul smirked just as he started to turn away. “Soon…” After that, the group was left in confusion over their conflicted emotions and deep thoughts, but none so more than me. I had remained silent and couldn’t believe what I was hearing from Paul. When he was my true Little, I never heard anything but fear or vitriol from his mouth until the end. Now, I could see a leader with a plan and a heart. Cryptic and maybe not all so forthcoming as my friends seemed to want as they talked around the fire, but I could see that something was brewing soon. Faced with the notion of Paul being a leader in LRG, a potential event coming up, and my lack of faith now in the mission overall, I was starting to feel compromised. I was hoping my friends around the fire would ease my mind afterward, but still stunned into contemplative silence, they didn’t. Most, like Mindy, just seemed frustrated as well with their involvement in LRG and wanted to push harder for change. So, when I got home, with all that stirring in mind, I prepared another dead drop for tomorrow morning. Waking up earlier than usual, I quickly made my way over to the dead drop brick and slipped my note inside. While I didn’t use the code word to end the mission in that fashion or mark the letter as urgent, I still listed a few concerns and requested a meeting from an agent of importance within LPS. I hadn’t been instructed to be able to do so during this mission, but it was a valuable tool for further instructions when needed that I learned during my last undercover operation. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least try. Later, with it being a weekday, I was still keeping up with my counseling job. I needed to pay the rent, and to ensure there was no connection back to LPS that one could easily find, I had to supplement my entire income. So, I had just finished up with another Little who was worried about their potty training. They were my seventh already this week and it was only Tuesday, but my concern was tempered when I heard a loud knock at my front door. Slightly fearful that someone had found me out or that a Big was now targeting me, I approached the door with caution. I was somewhat t relieved that it didn’t immediately burst open afterward and that that there wasn’t a second knock, but considering the regression dispersal unit that had been mailed to one Little two weeks ago that made the news, my heart still pounded. Opening my door slowly, I was relieved to see that no one was there anymore. I briefly wondered if it had been someone else’s door that had been knocked on… the walls weren’t particularly thick here, but as I backed away, my eyes drifted down, and I saw a small envelope on my front door mat. Picking it up, I quickly retreated back inside. It was blank and while that would have likely soiled the shorts of any other Little, I recognized it as LPS’ way of communicating with me. Still, I made sure to hold it away from me and even open it up in a pot that I could quickly close. Stupid to any of my Big friends if I ever talked about this moment, but for a Little, there was no such thing as being overly cautious. Fortunately, it just contained a single letter. “Perry Street. By the northernmost bank. 2 P.M.” Memorizing the location, only being about two blocks away, I burned the note. Being made of flash paper, it went up in seconds. I quickly pushed my next appointment up, which actually turned out better for the Little… Apparently, the new swing set over on 29th street was just too good to pass up. Regardless, though, I soon found myself wandering down Perry Street. Darkened and taller buildings loomed over everything. While the bank was sturdy in its position, the end of the street was much less so. A single alleyway, all damp from a recent rain, smelled, and the air was heavy with the underbelly of the more decaying side of the Little populated area. If things like that weren’t already putting me on edge, I saw a likely homeless old Big woman sitting slumped at the base of one building and muttering to herself. “Starfish… opal… peanut has its eyes…” she muttered, her grungy appearance and her voice crackling with a raspy quality that made me quicken my pace. Unfortunately, I got to the end of the street, and I didn’t see a single agent that I could make out. They were usually obvious, and beside the old woman and the Little, clearly in withdrawal of something, I was alone. I checked my watch. 2:02… ‘Shit…’ My heart began to race again. The flash paper and the communication strategy all lined up with LPS, but I couldn’t help but flinch at every pop of gravel when I car went by on the road, or when a hiss came out of a nearby grate that led down to the subway system underneath. Not wanting to stay in one place, after about another minute, I decided to call off my meet-up with them. I would question it tomorrow morning with another dead drop, but for now, I just felt I needed to get home. “Damn! I guess I just have to…” The old woman sprung up and surrounded me. Standing toe to toe for a second, she towered over me, and before I could make out even a single whimper, let alone scream, her hand was covering my mouth. Another arm then gripped my arm and side opposite, and I was dragged down the alleyway. “Please… please…” I begged, when the old lady oddly removed her hand from my mouth. By now, I felt if I just quickly complied, I could find a time to flee from her and rely on my agility outmatching her, or she would be more lenient to me if I couldn’t escape right away. Dignity meant little when pleading with a Big if it meant avoiding diaper in the future. However, none of my posturing to her proved necessary… “Geez, Soph…” the old woman said amusedly, though I noticed the gravelly quality of her voice had quickly changed right as she pushed a button a small and now-blinking device. “You think when you might have heard your own name and you had the choice between me or shaky down on the corner, you would have asked me something…” I squinted up at the Big, who was now rubbing her face and removing a scarf that had partially covered part of her face before. Crouching down, despite her disguise, I recognized her instantly now. “Astrid! What the hell are you doing out here?” “Good to see you too, old friend…” I briefly looked away in embarrassment over my lack of manners to her. “It’s okay, Soph… but I felt we needed to talk. Your message… today and other times, well… I’m a bit concerned and to be blunt, the whole agency is as well.” “They are?” I wasn’t sure how many people were involved, but I had seen that look on Astrid’s face before. It meant trouble. “Yes,” Astrid confirmed. She then pointed to the blinking device concealed within her dirty clothing. “Now, I have this jamming device on, so no one can hear us, so tell me what’s going on. Is Paul really one of the leaders in LRG?” I had forgotten I had shared that tidbit with her last week. I wanted it to be subtle, but I guess in retrospect, there’s no way of being subtle about one’s Little being the head of a labeled terrorist organization. “It is… he’s not the top leader,” I tried to defend, “but he definitely holds some sway over the group.” “So, you’ve talked to him?” I nodded and Astrid instantly seemed more curious. “Hmmm… his position could actually work to our advantage, but I’m guessing with your recent tone in your messages… are you having second thoughts about the mission, Sophie?” I definitely wasn’t expecting that question to just pop up so suddenly. I should have expected it, given that Astrid knew the lengths I would go to help Paul, but I was exactly prepared with a straight-up answer. “I… no, but… I don’t know…” “What don’t you know?” Astrid, my friend, had now been clearly replaced with Astrid the agent. She wanted answers and wouldn’t be leaving until she got them… or I had been ‘taken care of.’ It could mean a lot coming from her definitions over the years, but I didn’t want to risk finding out any of them in-person. I sighed. “I just… LRG feels like something different,” I admitted. If I lied, Astrid could probably tell, and I would just be worse off. Like ripping off a band-aid, I just needed to be quick about all this. I didn’t have to reveal everything, but the gist could buy me more time in the future and satisfy Astrid for now. “I can’t see the whole organization, but… I’m just… I’m just not sure if they are the bad guys we make them out to be.” There, I said it. Astrid only blinked at me for a moment. I was half convinced I was going to be pulled out of the field any moment now. “That’s…” She heavily sighed and shook her head. “That’s irrelevant right now, Sophie. Surely, you know that.” I did but I hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself. The news stories had already leaked out about LRG. If my encounter with the Bigs the other week was any suggestion, LRG’s reputation was souring by the day in the public’s perception. LPS was likely under pressure to produce results, and with Littles, most policies tended to play it safe. Once a mission was started like this one, even if it was just one rogue, it wouldn’t just stop. If I left, I knew that Sophie had enough information to continue still and instantly shut the group down using some… harsh methods. Right as I was contemplating what was going to happen next though, I saw a dark cloud hover over my old friend and colleague. I hated that pensive look she got. She was a cool-headed field agent, so whenever her emotions showed, I rarely liked what I would find. “What is it?” Astrid smirked but I could still see the dark conflict within her. “Never really could keep a secret from you…” She paused and placed her hand on my shoulder. “Before you do anything rash… Aetos and a few others… well, they made a call about your status.” “My status?” My mind began to rapidly tick and shell out any possibility that she could be talking about. Including Aetos, I didn’t like any of them. “They decided… any resignation on your part before LRG is shut down…” She sighed and I could tell this was killing her to report to me. My mind briefly flashed back to the notion of my failure on this mission and my disbelief that it was her. That suspicion was growing. “If you resign, Sophie, they can’t guarantee you to grow back up… to your normal size… to be a Big again.” My mind went blank for a sudden. I think a small whimper might have escaped my lips, but I was honestly so numb and horrified right then, that I really don’t remember. We Bigs were a tricky lot when it came to Littles, and while I always knew that from the likes of my mom, this mission was showing a very clear picture of that to me now. Seeing as Paul was involved in all this and was a leader, LPS was now essentially asking me to choose between me getting my old life back and Paul’s freedom without any consequence. They made me a promise of immunity for him, but with this decision, I doubted I could truly count on that anymore. But right now, my mind couldn’t think of another choice in the this who cluster of crap. “Say something,” Astrid said after a moment, her hand still not leaving my shoulder. “I…” It was a struggle to get any words out. “What can I do, Astrid? I’m running out of things I can do. You don’t know what its like out here…” Astrid looked at me with curiosity and for a moment, I could see that my old friend was back more than the hardened LPS agent. “There are traps everywhere, and any Big could just snatch me up and that would be it. Did you know that LRG has already lost ten members in the time since I started this mission? One day here, and the next… poof! With this decision… I don’t know if I’m going to make it out of this mission in once piece if I have to stay potentially even longer…” Astrid looked at me with sympathy, but I could also see a spark of something brewing in her head. “I’m sorry, Soph. I really am.” She sighed yet again and despite her being in charge of everything apparently, I was wondering if something had changed and that she was now more of a ‘middleman’ in all this. “Some weird orders from higher ups lately, and I think there’s a…” I could see she wanted to say more, but in that moment, I needed to comfort her. I placed my hand on her to show that she didn’t need to continue for my sake. It was probably illegal to do so, and I didn’t want her to burden herself with that fact. If she was ever questioned, it could be very bad for her. Smiling, she continued, but now, with a more serious expression. “We have intel that a bomb threat is imminent and that could be it, but I’m seeing a calamity in the future between Bigs and Littles. If you can’t find out the information, Sophie… another Great War could happen in the next year or so.” I wondered what else she knew that she wasn’t telling me. LPS was to help Littles for sure, but it was also to maintain the peace. So, despite my aversion to destroying LRG, I knew something needed to give way, but I was still coming up blank with what to do in the meantime. “I may not like this whole arrangement anymore, but I understand. I just know what else I can do though…” Astrid nodded and handed me a small envelope. “This could help. It’s just some information that we I printed out from a duplicate printer of the one in your apartment.” I took it without question. “Sophie… I’m giving this to you for one reason though. It will help your standing in the group and will help LRG avoid disaster soon, but… I want you to get higher up within the organization.” The truth was out there now. I could feel something coming from my old friend after she mentioned the bomb threat, but I just wasn’t sure what. “Won’t that mean more risk on my part and my involvement with possible illegal activities though?” Astrid hesitated but nodded. “It could, but we need more information on LRG. The consequences of getting there will likely be less than what we could learn. Because, in essence, with you higher, you’ll be able to find out about this bomb threat. If it’s legit, we can save lives. If it’s not, we might be able to back down and figure something else out for LRG. More immunity deals for members and whatnot. To me, it seems like a good tradeoff for any potential consequences you might face.” Her voice was filled with conviction, but she still sighed and then patted my shoulder again. “It’s a good thing you’re doing, but I need to know… can you do this for us… me, Sophie?” In all honesty, it felt like a stupid question. I could see her sincerity and concern for my well-being, as well as checking on me from an LPS perspective, but with everything she had just laid out for me, any answer but yet felt near paramount to a suicide of a kind. If I said no, I would have likely been removed from the mission. Maybe not today, but I knew my days in LRG would be numbered. And, from what Astrid just told me, that would mean a likely slow demise as a doomed Little in this world. Further, if I left, Paul was a dead man, figuratively, or considering everything going on, maybe even literally. So, in the end, despite her concern, I could only truly say one answer back to her. “Yes, Astrid. I can do this.” As I walked back to my apartment and Astrid slipped away into the shadows not long after that, I did feel trepidation over my answer. Yes, it was the only one I really could give to her, but still, LRG presented a massive block to me. Even after several weeks with them, I was still considered a newbie and had only ever met Paul as a leader. Now, she wanted me to go deeper, consequences be damned. It was a thought that burned within me for the remainder of my sessions and that continued even as I boarded the subway to go back to LRG headquarters later that night. I was plagued with fears and panics over my next steps. It was awful, but while on the subway, being amongst the Littles, and constantly being looked at by Bigs, it was unnerving but solidifying in my heart over what I had to do next. If I failed, Paul would be doomed, and I would be stuck. Risking my neck wasn’t appealing, but the alternatives were far worse. “Hey, Paul?” He looked up at me later that night as I approached the fire circle he was seated around. I made sure to blend in with my friends and act casually about the whole thing, as well as to calm my still-present nerves, but I knew I still had to speak to Paul tonight. Waiting any longer would just be worse for everyone. “Hey Susan,” he said back with a warm smile. It still had the ability to melt my heart, and while I felt some betrayal to him right then as well, I knew that to preserve that smile and likely his life as anyone would know it, I would have to follow a path that would one day break his heart. “Something on your mind?” I realized I had paused for a little longer than I wanted to and I momentarily blushed. “Sorry… long day and all, but… uh, can I speak to you for a moment? Alone?” Paul seemed to be happier than usual tonight… maybe even a little drunk. It worried me, but I hoped he would be willing. “Whatever you need to say to me, these people can hear it too. We got some really good news tonight about the passage of some safe Little laws up in Siahlum in Columbia. I’m sure we all would love to hear what you want to say as well…” So, I was wrong about his willingness... My resolve crumbled a little, but my mind was driving at full force by then. Seeing the six or so in the group and knowing their fate if I didn’t act now, I couldn’t help but imagine what they would look like in the future. Pacifiers instead of beards or lipstick. Thick diapers instead of combat boots. Onesies instead of ‘LRG’ armbands. Maybe scars for a few… definitely blank eyes, empty heads, and spastic limbs for everyone though. “Okay… well, I would like to be put on a tougher mission.” I made the decision on the way here that the only way I could advance was to either ask for that out loud or to request a tougher mission than more sign postings or handing out flyers. I was almost certain that requesting a larger leadership role would come off as suspicious, so against my better judgment for the immediate consequences, I volunteered for a tougher mission. “Hmmm… I don’t know…” one of the older Littles mused. Streaks of gray ran through her hair, and I could see that she was well-respected from the number of other Littles now looking to her for guidance. “You’ve been here… what? Two months?” “Almost…” It was hard to believe, and I almost felt a surge of pride over that fact and that I hadn’t been regressed or captured yet. Unfortunately, I heard a few people chuckle. Another bearded Little then hushed everyone. “Quiet, quiet.” He turned to me. “We appreciate your dedication, Susan, truly… But most wait several months… not just under two, to get those higher tiered missions. It’s just too dangerous…” I could feel my chances slipping away from me like sand through my fingers. I knew I had to say something… anything. “Please… I… I want to feel useful around here. I need that. I see everyone around here just waiting around, and they seem okay with that, but I feel useless. Please… let me help.” I knew I came off as a bit desperate, but in truth, I was feeling that by now with these new Littles. The leaders around the fire murmured, but from their faces illuminated by the flames, I could see my appeal hadn’t really worked. I nearly walked away in shame with my over eagerness in that moment, but Paul then stood up. “Everyone… please. I know that Susan here isn’t our most tenured member but look at what she’s accomplished so far as a newbie.” He then started to recall everything I had done since I had arrived. “And that’s just the small stuff that helps so many around here day to day. She’s also helped several Littles cope with their problems, has become the impromptu leader of most of the groups she’s involved in, and let’s not forget her run in with those Bigs a little bit ago.” The murmurs and whispers continued, but this time, I thought I could see a few seem surprised and even receptive to what Paul was saying about me. “We now have a member willingly asking for more responsibility on the eve of another push in less than a week. Give her a chance first, and let’s see what she can do… I vote yes.” The leaders debated and while I saw a few that were sourer, I also began to see a few smiles and looks of curiosity and gratitude as well. I wasn’t sure what it all meant, or even about this ‘push’ that Paul had just mentioned, but I knew I wanted to be a part of it. The clock was running, and every day now counted doubly so. After a moment, the gray-haired woman then stood. “Susan… while a few of leadership here believe that you aren’t ready yet, most of us believe that you are at least ready for a chance… only a chance. If you are still willing in the morning, come by and we will put your ambition to work.” Standing there, I realized that I was definitely in LRG now. There was no backing out, especially after Paul had seemingly just stuck his neck out for me. I could see hope in his eyes as he looked back at me and it was a good feeling. But there was bad as well. Each of these Littles had just voted, and while some didn’t vote for me to be assigned tougher missions, the rest did. They were putting their trust in me, but it wasn’t lost on me that in so doing, they were practically ensuring their own demise. I hoped more leniencies would be given to them, but after LPS had already revoked my ability to become a Big at any time clause in my agreement, I wasn’t filled with hope. Still, I had to force myself to remember two things as the doubt swirled around me temporarily. I had asked for this, and they had said yes. Also, I was doing all this in an effort to save as many in LRG as I could. Bomb or no bomb, there were innocents here. So, knowing my answer, fearing the future, and hoping for the safety of my growing pool of friends and supporters within LRG, I nodded my head. “I’m in.” Paul gave me another smile, and I knew that my mission was back on track after tonight. Paul was smart though and had a good memory. While reading his journal might not have been the worst thing I had ever done in retrospect, I feared how he would react once he found out that tonight, I had been given more power in LRG, but that tonight was also the night where I would begin the process of one day dismantling LRG. I hoped Paul would forgive me, but in this world, hope was dangerous and rarely ever truthful.

I wanted to thank everyone for all the support and your comments! This is chapter will mark another break in publishing chapters, I am writing other stories and if I don't cycle through them I will go nuts, ha! But it will be a short break, especially because I may be leaving you a bit of a cliff. This is the chapter where the stakes are raised and where we may find some bumps. As ever, I am in charge of all my editing and grammar checks, so hopefully I am getting better at both. I would like to hear where folks think the story is going from hear, I have already enjoying reading people's predictions and it is helping me with refinements as I go forward. Well, it's time to find out where Tara finds herself now. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Chapter 6 There are times when people just can’t seem to fall into a deep sleep. The constant flipping over and over, adjusting the sheet, and fluffing the pillow–but nothing seems to work. That was the exact opposite of how Tara slept the night after her second school day in pull-ups. Hearing the alarm as if from a great distance, the senior slowly awoke and lifted her head. The amount of drool that had pooled on her pillow and stuck to her cheek made her face scrunch up as she reached up to wipe her face. Feeling groggy and slow, her eyes finally cracked up, and she rolled over onto her back. This movement was all she needed to confirm that her nighttime pull-up was no longer dry. Letting out a long groan, she kicked the blankets off, exposing her bare legs to the cool air of the morning. Propping herself up on her elbows, she looked down at the swollen padding and then flopped back down on the bed. “Not a good start,” she muttered to herself as she glared at the ceiling. Oh, well, just another setback. As she finally got to her feet and prepared herself for the day, a simple thought struck her as she laid out her outfit. If she really wanted to hide her pull-ups, she would have to be better prepared. So she grabbed a pair of underwear and retrieved a spare pull-up for the day. Should she need them to back up or conceal her secret, Tara wanted to have options. She would stow these in the bottom of her school bag, just in case. Feeling confident, she even laid out outfits for the rest of the week. Luckily, she had enough dresses and skirts for her to cover this week and part of the next without needing to do laundry. Yes, this would be a good day after all. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The next two days proved to be just that. After waking up wet on Wednesday morning, Tara was dry all the way through Friday morning. It was an exhausting week, but she succeeded in keeping herself dry. She became obsessed with checking and rechecking that her pull-ups were concealed. That, and she caught herself a few times fidgeting and pulling at her clothes. The pull-ups themselves were relatively comfortable, but her clothes were just not working, thus her constant worry that she would reveal the padding underneath. But as she lay on her bed Friday morning, only two things had really sent her pulse into overdrive. The first wasn’t really singular, but it appeared to Tara that she was seeing Mai and her group a lot more than she used to. There could have been multiple reasons for that; she was being more vigilant, so maybe she just never noticed before. They also seemed to like the hallway with the bathroom she was using more often than before. In the past, she would maybe make just 1 or 2 trips a day to the girl’s room. But now that was up to at least 3 or 4 this week. Tara, paying close attention to her bladder’s signals, pretty much went to the bathroom after each class, save her final one. Now Mai had not even so much as looked at her, so it wasn’t too concerning. The second thing was another encounter with Nurse Bailey just yesterday. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Headphones blasting her favorite song, as she sat studying in the library before the final bell, a tap on her shoulder made her fall off the chair. “Oh, I am so sorry!” the nurse exclaimed. Tara’s legs were still in the chair, and the nurse walked around to pull her back into the seat. With her heart still racing and feeling windswept, Tara tried to form a sentence but just let out a few deep breaths. Chuckling, the nurse said, “No worries, everything’s fine. I was just checking on you.” “Checking on me?” Tara gave her a confused look. The nurse nodded and clarified, “After running into you earlier this week, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt. You did dash away pretty quickly; I don’t even know your name.” “Tara… and yeah, I’m fine. Now and early,” she answered, managing a small smile. “Good. I was hoping to talk to you before today, but you always seem to be dashing to your classes,” the nurse questioned. Thinking fast, she responded, “I just don’t like to be late to classes.” The nurse nodded again. “Yes, that is probably a good idea. Well, have a good evening!” Tara watched her leave and then, taking another long breath, went back to her studies. Nurse Bailey, however, made her way to the office and back to her desk. Pulling out a fresh form, she began filling out the paper and placing it in a pile with three other identical forms. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Recalling the incident, Tara still found it weird that the nurse had tracked her down, but there was nothing to do about it now. Glancing at the clock Tara realized she had been lounging too long and called out to Brittany; they needed to play a little catch-up this morning. Both girls made quick work of breakfast, and Tara was just getting the pull-up settled under a jean skirt when Brittany burst in, ready to leave. “Yep, let’s go!” She waved Brittany on as she slipped her shoes on. The girls did the ‘fast walk’ to the bus stop and arrived as the bus itself made the turn onto their street. Both a little out of breath, they laughed as they took a seat together in the front of the bus. As Tara leaned back, she had the window seat today, and she became aware of a small pressure on her bladder. In their haste, she had not used the bathroom that morning, and it only took a few minutes to realize that was a mistake. As she scrolled on her phone, her legs tightened as she tried to forget the urge she was having. The bus took its usual route, and every stop felt twice as long as normal. Each bump they went over felt like a soft punch, chipping away at her resistance. She was taking deep breaths and doing her best to not show how she was suffering. Tara had stopped scrolling; she thought her phone remained open, her eyes not really seeing the text or video that was playing on the screen. Brittany tapped her shoulder. “You okay?” “Yeah, just tired,” Tara said. She relaxed slightly to try and put on a normal, pleasant look on her face. At that precise moment, the bus turned a little too sharply, and the left-side tire jerked up as it hit a curb. Tara braced, and then, too late, realized that the back tire would follow suit. On the next bump, her phone popped out of her hand, and as she reached for it, a warmth spread out into the pull-up. Torn between retrieving her phone and wanting to clamp the flow down, Tara went with her momentum. Fumbling to grab the phone a couple of times in her haste, she finally righted herself in time to feel the last of the stream end. The absorbent padding had bulged out, and now Tara realized how this garment was designed to withstand more than one accident. It felt like the pad had not only bulged out but also expanded so that her legs would not comfortably come together anymore. The bus stopped for Brittany’s school, and she bid her a ‘see ya’ that Tara did not return. She stayed perfectly still until they reached her stop, and as she got to her feet, she stood and made her way off the bus. Because the sides of this pull-up were set up more in the line of underwear, the padding barely sagged, and she tried to ‘not waddle’. She made her way to the closest restroom and checked her phone to see how much time she had. Without much time, the disappointment in herself radiated while she slowly removed the soaked pull-up. Fishing out the spare, she was proud that she had prepared for this. Tara slipped it on and made her way out of the stall, pushing the soaked padding as deep into the trash bin as possible. Her resolve steeled as she sat down in her first class. She could; she would go the rest of the day without an accident and make it home. Her teacher placed a note on her desk; the small message merely stated that she should go to the nurse’s office before the final class of the day, her free study hour. Wondering what it could be for, Tara got an idea. She would not use the bathroom between now and this meeting. It would be a ‘final test’, where she could prove that all of this was under her control. As the day went on, Tara didn’t even feel the need to go until after lunch. The pressure slowly built, but she impressed even herself as she made her way through her classes. She was focused as she made her way to the nurse’s office. She was probably only a few minutes away from relief; she didn’t anticipate a long meeting. Tara walked into the nurse’s office to find three other girls, each sitting on the end of one of the nurse beds. There was a senior, Jackie Macki; she was always in the library in a corner with her head buried in a book. It never mattered the genre; she didn’t seem to mind as long as it had two covers and a page in between. Tara always wondered why her parents had decided to rhyme her first name with her last name–not a very smart idea, in her opinion. Masie Peters was across from Jackie; she was a junior, played every sport she was allowed to, and was damn good at it. Ever since she was a freshman, Masie has taken three different teams to state, though since Tara never followed sports, she couldn’t remember which ones. And on the bed closest to her was a freshman that she did not know. Back in her own thoughts, she felt that something might change if she had two accidents in one day, but it filled her with dread that she had no clue what that could be. Nurse Bailey walked in with her office chair and four manilla envelopes and sat down at the heads of the four girls. Tara had taken her seat in the bed across from the freshman. “Well, girls, I won’t beat around the bush; I don’t want to keep you too long, but it’s better that you get the facts,” the nurse rattled off with a prepared delivery. “District policy just changed, and I have to inform you four about the alteration as it affects each of you.” She took a deep breath and went forward. “As the only students in this school that need to wear protection, the school has a few new requirements for you to adhere to.” Tara stiffened and her eyes widened; similar reactions came from all four girls. When you reveal a deep secret to four high school teenage girls at the same time, you expect a scream, maybe. As it was, the reactions were rather muted, but it was clear that each was not happy at being ‘outed’. Masie’s face drained, but she kept her composure better than the rest. The freshman looked outraged, and while she looked ready to murder, her face showed more rosy pink embarrassment than hot red anger. Jackie squeaked and looked ready to crawl inside herself to escape the room. Her eyes were also filled with water, but nothing had flowed yet. As for Tara, it looked like she was a mere statue frozen in place on her bed. Partly because she simply had not seen it coming and had ‘locked’ up, but mostly because she froze because the shock was followed by her breath catching in her throat. Her heart was beating so fast it was ready to jump out of her, and a warmth was spreading from the accident she had been holding back. “I’m sorry to be so blunt with you girls, but this was the easiest way to cut to the chase. Please let me explain before you start in on the questions, and I ask that each of you calm down. Nothing leaves this room,” she ended her statement on a very firm note. To say the room was silent was a bit of an understatement; each girl was staring at the nurse with laser focus. “The district has decided to take a greater role in preventing bullying, and as tough as you girls have it, being in high school and having the needs you do, keeping you safe and mentally healthy is as important as being physically healthy. While I’m sure you prefer to keep this bottled up and secret if you were to get into a situation that could have been prevented, we would rather do our best to stop those in the first place. So, these envelopes contain the new policy and things you girls will need to bring in on Monday to place in your new cubby over there.” The nurse paused her to indicate a cabinet just inside a back room; it had four selves with each of the girl’s names. “There are three pieces of the policy that I need to mention with all of you here. First, all of you will have a set number of times you need to come to me to either get changed or verify that your protection is dry. These times will be based on each of your unique needs, and we will figure that out one-on-one shortly. Any questions?” the nurse asked. The girls were taken aback at the first opportunity to ask questions, but no one spoke up. “Good. The second piece is that regardless of how many accidents you all may actually have, you have to wear protection every day. All changes will be done by me during your visits; no exceptions,” the nurse stated. And this time she didn't have to ask if anyone had questions. “That’s not fair! I don’t… I mean, I...” the freshman gasped out, followed by a low mutter, “It’s not everyday.” “I’m very careful, I promise,” Jackie said, almost pleadingly. “Now, girls, these rules are in place because we want to help you, but we can’t play favorites and only apply rules to some and not all of you,” the nurse explained. This silenced the two girls, and Tara and Masie remained silent. “The last piece of this policy is the most important. You all know about each other; you all know what it's like to be in each other’s shoes. Per the policy, if any of you ‘out’ another of the other three, it is a no-questions-asked expulsion.” The nurse stared at each in turn, and it was clear that she wanted this above all to get through. “Alright, now I think we might need to get more comfortable with each other because you will see each other a lot. I would like each of you to introduce yourself and explain why you need protection,” the nurse said with a smile. Surprisingly, the freshman spoke first, seemingly to get it over with, and spoke up, “My name is Ariel, and I just forget to go to the bathroom sometimes. It’s no big deal, but my mom decided I should wear stupid pull-ups whenever she feels like it.” The black-haired girl crossed her arms to underline her disdain. Tara was a little surprised at that explanation, and, to her, something felt off, but why would Ariel lie with the nurse right there? “I was in a car accident when I was little, so if I don’t go to the bathroom often, I just go with no warning. I’m usually pretty good about it, but it happens, so.” Maisie explained it in a very comfortable manner. “Thanks, Maisie, and Ariel; what about you, Jackie?” The nurse inquired. Jacki pushed up her glasses and said, “Well, I have trouble at night, and my parents want me to wear protection all the time until I stop at night.” Her voice was shaky and low, but she got through it. All eyes then shifted to Tara, and, sitting there in her newly used and warm pull-up, she felt very small. “I’m Tara, and I… well, I guess I just have accidents… sometimes." She tried to sound as confident or as nonchalant as the others, but it came off pretty feeble. “Thank you, girls, for being very adult about the situation,” Nurse Bailey stated. “Now I will take each of you back to the private room, and we will sort out each of your needs and send you on your way, Masie. You first.” The girl picked up the books she had and followed the nurse into the back room. Tara looked around, and it was very clear that none of the girls were in the mood to talk. Though Ariel might have started ranting at the ‘fairness’ and being angry, it seemed her heart was not really in it. The implications of this policy were just another string pulling at Tara, and she feared she would unravel further. She had now wet herself twice during the day, and she just knew that she would have a new rule waiting for her. The thought crossed her mind–not for the first time–why was she doing this? She could just go back to Brittany’s and go back to her own underwear and clothes, but then, was that going to work? Like Nurse Bailey said, what would happen if she couldn’t flip the switch back? “Come on in, Tara,” the nurse called. Tara’s head snapped up to see that she was the last in the room. As she entered the room, the nurse started, “Well, now we have the rebel here!” “What?” Tara asked as she sat on the end of the private bed. “Usually parents inform the school about protection needs, but had I not run into you a couple of times this week, I would not have known about you,” the nurse explained, “but don’t worry, you are not in trouble. I have updated your file. We just have to go into some details here.” “Oh... umm, okay,” Tara shrank at the nurse's comments. “I take it that you have not needed protection for very long.” The nurse inquired. And she nodded. “So, for the purposes of policy, we are grouping students into three types. So can you tell me what your typical accident looks like?” The nurse asked sweetly. Tara felt heat on her cheeks, and she instinctively flattened her skirt, but this was not a good idea. “I see, you are wet now?” The nurse stated more than asked. At that point, any thought Tara might have had about getting out of this was gone. “Yes… I … Well, I was trying to test myself. I didn’t mean to,” Tara said, while feeling some water build up in her eyes. “Hey now, it’s alright, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of. You can see that this can happen to anyone, so try not to be hard on yourself.” Nurse Bailey reassured Tara. The girl nodded and sucked in some air to hold in the tears. “Now if you stand up, let’s take a look at the damage,” she encouraged. Tara stood up slowly and unhooked the skirt at the waist. With a deep breath, she let it drop and kept her eyes away from Nurse Bailey’s. She didn’t want to see the damage, but between feeling the slight weight and having her legs slightly apart, she knew it was not a small one. It seemed like an eternity, but only a few seconds passed when the nurse spoke. “Alright, thank you, Tara. You seem to be wearing a pull-up. Is that what you normally wear?” the nurse asked. Tara pulled her skirt up as she answered, “I have been.” “So do you have multiple accidents?” “I… well, i mean… this is very recent, and it’s not always,” Tara realized she needed to breathe. “I have had a few accidents since last Saturday, but I’m mainly in them because I have… Have these rules to follow. And this is my second accident today, so I think that will change… something.” “Thank you for being very honest with me. I am glad to hear you will be taking different steps after your accidents today. I think that we will be placing you in the ‘Type 3’ category of the new policy based on your answers,” the nurse said as she made notes. “I also would like to address the topic of your changes. Basically, when you come to my office, we will do one of two things: if you are dry, I will just verify that, and if you would like to go to the bathroom, you can do so. If you are wet, then I will perform the change. The district confirmed that the health waiver your parents sign at the beginning of the year covers this.” The nurse smiled and stood at this point. “Here is your copy of the policy; please note what you will need to bring in on Monday,” the nurse said. “Thanks mom… ma’am” Tara responded as she grabbed the folder and started to walk out. “Ha! Mom might be a bit much, but you can call me Miss Bailey if you like,” the nurse said, following her out to the main area. Tara merely nodded and got to her locker when the final bell actually rang. Her heart was pounding, and before she knew it, she was back on the bus with Brittany sitting beside her. The temptation was too much, and she pulled out the policy from the envelope. While the first couple of pages were rather formal, she skipped past them to find what she wanted on the 4th page: Type 3 Students in this category fit the following 2 or more categories: - ‘Heavy wetter’ - possible diaper leaks - ‘Frequency’ - more than 1 wetting before a scheduled change, average 1 or more accidents a day - Upon request from student or parent/guardian These students shall follow these guidelines: - Present themselves for 3 scheduled changes - Changes may or may not occur, nurse discretion - Taped diapers of proper protection required (or cleared by nurse) - Wear garments for ease of access to the school nurse - Report to the nurse immediately upon wetting 2 times before a change - Have a change of clothes in the student’s assigned locker/bin/cabinet Tara could not have been more shocked; ‘heavy wetter’, ‘taped diaper… required’. Her big mouth had not only landed her in actual diapers, but she had been labeled the worst possible type of ‘wetter’; there were only three types. Tara merely laid her head against the window, wondering why she was doing this to herself and why she couldn’t stop it. As she and Brittany got through the door, she decided to send Brittany up to wash and change while she got to the rule book. “Are you going to come up and change?” Brittany asked. Tara was startled and was about to ask when Brittany followed up. “I noticed the way you were sitting when I got off the bus this morning,” Brittany stated. “Umm, I will; in a minute I have to read the rules again,” Tara stated flatly. “Sounds good!” Brittany chimed as she went upstairs. Tara shook her head and made a beeline for the binder on the dining room table. Rule 2) 2 straight days of accidents or 2 accidents in 1 day will result in taped diapers during the day, until 5 straight days with no accidents - You can change yourself for bathroom trips - Diaper Covers must be worn at all times, and also acceptable at home - Diaper checks by caregiver Well, I guess either way I need to wear diapers now, Tara thought to herself. Then she took time to read the other rules in the book, and she couldn’t decide whether they helped or just scared her. Her goal now was to go five days without an accident, along with finishing her seven at night. And she still had to avoid wetting her bed for three nights in a row at all costs, so she could stop wearing them at night in those seven days. But she still had hope that it could be done rather easily; she only needed to stay dry tonight! School was another issue, but one thing at a time. Her head swirling as she got up from the chair, she made her way up to the large closet at the end of the 2nd floor hallway. Opening it, she didn’t see another box or other supplies. No diapers in sight. Brittany came up next to her and said, “Whatcha lookin for?” “Uh…” Tara hesitated. She wasn’t ready to admit that she should start wearing diapers. Then she recalled the new ‘school rules’, which stated that the nurse could approve protection. Maybe? Maybe she could get the nurse to allow these pull-ups. It was worth a try. “I am looking for covers to go over the... the pull-up,” she stated. Brittany looked confused. “Is that part of the rules?” Tara nodded. “Rule 2.” Brittany nodded and didn’t ask further. “I don’t think we have any of those. I have never been that far along in the rules yet.” That fact made Tara wince slightly, but she hid it well. There was only one option now, especially since the weekend was starting. “Well, I guess we are going back to the mall!” Tara announced, to Brittany’s delight!

I just got married to my caregiver and mommy who I love more than anything in the world. She even wants me to be true 24/7 so the potty is off limits except at work, and only she is allowed to change me. It's a dream come true and being able to be little and see her simile because of it feels amazing. She is the love of my life. I share her to spread hope. There is someone out there for all of us, no matter how odd we think we are. If it happened to me it can happen to any of you. 🎉

Hi, and welcome to the forum! I take it from your post you've only been wearing diapers for a few years now. Since you're attempting at going 24/7 I'm going to assume you're brand new at this. Wearing 24/7 is a lot of fun if you're in the right mindset. This journey of incontinence is a long road for many, and a short road for few. You really won't know which one until after a year. I've been wearing diapers 18/7 for many years, but most recently 24/7 and untraining since November of 2020. You can read a bit about my journey here. First, I'd like to offer some suggestions. The main one being sleep. Interrupting your sleep on a regular basis is not ideal. For now, try focusing on getting into the loose and relaxed mental state on a daily basis. Alarms during the day can be useful. You can make a lot of progress during the day-to-day without having to worry about the nighttime just yet. And when you sleep, if you are woken up by the need to pee, simply find a way to let go, pay it no mind, and go back to sleep. Even if you leak (you will). The 24/7 routine is fun, yes, but it's also mundane and routine. It's a daily cycle of always needing to know how close you are to leaking and then mentally preparing when you'll need to change. So I recommend carrying a supply of changes, powder, and wipes (at a minimum) via a discrete diaper bag. I use a black backpack. Keep spare diapers in your car and other places you are likely to be. You don't want to be caught in a position where you have to change, but you simply can't. If you make that mistake, it's usually a mistake you make once . Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Don't cut back on water unless directed by a doctor. You want to be continuously flushing your system and getting that mindset of being incontinent to stick. Gotta pee? Just go. Can't pee? Drink more water. Don't have a diaper on? Pee anyway. Remember, you're incontinent now. Leaks and messes are a way of life. They can't be 100% avoided, just 99% mitigated, which brings me to my next point. People who wear 24/7 and who are not wearing a waterproof cover (i.e., plastic pants) confuse me. My plastic pants have saved me from SOOOOO many public accidents. They are worth buying the right material (PUL, not vinyl, PVC, or rubber) and the right size. I wear Garywear PUL pants and even their 2X pants size are tight on my thighs, but barely not too tight. I own about 5 or 6 pair of these and cycle through them as I change throughout the day. So in that vein, I also highly recommend a waterproof cover on a constant day-to-day basis. Experience tells the community here that diapers that are a bit more expensive, but are way better in quality, fare better on our pocketbooks in the long run. You can expect to pay a little over $2,000 per year wearing diapers 24/7. I usually pay between $100-$200 per month on diapers, depending on the sales. Since ConfiDry 24/7 has been discontinued, I've been on the hunt for an affordable daily diaper that doesn't break my bank. I've tried BetterDry with decent success. So far I'm leaning on the InControl line of products. I've been experimenting with InControl Essentials, InControl Active Air, and InControl BeDry diapers with a decent amount of success as well. My recent order was for a couple cases of Bambino Bellissimo (V2) and Magnifico diapers and, frankly, I'm LOVING them. Another tip: expect that your favorite daily diaper will eventually be discontinued. So from this vantage point, it's a good idea to keep experimenting with what comes out and to try different brands. Also, cycling through a couple different brands on a regular basis will help skin health in that you're not maintaining any of the same pressure points on the skin at all times. Sometimes this can't be helped, but it's good to vary things up a little bit. Edit: I agree with @DAQ in that having a variety of cloth diapers is extremely handy for a backup. If, for whatever reason (economy, ability, etc.) you cannot get a hold of disposable diapers, a stash of cloth alternatives are available to you. It's true that your laundry load will increase, but you can effectively buy, say, 7-10 pre-fold cloth diapers that will last you months -- potentially years -- if taken care of properly. The smell of cloth diapers over time can be a concern but there are way to mitigate that via cleaning agents such as baking soda, vinegar, and bleach. It's best to do your research on how to care for cloth diapers if you choose to pursue them. As an added bonus, they are pretty decent and helping to preventing leaks during nocturnal enuresis. This may go without saying, but I highly recommend, at a minimum, frequent use of baby powder, scented or unscented. A barrier cream also helps if you plan on messing your diaper on the regular. Everything I just listed before this line is for those who want to go 24/7, but not commit to untraining. The following is specifically for untraining. Untraining yourself to become "incontinent" (for whatever that means for you) is 90% mental and 10% physical. Your main barriers right now aren't your bladder size, capacity, or voiding routine. The barriers are all mental. If you train your mind correctly, the physical naturally follows, so it's time to stop thinking about that part of it, because it's not realistic. You are now incontinent. You have to see yourself as incontinent ("even though you may not be incontinent"). If you doubt this in your mind, your training will be very long and slow. Incontinent people wear diapers. Lots of people come on these forums start and stop their 24/7 and untraining journey. No more excuses. The toilet is no longer a matter of convenience for you. Your diapers are your convenience -- that's the whole point. Excuses such as: "I need to change out of this diaper real bad, but I'm too tired to change into a new one now. I'll just go to sleep and resume in the morning." "I have a meeting in 10 minutes, but I need to change, so I'll just go take this diaper off now and put one back on after the meeting." "I just don't feel like wearing a diaper right now." "I'm not 'feeling' it, y'know?" etc. These excuses must end. Now is the time commit. Changing 2-5 times a day is time consuming and you won't always feel like doing it. Incontinent people don't have a choice, and neither do you. Diapers are now normal for you. You must go out into public, go to family dinners, go on vacations with your friends, etc. wearing diapers. This anxiety about what people think of you will wane over time as you get used to the mundane life that is wearing diapers 24/7. You'll know you're making progress when you forget that you were even wearing one. Someone will find out, eventually, that you wear diapers for incontinence. This is just a fact of life. You will get to a point where you'll let your guard down (because, hey, who needs to be constantly worry about diapers all the time anyway?) and someone will figure it out. Maybe you just changed and smell like baby powder. Maybe someone heard the crinkle of your diaper as you walked by. Maybe you're nose-blind to your very wet diaper and you're the only one not noticing. These are the realities of our lifestyle and you can't avoid them. The best way to untrain yourself is to always pee wherever you are and to do it while you're doing whatever your doing. Don't stop what you're doing and don't wait. If you're wearing a diaper, then you're protected. If you're not wearing a diaper, you will wet your pants. If you leak because you didn't take the opportunity to change -- that's something you'll figure out as you go on. Didn't feel like putting your nighttime diaper on before going to bed? You wet the bed. If you don't want a wed bed, you'll wear a diaper. If you leak at night, you'll protect your mattress. That kind of thing. And it's that fear of leaking that you find that you ultimately have to overcome. You. Will. Leak. Full stop. Just like the binge/purge cycle we all seem to face, expect your enthusiasm for the 24/7 lifestyle and untraining journey to take a similar form. There will be weeks where you feel like you've plateaued, but you have to remember to keep going. Removing expectations of a quick journey or quick incontinence will benefit you greatly. Most of us have been on this journey for years and still with limited, and varying, results: @oznl has a great thread about his journey. He's been on this road, I think, over 5 years now and he's a bona fide sleep wetter with low cruise range, but some decent level of daytime control. @Little Sherri has a great thread about their journey as well. They've been on this road a little less time than @oznl and describes a lot of the emotions and day-to-day 24/7 life that you will be experiencing. I think they're at the point of intermittent sleep wetting with reduced cruise range but some decent level of daytime control. @Beccathelittle just posted an update on her journey. She's farther along on this path than a lot of us with mostly reduced urine and bowel control. She documents well how she's managed her journey, from the fears in the beginning to the routine of it all at the end. @Kif was an active poster in recent years with respect to untraining, but I am not sure where they're at now. Last I read surgeries mucked some things up and they're recovering from that. @~Brian~'s story can be found throughout his posts -- he deals with cerebral palsy and his perspective sheds a lot of light on this journey from the perspective of someone who has had a lifelong disability. @Kaliborio is famous for her tumblr blog that has been since taken offline -- she's a great resource on untraining in general and a wealth of knowledge on dealing with bowel incontinence. @Enthusi is a guy you can go to for a lot of psychology-of-self with respect to untraining. He's in the process of creating a guide that uses the framework he's been able to use to progress on untraining. He has a lot of information on the mental game of untraining. @Ferix is one who has tried going through the US medical system to get approval for incontinence surgery. His threads are of great interest to see the experience of someone who has hit the US medical system pretty hard. Edit: @Reddy and @BrownBobby, after trying multiple ways to untrain and obtain incontinence, took a more direct approach in Mexico with varying degrees of success. @DAQ has been making a lot of progress in recent months with respect to traditional therapy and hypnotherapy. There are others here that have great threads on their journeys, and my apologies to those I've forgotten. The point with the above list is to show that the famous "12 Month Program" is just a set of guidelines to untrain. The timeline is all up to you and expect this journey to take years, not months. I feel like this post is getting pretty long now, so I hope that's a decent starting point for tips and tricks. Your mileage will vary with respect to the rest of us, but one thing is for sure, we'd love for you to continue documenting your journey. The more information we have, the better. "Do, or do not, there is no try." -Yoda Good luck!

Chapter 23 I had my face buried into my dad’s shoulder as he turned around and started walking back to my apartment at a brisk pace. I then heard my mom say to my dad, “That infant formula was most likely a little different than what they gave her at the hospital and it probably upset her digestive system.” My dad replied, “That is probably true,” then he rubbed my back and said, “Sweety, we will be back at your apartment in about ten minutes and get you cleaned up.” I just nodded my head into his shoulder as he continued to walk. The whole time on the way back to the apartment, all I could think about was how unless things changed for me, I would always be at risk of humiliating myself in front of others at any moment. Nobody has to know if I wet myself, but there is no way I could really hide if I poop myself. As I was lightly bounced in his arms because of his walking pace, I could feel that my whole diapered area was coated in a thick paste, along with my upper thighs around the leg gathers of my diaper. After the longest ten minutes of my life, I could feel that my dad was now walking up the stairwell to my apartment. I lifted my head off his shoulder in time to see that he was stepping into my apartment. My mom then said, “I’m going to take her shoes and socks off.” My mom untied and took my shoes and socks off, as my dad was still holding me. My dad then said, “Let's get her undressed in the bathroom.” My dad carried me into the bathroom with my mom following him. My mom pulled my shirt off, then as my dad was holding me with his hands under my armpits, my mom pulled my shorts off. I could see brown stains on them, as she said, “I’m going to throw these clothes in the washer machine.” My dad set me on my feet in the tub and since my diaper was so full, my legs were forced apart by the bulk. I grimaced at the brown stains on my upper thighs when I looked down to assess the damage. My dad looked at me and said, “Sweetheart, I’m going to take your diaper off and then rinse you off before starting a bath for you.” I just nodded my head as he started ripping the tapes off that was barely holding my diaper up. I gagged at the smell once my diaper was removed, and my mom walked back in holding a plastic grocery bag and plastic cup. My dad threw the used diaper into the plastic bag that my mom was holding open and handed him the cup. My mom walked back out as my dad started the water in the tub. I looked down and immediately wanted to throw up at the sight. From halfway below my belly button down to my upper thighs were coated in poop. My dad said to me, “I’m going to hold you so your butt is under the faucet.” I nodded my head as he moved me over to the faucet, held me so that my upper body was facing down, and placed my rear end under the water. As the warm water was hitting my butt, I could see brown water with pieces of poop being rinsed off me. After a while, he turned me over in his arm, then used the cup to start rinsing off my front half. Once I was thoroughly rinsed off, he set me down on my butt on the other end of the tub and started making sure that the tub was clean before flipping the built-in drain stopper on. He poured some baby body wash into the tub and said, “I’m going to let you soak for a bit while the tub fills up, then your mom will help wash you.” I said, “OK,” as he washed his hands in the sink and then stepped out of the bathroom. As the tub was slowly filling up, I couldn't help but be amazed at how big it was now. Before all this happened, I had given up on trying to take baths, even when I was sick, in standard-sized tubs due to being so tall with long legs, but now, the tub is the size of a hot tub for me. My mom walked in just as the water line was getting a couple of inches past my belly button and turned the water off. She looked down at me and said, “Let’s get your bath out the way for the day and then we can relax for the rest of the evening.” I nodded my head as she took the cup and started wetting my hair, then took some shampoo and washed my hair. She rinsed the shampoo out of my hair with me only having to spit out a bit of soap that got in my mouth. Turning her attention to the rest of my body, she took a soapy washcloth and scrubbed my whole body including my face. I blushed when she spent extra time washing the area around my new parts and had me sit up to scrub my rear. Luckily, the soap was quickly rinsed off and the tub was drained. She picked me up out of the tub then placed me on the bathroom rug and started drying me from head to toe with a towel. Dropping the towel on the floor, she said, “I will get you dressed in the bedroom.” I was standing there buck naked for a moment, I finally took the hint that she wanted me to walk to the bedroom. As I started making my way to the bedroom, the one thing that struck me was that it didn’t bother me too much being naked in front of my parents. I guess, a part of me has no shame since this new body still does not feel like my body yet. As I was walking into the bedroom, I heard my mom say from behind me, “You sure have a cute little booty.” I turned around, placed my hands on my hips, and looked up at her with a glare. She smiled and as she was picking me up to set me on the bed, said, “You're about as intimidating as an angry kitten.” I just groaned as I was being laid onto the changing mat. My mom rubbed baby lotion all over my body, then taped a diaper around my waist. She then said, “Since it is already getting late, I got some pajamas for you to wear.” I just nodded my head as she pulled out a two-piece set of pajamas. She pulled the bottoms up my legs and over my diaper, then pulled me into a sitting position, pulled the top over my head, and helped feed my arms through the sleeves. Looking down, the bottoms were dark blue with stars and moons on them and the top had dark blue sleeves with the same stars and moons pattern, while the body of the shirt was light gray with a cow jumping over the moon with stars in the background. With the pajamas being form-fitting, it did little to hide my diapered bottom, but a part of me was glad that my mom didn’t try to put me in a footed sleeper. Picking up, she said, “Let’s get your hair blow-dried,” as she placed me on her hip. She carried me back into the bathroom and set me on the toilet with the lid down. Taking the blow dryer that was sitting on the counter, she spent the next few minutes blasting my head with hot air and brushing my hair with a brush until it was dry. She then picked me back up and carried me into the main room. From my mom's hip, I could see that my dad was sitting on the couch watching TV. She set me in my dad’s lap and said, “Your daughter is now fresh and clean.” My dad pulled me closer into his lap and said, “Yeah, a big improvement from raw sewage.” Ticking me off that he is making fun of me pooping myself, I gave him an elbow to the stomach. With how small and weak I am, I’m sure it was just enough to get his attention. The next thing I know I felt a thump to the top of my head. I grabbed the top of my head and looked up to see my dad grinning down at me. He said, “Two can play that game little missy.” I just glared at him, then flopped back against him and began stewing that my dad was bringing back thumping the top of my head like he did up until my early teenage years. I felt him kiss the top of my head and wrap his arms around me. I just let my body relax as I started watching whatever he was watching on TV. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my mom busying herself packing stuff up for the flight tomorrow morning. At one point, I could see her carrying the I.V. pole with the fluid bag over by the couch, and then preparing a feeding bag of infant formula for me. With a syringe in hand, my mom said to me, “Last feeding of the day, sweetheart.” I just responded by sticking my left arm out for her as she gave me my nausea medicine and then connected the I.V. fluids and feeding bag. As she stood back up, she asked my dad, “George, I was thinking about just ordering a pizza for us, are you OK with supreme?” “Sure, honey,” my dad replied. I could feel my dad moving above me as he took the back couch cushions off and tossed them to the floor, and then he laid back with me lying on top of him. At some point, my mom squeezed beside him on the couch. I continued to watch TV and at one point my mom started playing with my hair. Between my mom playing with my hair and the eventful day I had, I couldn't help but start to feel sleepy. At some point, my mind became alert to a knock at the door and my mom got up to answer it. I could hear her talking to someone for a bit then hear the sound of the door closing. My mom came back into view a minute later with a syringe in hand and said, “I'm going to flush your feeding tube, sweety.” I just sleepily nodded my head. After flushing my feeding tube and taking the feeding bag away to be rinsed out, my dad turned me over in his arms so that I was lying with my head resting on his upper chest. My dad started rubbing my back and patting my bottom and before too long I was hard and fast asleep. I awoke the next morning to a cold wipe between my legs. I open my eyes and see that my mom is changing my diaper as I am lying on the changing pad in my bed. From the light coming from the window, I could tell it was early and the sun had not come up yet. With a smile, she said, “Good morning, sweety.” Still tried, I just groaned, and replied, “Too early,” and shut my eyes. As she was taping a fresh diaper around my waist, she said, “I know sweetheart, I’m going to get you dressed and fed, and then you can sleep on the way to the airport.” With my eyes still closed, I could feel my mom pull off the pajama top, and then quickly dress me. I was picked up in her arms and rested my head on her shoulder as she carried me into the main room. She sat me down propped up in the corner of the couch and said, “Sweety, you are going to have to wake up a little for me so I can start your feeding tube.” I flopped my head against the armrest and opened my eyes as my dad was setting the I.V. pole next to me. My mom connected the feeding tube and fluids to me, then said, “Alright sweety, we will be leaving as soon as your feeding bag is empty.” I just nodded my head and closed my eyes again. I could hear my dad say to my mom, “I have everything in the car but the diaper bag.” My mom replied, “Thanks, honey. I just need to put the changing pad back in it and it will be ready to go.” I opened my eyes again as my mom brushed my hair, but as soon as she was done, I closed my eyes again. I drifted in and out of sleep until I was shaken awake again for my mom to flush my feeding tube and disconnect the I.V. fluid bag. She put the same white shoes on me from yesterday, picked me up and I immediately laid my head on her shoulder again. She said, “OK Grace, time to go.” My dad then said, “I have the diaper bag.” As I was being carried out, I got one last look at my apartment from over my mom’s shoulder. I was too tired still to dwell on it, but knew that this was officially the end of this chapter of my life in Arizona. I could see that the sun was just peeking up over the horizon as I was being carried down the stairwell and across the parking lot to my car. My mom opened the back door and sat me in the car seat. I helped feed my arms through the straps, then she buckled me in. She looked down at me and said, “We should be at the airport in about twenty minutes.” I said, “OK,” as she shut the door. A moment later, I could hear the front two doors open and shut, then the sound of my dad starting the engine of my car. I felt the car backing up then drove forward out the parking lot. I shut my eyes again during the trip to the airport, but the closer we got there the more awake I became. The car came to a stop, then my dad announced, “We’re here.” Wide awake now, I looked down and finally noticed what clothes my mom dressed me in this morning. I was wearing capri-style black leggings with white polka-dots and the shirt I was wearing was a plain peach-colored baby doll shirt with three-quarters-length sleeves. The shirt was long enough to probably cover my diaper bulge for the most part, but I still sighed because my parents told me they were going to dress me gender-neutral at first. The door opened and my dad greeted me with a smile, “You finally awake sleepy head.” I simply replied, “Yeah,” as he unstrapped me from the car seat, lifted me out, and placed me on his hip. Bouncing me a little in his arms, he asked, “Are you ready to go home?” “Yes sir, but did mom have to dress me so girly this morning,” I stated. He replied, “Probably not, but she figured the cuter you are, the less problems you would have getting home.” I just nodded my head, as he rubbed my back. Looking towards the back of my car, I could see that the back was open and my mom was taking something big out the back. My eyes widened when I realized it was a stroller meant for a toddler. I internally cursed at myself for not thinking that this would be the only option for me. I can’t walk that far and my mom can’t carry me the whole time. I watched as she loaded an overnight bag underneath it along with her purse hanging on the handle. As my mom is pushing the stroller over, my dad hugs me tight and says, “Have a safe flight, sweetheart, and I will be home in a few days.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and replied, “OK.” He kissed me on top of my head, and said, “I love you, sweetheart.” “I love you too, Dad,” I replied. Breaking up our hug, he said with a grin, “Your chariot awaits you, princess.” I roll my eyes as he lowers me into the stroller, and then starts strapping me in. With one more kiss on my forehead, he said, “See you in a few days.” I watched as he handed the diaper bag to my mom, then they hugged and kissed each other goodbye. My mom grabbed the stroller and began pushing me into the entrance of the airport. From above, I heard her say, “Hopefully, everything will run smoothly and we will be home by supper.” As the automatic double doors slid open, I was met by the sight of hundreds of people going about their business. The stroller paused for a moment, then started going in the direction of a sign that said ‘Security Screening’. As we were making our way to TSA, I couldn't help but notice that everyone seemed to move out of the way of the stroller, but also it seemed like I was the center of attention to anyone passing nearby. I sunk back as far as I could as strangers would look at me and most would smile and give little waves to me, but I still didn't like being on display. After navigating the airport for about ten minutes, we made it to the line for TSA screening. Luckily, the line was not too long, but I caught the eye of a middle-aged woman ahead of me and the entire time I was waiting, she would keep looking back at me. One time, our eyes met, and she gave me a big smile, but I quickly looked down at my lap. As we approached the first TSA agent, my mom handed him her driver’s license and ticket. After briefly looking at her I.D. and handing it back, my mom handed him a folder. I nervously waited as he then thumped through all the documents and looked at me from time to time. He said something into his radio that I could not make out, handed the folder back to my mom, and said, “You're free to go, ma’am, please go to the next checkpoint for luggage and full body screening.” I breathed a sigh of relief as the stroller was pushed forward. At the next checkpoint, I could hear a TSA agent yell over and over again, “Shoes, hats, and belts off. Empty your pockets. All electronics need to be taken out of your bags and scanned separately.” My mom pushed me up to the conveyor belt with a stack of shallow plastic bins beside it. She took the overnight bag from underneath the stroller and placed it into one of the bins, then opened the bag and took out what I assumed to be my laptop and placed it into a different bin along with her cell phone. In the next bin, she put the diaper bag in. In the final bin, she put her purse and flats that she was wearing, and then turned around and quickly took my shoes off. As she was unbuckling me she said, “They are going to have to scan the stroller too.” I just nodded my head as I was picked up and placed on the ground beside her. She quickly collapsed the stroller and placed it on the conveyor belt before picking me back up and placing me on her hip. She carried me over to the full-body scanner and then sat me down right in front of it. I walked into it and stood with my arms raised, then heard the voice of a TSA agent say, “Sweety, can you come this way?” I stepped out on the other side where a woman TSA agent was waiting and turned around to wait on my mom. I could hear from behind, the TSA agent say, “Your grandma will be here soon.” I blushed at her calling my mom my grandma. My mom stepped out the scanner then picked me back up and placed me on her hip. She walked over to the conveyor belt where everything was scanned and set me down. She took the stroller off first and placed me in it, then put the overnight bag back underneath the stroller. After getting everything else situated, she put her flats back on. With the diaper bag over her shoulder, she put my shoe back on. As she was tying my shoelaces, another TSA agent approached us and said, “Ma’am, will you please follow me? I have some questions to ask you about the child that you are accompanying.” Fear gripped me as the thought of getting in trouble for identity fraud raced through my mind. At that moment, my bladder released and I began to flood my diaper. ****************************************************************************************** Thanks for reading my story so far. It looks like the story is right at or just below the 25% mark.

Ninety-One It was dark enough to know that I was awake much earlier than I needed to be. Three or four in the morning, if I was to guess. I’d have checked my phone, but Mommy liked to ‘suggest’ that I leave it out of my crib and on the dresser where “it won’t provide unnecessary distractions.” She probably wasn’t wrong about that. I was quick to determine the source of my interrupted sleep–my pull-up was warm and swollen. Had I really wet myself? Sure, I had my share of nighttime accidents back when I was living the life of an overgrown infant–but I thought I was past that now. I was barely having any accidents during the day, and it had been a few weeks since the last time I woke up wet. So what did this mean? Was it possible that I’d be dealing with this for the rest of my life? One day, I’d be 40-something years old and still waking up in an occasionally wet bed? Well, what would a baby do? Probably cry about it until Mommy came rushing in to change my diaper. A while back, in said time when I was living my babiest life, Mommy had a baby monitor in the nursery. It was rare that it was actually used–though she still turned it on most nights. If nothing else, it was a good reminder that I was always under Mommy’s caring eye. Just in case. Once or twice I had woken up, much like I had now, with an unexpectedly dirty diaper and I had actually utilized the monitor–making pathetic whining noises into it until a groggy Mommy appeared in the doorway. These days, the monitor was turned off. I would be stuck in my soaked pull-up until I either changed myself or until Mommy came in to check on me in the morning. All it takes is getting a diaper rash once or twice before you’ll do anything you can to prevent yourself from getting it again. Waiting for Mommy was out of the question–I was going to have to take care of this myself. I reached around the crib bars and lowered the sliding side panel to allow for my exit. It was only then that I realized the mattress was a little damp too. Not only had I wet myself, but I had wet myself pretty good. More than a pull-up was capable of handling, at least. The prospect of explaining this to Mommy felt dangerous. I could almost hear her voice as she put her hands on her hips: “You know what this means, don’t you, Baby? Maybe we were a little too quick to move on from diapers to pull-ups. How about you lie down on the changing table and Mommy gets a new diaper for you?” And then, if she was going to say that, maybe she’d follow it up with: “Maybe you’re just not ready for this whole ‘growing up’ thing.” There was a small lamp on a table in the corner of the nursery. It was rarely ever used because it was so dim–but in the early morning hours when I wanted to be more discreet, it seemed perfect. I flicked it on and snuck over to the changing table, so that I could rifle through the various diapers stacked in the built-in shelves, hoping to find another pull-up. Gosh, we have so many diapers. Pink diapers. Blue diapers. White diapers. Diapers with cartoon prints on them. Diapers with animals. Diapers with… Well, I could do this all morning. Even supposing that I was still at my most babyish, and l was in diapers full-time for the foreseeable future, we had years worth of diapers in this house. There were the ones here in the changing table, and there were more in the closet. There were more stowed away in the basement. Almost every room in the house had a small stack of diapers in it somewhere. What happened to them when this was done? What happened to the furniture and the clothes and the baby food and the bottles and the potty chair? I almost felt tears forming in my eyes as I thought about the future of the little world Mommy and I had created. There you go crying–just like a baby. But then I heard something. A man’s voice. I couldn’t determine what he was saying, but the smooth baritone seemed to float down the hallway. I creeped to the door, slowly opening it so I could peer out. There were no lights on in the house, and with not even a window in the hallway, I was peering into the blackness. From the far end of the hallway, though, where Mommy’s bedroom was, I could see a faint glow under the door. I heard the man’s voice again. Does Mommy have company over tonight? That didn’t sound like the sort of thing she’d do without telling me–but maybe the rules have changed since we began to embrace the inevitable conclusion of our time under the same roof. I cautiously stepped out into the hallway and slowly made my way closer to her bedroom door. I wasn’t sure if I was upset about the prospect of her sharing her bed with another man or not, but at the very least, I just needed to know. “...we’re talking about years of stagnant growth,” the man’s voice said. “Sure, you can point at the fact that the company remains profitable–and that’s not nothing–but I just don’t think that’s enough anymore. The shareholders need to see growth.” Jeez. If that was what adults considered dirty talk, then I was better off staying in diapers. “Clark?” came Mommy’s voice from the other side of the door. “Is that you?” I sighed. I wonder what gave me away. Was I not as stealthy as I thought I was? Had she seen my feet underneath her door? “Y-yeah…” “Come in.” I held my breath and cautiously turned the doorknob. I was scared that on the other side of the door, Mommy and some stranger would be canoodling in her bed–and his first sight of me would be while I was in a soaked pull-up. But there wasn’t anyone else in bed with her. Instead, she was staring down at her tablet, where a video was playing and the baritone man was continuing to talk about…money, or something. “Are you okay?” she asked. “I just heard something and…” “Did I wake you? I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep so I was just watching some videos. I didn’t realize it was so loud.” “N-no,” I said. “I probably would’ve slept right through it, but, uhm…” “What is it?” I sighed. “I…had an accident.” “Oh my. I’m sorry, Baby.” “I-it’s okay.” I almost felt like I needed to plead for her not to demote me back to diapers–but I bit my tongue for the moment. “Well, since you need a change, and I’m up anyway, maybe we should take care of that?” “I-I can do it,” I said. “Stay in bed.” “I trust that you could handle it if you wanted to. But if you want help, I’m here.” I glanced at Mommy’s alarm clock on her nightstand, revealing the time to be, as predicted, just shy of 3 AM. If it were any lighter outside–or if I was any less drowsy–maybe I’d want to tackle my pull-up on my own. But, seeing as how she was up anyway… “O-okay, Mommy,” I said. “If you don’t mind.” “I never mind.” She slid from her bed, pausing the baritoned man and leaving the tablet behind as she grabbed my hand and led me back to the nursery. “A nighttime accident,” she said as we walked. “Does that happen often?” “No,” I said. I wondered if she believed me when I said that–maybe she was suspicious that it’d been happening regularly and I was hiding it from her. I added: “I’d tell you if it was.” “Everyone has an accident now and then,” she said. “Even you?” “Everyone but me,” she laughed. I laughed too. Without being told to, I crawled atop the changing table and laid myself out flat. Legs spread. “Do you want another pull-up?” she asked. “Or…do you think I should get a diaper instead?” “I, uhm…” I felt my cheeks warming. “There’s no wrong answer, Clarky.” “Pull-up?” “Is that a question?” “Pull-up,” I said, making it sound like a more definitive choice. “Very well,” she said, reaching beneath the changing table. Whereas I had dug through multiple compartments without finding a pull-up, she seemed to have no trouble finding another in just a second or two. “No diaper, huh? Are you not a baby anymore?” As tempting as it was to sing “I’m a big kid now,” I just shrugged instead. “My little boy is growing up,” she sighed, pulling the soaked pull up down my legs before discarding it in the diaper bin. “You know, Lyndie mentioned to me the other day that she saw you leaving the restroom at the office.” It was a little embarrassing to hear that my bathroom habits were topics of conversation between Mommy and Lyndie, but I supposed that was to be expected. “Uh huh.” “And did you make tinkles in the urinal like a big boy?” I nodded. “Did you drop your stinkies in the toilet?” “N-not yet…” “Ah, you save that for home, is that it?” she giggled. A few days ago, I had been sitting on Ms. Potty for Mommy while she cooked dinner when I found myself unloading my bowels into it. I hadn’t expected to do that–though once I started, I found it impossible to stop. Mommy had been gratuitous enough to wipe me clean and take care of the now-heavy potty chair–though she hadn’t let me live it down since. It was, currently, her favorite thing to tease me about. “I didn’t mean to…” “I know. I’m just having fun.” She had produced a baby wipe, and was running it over my skin–letting it casually glide over the chastity. “Why can’t you sleep?” I asked. “Would you believe me if I said I wet myself too?” I shook my head. I wish that was true, though. “I’ve been having trouble sleeping lately,” she shrugged. “I’ve got a lot going on in this head of mine.” “Like what?” She dusted my midsection with some baby powder–though it seemed to be noticeably less than what she usually used–before opening up the new pull-up and slipping it over my feet. “Oh, you don’t want to hear about all my woes.” “Of course I do.” “We can talk about them later,” she said. “I’m worried that if we talk about them now, I’ll give you nightmares. You’ll never want to grow up once you start thinking about ‘adult’ problems.” I laughed. “I miss having ‘adult’ problems.” Though my challenges with Ava were probably more in the ‘adult’ category than the ‘baby’ one. “Did your pull-up leak in the crib?” she asked, leaving me on the changing table as she walked towards the crib. “Yeah,” I blushed. “A little.” “Hm. Damp,” she nodded, running her hand across the mattress. “Yet another project for Marnie. C’mon, kiddo. You’re sleeping with Mommy.” “R-really?” “We still have to get up in a few hours, but that’s plenty of time to get a little more sleep.” It was back to Mommy’s room, and soon after she was the big spoon to my little spoon. Her hands were wrapped around me, holding me against her body like I was a big stuffed animal. Not that I minded that. I was tempted to dig a little more on what had kept her up, but maybe it wasn’t that hard to guess. She was still trying to figure it all out–just like I was. I still thought about what I overheard her saying to Ms. Beaufort on the phone that one night–how she didn’t want to be alone, and how she didn’t only want to be defined by her job. That would keep me up too. Sometimes, thoughts like that did keep me up. “Are you awake?” she whispered to me. “I am.” “How are you?” It was such a simple question that it almost didn’t make any sense to me. “Uhm…I’m good.” She laughed a little. “For a while there, I had you all to myself. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad you’re seeing your friends and making plans and all that. But it’s been a while since I’ve had to check in–I’m used to you just always being around me.” “I’m good,” I said again, feeling a little more confident with my answer, now that I knew the context for the question. “How are you?” “Oh…I’m fine.” “You can’t sleep?” I asked. “As soon as I can turn my brain off, I can sleep just fine.” “What’s on your mind?” “The future,” she said. “It’s almost always the future.” I knew that if I asked her to elaborate, she probably would. We could have a whole conversation about it. But I already know the things she’s thinking about and worrying about. They’re the same things I sometimes worry about. I try a different approach: “You’re going to be okay. The future is going to be good.” She squeezes me a little tighter. Her hands slide down my belly to my pull-up, slipping under the waistband. She gently fondles my caged cock. “Will you miss this when it’s gone?” she whispers into my ear. I’m quick to answer: “No.” But then I think about it for another second and I’m less sure. “M-maybe.” “I want to play with it,” she said. “May I? It might help me get some sleep.” A little buzz was spreading throughout my body. “Of course. It’s yours, after all. You can do anything you want with it.” She titters at this and retracts her hands from my diaper. A moment later, she’s rolling away from me. I wondered if I had somehow said something to offend her, or if she had changed her mind–but she then suddenly rolls back into her previous position, and her hands slip into my pull-up again. This time, I can feel that she has something in her hand. I practically giggle with excitement. Is that what I think it is? She slid something into the chastity’s lock. She turned it. There was a click, and this followed by the sudden feeling of pressure being released. Her other hand gripped the cage and gently pulled it free of the back ring and off my cock. I wasted no time in getting erect, my cock seeming to instantaneously inflate. “My my,” she cooed into my ear. “Someone’s happy to be free.” Her fingers wrapped around my shaft, and she gripped it like it was a sword. I almost started begging if I could fuck her, but I wasn’t even sure that I cared. It felt good to be free, and it felt good to have her hand on my shaft like this. Literally anything she wanted to do would be fine by me. “Uh huh,” was the only thing I could manage to get out of my mouth. “Sometimes I regret locking you up like this,” she whispered. “R-really?” “Don’t get me wrong–it’s good that I did lock you up. But just think of the fun we’d have had if you weren’t locked up. How many times do you think you would’ve blown your load into your diaper if you weren’t locked up?” Her hand began to slowly stroke my cock, her fingers sliding up the shaft to the head, pausing, and then sliding back down the length of it. “Uhm…lots.” “Yeah, I think so too. Once a day, at least.” “Uh huh.” Her hand slid up my shaft. “Probably every time you poop yourself, huh?” “Y-yeah…” Her hand slid down it. “I know you, Clarky. You’d have a big load in your diaper and you’d sit right down in the ground in your own mess–so riled up that you can’t help but start playing with yourself.” “Y-yes…I would…” “I, uhm, heard a rumor earlier today,” she said. “The other night, someone had a potty chair full of Ava’s pee poured into their diaper?” Her hand slid up my shaft. “Y-you heard about that? Who told you?” “That’s not as important right now. What I want to know is if it happened or not.” Her hand slid down it. “It happened,” I said. “Did you like it?” She already knew the answer to this, but that wasn’t the point of her asking. “Yes.” Her hand slid up my shaft. “If you weren’t in a cage, what do you think would’ve happened in that moment?” I replayed that scene again in my head–the same scene that had played a few times since that night. Paige and Ava were holding my diaper open, and Lyndie was pouring the contents of the potty chair into my diaper. Except this time, per Mommy’s suggestion, I was imagining that my dick wasn’t confined to chastity. This time, it was sticking straight up, the head of it even poking out of the diaper as the girls pulled it open. They pointed and laughed at me as the warm piss cascaded off of it and trickled down my shaft into the diaper. Maybe they’d playfully poke at it. It wouldn’t take much–just the slightest amount of attention at that point would be enough for me to erupt, and I’d add my sticky load to the already soaked diaper. Much to the girls’ delight. Mine too. “Baby?” Mommy whispered. “You’re making some lovely moaning sounds, but you haven’t actually answered my question.” “O-oh? Uhm…” Her hand slid down it. “...I’d have cum. Right there on the spot. In front of them.” “And you would’ve loved that too, huh?” “Yeah…” Every single second of it. Her hand slid up my… “Ungh,” I groaned, a remarkably unsexy sound–the primal noise of peak ecstasy being reached. “Are you going to cum, Clarky?” “Y-yes… So close.” “You want to, don’t you?” “Unnnngh,” I moaned again. “So badly… Please!” “You don’t need my permission, big boy. Go ahead.” I did. I might have even been ejaculating before she even finished getting the word ‘ahead’ out of her mouth. I unleashed another unsexy torrent of strange groans as a rather sizable blob erupted inside my pull-up. In an instant, it felt like my cum was everywhere. So it goes when I had been denied for so long. “Perfect,” Mommy said softly. “Such a good boy. Do you feel better?” “O-of course.” I expected this to be the part where she pulled her sticky hands out of my diaper and washed them off before we actually tried to get some sleep–but she made no effort to move. Her hands remained in my pull-up, and I was still held closely against her–my back against her chest. She was snoring in my ear–adorable little sounds that almost sounded like kitten purrs. I failed to see how jerking me off had managed to put her to sleep–but I was happy that she could at least finally get any sleep at all. And soon after, I found myself drifting off to sleep myself–Mommy’s hands still lodged in my gooey diaper. When I woke in the morning, I was on my back. Also, I was alone. I was still in Mommy’s bed, though she was somewhere else. Judging by the smell of freshly brewed coffee slowly making its way up the stairs, it was fair to assume she had already gotten her morning started. “Wow,” I said softly to myself. We hadn’t been sleeping in her bed together for too long, but the sleep we got felt good–maybe the best I had in a while. The events of the early morning hours were slowly returning to me. I had wet myself in my sleep. The crib mattress was still wet. Mommy changed me. I cuddled with Mommy in bed. She…unlocked my cage? I quickly slid my hands into my pull-up to confirm. My fingertips met the warmed steel of the chastity cage. That crafty devil had put my cage back on this morning when she got up. And I slept through that whole thing. Or, she never took it off and you just dreamed that. Possible, though I was pretty sure it happened. Though, that begged the question: If that wasn’t when she was taking off the cage permanently–just when did she imagine that would happen? Ninety-Two I hadn’t told Mommy about Megan’s studio apartment. I hadn’t told anyone about it yet, actually. I wanted to, and I knew I would eventually, but I just needed some more time to think about it more. For the first few days after my lunch with Megan, I was mostly filled with worry. It was going to be a tough conversation to have with Mommy–no matter how inevitable that conversation would be. She was going to cry. I was going to cry. It would probably be a big mess. But that would pass. And once I decided to believe that the discomfort of that conversation would be temporary, I started to get excited about everything that came after. I’d have a place of my own. A place that I could call ‘home’ without the little asterisk after it that denoted that I was just borrowing someone else’s for the time being. I’d have my own TV. My own waffle maker. My own coffee pot. My own toilet scrubbing brush. Hell…my own toilet. I wondered what my first bill would be. I wondered where I’d keep my mail. I wondered how many sets of bed sheets I’d have and how often I’d rotate them. I didn’t mind keeping this excitement to myself for a little longer. It felt good to have it simmering inside me, just short of a full boil. For the first time in a very long time, adulthood seemed…right. “You’re coming, right?” Ava asked. I had momentarily forgotten where I was, and who I was with. Lyndie and I had agreed to meet Ava and Caleb for dinner after work at a taqueria that Lyndie wouldn’t shut up about. “Uhm, I’m sorry. What are we talking about?” I blushed a little, realizing I was fantasizing about keeping popsicles in my new freezer while Ava was talking. “Saturday night,” she said. “Lyndie and I’s place. You’re coming?” “Oh. Yeah, of course I’ll be there.” Lyndie had already told me about the little gathering earlier in the day, and I had already committed myself to it–which was probably why I had tuned out the current conversation about it. As Lyndie explained it, it wasn’t quite a ‘party,’ though it was bigger than a ‘get-together.’ Just some friends coming over for drinks and board games. “Caleb will be there,” she had already warned me. “And I think some of his friends too.” But I wasn’t going to let that stop me. The slowly blooming adult-Clark thirsted for social interaction, and if Ava and Lyndie were going to be there, I’d be fine. “Is Paige coming?” I asked. Ava snickered behind her hand, shooting a wry grin over to Lyndie. “You better believe it.” “Who’s Paige again?” Caleb asked, swallowing a bite of his enchilada. “She’s my friend,” Lyndie said, her cheeks getting a little extra pink in them. I wondered if Lyndie had made any sort of advance on Paige since the sleepover at Mommy’s house. I saw Lyndie almost every day at the office, and I was still regularly texting Paige–and yet neither of them had talked about the other very much, beyond the conversation I had with Lyndie in her office. “Hey, do you mind if I bring a friend with me?” I asked. Lyndie looked at me incredulously. “What friend do you have that we don’t already know?” If it came from anyone else, it’d have been seen as rude. But Lyndie could get away with questions like that. Caleb snorted into his margarita. “Megan. I’ve wanted to introduce everyone to her for a while now, and this seems like a good time to do it.” “Yes, please,” Ava nodded. “The more the merrier!” I occasionally tried to read Caleb’s face, but I just didn’t know him well enough to get much from it. He was either very chill, or completely disengaged. My instinct was to assume the worst from him, but I knew that wasn’t being very fair. If Ava saw something in him, I trusted that he was an alright guy. “You into board games?” Caleb asked me. “Uh, I assume we’re not talking about, like, Battleship and Yahtzee…” “I mean, those are fun too. But I was thinking more along the lines of Eurogames.” “Oh. Is that like…Catan?” “Yeah, games like that. Resource-management and strategy focused. Less luck based.” The luck comment sort of felt like a dig at the games I mentioned, but I tried not to overthink it. “Cool. Is that the sort of stuff you’re into?” “Oh yeah,” he said. “Love ‘em. I just got this new game, Titans of…” “Oh my god,” Ava sighed, though keeping a playful tone to her disgust. “If I have to hear about this game one more time, I’m going to go crazy.” “My buddies and I are really into it right now,” he continued, shrugging her off. He didn’t do it in a rude way. In fact, it was almost kind of endearing–another one of those cute interactions between a couple who knew each other well. “I’ll be bringing it to Ava’s place, so you’ll have to play with us.” Damn, and now he’s going to be nice to me? I wish he’d at least try giving me a reason to hate him. “Yeah, cool,” I said. “Can’t wait.” I swore I saw Lyndie’s lips twitch into a tiny smile out of the corner of my eye. There was a strange energy at the table, though it wasn’t the first time I had felt–I was pretty sure it was like this when Paige and I went on our ‘date’ with Ava and Caleb. It was probably our secret–three of the four of us knew all about our diapered life. Caleb, as far as I knew, was on the outside of that world. We were all talking around it, whether we realized it or not. I wondered if Ava would tell him about diapers. Maybe she wouldn’t. Maybe she never had to. But she seemed to want them pretty bad at the sleepover–and I doubted that was the last time she’d crave them. Sooner or later, whether she wanted him to or not, he’d probably find out about them. “I’ll tell you what’s crazy,” Caleb said–probably responding to something someone else said that I missed. “But Ava is, like, obsessed with milk right now.” Ava’s face grew hot pink. “Wh-what? That’s not true!” “Oh please,” he laughed. “You should see her. She’ll buy a half-gallon jug at the grocery store and go through the whole thing in a weekend.” “I…like milk,” she spat. “That’s not the weirdest thing in the world, is it?” I was biting my tongue, and Lyndie was just barely containing a giggle. Poor Ava. Was she looking for something to take the place of Ms. Beaufort’s breastmilk? From my own experience, it was far from the same thing–but it might have been what I would’ve gone for too.” “N-no,” I said. “People drink milk.” “Do you drink a full glass of milk?” Caleb asked. Not since I was a little boy. But I’m more interested in having Ava’s back: “Sure.” “I dunno,” Caleb laughed. “I just think it’s weird.” “I agree with that,” Lyndie smirked. “Milk is for cereal, an ingredient in baking, and for babies.” Ava blushed a little, shooting Lyndie an angry glance. “W-well, you’re wrong about all of that. I’m not a baby and I like it just fine.” Nobody made any further comments about it–but we didn’t really have to. Lyndie and I had gotten plenty of secret amusement out of the conversation at Ava’s expense. I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket, and it sent a little jolt of joy through my body. New text messages were still exciting to me, though I knew that I’d get sick of the need to be tethered to my phone at some point. I slid my phone out to take a quick look at the screen and see who was reaching out. It was Mommy. Mommy: “Just a heads up–It looks like we’ll be having company over later this week. I’d tell you to be on your best behavior, but she’s already seen you at your worst.” Well that was interesting. I slid my phone back into my pocket; as badly as I wanted to ask Mommy for more information, I didn’t want to be rude and start texting while at dinner with my friends. But now I was curious. Who was our company going to be? Why couldn’t she have just told me? I was sure it wasn’t Lyndie or Ava. It wouldn’t be Paige. Ms. Beaufort? Unlikely, considering I saw her at the office regularly. Courtney? Maybe; I hadn’t seen her in a while. But Courtney was my babysitter, and if she was coming over, it’d mean that Mommy was going out. Mommy specifically said ‘we’ll’ be having company, so I doubted it was her. But who else had seen me at my worst? My mother? I kind of hoped she wasn’t our guest. I wouldn’t have been unhappy to see my mother, honestly, but I disliked the notion that Mommy and my mother had stayed in contact and had planned to get together again without talking to me. So, maybe, it was my mother–though I had some doubts about that. I think Mommy would’ve said so if it was her–knowing how big of a deal it was the last time I saw her. Who else could it be then? Who else had seen me at my worst? I could not think of anyone else. “...so I guess that’s why you have to keep upgrading it,” Lyndie was saying. “But I don’t like doing it.” I must’ve been in a daze for a little longer than I thought, because I didn’t have the slightest clue what they were talking about. “Do you play videogames?” Caleb asked me. I couldn’t tell if this was what they were talking about, or if we were starting a whole new conversation. “I guess,” I shrugged. “I used to play them when I was younger, but I haven’t really touched them in years.” “I was never into them myself,” Ava said. “But now, whenever I go to Caleb’s house, I hold his PlayStation hostage.” Lyndie laughed. “I can’t even imagine you as a gamer. What do you play?” “I dunno,” Ava shrugged. “I’ve got a gun and I shoot things? What’s that one called?” “You’ve played, like four or five different games, Ave,” he snorted. “Wait…they weren’t all the same game?” We were all laughing pretty hard. I hadn’t been given any updates about where things were between Ava and Caleb since the sleepover. Though, why would I have–it wasn’t necessarily my business. Still, I was curious about where things were at with them. Was Ava still seeking a bigger commitment from Caleb? Was he still dragging his feet? They both seemed to be in good spirits overall, so it was hard to believe there was any sort of conflict. Was it bad that I wished there was some noticeable tension between them? Probably. This is going to be the way it is. They weren’t going to break up, and they were going to work through their problems–if they hadn’t already. Caleb would be bringing his friends over to Ava and Lyndie’s little game night next weekend. Friends that Ava probably already knew. I thought about Ava stretched out on Caleb’s couch with a video game controller in her hands while Caleb rubbed her back and encouraged her to kill the monsters, or whatever it was she was shooting at. I thought about him teasing her about drinking so much milk and the way she probably blushed, but still giggled, at him. They were a couple. They were probably in love. And while I wanted nothing more than to stand on my chair and follow Mommy’s suggestion of proclaiming my love for her, I knew in that moment that it’d be better to keep my mouth shut. I’d be a much better friend to Ava if I just let her have the thing she was happy with. This was going to be the way it was. And maybe that was okay. Ava was happy, and I was happy for her. Things didn’t work out between Paige and I, but I helped introduce her to Lyndie–and that certainly seemed to be going well. So it goes. I wondered if, perhaps, I’d be a little bit happier if I wasn’t always focused on needing a relationship. I could be moving into a place of my own soon. It was a fresh start–a prime opportunity to just find my own path and let whatever happens, happen. That was probably easier said than done, of course. But it felt like a healthy choice to make. Soon, we were saying our goodbyes to each other as we parted for the night. Ava and Caleb were headed back to Caleb’s place. When Lyndie asked if she’d see Ava back at their apartment later, Ava responded with “probably not,” while grinning a little. I tried my hardest to just not think about it much. “What about you?” Lyndie asked me after Ava and Caleb departed. “You want to hang out tonight?” I didn’t have anywhere else I needed to be, though I kind of wanted to go home and talk to Mommy about her cryptic text. “Okay,” she said, perhaps sensing that I might’ve had other things on my mind. “We don’t have to go all the way back to my place. But we could at least grab a drink.” “Yeah,” I nodded. “Sure.” One drink. Then I’d go home and talk to Mommy. We settled on a quiet little hole in the wall that was a block or two from the taqueria. On a busier night, I could see this place being a nightmare to traverse–it was like a hallway with a bar counter jammed in it. Tonight, thankfully, the lack of other patrons gave it a cozier vibe. I decided I wouldn’t talk about Ava. Unless Lyndie brought her up first, of course. “How’re things with Paige?” I asked. “We’ve been texting a little,” Lyndie shrugged. “But we haven’t actually hung out since we were all at your place.” “But things are going well?” She nodded, her cheeks a little pink again. “I think so.” “You’re such a sucker for a needy baby in a diaper,” I teased. “Ugh, don’t I know it. It’s like a weird disease.” “Don’t act like you don’t love it.” She sighed. “I know, I know. So…any regrets about letting me get my hands all over her?” I shook my head. “Not yet.” “Oh, but maybe later?” I laughed and shrugged. “I don’t like to rule anything out.” “Actually, maybe I should give you the same warning I gave Paige.” I lifted my eyebrows. “Hm?” “So with this little gathering we’re throwing–this isn’t, like, a baby party. There’s going to be a bunch of folks there who aren’t wearing diapers. I don’t care if you wear your diapers, but just–y’know–be careful about it?” I almost laughed in her face. Did she really think I forgot to act in public? Then again… Maybe, were I in her shoes, I’d have asked me to be mindful of my diapers too. The first thing out of my mouth was: “I wear pull-ups now,” which wasn’t quite the argument I hoped it would be. “I don’t care what you wear, Clarky. Keep it in your pants, and be respectful. Worst case scenario–if you have some sort of pants-filling emergency–you come find me. In fact, let’s make a code word for that right now.” “Rutabaga?” “Uhm…no. You come up to me at a party and say ‘rutabaga,’ and people are going to start asking why you’re running around talking about rutabagas.” “Fair enough. So, instead…” “Ask me about my ficus.” “You’re…?” “It’s a plant, Clark. It’s in the living room–not that it matters. If you ask me about my ficus, I’ll know there’s some sort of diaper-related emergency, and hopefully we can take care of it before anyone else notices. Deal?” “Deal.” “Does Megan wear diapers?” “Uhm…I think so? I don’t know if she’d wear them to your party though.” Of course, I hadn’t even reached out to Megan to invite her yet. “Well, spread the word. Ficus. I’m going to let Paige know too. Look–if it was up to me? I wouldn’t care if all you babies wanted to run around and poop your pants in front of the normies.” Normies. As if the world was broken into two camps: the ‘normies,’ and the…whatever freaks we were with our stinky diapers. Lyndie continued: “But this is important to Ava. She wants to impress Caleb’s friends. She wants to throw this sorta, I dunno, ‘adult’ party. I think it’s all kind of silly, but maybe that’s just because I don’t have anyone in my life I want to impress like that.” “Paige?” She laughed. “There’s plenty of ways to impress her without doing anything ‘adult.’” “Fair enough. Look, I’ll…mention it to Megan, okay?” “Thank you, Clark. Anyway…how are you?” I shrugged as I took a sip from my pint glass. “I’m fine.” “I mean, like, with the whole Ava thing. Do you want to talk about it?” Well, I did say that I was only going to talk about it if she started the conversation. And here she was, doing just that. “She’s happy?” I asked. “Sure,” Lyndie said. “But she’s almost always happy.” “Things are better between her and Caleb?” “She says they are,” Lyndie said, taking a swig from her glass bottle. “I don’t always believe that, but…I’m not her. So what more can I do but take her word for it?” “Look, just so you know,” I said, “I think I’m going to start hanging back a little when Ava’s around.” I almost surprised myself by saying the words out loud. I had barely even formed the thoughts in my head and they were already on my tongue. “I mean–I’ll come to your game night and I’m going to be all friendly and stuff. But after that, I’m going to try and spend a little less time with her.” “She’s going to be hurt by that,” Lyndie said. “M-maybe she won’t notice, you know? Like, I’m not going to completely cut her out. I’ll just be a little slower to respond to her texts. Maybe I won’t show up everytime you and her want me to hang out with y’all. It doesn’t even have to permanently be like this. I just need a little time to, like, move on. Then I’ll be good to go.” Lyndie didn’t immediately respond, though she did nod as she took another sip from her beer–a nice long sip that ended with her placing the empty bottle on the bar and asking for another. “I get it,” she finally said. “I don’t like it. But I get it.” “And you won’t tell Ava?” “Nah,” she said, shaking her head. For a few minutes, it felt like there was a gray cloud hanging over the two of us. But then she put her hand on my shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze that seemed to disperse the cloud. She looked at me and smiled. I smiled back. She always knew how to make me feel better. “Hey, so here’s something,” I said, feeling a little re-energized. And I proceeded to make her the first person I told about Megans’s studio. The conversation went well–of course it would, Lyndie was always going to be supportive of any effort I made to grow and mature. Her approval–any approval, really, but hers especially–was like a drug to me, and I needed a good hit of that approval right now to distract me from some of my other feelings. As promised, Lyndie gave me a ride back to Mommy’s when we were done, and it wasn’t until we were halfway home that I remembered Mommy’s text from earlier. I was racking my brain once more, curious as to who had ‘already seen me at my worst.’ I was nervous. I was also a little excited. I had asked Lyndie to come inside with me and say hi to Mommy for a few minutes, but she decided she needed to go home and get some sleep. Honestly, I was happy with that decision–I didn’t want to further delay the revelation as to who Mommy’s mystery guest was. “Hello, Clarky,” she said, meeting me in the kitchen not long after I got home. “Did you have a good time tonight?” “I did, yeah,” I said, talking quickly and nodding my head. “But, uhm, hey…I wanted to ask you about that text you sent earlier.” She laughed and nodded her head. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking when I sent it–I probably just should’ve waited for you to come home before I said anything at all.” “It’s okay,” I said. “But…I am curious as to who’s coming.” “Ah, right. Well, I’m sure you’ll be delighted to learn that your little sister is paying us a visit.” “L-little sister? I don’t have a…” “Sure you do,” Mommy replied. “Your little baby sister Kylie? Who you met in Seattle?”

Franziska von Karma was in the Prosecutor's Office looking for cases when she saw a forty-five-year-old scientist with black hair, blue eyes, and dressed in a black dress with a white lab coat over it. Franziska squinted at the woman, having the sinking feeling she'd seen her before. "You don't remember me, do you?" The scientist asked. "I'm afraid I don't." Franziska said plainly. "I'm Bridget Nurzey." Bridget said. "You prosecuted me for illegal animal testing." "Oh yes." Franziska replied. It was the last case she took before coming to America to try and defeat Phoenix Wright and Edgeworth. Bridget had been subjecting various animals to a myriad of mechanical devices to "make life easier", but she hadn't bothered getting the approval she needed out of paranoia over being beaten to the punch. For her crimes, Bridget spent six months in prison. "I just wanted to thank you for helping me see the error of my ways." Bridget said. "In fact, if you’re not too busy, how about a drink at my lab?" "Interesting." Franziska said. She was aware that Bridget might try to do her harm, but she doubted that it would be anything she couldn't get out of, and then she could prosecute her for assault. "Lead the way, Bridget." The two women then walked off. After a half hour's walk, Bridget and Franziska arrived at a large building that looked more like a nineteenth century hospital than a laboratory. Bridget walked over to the door and opened it, gesturing for Franziska to go in first. Franziska cautiously did so, keeping an eye on Bridget while scanning the room with her eyes. Once the two were inside, Franziska couldn't help but be amazed. The interior of the lab looked perfectly sterile and organized. With bright florescent lights almost blinding Franziska. Eventually, her eyes adjusted, and she followed Bridget to a table with a tea set on it. Bridget sat down, gesturing towards a seat opposite her, and Franziska sat down and took the cup in front of her. "It's not poisoned, is it?" Franziska asked, half jokingly. "Now that would just be rude." Bridget said, chuckling. "In all earnestness, my breakthrough concerns you." "Me?" Franziska asked in confusion. "Well, your line of work." Bridget said quickly. "You see, during those six months in prison, I realized something. People weren't changing, at least not like they should have. As such, I wondered about what to do when it hit me. As children, we’re more prone to correcting our bad habits. So if prison could cause a similar state of mind, we'd have less repeat offenders." "So what?" Franziska replied. "You want to turn prison into a giant daycare, Dr. Bridget Nurzey?" "Exactly." Bridget replied. "It's why I built my new lab within this old, abandoned hospital. All the space and supplies I needed, and after five years, it's ready." "F-for what?" Franziska asked nervously. "Human testing." Bridget said with a smirk as Franziska stood up to escape, but Bridget pushed a button in the floor with her foot. The ground beneath Franziska's feet opened up, and she fell into the hole, screaming all the while. Eventually, she landed on a blue conveyor belt and groaned. She looked around and found that she was in a brightly colored room with pink walls, an orange ceiling, and a green floor. She also saw that the belt she was on led to a large red cube. "Oh, I will not stand for any of this!!" Franziska said angrily. Franziska then leapt off of the belt when a gray mechanical arm with two ball joints allowing for movement and a hand with a white glove on it grabbed Franziska by the neck and pulled her back to the belt. Franziska tried to get off the belt again, but the arm let go of her neck and held her down by her stomach. Franziska did her best to get out from under the hand, but its hold was too firm. "You made me lose six months of my life!" Bridget said over a loudspeaker. "Now you'll lose the next six months in my new Nursery Prison!" "You kidnapped animals to test out your inventions!" Franziska shouted. "You deserved your prison stint!" "Just like you deserve this stint for denying the world my genius!" Bridget replied. While this argument was going on, Franziska was sent into the cube by the belt. Once inside, more arms, like the one from before, grabbed Franziska and began removing all of her clothes. In a matter of minutes, Franziska's cravat, the sapphire broach that held it in place, her black gloves, her black vest and skirt, her white blouse with the poofy shoulders, her black leggings and high heels were taken off. Next, her bra and panties were removed too, leaving Franziska naked as the day she was born. Following that, Franziska was set back down on her hands and knees before one of the arms held her down by her back, and another arm began spanking Franziska. After several minutes, during which, she was spanked at least one hundred and eighty-two times, the spanking stopped, and Franziska was crying. "This was the baseline of your punishment." A feminine computerized voice said. "All future punishments will be far more severe." "You don't understand!" Franziska wailed. "I'm not supposed to be here!" "Of course you are, Little Franny!" The prison cooed as Franziska was rolled out, so sore from the spanking that she didn't dare to try and rush off. Then she saw a sign that read "BATH TIME", and she gulped nervously. The belt then came to a stop as Franziska fell into an oversized plastic bathtub for infants. She came up groaning again when more arms came down, each holding a scrub brush with soapy water. The arms rubbed the brushes against Franziska's body, causing her to call out in pain. "Stop this at once!" Franziska shouted. "I am not a baby you foolish--" Before Franziska could finish her insult, one of the arms rubbed its brush around Franziska's mouth, causing her to gag from the taste of soapy water. Once the brush was removed, Franziska spat the water out and coughed a little. "You can't do this to me!" Franziska insisted. "I am Franziska von Karma! The--" Once more the arms interrupted Franziska by shoving her head into the water which caused her butt to stick out in the air. More arms then began scrubbing her butt and groin. The arms then released Franziska as she pulled her head out of the water, gasping for air. "Are you crazy, Dr. Bridget Nurzey?!" Franziska shouted. "I could have drowned!" "That's why I haven't released it yet." Bridget's voice said, chuckling. "Who better to test it on than you, Franziska? By the way, the soap the prison uses is laced with a moisturizer I invented that makes the skin as smooth, soft, and tender as a baby's. What do you think?" Franziska begrudgingly looked at her arms and saw them shining with water. She brushed it away and felt how smooth and soft her skin was now, earning Bridget Franziska's begrudging respect. While Franziska was distracted, the arms grabbed her again and dropped her down a new belt that was in the middle of high powered fans. As she slid down the belt, the water was practically blasted off her. Franziska could only scream in panic from the sudden drop until the belt evened out, and the arms came back with brown towels. They roughly dried Franziska's body, causing her to nearly suffocate from when they dried her face and to shriek and groan when her butt crack was dried. Another arm came down with a brush and began brushing her hair while the other arms continued drying her butt and stomach. "There now." The prison said. "Little Franny's all cleaned." Franziska could only groan in response, having become very dizzy from being dried. She was in such a daze that she didn't notice the arms pick her up and bring her to a station marked "BARBER STOP". When Franziska was dropped into a brown, leather barber chair and strapped in, she quickly got her barrings and immediately began struggling, even as a towel was tied around her neck. "Hello, baby!" The chair said in a high, jovial voice. "Such a cute little baby! You'll look so cute when I'm done with you." Mechanical arms like the ones Franziska had dealt with at the tub and on the belt came out with a pair of scissors and began cutting Franziska's hair. Franziska watched in alarm as chunks of her hair fell this way and that in a haphazard sequence. "I beg your pardon!" Franziska shouted. "Release me at once! Help!! SOMEBODY, HELP!!" Once Franziska's hair was cut down to the point of a pixie cut, the arms brought out an electric razor and began shaving off the rest of her hair. "Ouch!" Franziska shrieked. "Stop it! Let me go!! Dr. Bridget Nurzey, tell this dumb chair to stop!!!" There was no response as Franziska's head was shaved bald, and the arms applied shaving cream to her head and used a straight razor to take off the rest of her hair. Feeling the breeze on her bare scalp, Franziska broke down and began crying. "Aw..." The chair cooed. "It's all right, sweetie. Now for the finishing touch." One of the arms came back with a frosting tube and squirted blue goo onto the crown of Franziska's head as it sunk into her scalp and became a lone lock of hair, much to Franziska's shock. "That's instant hair." Bridget said, angering Franziska. "Are you just using this contemptible place to shill out your useless inventions?!" Franziska asked angrily. "I could leave you bald." Bridget retorted, and Franziska quickly closed her mouth. "That's better." Bridget said with a sneer in her voice. When Franziska was released from the chair, she tried to run off when one of the arms grabbed her by the neck again and dropped her onto another belt. As Franziska groaned and rubbed her neck, one of the arms came down with a bottle of baby oil and squirted some onto its hand. More arms then came down and held onto Franziska's legs. "No!" Franziska wailed. "Don’t do what I think you’re about to do!" It was too late. The arm with the oil rubbed its two fingers into her butt hole. It made her moan and groan. Plus what was worse, she felt her butt grow numb, almost like the baby oil was a muscle relaxer, which considering the rest of Bridget's inventions it probably was. Once the arm pulled its fingers out, Franziska sighed with relief. The belt then moved forward, and Franziska hit a rolling pin, causing her to flip onto her back while the arms grabbed her ankles and powder puffs came towards her butt. The powder puff then began patting Franziska's butt, giving off the strong scent of baby powder. "Oh come on!" Franziska called out in agitation, especially considering what she knew would come next. More arms then set down a white cloth as the powder puff continued patting Franziska's bottom, making her sneeze. Eventually, the arms released Franziska's legs and wrapped the cloth diaper around her pelvis. Another arm with a pink safety pin then came down and put it through the middle of the diaper, holding the diaper together. Seeing her diapered bottom and seeing from her reflection in the metal that her lone lock of hair was curled, Franziska began to cry, slamming her arms and legs onto the belt while every inch of her body got patted by the powder puff. She didn't care anymore that she looked like an overgrown infant. She just wanted to go home. "Let me out!!" Franziska wailed. LET ME OUT!!" "Oh, but Mommy still has six months with Little Franny." The prison said. "Won't that be fun?" "NO!!!!" Franziska screamed. "Don’t worry, Little Franny." The prison cooed. "Mommy's here for you." The belt continued forward as Franziska continued crying. At the end of the belt, the arms grabbed Franziska's wrists and put black mittens on her hands before tying them on with pink ribbons. The arms then put black booties onto Franziska's feet, tying them on with the same pink ribbons. At this, Franziska finally stopped crying, remembering that she was the prisoner of a lunatic. "If Miles Edgeworth sees me like this, I'll never hear the end of it." Franziska moaned. The arms then carried Franziska to a high chair as her eyes widened in horror. "Oh, when's this going to end?!" Franziska shouted. "In six months." Bridget reminded her smugly. The arms then dropped Franziska into the high chair as she groaned. The tray then snapped into place, pinning Franziska's arms to her sides. Franziska struggled with all her might, but she just couldn't free herself. "You stupid bucket of bolts!" Franziska shouted. "What do you think you’re doing?!" "Feeding you, Little Franny." The prison said ominously as a clamp came up from the back of the chair and snapped itself around Franziska's neck, holding her head in place. A mechanical arm then came up and shoved a baby bottle of what appeared to be milk into Franziska's mouth. With no recourse, Franziska began drinking it down. To her surprise, she found that the milk was very tasty and surprisingly filling. "Another of my inventions." Bridget said over the speakers. "A special formula that provides anyone with all their daily nutrients. The only downside is that continual consumption of the formula causes bloating and eventually an exponential growth of fat cells." At this, Franziska tried to spit the bottle out, but the hands were holding it to firmly. Eventually, the bottle was emptied, and the arm removed it. Franziska gasped at that, feeling like her stomach was ready to burst. Franziska then caught a look at herself in a mirror as the arms cleaned up her face and saw that her stomach was protruding out a bit, giving her a pot-bellied look. Seeing this, Franziska wailed in anger and horror. Her perfect figure was damaged, and it would only get worse over the coming months. After feeding her, the tray of the high chair popped off, and Franziska fell onto her hands and knees, still exhausted from the formula. "What have you done to me?!" Franziska shouted at the ceiling, only getting a chuckle from Bridget. Just then, the arms moved to grab Franziska again as she tried to run away from them. She hoped that if she could escape, she could just lay low, work off the potbelly and wear a wig until her hair grew back. Unfortunately, the arms grabbed her by the neck again and hit her head with a small hammer, making Franziska go into a stupefied state. After that, Franziska began talking baby talk as a white baby bonnet was put on her head and tied under her chin. She was then put in a white baby dress that covered her arms but barely came down to the waist line of her diaper. Once that was done, Franziska was placed onto one more belt. After a few moments, Franziska shook her head and observed that she was back on yet another conveyor belt. Naturally frustrated by this she looked at the ceiling. She knew Bridget was somewhere up there, and she wasn't about to go down quietly. "When I get out of here, Dr. Bridget Nurzey, I will take great pleasure in making sure you are put back in prison and punished to the fullest extent of the law!!" Franziska declared angrily. "Oh, I'm so scared." Bridget said sarcastically. "By the time I'm done with you, you'll be lucky to have bladder control." Before Franziska could retort Bridget's claim, the arms grabbed Franziska and put her into a giant crib. Seeing her predicament, Franziska threw another tantrum, crying and waving her arms and legs in the air. She didn't know what was worse, being treated like a baby or acting like one thanks to all the abuse Bridget had put her through. "Nap time." The prison said softly. "I do not need a nap!" Franziska said definitely as an arm came down with a blue pacifier with string at the ends of the mouth guard. "I am an international prosecutor being held against my will, and I demand to be released!" The arm then shoved the pacifier into her mouth and tied the strings around the back of her head. With no other choice, Franziska sucked on the pacifier, tasting an odd liquid and assuming it was a laxative. Crossing her arms, Franziska sat there grumbling until she eventually fell asleep, still sucking on her pacifier. From a series of monitors in her office, Bridget laughed smugly at Franziska. She thought about how the liquid in her pacifier would slowly cause her speech to deteriorate, and she couldn't help but laugh. She then sat back and observed the sleeping Franziska in her crib. "This is going to be so much fun." Bridget said with a smirk, taking a drink from her cup. To be continued...

A/N: Story is not finished yet but has some stuff I am very happy with. Will be releasing once a week for at least the next three weeks and hopefully motivated to keep working on this one. TIA for reading! Update (06/15/24): Chapter 2 submitted Continuing Education Chapter I: “Let the Lesson Begin” Life was supposed to be better than this. Michael Mason was twenty seven years old. He had a Bachelor’s Degree in forensic science. His gorgeous wife loved him deeply. And yet all he could think was how relieved he was that his boss was getting ready to write him up. It got him off the sales floor for awhile and away from all those damned boxes of merchandise. The manager’s office was small, little more than a desk and a couple of chairs. The room itself was unusually hot. Surprising since the company was too cheap to pay for heating in the store at night and the building felt more like a freezer. The only job Michael had been able to land was an overnight stocking gig. Every night, five nights a week, from 9 PM to 6 AM he opened boxes and stuck things on the shelves for minimum wage. The job was originally supposed to be something temporary while he found something in his field. Every morning he drug himself home, physically exhausted from the manual labor and from battling his circadian rhythm. What little free time he had he wanted to spend with Alyssa, his wife. The store itself had completely unrealistic times. Lectures about safe stretching and lifting exercises didn’t mean much when the only way to get the work done as quickly as his managers expected was to bend and lift in the most unsafe ways possible. And while he was tearing his body up to get product on the shelves, the people complaining that he wasn’t fast enough were doing what exactly? Hanging out in the back office on TikTok. It had been more than once that he’d wandered to the back in search of equipment or supplies, things his managers never seemed to know where to find, and caught them all crowded around someone’s cell phone, laughing their heads off. So the job was dogshit but at least he was bringing in money. He’d probably be fired eventually but he wasn’t going to quit on them. If they did plan to fire him for being “inefficient” then he was going to get every last penny he could out of them first. Kyle, the overnight assistant, who thought he was a store manager himself, sighed dramatically as he dropped into the chair on the other side of the desk, sitting upon it as if it were the throne from which he lorded over his subjects. “Mike, I’m tired of having performance conversations with you.” “It’s Michael sir.” His nametag said Michael. He indicated on his forms he preferred Michael. He’d told Kyle on numerous occasions he preferred Michael. “Mike,” Kyle continued, ignoring the protest. “To be blunt, your performance is wholly inadequate for this job. We have written disciplinary actions for you twice and this will now be the third time in less than a year. As such, we’ve decided to move forward with separation. I’m going to need your nametag, box cutter, and any other company equipment.” Kyle gestured to the third man in the room. “Jack will have to escort you out after you clean out your locker.” So, that was it. Game over. There was a part of Michael that would be completely relieved that he wasn’t going to have to show up anymore. Of course there was also the part that knew Alyssa was going to be absolutely furious with him. They could barely afford their rent now and they had just managed to open a savings account and drop spare bits of change into it. Going back to a single income was going to set them back by months. There was no point in complaining about it. Michael tossed his boxcutter and nametag on the table and stood up without a word. He was not going to give Kyle the satisfaction of crying or begging for his job. In silence, he strode out of the room, only slightly irritated that Jack was following him every step of the way. “It’s a tough thing,” Jack said. “But you really did it to yourself Mike.” “It’s Michael,” Michael sighed as he pulled a few personal things out of his locker. “Well look on the bright side Mike,” Jack said, “In six months you can re-apply.” “Jack, why would I re-apply for this shithole job?” Michael had tried his best to keep his cool but he’d failed. His only recourse was to blast his hate through his eyes directly at Jack. The expected effect occurred and Jack smirked as he saw the anger in Michael’s face. “You’ll be back,” Jack said. “Your type always comes back.” “You know what Jack?” Michael was already headed for the exit. “Go fuck yourself.” * * * Michael wasn’t sure how manly sitting in his bathrobe at the kitchen table with a container of ice cream and a scoop was but it was making him feel better. It was barely after 2 AM and Alyssa was fast asleep. He’d quietly changed and moved back out to the living room to wallow in his own misery. She was going to be so damned angry when she found out. He had no idea what time it was when the light in the bedroom turned on. He was cold. His robe was barely hanging on him and the ice cream had mostly liquefied. He slopped another bite, getting sticky melted goo all over his face, and sending another jolt of brain freeze to his head. “Michael? Why are you home so early?” It should have been a crime how easily Alyssa made it seem to look beautiful. Despite having slithered out of bed, her hair cascaded down her back as if she’d just had it styled. Her face was perfectly shaped and her eyes popped as if she had a ring of mascara. She could have done a hell of a lot better than an almost thirty year old loser who couldn’t even hold down a job at the grocery store. Here it came. Might as well rip the band-aid off. “I got fired.” He gritted his teeth, prepared for the explosion. Which didn’t….come? He caught a whiff of Alyssa’s perfume, vaguely scented like lilacs, as she wrapped her arms around him in an embrace before gently prying the spoon from his fingers and pulling it away. “Honey, you’re sticky,” she frowned as she disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a washcloth, which she ran over his face. Rather dumbfounded that he wasn’t having his face ripped off, Michael sat there and let his wife clean his face instead. “You’re not…huh?” Michael blinked. Alyssa had a bit of a temper but they didn’t exactly fight. He was expecting her to be mad. Mad in that sort of, “I’m disappointed in you” type of way that would make him feel like a total jackass without her actually raising her voice at him. “Not what?” she smiled as she sat down across from him. “I’m not a mind reader babe, use your words.” “I thought you’d be mad at me,” he confessed. “I’m not thrilled, no,” Alyssa frowned. “You don’t need me to tell you it’s going to hurt us. But you’ve been pretty unhappy at that job and I feel like I barely get to see you. We’ve got to be able to find a way to make things work where we don’t have to be apart so much.” “Yeah,” Michael nodded. His stomach growled in protest at him. Gorging on ice cream had not exactly been his most erudite moment. “What if…” Whenever Alyssa had an idea that she thought exceedingly clever, a grin spread across her face not unlike the Cheshire Cat. “...what if you finally followed through with your plan and went back to school?” “Yikes,” Michael sat up, pushing through his angry stomach. “That’s not gonna help our money situation at all Alyssa.” “That’s the best part,” she replied. “I found a place, let me show you…” her phone appeared in her hands and she played with it for a moment, “Look at this place!” Michael glanced at the phone, reading it off, “The Finch School? What am I? A bird?” “It started as a finishing school,” Alyssa said. “Miss Finch’s Finishing School for Marriageable Young Ladies. That was back in the 20s. It’s evolved into a co-ed liberal arts college. And they offer scholarships for returning adults. Finish your education and all that.” “Yeah but Alyssa, this place is ten hours from here,” Michael frowned. “How is that going to get us more time to be together?” “That part will suck,” Alyssa nodded. “But I barely see you as is. If you go to the school, you can finish your Master’s Degree, land that inspector’s job, and get away from all of these back breaking places you’ve been applying to.” Michael looked down at his wife’s phone again. He’d have to get a place near the campus. Or a dorm room, heh. And of course there was no point in any decision at all if he couldn’t claim that scholarship. There was no way he was taking loans out and they definitely couldn’t pay tuition out of pocket. “Ok then, I’ll apply for the scholarship and we’ll go from there.” “Good boy,” Alyssa beamed at him. * * * He’d done it. He’d gotten in. The application process was very easy and had been done completely online. He’s sent in some writing samples and records from his time at the state university. A few days later he’d received an acceptance email. The terms seemed almost too good to be true. He was required to accept campus housing, agree to a code of conduct that mostly boiled down to not doing stuff he’d hated doing when he was twenty anyway, and had to keep his grades up. That’d be easy enough. Michael had always learned his lessons well. He’d briefly met his roommate Nick when he’d dropped his luggage off at his dorm room. Nick was a few years older too so there was definitely a level of relief there that he wasn’t going to be shacked up with some eighteen year old kid fresh out of High School. It was a little odd that they’d been roomed together but Nick just laughed when Michael voiced his concerns. It would work. “The campus is beautiful babe,” he had his phone glued to his ear and was chatting with Alyssa. She was back at home getting ready for work. “My room’s not too bad. We’ll have to video chat later. My roommate seems cool. There’s a lot of…” Michael glanced around. There were a lot of girls at this school. It had been a women’s college originally. If it was one of those schools that ended up recruiting the kids of former students, maybe that wasn’t too surprising. He was pleased to note that there were plenty of older students but some of the styles of dress…he’d walked by an entire group of girls in Japanese lolita style! A girl, a woman really, who had to be at least thirty but nevertheless was wearing shortalls and had her hair in pigtails, literally skipped by him swinging a Hello Kitty backpack from her left hand as she bounced along the sidewalk towards one of the class buildings. “...girls here.” “That’s not a problem is it?” Alyssa asked. “Not for me, but uh….” Michael trailed off, too embarrassed to finish the thought. His half comment was greeted by a shriek of laughter. “Not to toot my own horn Michael but, you’re not going to cheat on this, are you?” His phone chirped and he pulled it from his ear long enough to glance at the picture that his wife had just sent him. She wasn’t wearing anything at all. And she had her fingers between her spread legs, pulling a pair of lips apart. “Alyssa!” More giggling from the phone. “We’re gonna have to get used to sexting sweetie. And babe, mommy is going to need A LOT of pics while you’re at school.” “Maybe save the NSFW for when I’m not walking around a college campus in the middle of the day,” Michael laughed. “But seriously babe, you are gorgeous. You just made it that much harder for me to concentrate on my classes.” “Well then, I guess you won’t get any more pics until you show me that you’ve learned something,” Alyssa said. Michael was outside his classroom now. “I’ll show you exactly what I’ve learned tonight babe. I’ve got to go now though, I’m at my first class. Love you.” “Love you too. Learn a lot!” Michael hadn’t been in a college classroom in several years but the room he stepped into was certainly not what he expected. The walls were a pastel green with rainbows adorning them. Along the back wall were rows of cubbies, many filled with bags and other things. Many students were already sitting at desks with their hands folded. Every person in the room was a girl, none younger than twenty five, and none dressed older than twelve. Along the front wall was a chalkboard - a chalkboard! And above it a poster showing the alphabet. If it weren’t for the size of the desks, Michael would have sworn he had walked into a kindergarten classroom. This couldn’t be his class. He was here to take an advanced criminology course. The worst part about walking into the wrong room was that all the heads had turned to gawk at him. The teacher was the only person dressed remotely normally - if goth scientist was “normal.” Her long curly hair was died sea green and coiled halfway down her back. She wore a black lab coat over boots, fishnet stockings, a leather skirt, and corset. Goth…bondage…scientist? The mix of styles was almost too much. Her piercing pale blue eyes seemed to be digging into his skull and he caught just the faintest hint of lilac from her. “Oh excuse me, I must be in the wrong class,” he muttered as he turned to leave. “Stop right there!” the woman called. Michael found himself stopping in his tracks. “You come inside right now and put your things in your cubby please.” Michael found himself walking back into the classroom. Did he actually have a cubby? Impossible. That would be the easiest way to prove that he was in the wrong spot. Jennifer, Kelly, Lisa, Daisy, see…no…Michael blinked and rubbed his eyes. Right next to “Daisy” was an empty cubby labeled “MIchael.” “Well?” the instructor called out. “Uhh, yes ma’am,” Michael swallowed as he tossed his bag into the cubby and turned around. “Very good,” the instructor smiled sweetly. “Now if you’ll take your seat please.” “Oh, which one is mine?” Michael was a bit confused. There were several empty seats, so he wasn’t exactly sure where he should sit. “Oh Professor!” the blond in pigtails that had skipped past him earlier had raised her hands and was waving it excitedly. Dress aside, Michael was definitely sure that this girl had to be in her early 30s at least. Meanwhile the professor looked like she couldn’t be more than about twenty two. “Yes Daisy?” the Professor smiled sweetly. “Professor, can she sit at my table?” the girl named Daisy asked. She? Michael had to admit that he was a bit on the thin and small side but still, there could be no way he’d be mistaken for a girl right? Short hair, tee shirt, jeans. He practically screamed “guy going back to college after failing at life.” “Yes, that will be fine. The new girl can sit with you Daisy,” the professor replied. “Oh, but, uh…” Michael cleared his throat. He wasn’t entirely sure where this misconception was coming from but it was definitely something he wanted to clear up. “Yes sweetie?” the Professor beamed at him as if he had just answered a really hard question. “Can you use the words to share your thoughts with the class?” “I’m a boy actually.” Michael said. The classroom erupted, first as every girl gasped and then peels of laughter echoed from all around the room. Every table seemed to burst into chatter as all the students began talking and pointing at him. “Girls, settle down!” The Professor grabbed a yardstick from her desk and wrapped it three times. The knocking sound killed the conversation. “Is that any way to treat a new student? Now sweetie, I want you to come to the front of the room ok? I promise, you’re not in trouble.” Feeling foolish, and knowing he was blushing, Michael walked up to the front of the room and stood next to the teacher. Her lilac perfume wrapped itself around his nose in a way that was intoxicating. He could feel his head going light. “Now sweetie, this is Miss Finch’s Finishing School and it is a school for girls. If you’re a student here, you have to be a girl here. You are a student here, aren’t you?” “Yes, but…” Michael went to protest. The school hadn’t been a girls only school in fifty years! And it wasn’t a finishing school anymore, it was a liberal arts college. Something in the back of his mind told him that whatever was going on was so strange that his best bet would be to run. But that smell… “And if all the students here are girls, that means you’d have to be a girl too, doesn’t it?” “But I’m not a girl!” Michael insisted. “Oh don’t worry sweetie, I’ll help you with that,” the Professor said. She reached for his face, caressing it in her hands, and pulled him forward before delivering a peck on the cheek. “You see, I can make it all better with just a kiss.” Michael felt just slightly off. He couldn’t quite place it but something was different. His shirt seemed to hang from him loosely as if it had grown two sizes too big. Oddly, it felt tighter around his chest than it had before. The reality of the matter, that he had somehow shrunk, set in when his pants slid right off his hips, now hopelessly larger than his waist. “What in the…” Michael’s hand slammed across his mouth. That hadn’t been his voice! Michael had a deep, husky voice, just slightly gravely. The voice that had escaped his lips had been honeyed, soft, and very feminine. When he glanced down, he realized more was wrong. The hair on his hands and legs had disappeared completely, his skin now soft and smooth. He had previously had many blemishes and moles all across his body, they were all gone now. And his chest? The reason his shirt was tight was that he now had cleavage! A strand of hair fell into his face, dirty brown having turned into a silken brown mousse - short length having transformed into mid length curls that coiled around his shoulders. His…more like…”What did you do to me?!” “I told you sweetie,” the Professor replied with a smile. “Only girls attend Miss Finch’s Finishing School. Since you’re a student here, you must be a girl.” “I’m not a…” Michael stopped himself, no…herself, as she felt a new sensation. Her underwear was becoming warm and wet. She was peeing herself! The escaping fluid quickly turned into a flood as her boxers became uselessly saturated and pee dripped down her legs, pooling in her jeans at her feet. “Oh dear, oh dear,” the Professor shook her head. “Daisy, will you go into the supply cabinet and get me the diapers? It looks like our new student had her first accident.”

Katie Ann What do you do when you look seven years old but you’re actually a college student in your late teens? For Kathleen’s entire life, she had fought against people treating her much younger than her actual age. Feeling obligated to grow up fast to show people she wasn’t the age of her size, Kathleen never let her inner child out. Tired of fighting against the world, she explores the adult submissive world. What she finds, however, is an enjoyment of regression. Had she made a mistake? Would life be better if she just let people treat her the way she looks at seven years old? By Becky Anne ©2018-2024 ~o~O~o~ Chapter Fifty-One: HIPAA Release Early Friday morning, Ally was awakened by sniffles from the bunk below her. By the time she looked, her roommate was sleeping peacefully. Many hours later, Katie was studying for exams alone in the cluster while waiting for her Daddie. Most of her cluster mates were in Reynolds eating. Ally had dressed her in a Hello Kitty sweatshirt and jeans this time. Her auburn locks were in curled pigtails with white bows to match her sweatshirt. That was all normal, and the little girl was used to that stuff. What had her so embarrassed was the note safety-pinned to her back where she couldn’t reach it. Grandma Olsen walked into the cluster at about one o'clock. Katie walked over to her, “Granny.” “Hi, Princess,” the older lady said. “Sorry, your Daddie has a court case that has run longer than expected, so I gladly offered to pick you up today.” “That’s fine, Granny. My stuff is in my room,” Katie said before walking off to her dorm room. “What is this on your back, Princess?” Grandma asked. “A note for Daddie from Mrs. Schneider.” “Let me put that in my purse,” Grandma bent down and removed the note. Standing up, she looked at the bed containing a laundry basket, a garbage bag appearing to cover up something on a hanger, the car activity bag, and Katie’s school backpack. “Hmm, let's see … yep, we can fold this dress neatly on top of the dirty laundry. You take your backpack and car bag. We should be able to do this in one trip.” After getting her coat on, Katie got the designated items and slowly followed her Grandma down the stairs. At the bottom, she was led to a burgundy Escape. Granny opened the hatch and put the clothes basket in. The school backpack was taken from Katie and also put in the rear of the SUV. After the back door was open, the regressed girl crawled onto the car seat that was there. Grandma adjusted the straps on the 5-point harness and buckled Katie in. “Granny, where is the gray Escape?” the regressed girl asked as Granny got in the driver's seat. “With your Grandpa at his law office. He usually drives the gray one, and I drive this one,” Grandma explained as she drove out of the parking lot. “I understand Daddie feeds you when he picks you up.” The little girl nodded at that. Grandma looked at the clock, “We will swing by MickeeDees, but there will be no playtime. We are on a tight schedule.” After a McNugget happy meal, the two of them were back on the road. Grandma was using the GPS, and Katie couldn’t figure out where they were going by the scenery. She was sure this wasn’t the route to Riverville. It wasn’t until they reached their destination that she realized why. They weren’t in Riverville. Nope, they were at the wretched dreaded Doctor’s office. The regressed girl now was very much aware she was getting a shot today. Granny was soon letting Katie out of the back of the car, and they held hands walking into the doctor’s office built into the back of the farmhouse. Walking into the waiting room, Grandma released Katie’s hand, allowing her to go play with the toys. The older lady went to the receptionist, “We’re here for an appointment. Katie Telgenhof, March sixteenth, nineteen eighty-seven.” The receptionist looked over at Katie, her computer screen, and then back at the lady in front of her, “You are not her Daddie. What relationship are you to her?” “I am Adam’s, or her Daddie’s, Mother. I guess that makes me Katie’s Grandma. Adam has unexpected work commitments today.” “We will need for Katie to sign this temporary HIPAA release. If you are going to bring her frequently, we recommend a permanent HIPAA release,” the receptionist said, giving a form over. “We also need to verify that the insurance is still correct.” Grandma nodded, “I wasn’t informed of any insurance changes, so I will assume it is still the same. I will have her sign this form. Do you mind if I fill it out and just have her sign it?” “Not at all, go right ahead,” the lady responded. Grandma sat next to her oldest granddaughter. The little girl was hugging a teddy bear while reading a Discovery Kids magazine. She filled the form out before saying, “Kathleen, can you please read and sign this.” Katie accepted the form and read: HIPAA AUTHORIZATION FORM I, Kathleen Annabelle Telgenhof, hereby authorize the use or disclosure of my protected health information as described below: 1. AUTHORIZED PERSONS TO USE AND DISCLOSE PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION Carla's Medical Practice is authorized to disclose the following protected health information to my Grandma, Nancy Olsen of Riverville, Pennsylvania. 2. DESCRIPTION OF INFORMATION TO BE DISCLOSED The health information that may be disclosed is: * Medical records * All treatment records * Only health information from December 08, 2006, to December 08, 2006, may be shared. 3. PURPOSE OF THE USE OR DISCLOSURE The purpose of this use or disclosure is so Nancy Olsen may join Kathleen Telgenhof in the treatment room. 4. VALIDITY OF AUTHORIZATION FORM This Authorization Form is valid beginning on December 08, 2006, and expires on December 08, 2006. 5. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I understand the information used or disclosed under this Authorization Form may be subject to re-disclosure by the person(s) or facility receiving it and would then no longer be protected by federal privacy regulations. I have the right to refuse to sign this Authorization Form. If signed, I have the right to revoke this authorization, in writing, at any time. I understand that any action already taken in reliance on this authorization cannot be reversed, and my revocation will not affect those actions. Katie saw no problem with the form and gladly signed it. She handed it back to her Granny before returning to her magazine. A few minutes after Grandma returned the form, Nurse Lori entered the waiting room, “Katie.” Grandma held her nervous granddaughter's hand as they followed Nurse Lori through the door, going to the exam rooms. “You're still a cutie. Let's get that weight and height,” Nurse Lori said as she directed Katie to the scale in the hallway and requested her to remove her shoes before getting on. “As usual, we have to lower this a lot to get your height, sweetie.” With Grandma carrying the shoes, the nurse showed them into a room with Looney Tunes characters on the wall, “Please strip her down to her bra, diaper, and socks. I will be back.” Grandma's eyes got as big as saucers after removing the sweatshirt and jacket, exposing the sores. She snarled, “KATHLEEN ANNABELLE TELGENHOF, who attacked you? You didn’t have those sores two weeks ago.” Meekly, the regressed girl replied, “That is exactly what Daddie’s note is about, Grandma Olsen. I would rather not relive it by repeating what that note says.” After Katie was sitting almost naked except for her binder and diaper on the examination table, Grandma got the note out of her purse. She slowly but surely read it. The regressed girl could see that her Granny was getting more and more upset the farther down the note she got. She didn't know what precisely the note said. No one had personally shown her the contents of it. That was perfectly fine with her. What she did know is that it was at least two pages long with lots of words and two or three pictures. She knew the subject matter and didn't need to read about it. She unfortunately had the memories about it. When the nurse returned to the exam room, she went straight to the cupboard for items she would need, “Katie, the Doctor wants another urine sample. I am assuming your bladder is probably empty. So, we will set you up before we take your vitals.” Nurse Lori turned around to face Katie and stopped short. With concern in her voice, “What happened to you, Katie?” “She was attacked Wednesday, according to this note that I just read,” Grandma responded. As the little girl nodded, Nurse Lori asked, “Can I see that note?” Grandma wordlessly handed the note over. After scanning the note, the nurse set it aside, “I will read that later. Katie, you should feel privileged. We invested in child-size medical supplies just for you. Doctor Carla was a little worried about long-term damage using adult-size supplies on you.” Nurse Lori helped Katie into a lying position and then untaped and removed the diaper from the regressed girl. Katie's bottom was swabbed with alcohol before the catheter was inserted. The nurse fastened the urine bag to her leg. While helping the little girl sit up, Nurse Lori said, “We will leave that bag right there for a bit. Just as I expected, only a tiny amount was in the bladder. Well, that should slowly fill as we do the rest of the appointment.” Katie just blushed in response. The nurse grabbed her arm, and her blood pressure was soon taken. The pulse was taken next on the wrist of the same arm. While helping her charge lay down, the nurse said, “You know the drill. Lay down on your front, sweetie.” While pouting and actively rolling over to her front, Katie said, “Do I have to?” Grandma asked, “Why on her front?” “We take rectal temperatures at this doctor's office. We also give shots on the bum, too,” Nurse Lori explained. That must have satisfied retired nurse Grandma because she returned to silently observing. Nurse Lori took the thermometer out of its disinfectant solution. It was dipped in lube before being inserted in the regressed girl's bum. Katie was never happy with anything stuck down there. She lumped the thermometer with that wretched tail and the teddy bear's health probe. But she felt very relaxed because the nurse was gently rubbing her behind. Soon, the thermometer was removed, wiped off, and dropped back into the disinfectant. Katie was told to stay like that and was offered a teddy bear. Without warning, the regressed girl was given her birth control shot. The nurse was again rubbing her behind while she was doing that. The little girl flinched in surprise and glared at the nurse for no warning. “Does the angel want a Disney Princess or Barbie band-aid?” Nurse Lori asked. After the requested Princess Band-Aid was on the bum, Katie felt the catheter being removed from her. While unstrapping the bag, the nurse said, “This should be a good enough sample.” Nurse Lori helped Katie roll over and pulled a diaper out from under the exam table. “These diapers are another supply item we got especially for you. Those adult-size smalls we used last time probably didn't really fit. Do you remember if they leaked?” Quietly, the little girl said, “I don't remember, but that was in September.” As Katie was helped into a sitting position, she determined that these diapers were not as comfortable as her usual brand. Nurse Lori got some supplies and then wrapped a tourniquet around the little girl’s arm, “We just have to pay the vampire. While I’m getting the blood sample, are there any medical concerns besides the sores?” Katie shook her head but was getting a massive glare from Granny. The little one verbally eeped. Finding her voice, she said softly, “Both ages are incontinent at night now.” Granny’s glare got even more substantial. Katie continued, “Eep! I had a major case of diaper rash during Thanksgiving.” “I nipped the cause of that one quickly in the bum,” Grandma commented. The nurse asked rhetorically while removing the tourniquet, “Let me guess, she wasn't telling people she needed a change?” Grandma peered at her granddaughter, “Correcto.” Said granddaughter just hid behind the teddy bear she was still hugging. “That cause of diaper rash runs rampant in this doctor's office. I didn’t see any rash today, so it must have healed,” Nurse Lori put a Disney band-aid on Katie’s arm. “As for the incontinence, is that a problem, Sweetie?” Katie said, “No, Ma'am. I am quite fine with that.” Grabbing the note, Nurse Lori turned to Granny. “Is it okay if I make a copy of this for her file?” “I can’t give that permission. Ask Kathleen for that permission,” the older lady responded. Katie, trying to be an adult, said, “I haven't a clue what that note says. I don't want to know what it says. But, yes, you can put it in my medical file.” The nurse said as she was leaving, “You were only supposed to see me today to check your iron levels and get your birth control. But I am sure Doctor Carla is going to want to check those sores out. You may put her jeans back on if you want. Leave the sweatshirt off. It might be a bit because she wasn't expecting to have to see you. I will leave the original of the note with the receptionist.” Katie, back in her jeans, nervously kicked her feet back and forth, waiting for the doctor. She was examining all the items visible in this room with her eyes to pass the time. After what felt like a century for the regressed girl, Doctor Carla entered the room. Grandma would later tell her it had only been twenty minutes. Doctor Carla said, “There is my cutest patient. I heard you were attacked a few days ago.” The little girl blushed at the first sentence and nodded at the second one. She shyly said, “Hello, Doctor Carla. And yes, an evil lady tried to get me to go to a school I didn't attend.” “Let's examine those sores,” Doctor Carla said as she looked over the sores and pressed on one. “Does this hurt?” “A bit. Wednesday, at bedtime, just touching it hurt,” the little girl said. The doctor asked, “On a scale of one to ten, with ten being the most painful, what would you label your current pain?” After thinking, the little girl said, “A four, but it used to be an eight.” The doctor removed her hand, “And if nothing is touching the bruises?” Katie responded, “A zero.” Doctor Carla felt around each sore. She then asked, “Have you taken anything for the pain?” “No, Miss,” the regressed girl said. “Nothing internal seems to be damaged, and pain levels are decreasing. It will heal with time. If she needs pain relief, give her a Rapid Relief Tylenol,” Dr. Carla said to Grandma before looking at Katie. “Normally, Nurse Lori would tell you this, but since she isn't coming back, I get to tell you that you have earned a sucker for good behavior, Cutie. Stop at the receptionist on your way out. Thank you, and see you next time.” After Dr. Carla left the room, Grandma helped her charge get dressed before walking down the hall to the receptionist. Apparently, the receptionist already knew Katie was a good girl because the bowl of suckers was being held out to her. The receptionist looked at Grandma, “Copay is twenty-five. We will bill insurance for the rest.” After payment was made, the receptionist looked at her computer, “Her next shot is due in March. Would you like to schedule now or later?” “I will let my son deal with that.” The receptionist said to Katie, “It is always a pleasure to have you visit. You are one of the most behaved children that comes here, if not the most.” As the two turned to leave, the receptionist thought to herself that some of the kids purposely put on a show at this doctor's office. Strapped in the car, Katie turned to the car bag to get her coloring book. She continued coloring the picture she was doing on the way to the doctor. ~o~O~o~ Counselor Jan Moore knocked on Mrs. Vanderwel’s second-grade classroom door before entering. She went up to the teacher and asked to speak with Laura Schneider. “Laura, Miss Moore would like to talk to you out in the hall. Leave your work out on your desk. You should be back in a minute or two,” Mrs. Vanderwel said. Laura went with Miss Moore into the hall, where the counselor got down to her level, “At the Christmas Concert, there was a girl your age with your parents.” “Yeah, Katie,” Laura smiled. “She’s my friend.” “Do you know Katie’s last name or what school she goes to? Principal Mesmer wants to talk to her parents.” Laura nodded her head to show that she did know the answer to the questions. “Can you please tell me her name and school?” “No,” Laura responded. “My Mommie said I shouldn't tell people anything about Katie. Mommie says, Katie’s Daddie will talk to the school when or if he wants to.” The counselor's face fell. She thanked Laura and sent her back into the second-grade classroom. “Any luck?” Principal Mesmer inquired as the counselor entered his office. “Her mom told her not to give us any information about Katie,” Jan responded. “All I got out of Laura was that the mystery girl’s name is Katie, and her dad would contact us when or if he wanted to. We basically got nothing since we already knew her first name.” “Thanks. It was worth a try. I was hoping for at least a last name.” ~o~O~o~ An hour later, Grandma Olsen and Katie pulled into the driveway of Daddie’s house. Katie waited patiently for her Granny to open her door. She could release herself from this car seat, but Grandpa made it known last time that she wasn't supposed to. Granted, Grandma wasn't Grandpa, but that little incident on Sunday of Thanksgiving made it clear that Granny called shots at the Olsen family. She hadn’t tried the car doors but assumed the child locks were on. Once she was released, they went towards the porch hand in hand. After they rang the doorbell, Daddie opened it. “Hello, Mother. Hello Buttercup. How was the appointment?” “She is healthy except for her sores. They should heal with time. The doctor suggested rapid relief Tylenol for the pain if she needs it.” Granny said. “Sores? Pain?” Nodding and handing him the note, Grandma continued, “Read this note from a Denise Schneider. Oh, the doctor’s office made her sign a one-day HIPAA release for me. They suggested a permanent one if I am going to take her frequently.” Daddie was staring at the little girl, who was withering under his glaze. He asked, “What did you do?” Granny quickly defended Katie, “It isn’t what she did. It is what was done to her.” “Oh, sorry, Buttercup,” Adam said while hugging his daughter. “I will read that note after I gather her stuff from you, Mother.” “It is vital that you read that. We left a copy at the doctor's office, and your Dad is going to want a copy,” Granny said as the two adults walked out to the porch. Meanwhile, Katie went into the parlour and did the required eye roll at the sports game on the television. Upon returning, Daddie grabbed the note and headed for his office. Grandma helped the young girl out of her coat and shoes as they waited. After receiving a copy of the note, she bent down and hugged her granddaughter, “See you tomorrow, Princess.” “It was you!” Katie exclaimed. Grandma innocently asked, “What was me?” “The mysterious person sending demands for tomorrow,” Katie said. Smiling, Grandma responded, “I don't know what you mean. But I will see you tomorrow.” With that, Grandma walked out of the door of the house. Daddie had been reading the note, and his daughter could see he was getting more and more upset the further down the note he got. Suddenly, he hugged the stuffing out of Katie. He spoke softly and steadily, “When we started this, it was just to help you be happy with your body height and looks, Kathleen. It was never meant to put you in danger. You have gone further than I ever planned. I never planned on you being a child outside of your assigned weekends. Ally and Tiff both say you openly choose to be seven at college. But now, it’s putting you in danger.” “You didn't put me in danger, Daddie. An evil, clueless individual did,” Katie said. “Even before I met you, I was mistaken for a seven-year-old.” Adam continued, “I didn't plan on you needing diapers. Heck, I expected you to go right back to panties when you got to the dorm. Instead, you told me you were out of pull-ups a week later.” Katie blushed. “If you feel unsafe, we can go back to you being nineteen all the time. By now, that contract is more a guidance than a contract. Yes, we both have done nothing against the contract. But we probably would have done the same stuff without the contract.” “Nothing needs to change, Daddie. I am still your incontinent seven-year-old daughter. I actually feel safer as a seven-year-old. Being a nineteen-year-old just causes problems because people see a seven-year-old. The diapers were a shock when I first wore them under Raggedy Ann,” Katie blushed. “But by the second day, I discovered I mostly liked them. I’m not supposed to know this term as a seven-year-old, but maybe I am a diaper lover.” “Mostly?” Daddie inquired. Still blushing, the regressed girl answered, “I still don't like the solid stuff, but I don't complain because it isn't me cleaning my bottom. Speaking of being cared for, I do enjoy being cared for by Ally, Tiff, and you.” Daddie tried to read Katie’s body language, “Getting back to the item that started this discussion. Who has seen this note?” “Grandma, the doctor's office, and you have seen that particular note. Grandpa will see the note soon if he hasn’t already. Ally and Tiff had their own note, and everyone in the cluster saw it. I'm not sure if the two notes are the same,” Katie pointed out. “You didn't mention yourself.” “I haven't seen either note nor do I want to.” Katie looked down at her feet. “I lived the note.” Adam went to the office, telling Katie to stay in the parlour. He came back while on the phone, “Thank you, Sara. I will bring her right over.” Hanging up the phone, Adam turned to Katie, “Grab your backpack. Aunty Sara is going to watch you while I run to Clearwater.” That caused the little girl to blush again, but she did as directed without complaint. Adam put her shoes and coat on before taking Katie’s hand and walking out the front door. They went the long way to avoid the snow-covered grass. On the short walk, Daddie pulled out his phone and called someone. “Denise, I am just calling to figure out what the school knows so far about Katie.” … “Yeah, I just got it.” … “Oh, just that she is seven, her name is Katie, and she is Laura’s friend.” … “The counselor tried to get the last name and school out of Laura today.” … “I will have to visit them next week. If I ignored this, I would probably be permanently disowned by my parents.” … “Besides, I am pissed enough to sue a school district, and that isn't an easy task.” … “I will cover that bridge during the visit. I haven't figured that out yet.” … “Her firing would be one of the primary objectives.” … Oh, that is promising. She has been missing since midday Thursday.” … “A new secretary was there today.” … “OK, I have to drop off Katie next door. I am heading to Clearwater to discuss your note.” … “Thank you, Denise.” He hung up the phone as they arrived at the neighbor's door. Once they were let in, Daddie said, “Thank you for watching her. I have to make an emergency run to Clearwater.” “Since you are going to Clearwater, why are you not taking her?” Aunty asked. “It is better she didn't join me. Here is your copy of why I am going to talk to her Mother and Father.” “I noticed you called them Mother and Father,” Aunty turned from Adam to the little one. “Have you grown up, Katie?” Daddie answered for the little girl, “I didn’t call them grandparents because they will not act as grandparents in this particular incident. Their parentship role will be stronger this time. You will know why when you read the note.” Daddie's phone chose that moment to ring. He answered, “Hello, Dad.” … “I see you read your copy.” … “I am dropping Katie off at the Bullards.” … “I am headed over to Clearwater to talk to George and Marlene. Do you want to join me?” … “Great, I will be over after I am done here.” … “Talk to you then.” … After hanging up the phone, Adam said, “Sorry about that. Looks like my Dad is joining me on the trip to Clearwater. Anyway, I should be back in three to five hours. Please feed her. She has exams to study for. Let me know how much I owe you when I get back.” Bending down and hugging his daughter, “Love you, Buttercup.” Kissing Katie on the forehead, Adam left and walked back to his house. After helping to remove the girl's coat and shoes, Aunty screamed up the stairs, “Stacy, Katie is here.” A herd of elephants ran down the stairs. The two girls walked back up the stairs together, causing Aunty to say towards their backs, “Stacy. Homework. Katie. Study for exams. I don't want to see either of you playing. Katie, I would like at least an hour of studying. Preferably more.” Meanwhile, Sara sat down and read the long note. She, too, was getting more and more upset as she read it. When it was done, she set it aside for Sam to read when he got home later tonight. She could see why it would be a parents and two lawyers meeting in Clearwater. She wasn't sure what role Adam was taking in this, the lawyer or the Daddie role. Probably both. She went upstairs to the playroom, where the two girls were sitting at the play table with books spread around. Stacy said, “Mommie, we are being good. You can trust us.” “That is not why I am here. I am here to hug my niece,” Aunty said, going in to give Katie a big hug. “I’m always here if you need to talk to someone about Wednesday.” Stacy looked at the two, still embraced, “What happened Wednesday?” “Katie was attacked,” Aunty said. “Who would attack a little kid?” “An idiot who doesn't listen,” Katie responded with venom on her tongue. Aunty smirked, “That is putting it nicely. I am sure Kathleen would have used other words.” “Kathleen? Who is that?” Katie asked. Aunty peered at her and asked, “Did you kill off your nineteen side?” “No! No! Aunty. It is just my weekend to be seven. And since the attack, seven has taken control, and nineteen has gone in the background. I had trouble paying attention in class yesterday and today. Something I normally don't have a problem with. I wanted to color or do anything but class,” Katie explained. “Yet, here I am in a playroom, sitting at a Disney Princess table studying for college exams.” Aunty thought before responding, “You might need to talk to a counselor. Of course, there is the difficulty of the two ages, so we would have to find one we can trust. I will talk to your Daddie later. For now, the two of you can play for one hour, then back to homework and studying.” ~o~O~o~ At the Rose house, Alexa told her son Mike, “When I am done bathing Tina, your friend will have to leave. You need to get ready for bed.” Mike asked what time it was and got a time that was much earlier than when he usually went to bed. He wondered why so early. He received the answer that he had a busy day tomorrow and an early bedtime wouldn’t hurt him. No sooner after the door was closed by the friend leaving, Mommie started calling him Megan. “Ok, Megan, strip and get into the bath with you,” Rose smiled at her daughter. As the little girl was stripping, Megan asked, “What we doing tomorrow, Mommie?” “We are seeing the Nutcracker Ballet tomorrow, remember?” “Is Daddie?” “Daddie works on Saturdays.” Once Megan was in the tub, a few of Tina’s toys were thrown in. Grabbing a thing of bubblegum bubble bath, she squirts some in, too. After a short playtime, Mommie returned to scrub the girl up nice and clean. Four days’ worth of rough-and-tumble boy built up a bit of dirt. Undoing that to find the sweet-smelling, clean girl required some scrubbing, especially underneath the fingernails. “Close your eyes, Princess,” Mommie told her. The little girl felt a bucket of water poured over her head, which caused her to clamp her eyes even more closed. She hated getting her hair washed. But the shampoo smelled different this time. It smelled like strawberries. She liked this better than the usual one Mommie used that had no scent. After Mommie poured another bucket of water over her head, she opened her eyes like she usually did. Which got rewarded with, “You’d probably prefer to keep your eyes closed, Princess.” Megan closed her eyes again and felt Mommie put more strawberry-scented shampoo in her hair. But when no bucket of water came, she dared to peek at Mommie. She was looking at her watch, which caused the girl to ask, “What you doing, Mommie?” “Letting the conditioner work in your hair, okay, close your eyes, Princess.” With that command, another bucket of water was dropped over her head. “My drowned rat may open her eyes,” Mommie told the little girl. Mommie then helped her new little girl out of the tub before drying her with a pink towel and wrapping it around her. Another towel was wrapped around the hair like it was long hair. She then steadied her little girl as she stepped into a pair of pink panties. Megan was handed a blue nightie with Cinderella on the front of it to put on. “Make sure to thank Mrs. Bullard for some of your new clothes on Monday, Princess,” Mommie told her. She continued, “You can thank your Grandma for the rest. Both of them are spoiling you big time.” “Teacher went shopping for me?” Megan asked as she sat down on the closed toilet, and Mommie started to blow-dry the five-year-old’s hair. “The clothes are not new. Do you remember Stacy, who you met at Uncle Adam’s house?” After the girl nodded, which caused the brush to slip from where it was, Mommie continued, “They were hers when she was your age.” Looking back at her handy work, Mommie said to no one in particular, “Well, it is a horrible representation of a girl’s hairstyle, but it will have to do.” “Me see?” Megan asked. Mommie picked the little one up so Megan could see herself in the mirror. “No more haircuts for you for a while, Princess.” After giving Megan a moment to examine herself, Mommie carried the little one to Tina’s room. Sitting on the rocking chair with both girls on her lap, she read them a bedtime story. ~o~O~o~ At about nine, Adam rang the doorbell, causing Uncle Sam to open the door. Aunty wasn't far behind. He asked, “How was she?” “She was an angel like normal. I am more worried about her mental health. She alluded to the fact that her seven-year-old side has taken control since Wednesday. She didn’t even feel nineteen in class. I would have expected the opposite to happen. But apparently, you have given her a very safe environment, and she feels safest as seven,” Aunty said. Daddie’s face fell, “She needs a counselor, but one that will accept both ages. Where do we find one of those?” “I could ask my coworker, but I won't even trust her with someone like Megan, let alone Katie’s can of worms,” Aunty said. “Highly religious individuals should not be counselors in public schools.” “Where is my daughter?” Daddie asked. Aunty explained, “Watching a Christmas special with her best friend. Stacy asked if Katie could stay the night. I said that would make tomorrow's makeovers too difficult.” “I could direct the person coming to do Katie’s to your house,” Daddie suggested. Aunty shrugged and said, “Looks like our niece is staying over Sam.” “So it does,” Uncle Sam said with a smile. Daddie asked, “She should have her old pill bottle in her backpack. She should have one or two more in that. And how much do I owe you?” He was told nothing because he would gladly watch Stacy in a rush and have before. The three of them walked to where the girls were. Daddie told his daughter, “Apparently, you are staying overnight, sweetie,” while kissing her forehead. This caused Stacy to get very excited. Katie looked up, “OK, Daddie, oh wait, I have some paperwork for you.” “More besides the note?” Daddie asked. Katie nodded and grabbed five papers and a pamphlet out of her backpack. She said, “This one was core requirements, room assignment, and tentative GPA.” … “These two are my Major and Minor requirements.” … “This is my schedule for next semester.” … “This is a letter encouraging me to use disability services and a pamphlet about their services. I did talk to them on Thursday, trying to waive my PE core. They refused.” Aunty said, “What!” “Since I am capable of doing physical activity, they will not waive the requirement. That being said, they did offer to modify the core. Options given were dance, gymnastics, or figure skating. But nothing can be done until April because Spring 2007 classes have already been chosen,” Katie explained. Daddie looked at the two girls on the couch, “I will let you two get back to the special. Do you want me to take your backpack?” The little girl asked, “Will I have time to study tomorrow?” “It will be tight in the morning, Sweetie,” Aunty said. “You might have an hour or two.” “An hour is better than nothing. Leave the backpack, please,” Katie instructed. “Are your phone, keys, and pills in the backpack?” Daddie asked. The regressed girl answered yes, ready to get them out so Daddie could see. “Is the phone off?” Katie nodded, “Yes, Daddie.” “Then leave it there. I trust you,” he said before hugging her goodbye and departing to his house.

Thank you all who have been following this story so far. I am happy to say that we are moving to a different arc in the story and Grace (Will) is finally leaving the hospital. Chapter 21 I woke up the next morning to my knees being pushed into my chest. I groaned and stretched my arms above my head. I opened my eyes to see my mom smiling down at me and said, “Good morning, sweety.” I sleepily said, “Good morning,” as she placed a diaper under me. As she was taping the diaper around my waist she asked, “Today’s the day, are you excited about going home?” Pausing for a second, I replied, “I am ready to leave the hospital, but I am nervous too.” “It's OK to be nervous, just know that the people who matter will not think of you any differently,” my mom said. I just nodded my head as she pulled me into a sitting position and raised the bed. As she was sitting down, I noticed that my dad was not there. I asked, “Where is Dad?” My mom replied, “He is picking up all the medical supplies for you to hold you over for the next few days.” “Oh, OK,” I replied. Before too long, Abby walked in pushing the cart. Smiling, she said in a chipper voice, “Good Morning, Grace. Big day today with you going home.” With Abby’s mood being so infectious, I couldn’t help but crack a small smile and said, “Yeah.” After starting the feeding tube, she said, “Alright that will be the last feeding here at the hospital, let’s get your height and weight.” I nodded my head as she picked me up and laid me on the scale. She then said, “Let’s see, you weigh twenty-six pounds and three ounces, and you are thirty-four and seven-eighths inches tall.” After setting me back in bed, she said, “I’ll be back in a little bit, and then we can start getting you ready for discharge.” I said, “Thank you,” as she made her way out of the room pushing the cart. With the morning news playing on the TV, I just passively watched as I waited for the feeding bag to empty. At some point, I see my dad walk in. He walked straight over to me, kissed me on the forehead, and asked, “Are you ready to blow this popsicle stand?” Looking up at him, I replied with a smirk, “Yeah, the food at this hotel sucks.” With a chuckle, he said, “I bet, bag lunches don’t seem too appetizing.” “Honestly, it's weird that I never feel hungry,” I responded. He said, “Well, hopefully, it won’t be too long before you are eating real food again.” I replied, “Yeah,” as my dad took a seat on the couch. About 10 minutes later, Abby walked back in. As she was flushing my feeding tube, she said, “I’m going to go ahead and disconnect your I.V., then start working on all of your discharge paperwork. I should have everything ready in about an hour.” I nodded my head, and then she turned to my parents and said, “If you have clothes for her, you can go ahead and help her get dressed.” “Thank you, Abby. I will get her ready,” my mom replied. As Abby was leaving, I saw my mom come over to me holding a solid teal-colored backpack. To most people, it just looks like a normal backpack, but I know it is a diaper bag since it looks eerily similar to the one that Stanley and Katie use for Ellis and Charlie. After taking a seat on the bed and setting the backpack beside her, my mom said, “OK, Grace. I know you do not want to wear anything too girly so I have a pair of shorts and tee shirt for you to wear, along with socks and a pair of tennis shoes.” I nodded my head as I watched my mom take out a pair of sky-blue cotton shorts, a plain white tee shirt, and a pair of white socks out of the bag. She untied the back of the gown and took it off, leaving me sitting in just a diaper. She then pulled the shirt over my head, being careful not to mess up my feeding tube, and helped feed my arms through the sleeves while being careful of the I.V. in my left hand. As the shirt was pulled down, I noticed that it only went down a little past the top of my diaper, and looking at my arms, I could see that the sleeves were capped. I was grateful that there were no ridiculous designs on this shirt, but it definitely was a little girl's shirt. She then grabbed the shorts and started pulling my legs through the leg openings, then with a tug, pulled the shorts over my diaper and lifted me off the bed a little in the process. The shorts were very short, but I knew that both girl and boy toddler shorts were like this. The shorts were tight around my diaper and left no doubt that I was wearing a diaper, with a large bulge between my legs. After quickly putting some ankle socks on my feet, my mom pulled out a pair of plain white tennis shoes. She then said, “Hopefully, they fit. I have a few different sizes at your apartment if they don’t.” I just nodded my head as she put them on my feet with some difficulty. After tying the laces, they were a little snug, but not too bad. My mom then asked, “How do they feel?” as she was pinching the toes of the shoe. I replied, “A little tight, but they will work.” Smiling, my mom said, “Alright, let’s run a brush through that bedhead.” She took a brush out of one of the front pockets of the bag and began running it through my hair. There were a few knots that had to be worked out that caused my head to jerk along with the brush. Once my hair was brushed, she tucked my hair behind my ears. Looking up at her, she said, “You look a lot cuter without the hospital gown.” I rolled my eyes, and said, “Yeah, the cute comments are going to get old, fast.” My mom stood up, and picked me up on her hip while saying, “Well, if you could see yourself all the time, you would think the same thing.” She carried me into the bathroom, then placed me on the counter standing in front of the mirror. Looking back at me was the epitome of a cute little toddler girl ready to go play in the backyard on a summer day. Ignoring the feeding tube and the still present dark circles under my eyes, I see the face of an adorable toddler with full cheeks, a small slightly upturned nose, large hazel eyes, and wavy dark brown hair that goes a little over halfway down to her shoulders. I place my right hand on my right cheek and can feel that it is soft and squishy. I saw my mom bend down so that her face was beside mine, and said, “See, very cute.” I turn so that I am face to face with my mom, with my arms crossed, I say in a sarcastic tone, “Fine, I’m very cute.” She started giggling, then I asked, “What’s so funny?” Picking me up off the counter, she said, “Nothing, just even when you are being a dingus, you are still cute.” I just let out a groan as she carried me back into the room. We make our way over to the couch where my dad is seated and she just sets me in his lap. I internal sigh knowing that until I get more mobility, I will have to get used to being passed around like a potato. My dad gives my thigh a little squeeze as I lean back against him. We all just patiently wait for Abby to return as we watch the TV in silence. At some point, I felt the need to pee and just let it happen without trying to hold it. As the warmth in my diaper was starting to dissipate, I felt the call of nature that I disliked with every fiber in my body. Without holding back either, it took less than a minute before my body was pushing poop into the back of my diaper. I could feel it smush and cover my entire rear end. Before I could even say anything, I heard my dad ask from above, “Are you all done sweetheart?” I didn’t realize that he knew that I was pooping myself this whole time, I blushed and nodded my head. He picked me up off his lap, then after standing, held me with one arm supporting my weight by my upper thighs. He walked over to the counter and grabbed a diaper and wipes, then walked over to the bed and laid me down. After laying the diaper and wipes beside me, he pulled my shirt up to my chest and then pulled my shorts down to my ankles. As I am staring at the ceiling tiles, I feel my diaper being opened and my nose is assaulted with the pungent odor that was once contained in my diaper. I hear my dad say, “Well, I’m glad you got that out of your system now.” I looked up at him with a glare, and then he said, “Better now than on the car ride to your apartment.” Not even thinking that if this happened in the car, I could be stuck in it the whole time. Shocked, I just nodded my head and went back to counting the ceiling tiles. After wiping my front down and then taking more wipes than I cared to count to scrape all the poop off my rear, I was lowered onto a clean diaper that was snuggly taped around my waist. My dad balled up the used diaper, then pulled my shorts up and my shirt down. He picked me up and sat me down on the ground on my feet without saying a word. I watched as he threw away the dirty diaper and started washing his hands. With my newfound freedom, I decided I would try and make it back over to the couch on my own. I slowly made my way around to the other side of the bed where the couch was. I could see that my mom was smiling at me as I rounded the corner. She said, “Look at you getting around on your own.” I simply replied, “Yeah,” as I made it to the couch. The top of the couch cushion was level with my belly button and I now realized that climbing up onto furniture is going to be my new normal. I struggle as I lean my upper body onto the cushion and try to swing my right leg up onto the couch. Before I could start pushing the rest of my body up, I felt a hand on my bottom as the rest of my body was pushed on the couch. I rolled over to see my dad looking down at me and he said, “Thought I could give you a boost.” I said, “Thanks,” as I gathered myself and sat up. With my back against the cushion, my feet didn’t even make it to the edge. After sitting for a while watching TV again, I see Abby walk in, holding a binder. Abby handed the binder to my mom and said, “This is all of Grace’s discharge information. We usually just use folders, but with her, we had to use a binder. There are instructions on all her medications, feeding tube, and I.V. Also, if she starts running a fever, or has any signs of infection, you will need to get her to a doctor as soon as possible.” “Thank you, Abby,” my mom replied. Abby turned to me and said, “Are you ready to go home?” I replied, “Yes.” Abby then said, “I’m going to get a wheelchair, one of you will need to hold her for the ride out of the hospital.” My mom responded, “Certainly.” My dad leaned down to me and said, “I’m going to get the car and pull up to the main entrance, I will see you when you and your mom get down.” “OK,” I replied. I watched as my dad took the binder from my mom and stuffed it into the diaper bag. With the diaper bag on his back, my mom's purse over one shoulder, and his hands holding a few other miscellaneous items, he walked out of the room. A moment later, Abby walked in pushing a wheelchair. She said to my mom, “If you can take a seat, I will put Grace in your lap.” My mom got out of the recliner and took a seat in the wheelchair as Abby walked over to me and said, “I’m thrilled that you’re going home, but I will miss you.” Overcome with the fact that this woman has taken care of me at my worst and grateful that she still talked to me like an adult; as she lifted me up into her arms, I wrapped my arms around her neck and said, “Thank you.” Abby held me close and said, “You’re welcome, Grace.” After a moment, she loosened her grip and then placed me in my mom’s lap. I felt a kiss on the top of my head as she wrapped one arm around my midsection. I then heard my mom say, “We almost forgot her teddy bear on the bed.” Abby responded, “We don’t want to forget that,” as she grabbed it and placed it in my arms. I blushed a little at the image of myself in my head. Abby then said, “Alright, are both of you ready?” I nodded my head as my mom said, “Yes.” Abby pushed us out of the room and down the hallway to the elevator. Waiting briefly, the doors opened and we were wheeled in. Once the elevator reached the first floor, the doors opened and as Abby was starting to push us out, I saw groups of people gathered on either side. My eyes widened as they all began to clap and a few even started cheering. I had no idea what was going on until I saw a few people holding a banner that said, ‘Congratulations, You're Going Home!’. Not being a fan of being the center of attention, my cheeks heated up as I tried to put on an awkward smile. Most of the people I did not know, but some of the faces were familiar, and others I knew like Dr. Taub and Rosie. As we were being wheeled past everyone, all I could think was it’s like having a birthday and having everyone sing happy birthday to you as you just sit there not knowing what you should do with yourself. We made it to the main entrance as the automatic doors opened and the dry Arizona heat hit my face. I see my SUV is parked a few feet away, running, and my dad is standing near the back passenger door. He opens the door, then walks over to us and picks me up out of my mom’s lap. As he was making the short journey back to my car, he said, “I’m going to put you in your car seat.” I just nodded my head and said, “OK.” Once at the back door, I could see a gray rear-facing car seat in the middle seat. I internally sigh at the thought that I’m going to be riding in the second most infantile seat possible in my own car, which I bought with my own money. My dad leans into the car and places me in the seat. He pulled the straps out so that I could feed my arms through them, buckled them across my chest, and then pulled the last strap between my legs and buckles into place. After making sure all the straps were adjusted properly, he said, “Without the I.V. fluids all the time, you may start to get thirsty, so there is a cup of water in the cup holder for you,” as he pointed to the built-in cup holder in my car seat that was holding a sippy cup. I should've guessed that it was going to be a sippy cup. He kissed me on the forehead, then said, “We will be on the road in a minute.” I said, “OK,” as he stood up and shut the door. Looking around my new confinement, I noticed that the straps were very restrictive and I was semi-reclined. The seat itself was not too bad and it was actually pretty comfortable. It was weird sitting in a car where I once would have to have the driver seat almost all the way back, but now, in this car seat, only the tips of my shoe could graze the back seat. Other than the view of the back seat, I could somewhat see out either side of the windows. Looking to my left, I could just make out that my dad and mom were talking to Abby, and then I watched as they both hugged her. I watched as she came over to my window and after a light knock, they gave me a wave as she was smiling. I waved back as I heard the two front doors open. I heard the driver's door shut, then my mom said, “We will stay in touch.” I could then hear Abby say, “Thanks, you all have a safe flight home.” I then heard the passenger door shut as my dad asked, “You OK back there?” “Yes sir,” I replied as I felt the car start moving forward. I then asked, “Mom, why are you staying in touch with Abby?” “She just wants to know how things are going for you. If you haven’t noticed, you are like a celebrity to some of the staff at the hospital. I created a private Facebook group and I let some of the nurses and staff that have taken care of you join so that they will know how you are doing,” my mom responded. I said, “Oh, OK.” “We will be at your apartment in about forty-five minutes, just let me know if we need anything before we get there,” my mom said. I replied, “Will do.” As my dad drove with the radio playing in the background, I just alternated between looking at the back seat and looking at the tops of passing cars and buildings. Thinking back to yesterday afternoon, I could feel myself getting nervous at the thought that Steven was coming by this afternoon to see me. I wonder what he is going to say when he sees me like this. I look down and can see the distinct diaper bulge beneath my shorts. I then noticed that the car seat straps caused my shirt to ride up exposing my lower, protruding belly and the top of my diaper that was poking out my shorts. I sigh as I pull my shirt down to hide it. My mind then drifts to the state of my apartment. My parents warned me that almost everything had been either sold or donated, but the essentials and what I wanted to keep. I try to brace myself for what my home has turned into. At some point, I felt the need to pee and just let it out freely as I felt the front of my diaper warm as pee flowed between my legs and pooled around my rear to be absorbed. It's weird how I can go from feeling wet to almost completely dry within minutes after wetting myself. Trying to think on the bright side, if I wasn’t wearing a diaper on this car ride, I would have been having to sit in a puddle of my own urine for the rest of the car ride. As we were moving along, I could not really tell where we were, but as we started going down roads off the main highway, I could tell we were getting close to my apartment. As the car slowed down and made a turn, I could see the familiar bright colors of the stucco exterior of my apartment and knew we just pulled into the parking lot. As my dad pulled into a parking spot, I could see a U-haul box trailer in the spot to my right. I then heard my mom say, “We are here,” as my dad turned off the engine. I heard both front doors open and shut, then I could see both of the back doors open. My mom said, “Let’s get you inside.” I nodded my head as she started unbuckling the straps. I could see my dad grab the diaper bag that was on the floor beside me and my mom’s purse. My mom lifted me out of the car seat and placed me on her hip, then reached back in to get the untouched sippy cup. My mom followed my dad across the parking lot and up the stairwell. I then watched as he opened the door. As soon as we made it inside, I could see what was once my cozy home away from home was now sparse.

Hey everyone! Wow oh wow. Thank you all for your comments and words of hating that I left this on a cliffhanger. As a reader, I hate them too, but they are wonderful as a writer to throw in here and there. I can’t promise this will be the only one in the eight chapters that follow this one, but I hope the plots coming up will more than make up for that. Next, I am introducing a new group into this story during this chapter. I’ve been hinting at them for a while, but I’ve never listed their name specifically. It might feel like a bit too late in the game, but I wanted to introduce them here before going forward. Sadly, given their disposition and mission, they will be top players in several of my future stories. Also, as a reminder, the poll for my next story is still going on. As a reminder, as usual, I will post my decision of my next story during my final chapter of this story. Until then, feel free to comment here or personally message me what you want to read next. I like all the choices I am presenting, so choose what you want. For those not sure of the choices, just refer to the beginning of chapter 2. Lastly, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter! Chapter 22: Knowledge Can Be a Two-Edged Sword My eyes began to flutter open. I felt I had only been unconscious for a few minutes. It might still have been enough time for me to use my Big body and my honed skills to defend the rest of the Littles from the attacks that had been raging all around me. I hoped that maybe my defense of them could help ease the truth of who I really was with the rest of the group. Being knocked out was all going horribly against the plan I had, but I still had hope. It didn’t take me long to realize several things though, all of which confirmed my innermost fears. First, as I coughed out, a torrent of dust kicked out and away from my mouth. A few figures recoiled in shock, but seeing them even in a slight blur, I quickly realized that I was still about their size. In my head, I then knew that while I had bitten down to crack my back tooth, my fading faculties hadn’t given me the strength to break and activate it. I was going to live, but I was still a Little. Fearing the situation though, I resolved it within myself to crack it again though. Tonguing my back tooth, however, I discovered that it was gone. No tooth, just pain where the fake tooth should have been. I was still Little-sized and now with no specialized tooth. I could taste iron, likely from the blood after the extraction, so I knew it was recent, but it gave me a new problem; how did anyone know that about the tooth to remove it? I had all my other teeth, so the removal of the one tooth with the serum to make me a Big again and with the tracker inside, didn’t feel like a coincidence. Second, though, I didn’t hear any fighting. No clashing, no fists flying into each other… nothing. Or at least nothing besides the weeping and trembling fear that surrounded me. It made me curious and yet terrified, so I slowly opened my eyes all the way and sat up to survey just what was happening around me now. After brushing off my glasses from the dust that had accumulated on them from the ground, it didn’t take me long to realize that we were most definitely not in the midst of a fight anymore and weren’t even at the warehouse now. Old stones, half dusty and half damp in other places, surrounded nearly every inch of the dark room I now found myself in. A single caged lamp near the old and heavy-looking door were the only other distinguishing features beyond the stones of the room and the fearful and huddled Littles around me. “Susan!” I turned around and saw Paul run full force into my body, still only perched on the ground. “You’re okay! I was so worried when I got to you at the warehouse and the again here!” “Uh, thanks,” I said, my head and jaw aching, and my mind trying desperately to catch up. “Wh… where are we?” Paul broke off his hug and sighed. His previously happy face quickly vanished. “I’m not completely sure. You got hit in the head. Nasty gusher, but I’ve managed to at least slow the bleeding for now. Back at the warehouse, everyone was fighting, but when more Bigs showed up there, fully armed, a lot of LRG members fled, went into hiding, or even fought harder. It was spectacular to watch firsthand for those that stayed, but it didn’t take long for any Big who could, to start knocking the rest of us out unconscious. When we woke up, we were all here You’re the last to wake up.” “How…” My head throbbed and I clutched it while I let off a wince. “How long have we been here?” I removed my hand and saw that there was still some blood from where I had clutched. “Not sure,” Paul admitted. “As I said, we all got knocked out at one point. Since we’ve been here though, I’m guessing… maybe a day? Hard to know with just a single room, but they’ve been using this practically antique nannybot to change our diapers if needed. Most have gone through a few at this point.” Fearful, my hand shot to my own midsection, but the thickness didn’t seem like a diaper. Paul chuckled. “Don’t worry. You’re not in diapers, but now that you’re awake… just make it to the potty in the rear of the cell.” His hand gestured over to training potty I recognized from out a decade ago now. “Make it or you might just end up like poor Steph over there.” I looked at one of our newer inductees, currently being soothed by another relatively new member, Fara. Fara was another member of the Little’s support group that Carol and I had attended previously which had installed Ronald as its leader. I didn’t see him here, or several others for that matter, and Fara seemed mostly okay, but Steph… she was another matter. Her eyes looked blank, her limbs were slackened, and her mouth even seemed to be mouthing something but without any words. Honestly, she seemed nearly catatonic, but noticeably, instead of pants, like most of the other Littles in here were wearing, she was instead wearing a clearly babyish design of diapers. Thick, wetness indicators, all encompassing, and composed of baby blocks spelling out, ‘Little’ on them. “What happened to her?” I asked with a morbid curiosity. As a Little size myself still, and likely vulnerable to the same thing, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t happen to me in the slightest, no matter the answer. “We’re not sure, but it happened after she was diapered,” a familiar voice said in a low and morose tone to my left. My head spun in that direction, and I saw that it was Fritz. “Fritz! You made it!” I was relieved, but Fritz barely made an attempt to smile after seeing me. “Yeah, but to where, right?” He had a point, but Fritz was already definitely eyeing Steph more now. “She got hit by the blue gas they lobbed at us at the protest for that bill. Not good, but only wore pull-ups afterward. Couldn’t hold back though… one of the ones getting worse with their potty training unfortunately, and she was diapered by the nannybot. It utterly devastated her, and she fought the Bigs who came in here to settle her down. In moments, though, they took her away and she came back like… well, like this.” I wasn’t liking the sound of what he was telling me at all. “Where did they take her?” Fritz and Paul both shrugged. “We’re not sure,” Paul finally confirmed out loud. “One minute, they’re like this, and then the next…” Our eyes drifted back over to Steph, and it was at that point that I noticed several of the other Littles were exactly like her, complete with their deadened and unfocused eyes and their slackened limbs. “I know one thing for sure,” Fritz said with hatred in his eyes. “I’d rather be dead than like that…” “You don’t mean that, Fritz,” I said, trying to calm my friend down. He had taken a little too much after Mindy after he had been hit by the blue gas and had nearly lost all his bladder control by now. Mindy was fast, strong, and clever though, and she had clearly escaped after recognizing the losing fight that was the warehouse. Fritz, however, wasn’t that way and had been likely caught as a result of his humanity. “I do. And they better…” the single door opened though right at that moment and cut him off mid-sentence completely. Three Bigs soon stormed in. One seemed just for crowd control, aiming his gun around, and shouting for everyone to “Get back! Stand against the wall! Now! Move it!” We all did as he said, but the second one took advantage of the chaos and grabbed Stephanie and another Little I didn’t recognize. Fara fought hard to keep her, but the third quickly hit her on the side of her head. Her body crumpled to the floor and the third Big picked her up and quickly left the room. The second and third soon followed, and the heavy old door was closed once more. “What the hell was that?” I felt like I was truly living in some dystopian nightmare now. The Bigs seemed to be picking us off one by one, and looking around the room, it didn’t take long for me to realize that if they continued, it was just a numbers game before I was taken away. Fritz seemed too angry to say anything, but Paul sighed. “We’re not entirely sure. Probably some pro-Big group. Definitely not LPS or ABI, but they’re well-armed, well-informed, and they don’t seem to have any issue with subduing us by force to achieve their… results.” “Not me…” Fritz echoed again. Paul and I tried to convince him afterward of the folly of his plan, particularly, when Fara returned and like the others, was only a shell of her former self. Being secretly a Big and actually conscious now, I volunteered to tend to her. There wasn’t much left to take care of, but I could tell from even her minimal reactions that she liked at least being held close. Two hours later, I felt the need to potty again. I had gone not long after Steph had been taken away originally, but again, I sat dutifully on the potty in front of everyone. Despite the embarrassment of an action like that, I practically seemed like an adult compared to almost everyone else who was now sporting diapers and most of which were using them freely. Even Fritz had sequestered himself to the thicker Little diapers the day before LRG was raided. His issues were just getting worse it seemed. Mine were as well, but I had at least a little warning before I had an accident. With the potty so close and no one else using it, I was able to freely go when I had to. Unfortunately, right as I was going, the door burst open again. This time, the Bigs collected Fara and another regressed Little. Fritz wasn’t having it. “No! No! Get off her! I won’t let you take another one of us!” he screamed against them, running up and kicking and punching them as much as possible. “Ah! Get him off!” the second Big yelled who was holding Fara and the other Little. The other two just smirked. It was clear that it wasn’t out of cruelty, but more of their own amusement over the situation. I had seen that look before when my mom had to pry a cat off Chloe’s leg after we came back from a fishing trip long ago with my dad. To me, I saw that despite his furious attacks, Fritz threats didn’t mean anything to them. I was about to go help him, but when I saw those looks, I knew there was no point. I could have intervened, but I probably would have ended up worse than all the rest. Plus, looking down, I saw Paul… my Paul. If I was regressed, everything I had worked for would have been doomed. Still, after they seemed to stop amusing themselves though, the third Big went over and plucked Fritz off his fellow Bigs leg. “Now, there’ll be no more of that. You’ll…” But Fritz didn’t want to hear him speak, so using his rage instead of his smarts, he punched him right in his eye. The Big yelled and clutched his eye with his other hand not holding Fritz up. “Damn it! You stupid Little! We’ll teach you!” The last I saw of my friend before he exited the room in the hands of the third Big was him spitting, biting, clawing, punching and scratching as hard as he could. Tiny red marks appeared over the Big where he attacked, but it made no difference. Like the others before him, despite everything, my friend Fritz was now gone. Paul and I tried to comfort each other as best we could, and even thought of ways out or who was doing this, but in a cell without any windows and three Bigs periodically coming in without saying more than a handful of words at a time, it was difficult to tell. Still, we tried to maintain our hopes as often as we could. This proved especially challenging once the cell reopened, two more regressed Littles and one normal Little were taken and Fritz was returned. Heavily diapered and staring blankly back at me, I knew that there was little to nothing left of my friends anymore. So, unable to do anything about it, I cuddled him with fresh tears in my eyes and then turned to the first Big that had been waving a gun. “Who are you all? Why are you doing this to us?” He smirked like he was purely enjoying himself and I quickly wanted to puke at my own kind’s horrible ways. He then crouched down and pointed his gun directly at me. Paul pulled me away to try and defuse the situation, but I remained stuck firm. “One of the tough ones, huh? Well, we can fix that at some point, but for now, we’re just a pro-Big group. Surprised you don’t recognize us.” I squinted hard and realized that these were the same Bigs that had captured Sean and had attacked us at the rally. “You! You all took Sean and attacked us at the rally!” His smile only grew. “Awww. You remembered! And boy, do we remember your first little friend that we captured that first day… screamed until the last moment.” “Liar!” We both knew he was talking about Sean, and while he was physically weak, I couldn’t imagine him breaking for these Bigs. The Big chuckled. “Don’t blame him, missy. We caught him and went to work on him. Took days for him to give you all up. I think after his teeth were pulled and we started on his fingernails, he would have told us anything to get us to stop. Sang like a canary after that.” “So, that’s how you knew about the warehouse…” I could tell Paul was hurt by the information he had just received. Whether it was disappointment in Sean for telling them about the warehouse, or the fact that he had only done it after being tortured, I wasn’t sure. “Well…” The Big stood back up and seesawed his hand around a bit. “Not exactly. He got us closer to the truth and a new… friend, gave us the rest.” He turned around and reopened the door that had closed by itself before. “Rest up you two… you’re next.” After that, Paul and I tried to comfort ourselves with the news of Sean as best we could. If that had happened to him, it quickly doused our hopes of any of the other lost Littles being safely recovered. The mention of a ‘friend’ stuck with me, but comforting Paul, Fritz, and the remaining Littles proved to be quite a challenge. It turns out, after another few hours and a few more trips to the potty with the occasional meal being thrown in, it didn’t matter. Soon, it was just Paul, me, and a few other regressed Littles to contend with. The old nannybot came in frequently after that and made sure to change or feed any of the Littles that needed it. By now, Paul was the only one who was embarrassed over his treatment with the nannybot. The other five still in the cell with us were beyond caring by now. As I cuddled with Fritz, I saw that like with Fara, it seemed to be the one time he was even remotely happy and not just a blank state. He might grunt while filling his diapers or cry when hungry, but his coziness when I cuddled with him seemed to be his only source of comfort. For a moment, I even thought about putting him out of his misery as he had been contemplating as well, but Paul only shook his head. “It’s not right, Susan, and you know it. Don’t give in. If Fritz is still in there, he won’t be for long. He’s beyond caring, but you would. Don’t place that type of burden on your heart.” I felt ashamed for even considering it, so I just went back to cuddling him as best I could. “You two! On your feet!” The Big with the gun said when he returned. Not wanting to depart with Fritz in his fragile condition, but not wanting to get shot either, I slowly laid Fritz down as the nannybot entered and I then stood up. “Now, move!” Paul and I put our hands even further up and walked out of the cell as directed. At first, I was surprised that neither of us were blindfolded or anything else. I thought that maybe they didn’t care about what we saw as we were about to get regressed, but getting outside of the cell, I only really just saw more of the same of inside the cell. More damp and dusty stones and more heavy and old doors lined the hallways we weaved through. Finally, though, we entered a single cell. This one seemed cleaner, like it had been recently cleaned from something insidious that had happened inside. Regardless, Paul and I were soon directed to the two seats in there. “Hands!” one of the Bigs barked out. I really didn’t like where this was headed, but in my hesitancy, the Big with the gun aimed his gun closer at Paul’s head. I didn’t need further motivation to snap my hands behind my back. So, soon, they were strapped down to the sides of the chair, just like Paul’s now were as well. Even pulling a little bit at my bonds once the other Bigs left, I could tell that Paul and I weren’t going anywhere any time soon. We were then put through several rounds of questioning. Any time one of us didn’t answer, the other was smacked across the face. After about five rounds of that, we just started complying. “Name?” “Date of Birth?” “Citizen or immigrant?” It was simple stuff mostly, so we really didn’t see the issue with answering their questions, but I kept getting a bad feeling as the Bigs began to smile in triumph. Soon after that Big had finished and left, another Big walked in. I could right away that it was the leader I had confronted back when Sean was taken and the one that had led the Bigs at the protest. “Well, well… we meet again, Susan.” I didn’t like the way he said my name. “Please. Just let us go,” Paul pleaded. It hurt my heart to hear the depth of the sorrow in his voice. “This doesn’t have to go any further.” The leader smiled. “Oh Paul… you know, knowing what I do, I almost feel bad for you.” He turned his attention over to me. “Susan is such a loyal follower to you, right?” I really didn’t like his tone and the way his eyes shifted over me. I felt he knew much more than he was letting on. “But, where are my manners?” He then gestured to himself. “My name is Peter. And this is my group… the same group you all have been opposing for a while now. We were here long before LRG and we’ll be here long after you all are gone. We are BAL… Bigs Against Littles.” “Never heard of you before…” Paul said, a bit of smugness coming through in his voice. I, however, did recognize the name. “The terrorists of Big kind…” I remembered their name on groups to look out for when I was fully involved with LPS. They were just a fledgling organization back then, but for them to pull off their raid on LRG, I knew they had grown considerably. Peter frowned. “More like patriots of Big kind.” He quickly shook his head. “But I’m not here to debate politics with you all. Knowing you two like I do, I’m sure it would be a lively conversation, but we have other matters to attend to.” He then snapped his fingers and another Big came in. “Thank you,” he said with more politeness than I thought him capable of. He then held a small plastic cube between his fingers. My eyes bulged out when I saw what it was. “What the heck is that?” Paul asked, horribly confused. Peter smiled. “This… well, why don’t you ask your partner in crime here?” He turned to me and wickedly smirked. “How about it, Susan?” I couldn’t bring myself to say anything right then. By now, I felt I was damned no matter what I said. My worst fears were coming true. Peter scoffed. “Very well then.” He held his fingers aloft again. “This, my dear Paul, is a tooth. More specifically, a tooth from your friend here.” Paul looked at me with wide eyes, but I couldn’t bear to look at him back. Peter then shook the small container with my tooth. “See, we’ve been growing as a movement on this little world of ours. Nothing international… yet, but we have a few sources in our pocket. So, we know this tooth… this very tooth in fact… was placed into the mouth of one Sophie Beaufort.” I’m pretty sure my heart stopped for a moment. Paul seemed frozen. “Wh… what did you say? Sophie?” I could see his mind spinning and trying to put everything together or hope even that. “I don’t understand… why does Susan have a tooth from Sophie in her mouth?” Peter smirked at me. “Not very bright, is he?” I didn’t make any motion, but I hoped beyond measure that Peter would just end it there. He didn’t. “Paul…” Peter began to explain, to my very horror, “we have a detector for any kinds of trackers. Mostly placed in teeth, we’ve found them in a few undercover agents in our organization. So, since then, we check anyone who comes here. Understand yet?” I think for Paul, what Peter was suggesting was just too radical an idea, but that didn’t last long. A horrified look soon enveloped his face as he turned over to me. “Susan? Ar… are you an undercover agent?” Before I had a chance to say anything, Peter spoke up first. “Ooh. Almost there Paul.” He rattled the tooth mere inches away from his face. “Come on. Think!” I could see the struggle on Paul’s face. By now, I knew it had to be denial that the very Little he had tried to help and save was also the very Big that had held him often against his will. I couldn’t blame him in his reconciliation of a Big and a Little being the same person, but Peter was persistent. Peter turned to me. “I want you to say your name. If you refuse… we’re going to have to do this the hard way…” Peter, trying to threaten me, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of pliers. I knew I was finished. I had been lying to Paul, but I couldn’t let him get hurt over the secret that I was still keeping from him. It was a violation of LPS protocol, and I could technically be jailed, but as Peter leaned in and grabbed one of Paul’s teeth with his pliers, I knew I had no choice. “Stop! Stop!” Paul had been flailing, and the once calm and even civilized Peter had only seemed to enjoy each moment of their interaction together. “Please, just stop… I’ll tell you what you want to hear.” “Susan! No!” Paul cried out to me, after spitting the likely metallic taste in his mouth now. I wondered if he would have said the same if he truly knew what I was going to say under threat. “Don’t do it! Don’t give in! Fight him!” I sighed and shook my head. “No, Paul. I have to. I can’t let you get hurt. That’s my job…” Paul’s pleading eyes began to grow more curious than anything. I could see that I was going to have to tell him directly. Peter was still nearby with his pliers clacking together occasionally. I couldn’t let him hurt Paul… my Paul… I sighed and took a deep breath. I knew everything was about to change, and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. “Paul… I’m Sophie… your Sophie.” I let my words hang in the air for a moment. Paul seemed to want more than anything for me to be lying, but I could see that side of him was slowly losing. “You… you… you’re lying!” I could hear a catch in his throat already. “Please! Please, tell me you’re lying to me! It’s okay. I can take the pain. Just tell me you’re lying!” I wanted more than anything for that to be the case. I wish I had told him sooner rather than being forced by Peter right now, but I could only shake my head. “No, Paul. I’m not lying.” Venom and regret soon swept over Paul. “I wish… I wish more than anything that I am lying to you, but I’m not…” “But… but why?” I could hear more cracks in his already wavering voice. I would have given anything to hug him and make all the bad go away right then. “I…” I knew I had to tell him the truth… no matter what he would think of it. “I needed to see you again. You were accused of treason, and you violated your original agreement with DLS. I… I went undercover so I could find you and…” “And then you traded in LRG secrets for his freedom!” I could plainly see that Peter was trying to directly hurt one of the leaders of LRG. LRG was a threat to BAL, and he knew full-well that if Paul could be hurt like this, LRG would be so much weaker. “Isn’t that right, Sophie?” Hearing my name out loud felt good in a way, but so much worse in another. “I…” I knew I had to keep with the truth still, but I didn’t have to feel good about it. “Yes… yes, I told LPS about LRG, but only about small things. It was just enough to help you and not hurt LRG… I swear, Paul!” But Paul already seemed to be tuning me out. Small tears trickled from his face as he seemed to try and look in any other direction other than in mine. Peter leaned in with his pliers, a smile etched over his face. “See Paul? See how she deceived you and betrayed LRG?” Peter then poked me in the face. “We even have evidence that she deliberately changed her face enough to hide her appearance from you and the rest of the Littles in order to gain your trust through deceit. If she really wanted to help you, she would have revealed herself to you long ago!” Despite Paul’s hurt and my breaking heart for how much I knew I was hurting Paul, my old sense picked up a single word that Peter had said… evidence. Not rumors and not even hearing about something, but actually ‘having evidence.’ Peter didn’t strike me as the kind who would boast about something unless it was factually true. The back of my mind began to click, but finally, I saw Paul look at me with a look of betrayal. “I… I… I trusted you…” he said mournfully. It was as if I was hearing his heart shatter into a million pieces in real time. “You… you betrayed me… us! You’re no Little! You never were!” Hot and likely stinging tears flowed from his eyes. Every fiber in my body was telling me that Paul hated me to my core, but his look… he seemed more broken than murderous as I once feared he could be. Still not good, but for me clinging onto any hope, it was something. After that, Paul didn’t wait for a reply and more or less just shut down. Snapping his fingers, a still attached to the chair Paul was dragged away. Peter, however, stood in front of me to gloat. “Not so tough now, are you?” He then spit on me. “You sicken me, you know that? You betrayed your own kind for him.” I looked up in confusion. “If you know that… then why did you do all this? What do you have to gain? This seems personal…” Peter smirked. “Clever as always. I guess your file really doesn’t lie, huh?” Peter then leaned against a wall while still facing me. “You know… each of our interrogations were for the single purpose of taking LRG down. We learned a lot today, but this… this was for me.” He then started to creep back over to me, hunched over like some ravenous creature stalking its prey. “I wanted to see you break under the strain when your Little no longer trusts you.” He gestured to my body. “You did all this, and I want to make sure you know that it was all in vain. You’ve lost Paul forever now, and I want you to know that was because of me. You’ve made me look ridiculous for too long and there are consequences for that.” His arms had finally collapsed onto my chair as said his last few words, but now, seemingly satisfied with his display of vileness, backed up and crossed his arms. “We were going to regress you two, but I think spending some quality time like this will do you some good. Maybe… when you’re good and ready and maybe even willing or hopefully, begging for death or a release from your torment of completely betraying your Little… then, and only then, I will regress you.” His fingers snapped once more and then I was led back out of the room. Entering after being untied, I tried to go over to Paul first, but he just turned away from me and then flicked me off. “Don’t speak to me, Sophie. Not ever… not…” I had longed within every ounce of my being to hear Paul speak my name again, but now, due to Peter’s actions, it was just said in spite and hatred toward me. I then huddled into a corner of the room and held up Fritz in my lap to cuddle him. Paul hadn’t moved an inch, but Fritz was a blank canvas now for all intents and purposes. I knew deep down that he wasn’t Paul, but to keep myself from losing it completely, I imagined it was Paul instead. I could keep him safe, love him, and protect him. From the sheer drop of noise into the stillness of the night, there wasn’t anyone else… just us. It was a lie to myself, but it was something I needed. Everything was terrible now, and I needed at least one thing to go right. Even if it was just Fritz, I knew I could care for and love him like I wanted to with Paul. We were still trapped in a cell and were waiting to be regressed into oblivion. I needed some good news, and as escape seemed highly unlikely, cuddling Fritz was about as close as I could come. So, holding him tightly, I closed my eyes as I felt a single tear fall down my cheek and land on his shirt. Right then, I just hoped that darkness and sleep would soon take me and end this wretched day.