Kat5

Well, I'm intentionally rotating back and forth between the story being from his view, and then the story being from her view. I want a story that shows two sides of a coin. I can't share much more without spoilers, though. Just to gush on some of the authors around here: There are some AMAZING stories here and some of them just blow me away with the character development and scene setting. I am genuinely in awe of some of the talent that it takes and if I can share and express my story as well as they can, I'll be greatly pleased with the end result. I notice that a lot of stories stick exclusively to one POV. And that makes for a very compelling story. But I'm hoping to share each characters world view. How they see the world and the fundamental differences. John is wildly out of his depth. He's not dumb but he's so completely off kilter in what is (to him) a completely alien environment. And the only place he knows of as a safe haven is a garden with a dog in it. And right now he is VERY far away from even that. Amanda is not like all Amazon's, but she is also like more Amazon's than you may realize. And that is all I can say.

I just want to say thank you for accidentally confirming for me that I portrayed her character as effectively as I had hoped with such a short interaction!

Chapter Fourteen: Amanda leaned back in the chair, clutching John tightly to her chest, and trying to calm him down while the nurse tried to get the pacy in his mouth. Doctor Galanis put his cold stethoscope against his bare back and the moment he gasped, the pacy was in. She stroked his hair, humming softly as he fought. Oh he fought. He thrashed, she could feel him trying to bite through the pacy. She held him tightly throughout all of it. She would keep him safe, she had promised him. As he slowed down, she softly rubbed his back, whispering “shhhh, shhhh. It's going to be okay.” She could hear the nurse asking Doctor Galanis “How did you know that would work?” He chuckled a little and answered “Tricks of the trade. That paste will calm down any little. I just had to grab a pacifier and dip it in.” Amanda looked up to see the nurse correct the doctor “No, I meant the cold stethoscope.” That made him laugh a bit more. “Not my first panicked naked little.” And now Doctor Galanis quickly warmed his stethoscope up by rubbing it hard against his palm rapidly until it was definitely not cold any more and he used it to listen to Johns breathing for a minute. Finally he nodded. “Okay, let me get my tablet to make notes on his file. How long has he been having these … little attacks?” He seemed to be asking somewhat gently. Amanda thought back a bit to the notes that she had “I have a file I started when I found him with exact notes. He was having one when I found him, one the night I found him. A few the next day. The one this morning I saw coming, and was able to calm him down. This one … I guess he was just too stressed. We even came first thing in the morning when it would be less crowded.” Doctor Galanis nodded along patiently, typing all of this into his tablet. “Well, with littles, these panic attacks are not unheard of. We had a little girl in here three months ago with the same problem. Poor thing screamed in that exact playpen until she threw up. It took the same treatment to get her to calm down. Poor thing was so scared she tried to bite anyone's hand that came near her.” She gasped “That's terrible! What would make her react like that?” With a shrug he answered “Apparently when she got lost here in our dimension, LPS just threw her in a nursery for several days and never even explained to her that it was for her own good. Typical LPS, they're so determined to protect the littles that they forget that they're little people too.” Amanda hugged John to her chest firmly. “Is … is my little John going to be okay?” Now it was the Doctors turn to be encouraging “Don't worry, we'll send you with a couple of samples and you can obviously have that pacy. Once used, we can't exactly put them back in the package. After about a month of use, we'll check on him when he comes back in for his next vaccine. He needs more examination then, as well.” She felt him shivering still, and when she looked, his eyes were still closed. He wasn't limp like he usually was when he was asleep, though. “Can we get him dressed? He's cold.” With a nod “Oh absolutely. Let's go ahead and give him his shots now, though. Nurse!” Standing behind him with two prepped syringes, the nurse was already prepared. “Lay him down and we'll get him in each hip, that way he can't scratch at the band aids if he panics again.” Amanda quickly went over to the table and the nurse unfastened his diaper, commenting “Oh. Someone sure needed this diaper.” before scrubbing each hip with an alcohol pad and giving him the injections. “All done! Let's wrap him back up.” With Amanda and the nurse working together he was in a fresh diaper and dressed in no time. When that was done, Doctor Galanis looked at his file, then to Amanda. “Okay young lady now it's your turn. You just found him on the weekend, so I am guessing that you have not been to the adoption center yet?” Amanda simply shook her head “I wanted to make sure he was healthy first. That is important.” He nodded at her “You're going to make a great Mommy. But we need to make some notes on his files. How far regressed is he? That diaper was obviously wet, but you said he had gone a few times. Does he talk much? Can he speak fluently?” Amanda laughed a little “Oh, he can definitely talk. I think the only time I don't hear him either talking or crinkling around the house is when he is about to get into trouble.” Doctor Galanis just chuckled “That's the thing with children. When you stop hearing them, it's time to worry. I'm not going to prescribe something simple that you can get over the counter, but I would like you to put him on a multivitamin every day. We'll have to do blood work when you bring him back next. Does he stay indoors, or does he play outdoors?” “Oh he seems to love being outdoors! He's great with animals. I have a video of him climbing the dog to reach the doorknob, and a video of him hand feeding a squirrel!” Now everyone laughed “Okay, I have to see that. You show us that video and I'll get the paperwork done stating that he needs to be adopted, and that I recommend you as his new mommy. That usually speeds things along if LPS gets involved. You'll still have to get him registered with a new social security number. The new Adoption Center in town can do both of those at the same time. And with this being Monday morning the line is going to be short.” Amanda smiled “Oh, if I can bypass the courthouse, that will save him a lot of stress. And I already made an appointment at the adoption center on the recommendation of a friend of mine. I don't think he is going to have an easy time adjusting.” The doctor reached down and gave the pacifier in johns mouth a little wiggle “Just keep using this when he has panic attacks and after a few months just having his pacy with him will calm him down. They associate the pacy with being calm and eventually just suck on it when they feel stressed. She nodded now “Thank you very much Doctor Galanis. I hope we can help him adjust. Is there anything else we need to do here today?” “Just one. That medicine didn't put him to sleep, he was just worn out. We can leave you alone in here to hold him, but you have to wait until he opens his eyes and looks around before you can leave. We'll have the paperwork for you up front. And I think we have a box of pacy straps somewhere. If we find one we'll put it with the paperwork.” “Thank you again Doctor Galanis.” He nodded “We'll leave you two alone. When he's awake you can head to the front desk. If he doesn't wake up within ten or fifteen minutes, just walk over to the nurses station with him.” She nodded as he slipped out and closed the door behind him, leaving her alone with John. She sat there holding him against her chest. And rubbing his back. Every so often she would give a cursory glance at the clock on the wall. She knew this moment needed to be brief, but it was nice to hold him like this, even if the chair was uncomfortable. After a bout twelve minutes he opened his eyes and looked at her, then rested his head against her shoulder. That seemed like the sign she was waiting for, so she slowly stood up, got the strap of her diaper bag over her shoulder and eased out of the door. She was waved past the nurses station but then she stopped and whispered to the RN at the station “Hey … can I give him coffee? He's been asking for it constantly.” The RN chuckled and answered “ten to one milk with coffee, plenty of sugar. Just make sure you have a fresh diaper handy, our coffee goes through them quite fast.” With that she took her spaced out charge around to the front desk where she was told and they gave her a manila folder with the doctors notes and a sample tub of a powder to dip the pacifier in. She also remembered to get a receipt printed out to bring with her. May as well take the research team up on their offer. Out in the car, she buckled John into his car seat and leaned over to take a look at him. He was quite. He hasn't been quiet this entire time. She pulled the pacifier out of his mouth and asked “John? Sweety?” He looked at her “Hmm?” “How are you feeling big guy?” He looked at her for a moment and gave her a weak smile “I'm okay. I think I got scared.” She couldn't hide her slight frown. This John was … TOO calm. In the few days she'd known him he only ever seemed to be powered by a spring and determined to be doing anything other than sitting still. Below his view she wiped the pacy off on her shirt and put it next to him in the car seat. “Hey, are you thirsty?” The calm, almost monotone response kind of worried her “Yeah... I'm pretty thirsty.” Reaching into the diaper bag she pulled out a sippy cup and held it out. He just … calmly accepted it and started sucking it down. HE didn't look like he was planning to stop so she just went around to the drivers seat and buckled up and started the car. It took several tries to get the address of the new adoption center to come up, since phone GPS isn't updated often, but eventually she found it and easily memorized the route to get there. “Okay, the doctors appointment took an hour, twenty minutes to the adoption center. Lunch for John, then Littles R Us let me schedule a delivery for today in exchange for … ouch … that's going to hurt.” Looking over her shoulder, she asked “John, we're off to the adoption center. You going to be okay back there?” She could hear the little bubbles continue in the sippy cup for a moment before they stopped and she heard a calm voice “Yeah. That sounds scary.” Amanda didn't realize how long she was holding her breath before she finally exhaled and put the car in gear, mumbling “Please don't have any more panic attacks today.” The drive across town was honestly slow going due to traffic. And catching every. Single. Red. Light. Finally, as she pulled into the adoption center parking lot she looked up at the mirror to see John trying to look around, his cup apparently long since empty. He seemed lucid. “Hey Buddy, how are you feeling?” John sprouted the smirk. He was definitely feeling more like himself as he spoke “Do you want the truth, or my side of the story?” Okay, her little seemed to catch her off guard with that one, and she replied “...first your side of the story. Then the truth.” “I'm not thirsty, which is a sign that I had enough to drink.” “And your side of the story?” “I have no idea where I am, what is going on, I saw an adult with no teeth in nothing but but a diaper staring at me from a baby carrier, and now we're at an adoption center. I am kind of scared.” Wow. He's seemed relatively calm. The medicine was still having a bit of a calming effect. She put the sample tube from the doctors office in the diaper bag. Just in case. Leaving the care and going around to his door, she opened it and reached down to unbuckle him from the car seat. She helped him sit up since he kept just sliding back into place in the seat. This is apparently a really good car seat. She made sure that he looked somewhat comfortable before breaking a truth of the world he was in to him somewhat gently. “Okay John. It's fair to be scared. Completely understandable, even. Where you come from, do you have a social security number?” “Yes.” “Do you have one in this world?” “No Ma'am.” “If you don't have a social security number here, and by here I mean this entire world, what does that make you?” “Uhhhh... an … a … Lost? Uhhh... Illegal?” She put a hand up now “Lost. Lost little.” She watched to see if he was following along. Before continuing “Okay. If in your world you found a lost child, what would you do?” He didn't even have to think “Try to help find their parents.” “And if their parents were in another dimension?” “Uhhh... I guess … call child protective services and say 'hey I have this … oh.” NOW he was getting it. She slowly nodded until he was nodding along with her. Once he was nodding she continued “If you brought a small child to child services in your world, what would they do?” “Foster care and try to find someone to adopt ...” She cut him off with one hand raised “You may be startled to know that the adoption laws here allow Amazons to adopt littles. Like you.” “Ah, but I'm not a child.” “But you are still a little. You were lost in the woods. You had an accident in your sleep. And you're not big enough to take care of yourself in my world. You also have no way of returning to your own dimension. Yes?” He stopped nodding now. Completely. “Yeah ….” She decided to try and be a bit more direct. “John, if you try to make your way in this world someone my size is going to see how small you are, take you and adopt you. Whether you like them or not will not be a factor. You know the 'adult' little that you saw in that baby carrier?” Johns only two reactions were a frown and a nod. “Well … If someone sees how small and cute you are and adopts you, they could do that to you. I think that you're precious the way you are and I am willing to adopt you to prevent that from happening to you.” John just stammered a bit “I … I … uhhh... I don't want to be like that. But … I don't understand...” She reached out and tussled his unruly hair. Goddess that was fun to do. Stay focused. Protect your baby first, mess with his hair second. “One challenge at a time, baby." “Not a baby.” She slumped a bit “Poor choice of words on my part. One challenge at a time, sweety.” He was trying so hard, she could see it in his eyes. He may still be a bit numbed from the medicine. Maybe that would help him. “John. What we are going to do is go into this building and get you a social security number and some identification. I'm going to have to loan you my last name. You'll be part of my family. You and I and Xerxes. And Aunt Cat and Kate, sort of.” “You're going to loan me your last name?” He kind of puzzled. She nodded with a great big smile “I promise that you can use is at long as you need it. I can't avoid you using someones last name, but I can make sure it's the last name of someone that will take good care of you.” She knew that all of this was true. He just didn't realize yet how long he would be needing it. He still looked a bit shaken, but nodded anyway. “If there is ever a way to send me home, or make me my old size, will you promise to help?” She took that as her cue and picked him up and put him down standing next to her. “Not only do I promise, I think I'll mention it to the research teams I work with. You never know what they may cook up.” He nodded, now much more confident. She hated the fact that he had basically no chance of getting what he wanted. But she liked him more than any native little she'd ever known. He loved being outdoors and for some reason animals all seemed to trust him completely. And that was enough. As another precaution, she grabbed the pacy from the car seat and slipped it into the diaper bag as well. Just in case her little had a rough time in the next hour or two. Diaper bag slung on her shoulder, manila envelope with printouts from the doctor and a copy of the contract with the research team in hand, she reached down and offered a hand. Awkwardly John reached up and took it. She had to suppress her urge to just pick him up and hug him. Protect your baby first. Then spoil. Protect first. She had to repeat to herself as if on loop. She had the advantage of knowing what Amazonian instincts were. That didn't make them easy to fight. And so they walked up to the adoption center doors at the slowest time they were ever going to get. An hour before lunch on a Monday. They walked through the sliding glass door and up to a front desk to meet the receptionist that watched them walk in hand in hand and she had the biggest grin on her face. As they approached the desk, the woman behind it couldn't hold in her excitement “Awwww! How can we help you today, Ma'am?” “Hello, I'm Miss Taylor and I have a tentative appointment for today. I'm here a bit earlier than I expected, is that a problem?” “One moment please!” the Receptionist chirped out with a smile while typing at her computer for a moment and then staring at the screen for a moment before declaring “No Ma'am, that's not a problem at all. In fact if you can wait ten minutes we should be able to get you taken care of.” Amanda was then handed an electronic tablet and told “I just need you to go have a seat and confirm that all of your information is correct here. Then hand it back to me when you're called back!” With a nod, Amanda took the tablet and said “Thank you very much!” and steered John over to a nearby chair. Without thinking she reached to help him up but saw him jumping and sort of scrabbling to get up onto the hard plastic chair. She reached out with a foot under his feet to step on so that he could lift himself up while feeling like he hadn't been helped. Baby steps. Sitting down next to John she told him “Here, scoot toward me.” and then she set the diaper bag on the amazon sized chair on the opposite side of him. Partly to keep it off of the floor. Mostly to block his vision of a male little on the far side of the lobby dressed as a little girl and pulling and tugging on a pacifier that they just could not get out of their mouth. She pinched the bridge of her nose with her right hand for a moment and mumbled to herself “Pick your battles Amanda. Pick your battles.” and then with a deep breath patted John on the head and explaining “Okay, I need to fill this out. Do me a favor and stay put right here with me?” He nodded and tried to watch her filling out details on the tablet, but soon got bored with that and started looking around the lobby. He even stood up in his chair (cutely like a toddler would have to) and looked around the lobby. Within moments she heard him whisper “Miss Amanda.” “Yes, Sweety?” she whispered back. Still keeping it low, he replied “There's a man over there dressed as a little baby girl clawing at his face.” She had to take a deep breath to stay calm “I know.” He looked confused “But … “Sorry dear. That is legal and normal here. Now let Mo … Me fill this out so that I can loan you my last name.” He was silent but she could sense him turning around while standing in the seat next to her. Then she heard him gasp and suddenly flop down onto his butt and pull his knees up to his chest. She whispered to him “Saw back and to our left?” He nodded mutely. “She's my age, but she's naked.” With a shake of her head “No sweety, she's not naked.” Amanda spared him a glance. His face was turning red. Oh Goddess that's cute. And he looked up at her, almost frantic and told her, still trying to whisper “She's only wearing a diaper. That's naked.” This time she placed her right hand on his head and left it there while whispering “I promise that I will never make you go anywhere in only a diaper if you don't want to. But what they're doing is legal here. Littles are not necessarily Grown ups.” He looked nervous. He was starting to look like a small animal. Like he wanted to run, but had nowhere to run to. After finishing with the tablet she held it up for him to see “You know. It doesn't matter where you go or what you do, every appointment they ask you to fill out in person what you filled out online to save time from filling it out in person.” Maybe a little levity will lighten him up. He looked like he was ready to give and smile when the door opened and in walked a man carrying a squirming little under one arm. And oh that little was thrashing. Probably being newly adopted. She took it all in at a glance. The little was, from the top up, wearing a suit and tie. From the waist down only a diaper. Guaranteed that the little failed to live up to expectations at work. At least now the little couldn't get fired and wind up homeless. Looking back down at John though … he was staring. She leaned and whispered “John?” He barely glanced at her before staring at the flailing little. “John, you look nervous, do you want to sit in my lap? Will that help you feel safe?” The head shaking no that she got was very animated and he turned around and flopped back down with his knees pulled up to his chest. Amanda silently reached over and put her hand on the back of his shoulders. At first he tensed up and then relaxed, leaning back into her hand. Then there was the sound of a door opening behind them and she heard their (soon to be both of theirs) last name called. “Taylor!” Amanda immediately stood up and picked up the diaper bag before offering her hand. “Want to walk, or if you're nervous I can carry you?” He shook his head while sliding out of the chair. He did take her hand and as they walked through the door to the back. It seemed to take a bit longer to get through the door and to the back than it would have if she had just picked him up, but letting him control the pace they walked might help him stay calm. A very nice woman dressed in business casual greeted them. Her hair was done up in a loose red bun. She leaned down at the sight of Johnny and cooed “Oh my goodness you look so precious! Come on, let's get you and your Mommy into the office. You get to meet the director herself today!” She could feel Johnny's hand squeezing hers as hard as he possibly could as they walked. They were shown to a well furnished office in the back. Immediately her eye was drawn to the large wooden desk in the middle of the room, with two large chairs in front of it, and a smaller chair with a booster seat on it. The playpen in the corner behind the door didn't really register with her. “ Miss Taylor, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Miss Kassia.” A woman easily a foot taller than Amanda came around the desk and held out a hand to shake. 'Always remember to observe protocol' she mentally reminded herself as she took the hand gently to shake. “I'm pleased to meet you as well! I didn't expect to be shown to the director!” Miss Kassia, now that she got a good look at her, was a very serious looking woman with just a few streaks of gray in her hair. The fact that she didn't dye it was probably intentional, given Amazon society. She was wearing a business skirt, a blue blouse, and heels. She probably does not have to go deal with children all that often. For the life of her, Amanda could not shake the mental image of a woman whose job it was to keep the adults in line, not the children. Kassia waved to a chair “Please, you and your son have a seat.” as she went back around the desk without waiting to see if she actually sat down. This was a woman that fully expected complete obedience. She unslung her diaper bag and slid it on the floor next to the chair nearest the booster seat and moved to pick up John. Poor thing was shaking now. As she moved to lower him into the booster seat both of his hands grabbed her arms and he curled up his entire lower body, staring down at it while trying not to touch it. She held him out with one arm and looked him in the eyes. “Lap or booster seat.” She made sure to not sound like she was asking, given their audience. He looked at her with those big gray eyes and immediately said in a gasp. “Lap! … Please!” With a nod she pulled him in and sat back in the chair with him sitting sideways across her lap. With an approving nod, the director finally spoke. “I don't usually do this directly, since the staff is very efficient. However the paperwork you submitted shows something I've not seen before. You have papers not only from the Doctor, but from a research group. And I'll be frank with you, I want to make absolutely certain that a little is not going to be a guinea pig to some illegal studies.”

I apologize for the delay. Between work suddenly taking a sharp, nearly vertical, turn ... and having some ... vision related challenges... I'm still writing as much as I can every night before the motion sickness gets too bad. I want to share!

I think the internet ate my comment. I'll try again: Don't feel bad at all, if you have any questions, absolutely feel free to ask and I'll do my best to explain anything you would like. (Without spoilers, of course)

Don't feel bad, it was just a single line. I sneak WAY more in than that. Easter eggs go all the way back to chapter 2.

It's just a quick little line in there but Amanda told John that he was going to see her family doctor. Not a pediatrician.

There's a teeny tiny chance that Amanda has been watching him have panic attacks for three days and intentionally took the first appointment of the day, and very specifically told them "Toddler"

Chapter Thirteen: John stirred in his sleep. He felt … drunk. Not hungover. Not quite sleep drunk. He didn't know it, but he was milk drunk. His head felt like it was stuffed with wool. Tasty, milk flavored wool. And try as he might, he just could not wake up at what his body thought was the usual time. But time here was cruel. Time here was not divided into a twenty four hour day like Johns body was used to. And whether he knew it or not, he was going to have to learn a routine. After closing his eyes for just a moment, he felt a bit less groggy. A bit less sleep drunk. He cracked open one eye with a herculean effort to see what time it was. He didn't see a clock. In fact, all that he saw was a wall of mesh. He tried to sit up, but his butt felt weird. Unpleasant, actually. He resorted to rolling onto his stomach and pushing himself up onto all fours. Then putting his hand against the mesh and leaning against it to stand up. He stopped before he could make it halfway to standing. He looked down and saw what he was wearing. He was wearing, of all things … a onesie He tried a mental exercise to think of it as a T shirt with a bottom. But what he was wearing underneath that wouldn't let his brain make the excuse. And what he was wearing underneath that onesie? Oh, it was very used. John grimaced very unpleasantly and just flopped his head back to the softly padded bottom of the playpen. His butt was still in the air rather comically, and he did not care. “I don't want to be incontinent.” He said quietly to himself, in a shallow hope that want would change his circumstance. And since that didn't make his diaper clean, and it was very uncomfortable in the position that it was in. So hoping for the best, he went limp and let his legs just splay out on their own and his hips fall to the mat. This was also deeply unpleasant. Eventually he could hear his guardian angel coming across the living room and stopping nearby and whisper “Awww. Are you still asleep?” Like a coffee dependent walrus with severe dehydration he croaked out “Yes and I am having a bad dream.” He could feel a large hand on his back, the warmth bleeding through the thing cloth covering him. And the same voice whispering “And what is your bad dream about, sweety?” “It's a bad dream about my underwear being full and gross. I would like to wake up at home in my crappy one room efficiency and deal with endless stress over bills, please." He heard a little laugh, followed by a clearing of her throat. “Maybe your Aunt has already rubbed off on you too much. Come on We have full day and I need you clean and presentable.” He felt two hands this time. They got him under the chest. He decided to stay limp. If he didn't consent to being awake, then he wouldn't have to be awake. He was hoisted onto a shoulder and his legs went around someones torso. “Arms.” Groaning was his only verbal response as he flopped an arm up and over her shoulder around her neck. “Close enough.” He was now carried into the bathroom where a towel was pulled off the rack with one hand and dropped and spread with a foot. He could hear her mumbling now “Thankfully at least having to do this on the floor ends today.” He felt himself pivot onto his back and laid on the towel on the tile floor. “Uh oh.” He groaned in an odd way that he hoped was a question. “You leaked.” Now he opened one eye and looked up, mumbling “I'm sorry. I don't want to.” She shushed him and patted him on the chest. “No sweetheart, I know about that. I mean that I don't have any overnight diapers for you and now you need a bath and I need a fresh shirt. Suddenly he wasn't as sleepy and both eyes came open, even if he wasn't quite able to speak yet. “Wha....” And then he noticed the two oddly crescent shaped stains on her shirt and gagged. She rubbed his head “Shhh. Shhh. It's all fine, it's not your fault. And this was something we needed to learn together anyway. We can fix this while we're in town and the washing machine is one room over. I'm going to run you some bath water get you cleaned up, and then get the washing machine going.” He didn't see her move, she just leaned back and stretched to turn two knobs and push something down. She looked back at him “Okay, time to get cleaned up here, and then cleaned up the rest of the way!” Johns butt was lifted and he heard some snaps being undone. He was then sat upright, causing him to grimace and shake his head side to side saying “Uhh uhh, do not like that feeling” while his onesie was pulled up and over his head, his arms just limply flopping back by his sides as he was laid back down. “You're going to be fine.” He could hear the sound of tape ripping. And suddenly cold air hit him 'down there' and he squealed “GAAA” Now he was more awake. Unfortunately that meant that he could feel himself being wiped clean. His ankles lifted effortlessly with one hand and he was wiped more. And then lifted up stark naked in front of a giant woman that was smiling as she rotated around, lowering him into the warm bath water. “I know that I promised you some bubble bath, and I know you want it because you're shy. If you remind me at the store, I'll let you pick the smell and everything, okay?” He nodded mutely, turning a bit red as she she turned back around and rolled up the dirty diaper, and putting it on top of the toilet. In a flash she was lathering up a rag and smiling “Okay, I would love to let you soak, but unfortunately I have messages that all three of our appointments are before lunch. So we're going to have to hurry. Arms!” He lifted his arms and his under arms and torso was scrubbed pretty thoroughly, then he lifted up and repeated the pattern from yesterday. Within two minutes he was clean and already had his hair rinsed. As he watched an arm pulling the stopper and the water started to quickly go away. As he was lifted up out of the tub, he was greeted with a lovely face and gentle smile. “John. You're spaced out, sweety. Are you okay?” She tried riling him up just a bit by scrubbing him vigorously with a towel. Finally he started mentally waking up “Oh. I'm not very awake yet. Coffee?” A large face came into view and he felt a cheek against his “We have to be at my family doctor in an hour. We can ask him if you can have coffee then, okay?” Groggily, he just nodded along and within moments he was standing on a towel in front of the toilet. “Do you need to potty?” He looked at the toilet and down at himself, then back up and asked “May I try?” She answered “You absolutely may.” as she shuffled the diaper back down onto the towel, out of the way, and lifted first the lid, and secondly John himself. He heard a yawn and a trickling of liquid at the same time. Both of them were coming from him. “All done?” He nodded a response, and within seconds was on his back on a fresh diaper. He started to grumble about the diaper, but stopped himself and said “Thank you for letting me go in the toilet.” Figuring that it would be best to show gratitude in hopes of getting more kind treatment in the future. After he was taped up into another diaper, she picked him up and gave him a kiss on the forehead “That was a very mature way of putting that.” He felt a bit confused by the compliment, but if it's not his world, then maybe that's a good thing. “Okay young man, off to the living room. We'll get you dressed after Momma changes and cleans up.” Well, he had his instructions and he turned to the door and waddled for moment before he managed to get a more normal stride. He couldn't shake the mental image of the stains on her shirt. That was his fault, and it was deeply unsettling. Why was this happening to him? Was it really the food? The juice certainly went through him pretty quickly. And after eggs and just innocent raw sweet peas he certainly humiliated himself. To be fair it was a lot of sweet peas. Last night before bed it was a little odd being wrapped up and given milk. But you can't possibly get more innocent than milk. Thinking of the milk brought back a memory from on the couch last night. He must have been tired, but was pretty sure he saw Kate being breastfed. He would have to ask about that today. He couldn't think of any way of asking that wouldn't be awkward, so he kind of expected to chicken out and not ask. But if the opportunity presented itself, he would ask eventually. Eventually. He plopped onto the living room floor and sat cross legged thinking about the word eventually. The fact that he was thinking the word eventually at all meant that he expected to be here for a while. A long while. It was a lot to process and apparently he was spaced out for a few minutes because Amanda came back into view, now sporting clean clothes and he could hear the washing machine going behind him. She held up some clothes “Do you want to pick what you wear, today or do you want me to pick for you? He tried to get out of his own head and think fast. What was the least childish option available to him? The shirt and stretchy pants? Was that a trap? Would that just end him up with no pants? “Ummm... maybe .. the shirt and shortall things?” Oh please let this be the best choice. Without a moments hesitation she said “Arms up!” and as he held them up he found himself in a red shirt that had a cartoonish raccoon tinkering with a toy train with a toy screw driver. Well, his choice is made, and now he was looking at some denim that looked like a short childish version of overalls. “May … May I just put them on myself?” he asked almost afraid to offend the woman that has been so good to him. She did not look hurt at all, she placed them in his hands and patted him on the head as she walked away to put the other clothes into a bag “Would you like eggs and toast for breakfast again?” He got his feet into the shorts just fine and got them up his legs fine. He called toward her “May I just have some toast please?” while he was a very strange dance of going backwards and trying to pull the back up over a very irritating diaper. He tried pulling the pants out behind him and bouncing up and down on the front of his feet. He finally got them on, but couldn't get the clips to go in all the way. Walking over to the kitchen he could smell toast. Amanda came over and looked at his clothes, but did not say a word, she simply picked him up into a hug and slid him down into the booster seat. With one quick flick from each hand at the same time, the buckles on his shortalls were clipped into place. As she went for the lap belt, he asked “Do you have to put that on me? I'm not going to fall and get hurt, you know.” She mussed his still damp hair and looked down at him, explaining “We have to get into this habit. Our home is going to be inspected soon and one slip up and you'll have to go in a high chair. Would you prefer the lap belt, or the high chair?” John didn't even answer, he grabbed the ends of the lap belt and fumbled a bit to line them up and push them in. It was alarming how HARD he had to push, but the ends did click into place. He looked up at her with a smile “Lap belt is good. I like the lap belt.” He was smiling on the outside, but holding in a lot of stress. Why should he have to be locked to a chair like a toddler? While she walked away to get toast, he experimentally pushed the release button. He pushed some more, and then gave up. How strong ARE these amazons, this is nuts! The sight and smell of toast being put in front of him distracted him, so he looked up and said “Thank you very much” before reaching out and grabbing a piece of toast in both hands. He bit into it with a crunch and had to admit to himself that it was very savory. Maybe the bread where he was from was too sweet. But this buttered toast was just plain and simple and good. Also a corner of it fell off and landed in the dogs mouth. “Young man, I saw that!” He went back to munching on his thick buttered toast, frowning when some butter got onto his nose, he tried wiping his arm against his nose discretely. Then came the exasperated “Son, please don't get butter everywhere, we have to leave the house in a few minutes.” Only now did he look over and see Amanda at the counter munching on her own toast while cleaning things up and shoving some things into a bag. A big bag with a shoulder strap. And puppies printed on the side. Suddenly he wasn't hungry enough for the second piece of toast. He nibbled on a corner for show and then put if back and said “I'm full now.” He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the sippy cup in front of him. Great big ol' green sippy cup. Full of cold juice. He could see the condensation starting to bead up on the outside. John looked down at his diaper. Then reached back and grabbed the side of the chair to twist around and looked at the playpen he woke up in. Then spun back around to look a what he was very certain was a diaper bag. Now, John would never claim to be the smartest person in the room. And he wasn't really the dumbest person around. But he was sometimes slow on the uptake. And gears were starting to move in his head. They were a bit squeaky, but move they did. He was nervous. His hands and feet were shaking. He could feel his chest shaking. Should he say something? Would saying something make things worse? What had he wandered into? He remembered promising his boss that he would be careful and stick to known trails. Shaky hands went up to his head, and he tried to pull his feet up, but the booster seat kept him from curling up into a ball. Off somewhere in the distance, he heard “Okay sweety, it's time to … oh no.” Suddenly Amanda was there and the buckle that he had struggled with was undone with a flick. He was immediately lifted up and his face was buried in a shoulder. There was hair in his face. But she smelled nice. He tried to focus on the fact that she had obviously gotten up early to get things ready and let him sleep. But it wasn't working. He tried to think about the dog. He tried to think about Kate. Kate and her pacifier and her diaper and that look she got when she talked about getting lost and being scared. He had been so star struck with how cute she was and how bouncy her .. Mommy … was. He started to cry. He tried to wrap his arms and legs around the amazon holding him and squeeze her tightly. There was a warm hand moving slowly up and down his back. He could hear a slow, rhythmic breathing over the sound of his heartbeat pounding in his ears. “Shhh, deep breaths. In... Out.... In … Out...” He tried to mimic the breathing. Had he been hyperventilating? Maybe he was. His hands and legs were definitely still trembling. This slow breathing continued for a few more minutes and when he was finally calm he went limp. There was a whisper in his ear “I'm sorry sweety, but this is going to be a busy day. I'll be here with you every step of the way, and I'll try to help you stay calm and explain everything as best I can. I know it's scary, but I need you to be brave for me. Can you do that?” For the life of him, John had no idea why that was so reassuring when he had no idea what was going on, but he nodded into her shoulder and was rewarded with a pat on the back and a “Good boy. Let's wipe you off, blow your nose and get some shoes on you.” She put him down and patted his head before snagging a towel off of the counter and making a little show of wiping off his face and giving him a mom style smirk while wiping the butter off of his forearm. Then came a tissue and the simple command "Blow." “Okay, grab your juice and meet me at the door.” he hesitated “Pronto mister” For reasons he didn't yet understand, that got him into gear and he went to the table, grabbed his sippy cup and even managed to beat her to the door. She opened the door for him and said “Go sit on the steps, and we'll put some sock and shoes on you.” Out the door he went and he sat on the top step. Amanda came outside and handed him some socks. He took them and while he was putting them on, she held out a pair of blue and white sneakers a little cartoon hedgehog on the back. “Do you need help with these?” He looked around. He had boots that she had seen him tie himself. Why would she even think to ask that? He just shook his head no and took the sneakers from her and shoved his feet into them. Pulling the laces hard to tighten the shoe, he ran the laces over and under one another and pulled that tight. These laces were stiff, it was like there was a spring in them or something and they were really hard to make a bow out of. He turned his foot sideways and looked at the bottom of the shoe and it said “Little Shores” Okay, this was made for littles, so surely a little should be able to tie it. But every time he made a bow and tried to pull it through, it just popped out. “This is ridiculous” he mumbled. “Do you want to try to tie them in the car, or do you want me to them just this once because we're in a hurry?” She offered. She sounded completely sincere, so he just nodded and asked “Can you … please tie them for me just this once?” And like that both of his shoes were tied in a flash. What he struggled with she did in four seconds flat. She stood up and grabbed the bag. Okay, the diaper bag, and held out a hand to him “Come on, let's get moving.” He reluctantly reached up and took the hand. Something in the back of his min was screaming at him as he walked along holding her hand, with a sippy cup in his other hand and she had a diaper bag on her opposite shoulder. But he didn't feel like he had any choice in the matter. In fact he was pretty sure that he had no choice whatsoever. They went through the tall wooden gate, and it was not lost on him that the latch was at the height of her neck. Well out of his reach. They walked out of the gate and he waved goodbye to Xerxes as she shut and latched it behind them. When he turned around from waving goodbye to the dog, he found himself looking at a perfectly normal looking sedan. Plain gray colored Sedan, no bells or whistles. Only as they got closer he could see that he only came up to the door handle. “Oh that's just big” he mumbled to himself. As she opened the back passenger door and slid the diaper bag onto the floorboard in front of the seat, he was left staring at … a carseat. A carseat. It was a big hunter green affair with mutely colored shaped all over it. It was facing backwards. And it was obviously in boyish colors. It was absolutely there waiting for him. He stood there frozen on the spot as she turned and picked him up. “Okay, so I know this is not what you were expecting from a car ride, but you are too small for a booster seat. Kate rides in one like this. I'm going to buckle you in so we can go now, okay?” He didn't respond, he was just staring at it. So eventually she had to give up and lower him into it. As she fiddled with the five point harness, he held out his hands to try to stop her. But they were brushed aside and the seat belt was clicked in any way. Then his sippy cup was laid in the carseat next to him and she was gone, replaced by a closed car door. The instant she disappeared he tried pushing himself against the straps with his arms and legs, using his torso to force the straps out. That didn't work. So while Amanda was getting in the drivers seat he started trying to push down on the big red button on the buckle. He was pushing so hard his knuckles were turning white from the effort while the car started. In fact, he was twisting in place and shoving with all his might against the straps when the car started moving. He could hear a throat clearing “I see that young man.” He looked up and saw a mirror facing the front and what he guessed was a mirror on the visor so she could see back. “Please stop struggling so much. I have to explain some things to you.” With one last final HEAVE he gave up and flopped back “Why a carseat?” He already suspected the answer as he got it: “For your safety. Things are much bigger here.” With a bit of a huff he picked up the sippy cup and started sucking on it. He hadn't had anything to drink yet and he was parched. So he contented himself with his only distraction for the moment. His only stimulus were a sippy cup and a mirror. And the mirror didn't even face the road. She asked him softly “Are you done pouting?” He answered back “I am not pouting” “You are absolutely pouting. But I kind of understand. So l need you to listen very closely to something, okay? Can you do that for me?” With one last defiant pull from his cup to delay answering, he put the cup against his side in the car seat and answer “Yes Ma'am.” She took a deep breath and honestly looked like she was preparing herself for something uncomfortable. How can this be uncomfortable for her? She's not in a carseat. He tried to shuffle around a bit, but the seat was padded on the sides and he kept just … sliding right back into the middle. It was even like there was a divot where his butt was for the diaper. Honestly, his options were to look up at the mirror, or drink from his sippy cup. She started trying to explain: “Okay. You know you're not in your dimension any more. I've already told you that rift littles are pretty uncommon. But there ARE littles your size here. But they are not … quite like you are used to. And Amazon society can be very strict, even with other amazons. Some littles, and it's not their fault, just get kind of swept up in things beyond their control. And they need some taking care of. It's not their fault and honestly no one should blame them for it.” He had been sort of starting at the mirror while she talked and interrupted her “You mean they need taking care of … like a baby?” “Okay, first of all, I will not treat you like a baby. Unless you want me to. As long as you act in a mature way, I promise to treat you in the most mature way that I can. You can't exactly reach the knobs on the back of my stove to turn it on without reaching over it and cooking yourself the instant you turn the knob, for example. Again -” “Not your fault” He said it with her in unison this time, and in the same tone. “Hey, don't you get smart with me.” “... Sorry” He could feel the car turning and then speeding up. He figured they were on some sort of highway or main road. She continued “Okay, so some littles need more help than others. And when you combine that with an Amazons urge to mother everything in sight … “ As she trailed off, he asked “Then you get careseats?” “We already have them for amazon children. If you were asked to invent a new wheel, what shape would it be?” “Uhhhh.... round?” He probably didn't look like he understood, but he thought he had the gist of it. “So you can't really reinvent the wheel.. it's there. It works. Just go with it. So yes. Carseat.” “Okay, that's fair.” “Speaking of, is your carseat comfortable?” He scooted around and tried to get UNcomfortable on purpose, but kept sliding right back into a cradled position with even his knees being held gently by the cushioning. After trying to defy the logic of the question he admitted “It's very comfortable.” He could see her nod in the mirror while watching the road. “It works and it's comfortable. That's the utilitarian side of Amazon society. A side that can be taken to extremes every so often. So … we are going to the Doctors Office, then to the Adoption Center, and then to a store that sells furniture sized for littles.” He nodded at first but then asked “Hey, why do I have to go to a doctor anyway? I'm healthy enough.” He could see her shaking her head “That's not good enough. I want you checked out, and I want a piece of paper from the doctor to bring with us to the Adoption center to show to the LPS to prove that we're taking your health seriously.” “So why are we going to an adoption center, anyway?” he was afraid of this elephant in the room, but had to ask. She answered coldly “Because if we don't do this, LPS will come to the house with police and take you from me and put you in a nursery. And then someone will come and just picky ou and take you home and they are honestly likely to treat you more like an infant than a toddler.” It took some time to process that cold statement of fact. “But … why would someone treat me like a baby?” “John, I'm very sorry... but you're about to see some things that are going to scare you. Some littles act like small children. Some littles get turned into them. Our birth rate is very low, and frankly you have no idea what our maternal instincts are like. I moved out of town to get away from it all. I promise to explain that to you some other day if you want to know why, but this is absolutely not the time.” Okay, now he was getting scared. “But .. you can't just treat an adult like a baby!” He could hear her sigh from the front of the car, but she didn't answer for several minutes, leaving him with a lot to think about … while in a diaper … in a carseat... holding a sippy cup. “Is that why the diapers?” he finally broke the silence. She shook her head “No sweety, that's genuinely because the juice, the milk, some of the food... I'm sorry but the cards are stacked against you. Your Aunt Cat can explain it better than I can. I just know that our food and milk has a load more nutrients than you need, so littles tend to live long healthy lives. As long as we pay some attention to what you eat. Bit of juice, milk twice a day, brush your teeth frequently, and you're likely to stay very healthy indeed.” He kind of mulled that over “Is that why the sweet peas … umm...” “It's okay sweety, you can say you had an accident.” He just let that trail off and refused to think about it again as he felt the car turn, then turn again, then turn one last time and come to a stop. The engine stopped and she got out of the car. A moment later the door opened and she was rubbing his head and giving him a warm smile “Okay Sweety, ti's already been a thirty minute drive. That seemed way faster than normal since I had someone to talk to. We're going to bring you in to see Doctor Galanis. You might see some other littles in the lobby that are … not as mature as you are. I need you to stay as calm as you can. If you start to feel stressed, squeeze my hand and Mommy will hold you to help you calm down again. Are you ready?” He answered honestly: “No?” She immediately unbuckled him picked him up. He was lifted up out of the (admittedly) comfortable seat, and then placed standing on the sidewalk next to Amanda. She grabbed the diaper bag and knelt down in front of him so that her face was only a bit above his own. “Okay. One more thing. Amazon society frowns on … Maybe if can put it this way. If you need to get my attention, either take my hand, or address me as Mommy. Littles call their caretaker Mommy here and just blurting out my name in public might get you a bit more than frowned at. You don't have to call me Mommy at home, but I'd really rather you didn't get spanked in public, okay?” He must have had a blank stare because everything she said made no sense. He felt her pat him on the cheek. “Sweety?” “Ummm... Call you Mommy?” he stammered out. She nodded “You don't have to do it at home now, but we're in public. Just .. You'll see . Promise me that you'll just do your best and I'll get you through this safe and sound and we'll be back home in no time. Okay?” He nodded mutely. He guessed maybe some amazons were loud or pushy. Maybe he was going to see some of that today. He took a deep breath and nodded again, this time more confidently. Yeah, he could handle this. It wouldn't be that bad. She held out her left hand and wiggled her fingers at him “C'mon big guy, let's take the first step toward keeping you safe.” So he reached up and took her hand and walked along with her. He felt kind of like a toddler, If he was honest. It wasn't a good feeling, but it was all he had at the moment. As they entered the doctors office, everything looked normal. Lobby with a row of chairs on each side. Window for checking in straight through from the door. Door on either side that probably only opened from the inside. Handful of people in the lobby. All completely normal. This is easy. The two of them went up to the window and the glass slid open sideways. All he could see from his view was a head of curly brown hair. He heard “Name?” “Taylor.” “Date of birth?” “Oh, yesterdays date.” He heard some loud clacking as someone typed on the other side of the window. And then he heard a gasp and she exclaimed “Oh! Little John?” Now the head came out of the window and peered down at him with a BIG smile. “Hello cutie! Did you get a new Mommy?” He scooted around behind Amanda for safety. He couldn't even control his urge to swallow hard. “Awwww” she cooed and looked back up “He's a shy one isn't he?” Amanda nodded “Yes Ma'am, he's a bit shy like his Momma. We're here for a checkup, since he got lost out in the cold.” “Oh, yeah. Poor thing needed an adult to take care of him!” and he could hear more clacking coming from inside the window. “Okay, if you'll take a seat, it won't be a couple of minutes. Your doctor is actually just getting here and your cutie is up first!” Amanda nodded and then looked down at John “Please say thank you to the nice lady” He looked up at her, trying to plead with his eyes, but it looked like she had a mask on. She looked like an entirely different person than she did in the car. He swallowed nervously and looked up to see the same face coming out of the window again. He gave a little wave and barely squeaked out “T..thank you Ma'am” For some reason she clapped and giggled, repeating “Such a cutie.” and the window slid shut. Amanda lead him to the chair nearest the front and she picked him up and put him in a chair next to her. For just a brief moment, the mask slipped and she whispered “You're doing fine.” O...kay .. all he did was tell a stranger 'Yes Ma'am.' While she was comfortable sitting and waiting quietly, Johns eyes wandered around the lobby, looking at the other people waiting around. That woman had a baby carrier on the floor in front of her. Lady in the corner had a stroller. A new woman walked in with a baby carrier. As she set the baby carrier down John caught a look at the baby in the stroller. Bald and drooling, the baby inside was was gnawing on teething ring. And then they locked eyes with each other. The baby stared at him unnervingly. Something was wrong … something was VERY wrong. He broke eye contact and looked at the stroller in the corner. And then the baby carrier across from him and then back to the drooling baby in the carrier by the front window. The door that they were sitting next to opened and he heard “Taylor!” Amanda got up and held her hand out to John. He couldn't make his body move, he was shaking now. He had to be wrong. There's no way that was an adult. Amanda gave up on him moving and picked him up. As he was carried through the door the baby in the carrier maintained eye contact all the way up until the door swung shut. He was carried into a room with cartoon animals on the walls, there was was a char in the corner, an exam table that patients would sit on. A table with a computer, a cabinet with supplies. All of this seemed normal... except there was a playpen in the corner. He figured that could be normal enough, some people have have kids. Amanda placed him butt down on the exam table and stood next to him mussing his hair up gently while the nurse looked over a chart. The nurse leaned down with a smile and said “Okay little one, we need to check your blood pressure, and your temperature. Can you let me borrow your arm?” Okay, this was mundane enough, he could do this. He held out his arm and she put a little cuff on it, and then it inflated and stayed in pace. Then she said in that same cheery tone “And temperature” so he opened his mouth out of habit and she laughed and said “No sweety, use a forehead thermometer for the babies. Hold still. Being called a baby after what he just saw made the anxiety kick back up to an eight out of ten. He stayed still while she got his temperature and when she checked the blood pressure, she observed out loud “Uh oh, someones blood pressure seems to be a bit high.” John wanted so badly to say something clever like 'you think!?' but he couldn't make his mouth move, he was practically frozen in place. Salivating and swallowing nervously. He must have had a look, because the nurse read him plain as day and asked Amanda “New little?” Amanda nodded with a big smile “I've only had him a few days! Poor thing is still really nervous about a lot of things.” The nurse nodded to Amanda and then held out her hands “Come on baby let's get your height and weight.” He looked at Amanda and she just nodded at him so he let the nurse untie his shoes and take them off. And almost went ragdoll when she picked him up. He was stood up on onto a scale with a sliding weight and then a little arm was swung out and moved down on top of his head. He instinctively took a deep breath and tried to look tall. All that achieved was was a laugh from both the nurse and Amanda. He couldn't help slumping like he was deflating a little. The nurse picked him back up and put him on the exam table and said “You can be a big boy and put your shoes back on now. So while he was pulling his shoes back on and fighting with the laces, he heard the nurse say “Doctor Galanis will be in very soon, He's just getting his paperwork and order, and honestly hitting the coffee pot.” Amanda nodded knowingly. “Yes, it is a bit early. We had breakfast on the run. And someone, who I will not name, was trying to feed his breakfast to the dog.” John just sat there mumbling a bit still fighting with the shoelaces in silence. Every time he would make the loop to pull it would just fly out of his hands. Combine this with everything else and he was starting to get more and more upset. And while Amanda was respecting his want to do it by himself, this is when the doctor walked in. An older amazon with salt and pepper hair walked in holding a tablet in one hand and a cup of coffee in another. Towering over the other two amazons in the room, the doctor nodded to Amanda as he walked in and she stood up and shook his hand “Hello Doctor Galanis, it's nice to see you!” “Miss Taylor, it's almost time for your checkup too, you know. But for now, let's take a look at your little boy here.” John felt a bit incredulous at the title but was hyper focused on doing at least one task correctly. His hands were shaking at this point. And they just talked about him like wasn't there anyway. “Let's see...Oh, new to our dimension? Was he vaccinated before he came through the portal?” the Doctor asked. Amanda shook her head “He wound up here completely on accident. He came through a rift.” John looked up just in time to see the doctors eyebrows go up “Oh. Well okay then. We can start vaccines right now and you can bring him back once a month. We should have him caught up in six months. Where did you find him, and do you have any concerns?” Amanda nodded, speaking FOR him again “I found him out in the woods. He had been lost and shivering for at least half a day.” “Ah. Let's give him a listen then.” said the doctor while taking his stethoscope off of his shoulder “Would you be so kind as to unfasten his shortalls and we'll check him out?” Amanda nodded “Yes Sir.” and turned to unbuckle his shortalls. John immediately let go of his shoelaces and tried to beat her to the punch by grabbing the top of his shortalls and pushing down on the strap with shakey hands to unclip it. He mumbled “come onnnnnn” to himself but it just would not go down to come off. Finally Amandas hand came into his view while he was focused on his task. With just a flick one side was off, and the moment he dropped his hands incredulously, she moved to the other side and it was off in a flash, leaving it to fall to the table below him. “Arms up!” John just looked at her and then the doctor, still feeling not only nervous, but frustrated. And still scared. “Arms up, sweety.” and finally she just grabbed his shirt and firmly lifted until it came up, along with his arms. “I'm sorry Doc, he just gets a little scared. He's usually climbing things and helping in the garden, and he even went in the potty twice.” The doctor leans and looked at the still untied shoes and nodded “Well it's good that he can tell when he needs to go sometimes. That means that any Maturosis is only light. That's pretty rare these days!” Amanda just nodded along, but John just looked back and forth between the two of them before asking “What is MatuAAHH” he lost his train of thought when a cold stethoscope half the size of his hand was pressed against his back. “Deep breaths big guy. In.... out … in … out...” John did his best, but every time the cold object was moved to a new spot he shivered all over again. And finally the onslaught ended. And he was left full on shivering. “Okay, his lungs seem clear, and he's not running a fever. He might be a bit nutrient deficient. Make sure he gets plenty of milk twice a day. Full bottle at lunch, full bottle at bedtime. As long as you can keep him from running around in the cold, he should be healthy enough. Let's see, according to his chart he is … four foot eight and about 70 lbs. Oh, scrawny little thing.” John couldn't help himself. “Hey, I'm not scrawny!” Doctor Galanis laughed “Ah, there's his voice. I thought I would have to put mute in his Maturosis synptoms." The doctor gave him a pat on the head “It's not your fault, you're just a bit little. Your new Momma will take good care of you.” John started to open his mouth until he felt Amanda pat his thigh firmly in warning. So he shut his mouth and sulked. “Okay, the nurse is coming in now, and we're going to give him two vaccines today. He's lucky he wound up with you instead of in the city. The Amazonian Flu has killed six littles this year. And being unvaccinated, he wouldn't have stood a chance.” John heard the door open and the nurse come in, and turned to look. He was still shaking when she came in. When he saw the needles she was carrying his panic level went from eight out of ten straight to eleven. And for the second time in as many hours he started breathing faster and getting worked up to a panic. As the nurse turned to him with the needle, Amanda was also looking at him with some concern. He was staring at the needle in her hand and started scrabbling back along the table to get away from her and that needle. It's too much, he wanted away. He started hyperventilating right there in front of everyone so heavily he started to choke on his own saliva, scrambling back along the table so desperately that his untied shoes came off and his shortalls came halfway down his legs and bunches up at his knees. Paper crinkled almost deafeningly under him. He didn't even see Doctor Galanis dash out of the room. Amanda was grabbing at one of his arms and one of his legs to try to pull him to her saying “shhh, shhh, come here, come here” while the nurse put the needle down and was trying to grab him before he could fall off of the back of the table. By the time they both had their hands on him it was over, he squirmed and tried to roll like an alligator but he felt may as well have been a doll to them. Somehow they had gotten him wrapped around Amandas torso and he was shivering against her. And refused to breath along with her. He couldn't even hear her, he just kept getting flashes of someone his size with no teeth, and waking up in a playpen and anything his brain could conjure up to panic about. Doctor Galanis strode right back in holding a pacifier and held it out to the nurse, saying “Here, this is dipped in Littles paste, it will stop his panic attack. Get that in his mouth now! And then began the dance. He was held tightly to Amanda and trying to turn his head to the side to bury his face in her neck. The nurse was following him with the pacy. Doctor Galanis simply stepped forward and pressed his stethoscope to the small of Johns exposed back. THAT made him gasp and immediately the pacifier was in his mouth. He tried to push it out with his tongue, he tried to turn his head. He tried to bite it in half as hard as he could. He even tried screaming at the top of his lungs, but he coudn't even take a deep breath while hyperventil.... … … he slowed down. The taste of Strawberry filled his mouth. He was still shivering uncontrollably, but he started to calm down. His breathing slowed down and he closed his eyes. Strawberries are good. I can do strawberries. He had absolutely no idea why he was panicking. He had Amanda. He had strawberries. He could feel the nurse pushing the front of the pacy and forth a bit with her finger making him suck on it. That made the strawberry flavor stronger. So he sucked on the strawberry flavoring. He could barely make out what was being said behind him as Doctor Galanis spoke with Amommda. John closed his eyes. He was spent.

It's very big of you to admit that. It is important to know both your limitations and your wants. I happen to have a not great social battery. Sometimes it holds a charge and gets me all the way through the day and I don't even have that 'shut down' when I get home. Sometimes I don't make it all the way through the day and every fiber of my being is begging me to just go home and lay in bed and try again later. Both of these are fine, we can't all be extroverts that get energy from interacting with crowds. No matter what, just be the best version of you that you can manage at the time. Try to act like the person you want to become. every so often you'll make yourself feel kind of proud. (I'm talking as much to myself here, I try to be encouraging, and I want to be a wholesome person in general, but I fail at it and just have to keep trying.)

I admit that I have the inside scoop on the authors intentions and any plot points that may be waiting in the upcoming chapters. Also, are you 'sure' you don't just like Cat because she's a representation of that cheerful, happy person that we (sometimes) wish we could be, regardless of how long our social battery lasts?

We will just have to find out together.

Thank you very much! To me each character us their own person with their own personality quirks. I won't tell you what their personalities are like directly. Ideally you will get to know them just like you would meeting them and getting to know them. Just a but faster because it's in text. There's even a few Easter Eggs scattered throughout. I wanted a DD story about the growing relationship between an Amazon and a Little from the ground floor. I intentionally swap back and forth between their POV from one chapter to the next, so that we can see how they think about each other and the contrast between the two. Even their names are intentional. And if I'm completely honest. Having read Unfair recently has left me a little shell shocked. I know some things j have to write coming up and they scare me just thinking of being in that situation. Let us not fool ourselves, the Daiper Dimension is terrifying. (But make no mistake. Xerxes is still the main character.)

Chapter Twelve: Amanda peeled the baggy shirt off of John and tossed it into the hamper while Cat carried her little Kate into the spare bedroom to change her diaper. She fussed at him a little, but she wasn't actually mad. “How did you manage to go from squeaky clean and adorable to looking like a walking mess in less than five minutes? Are you some sort of dirt magician?” Shutting the lid to the toilet she gently deposited her little on top of the toilet and ran some warm water in the sink. Turning to him with the hand rag from the sink, she asked “Did you at least get to know Kate a bit?” He nodded at her quietly while she started scrubbing his arms with the rag. She rinsed the rag, rung it out and as he started to say something she was already pulling it over his face. When she was done, she pulled it away and asked “I'm sorry, what was that?” He rubbed at his (now) wet face before repeating himself “Why was Kate put in a nursery when they caught her, instead of home?” “Ah.” She answered. “So, I'm not going to say that I agree fully with this, and you may not understand this. But when someones Visa runs out, they can't get a new one. And if a little is lost, they MUST be taken care of, it's simply the law. Now it's not like littles just get claimed and snatched off of the street. But let's take your situation for example.” She stopped for a moment to scrub the dirt off of his legs, and she couldn't help tickling the toes a bit, despite the topic of conversation. She pushed the lever for the drain stopper and left the rag by the sink before kneeling down to look at him eye to eye. “Okay. Is it your fault that you are here?” He thought for a moment before answering “Well … kind of? It was an accident.” She nodded “Right. It was not your fault, accidents happen. You can't get back. You can't take care of yourself in our dimension. None of these things are your fault, are they?” He shook his head no. She continued “So if there is a lost little, or one that can't take care of themselves, they have to either be adopted, or brought somewhere that they will be safe. Again, it's the law.” He nodded along some more. She was pretty sure he was still getting it. “So the Littles Protection Service will bring a little that is lost to a nursery where they can be taken care of until they are acclimated to our dimension, and then someone that wants to take care of a little can go and meet them. There is a background check and your home has to be inspected to make sure that you can take care of a little. We are going to have to go through the same process.” He looked alarmed at that “Do I … have to go to a nursery? I don't want to go there, it sounds scary.” She gave him a quick hug before answering “No sweety, we can do the paperwork and I can adopt you directly. Then we have to get you your own bedroom set up and then follow the rules that the LPS agent gives us. As long as we follow their rules and pass the inspections, then the LPS won't take you and put you in a nursery.” He sat there shaking his head “No nursery!” She gave him a kiss on the forehead “Don't worry, you just be your sweet self and I will take care of all of the rest. Deal?” He nodded now “No nursery?” “No nursery. We just have to get you registered, a checkup at the doctor, and set you up a bedroom that meets the LPS safety standards. I will handle all of it, you just have to keep being a sweetheart.” She stood up and lifted him off the toilet seat and placed him down. With a smile “Now! Aunt Cat has brought you several bags of clothes and you have to try a bunch of them on. Come on, let's get you dressed. She turned and opened the bathroom door and opened it, but she heard John say behind her “Wait!” Looking over her shoulder “What's the problem?” “I need something to wear.” “Yes, that's what we're going to go get.” “I … can't go out there like this, I'm naked.” “Sweety, you're not naked.” “But … I'm just in a diaper.” “Right.” “I don't wanna go out in just a diaper.” With a smirk, Amanda patted him on the head “I think maybe if it were just me here, you wouldn't mind so much?” He nodded slowly, and she grabbed a towel. She leaned down to wrap him up in it, whispering to him “We'll bundle you up so that Kate doesn't see you in just a diaper.” Oh he was blushing so deeply. It was so adorable that she couldn't resist scooping him up in the towel. She carried him out to the living room and stood him up in front of the the couch, now covered in bags and boxes. She looked up to see Cat come out of the spare bedroom and go to the kitchen to throw away a diaper, Kate followed her out of the room and came to the living room to join them. Amanda looked over now “Okay Cat, what clothes did you buy for our little man?” Aunt Cat came back to the living room and sang out “Fashion Show!” and started digging through bags. Then she held up a blue shirt and something made of denim. “First up! Shortalls!” Amanda took the blue shirt from her and turned to John. “Hands Up!” and as he raised his hands the towel fell off and she pulled the shirt down over him. It was a cute blue shirt with a cartoon raccoon on the front. She and Cat both Aww'd as he stood there in just a T shirt and diaper. He looked over to Kate and then down blushing. For her part, Kate seemed mostly undisturbed by what was bothering John. “And now the next part!” She held out the demin section and said “In you step!” and he almost jumped to get his feet into the leg holes and then she pulled the shortalls up and hooked the shoulder straps to the front, then snugged them with the buckles. She stood up to look at her little. He looked PRECIOUS! He was fussing with the buckles a bit, but he looked like the perfect little with his unruly hair and his cute little outfit. Cat tapped her on the shoulder and held up a onesie. “Next!” and as she took it, she looked down at John. He looked a little uncomfortable. “Tell you what, John you come with me to the bedroom, we'll get you changed and you can come show Aunt Cat what it looks like and come back. Okay?” He nodded very enthusiastically and turned to bolt around the couch and into her bedroom. She followed him with the onesie. She pushed the door mostly closed and knelt down “You looked a little shy, so we'll do it this way. Is this better?” He nodded again and she undid the buckles and tugged his shirt up and off as he stepped out of the shortalls. Holding up the white onesie with a big sleeping puppy on the front for him, he made like he was going to step into something and she shook her head “Arms up!” He looked confused, but she pulled it down into place and reached down and did up the snaps. As she let go he went up onto his tip toes when it pulled back into place, hugging his diaper snuggly. He moved his hips side to side a bit, saying “ummm...” “This is for you to sleep in, it keeps your diaper in place and keeps it from sagging or leaking. We don't want it to sag and leak, do we?” He shook his head no and she gave him a pat on the booty. “Then off you go, show Aunt Cat.” And off he plodded, a bit awkwardly at first and then walking a bit more normally. She could hear Cat squeal with glee for a moment and then he came plodding back in with more clothes. And so the cycle continued. Each time John came back looking a bit more worn out. Another shirt and this time some stretchy pants that just barely went over the diaper. A different pair of shortalls, this time with a red shirt. Another onesie. By the fifth time that he came back, he was dragging the clothes behind him and looking thoroughly sad and he mumbled “I don't want to do this anymore.” Awww, poor thing can't handle the spotlight. “That's okay, come here. You don't have to do any more. We'll just put some shortalls over your onesiee you're wearing right now and you'll be set for the rest of the day, how's that?” He nodded and she pulled him into a hug before grabbing one of the shortalls from the pile and helping him into them. Then she grabbed him and lifted him up into a hug. “Let's get you and Kate a juice break and then we'll start on cooking a pizza. Hows that?” He nodded enthusiastically. If there was one thing that all littles loved, it was pizza. Carrying him out into the living she told Cat “Okay, this little one is spent, so I think that it's time for juice and pizza! Cat, if you would be so kind as to get the two new booster seats set up while I get a pizza in the oven?” Cat made a mock salute, then picked up Kate upside down. She let her squeal and giggle for a second, then put her down, declaring “You're not a booster seat!” and with that she picked up two boxes and made her way to the dinner table and pulled two chairs back. While she sat down and set up two seats, Amanda went over and turned on the oven and went over to the freezer. Cats accusation of “Fridge full of veggies, and a freezer full of pizza was not entirely inaccurate. “Cat!” She called. “Cat is losing a fight with some straps at the moment. Please leave a message.” was the smart alec response she got back. Rolling her eyes, she called back “We have been trying to reach you abo-” “Okay okay! What do you want?” “Which pizza do you want?” Cat answered her in a serious tone for once. “Pepperoni and the hottest peppers you have on half, sweet tomato and maybe olives for the littles on the other half.” Getting out a cheese pizza and several jars, she told Cat “Luckily for you, I have grown some of what we need. Except the olives, of course.” Cat stood up, done getting one booster seat strapped to its char “Amanda. Did you invent the pepperoni plant?” Finally able to mess back with Cat for once, she answered “Yes Cat, I have at long last grown a pepperoni plant. That was my reason for moving out of town years ago. I needed a place to do my research in piece.” Cat bounced up and bounded over to the kitchen to join Amanda. Amanda could see Cat take a peek to the living room to see their two littles playing before giving her a hug and whispering “I'm proud of you, We'll make a comedian of you yet!” Amanda was left blushing so she so she grabbed a towel and gave Cat a whack on the butt, admonishing her “Bad kitty! Down!” and shook her head as Cat went back to the living room “I swear, some people are incorrigible.” Just a couple of minutes of putting toppings on a pizza and it was in the oven. “Cat, I am going to fix the kids some juice. Do not eat all of this jar of peppers. These are the last that I have for a month. The rest are pickling.” Cat looked hurt “Why, I never! I would not eat all of your peppers. Again.” She rolled her eyes as she filled two sippy cups up with juice before taking them over to the table. Then she walked over to the living room and slowed down just enough to eavesdrop on the littles, just to make sure they were being appropriate together. She could hear Kate say something about never using bad words. That seemed good, so she went back to the kitchen and set out plate for everyone. “Pizza will be ready in just a minute, you two come over here and try out the new seats Aunt Cat got you!” She could hear one of them walking over and the other one bouncing excitedly. She didn't even have to look to know which was which. She walked over to see one pink booster seat, and one blue one. Patting the blue one, she told John “See? No more stacks of cook books for you to slide off of. Arms up!” He hesitated, but since Cat just came over and snagged her little, he cooperated and went along with being picked up and slid into his booster seat. He made a funny face as his diapered bottom slid into the divot in the seat made for his diaper to slide into. He even shifted around and tried to get out of the boosted seat. Amanda just gave him a pat on the head before buckling the lap belt around him, keeping him safely in his seat. “See? No books to slide off of, you can't fall and get hurt now.” She watched John give up and cross his arms and sulk. He looked over to Kate who was being buckled in right next to him. Since she acted like it was normal, he seemed to settle in. Noticing Cat, picking up the pizza cutter off of the counter sneakily, Amanda rolled her eyes and went to get the juice to put in front of the two littles “You two wait right here, and dinner will be served soon.” She picked up an oven mitt and pulled the pan out of the oven, then slid the pizza off of it and onto the large cutting board she had waiting on the counter. Cat was already slicing it by the time she had the stove off. “Cat, why do you get so excited about cutting pizza?” “It's a knife that rolls. It's neat.” “Oh.” That reminded Amanda of something. She nudged cat on the hip and slowly opened a drawer in front of her and pointed to the camp knife she had found when she found John. Cat looked at it, and whispered “Why would a little even need one of these?” She whispered “I think their dimension might be dangerous. That's why it's important that we keep them safe and happy.” Cat nodded and picked up the cutting board and carried it over to the table singing about “pizza time” She didn't have to make any rhymes or have a reason to, but Cat just loved to sing about everyday things. It was part of her charm, even if it could be a little frustrating at times. As she and Cat sat down across from their littles, she noticed Xerxes sliding over by John. Cute, but just to head that off in advance, she elbowed Cat a little and then pushed the entire table towards the littles just a bit. Just in case. “Who's hungry for pizza!” she declared as she put a slice of tomato and olive pizza on each of their plates, while Cat put two slices on each of their own. Sitting across from John she noticed that he was looking at the pizza funny and asked “What's wrong, sweety?” He picked up the end of the slice of pizza “I just didn't expect a pizza to be this big. This slice is like a half of a medium pizza.” “Sweety, We are a bit bigger.” He took a bite of his pizza and frowned like he was processing something before asking “I've never had tomato that tasted like this before. May I have some pepperoni?” All three of the other people turned at looked at him, and Kate had stopped chewing mid bite. He looked around and asked “What?” Cat tried to help out by chiming in “Sweety, Pepperoni is a bit spicy for littles.” He shrugged and said “I eat pizza with pepperoni and jalapeno at home all the time. Plus I can eat a habanero, if that helps?” Kate went back to chewing her food and then swallowed “John, their spicy is not the same as our spicy.” Amanda looked over at Cat uncertainly. Cat just shrugged at her and tore off a sliver of a pepperoni and held it out to John. She was about to speak up, but Cat cut her off “I had to do this with Kate so that she could see for herself. And now it's Johns turn.” As he took the sliver of pepperoni, really half the size of his finger, he shrugged nonchalantly and popped it into his mouth. She could see him chewing for a moment and then he stopped. He closed his eyes and balled up his fist and silently brought it down on the edge of the table a few times before swallowing. He reached for his sippy cup and started sucking on the spout with a mission. Kate, sitting next to him looked sympathetic, but stayed silent while he learned an important lesson. Finally he put his sippy cup down and rubbed his watery eyes on his forearm. “I sure do love these olives. Olives are amazing. They're a bit salty. And not at all spicy.” Amanda got up and went around the table and used a paper towel to wipe Johns face and held it over his now runny nose. She simply said “Blow.” and he looked up at her confused for a moment before blowing his nose like a she expected him to. Amanda patted him gently on the head “Our food is a bit too spicy for littles. Littles like sweet stuff, and Amazons like spicy stuff. That's just how it is.” The rest of the meal was pretty quiet, but Amanda looked up to see a few extra olives on the side of Johns plate. Olives that were suddenly absent on Kates pizza. She talked quietly with Cat about Johns upcoming doctors appointment tomorrow and needing to get him registered first thing in the morning. She looked over to see a pile of sweet tomato on Kates plate. Tomatoes that were suddenly absent on Johns pizza. Amanda grinned as she watched Kate trying to be sneaky about picking up the sweet tomato and popping them into her mouth, while John was doing the same with olives. And then Cat interrupted the quiet moment. “I think you should move your desk to the living room.” THAT got her attention “Excuse me, but why?” “You have a three bedroom house, why not have three bedrooms?” “No Ma'am, I have a two bedroom house with an office.” “Nope, that room is the perfect size for a littles bedroom.” “Cat, I am not putting my desk in the living room.” “You have a desk and one filing cabinet. That you don't even use. You don't have a TV, so just put your desk over there where most people would put a TV. Done.” “Why don't I just put my desk in MY spare bedroom?” “Because that is MY room. I nap in there, Kate naps in there in her playpen.” “Cat ...” “We'll talk about this later after you've had time to realize that I'm right.” During the rest of dinner, John tried to eat a second slice of pizza, but he and Kate wound up just eating the toppings. Both of them had cheese covered hands. John asked “May I have a paper towel?” and of course Amanda was all too happy to get up and wipe his face and hands for him. John was protesting “Hey, I can do it myself!” while Kate was silently letting her Momma wipe her clean before unbuckling the lap belt and lifting her out of the booster seat. “John, I'm sure that you can do it just fine on your own, but won't you let me do it for you? Then you can go play for on the porch for a bit while your Aunt Cat and I figure out where to move my desk to, to make a room for you?” He grumbled a bit, but cooperated. As she picked him up she saw his hand going for the plate with the leftover pizza and she pivoted him over the back of the chair and gave him a thump on the bottom. He yelped and put a hand over his backside. “No Sir, I draw the line at feeding cheese to the dog.” “Awww, but ...” Amanda gave him 'that' look and asked “You want a time out?” John just looked at her, not seeming to comprehend, but Kate walked over quickly and took his hand and pulled him off toward the porch. Amanda nodded approvingly. Little Kate was definitely going to help little John adjust to life here. They need to spend time together. And so while the two littles played on the porch by setting up Johns tent, she went into her office and tried to reason with Cat. It didn't work, of course, and two hours later her desk was set up in the living room. She had to admit that it didn't look out of place, and now she could see everything in the living room and peak into Johns room just by leaning back in her chair a bit. That didn't mean that she wasn't going to complain about it, though. By the time that was all done, Amanda and Cat walked outside to find two littles on the porch using a dog as a pillow and rubbing their eyes. She went inside to get her phone to take a picture. Cat was already there with a finger to her lips and holding up her phone to show her several pictures she had already taken. Nodding conspiratorially to each other, they both went to the kitchen and Cat pulled a glass bottle out of the fridge. “This is fresh, I pumped it before coming here. Do you want to give it to him in a bottle, or a sippy cup?” Amanda shook her head “I don't think he's ready for a bottle yet. Poor thing is still scared of everything.” Cat shrugged and said “That's fair. Little Kate has been nursing straight from the tap for a month now. So it's fine to wean them into it slowly.” Cat waited for Amanda to get a big sippy cup full of Cats fresh milk and then together they walked out onto the porch and collected their sleepy littles. While Amanda went to one side of the couch and wrapped her little up in a blanket, Cat went to the other side of the couch and wrapped her own little up in as well. Her little John looked confused at being swaddled up, but he was sleepy and didn't fight it once she put the sippy cup full of milk up to his mouth. Within seconds he was sleepily sucking down the milk. He woke up a little when he noticed that on the other side of the couch, Cat had her shirt up and her nursing bra unsnapped. Kate was wrapped up nice and snug, nursing with her eyes closed like a good little. Johns eyes darted back and forth between Kate nursing and his own sippy cup. But he was well behaved and finished his milk. Amanda held him to her chest, softly stroking his back. Within minutes, the milk had settled in his tummy and he was out like a light. Once both littles were firmly asleep, Amanda took Johns shortalls off, leaving him in a onesie, and slipped him into the playpen, while Cat gave her a one armed hug and whispered “Come with me and I'll get you the carseat I bought you and then get this little troublemaker home.” They went out to the car together and once Kate was in the carseat and the door was closed, they shared a hug and Cat gave Amanda a quick kiss and said “I'm proud of you. We'll come by and visit on Tuesday.” Amanda, blushing just a bit gave Cat a swat on the bottom “Drive safe!” As Amanda went back into the house and leaned over the rail of the playpen to smile down at her little, she checked his diaper. Well, better change that now, it's soaked. After she got him changed and back in his playpen to sleep, she covered him up with a blankie and mussed his hair. Now that he was in bed, she went back to her computer. She updated her notes and folder of pictures. She checked her email and found a contract from the research team that she read through thoroughly. The terms were very simple. No hypnosis allowed, the only regression that was allowed was to occur naturally through interaction, breast milk, and nurturing. The point of this research is to track motor skills and mental capacity during the course of natural, unaugmented regression, to test the theory that littles can still be happily regressed and mentally functional. Pulling out an actual pen and paper notebook, she carefully took notes of what was required of her. Monthly medical visits. Any medications should be documented, including anything to help with stress. Any dependencies, such as a fixation on pacifiers should be noted. She finished that and scrolled down to see how much they were offering to pay for setting up a nursery... That can't be right. That's WAY more than she could possibly spend on furniture and diapers.

I really enjoyed the part where he was playing horse and slid down and the tail got him. That was a lot of giggles to write!

Chapter 11: John woke up on his pallet of blankie on the the living room floor. He tried to stretch. He moved his knees one way. He moved his upper body another way. Something wasn't right. His lower back and sides hurt. They hurt kind of a lot. It also hurt a bit lower than that. Finally giving up and rubbing his eyes, he tried to sit up but wobbled a bit. Giving up on that, he rolled over onto his front and stretched his arms out far in front of him and brought his knees under him trying to stretch the hurt out like a cat, with his bottom up in the air. And then he felt a muscle spasm. Oh no. He suddenly knew why his back hurt. He tried to stand up slowly but his insides didn't want to. He tried calling out to his big “Am … Amanda?” Another spasm hit him, this time a LOT lower, and he called out again in a shaky voice he called out again “Miss Amanda!?” He could hear her answering now “It's okay sweety, Mommy's in the office finishing up her work.” and he started crawling that way. When he got to the door into the office he used the side of the door to help pull himself up onto his feet and walk into the office, trying to hold his knees together. Panting a bit he admitted “I need to use the bathroom.” He didn't see her since he was looking down at the floor and concentrating on holding the source of the cramps back. But he could hear her say “I'm almost done with my work, I'll be there in about two minutes.” He shook his head “I don't … think I can wait.” He could barely hear her now, saying “Sweety, if you have to go that badly...It's not a big deal.” He stood there shaking his head “No, please. Anything but that. Please. I can't ...” He couldn't help sinking back down to his knees, mumbling to himself “I don't wanna, I don't wanna.” One last spasm. It was over. He tried to hold out a little longer. But he lost. It was bad. It all came out in a flood and all he felt was warm... mush. It went into every nook and cranny. He could feel it going up. It went around. He spent so much effort clenching and trying to stop it that when he lost, he lost completely. Crouching now on all fours, John didn't want to move. It felt bad. Really bad. It was the single worst experience he could think of, and now... maybe he could stand up. Tears welling up, he moved to stand up and stopped, frozen in place. What before suddenly felt like the softest pillow now felt … glued to him, was all he could think. He felt a pat on his head. “John? Johnny? Sweety? Please talk to me, are you okay?” He shook his head, still half crouched, making no effort to stop himself from crying. “No.” He could see her come into his field of view as she knelt down in front of him an asked in the gentlest voice he could ever imagine “Sweety, did you have an accident?” A mute nod was all that he could muster. He could feel her hands that before felt like anvils, now soft as feathers underneath his arms and taking him around the chest. He was lifted up and held against her chest, groaning uncomfortably at the movement of his lower half. He felt an arm under his thighs through the baggy shirt and he was hoisted up with his cheek next to hers. She walked slowly while rubbing his back and whispering to him “It's okay. It's not your fault, everyone goes. Let's go get you cleaned up, and into a nice clean diaper with nothing gross in it, okay?” He nodded into her cheek. He felt himself being carried somewhere. Where did not matter. He could hear a towel being grabbed. He was leaned down and he could hear “Okay, down we go ...” And his butt slowly collided with the floor and he could feel things pressed into him that made him almost throw up. Once he was laid back flat he tried to move a bit and quickly decided that he liked being still. Still was good. He heard footsteps walk away and then come back “Okay, I need you to stay calm for me, can you do that?” He only managed a nod. Then he felt the big baggy shirt he was wearing shuffled up his body. He heard the tapes ripped off and the sides fell away. He front of his diaper was laid open and he felt a wipe cleaning up the front of him. The smell made him gag a little, but he swallowed and kept it all in check. Throwing up would make getting clean take longer. And then, disconcertingly, he felt both of his ankles gathered in a massive hand and heard “Up we go!” as they were lifted, tilting him up. His eyes shot open wide, clearly alarmed as he was lifted up with one hand and wiped with the other. He tried to peek, out of morbid curiosity. He regretted that deeply. Finally after what somehow seemed both forever and a quick blur, he heard a rustling and was lowered back down onto something soft and notably cleaner. Liberal amounts of powder were applied, and he was even tilted around a bit to ensure he was coated evenly. And just like that the front was pulled up and taped down. He was in a fresh, clean prison. He laid there languishing in the sensation of feeling clean and powdered. While he was left to process this experience as she threw away the dirty diaper, he had time to consider a few things. One was the way a clean diaper felt really nice. By comparison to what he just went through a wet diaper wasn't that bad. He could live with a wet diaper. Before he could finish his line of reasoning he was lifted up and hoisted up into some arms and found himself facing his Big Amazon. “I'm very proud of you.” she said with a smile. He only nodded. Why does it feel good to hear that after what he just did? All that he did was wake up in the middle of having an accident and just humiliate himself by going in front of the woman taking care of him. She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the forehead. He couldn't stop the smile spreading across his face. 'Well, in for a penny, in for a pound' he thought to himself and silently held his arms out. He could hear Amanda gasp a little as she immediately pulled him in close for a hug so he could put his arms around her neck. She shuffled over to the couch and leaned back with him propped up on her. He just stayed there with his face next to hers and closed his eyes as she patted his bottom. And so this moment lasted. He had no idea how long it lasted, and it didn't really matter. He had been stressed. And now he felt comforted. He got himself stuck here, and this amazon had saved him. After a while he felt himself sliding down onto the couch and then heard “Okay, company will here in just a few and Momma needs her afternoon coffee to be awake enough to deal with your Aunt.” John reached up and poked her in the ribs and asked only “Momma?” She choked up for a moment and then laughed “Sorry, it's just instinct. You don't have to call me that until you're comfortable with it. I'll explain the details tomorrow on the way to town.” The word until was not lost on him, but he didn't have the energy to argue the point at the moment. Plus he suspected that it may be a bad idea, so he settled for sliding off of the couch and slowly walking over to the door. The inside door was shut and Xerxes was sitting there looking at it. “Miss Amanda?” he called toward the kitchen. “Yes sweety?” “I think the dog needs to go outside.” “I'll be there in a moment, I'm getting the coffee maker going.” John stretched up trying to turn the knob and he could hear a tail thumping behind him, so he got his fingers on both sides of the round knob and …they slid right off. Grumbling to himself “Why do they have to have the knobs so high? At my house they were only ….” and he held his hand out to the level of his elbow and thought about if he were the size for an amazon. “... Crap, I'm just short.” and then he turned and saw Xerxes. And that was when the grin sprouted. He whispered “Xerxes, come here.” And sure enough the giant dog scooted closer. Wasting no time, he walked behind the dog, pulled the baggy shirt up from his knees a bit. Using fingers and toes as a grip, he carefully climbed up the dog. He slid a bit in the soft fur but made it up to the shoulder and balanced just behind the dogs neck. Xerxe's tail was whipping back and forth loudly now. He had no idea what the little was doing, but he was part of it and that made his tail go ballistic. Just as John reached out and got his hands on the door knob her head a very large and deliberate clearing of a throat behind him. Not letting go of the knob, he turned to see Amanda with her phone in one hand. A coffee cup in the other. And a foot tapping on the floor. “Young man, just what do you think you're doing?” She had the Mom tone already. But she looked somewhere between upset and amused. John looked down at Xerxes, then his hands on the knob and then back up to her. He knew that the wrong answer, in this case the truth, might get him in trouble. Angry Mommy Amanda was terrifying. So John started making it up as he went. “Well … uhhhh... Xerxes ...” While he was thinking, she knelt down, tilting her head and asked in that 'You're about to get yourself in trouble' tone that all Moms have “Xerxe's what?” Something clicked in his head and he blurted it out before he could think about what he was going to say. “Xerxes wanted to play Horse.” There, she smirked, he was off the hook. He let go of the handle and started scratching the dogs ears and saying “Good Horsey.” “Excuse me, but you are not to play ..*heh* horse in the house.” He nodded up at her as he started to slide semi gracefully down the dogs back and stand up behind him. Only to be tripped by the ballistic tail and land on his padded bottom. And then the tail came back at him pushing him over. Flapping back and forth over him. He tried to get up but the tail kept going over his chest and face keeping him down “Xerx-” Tail got him. “Xerxes u--” Tail got him again. “Xer-” rolled over again. “Up Xer-” He was flailing now, trying to grab the tail. All the while he could hear laughter coming behind him. Then she said “Xerxes, Up.” and the traitorous tail left his face, leaving him just laying there dramatically defeated. Defeated by a tail. He heard something being put down on the end table behind him and moments later he was lifted and stood back upright and hands were dusting dog hair off of him. She looked at him, struggling to choke down the laughter. “I take it that you've learned your lesson about playing 'horse' indoors?” He just nodded. It seemed that there would be no dignity for him for the rest of this day. He couldn't help having a bit of a huff, but he knew that it was pretty funny. He could hear the distinct sound of tires on gravel off in the distance, and the amazon picked him up and hugged him tightly before putting him back down and saying “Okay, your Aunt Cat can be a bit much, but she's the sweetest most caring Auntie you could ever hope for. Just remember that if you call her Aunt Cat, she'll spoil you. You ready?” He nodded along. Not really sure why he would have to be warned so many times, but okay. He stood behind Amanda and followed as she opened the door and walked onto the porch. They waited on the porch for a moment until their guests came through the gate. For the first time in his life he saw a giantess bouncing excitedly. She was holding a little on her hip and singing “We get to meet a little, we get to meet a little” and tickling the young woman bouncing on her hip as they went. The little on her hip was giggling hysterically and holding on for dear life as her blonde pony tail bounced up and down. As she stopped at the base of the steps going on to the porch and put down her little companion, John stood there getting a look at them both. Obviously tall, possibly a bit taller than even Amanda (which seemed incomprehensible to him) she stood there wearing blue jeans and a brilliant white top with various flowers on it. All of this sight was topped off by a head of light blond hair pulled into a high pony tail. The giant of a woman cleared three steps and a porch in one great big step and practically glomped onto his own amazon, trapping her in a HUGE hug that made Amanda grunt and stammer out the word “AIR” to get her to let go. And when she let go, she bounced up and down in place, shouting “I'm so excited!!” And as Amanda told her “Hello Cat, we're excited to see you too.” the giant blonde visitor leaned down onto one knee and suddenly her large smiling face filled his view. It was too much, too fast. He ran to hide behind Amanda. He went all the way to the other side of her and buried his face in her hip. He didn't want to offend her, he just got scared. He heard “Awww” from two different amazons at the same time and felt a comforting hand on his head. Then the large blond amazon sat down on the edge of the porch and apologized. “I'm sorry sweety, did I scare you? Here, I'll sit down and you can come to me.” and she patted her lap. John looked up to Amanda, clearly uncertain. She rubbed his shoulder and said softy “Don't worry, she's she sweetest thing, she just gets excited..” Then she leaned down and whispered into his ear “I think she learned it from Xerxes.” He heard Cat say in a hurt tone “Hey, I heard that!” She kissed him on top of the head “Go on over and say hello. She doesn't bite. And she's usually hiding candy in her purse.” Slowly, looking more at the floor of the porch than up at the giant, John stepped forward toward the steps. The woman didn't say anything, so she must have been waiting for him to speak first. He could feel his hands shaking, it was like he was expected to address a dragon. A large bouncy hyperactive dragon, but to him a dragon nonetheless. He stammered a bit “Umm... Hello ... Hello Aunt Cat” She Squealed and scooped him up into a hug. At first he was terrified as the hands came for him. But as he was lifted and held to a chest, she was very gentle with him and she patted his back. She smelled like his one true weakness: strawberries. So that was a bonus. Then he heard her whisper “Did your Mommy tell you that I would spoil you if you called me Aunt Cat?” He nodded mutely. Then felt her kiss him on the left temple and half whisper/half laugh “Well she was absolutely right! We brought so much stuff that your Mommy is going to throw a fit, it's going to be hilarious. Do you want to see?” Not even remotely certain what to say, he just nodded along. He was placed down and told “First, you have to meet Kate, and then have a piece of candy!” Then she turned around and said “Kate? … Kate? I swear, every single time she runs off to the garden.” Amanda chuckled behind them both “You know she's waiting for Xerxes.” Cat, or … Aunt Cat? Turned to look down at John with a smile and winked “Watch this!” and she pointed at the garden and shouted “Xerxes: FETCH!” Xerxes dove off of the porch like a furry rocket, straight for the garden. Immediately he could hear a squeal coming from somewhere in the rows of trellis in the garden, followed by the sound of someone running. Less than two seconds later there was a second squeal and a fit of giggles. As the source of the giggles got closer, he could see the large black and white Collie come trotting back, carrying a little by her skirt. She was anything but scared. The giggles were still nonstop, interrupted only once by a high pitched “COLD NOSE!!” and then the mirth just doubled into a full on laugh attack. Xerxes carried his prize up onto the porch and parked his butt down, still holding her in the air by her skirt, her bright pink diaper covered with unicorns on full display. Cat, or Aunt Cat, reached down and scratched his ears while saying “Good boy.” Xerxes lowered the girl onto the porch gently, and as a result his nose got pressed against her back causing another squeal before he turned and ran into the yard, chasing away that same gray squirrel. The girl laid there gasping for air and still laughing as Aunt Cat reached down and picked her up to stand her upright. While the amazon was tugging her little clothes back into place she said “John, this is Kate. Kate, this is John. Your Aunt Amanda's new little. He's a bit shy, so you'll have to go say hi.” The little seemed hyperactive just like her … Mom? ...Her Big? John still had no idea how any of this was supposed to work as he looked the girl up and down. She was just a bit taller than him. Her long blond hair was pulled into a high ponytail just like Aunt Cat. She was wearing a light pink shirt that came down to her belly, with a white cartoon cat on the front. And a thigh length plaid skirt held in place by a belt. Two things that he couldn't help but notice. The front and back of her skirt were held out by the bulky undergarment. And there was a pacifier hanging from a strap clipped to the shoulder of her shirt. Looking the fellow little up and down, and noticing that she was fully clothed from her top all the way down to her white and pink sneakers. Then he realized that all he had on was a baggy shirt. Looking down he realized that anyone could clearly see the outline and bumps of his inescapable diaper. He blushed hard and turned sideways, looking down at the porch. But still she bounded right up to him, seemingly as energetic as her Momma and waved “Hiya! I'm Kate!” He just mumbled “Hi.” nervous that he looked like a lost orphan in a baggy shirt. Completely unphased, she asked “How did you get here? How did you find your Mom? I got separated from a tour group.” He looked up at her now, she had such a genuine smile. And behind her he could see two towering figures whispering to each other while looking at the two of them. Finally he answered “I was umm... I was hiking and I saw a spot where the air looked all shimmery. And then I got really dizzy and wound up here in this … world? Dimension? And Miss Amanda and Xerxes found me.” Before either he or Kate could say anything else, Amanda (apparently his Mom?) chimed in “You two stay here on the porch and get to know each other while we bring stuff into the house. We'll set some things up, and then have juice and a delicious dinner.” And like that he was left alone with his new friend. He wasn't really sure what to do or say, so he just asked the first things that came to his head “How did you get here? Do you want to sit down?” And she nodded and went over and plopped onto the edge of the porch with her feet dangling off of the front. So he followed suit. He sat down on the edge of the porch and couldn't help scooting side to side with the strange padded sensation between his bottom and a hard surface. She apparently knew what he was doing as she asked “Feels like sitting on a cloud?” He couldn't help but blush as he answered “It's like a thin pillow or something, no matter how I move it's just … there.” She nodded “You get used to it. It's actually pretty comfy in a way. Your butt never hurts from sitting on a chair.” He seemed a little skeptical “If you say so. I'd really rather not wear them” He looked over to see her fidgeting with the pacifier dangling from her shirt. In the distance he could hear Amanda shouting “HOW MUCH DID YOU BUY!?” and they both looked that way for a moment. That seemed to break the awkwardness by making both of them laugh. She whispered “Mommy got carried away again.” He nodded and had to ask “So why do you call her Mom?” She looked over at him and smiled a little while explaining “You know, I remember resisting at first. But honestly I can't remember why I did. Mommy's amazing, and always energetic. She saved me.” After looking down at both of their feet swinging back and forth, he waited for the two amazons to carry a load of boxes into the house and deposit them, and then come back out arguing. “Cat, I thought you were going to show some restraint this time!” and as they turned toward the driveway, she could hear the retort “It's your own fault for sending me cute pictures.” Once he felt the coast was clear, he asked Kate “So how did you …. ummm... wind up in this situation?” She chewed on her pacifier, sort of lost with a glazed over look in her eyes for a moment before answering “I was in college, studying to be a nurse. It was my first semester, and I got a flyer saying that I was eligible for a free tour to another dimension. I thought it was bogus at first, but my roommate got one too. Since neither of us had any family, we decided to go together over the winter break.” She stopped talking for a moment as the two amazons walked by again, this time with some bags, and still arguing. Well, Amanda was arguing. Cat was just laughing about it all. Once they has passed back inside, Kate sighed and continued talking “I think the tour guide was nice at first, but she walked so fast and never checked to make sure we could keep up. I got separated and I was really scared. John, they're all very big and the crowds … I was scared. I tried to make it back to the portal, but I was told that my group had already left without me, and that I couldn't go back through. I tried to sneak through with another group of people, but I guess they expected me. A great big man just scooped me up before I could even see the portal.” She got quiet again and he sat there next to her trying to figure out what to do. The best he could manage was to pat her on the hand sort of awkwardly. She patted his hand back in turn before continuing. “I tried twisting and screaming and kicking him, but it was like ...” she trailed off. He tried to help her finish the sentence “Being held by a giant made of anvils?” With a little snort, she nodded “That's a pretty good description. Some lady claiming to be from Little Protection Service came and they put me in a car seat, of all things, and … They put me in a nursery, John. I think I cried for three days straight. I couldn't get out of the crib, they made me drink from a bottle. The one chance I got to put my feet on the floor, I made a break for it. The nurse spanked me SO hard and then put me in a diaper so thick I couldn't walk. That was the first day.” After another long silence, John asked “So umm... how did you get out of there?” “It was three days. Mommy wasn't there to adopt a little, she was there as a company rep to take more orders. I remember when she saw me there in the crib crying through the door, I saw her stop and walk right into the room and pick me up. She was like an angel. I don't know why she picked me up the moment she saw me, but she refused to put me down. Not even once. She filled out some paperwork with me on her lap and walked right out with me. She told me she would never ...” And then Kate started tearing up. John slid over so that their hips were side by side and held up his arm. When she leaned into him, he put it around her and she laughed “Mommy said she would never let me cry like that again. You don't know this yet, but we hit the jackpot.” They sat there in silence for another minute. Kate fidgeting with her pacifier and John took his arm back from around her. And then they heard more arguing from inside. “Cat would you stop moving my couch!” “No, the playpen has to go over here.” “Cat, I said to put it by the window!” “No, then the sun will disturb them when they're napping.” “Then put it here so that I can see him from the kitchen counter while I read articles for work!” “And let the light from the kitchen keep him up? No way! This playpen is going on THIS side of the couch. So help me move it.” “You are INCORRIGIBLE!!” “You redecorated my bathroom while I was out of town.” “And you turned my spare bedroom into your own room so that you could invite yourself over.” “You put FIFTEEN plants on my back porch and now I have to water them.” “They're pepper plants and you cook with them.” “Admit it, you can't live without me.” “If you go there again, I'm buying your cat the loudest toys in the world.” “You can try, MY little has a laser pointer, and she distracts the cat.” “Oh yeah? My precious little John hand feeds the squirrel.” At the mention of his name, John stood up and went over to the window. Kate whispered “I wouldn't do that.” Cat was still very loudly saying “No way!” “I have video.” “... If you show me the video you can put the playpen over there.” And while she was watching the video of him handing an acorn to a squirrel, Cat saw him peeking in through the window. She was smiling. It was a big smile. John slid below the window, while Kate watched him. She whispered “Did they see you?” John nodded. “Were they smiling at you?” Kate asked. John nodded again. Kate said very simply: “Run” “Run?” He seemed confused. “Trust me, run to the garden. It'll be more fun.” John didn't know what to do, so … he climbed down the steps, still barefoot, and made a break for it as he heard the door behind him open and Aunt Cat was singing “Oh little JOOOHHHHNNNnnnnn” she stopped when she saw that he wasn't on the porch. That was when he heard “Xerxes: FETCH!” Suddenly he was running as fast as he could with a thick diaper on. He heard something coming behind him and he turned and went between two trellises of peas. The dog went around the end of the row and came at him like a missile. He tried the only thing he could think of at the time. “Xerxes Si-” He never finished even trying. Moments later he was doubled over being carried by the back of his baggy shirt, hanging limply and defeated. As he was carried to the porch like some sort of prize, he heard a peal of laughter. He looked over to see Kate laughing so hard that she was coughing and clutching her sides. Amanda came outside and picked up John and held him up while Cat went over and picked up Kate. While Amanda was looking over John and asking “How did you go from clean to filthy so fast?” Cat was holding a hysterical Kate and held her up to check her and asking out loud “Did you laugh so hard you flooded your diaper?” Cat and Amanda looked at each other at that moment and agreed in unison “I think we both have rascals.”

Aunt Cat is a bit of a handful. Nine and a half feet of hyperactive. I'm sure it'll be fine!

I absolutely love it! That's one very wholesome moment and some happy memories! Chapter Ten Amanda picked up the sleeping little and shuffled him from propped against her chest to laying against her with his head next to her and lightly brushed his back, whispering softly to him “I sure hope you aren't as scared of loud amazons as I think you will be. Your Aunt Cat is a bit much." She picked up the sippy cup with her left hand and held it up toward the light. He had barely made a dent in it. He probably didn't even realize he'd been awake as long as he had, and that was after everything he had been through yesterday. Well. Time to get some work done. She stood up and carried him with her as she went and put the cup back in the fridge, and walked back over to where the comforter was still folded in half on the floor. Not really wanting to put him down, she walked over to her spare bedroom and opened the door to it look inside. Inside the room she looked at the day bed that she had been given by her friend Cat when she moved in. It had three sides, but what if he rolled off of the front in his sleep? Maybe she could get some sort of attachment for the bed and he could have a big bed all to himself. There was a writing desk and a chair, but that was much too high for him. Oh well, that is a problem for tomorrow. Walking back to the living room she gave up and knelt down on the comforter. “Xerxes” she whispered. The dog needed no further prompting to walk over to the comforter and lay down on it, his tail thumping softly up and down against it. As she laid her charge down and covered him back up, she sighed. “Yeah, we have to get you to the city tomorrow and get you registered so that no one can take you away. And I probably need to tell the research group that I work with that I found a rift little.” As she started to walk away, she whispered “Xerxes: Guard.” Peeking outside at the wagon full of sweet peas, she could see that he really did do a good job. Even if he then ate himself into a food coma. He definitely wanted to help and do his best. With a look at the clock, Amanda sighed. She had two hours to finish editing an article and inserting references to research, and email one of her bosses. Time to get after it. Walking over to her office, which was really just meant to be a small bedroom for a little when the place was constructed (The irony only now occurred to her) she sat at her desk and while her computer was booting up, she rolled her chair back a bit and started looking at how she could rearrange the desk so that she could see out into the living room while she worked. It would be pretty easy, but she would definitely need some help when Cat got here. She logged in and typed out a message to her employer that was studying rift littles, and then spent a few minutes adding notes to her note card, documenting everything that had happened with John today before switching over to her office software. She was most of the way though editing an article and setting up links to relevant sources when she got a message from a research team leader on the group chat. “Hi Miss Taylor. This is Andy with the research team. I had a message forwarded to me. Did you find a little that came through a rift?” Oh wow, okay she expected a response in a few days, not less than an hour. She replied in the little pop up “Hi Andy, I am the one that found a little that came through a rift. Is your group still studying them?” “Yes Ma'am, we currently don't have any littles in our local area and are just and are simply keeping up with medical records. With permission from their adopted parents, of course.” “Naturally. How can I help you?” “Well Miss Taylor, I believe that we have a unique opportunity before us.” “You want to study my little.” “Yes Ma'am, we do. We would help with some of the tasks that you need to get done to accommodate your new little, and even pay you a monthly stipend for his expenses. We've had the funding donated by a corporation that wants to study what happens to littles cognitive ability as they adapt to our world, but we've not yet found any right as they arrived. You have a unique opportunity, and they are willing to pay for this data." She shook her head as she typed a reply “That is only acceptable if it does not affect him negatively. I need to know that you would be expecting from him first.” The reply came almost immediately, as though they had already been typing. “Good news! He won't even know that he is participating. We will send a wrist band for him to wear that will track his vitals, and it even has GPS tracking so you can always find him. You just go get him his checkup at your family doctor and they send us his information, and we will also send a tablet with some puzzle games and pattern detection games. All you have to do is just open the box and let him explore the tablet and play the games. An hour of playtime every couple of days should be more than enough.” Amanda sat there thinking about it for a moment. She didn't have TV service, so the games would give him something to do. “Okay, I'll give it a try, but if he starts to seem uncomfortable with it, we will stop immediately.” “That is always the plan. Besides, you have to do more work than he does. We'll need some pictures and a thorough account of how he got here, as well as weekly updates. That's honestly what the stipend is for." Now she got to laugh “I have already been keeping a journal of every detail about him that I can, just in case I have to explain things to LPS.” And finally she got back the reply “You should get him registered with LPS as soon as possible. Sometimes they get a bit cranky about rift littles. Best of luck to you, and make absolutely certain to send us all the receipts for every single purchase you make for him … Please.” Amanda stretched a bit in her chair. One more paragraph and two more links and she was done, and then she would have about an hour before company arrives to make some coffee. While she was finishing up her last bit of work she could hear John calling her name “Am... Amanda!?” He sounded alarmed, like maybe he'd had a bad dream. “Miss Amanda?” Yeah, the poor thing definitely sounded upset about something. Without looking up from her work she called distractedly “It's okay sweety, Mommy's in the office finishing up her work.” She heard a crinkling sound getting closer and looked to see the little standing there struggling to hold his knees together and whimpering. “I need to use the bathroom.” He said in a strained voice. With a nod, she answered “I'm almost done with my work, I'll be there in about two minutes.” He shook his head “I don't … think I can wait.” Stopping to save her work and hit the button to upload the now completed article, she closed the app. “Sweety, if you have to go that badly...It's not a big deal.” He stood there shaking his head “No, please. Anything but that. Please. I can't ...” Now powering down her computer she stood up and started to walk toward him, only to see him sink down to his knees on the floor, and it looked like he was about to start crying. And mumbling something that sounded like “I don't wanna” over and over.

I grew up out in the woods, just Mom and I, and a half wolf/half chow dog named Bubba. You know every stereotype of poor people growing up out in the woods? That was us. Thankfully Mom was positively brilliant, and ran a tax business. And Bubba was a 80lb gentle giant that quite literally kept me alive out there. God, I was all lanky and awkward back then, and maybe all of 4'... not important. But I wasn't allowed outside without Bubba. There was no heat, but in the winter I never slept without my dog. He took up half of the bed, I threw a blanket over us and I was never once cold. (Although I did get more than one face full of lick in the morning when it was time to get up) He walked with me to the bus, killed snakes, ran off deer, a brown bear once, and was always there to protect me. John is in good paws. (Edit, Bubba took up more of the bed than I did. thankfully I was small. So a Girl and her Dog, then my son became a Boy and his Dog. Mom used to have a German Shepard that kept her safe. Dogs have a special place to me.)

I think that we can probably all say that we are blessed to share our lives and experiences with some people. Sometimes those people have four legs, and a tendency to steal your yogurt. But they make our lives richer than they would ever otherwise be. The fact that we love them and remember them forever just shows how strongly they live on within us.

So a bit of a confession here... Xerxes is based off of a Real Life dog. Xerxes is based off of one of the pinnacles of dogdom. Bear Bear was a great big Boxer. Bigger than any other Boxer I've ever seen. Bear Bear came up to my waist. I admit that I am ... not vertically overburdened. So when I used to bring my son over to my friends house as a toddler, Bear Bear went into guard mode. Where my son went, Bear Bear was inches from him. My son was learning to walk at the time and every time my son fell? Bear Bear laid down and let my son use him to stand back up. You could ride a unicycle around the other side the room juggling sparklers and Bear Bear would eye you, but never make a peep. But anyone and everyone that came close to our son, and this means dogs, cats, humans, ANYTHING had to pass inspection of the most noble and honorable Bear Bear. He saw us fuss at our son for trying to grab something on the stove once. a month later our little derpus tried it again. Bear Bear gently took the back of his onesie with his teeth and towed him, sliding backwards, back to the living room. Xerxes is based on Bear Bear. I'm tearing up, and I mean genuinely tearing up thinking of Bear Bear. He wasn't just a good boy. Bear Bear was the best boy. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm crying a little. (The names may have been changed to protect the identity of the characters involved. But Xerxes is all too real as I choke down some tears while typing this.)

You know, you both have a point. I messed it up when I copy/pasted it, didn't rewrite it well, and frankly even in the first rendition didn't have more than him trying to calm the dog for a moment before feeding the squirrel. I wonder if I could edit it a bit and put like a little asterisk behind it and say in parenthesis (yeah, I goofed this part up and tried to ungoof it.)

If I'm completely honest I had a line where John was holding his snout and saying "shhhhh, let me get the squirrel" but I goofed up with I copy and pasted because one of my eyes doesn't work. So good catch! I wonder if I can fix it in hindsight

Chapter Nine: John was grumpy. He knew it was supposed to be normal, And he knew it was only a little bit of pee. It didn't even make the diaper swell up. But he was still grumpy. He counted off silently to himself on his fingers. He could deal with being small. He had no one at home to go back to, so it's not like he even had a pet to worry about. If he was honest with himself the bath was fun. Those eggs were REALLY good. That juice was like a cold capris sun on a hot day. Juice shouldn't be that good. It's not right. He held up the sippy cup. He nodded at it, not thinking about the Amazon behind him watching him look like he was making some sort of mental checklist to see if he was prepared for the big adventure of going into the yard. But the diapers? It's not fair. It was simply just not fair. Slipping his feet into his boots without even having to untie them was convenient, even if they were too loose. He stood at the top of the stairs looking at the foot and a half down to the next step. He saw a large hand in the left of his vision, and he was so lost in thought that he reached up and took it and was helped down the stairs without noticing. He was still sulking when he felt a tap on the shoulder. He looked up to see a lovely woman towering over him with a motherly smile. He articulated his thoughts like a true poet. “Hmm? Oh.” She rubbed his head now, ruffling his perpetually unruly hair “I asked if you would like to help me by picking sweet peas while I pick tomatoes. Your new Aunt Cat is coming by and I sort of owe her … well, I owe her a lot of them because I keep bribing her for homemade salsa and pasta sauce.” John looked over at the garden and then back up and couldn't help but return the smile. What had he been grumping about? It could wait. “Yes Ma'am I wou... Aunt Cat?” She answered with a cryptic “I'll explain more later, but if you call her Aunt Cat I guarantee that she'll spoil you and bring you presents. Do you know how to to tell which peas to pick?” “I like to eat sweet peas. I've never picked one.” He admitted. Now with a wide and enthusiastic smile she grabbed a bucket and waved him along “Come on, I'll show you. It's very easy.” Following along behind her in his slightly too big boots, he was fascinated to see the rows of trellises taller than even the Amazon. She seemed like such this huge and towering figure, and somehow seeing garden plants looming over her somehow bent his perception of the world a bit. Probably because everything he knew had been tied in a knot and thrown in the trash, leaving her as the only pillar of stability he had left. She sat down on the bucket and patiently explained to him how to to easily tell them apart and where to grab them and just snap a pod off with a flick. John could tell that she enjoyed growing things and that just being out here among her plants made her so very happy. He couldn't help wanting to make her proud, so he paid very close attention and pulled gently on a few pods and asked “So this one isn't ready?” She shook her head at him “Not yet.” He looked at the pods. He job was to get the ones his height and lower so she didn't have to crouch all the time, so he looked at his height and lower. Honestly he could fit between some of these plants if he turned sideways. He picked one that looked right to his novice eyes and tilted it up. “This one is ready.” She clapped a little. It felt good to make her proud for some reason. “Yep! Do you want me to stay here with you for a while, or would you prefer to try it yourself? I think you deserve to choose for yourself.” He tried to flick the little pod off like she did. He resorted to twisting and tugging it off. He held up the pod, that was a bit big in his hand but very manageable. “I'll help you by picking these! I want to try doing it by myself, please.” She gave him a pat on the head and ruffled his hair again “I'm just three rows over so I can hear every word you say. If you have a question, just ask it. And if you need help I'll be right here.” And with that she walked around the row. He could just barely hear her say “Xerxes, guard” quietly as she turned the corner. He turned toward the house with his arms crossed and, sure enough, a large black and white dog came trotting toward him and stopped two feet from him and leaned to smell his head before sitting down and watching him. Xerxes was at work. And that work was to protect his little. With a deep breath and a sassy roll of his eyes, John turned to his new task, happy to be able to contribute in some small way to his ... caretaker? He twisted off every pod that looks ripe and carried them over and dropped them in the big blue bucket. He somehow got into the habit of reaching up and patting Xerxes on the side of his snout or head or just wherever his hand landed without him looking every time he passed by the dog. After a while he had to walk so far that it was time to move the bucket. He squated down and reached his arms out wide and hugged the bucket and stood up with it. Then just dropped it back down. “Yeah, that's like a 20 gallon bucket, I'm not doing that. I need … hmm...” Leaning to peer around the dog, the cogs in his brain slipped into place just so. He didn't need a bucket. He had a wagon. Practically bounding past his watchdog, he went to the house. When he got to his wagon on the ground by the porch, he took almost everything out of it and put it up on the porch. As an afterthought he grabbed the sippy cup and drank some more. He stubbornly stood there drinking from a sippy cup that only gave him a mouthful at a time until he had almost half of it gone, despite it being at least a 24 ounce cup. He had to have emptied that thing three times since lunch. He dropped the cup into the cloth beach wagon and realized that it didn't' really matter if it tipped over. With a shrug he grabbed the handle and turned around into a face full of fur. Sputtering he wiped at his face and looked up at a panting dog and could hear a ballistic tail thumping up and down in the grass loudly. With a smirk “Right. He's on guard duty.” So he turned the handle and walked around the dog and back into the row he was tasked to help with. And he went right back to picking peas and dropping them into the wagon. It had been probably forty five minutes and while he knew that she could hear him moving around … and the slight crinkle was probably helping give away his location. But she chimed in anyway “How are you doing over there? Do you need to take a break?” He shook his head despite her not seeing him, before answering “No Ma'am. Hey, how do these taste? Can I eat some?” She replied almost immediately “You can eat some of you want to, they're delicious raw, and I like to cook them in butter for dinner.” Without any further prompting, he picked a big fat pod and bent it in half until it cracked. Then it was easy to hook a finger into it and pull out a sweet pea. This looked exactly like a sweet pea, just the size of a grape. He mumbled “Huh. It looks exactly like I expected. I didn't expect that.” and then popped it into his mouth. He had tasted sweet peas before. And he liked them. But this was somehow dialed up to eleven. It was sweet. It had a slight nutty flavor. This didn't taste healthy, this tasted like a snack. This was sweet. This was nutty. Snacks are sweet and nutty. This may be too small for an amazon to appreciate as a snack. But he had no such problem. So now every time he dropped ten or twelve pods into the wagon, he split one open and a helped himself. This went on went on for another hour and he finished off his cup of juice somewhere in the meantime. He was doing pretty well for himself and feeling pretty happy and proud. And then he heard a chittering sound. He looked up to see a gray squirrel on top of the fence on the other side of the row of trellis. He spoke a little loudly “Miss Amanda?” She responded with “Yes Sweety?” “What are the odds that you have a pet squirrel?” “Zero, why?” “No reason.” He replied and he rooted around in the wagon for an acorn. He ducked under the row of plants and walked over to the fence. Xerxes was busy crouching and watching him like a hawk. As far as he could tell, Amanda was not watching him to fuss at him. So feeling like he was in the clear, he grabbed a post on the fence and pulled himself up onto the board that ran along the bottom of it. He stretched up with his left hand as high as he could, holding the acorn up to the squirrel. The squirrel very calmly reached down to take the acorn. It took a moment for him to get it high enough and for the squirrel to reach low enough. She the squirrel finally did get it, it stayed there chittering at him for a moment or two, and then was gone in a flash. As he climbed back down he heard laughter to his left. As he turned to look at Amanda now in plain sight, he saw that she was waggling her phone at him and she announced “I recorded the whole thing!” He felt himself turning red as he slipped back under row of plants and went back to picking peas. He made it a little bit longer before he sat down on one side of his wagon ate one more pod full of peas. He looked down and realized how many he had eaten there was a pile of at least thirty empty pods and he had a belly that felt like it was full of lead. He sat there sort of dozing off a bit. Did he have to pee? He should ask for help. Just a minute to close his eyes first. He woke up to the feeling of something moving him. He looked around groggily and noticed that he was on the living room floor on a towel. He looked up and saw Amanda taping something onto him. “Huh? I can still keep going, I can pick more, I just closed my eyes for a moment.” “Shhh, it's okay, you did very well. You picked all the peas that were too low for me, an then ate all the big mean defective ones that split open on their own. You were soaked, so I got you changed and you slept through it. Let's get you some milk. Would you like that?” He rubbed his eyes and stubbornly just grunted out “Nuh” “Well, the milk is already in a cup. You wouldn't want it to go to waster, would you?” He closed his eyes and mumbled “Unn Unn.” He then felt her pick him up and she sat on the couch with him propped up sideways resting his head against her chest and held up the sippy cup to his mouth. He grumbled around the spout “Okay okay. I can take a hint.” and he closed his eyes and, half awake, sucked milk out of the cup. His hair was being stroked. It was nice. Did she say he was soaked? This milk is delicious. John tried not to fall asleep back asleep. He tried to drink the delicious milk. It wasn't even noon outside. He wanted to stay awake. He failed.

Chapter Eight: Amanda looked down at her clean, fresh smelling little as he stood there looking up at her, wrapped in a towel. She repeated herself “Sweety. The diaper is not optional. I'm truly sorry but littles simply need diapers. It's not your fault but something about the food, water, maybe even the air somehow makes littles incontinent here.” He just stubbornly pointed at the potty between the two of them. “Fine, but can I please use the bathroom first?” She nodded in agreement and lifted the lid. “Help yourself.” She watched him stare at the potty at the height of his chest, obviously trying to work out how to get up there and she reminded him “Remember the rule. You are not allowed to give me a heart attack hurting yourself.” He looked up “Do you have a step stool?” With a shake of her head “I do not have a little sized step stool for getting you to the height of this potty. How would you stop from falling off, or worse, in?” Then he gave her that grin again that she already knew he was about to say something not smart as he said “I'll hold onto Xerxe's collar!” Pinching the bridge of her nose she said calmly “Congratulations. That is the single worst possible idea you could have had.” Bouncing from one foot to the other, she could finally see him give up on his pride “Ugh, fine can you please help me, I have to go REALLY bad!” With a deep breath she reached down, pulled the towel around him off, letting it fall to the floor, and then just picked him up and held him on the edge of the toilet seat. He turned dark red and bit his lip trying not to look at her “This is embarrassing.” She looked at the ceiling while complaining “Oh my God, John. I just scrubbed your butt and you're going back into a diaper in two minutes whether you have gone or not.” That got him motivated. He managed awkwardly to do his business and she got held him with one hand and got toilet paper with the other. The moment she saw him open his mouth she stopped him “We have company coming this afternoon and you still haven't eaten anything, if you argue with being wiped the only thing you'll be wearing when they get here is a diaper. She could hear him gulp nervously as she continued with her task.when she was done she flushed the toilet and placed him back on the floor. Grabbing a towel another puppy print diaper and a bottle of baby powder, she started out of the living room calling behind her “Right this way for your royal diapering” He followed her nervously as she laid out a towel, still seeming to be shy about what was to come. He will get used to it eventually. “Go ahead and lay down. This will be over quickly.” He hesitated “But I really don't need a diaper.” She locked eyes with him. “Did you wake up wet?” He nodded, but didn't say a word. “Did you wet yourself after waking up?” He nodded but tried to explain “I couldn't get it off or ge-” And she cut him off “Neither of those things are your fault and they are nothing to feel bad about. Down.” and then she added more softly “Please.” She felt a bit bad for him, looking so defeated. But he laid down on the towel and she took his ankles with one hand and lifted to slide the diaper under him with the other. Within seconds she had a generous amount of powder on him and was pulling the tapes snug. “See? That wasn't bad at all, was it.” He wobbled a bit as he got up, and then just mutely shook his head no. “Come on sweety, let's get you a shirt and some food. If you help me keep the dog out of the kitchen, I'll make it worth your while. Scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast, and pizza for lunch with our guests?” That got his attention. He said “At least Pizza is the same here!” Leading him into her bedroom, she went to the same drawer and pulled out a plain gray night shirt. Turning to him she said “Hands up, it's a robbery!” He rolled his eyes, but he did hold his arms up so that she could pull the shirt down over him. Lining it up and pulling it down over him she gave him an affectionate pat on the head “Okay, I really need you to keep the dog distracted. I also don't usually watch TV, so I haven't gotten cable or anything out here. So you and Xerxes can keep each other busy for ten minutes.” She followed her little charge into the living room, noticing that he was able to walk pretty normally in the dry diaper. That should make telling when he needs a change easy, even if he doesn't know it. He split off to the living room and she could see him standing with his hands on his hips watching the dog with his soft plushie shaped like a big bone. Surely they'll be fine. Walking quickly to the kitchen, Amanda got out a skillet, some bread and eggs. While she got the skillet heating up she did take a glance to the living room and hurried to pick her cell phone up from the counter and snap a picture. There was a staring contest. John had the big plush bone almost half his size held over his head like he was going to throw it, and Xerxes was hunkered down looking back and forth between John and the toy. And she managed to get a picture while they were staring into each other eyes. That pic got sent to Cat, too. When the bread was in the toaster and the eggs were almost done she heard raising his voice and complaining “Oh come on, that's cheating!” and she looked over to see him throw the bone over the dog, only to have the tall dog simply reach up and snap it out of the air and drop it at his feet again. A tail wagging back and forth hard enough that the entire dog was moving, so at least he was having fun. The scrambled eggs now done, she transferred them onto a plate and buttered the toast and instead of calling the little over, decided to enjoy the show for a moment. Not to be defeated, she saw him smirk, rotate a hundred and eighty degrees and throw the toy behind the couch. Less than a blink of an eye later he was underneath a dog, and one blink later a tail was dragged across his face leaving him sitting on the floor wiping his face and sputtering. She wish she'd have gotten that on video. “Breakfast is ready!” She tried to keep the laugh out of her voice so that he wouldn't know she saw that, but she failed pretty badly. While he was walking toward her she took a stack of cook books and put them on top of a chair. He looked up at her and then at the books. She could see that he didn't like it, but she didn't let him think of a complaint before interrupting his thought process. “I don't have a booster seat, and you can't say it's hard because you have padding on your bottom. Please just work with me here and we'll figure something out soon.” As he nodded at her she picked him up and put him on the books. He did this funny little dance in place scooting around like something was wrong. “Is there something wrong with the books? Or your butt?” He looked down, scooting side to side still. “It's like I'm sitting on a pillow. That moves with me.” “You kind of are.” She hoped she didn't come across as mean spirited, but he seemed to take it in the spirit that she meant it. She pushed the chair forward “Okay, eat up while it's still hot!” She saw him look forward for the first time at the blue plastic plate with two scrambled eggs and two pieces of toast. Next to it was a blue plastic fork. Without looking up from the plate, he said to himself “I don't know what I expected.” Leaning down she gave him a little hug to cut off him getting stressed and told him “I'm very proud of you. You're staying calm. Now I just need you to eat your breakfast for me and then we can go outside for a bit. You can go play or help tend to the garden for a bit. Now, while you eat do you want water, juice, or milk?” He answered almost immediately “That milk was REALLY good. Ummm... Is the juice just as good?” he looked up and despite his situation he looked really hopeful. “I'll tell you what. You eat, I'll pour you some juice that I know littles usually love and let's see what you think of it.” Leaving him to it she went to the fridge and filled a sippy cup all the way to the top with Plapple juice and pressed to pop the lid back on. By the time she made it back to the table John was chewing a mouthful of egg … and Xerxes was sitting next to him licking his lips. John, seemed suspiciously quiet for such a talkative little... Clearing her throat she held out the sippy cup and when he took it without saying a word she knew what happened. “John. Is there anything that I need to know right now?” He quietly tried the sippy cup all too innocently at first but then started trying to drink from it as fast as he possibly could. If it hadn't been in a sippy cup she was certain he'd need another bath already. It was halfway empty before he stopped to breathe. He looked up at her “This is really good! I could drink this all day!” She shook her head “You're not off the hook yet, Mister. But We can bring that outside with us when we go.” Reaching across the distance with the plastic fork he brought a pile of eggs toward him and she saw a bit fall off. The bit of egg that fell never made it to the floor. It went into the dog shaped vacuum. She gave up and pushed the chair closer to the table. Now that he was closer, she figured that he couldn't 'accidentally' feed the dog and he picked up a slice of toast and exclaimed “This toast if big.” “It's normal sized. You are small.” He got another plastic fork full and put it experimentally on the toast. “Your eggs are really good!” Nodding to him “Flattery doesn't get you off the hook for feeding your eggs to the dog, but I am very glad that you like them.” And with that she turned and started cleaning all of the dishes and then got the coffee maker going to make a fresh pot. By the time she was done getting everything cleaned up she looked over the counter at the dinner table saw a little man completely losing a fight with some eggs. He tried to lean back, but being balanced on books he couldn't really reach the back of the chair. She watched him grab the sippy cup from the edge of the table and just go limp and slowly slide down off the books, his padded bottom hitting the chair and then sliding down. And like a flash a hand came up and grabbed a clump of eggs and disappear on the way down. “Oh he's a little rascal.” she said to herself as he waddled a bit more slowly around the kitchen counter an held up his cup and ask “May I have some more juice please?” She nodded “You certainly may. And you didn't feed any table food to the dog, right?” He looked down and started trying to give a mighty tug on the sippy cup and eventually gave up before admitting “I may have dropped a bit on accident.” “Well, as long as there aren't too many accidents, we won't have to get you a high chair.” Oh the look on his face at that was alarmed. “Nononono, you can't be serious that there is a high chair my size!” Taking the cup and patting him on the head before going to refill it she explained “They are available in a variety of colors. Some even have puppy prints on them for clumsy little boys.” By the time she had filled up his cup and turned around, he was gone. “Uh huh. I think I'm starting to figure him out.” She observed to herself while finishing off the bit of egg that was left and cleaning the plate. She poured herself a cup of coffee and joined him in the living room, only to find him sitting on the comforter and looking crestfallen. Putting down both her cup and his, she knelt down and put a finger under his chin and gently guided his face up to look at him. He looked like he wanted to cry. “Hey, what's the matter? We can get you a booster seat instead of a high chair, I was just teasing you.” He shook his head no “That's not it...” “Did you eat too much? Does your tummy hurt?” He shook his head no again. “Well, if you tell me what is the matter, I can help. Come on and let me know what's on your mind. I know you have lot to worry about.” He shook his head for a moment before finally choking out “I don't … I had an accident.” She wasted no time and picked him up and holding him to her, and pressing her cheek against his. “Shh, it's okay. That's what the diaper is for, and that's what I was telling you. The food and drink here just goes right through most littles. Tell me all about it.” She could feel him burying his face into her neck and saying “I don't know, I just … was drinking juice and eating one moment, and then by the time I felt it coming on, I didn't even make it out of the kitchen before I was wet.” She rocked him back and forth, slowly rubbing his back “Hey, it's okay. Most littles that move here wind up in diapers within a month. And they didn't come through a rift and almost catch pneumonia. That's not your fault and it's going to be okay. First let's just get you healthy. Why don't we check to see if it's bad, and then we'll go outside. The garden needs some attention, and I know someone that won't have to bend down like I do to pick the peas on the bottom. He nodded and said quietly “Okay.” and then she stood him up and lifted the knee length shirt he was wearing and gave the front of the diaper a little poke. It was barely wet, but he hadn't had much to drink since yesterday either. Pulling the shirt back down she smiled at him “You're barely even damp. Let's grab our drinks and go tend to the garden. Not long after that I think it'll be a great time for milk and a nap.” He shook his head “I don't need to take a nap, I can stay awake until night time” She gave his bottom a little pat toward the door “We'll see, the days here are over twice as long as yours. Go put your cute little boots on and let's go get some veggies.” She watched him pick up the sippy cup off of the end table and start eyeing the coffee cup. “How about we get your checked out at a doctor before we push our luck finding out if your little body can handle as much caffeine as mine?” He didn't even respond, he just held his cup by one handle and trudge to the door grumbling about something called the Geneva convention.